‘Game of Thrones’ Ends as Game of Telephone in ‘The Iron Throne’

George R.R. Martin dreamt (and is in the midst of writing) A Song of Ice and Fire, the purposely sprawling response to Tolkien imitators. He took from his long career in sci-fi and horror fiction, experience writing in television, and real history and the stories it inspired, such as the War of the Roses to Shakespeare’s plays. It’s final book is tentatively titled A Dream of Spring.

David Benioff and D.B. Weiss took the name of the first book and pitched Game of Thrones as “Middle-earth meets the Sopranos.” It’s final episode is titled “The Iron Throne.”

The creators’ chosen titles tell all.

Whether Martin succeeds at his intent – transitioning from politics to magic, that is, historical fiction to high fantasy – is still unknown, though one hopes his high criteria and ability to work alone for whatever length he chooses produces results that feel earned.

Benioff & Weiss (and HBO as backers) lacked the luxury of time. But that does not explain many of their baffling choices or the very obvious truth that once A Song of Ice and Fire stopped playing, they had nothing to dance to but silence. What was left was atonal meandering in search of a beat. Unfortunately, that was “The Iron Throne” to me.

When the credits changed this season to chart the destruction of our dual (and dueling) capitals, and ended at the Iron Throne, and HBO promoted the hashtag #FortheThrone, the show was reminding us of its priorities.

For Martin, his story is a tale of staring into the abyss and doing good in spite of it. For show creators, their adaptation was mostly about how people don’t change and you can’t force them, so you better hope you have the equivalent of a robot nearby to appoint emperor.

As I wrote last week, and as noted by ASOIAF luminaries smarter than me, Benioff & Weiss inverted Martin’s ending. Rather than turning from a burnt King’s Landing to the defense of Winterfell, they put the Great War before of the fight for the throne. This fundamentally changed the meaning of the story they were telling.

The show didn’t end, as the books likely will, in the North against what they referred to again and again as “the true enemy,” the very manifestation of Capital-D Death. Instead, it ended on humanity after the apocalypse. Admirable? Sure, but it was like replacing Return of the Jedi with The Phantom Menace. Think that would’ve gone over well?

Don’t get me wrong; the destruction of the Iron Throne is absolutely its fate in Martin’s books. Created and destroyed by dragonfire, the Iron Throne was the author’s answer to Tolkien’s Ring of Power. It is the literal symbol of power and the rule of violence.

But the Iron Throne was never Martin’s point. His point was and remains that the throne was a mistake and a distraction. For Benioff & Weiss apparently, it was the point. The problem with the show goes back to their problem with the source material.

Enraptured by the one-two punch of Ned’s execution and the Red Wedding, they were convinced to adapt the books while Martin toiled on the last three. However, they didn’t like where he went with it. Minimally, they lacked the ability or will to from Season 4 onward (I would trace it directly the the introduction of the Night King in that season’s fourth episode, but plots like Yara’s failed rescue of Theon and the whole Locke thing were also warnings).

Whereas Martin builds toward a conflagration of magical activity, the show diminished and edited the magic out until its last dragon literally flew off into the clouds, never to be heard from again.

It is clear, more than ever, that the books being unfinished hurt this show. I say this because, despite everything, I like many of the ideas at the core of this conclusion.

However, I dislike their execution because it very much feel like a game of telephone, wherein GRRM whispered endings and payoffs that expressed the ideas he wanted and Benioff & Weiss misheard him terribly.

Let’s just run through the all the payoffs, good and bad:

• Arya was the highlight of season 8 for me. Like everything about season 8 and Thrones in general, I have mixed feelings on the presentation of her story, I loved every moment Maisie Williams was on screen and was delighted she shone as much as she did.
• Our Targaryens Jon and Dany, I mean . . . the show basically committed character assassination (pun intended) on these savior figures, courtesy of its nihilistic worldview, which is fine, because many see messiahs and chosen ones as played out and a hard sell earnestly. But even if character assassination was an intent, both turned out pretty lame, though Emilia Clarke fared much better, selling a face-heel turn that was not in any way set up properly. Kit Harington on the other hand was adrift with a boring character making boring decisions. No wonder both he and Jon are happy to leave the Six Kingdoms plus the North behind forever.
• Bran as a king . . . I joked about this ending, but as much I laughed at the idea, it makes sense. The story started with him, his wheelchair-as-a-throne and “the Broken” nickname feel very GRRM, lionizing cripples, bastards, and broken things is his MO etc. I would even argue that the monarchy going to a boring emotionless automaton (specifically lacking in human desire) is an appropriate conclusion to the show’s misanthropic concept of leadership and power. Absolute power corrupts absolutely . . . unless you’re no longer human. But if this was ever an idea they wanted express, it was buried it beneath terrible execution. Who gets excited by a character who explicitly doesn’t experience emotion? “I don’t want anymore,” yeah, fuck you Bran.
• I like Sansa as Queen but it still doesn’t make sense to me why this happens. Sansa says the North won’t kneel again. Ok, but there’s a Stark king. They’ll bow to a Stark. I mean, I know Bran is creepy as fuck, but you’re telling me they’d turn down Northern control of the other kingdoms?
• The show already did a number on Tyrion, but this one takes the cake. His dialogue . . . his circumstances . . . where he ends up . . . it’s wish fulfillment. The show stops multiple times for him to lecture Jon Snow and the pitiful collection of Westeros’ surviving lords. It’s the worst kind of authorial megaphone and a thematic summation nobody needed when we’ve already watched 72+ hours of this show.
• But fuck it, the show decides Bran is king and Tyrion is his Hand, so his councilors are Davos, Bronn, Sam, Brienne. I’d classify them as Fine, The Fuck? Fine, and Fine-Wait-What? Davos, sure, he has no character outside chatting up kings anyway. Ditto Sam. Bronn completes his trilogy of Season 8 scenes by actually getting Highgarden AND Master of Coin. These scenes were their own Bronn mini-story, in what many Bronn fans might call content they crave, but what normal people call a waste of time. Finally, Brienne’s end as Lord Commander of the Kingsguard was great . . . until I realized she had sworn her sword to Sansa. So what the fuck? Sansa gave permission for her to join a rival king, brother or no? We just got done with how dangerous was when family members (Jon and Dany) both had claims to the monarchy. Again, wish fulfillment.

One reason to be optimistic for Martin’s books: much of what Benioff & Weiss cut from earlier seasons to rush to this conclusion, whether the cuts was by creative or by necessity, was the groundwork Martin carefully laid to earn the conclusions that, ironically, the TV duo got to first. Good art comes in time, not off an assembly line.

An ending doesn’t have to be nice to be earned. Brilliant tragedies exist. But by going as dark as they did, they made the swerve into relatively peaceful “and the game went on” a whiplash-inducing 180. Martin is able to stare into the abyss and remind us there’s still meaning in the world. The show creators never got beyond staring into the abyss.

It shows.

I do have one compliment for them. They were wise enough to not make an Inside an Episode for this one. Wise move, guys.

Who’s psyched Star Wars, I guess?