| TheLastStarFighter said: I think it's great. This season has been a bit up and down, with the Sansa rape season being unbearable and last night seeing Stanis's daughter put to the torch rather vile and non-sense. But if you couldn't watch "Hardhome" and not be blown away, you have no soul. When Jon made the walker explode, that was amazing. Regardless, it's fantastic TV, even if it does make me a little uncomfortable some times. |
I've spoiler tagged my comments about the latest episode because not everyone will have seen it yet.
Nonsense, how exactly? I agree it was completely vile, it made me feel physically sick and incredibly upset. But that's the story Thrones/A Song of Ice and Fire is. In the first hour of the television show, we see a young man beheaded by Ned Stark, the principal protagonist at this point, we learn that a noble friend and adviser of the King has ruthlessly been poisoned, and crucially, incestuous lovers attempt to kill a child.
While Shireen's death and Sansa being raped haven't happened in the books, they are not inconsistent with the narrative themes established by the show. With Sansa, what else was Ramsay going to do once he had her fully in his power? The rape was portrayed far more sensibly and sensitively than the incidents last season, too. I also think that Sansa's story since--in which while obviously hurt, she has continued to be a strong and active character--has made sense.
As for Shireen, we are first introduced to Stannis in season 2 as he watches his wife's siblings be burnt to death on his command. He murders his brother in pursuit of power; Stannis is also willing to kill an innocent bastard son of his older brother in pursuit of more power. We also know that Stannis believes that he must be King, and not for vanity, or glory, but for the sake of destiny. What is one child's life, he must ask himself, versus the lives of millions across Westeros and millions more yet to live? Even if that child's life is his own daugher, in Stannis's mind, it's worth the sacrifice, painful as it is. I think this means Stannis's character arc is nearly complete, and that he will die soon, though. He fought to take the Iron Throne from an incestuous Queen who placed her bastard, brutal son on the throne, who would murder anyone to protect her grip on power. How, now, can he rule the North or the Seven Kingdoms, when he killed his own daugher to get that opportunity?
Stannis has become a villain we need at this point. I don't think he or the Boltons have much mileage left in them. And let's not forget, that immediately after we saw Stannis betray and sanction the murder of his daughter, we saw another parent, Daenerys, reconnect with her favourite 'child' and finally embrace her role as Mother of Dragons, as she took flight and escaped the pit that she had attempted to change. I don't think that's coincidental. We saw one potential ruler, Stannis, destroy what goodwill and right to rule he had established, while another quite literally took to new heights, and is perhaps finally going to forsake Slaver's Bay to claim the Throne her family established. Far from nonsensical, as far as I see it.
