Knee-Jerk Reactions to “The Iron Throne:” Five Best and Worst Moments

FLEA BOTTOM BROWN FIVE: Jaime and Cersei died under a little pile of bricks.

I have no big quarrel with the way Jaime and Cersei died in “The Bells,” but I gotta say that I got the impression that the entire dungeon fell in on them at the end. When Tyrion found the void in the debris and managed to wriggle inside, it didn’t look like a lot of bricks had fallen down–but the little pile that did drop managed to bullseye and obliterate the Lannister twins. Bad luck, I guess.

FLEA BOTTOM BROWN FOUR: How many Unsullied are left, exactly?

It felt like the vast majority of the Unsullied, Dothraki and Northerners died at the Battle of Winterfell, but those were some hefty ranks of Unsullied at Dany’s assembly. The Dothraki looked fairly reduced, but I wouldn’t have thought so many Unsullied had survived.

FLEA BOTTOM BROWN THREE: Did Samwell just suggest a democracy?

C’mon, Sam. You barely get a line in the finale and you’re trying to offer up some kind of full-on democratic voting system to the medieval-style lords seated around you? Even Sansa grinned  at that one.

FLEA BOTTOM BROWN TWO: King Bran the Broken? Talk about an absentee monarch.

You know Tyrion and the Small Council are going to be busy while King Bran, who has already stated that he spends most of his time in the past, is going to be lying around ninety percent of the time with his eyes rolled up in his head. Maybe Bran accepted the crown because he knew Tyrion would be running things most of the time, and the imp would make for the best king anyway.

FLEA BOTTOM BROWN ONE: Was it all just a little too neat and tidy?

For a show that built its reputation on delivering the shocking and unexpected (see Ned Stark’s execution and the Red Wedding), the series finale operated on a standard melodramatic setting. Jon’s unwilling murder of the (deranged?) Dany was expected, and that was the closest thing to a surprise we got; the rest was one neatly packaged ending as far as the narrative goes.

From the new Small Council to the final montage, we got to see everybody’s new post-story life unfolding. Was that god or bad? It all depends on your point of view.