Television: Game of Thrones Season 8 Episode 5; The Bells. And the USA Connection to Daenerys Continues

In my last blog post I compared Daenerys Targaryen to the USA because both of them joined other people's war for the greater good of the humanity. At that time I had not watched Episode 5 "The Bells" of Game of Thrones Season 8. I watched it today on TV (Star World) and I feel I stand vindicated and how closer to the truth I was yesterday or have been all along about Daenerys. 

First; the way Daenerys burnt the whole city, killing men, women and children alike; in order to give a message for generations to come; how similarly the USA had dropped Nuclear Bombs over Japan, killing men, women and children alike and also crippling them for future generations. This total devastation looked hellish at that time but it changed the course of history for Japan which turned out to be totally non-violent and focusing on constructive things there onward. I am not justifying it and I still do not think dropping of the Nuclear Bombs was the best option. But it did produce an effect. 

And the way Arya Stark went on a mission to assassinate Cersei looks like the assassination attempts made on Adolf Hitler. There are several movies about that. But since Arya could not kill Cersei in time; total devastation of the city happened. Similarly, had the assassination attempts on Adolf Hitler been successful, may be the world would not have seen a World War. 

The second aspect I was right all along was on my hunch feeling that I did not like Daenerys Targaryen at all. I did not like her from the beginning. I did not like the way she killed people; took decisions or took her revenge. I have written about it in my previous blog posts. The way she destroyed the whole city was total madness and pure lapse of judgement. She may try to prove herself right and to justify what she did, the fact is that there was a moment when she could have chosen to stop (when the bells had rung) and could have gotten Cersei arrested (and later executed). In that way, the goal would have been reached without total devastation. But she chose to do what she did best - burn things. That does not make her any good queen; forget about "leaving the world a better place than we found it". 

Anyways, the way things turned out to be might be regrettable but the way future would judge the past would be totally subjective. And hence there would always be hope. 

- Rahul Tiwary

Television: Game of Thrones: The Childish Khaleesi Thread

These days, Star World is airing older seasons of Game of Thrones (GOT) as a precursor to the final season 8 of GOT which is going to be released in April'19. I watched a few episodes of Season 4 recently on Star World. One curious thing I observed was that how out of place this whole "Khaleesi" business looks like in the overall scheme of GOT!

The initial part of the story where Daenerys Targaryen goes on to become Khaleesi was really captivating. But post that, this whole bringing up of "dragons" in the GOT world and also the way she is shown ruling her kingdom with a compassion and care (which is so much lacking in all characters of GOT); makes her fall out of the GOT scheme of things and it just appears "weird" watching her. 

First, Daenerys Targaryen's character played by Emilia Clarke looks too childish and she does not age at all as we go along. She was from a royal household and had to undergo a lot of atrocities before and after becoming Khaleesi. But if you look at her face even when she is Khaleesi, it still shows same innocence and child like cuteness which came natural to her. Where is any sternness or ruthlessness reflecting anywhere on her face? She looks pure as ever. I don't think this is by design; it appears to be rather Emilia's inability to portray this character properly. I know Khaleesi is supposed to be a good queen and hence she must not look evil. But some grey appearing on her face would make it more natural. 

And not to forget, Khaleesi's white hair looks too artificial. I know that all of Targaryens' hair is silver-white. But only Daenerys Targaryen (aka Khaleesi)'s hair looks like a "wig". This could have been improved upon. 

Picture: Fake Hair Alert

Then I wonder what was the necessity to bring in the "dragons". Come on, GOT is not a child fiction or a fairy tale! Is it that GOT makers wanted to attract some juvenile audiences and hence brought in Khaleesi and her dragons to appeal to the younger age audiences? Or is it that dragons were supposed to be an out of the box power she was expected to have in order to come out strongly? We know there were several other options including magic or some supernatural powers which could have been attributed to her; instead of this compulsion of bringing in the dragons! 

Picture: Childish Dragons of GOT

Because of the dragons, GOT looks like a cheap commercial Chinese movie. It was not worth it.

Now, in the Season 4 episodes I watched, Khaleesi can be seen attending to her citizens in her court and granting them their wishes. She also bothers to speak out "Send the next one in" herself every time; tirelessly. She is always compassionate, noble, tired and agreeable. She is pained some times at people's demands, appears to be swallowing her own disagreements, but always ending up granting them their wishes, no matter what wrong they did in the past. This looks like a kind of cheap "popularity" that she is aiming at. But it is not. It appears that GOT makers were confused and did not work much on how to make her character "humane" while still keeping her as a "GOT character". And while all other threads of stories appear to be gripping and intense, whenever Khaleesi appears on the screen, the pace of the story comes down immediately and GOT turns real "boring". I never thought GOT could be boring; so thanks Khaleesi for doing this. 

Picture: Khaleesi: the good and boring queen

Even Khaleesi's servants are so boring. She has a maid called Missandei (portrayed by Nathalie Emmanuel) who looks like a college student. She stands tall as if she were a queen herself. And she would never have got that kind of hair without a modern saloon. Then there is Grey Worm (role played by Jacob Anderson) with his expressionless and Barack Obama like face. Both servants are as boring as their Khaleesi. 

Picture: Missandei and Grey Worm: Two avoidable characters

Apart from Khaleesi's story thread, all other threads are very gripping. I am also liking the Star World's Game of Thrones series, since it does not show too much of violence and objectionable scenes. Still, the intensity of the story is well maintained in these episodes. From Season 4, just imagine the fight between the Mountain and Oberyn Martell and how tragically Oberyn gets killed. 

- Rahul Tiwary