Bad Writing, Better Writing. S08E05

okay I am gonna play a game called bad
writing better writing and we're doing this in an interesting point because in some ways with just one good episode the TV show has to a limited extent redeemed itself right so we're not in a situation where I'm criticizing it for having absolutely unbelievably terrible writing which is what many of you will be used to hearing me say you Stephen me lament um do you remember that several seasons ago Daenerys Targaryen left behind a man who loved her as the commander of marine a man who fought against his own fellow commanders betrayed his own side to come over Institue sir said it's a little bit different in the books than it is in the show it's significantly different like everything at this point okay if you were going to commit to this trope this storyline that Daenerys feels abandoned by everyone let down by everyone nobody loves her she has no family she's all alone the only person who was her friend we didn't really see that I know but the only person who was her friend has just been decapitated right she feels there's nobody you can trust you can't even trust Jon Snow right you know what would have made sense you know what would have been better writing would be that she sits down sobbing and dixit dictates a letter and says come back to me I need you come back whether you come alone or bring back my army for marine those are the people who love me you really love me you know that that one man these people don't love me that would have been real that would have been going all the way and the performance would have to match that level of commitment you'd have to actually have her breakdown and realize wow I had something special maybe with the city of marine maybe with you know the people there but maybe also with that with that one man who really loved her alright and these these people don't really love you we don't get a whole lot of dialogue to prove it but the turning point of this episode is supposed to be her realization that Jon Snow doesn't really love her right so one thing that's bad writing but there could be better writing like I think with all these things if you're gonna commit to one of the themes you really have to take it all the way now credit works do in this episode the general theme about you know the destruction of the city okay they take it all the way they don't just have a little bit of cars they'll say well there were well if you're gonna make an omelet you got to break some eggs no we get the full destruction we get the full horrors of war including rape murder fire gets a lot of solid stone castles are suspiciously destructible we get solid stone castles collapsing as if they're made out of cards or made at a glass or something it's okay they commit to that they take it absolutely the way okay no they're a bunch of characters so they didn't commit to one thing or another what was the point with various now in the books varies represents something totally different he represents a particular conspiracy they have particular reasons for why he's attached to that particular family it's mysterious but it's it's particular in this show what varies is trying to demonstrate is that he'll switch sides on a dime he doesn't give a [ __ ] about you he doesn't give he doesn't care that he used to serve you five minutes ago he'll turn on you so what he does doesn't make sense you remember we had that scene last episode where he basically confesses to Tyrion that he's now gonna turn against Daenerys early in this episode you might only notice this on a second viewing he reveals he's trying to poison Daenerys Targaryen yes this little girl come in and she complains she doesn't eat and he's at home his he indicates his plot is foiled they'll try going so it's not really subtext but we have it hinted at that he was even trying to poison Daenerys which makes sense so he's trying to poison her assassin so last episode or this is he should have killed tyrion tyrion knows too much tyrion does indeed as it's shown to us tyrion and rats Emoto lets him down root tyrion is the one who tells Daenerys who results in his execution so if you going to commit to that all the way that either you have to have him varies has to kill Tyrion or you know you you really take that trope all the way where it's just look he's a guy he'll switch sides in the drop of the dime turn that whatever no notice pack and go switch sides and then we see that he should he shouldn't sacrifice his life it makes no sense he should leave town or whatever he should put on a disguise and disappear or whatever he should he should continue playing the game of Thrones by his rules - he said hey he's seen more than six kings come and go in his career this is another one well bad bet it stack up the deck let's let's draw again maybe maybe better luck next time it does not make sense to present this man a lifelong intelligence agent or whatever double agent you know serving many sides as suddenly a man of principle when they've made no effort the screenwriters to tell us what those principles are that he would die for we don't have that sense of him being a man of principle and all he can say for himself is that he wants good people to be on the throne instead of bad people well if you're such a judgemental guy doesn't make sense what do you think you knew you knew Tyrion wasn't gonna back you up and you knew you know there are a lot of smaller characters where I wish they had committed to something or another what is the deal with Davos what what is his motivation why is he in this war again you kind of have to commit to one thing or another you know is he a free agent is Izzy this or is he that um the ultimate lack of committal so much of anything I think is Jon Snow himself right okay before we come to Jon Snow let's talk about the religious themes a little bit again it used to be a big deal that varies was opposed to the rule of Stannis Baratheon because Stannis Baratheon worked for this supernatural force the Lord of Light in this religion and that Voorhies had his particular background in with black magic put it that way and he was a staunchly secular anti-magic and a person well again i what does the naraz represent what to the dragons represent their kind of questions there and he could have had a plotline that made sense that way Melissa you're far enough in the books to know this Davos also in the books he is a really strong connection to religion at one point he tries to assassinate Melisandre his story arc is defined in very religious terms of course even Cersei Lannister religion is a huge part of her story arc it's just kind of weird here I mean at least one of the major surviving characters at this point in the story could be seriously motivated by religion I mean Jon Snow you literally died and came back from the dead doesn't change his motivation or character in any way nope just same old Jon at this point Jon Snow is truly just a nondescript hero there's almost nothing else that can be said he's a nondescript good guy doesn't have particular motivations but you really has very few particular characteristics as they've realized you okay but Jon Snow not only did you die and come back from the dead your brother you knew quite well brand I mean bran was his brother or they really did grow up together they're not estranged Brothers didn't grow up it's not like a divorced family where they grew up in separate homes you grew up with bran and bran has come back from a supernatural journey beyond the wall with magical superpowers and you don't even not even question of faith it's not with how you believe this to be true it's literally true and it's verified for you okay so you know you might think Jon would feel strongly about say restoring the religion of the old gods he might have contempt for the religion of the seven or the religion of rule or or it could go another way he might see himself as switching sides from the old gods to reward cuz he was brought back from the in the TV show at least he's brought back from the dead by the red priestess but it could be the opposite he could say look you know these magical white trees the magic trees are really where it's at and that's what his brothers attached you and that's the religion of his fall his adoptive father so there's got to be something there right again this this particular episode I can't say is a spectacle of bad writing you know the problem is it's surrounded by so much bad writing all the episodes leading up to it's been so bad for such a long time in effect if you watch this I said if you watch this episode in isolation the character of Daenerys Targaryen makes sense within this one episode many people are already complaining if you look back over the last nine years it really doesn't make sense so I mean this is the woman who freed the slaves this is the woman who made a long series of morally loaded you know decisions one of returning points early on Melissa I think you will read this in the books already is when she refuses to allow the women to be raped by the by the horse Lords of Essos by the Dothraki the Dothraki sack it's really early they sack and loot a town and she says no he can't rape and enslave these people and the answer for them is like well what do you mean our whole economy consists of yeah look that this is what we're doing that was at the point where the Dothraki are trying to store up money to put her on a boat and send her back to reconquer Westeros which would have made the novel's quite a bit shorter if that had worked out that could have couldn't wrapped up in volume 2 or something if that worked out you know is this long series of kind of morally loaded decisions he makes that sort of defines her her character um I mean in the TV show it's cut really short but she marries a man she doesn't love and marine for the sake of the peace of the city oh she has that short-lived marriage in the books it's a bigger deal the books it seems like everything takes more time because so many years have got passed since they so this is someone with some characteristics of self sacrifice self-discipline public spiritedness doing doing the right thing because the right thing to do and now all of a sudden I mean again I just feel they didn't commit to it they didn't go you know all the way with it her her pathos here is the sense the nobody loves her nobody appreciates her nobody wants her she can only rule by fear and by destroying this city she's gonna make the Seven Kingdoms afraid of her and in awe of her and and so on and so forth there's a really strange lack of long-term thinking on her part you could say this about John frankly and all the characters maybe all the characters have bron-bron seriously the only guy who wants to founded dynasty who wants to start a household or sorry I shouldn't say royalism he wants to start a feudal household that's going to carry on for generations he talks about the future if you're Daenerys Targaryen one dragon can't lay any eggs two dragons can lay eggs right it's significant in the books you know the Daenerys believes she's barren that she can't have children after her miscarriage and presumably in the next book this will change but we don't know maybe she'll remain barren so her sense of who her children or her legacy is caught up in the Dragons so you know you could be scouring the Seven Kingdoms for other dragon eggs they're an artifact that's around it's it's stated in both the books and the TV show it's and they're very valuable but it's a known thing there are plenty of dragon eggs around and most people just regard them as something solids don't like a gemstone it's just a curiosity but no they actually can't someone like dinero's actually can warm them up and hatch them to bring new dragons in the world mmm seems to be a very strange lack of interest on her part in the future of her dynasty or what is supposed to make her dynasty different from the tennessee's that came before you know in Essos you were ending slavery I thought the whole point was gonna be that in Westeros she was gonna end feudalism she was gonna answer them she said does anyone remember what she said she was gonna break the wheel you guys what was that supposed to mean this is gonna burn everything down and rule on top of the ashes it's not coherent there's supposed to be some plan for something better that that that specific speech on the TV show bring the villagers was really saying she was gonna bring an end to feudalism in Westeros so I thought something other than maybe democracy you name it again in the books there were interesting discussions of democracy in the TV show absolutely none unless you count the fact that Jon Snow himself was elected at the Nights Watch out of that alone you could have had some kind of interesting discourse you could have had Jon saying to her you know where I come from the northern end of the north we actually have this thing called voting elections that's how we choose our leaders you know that could have been something was okay this is how you break the wheel this is how you change things they say you put a check on the power of rose there were a lot of opportunities for better writing so that's I gotta say for this episode however as I said my first video on the topic this was not a disaster it stands up as a work of art a stands up as a film in its own right it really is too bad that they're committed to having all the characters say so little that's continued the number of lines of dialogue is very few all right sorry the other thing was gonna say was when you look at something like Daenerys or anyone there's this weird lack of thinking with the future there's also a total lack of interest in the past right okay so I mean if if Daenerys really believes that her right to rule is based on her bloodline and her hair color right she should probably be interested in the lost city in Essos that her family comes from and where where dragons come from and so on and so forth we get referred to on the TV show a lot as Valyrian steel what is Valyria what makes Valyria special what is this special thing with source okay and you don't have to run up the budget you could just have dialogue could you just had her talking to her her best friend before she was the captain you could have had her talking to her maid servants and look you know what is this word Valyrian why is Valyrian steel the best kind of steel why do you people like what's special about me I haven't learned but what does that matter you know again the stakes would be different if you had some discussion of the past and some discussion of what she was trying to accomplish for the future I also think I think one of the best dramatic devices for raising the stakes and just for intellectually deepening what's going on the plot is to have people discuss different plans so what is the what is the future scenario now what's she gonna do with John Snow if she thinks John Snow doesn't love her has betrayed her as let her down and that's what this very briefly this episode shows you Jon Snow doesn't love her or doesn't love her enough and he has betrayed her both tech both technically and actually and he's literate okay she could have said to him or she could have said the grey worm again miss Andy's gone she could have said to someone she could have said when I'm done burning down this city I'm sending John Snow back to the wall he was lord of the Lord Commander of the Nights Watch he broke his vows he can be sent back there you know he can rebuild the wall he can refine and he can live the rest of his life in exile at the wall because he turned me BAM even if it never happens even if she falls back you seem just talking about the possibility and let's say Tyrion is in the room for staring now has no character and it's not interesting someone else intelligent and it's a no no no don't do that do this instead here's another possibility someone else suggests the third possibility when you have several strategic possibilities put forward I think it really enriches the plot and raises the stakes in many ways and when you don't do that one of the problems that this show for many years has always been that any action undertaken by the characters neither seems heroic nor villainous because in every situation it's like well what do you expect that was the only thing she could have done there was only one thing she could do everyone's kind of backed into a corner heroes and villains alike where they don't seem to have other options and that makes things shallow and makes them ethically insignificant okay guys only one episode left only one question is yet to be resolved will bran get his castle and his bride the fate of Ron we had bra and give the the philosophical position of the showrunners didn t the UH the script writers stepped out from behind the curtain and had bran deliver us this philosophical lecture that their theory of government the only political philosophy this show left in contrast to the book is that you know the most brutal and tyrannical person wins the war and then establishes a new household and that's got to be bran I thought at any moment bran might step out I thought bran might interrupt the fight between the hound between Sandor Clegane and and the mountain cuz where is he shouldn't he be lurking in the shadows somewhere with a crossbow so that's it the only plot thread yet to be tied up is will bran get his castle ok guys see you next week for the last time