Danger Will Robinson!
Major Spoiler Alerts!
Do not read further if you have not seen the ending to Game of Thrones!!!
Ok
Is it just us now?
Is it safe to proceed?
Ok, here goes.
Unless the series were to break spirit with what George R. R. Martin intended, it pretty much had to end the way it did.
We can quibble over specifics. Yes, the final season was rushed. It should have led us more gently to its final themes.
The Danerys switchover was sudden and abrupt. Maybe more could have been done to lead us to it. But the widespread devastation that occurred, the horrors of this game played by so-called noble families, had to happen to make the transformation it did at the end. I liked Danerys. I had hoped things would have turned out better for her. A part of me longed for the ending that Tyrion mused about - that Danerys and Jon would marry and rule benevolently as a magical merger of fire and ice.
Yes, there was the occasional coffee cup or water bottle. Those were honest mistakes, and they were easily fixed. Anything watched by that many people is going to be scrutinized for any flaw. Some people make a cottage industry out of trying to find mistakes in the Star Wars movies. Nothing stands up to the scrutiny of a rabid fandom.
And, good lord, people - he finally petted the dog! Are you happy?
The show had to end up where it did. Geroge R. R. Martin was using the trappings of high fantasy to tell a much bigger story. It was a story about the destructive evils of inherited monarchy and a search for a way out of that. He took the conventional wisdom of high fantasy and stood it on its head.
I feared that we were headed towards a high fantasy ending when the big reveal of Jon Snow's parentage dominated Season 8. I thought, well, there goes the ending I hoped for. This will end like traditional high fantasy, where the person we assume is the lowest born is revealed to be the highest born, and that deserving person becomes the ruler.
I am a book reader. I read Game of Thrones when it came out in 1996, and have been an avid fan ever since. It was clear to me from the books that an overarching theme was that political support should be garnered from the ground up, that everyday people were more than just pawns in the great wars of selfish ruling families. I had hoped that we would wind up with a political revolution (or evolution, if you prefer).
I'm not specifically Team Bran, but I am Team Political Process. And although women had some strong moments and some rocky moments, overall I think they wound up in a more prominent role in the political process at the end. It's true that through an inherited monarchy that some wound up as Queen, but that did not mean the supporting institutions were not male-dominated. In the end, we have women voting with an equal voice, Brienne the head of the military, Sansa (perhaps the smartest of them all) the popularly supported Queen of the North, among others. Things change slowly in a male-dominated culture, but I do believe they're changing.
Danerys believed in social change, presumably for the better, but she had developed a very Stalinist way of doing it. Many would have to suffer and die to achieve it. And it would always have to be controlled through fear.
Jon Snow was popular and courageous, but if you check over the series as a whole, his decision making wasn't always the best.
Samwell Tarly indicated the way forward, in the most poignant and essential words of the show, advocating a popular vote of the people to select a King or Queen. He was laughed at, because what he suggested was too big a stretch for this culture to make yet. Maybe someday...
Bran was perfect for this social change in that there would be no heirs, and a new ruler would have to be selected again in the future. They weren't a true democracy, but they were starting to approach a constitutional monarchy, one where the leadership position is not inherited.
Democracy is hard. We haven't really achieved it here, what with the electoral college and other roadblocks. So even the United States falls short. And frankly, people don't always choose well. Far too many voted for the buffoon we have in office now. Many a dictator has ridden in under the wings of popular support.
We need more Samwell Tarly's teaching us basic civics. We need more people who take their responsibilities seriously. We don't need a Queen Ivanka.
I liked Game of Thrones. I'm glad it did not have a high fantasy ending. Sometimes you have to turn conventional wisdom on its head to make a larger point. Thank you, Game of Thrones, for remaining true to your overarching message.
No comments:
Post a Comment