Once again, the latest episode of Game of Thrones kicked up no small amount of controversy. What did we think of “The Bells”? Read our takes, tell us yours, and vote in our poll!
ARIBA: Wow, Game of Thrones’ penultimate episode, like this is it! We have one more episode left ever, and it’s hard to process given how fast-paced this season has been.
“The Bells” fell victim to a lot of fan criticism and anger. And I have to admit, I was among those fans upon first watch. I was very much caught up in why certain narratives were playing out the way they did that I didn’t pay much attention to what was good. After watching it the first time, I have to say I was annoyed and disappointed over Cleganebowl (minus that Qyburn kill, though) and Jaime and Cersei’s end.
I’ll start with Cleganebowl.
After seasons of anticipating this very moment, it just felt very staged and underwhelming. Honestly, the only part I could appreciate was the moment they both fell to their deaths into the fire below. It was very poetic and I could appreciate the weight of that moment. But everything leading up to it felt a bit off and too theatrical. This is not to say both actors didn’t do an amazing job, but it just didn’t feel satisfying. Plus, Cersei excusing herself around the Hound felt absolutely random and hilarious.
Many will say that Cersei and Jaime’s death felt right and they went out in a way that made sense for them. And I can absolutely see why that argument works. After all, it was Jaime’s wish to die in the arms of the woman he loves. But Cersei’s end felt…odd. I know she was pregnant and it’s evil and cruel to wish bad upon a pregnant character but I just felt that could have helped out in so many different ways. King’s Landing and its people were literally burning at the crisp and Cersei got to go somewhat peacefully and in Jaime’s arms. It just didn’t feel right given all that she’s done leading up to this very moment, and how inhumane she’s been to those around her. But it is what it is, and I can see what this moment is the one they went with. It’s not the one I would have picked, but I get it.
We can’t talk about “The Bells” and not talk about Dany’s insane heel turn. I sort of saw that coming but not in this way, certainly not in this way. Shout out to Emilia Clarke for doing such an amazing job not in just this episode, but in the entire season. But I have to say “The Bells” is some of her best work. I don’t know how she does it perched up on a wooden machine stuck inside of a green room. How do you even channel that rage and anger that Dany did when there’s nothing but a screen in front of you? Simply amazing.
My favorite part of the episode was Arya’s arc and journey through King’s Landing. I really wanted her to kill Cersei, but I loved seeing the moment between her and the Hound. It had me in tears and ugly crying all over the place. This episode brought out the most vulnerable parts of every character, and seeing Arya beat up, defeated, and scared is something we haven’t seen in a long time, maybe not since the first season, if ever. But in “The Bells” she was just a little kid frightened of the death and destruction around her. It was very beautiful and jarring, all at the same time. My absolute favorite shot of this episode was moments before Arya sees the white horse. She stands up and the sun is right behind her and the ashes are falling from the sky; it’s such a hauntingly beautiful shot. Absolutely amazing cinematography in this episode, it deserves awards!
As we approach the series finale in a few days, I’m feeling very nervous as to what will go down and how the show will end. So far, most of what I’ve predicted and assumed would happen has not, so I honestly couldn’t even guess where we’re headed. There is only one thing I want to know: WHAT THE HELL IS UP WITH BRAN?!
DAN: I’m completely in agreement, Ariba, that Arya was the best part of the episode. I’m guessing that’s the one thing everyone can agree on. Really, she’s been a highlight all season, going from killing the god of Death to deciding to let go of her vengeance and embrace life, symbolized by the white horse that may or may not have been Harry Strickland’s. This episode beautifully paid off her relationship with the Hound, and my throat was in my mouth more than once wondering if Arya was okay. Season 8 truly is Arya Stark’s year.
I enjoyed Cleganebowl for what it was: a Westeros championship wrestling match between the two strongest guys in the Seven Kingdoms. It was really fun to watch and it closed out the Hound’s story effectively.
The hill I’ll die on is Jaime and Cersei. I’ve heard more than one person opine that they thought Cersei’s end should have been more…I dunno, brutal? Like she should have gotten punished more? I don’t subscribe to that. I loved that they returned to Cersei’s vulnerability in her final moments, that I was able to empathize with this horrible person who saw her plans fall down around her and discovered that all Tyrion’s talk about her loving her children being her redeeming trait was actually true. But it came too late. I thought she had an ending worthy of Lena Headey’s talents.
The sticking point for me is Dany. I’ve come at it a bunch of ways, rewatched a few times, and as thrilling as her attack on King’s Landing was — and this was a gorgeously, if brutally, photographed action scene — and as excellent as Emilia Clarke was — and she was freaking heroic — I just didn’t buy it. I wish I did.
I simply didn’t get why Dany did what she did. I understand that they’ve foreshadowed a turn like this for a long time, and I’ve always thought that Dany was capable of sacking a city, but I didn’t believe that what she’d gone through was enough to get her to this point. I didn’t believe that she would go from using violence against her enemies to massacring civilians this easily. There was a step or two missing. It rang false for me, and that’s a huge shame.
There was a lot that was great about the episode — Tyrion and Jaime’s scene was a highlight, for instance, and I loved how quickly the Golden Company was blown away — but that central point is giving me real problems. I’m open to being convinced otherwise.
RICHARD: Great comments and insight, Ser Dan and Lady Ariba above! I agree that “The Bells” was a “magnificent mess,” and I think in retrospect ultimately satisfying. Despite the few hurried turns mentioned above, my first reaction to the episode was one of thrilled relief. The previous uneven installment had unsettled me a bit, and my faith was renewed here.
The finales of big TV shows are always controversial, because every fan has their own expectations and the showrunners can’t possibly fulfill them all; in the end, they must do their best to do the story justice, and to be true to their own sense of its conclusion. I think Benioff and Weiss and the HBO team are doing that. Most every character and storyline that has finished so far has paid off narrative promises, even if they played out in a fashion some of us didn’t prefer: “The Bells” gave us the Battle of King’s Landing, Cleganebowl, Dany succumbing to the Targaryen family madness, Jaime and Cersei dying in each other’s arms and Arya’s dance with death.
No, not all of it worked perfectly. Dany’s descent into insanity felt like it came on too fast, as has been much discussed; at first I thought she was going to ignore the bells only by frying Cersei — and that was reasonable enough — but her decision to massacre the innocent populace was the act of a monster, and for me, Dany wasn’t anywhere near there yet. We know that HBO offered the showrunners all the episodes they wanted and they took all they felt they needed, but I think we needed a few more to get Dany where she needed to be to do this. That’ll always lurk in the back of my mind, I think.
But in the end, with the largely successful “The Bells” roaring through the flaming avenues of King’s Landing and leading us to the series’ monumental finish line, I think Thrones will deliver on most of its promises, and that’s all anybody can ask for.
I did an article on the symbolism of the Aray/White horse sequence, breaking it down shot-by-shot, and it turned out to be one of the most rewarding articles I’ve done for WiC. For me, it’s one of the top ten all time best cinematic sequences any show has ever produced; that’s saying something, considering how many awesome scenes we’ve gotten from Thrones. There’s a very good argument to make that Arya is dead, though I don’t think the showrunners will go that way.
I’m okay with that, because I agree that Arya’s journey through “The Bells” was one of the most satisfying parts. And while I love Arya to pieces, it wouldn’t be a disappointment if we never saw her again. For me, long after Thrones is over and entrenched in late night reruns, I’m certain that classic ending scene with Arya and the Pale Horse will continue to play out over and over again in my memory.
RAZOR: Give me more Mad Queen Daenerys. In fact, inject that fire-breathing-badassery directly into my veins because it was super awesome. Screw the people of King’s Landing. These were the same reprobates that cheered for Ned Stark’s beheading, ripped a Septon limb-from-limb and almost raped Sansa, turned on Tyrion even though he was the one who saved all their unwashed asses from Stannis, flocked to the call of a religious zealot with a god complex, and threw rotten fruit and literal shit at Yara Greyjoy and the remaining Sand Snakes as Euron Greyjoy dragged them through the streets with collars chained around their necks.
The populace of King’s Landing was the worst and it needed to be scoured from the Earth. #DanyDidNothingWrong
Okay, now that I got that out of my system, “The Bells” was a fun episode. I mean, how can you not love CLEGANEBOWL? Was Dany’s heel turn forced and rushed? Yes, I absolutely feel it was, but that’s what happens when the final two seasons are shortened by three and four episodes apiece. My problem with this season has never been the story. My problem has been with the pacing.
“The Bells,” while visually stunning and devastatingly impactful as a story, suffered from the rushed pacing of having to show Daenerys go mad before the actual battle, kill Varys without fleshing out his plot to poison her (which would have been amazing to see play out), have Tyrion tattle of Varys for treason then instantly turn around and commit it himself by freeing his brother who had just been captured off screen, then set up for the battle and watch this imposing Golden Company finally appear on screen in formation only to get wrecked in the space of two heartbeats.
And, while the pacing was frenetic most of the way through, there still were some great moments: Tyrion and Jaime saying goodbye, Arya thanking Sandor for telling her to give up revenge, the not-so-subtle setup for the duel Jon and Grey Worm are going to have to have at some point, Cersei gingerly walking past the Hound right before CLEGANEBOWL hoping the Hound wouldn’t just cut her in half, and of course Emilia Clarke’s masterclass in acting, as Daenerys decided to ignore the bells of surrender and turn King’s Landing to ash.
Will this season go down as the best in the history of Game of Thrones? No…in fact, it might rank as the worst when it’s all said and done, but “The Bells” was one of the best episodes this season, so there’s something to be said for that.
DAN: I’m just gonna pop in real quick and say that I loved the Golden Company being crushed in three seconds. It’s not like we ever had much invested in them. In fact, I loved how easily Daenerys was able to demolish Cersei’s defenses. It ends up that Cersei never really stood a chance against her; she just convinced herself otherwise. The only reason Cersei lasted as long as she did was because Daenerys listened to people like Tyrion and didn’t attack the city directly until now, a point I wish they’d underline a little more.
What did you think of the episode? Sound off in the comments and vote in our poll below!
The Game of Thrones series finale =airs Sunday at 8:00 p.m. on HBO!
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