Note: My wife says to issue a spoiler alert here for you who haven't seen the last episode. Because most women know who they most don't want to see go away on Game of Thrones. end note.
The previous one made my youngest daughter cry because she couldn't believe it. It makes you wonder if the writer hates women or something?
My youngest Daughter was so upset her favorite character died in the last episode of the season that she verbally attacked me. However, as a Dad I realized she was really attached to this character so it was okay(this time).
By the way don't read this article unless you have already seen episode 10 "Mother's Mercy" because it basically tells you what happens in the following article.
Game of Thrones: Mother's Mercy, season 5, episode 10, review: 'powerful and ...
| Telegraph.co.uk | - |
Hands
up if you thought this season of Game of Thrones - like season three -
would end on a happy note? Or even on a bittersweet note, like season
four?
Monday 15 June 2015
Game of Thrones: Mother's Mercy, season 5, episode 10, review: 'powerful and sad'
The season 5 finale ended things on a suitably bleak note, says Rebecca Hawkes CONTAINS SPOILERS
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Jonathan Pryce and Lena Headey Photo: HBO
5:03AM BST 15 Jun 2015
Comment
Hands up if you thought this season of
Game of Thrones – like season three – would end on a happy note? Or even
on a bittersweet note, like season four?
If so, more fool you. After treating us to the (literally and
figuratively) uplifting vision of Emilia Clarke’s Daenerys escaping on a
dragon last week, the programme-makers clearly decided we’d had quite
enough happiness and exhilaration, and instead decided to end season
five in the bleakest way possible: on a lingering shot of a murdered Jon
Snow (Kit Harington), eyes closed, surrounded by a growing pool of dark
blood.
True, this this probably
isn’t the last we’ll see of Jon (he’s far too significant a character),
but, while the return of Melisandre (Carice van Outen) to the Wall was
certainly intriguing, the episode gave us no hint of resurrection for
Jon; no flickering eyelids, no sudden magic or mystery, no whisper of an
escape. All we got was stark, dead Snow.
Kit Harington as Jon Snow (Photo: HBO) A group of Nights Watchmen, led by Alliser Thorne (Owen Teale) betrayed and stabbed their Lord Commander, fearful of his decision to allow wildlings behind the wall. But it felt both inevitable and terribly sad that the “man” to deliver the final blow was in fact barely a man at all, but young Olly (Brenock O'Connor). There was a certain symmetry here and a sense of violence endlessly begetting violence, with Jon dying at the hands of the boy who killed his lover Ygritte – who had, in her turn, murdered Olly's own family.
Elsewhere, that extra-slow, extra-gloomy version of The Rains of Castamere got a fair few outings: Tyrion aside, it’s not a great time to be a Lannister. The words “poor Cersei” probably haven’t been uttered by that many people before, but this week, the character (played by the excellent Lena Headey) underwent a humiliation that was so painful, and so absolute, as she was forced to undergo a naked, barefoot walk of penance through the street of King’s Landing, surrounded by jeering crowds, that it was hard not to wince.
Given all the murder, rape, torture, skinning and burning alive going on elsewhere in Game of Thrones, it seems a little strange to say that watching Cersei have all her hair hacked off felt especially brutal, but it was nonetheless true; seeing one of the show’s most addictively watchable female villains stripped and shorn, more vulnerable than ever before, was strangely upsetting.
By the time the dreaded walk was over, it was almost cheering to watch the deliciously malevolent Qyburn (Anton Lesser) present Cersei with every fallen queen’s dream: the ultimate strong, silent hero. That towering body clearly belongs to The Mountain – but the question of what exactly is festering under that helmet remains. Personally, I wouldn't volunteer to lift the visor.
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Meanwhile, Cersei’s daughter Myrcella was also having a pretty terrible day. She gets top marks for open-mindedness (sweetly acknowledging that her uncle is in fact her father, assuring him that this is All Totally Normal and Okay) – but zero marks for character judgement, after accepting a poisonous kiss from a decidedly murderous looking Ellaria (Indira Varma). We’ll have to wait until next year to see if Myrcella has actually succumbed to the toxin, but, as she collapsed, blood pouring from her nose, things certainly weren’t looking good.
Across the narrow sea, the relationship between Daenerys and Drogon seemed to have soured pretty quickly – last week, he was rescuing the silver-haired queen from certain death; this week, he was trying to nap, and she was snippishly complaining about the lack of food: "At the very least you could hunt us some supper.” That's gratitude for you.
Still, to see Daenerys return to the land of the Dothraki, and eventually end up surrounded by a swirling mass of horsemen, was a thrilling twist: one that reminded us exactly where she started (a frightened young bride, sold like a slave to Khal Drogo), and just how far she has since come.
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Stephen Dillane as Stannis Baratheon and Carice van Houten as Melisandre (Photo: HBO) Perhaps the episode's saddest moment, Jon's death aside, was witnessing the downfall of Stannis Baratheon (Stephen Dillane). The fascinating thing about Stannis is that he's a man who has made terrible, sometimes horrific decisions (most notably, sacrificing his own daughter) – but always in pursuit of what he believes is a righteous cause. It wasn't just greed or ambition that spurred him onwards in his battle to become King, but a conviction that he was a long-promised hero: the only man who could save Westeros from internal collapse, and from the hordes of White Walkers waiting in the North.
• Everything you need to know about Daenerys Targaryen
(Photo: HBO) • Everything you need to know about Cersei Lannister
Instead, he ended up losing his army, his battle, and his entire family: after witnessing Shireen's death last week, Stannis's wife, Selyse, hanged herself.
Surrounded by the corpses of his men, Stannis was eventually confronted by Brienne (Gwendoline Christie), who reminded him of yet another of his crimes – his murder of his brother, Renly – and prepared to exact justice. We didn't witness the final blow, but it's hard to see how Stannis could have escaped. The look of total resignation on his face as he accepted his fate – and tacitly acknowledged that he was no great king after all, and that all his sacrifices had been for nothing – was absolutely heartbreaking. Only Game of Thrones could make us feel sorry for a man who, just last week, burnt his young daughter alive.
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Sophie Turner as Sansa Stark (Photo: HBO)
Overall, this was a gripping, but almost relentlessly dark episode: a fitting close to a season that has grown increasingly darker in the last few weeks. As we watched Jon's blood seep into the snow, we were left with an overpowering sense that essentially well-motivated people will always end up doing bad things, that winter is coming and that, ultimately, there's probably no hope for anyone.
Just to make matters worse? There’s also no Game of Thrones for a year.
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