Game of Thrones: One last word

5/23

...all about the throne....

Last  Friday night, the lines started  forming outside Yankees Stadium hours before the gates opened. The lines would continue well into the game.  "Game of Thrones Night." Everyone hoping for the special edition Yankees GOT T-shirt. 

Inside the stadium, the line to sit in the Iron Throne curled up the ramps all the way to the top of the stadium.

The Throne

Some folks would spend half the game in line. Though theYankees early spring training like lineup would come back to win dramatically in the bottom of the 9th, clearly the game itself was an afterthought for many fans. Game of Thrones fever had come to Yankee Stadium.

Sunday it all came to an end. And soon enough the reviews would start coming in and the world of social media express its disappointments.  A week ago, a petition drive had begin to rewrite the story.

Look, endings are hard. it's hard to let go. HBO's record is hit and miss in this area. From near perfection with the "Leftovers" to the fan frustrating and still debated Sopranos to the Deadwood finale that has taken 20 years to come around. That's the way it is.

I won't go into al the critiques but to mention only two....Khalesi's WWE style heel turn was no surprise. It had been telegraphed for weeks like the best of wrestling story lines with hints that direction all the way back. Though one reviewer referred to her "Nuremburg-like" triumphant manifestation, that's the wrong analogy. Stalin may be a better referent. Her vision was an honorable one of breaking the wheel, not brute dominance and power.

The point about Khalesi is even to the end, she believed she was being a liberator who would bring a new and better day. Like any liberator turned tyrant she continued to believe in her own goodness. Believing in your own goodness can have pretty bad results for many other people. From the French revolution to Ronald Reagan to Daniel Ortega it's an old sad story.

Most chilling was the incineration of an already surrendered city. Like the napalming of Vietnam. Or more disturbingly, the incineration of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the US who knew they had already won.. We know now that Japan was already on the verge of surrendur.  Already defeated. Ring the bells....

Drogon the dragon makes one of the  most important points of the series (and I'm surprised so many didn't get this. ) After watching Jon Snow kill his "mother" Khalesi, the dragon turns its fire not on Jon Snow but the Iron Throne itself, melting it. Not Jon Snow but the quest for that damned throne was what had ultimately killed Khalesi. 

So the main theme was clearly the corruption of power and futility of war. 

But there was another theme as well. Redemption. From Theon to Jaime to Tyrion each has the opportunity to face themselves and become moral agents once again. Tyrion especially grows from the hedonistic family wastrel to being the moral compass of the narrative.

Much to reflect on, criticisms aside. All in all, it's been a good ride, worthy of our attention. So let's say thanks, and let it go at that. And perhaps take time to move from vicarious adventure to working on becoming more the subjects of our own history.