Game of Thrones Spoiler Thread

Assume spoilers in all the comments. Steven’s thoughts are here. I thought it was a largely serviceable episode with no standout scenes (except the new opening credits, which are awesome).

In general, however, I feel like a lot of the conversations about how Game of Thrones will or should end are beside the point. I had a thread on twitter about it yesterday, but the general gist of it is that this show has always worked on the level of scenes, characters, and interactions (and, of course, battle scenes). It has gained significance from the breadth and depth of its worldbuilding. But it has never really been that interesting on the level of story, and if it were possible for it to continue indefinitely as a glossy, extremely expensive fantasy-world soap opera, it probably would have been the better for it.

The Aaron Bady article I link to in that twitter thread is well worth the read despite being from 2015. I think it identifies the core flaws in both the show and the source material well before anyone else saw them. I mention this because Aaron is going to be a regular commentator on Game of Thrones at the LA Review of Books, alongside the equally fantastic Sarah Mesle, and they are bar none the best game in town if you want smart, off-the-wall discussions of the show. (In fact, I’ve just seen that their discussion of the episode has been published, so I’m off to read.)