By Nick Lee
Copy Editor
With border between the North and the South falling, a giant firing breathing ice dragon, and an army of the dead, season seven comes to an icy conclusion.
HBO’s Game of Thrones season finale titled “The Dragon and the Wolf” was the 7th episode and aired on September 26th with 12.1 million viewers. The finale included excellent dialogue and acting however its predictability, skewed timeline and fan service puts it under many of its previous seasons.
The HBO series is an adaptation of author George RR Martin’s 7 book series called a Song of Ice and Fire. However due to Martin’s 6th book “The Winds of Winter” not yet being published producers and writers David Benioff and DB Weiss have been writing instead.
Game of Throne’s season finale starts with Daenerys Targaryens (Emilia Clark) and Jon Snow (Kit Harrington) attempting to convince Queen of the seven kingdoms Cersei Lannister (Lena Heady) of the eminent white walker threat. While in the North, Sansa (Sophie Turner) and Arya Stark (Maisie Williams) deal with Petyr Baelish (Aidan Gillen).
Since the story is now being written by producers Dan and Dave rather than Martin, the series has lost its unpredictability and the notion that anyone can die at any moment. Although the show writers have always done a excellent job condensing Martin’s massive story, writing new plot without him is not their strength.
What has also fueled the predictability of the show is how the show writers have been following what the viewers want. This is called fan service. Although many appreciate how their desires for certain characters outcomes come true, it tends to lose the original Game of Thrones feeling of things do not always happen they way the viewer wants.
Another downside of the episode was the lack of a concrete timeline. In the episode, characters were teleporting all over the continent. Daenerys and company traveled thousands of miles from The Wall to King’s Landing in the blink of an eye. This aspect really altered a real sense of time and made it unrealistic.
A positive aspect was the exceptional acting from Peter Dinklage who plays as Tyrion Lannister and counterparts during Dragon arena scene. The dialogue was fantastic and really made both friendly banter and heated conversations stand out.
In conclusion, the finale lacked fluidity with time, predictability and constant fan service which made it seem unrealistic. Its usual impressive acting did not bring the episode up to par with its predecessors.
“The Dragon and the Wolf” aired on September 26, is rated TVM and is available on HBO.go.com.
Leave a Reply