Good Knight

After the series finale of Game of Thrones received "whatever the opposite of rapturous applause is" from the public at large, its spin-off series, House of the Dragon, became "whatever the opposite of eagerly anticipated is." Could there be an appetite for a third series based on George R.R. Martin's hugely-sprawling (but never finished) fantasy setting? That's what A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms sets out to test.

This series is based on a prequel trilogy of novellas by Martin. (He's said he intends to write more, but we all know the punchline of that joke.) Lowly hedge knight Ser Duncan the Tall, called Dunk, gets into misadventures with his young squire Egg -- all some 90 years before the events of Game of Thrones. Season one of this new show, based off the novella The Hedge Knight, chronicles the duo's first meeting, and sees Dunk raising the ire of a powerfully-positioned enemy. A secret harbored by the young Egg may be all that stands between Dunk and a swift, unjust punishment.

I hope that any fans who soured on the original Game of Thrones open themselves up to this new show. The first spin-off, House of the Dragons, doubled down on many of the original series' excesses, with a tale spanning dozens of years, involving hundreds of characters, and featuring more CG dragons than a server farm could render in a year. (Which is why it takes two or three between seasons.)

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is, in almost every way, everything the first two series are not. It's succinct; the first season is only six episodes long, and the typical episode runs barely 30 minutes. It's focused; the story is squarely centered on Dunk and Egg, involving only the people who come into their orbit. It's grounded; while CG is certainly employed to enhance the setting, it is a tale of knights and jousting -- with no dragons or magic anywhere to be seen.

Also, perhaps most strikingly: there's humor! A Song of Ice and Fire is famously a book series that tried to take all this swords and sorcery stuff more seriously than the typical epic, and Game of Thrones took the lead from that when adapting the tale for television. But there were lighter moments -- in the early books, certainly -- that became but a distant memory by the show's final season. House of the Dragon is, if anything, even more mirthless, depicting Westeros as a cruel place devoid of lightness in any measure. A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms manages to find the fun again. There are certainly dark moments, and the sort of monumental character deaths that are the bread and butter of Martin's writing. But also, there are a lot of jokes -- some actually laugh out loud funny.

With a story focused on just two characters, the dynamic between those two -- and the casting of the roles -- is of utmost importance. A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms hits the bullseye with its two leads. Peter Claffey plays Dunk with a lovably perfect mix of intimidation and oafishness. Dexter Sol Ansell ably captures the wise-beyond-his-years qualities of Egg in one scene, while being an impulsive and immature young boy in the next. Together, the two have a tremendous rapport -- not quite father-son, not quite mentor-student, not quite brothers... but always just what the story calls for.

And again, what that story calls for is thrillingly tight. I've seen a few complaints online from people disappointed that when all was said and done, this new show gave them barely three new hours of Game of Thrones-related content. I myself found that quality over quantity was the order of the day for A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. This lean, enjoyable story felt to me like the most consistently entertaining thing to happen in Westeros since at least the fifth season of Game of Thrones. By being something rather different, it effectively reminded me of what I like about it all in the first place.

I give A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms an A-. I find myself looking forward to its second season far more I am to the third season of House of the Dragon (coming later this year). And since they're reportedly already filming that second season, signs point to us getting it without the too-typical-these-days delay of several years. 

Bloody Thoughts

It has now been 13 years since George R.R. Martin published the fifth novel in his A Song of Ice and Fire series. It seems ever less likely we'll ever get the next book, The Winds of Winter, (much less the one after that, meant to conclude the series). And after the final season of the TV adaptation Game of Thrones, many former fans have simply decided they don't care.

But Martin has been busy this last decade, writings and editing all sorts of things that aren't The Winds of Winter. One of these, his 2018 book Fire & Blood, seemed almost like a challenge to anyone who might count themselves a George R.R. Martin "fan." It was a book set in Westeros -- just not the one everyone was waiting for. It recounted the history of past Targaryen kings, assembled in part from previously existing novellas, and (in its last half) forming the basis for the spin-off TV series House of the Dragon. But also... it was a project that Martin himself jokingly dubbed his "GRRMarillion," in reference to The Silmarillion -- J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-earth book that's so dry that it wasn't even published in his lifetime, and hasn't been read cover-to-cover by most of his fans. Was Martin implying his book was equally dense?

Well, the coming of House of the Dragon season two later this year inspired me to actually give it a shot; I recently finished Fire & Blood. And mostly, I was entertained. Thankfully, while the book is very much a history, it's not dry at all. It essentially reads like engaging non-fiction, like an author gathering up 150 years of a country's history and trying to lay it all out for you in the most compelling way possible.

There's an extra twist in Martin's approach here, as he writes not as himself, but as a "maester" within the world of Westeros who is himself setting down this history. Part of the conceit here is that the author openly sifts through conflicting accounts written at the time they happened, editorializing on which is more likely true. This allows Martin to lean into one of his greatest strengths as a writer: writing from the entrenched perspective of a specific character. The Ice and Fire series itself famously trades character viewpoints from chapter to chapter; here, Martin takes on one character's viewpoint for an entire book, as the character himself in turn comments on other characters. It may sound like an unnecessary contrivance, but I believe it's a key part of what keeps Fire & Blood from being too dull for all but the most devoted fans.

And it's not like the gimmick gets in the way. The maester character doesn't assert his presence on every page, or anything so overt. Mostly, the narrative just flows naturally. It is more compressed than Martin's more traditional novels, but there are many scenes that feel just as engaging, just as easily conjured in the mind's eye, as anything from the Ice and Fire series proper.

That said, the book purports to be examining the entire Targaryen dynasty from the first King Aegon I all the way to the end of the lineage. There are two problems with that. One is simply that some material is simply not compelling enough that it would have been included absent the narrative conceit. There's a reason why most people have heard of Henry V or VIII, or Victoria, or other monarchs whose tales have been told over and over. But unless you're a student of English monarchs, I'm guessing you've never heard of Cnut? Or Eadwig? My point is, not all of the content in Fire & Blood is as exciting as the chunk seized upon to create House of the Dragon.

And the second issue is that at the conclusion of this 700-page doorstop of a novel, Martin has still not told the complete Targaryen history. In terms of number of years, he's actually a bit less than halfway; so if indeed he ever means to complete this story, he has at least one more volume to write, and maybe two. So yes, you've got that right: George R.R. Martin set aside his epic unfinished series to take up another project and not finish it. If you choose not to reward this behavior by buying the book, I can't say I blame you.

But if George R.R. Martin is not "dead to you," then I have to say that Fire & Blood is at times a quite fun read. It cannot compare favorably to the imagined book we all wished we'd gotten, the sequel to A Dance With Dragons that begins working toward a conclusion we all find more satisfying than the one given to us by the television adaptation. But this book is here, and can actually be read, and I'd give it a B overall.

The Black Queen

The season finale of "House of the Dragon" was not only an effective capper for the show's first season, but offered a taste of how the final season of Game of Thrones might have been stronger.

Rhaenys reaches Dragonstone with new of King Viserys' death, and of the rapid installation of Aegon as his successor. As the news comes, Rhaenyra goes into labor -- only to deliver a stillborn child. She is crowned Queen soon after, but is determined to cool the tempers of the men around her who are ready to declare war. Yet the decision to dispatch her two oldest sons as messengers to would-be allies will have fateful consequences.

Many criticisms are leveled against the final season of Game of Thrones, but one of the most consistent is the "heel turn" of Daenerys right near the end of the story. I've always maintained that people who claim her violent rage at King's Landing "came out of nowhere" weren't paying attention to all the signs of her hot and violent disposition all throughout the series -- though I can't deny that the series had done nothing to remind us that near the end of the story, when it was about to matter most.

So by contrast, this entire season of House of the Dragon -- and this final episode most keenly -- has been carefully crafted to make us understand, when Rhaenyra succumbs to rage, exactly why she has done it. The stillbirth, though perhaps overly graphic in depiction, was an important moment. The day Rhaenyra's throne was usurped was the very day she lost her child. It magnified the importance of family at that critical moment, setting the stage for a magnified reaction to what was in store at the end of the episode.

And that long sequence was extremely well executed. "Executed" might be a play on words there, as the episode was not trying to hide from the audience that something awful was going to happen to young Luke. But hiding it was not the point. This was suspense by degrees; maybe he'll be taken prisoner? Maybe he'll only be maimed? Maybe he'll bring about his own demise in his hasty retreat? The tension was teased out well, with the pinnacle coming in the lightning strike that revealed Aemond's massive dragon high above. (And notably: the music did not start at that moment; it kicked in later.)

The season seemed clearly written to save on CG earlier in earlier episodes so that the budget was available here and now for this all-important sequence. And it was probably a good trade. As terrible as the "dark episode you couldn't see" a few weeks ago looked, this chase in a rainstorm looked as oppositely great and more.

One issue, however, that I hope the show is able to address when season two comes around? Daemon. He feels like the odd man out in the stable of characters -- with the possible exception of the devious Larys Strong (who is clearly a more secondary character). Every other major character on the show has their flaws, to be sure. They make good decisions and bad decisions. They've been shown to be capable of evil or benevolence. But Daemon is a fairly detestable figure at all times, just able to wear a thin mask of civility for short stretches. Sure, a show needs its villains, but it feels to me like every other character as central to the story as he is has been sketched in shades of grey. Daemon is as dark as night, and to my mind, not particularly fun to watch in that role. This episode was no exception.

But in all, I enjoyed this season finale, and I'll be looking forward to season two, whenever it comes. I give "The Black Queen" a B+.

The Green Council

The latest episode of House of the Dragon was an interesting departure for the series so far in several ways, while simultaneously shoring up the whole and affirming that while things may have gotten off to a slow start, they're humming along now.

In King's Landing, Alicent and her allies rush to shore up Aegon's claim to the Iron Throne... but without Aegon himself, who has gone missing in the night, and is now the object of two competing manhunts. Alicent tries to appeal to Rhaenys, but is rebuffed with thorny advice. It's all building toward a memorable coronation for the new king.

After a season that routinely skipped weeks and years between episodes, it's telling that House of the Dragon picks up this time literally the next morning after the previous episode. We really are done with the preamble now. Also different: Rhaenyra (and Daemon, and their children) are nowhere to be seen this week. This episode is set entirely in King's Landing, focusing on the scramble to install Aegon as king before word of Viserys' death can reach the world beyond.

It is almost an episode from Alicent's point of view, in as much as Game of Thrones or its spin-off would ever truly do such a thing. Much of this first season has shown us Alicent through Rhaenyra's eyes, a dear friend turned cold rival who seemed sympathetic only in the occasional moments when Rhaenyra wasn't actually around. And so, without her around at all this week, we get Alicent in her most sympathetic light yet.

No, we see for certain, Alicent is not Cersei. And of course, the characters of House of the Dragon should not map one-to-one to characters from Game of Thrones. But where you might have imagined both characters as "queens playing the game, not as well as they themselves would say they are," this episode highlights the important difference between the two. Alicent really has no ambition for herself -- and consequently, she has no ruthlessness in her.

Cersei would have heard Viserys' dying words, deliberately misconstrued them, and made big political moves accordingly. Alicent seems to have truly misunderstood Viserys, assisted by wishful thinking, and is only willing to make small moves (as of now). Yes, she's playing a game -- as illustrated most viscerally in the scene where she exploits (and is exploted by) Larys and his foot fetish. But she's no grandmaster.

This fact was pointed out best by Rhaenys in one of a few scenes this week that seemed to style her as another Game of Thrones character, Lady Olenna. Again, of course, not every character in this maps to one from the original show, but Rhaenys displayed the same sharp insight backed by sharp words. She really put Alicent in her place, exposing that she works in service of men. Sure, Olenna would have had even more withering words in this situation, but then... Olenna didn't have an actual dragon to ride.

Rhaenys' big moment at the end of the episode has been the talk of the internet -- most of it centered on "why didn't she say 'Dracarys!'?" And yes, that was certainly my gut reaction in the moment as well. But I think here's a payoff for the slow burn the show was in getting to this point; we get context to help understand moments like this. In another departure from Olenna, Rhaenys is not a vengeful woman. She's certainly not a stone cold killer. Remember, she believes in earnest that her own son was murdered by his wife... and she has still chosen to ally with that wife. Forgiveness is in her nature. If anything, she pities Alicent more than she harbors any malice there... and I think that explains why, on this occasion that she (and the realm) may later come to regret, she lets Alicent and her family live.

A solid episode of House of the Dragon with political intrigue that's actually intriguing, major plot developments, and plenty of action too. I give "The Green Council" a B+. On to next week's season finale!

The Lord of the Tides

Two episodes remain in the first season of House of the Dragon, but we may already have gotten the most pivotal episode of the season in the eighth installment, "The Lord of the Tides." (And I'll say right now: here there be SPOILERS.)

Six years have passed since Rhaenyra and Daemon married, and they are now returning to King's Landing to fight for the succession of their son to the throne of Driftmark. They arrive to find King Viserys all but insensate, lost to pain, painkillers, disease, and old age. Queen Alicent rules in his stead, and is sure to rule against Rhaenyra. But the king has one more burst of life in him, and he uses it to try to reunite his fractured family.

There is probably a way you could have told the story of House of the Dragon by starting with this episode. This episode brings the inciting incident, the moment beyond which the coming events are inevitable: the death of Viserys. That said, this is not a tight, one-act stage play; this is epic fantasy. Climbing to the top of the roller coaster's first hill, before the big drop, is not only expected here, but it does make sense. Spending some time with these people before they go to war is vital in making us care what happens to them next.

Perhaps there could have been a bit less table-setting, spread over fewer episodes, than what we got? Perhaps that sort of pacing would have kept tuned in some of the people I know who have bailed on this show? But even as things stand now, it does feel like most of the setup really did inform specific grievances that will matter now -- not just between Alicent and Rhaenyra, but between all their children, between them and members of the court, and between them and other players in this incarnation of the "game of thrones."

But whether or not the seven episodes before this might have been abbreviated in some ways, this episode felt essential to me from start to finish. There were highlights, of course, most surrounding the depiction of the dying Viserys. It ranged from the realistic (the way his mind slipped in and out of reality is surely something that many in the show's audience have experienced themselves) to the ghastly (the erosion of half his face felt like the most grisly thing in the episode -- even when that episode featured someone's head being cut in half).

The dinner scene was perhaps the best scene of the series so far. Viserys was essentially granted his dying wish for his family to reconcile, and that perhaps gave him "permission" to finally give up the struggle and pass on. Except... the very instant he left the room, the squabbles all began anew. If a peace can't last when he leaves the room, what is sure to happen when he leaves this world? The sniping between cousins, the ludicrous interjections from Aegon's wife, the heartfelt (but brief) words of forgiveness exchanged between Alicent and Rhaenyra -- all of it felt wonderfully, perfectly calibrated to me.

And I feel compelled to mention one other element that fell well-calibrated -- or, at least, handled better than Game of Thrones has historically handled similar material: the scene in which Alicent must deal with the aftermath of a rape committed by her son. It was a chilling scene, with Alicent herself spouting terrible rhetoric of denial and blaming. And showing that was enough. I can't help but feel like the Game of Thrones of old would have actually shown us the rape (and, likely, not this aftermath). This is just as effective at making the point without being needlessly lurid: we understand clearly that in the coming struggle for the Iron Throne, the conventional, patrilineal heir is a horrible person.

I give this episode a B+. The "prologue" now complete, it will be interesting to see just how much more story House of the Dragon aims to tell in two remaining episodes, and what sort of cliffhanger it opts to leave between seasons.

Driftmark

I felt like the latest episode of House of the Dragon was the best so far -- a solid blend of fulfilling some expectations while thwarting others. But it still probably wasn't quite at the level where I'd start suggesting that people who have given up on the show come back to give it another chance.

A funeral reunites the royal family that just recently went their separate ways, and sparks fly. The children of the princess and the queen are increasingly at each other's throats. Rhaenyra is increasingly drawn to her uncle Daemon. King Viserys is increasingly made to look a weakening fool. And the tension can't increase much more before something snaps.

I suppose I should either go read the Fire and Blood history book on which all this is based, or get out of the House of the Dragon prediction business. Last week, I was disappointed that so much time was spent on the squabbling children only to separate them at the end of the hour. This week, all that squabbling paid off, having setup the major confrontation this week that sees Aemond lose an eye. If anything, perhaps more time could have been spent on souring relationships last week, as the one moment I couldn't quite get on board with this week was Alicent's sudden demand for a literal eye for an eye. (It felt like an escalation that, given her reaction to Larys' butchery last week, she isn't quite ready to spearhead.)

Another shocking development was the marriage of Rhaenyra and Daemon at the end of the episode. Shocking, in it being one of the most direct depictions of incest in the GRRM-iverse since season 1, episode 1 of Game of Thrones... but certainly not surprising, when you remember (though you easily could forget) that Daenerys was ultimately revealed to be Jon Snow's aunt. This is just how Targaryens roll.

Perhaps the long game of so many episodes of seemingly aimless Daemon scenes now begins to reveal itself? Daemon has a history of dead wives; is Rhaenyra now in danger? (Ah, but I said I needed to get out of the prediction business.) In any case, it is satisfying to begin to see disconnected tendrils finally start to entwine with one another as the last few episodes of the season come.

But one huge distraction in the episode is the one the internet has widely seized upon. Just as in the final season of Game of Thrones, the creatives behind the show deliberately served up an episode "you can't see." Things were definitely too dark throughout the middle act of the episode, with many important scenes taking place at night on the beach. For the record, no television show will ever be as "too dark" as episode 6 of Apple TV+'s Invasion. Still, the purportedly intentional creative decision made here was the wrong one. The encounters between Daemon and Rhaenyra, and Aemond and Vhagar, were the emotional highlights of the episode, and they were so mired in darkness that you couldn't tell what was going on. (Which kid with white hair is that? What is he looking at down on the beach? And people, I've calibrated my television well. I'm not one of those people who can't tell the difference when Motion Smoothing is on.)

Absent that issue that forcibly kicks the audience out of the most critical parts of the episode, I'd have said House of the Dragon had probably served up its first A/A- episode. As it stands, I'll call "Driftmark" a B+. Some television directors and editors need to consider more how this stuff will play outside of their pitch black editing rooms.

The Princess and the Queen

After skipping a few months here, or a year there, the latest episode of House of the Dragon jumped ahead 10 years to continue the story.

Rhaenyra gives birth to another child, stoking the fires of gossip around the castle: that her children are not her husband's, and that her father the King willfully overlooks it. Queen Alicent maneuvers subtly against her former friend, bemoaning the dearth of true allies at her call -- until one proves loyalty to her with a horrifyingly grand gesture. Meanwhile, in Essos, Daemon is invited to settle down, far away from the political machinations of King's Landing -- a prospect his wife utterly rejects.

A few weeks ago, I latched onto the notion that House of the Dragon is The Crown with CG, a staid and regal drama adorned with eye-catching visuals. This week's larger time jump, and re-casting of several characters (yet not others?) certainly supports this perspective. But I now want to introduce a corollary to the "how this is like The Crown" theory: most episodes feature at least one superbly executed and genuinely moving scene... even as the whole of most episodes doesn't feel entirely satisfying.

From a bird's eye (dragon's eye?) view, it feels easy to again make the case that "not a lot happened" in this week's episode of the show. We skip 10 years of time, and yet for where we wind up at the end of the episode, you could almost hope to have skipped "10 years and a month." A lot of screen time this week is devoted to the family squabbling between Alicent's children and Rhaenyra's... yet the conclusion, in which Rhaenyra abandons King's Landing with her family, feels like it sweeps off the table all that conflict that was built up over the course of the episode.

The episode also just felt long, perhaps in part due to a big subplot for Daemon that didn't really seem to go anywhere. He's still out there on the periphery, still taking wives for expedience and not holding onto them. The circumstances here are, of course, vastly different from what happened with his first wife. Nonetheless, it's still unclear how any of these events really feeds into the larger narrative.

And yet, I find myself thinking well of this episode, when I find myself thinking of specific scenes within it. The opening sequence was a real stunner in both writing and filmmaking. Rhaenyra being forced to visit Queen Alicent immediately after childbirth was tremendously revealing of several characters: it showed Rhaenyra's strength and resolve, how calcified and embittered Alicent has grown, how absent and flighty Laenor has been, and how Viserys' wits have declined by choice even as his health has declined more. All of that was delivered in an apparently single-take sequence that showcased stunning sets, unbelievable camera work, intricate choreography, and pitch-perfect performances by new and old cast members.

The ending sequence was not as impressive, yet was still chilling. Larys' full unmasking as a calculating psychopath, willing to sacrifice his own family for political advancement, shows him to be one of the most dangerous people in this new "game of thrones" (which my husband jokingly called the "JV league," commenting on how Alicent was not nearly the skilled player that Cersei was).

I continue to hope that the overall story of House of the Dragon is going to arrive someplace more compelling, and soon. But in this long road trip, I'm suddenly quite impressed with some of the stops at "scenic overlooks." So I think I'm going to give this episode a B... even if I'm starting to ask too often, "are we there yet?"

We Light the Way

The first season of House of the Dragon is now half over with last night's "We Light the Way." And it reached that halfway point with much stronger moves toward the larger conflict I think we've all been sensing ahead.

A marriage is arranged between Princess Rhaenyra and Laenor Velaryon... though both have separate romantic interests of their own apart from their duty to the realm. Queen Alicent continues to investigate the rumors that led to her father's dismissal from the King's service. And King Viserys' health continues to decline, even as he works to secure his royal legacy.

This week's episode of House of the Dragon was arguably the most "action-packed" yet, with some of the biggest plot developments that felt like a narrative dam breaking. But at the same time, it was another mostly talk-heavy episode of the show. There were hardly any action "action scenes," and certainly nothing to the scale of the battle depicted two weeks ago.

So depending on your perspective, you could say that not a lot "happened" in this episode until its final 15-20 minutes. That was certainly the tense focus of the episode, a scene absolutely constructed to trade on audience knowledge of the Red Wedding from Game of Thrones. You could sense that nothing that bad was going to happen, but it certainly felt like something bad was going to happen, and there was almost a slow-motion quality to it all as events unfolded.

On the other hand, so many plot developments actually did happen throughout the episode that you could easily forget, for example, that it opened with Daemon murdering his own wife -- an almost afterthought (forethought?) on the episode's full agenda. Not only were there big narrative moves on the docket, we're still getting substantial new sets. The trip to Driftmarch gave us a lot of beautiful new scenery, from the spacious throne room to the beach perfect for plotting.

While the showiest moments were indeed near the end (Ser Criston's brutal murder of Joffrey Lonmouth, and subsequent move toward suicide), I was perhaps more entertained by the more subtle maneuvering in the middle of the episode. This new "game of thrones" seems to have its own Littlefinger now, in the form of weaselly Larys Strong. His manipulation of Queen Alicent was brutally effective, yet seemingly leaves no evidence that will reflect badly on him. Ser Criston's misunderstanding of Alicent's accusation would be a contrivance fit for a sitcom, were it not instead the dramatic, tragic flaw of guilt that would soon prove the knight's undoing.

Yes, it's still a far more sedate show than Game of Thrones (at least, once the original really got going). A few friends have told me things ranging from "I'm still watching even though I'm not loving it yet" to "I quit after two episodes; should I start again?" (Respectively: I understand, and probably not?) But I feel like my own personal realignment of expectations for the show has helped me enjoy recent episodes more.

I will say, if things don't pick up substantially by the end of the season, then the long break between seasons one and two might actually be the thing to make me give it up. My enthusiasm level right now doesn't feel like it could withstand a 12-18 month hiatus. On the other hand, we are just halfway through the season, and surely the narrative pace will accelerate along the back half. But for now? I give "We Light the Way" a B.

King of the Narrow Sea

It's possible that after I last week reached the conclusion that House of the Dragon is modeling its storytelling after The Crown, I was now looking for support of that theory in the newest episode. Whether it was confirmation bias or not, I certainly saw a lot more of The Crown in "King of the Narrow Sea."

Daemon returns to King's Landing after his victory at the Stepstones... and is soon pushing his relationship with Rhaenyra in new ways to trouble King Viserys. Rhaenyra bristles at continued efforts to marry her off. And Otto's position as Hand of the King is threatened.

Unusually long for an episode that has little conventional "action," this hour-(plus) of House of the Dragon felt like a pretty "Crown-like" day of stock trading: the fortunes of some characters rise as those of other characters fall. And a princess bristles at the role she's been assigned in the royal family (one The Crown plot line that keeps on coming back.)

While the state of the political landscape undeniably changes between the beginning of the episode and the end, there's still sort of a feeling that not much "happens" over a rather slow-paced hour. This is another table-setting episode, setting up a banquet to be served in probably another week or two. I haven't yet read Fire and Blood, the said-to-be-dry book of Westeros history upon which this series is based (and which George R.R. Martin chose to complete instead of The Winds of Winter). So I'm throwing out conjecture here that could be proven wrong right now by anyone who has cracked the book (or looked on a Wiki somewhere, I'm sure).

It sure feels like the rough model of season one of Game of Thrones is repeating itself: the king will soon be dead, and all the major players are being positioned for an ensuing struggle for the throne. Aegon, the heir of tradition, but so young as to be easily co-opted and corrupted by those with other agendas. Rhaenyra, the named heir, but who has "sullied herself" in the eyes of many who might have supported her. Daemon, the spurned brother with more experience, but who is the last person who should be on the throne.

I hang on to House of the Dragon for now, because it feels like that coming story is going to be a very interesting one. But I won't pretend that this week's slow-burn preparation was gripping. There was twisted chemistry between Matt Smith and Milly Alcock -- not so much romantic chemistry as a twisted mentor/mentee relationship. But those two actors really had to carry a lot of story that wasn't exactly "exciting."

So I'd give this week's episode a B- at best. Here's hoping the real fireworks are lit soon.

Second of His Name

There have been all kinds of spin-offs throughout television history. It's perfectly acceptable to serve up a show that's just like the original but with new characters: look at franchises like CSI or Law and Order. (Or even Star Trek: The Next Generation.) The most celebrated spin-offs seem to strike a different tone from their originals: think along the lines of Cheers and Frasier, or Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul.

Through the first two weeks, it certainly seemed to me that House of the Dragon was setting out to be the first kind of spin-off. It appeared to be, first and foremost, "more Game of Thrones." Wherever a creative choice might have been made to put some separation between the two, instead the choice was made to prize continuity: we got the same music, the same sets, the same costumes. And to the degree it seems the audience was largely thirsting for "good old Game of Thrones," that was a fine choice.

After episode three, "Second of His Name," I'm beginning to suspect that House of the Dragon wants to be the second kind of spin-off after all. A grand fantasy epic for television has been done -- by Game of Thrones and many new entries to the field. And now I wonder if House of the Dragon is instead trying to be "The Crown, plus dragons."

I wrote about The Crown last year, but no short review can really capture my full experience watching it. Episode to episode, it was not unusual to find myself wondering if it was actually good, or if I was actually liking it. It was a slow burn drama, often "building" to nothing at all, in which the problems of the characters felt inaccessible at best, dull at worst. But The Crown also would serve up the occasional truly excellent episode to reward your faith in it. And all along, it featured an excellent cast from top to bottom.

House of the Dragon jumped two years in time with episode three. This followed a time jump of half a year or so between episodes one and two. This is The Crown's model, racing through decades of history to hit on only the most important moments in a generational story. Yes, the core question here seems to be "who will sit the Iron Throne?" But despite that also being one of the questions in Game of Thrones, the approach there was totally different. The odd flow of time was a major criticism of the final season -- the feeling that not as much time was passing explicitly as should be. House of the Dragon is being quite overt about telling us "these things take time."

Plus dragons, of course. This week's episode concluded with an extended battle sequence of mixed-to-good impact. There were a lot of good moments within the battle, though it ultimately couldn't carry that much weight when the opposing side had been so minimally developed over a few episodes. (And even the Targaryen side featured few characters we really know at this point.) But hey, visceral thrills to get your attention, if the slow burn royal family drama isn't doing it for you.

When I say "dragons," though, I don't mean just literally that; it's more a shorthand for "spending a lot of money on flashy visuals." This week also gave us a subplot about hunting a stag that culminated in two different CG animals featured front-and-center on screen. We also got a brief bit of action involving a wild boar... and that in particular was another strong contrast to Game of Thrones. Think back all the way to season one of that show. Robert Baratheon was fatally wounded by a boar, setting that whole story into motion. We didn't see any of that. Yes, that matched the way the story was told in Martin's original novel -- but in reality, Game of Thrones was not the kind of show that could afford to show such things that early in its run. House of the Dragon has a massive budget right out of the gate, and it's always going to put that money on the screen. (And, one assumes, kill off and/or recast its characters regularly enough to avoid spending too much of that budget on acting, as the mother show ultimately had to.)

So yes, House of the Dragon may aspire to be a staid drama about royal succession... but it's always going to dilute that with whiz-bang CG action. It surely needs to do that; the acting is the undeniable reason The Crown can get away with its slow pace and tone. The House of the Dragon cast, while fine, is certainly not at the same level of excellence. (Although, Matt Smith is in both casts.) Is it going to be good? Hard to say. Four seasons into The Crown, I can still only say, "it's good... I think."

This episode of House of the Dragon was good... I think. I'd give it a B. I might have chosen to mix a cocktail with more of this and less of that, but the show is still very much finding its way. With a second season now already confirmed, they should have all the room they need to do that.

The Rogue Prince

The first episode of the new House of the Dragon was, as all television pilots must be, a table-setting enterprise for the series to come. Though as it turned out, episode two, "The Rogue Prince" was even more of a "get things ready" affair.

Six months have passed since Rhaenyra was named the heir to the Iron Throne, and pressure is mounting for King Viserys to take a new wife. Adding to the delicate political landscape is the threat of Prince Daemon, who from his seat at Dragonstone makes an aggressive declaration that cannot be ignored.

That might well read as a rather boring synopsis of the episode. Part of that is my effort to minimize spoilers for anyone who hasn't watched yet. But another large part of it is: not much really happens in this episode. As if in direct conversation with the final season of Game of Thrones -- which many fans criticized for moving too fast through large piles of important story -- the pace of this episode of House of the Dragon is languid, and the truly meaningful developments are freighted into the final 10-or-so minutes.

Another important contrast to the parent TV show is that the moments that were important here were very much the quiet scenes of dialogue, often between just two characters. The few set pieces of large-scale action? Not so much. A showdown between two dragons in this episode really isn't a showdown at all. Interludes of horrific violence pointing to a coming war focus only on the aftermath of battles, not the conflict itself. And it's not that I needed visual, visceral thrills to engage my interest -- not if those quiet scenes of dialogue were compelling. But, as I suggested, those quieter scenes were very much still about setting up the board for the game to come.

This episode -- and here come the more direct spoilers -- was basically about setting up the king's betrothal to Alicent, and Corlys' treacherous turn to support Daemon, both of which only happened in the final minutes. Now the story can move forward with the battle lines drawn. But up until then? Good actors doing their best, sure. A few attention-getting details along the way -- from maggots as medical treatment to the horrifying prospect of marrying a 12-year-old girl to an aging old man (which is hardly remarked upon). But mostly... a "fine" episode in which not a lot happened.

And while I'm on the topic of only a few things changing, I must point to the series' opening theme. I find it an odd choice not to ask composer Ramin Djawadi to come up with a spin-off title theme for a spin-off show. I thought the repeated references to the classic Game of Thrones theme in episode 1 were just for the sake of continuity. But no, someone made the call that "we don't need a new theme here; let's reuse the old one." This isn't even deciding to repurpose the anthem from Star Trek: The Motion Picture as the music for Star Trek: The Next Generation. I wonder: was a new theme even attempted?

I didn't enjoy this second episode of House of the Dragon as much as the first, and I would give it a B-. I'm hardly soured on the new show so quickly, but I am hopeful that with the narrative landscape now more carefully set, that we can properly get on with the new story.

The Heirs of the Dragon

HBO's new prequel spin-off to Game of Thrones premiered last night. House of the Dragon jumps back nearly two centuries in the timeline of George R. R. Martin's fantasy world to follow an earlier Targaryen generation in its own mesh of politics, violence, and plotting.

I'll be quite interested to learn just how widely the new series is watched. Anecdotally, it doesn't seem as though anyone I know is excited about the prospect of more "Game of Thrones," siding with the broad displeasure of the masses over the final season (and ending) of the mother series. At the same time, it doesn't seem like vast swaths of people have defiantly declared they will not watch the spin-off. So it feels to me like viewership could range wildly.

If people do tune in, what might they think after episode one? My own review would be something like "it's fine, though far from exceptional." The network and creatives at the show are obviously hoping for another multi-year hit to replace Game of Thrones, so episode one is clearly just an amuse-bouche that really can't get us very far into a story. Still... everyone involved must also know that a lot of people are coming to this (if they're coming at all) with extreme skepticism, so they must feel an obligation to get your attention quickly.

I think how you react to the first episode, "The Heirs of the Dragon," probably depends a lot on how much you need this to be "better" in your mind than your perception of the Game of Thrones finale. The more guarded you are, the more you need to be sold on this prequel, the less it will likely succeed in doing so. The more you're just open to "more dragons, please," with a general hope that it will get better, given time? The more likely I think you'll get exactly that (if nothing more).

This first episode wasn't gripping to me. But it did have a few characters who popped right out of the gate. Matt Smith's Prince Daemon is an effective heel, a sort of adult Joffrey who toggles between petulance and true danger. Milly Alcock as Rhaenyra shows potential as a compelling protagonist, though perhaps simply by not slotting into a simple box as the rest of the archetypal characters do at this very early juncture.

A few scenes definitely popped as well. The juxtaposition of child birth with the jousting tournament did feel a bit "film paper" in conception, especially after a character explicitly defined giving birth as a battlefield earlier in the episode. Still, despite seeing all the strings being pulled, the resulting scene worked for me in delivering a meaningful emotional (even physical) reaction as it unfolded. Another sequence stuck out at me for what it didn't show. Hand of the King Otto Hightower seems to be sending his daughter Alicent into a situation specifically to seduce someone, but the result was a rare case in which the world of Game of Thrones does not give in to base or repugnant attitudes about sex.

After one episode, House of the Dragon has not made itself "can't miss TV" for me. But I'm intrigued enough to want to see more, and hopeful that there are enough ingredients in this stew for it to be something tasty once it's simmered. I give the first episode a B.

The Iron Throne

Right now, I'm mostly satisfied. It's the morning after the Game of Thrones finale, and while it's hardly in contention with me for one of television's all-time great series finales, I'm reasonably contented with what we got. Throughout the day, I have no doubt I'm going to read a lot on the internet trying to convince me I'm wrong... but in this moment, I feel like I got an ending, the parts more or less fit, and it ticked most of the boxes.

I imagine you're not here right now if you haven't seen it yourself. But just in case, this is where my thoughts stop being spoiler-free.

I will concede that as with several elements this season, the plot developments were good ones, even if the moves to get there weren't as skillful as some might have hoped. I think the biggest example of this was the rise of Bran to lead the remaining Six Kingdoms. It seems like a reasonable choice at like a reader/viewer level, but Tyrion's speech was hardly the most persuasive argument for it. If it's just about who had the best, most transformative "story," then any one of the surviving Starks would easily compete. (And not coincidentally, nearly all of them ended up ruling somewhere.)

No, I think the most compelling arguments for Bran would be that he's demonstrated himself the least bloodthirsty of the surviving characters. After a catastrophe like the destruction of King's Landing, that would seem to be the most compelling criterion. The fact that he could "research" any crisis throughout all of history to see how it (or anything similar) was handled? Also fairly compelling. Assuming you trust his judgment, anyway.

And that's the area where I wish a little more connective tissue could have been laid in for us. I could see why Tyrion and Samwell might support Bran for King. But there really isn't any established relationship with any of the other characters on that dias with him. I mean, weeks did pass after Dany's murder, so maybe Bran went around after arriving in King's Landing, giving his creeper stare to everyone and making believers of them. But we have to imagine how this all came to pass, adding facts not really in evidence. And that's especially a bummer given the fact that Bran's own sister was unwilling to support him as her ruler. In any plausible political reality, that feels like all the excuse someone ambitious would need to pitch a fit and sow discord.

Still, Bran felt like a decent choice, even if it wasn't perfectly depicted. Certainly, it's good that he served a purpose in the narrative beyond being bait for the Night King. It felt right for Sansa to get her own throne as Queen in the North, and for Jon to become, essentially, King Beyond the Wall. It also felt right for Arya not to end up in charge of anyone or anything -- sure, she recently steered away from vengeance, but it wasn't that long ago she was poisoning a whole room full of people. If Daenerys isn't fit to lead, neither is she. (I was less persuaded that Arya had expressed any past wanderlust that set up her ending, but a friend convinced me that it was more present in the books.)

The element that I think most needed space did get it: the death of Daenerys. The hour led off with Jon and Tyrion's horrified reaction to the destruction, and then we got a solid one-on-one scene between them where Tyrion made argument after argument as Jon still tried to parry them away. But just enough got through Jon's thick head so that in his scene with Dany, he could be pushed that last step. Emilia Clarke made the best of a truly tough monologue, speaking as though everything she was saying was perfectly rational. Perhaps the most subtle and skillful line of the episode was when Jon alluded to all the other people who think they're doing the right thing: an accusation of Dany not quite phrased as one. I think they earned Jon's reaction in their two key scenes. (Grey Worm's comparitive non-reaction to Dany's death? Maybe not so much. But, again narratively speaking, no one really needed another big battle at this point, did they?)

Otherwise, the episode was filled with nice symbolism and some good moments. Samwell naively pitching the idea of democracy and getting laughed down by the nobles was gold, a great acknowledgement of one of the fan theories that had been making the rounds. The destruction of the Iron Throne: on the nose, but necessary. Jon holding Daenerys as he once held Ygritte (and being far more personally culpable in the death): a nice dramatic echo. Drogon riding off with Daenerys' body: a fitting final image for her. Tyrion being chosen as Hand after so many blunders made me shrug at first... until I considered that Bran really doesn't need advisors, he just needs middle managers. Tyrion's fate is arguably more a punishment than anything else, and a cleverly subtle one at that.

Bottom line? We got an ending. And I'll offer this one more Game of Thrones theory: I doubt George R.R. Martin will ever finish A Song of Ice and Fire himself. So I'm extra happy we got this. And yes, far less down on the final season than most corners of the internet seem to be. My grade for the finale: a B. Yes, it could have been better. It could also have been much, much worse.

Like I said at the beginning: right now, I'm mostly satisfied.

The Bells

The penultimate episode of Game of Thrones served up an hour of chaos and destruction last night... and judging by my social media this morning, most people were just. Not. Having. It. For my part, I think the show made mostly all the appropriate narrative choices, but some felt more satisfying than others, because some felt more earned than others.

Perhaps working my way up in increasing order of "rightness," we finally got Clegane Bowl, the confrontation so widely anticipated by fans everywhere that they gave it a (goofy) name. It was a conflict every bit as brutal and violent as we all expected. The Hound and The Mountain were so fixated on ending one another that the world was literally crumbling around them and they didn't care. Nothing could get between them -- least of all poor, unmourned Qyburn. Both fighters used their signature moves, but no amount of zombie stabbing was going to take down the Mountain. In the end, it came down to the only logical ending: how badly did Sandor want his revenge? Badly enough to die for it.

Another big death in the hour came to Varys, who went out much like Littlefinger before him. The two biggest schemers on the show each attempted one scheme too many. Here, perhaps, the abbreviated number of episodes of this final season damaged the narrative ever-so-slightly. In, say, a 10 episode season, the writers might have had the chance to show us exactly what Varys was risking and attempting (as opposed to having him learn of Jon Snow toward the end of one episode, then dying to put him on the throne in the beginning of the next). But then, we got to watch Littlefinger plot all throughout season seven and no one really believed any of it. Maybe short and sweet like this was better.

Arya's harrowing escape through the crumbling King's Landing was one of the strongest elements of the episode. You had to set aside the matter that she rode all the way down from Winterfell in the company of the Hound, but that he finally found the right thing to say at the last moment to make her turn away from her quest for vengeance. But get over that bump, and you were really in for a wild ride. Arya gave us a guided tour through the destruction of the city, including a futile attempt to save lives, nearly dying several times herself, and generally getting messed up. I'm not sure "the horrors of war" has ever been presented more effectively on the show, and it was incredible. This material had all the import and scope that the big Walker battle of a couple weeks ago sometimes lacked.

Now we start to get into the more controversial moments. The confrontation between Euron Greyjoy and Jaime Lannister wasn't exactly a moment anyone was clamoring for. You can sort of squint and tilt your head and get there: Euron slept with Cersei, Jaime loves Cersei more than anyone in the world, so.... sure? But why sideline Yara entirely from the season and deny the more logical confrontation?

For me, the more surprising moment for Jaime is that he sided with Cersei to the bitter end. Suffice it to say, I believe this to be a moment of major divergence between the show and the books (should George R.R. Martin ever finish them). The book version of the prophecy given to Cersei includes more details than the show version, and one of them seems to telegraph fairly directly than Jaime will turn on Cersei before the end. But no, that detail was never a part of the television show. And so, on those terms, this frankly was a fair ending for the two characters, dying arm in arm, fully committed to one another. "The things we do for love."

The wildly different level of effectiveness of Qyburn's scorpions are the thing that bothered me personally the most this week. Last week, they took down Rheagal in a shocking few seconds, brutally effective and seemingly insurmountable. This week, they were just bundles of kindling for Drogon, with Daenerys essentially not even needing an army to conquer King's Landing. Surprise counts for a lot in medieval warfare, I guess.

I've saved the best for last: the ultimate transformation of Daenerys into bloodthirsty, crazed villain. This is lighting up every corner of the internet this morning, with most people rushing to declare character development dead, this heel turn wholly unearned. And yes, extraordinary claims do require extraordinary proof. But I have to say, this plot development has been telegraphed for a long, long time.

In basically every single season, Dany has at one point or another thrown a temper tantrum at least once, violently lashing out at her enemies. It's been easy not to notice for three reasons. One, she didn't always have much power to wield, so the scope of her wrath has been limited. Two, she has had people near her able to ground her and talk her away from her worst impulses (people who have pointedly been killed off in the last couple of episodes). Three, the people she's lashed out at have generally been positioned to "deserve it" in the eyes of the audience. Daenerys has been a villain-in-training all along, but she's had enough other aspects to her character to round her out.

If the army at King's Landing had surrendered the way it did, and then Dany flew over to the Red Keep and burned it to the ground, killing off Cersei and leaving the rest of the city intact? I think not a single audience member would have complained. So really, the gap comes in explaining just one detail: why burn the whole city? And I do wish the show had done a better job here. In the press for time here, about all we get is that she desperately needs to be loved, and because Jon didn't love her enough, she snapped -- an admittedly unsatisfying answer. But this was always going to be the ending for this character. Maybe if George R.R. Martin ever finishes the tale himself, he'll earn the ending more convincingly. We all may have needed and fervently wished for this to be a "woman ends up in power" story, but that's not what the story has been telegraphing to us all along. (Though for what it's worth, don't count out Sansa yet as, at the very least, the true power behind whatever's left to call a throne.)

Yes, I wish the episode had been able to handle some elements more artfully. But it did present a lot of it very well. Mine seems to be a minority opinion this morning, but I'd give the episode a B+ overall.

The Last of the Starks

It's perhaps a little strange to think that more than half of the final season of Game of Thrones will have taken place at Winterfell when all is said and done. But it's less strange when you think about what dividends the setting has yielded for the story so far. After last week's climactic battle, much of this week returned to the format of the season's first two episodes: meaningful, subdued conversations between characters at the northern keep.

The funeral scene was a great place to start, helping to drive home the costs of the battle with the White Walkers. I still maintain that for The Epic Battle the show has been building toward for its entire existence, the price wasn't high enough. But the staging of the funeral scene did help underscore that many survivots felt deeply personal losses in the handful of characters that fell.

Soon, things turned romantic in a variety of satisfying ways. The Jaime and Brienne story line was compelling not just for what happened along the way, but for where it ended up. Any time in the past that Jaime has found a moment of contentment, he's essentially self-sabotaged it, not thinking himself worthy of it. He did so again here. Gwendolyn Christie was heartbreaking in the farewell moment. Brienne has never remotely let her guard down with anyone as much as this, resulting in a wound that may never heal.

Then there was Arya's sweet but firm handling of Gendry. He was already several fantasies deep into planning a life with her; she, of course, has very different goals in mind. She bid him a gentle goodbye, not expecting to see him ever again.

The theme of goodbye continued for many other characters. It seems likely we've seen the last of Tormund (and Ghost!). Have we seen the last of Sam and Gilly, or does Jon only think he has? With only two more episodes left, it's becoming a real thing that even characters who survive the story will nevertheless not be seen again.

Much of the episode was dedicated to Daenerys, looking both smart and foolish in turn. She is advised to wait and rest her forces before marching on King's Landing, but she'll have none of that. Worse, she splits those forces and doesn't even wait for them to reunite before going on an ill-fated attack. And in the final scene, she's clearly, hopelessly outmatched -- yet still demanding surrender and being goaded into another foolhardy attack.

All that is because the story is trying to make clear that Daenerys is not meant to "win" in the end. But the show also hasn't totally abandoned what's been likeable about the character in the past. She's thirsty for power, but not paranoid, and quite astute. She's right that everyone would prefer Jon as ruler over her. The scene where she confers a title on Gendry, only to have everyone turn around and praise Jon for riding one of her dragons, is all about this. She's also right about Sansa -- Jon doesn't know how she'll react to the truth of his parentage; Daenerys gets it exactly right. (As for Sansa's choice there? Littlefinger would never hesitate to break his word after giving it. Why should Sansa, if it will get her what she wants?)

But where I think the episode did falter a bit is in the big battle in the waters outside King's Landing. It's strange to say that such a long episode, that included everything I've mentioned so far, felt rushed. But that's exactly what happened in the battle. Think back to the second season's "Blackwater," where a battle in this exact setting took an entire episode. This one was crammed into about 5 minutes. It felt like a sort of Cliff's Notes version of a larger thing -- like it couldn't have really happened so simply, even if you could imagine the outcome being the one we got. (There was also more of the season seven style "fast travel," as Daenerys' forces were defeated at King's Landing, retreated all the way to Dragonstone so Tyrion and Varys could talk about it, and then returned to King's Landing for the final confrontation. All without waiting for Jon's reinforcements to arrive.)

Much of the episode was handled wonderfully. But the last third was definitely weaker, and is what more people will remember about it. Overall, I'd give the episode a B.

The Long Night

So, let's talk about the latest Game of Thrones episode. Judging by the way the online community has protected Avengers: Endgame spoilers (like Fort Knox gold or something) vs. Game of Thrones spoilers (spraying them all over like weed control on a suburban lawn), I'm just going to dive right in and talk about it all.

Most of the complaints I've seen about the episode seem to fall into two camps. One is people who had a bad picture, either because their streaming service couldn't handle the load of everyone wanting to watch all at once or because their televisions were calibrated well for the darkness permeating the episode. There's an interesting question in there, about whether the creators should have thought more about how their creation would be delivered, or whether it's better to totally ignore such matters. But it's not a question I feel much like delving into here.

The other criticisms mostly come from people who note that this is all unfolding in a way that surely will be nothing like the books. Yeah, duh. I mean, there's no Night King in the books, for one. But more to the point, there have been enough adjustments and outright departures from George R.R. Martin's narrative over the seasons that of course, we should all assume we're not watching the ending he would have written. But then... he could write that ending any time he likes. That's on him. I truly in my heart don't believe he ever will. I think back to the day a decade ago when I heard HBO had bought the rights to these books. I thought to myself, "I hope the show catches on, because then we'll actually get an ending." Even back then, I was doubtful Martin would ever finish his series on his own. (And that was even before the eight-years-and-counting wait for The Winds of Winter began.) So basically, I'm setting aside the matter of how this season comports with a book that may never be written. I'm judging whether the show is making the right moves for itself, and presenting things well.

Mostly, I think it did. By and large, I thought it did a great job of delivering an extended and complicated battle sequence -- better, in fact, than Avengers: Endgame did with its big battle. I found Endgame to get confusing and too chaotic in moments of the big showdown. But the action in this episode of Game of Thrones (assuming you got to see it properly, anyway) was always clear and specific.

At the script level, this was accomplished by carefully dividing up the battle just as you would any other more dialogue driven story. There were stages of the battle: outside the wall, the storming of the wall, and inside the keep. Characters were given not just little moments to shine, they were given entire story lines within the whole -- stories which allowed the action to ebb and flow. There were loud and brash stories, like Lyanna's confrontation with the giant and Beric Dondarrion's sacrifice. There were quiet and tense stories, like those with the group hiding in the crypt, and Arya's "stealth video game" sequence against dozens of wights.

At the production level, clarity was achieved through the careful directing, photography, and editing. Cutting was only rapid and frenetic when a sense of confusion was intentional. Otherwise, the camera often lingered on action for a long time, allowing us to understand who things were happening to and where they were. (It helps when you have a cast who can handle this kind of fight choreography, that you don't have to edit around rapidly to make look good.)

And yet, while this episode was certainly stronger than 80 minutes of pure action might have been, there were a few aspects of it that didn't completely work for me. One was the odd use of Bran throughout. What exactly was he doing? Was there no useful application for his warging abilities? He wasn't gathering intelligence, since he never "reported back." Perhaps we were meant to interpret that he was gathering footage for historical documentation, in his role as the Three-Eyed Raven... but we were shown pretty explicitly that once the bad weather rolled in, he couldn't actually see a damn thing. 

A bigger issue for me was the low body count, anonymous fodder notwithstanding. Now, I have been thinking of the season, the ending, as a whole: I'll bet not as many people are going to die as many might think. And I suppose I should heed my own advice there. And yet, the White Walkers have been set up from the very first scene of the very first episode as The Threat to End All Threats. Impossible. Terrifying. I feel like the price extracted to finally defeat them, once and for all, should have been higher than it was.

I cannot quibble, though, with how the Night King was ultimately taken down. Giving the kill to Arya, a kill more important than any on her list, seemed the perfect culmination to her long journey throughout the series. (And having Jon pinned down in that moment, in a desperate situation after a half-baked plan didn't go as imagined? Also very on brand.) Nice moments too for Theon (who completed the big redemptive arc), Jorah (who loved Daenerys unconditionally to the bitter end), and Melisandre (who discharged her final duty, sacrificing her own life as willingly as she'd sacrificed many others before). I suppose if the deaths of this episode were to be surprisingly limited, at least the ones depicted were chosen for good effect.

But I actually preferred the two "build-up" episodes before this to the battle itself. Overall, I'd give "The Long Night" a B+. It shouldn't be possible that 80 minutes of action and "huh, that's it?" both seem like accurate ways of describing the episode... yet, there it is. But of course, the deeper struggles of this story have always been between the characters, and we still have some very important beats left to play.

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms

Game of Thrones served up a more quiet and contemplative episode than I think most viewers were expecting last night. But with basically the biggest battle ever put on film just ahead, it makes sense that the preamble to it would be proportionately large as well.

Where the season 8 premiere focused mainly on reunions and compelling "first meetings" (a theme that did continue to a lesser extent in this hour), this episode was built around a simple question: what would all of these characters we've come to know and love do with their proverbial last night on earth? The reactions weren't always surprising, but they were flawlessly fitting and often quite moving.

Some of the characters, having lived the lives they have, had made their peace with death long ago. There was little special to the "final night" choices of people like The Hound and Beric Dondarrion, nor should there have been. Other characters sought simple companionship -- and drink. Tyrion was right where you expected him to be, but the other characters who congregated with him made it a special scene. (More on that in a moment.)

Daenerys was fascinating in barely acknowledging the magnitude of the moment. Tonight, save the world; tomorrow, take the throne. She was still strategizing how to bring Sansa to heel. And the late revelation of Jon's parentage was pretty much what you'd expect: denial. Obviously, this was all just another scheme to keep her from her rightful place.

Sansa was equally fascinating, and more subtle. You could sense that she wasn't necessarily taking victory and survival as the granteds that Dany was. But if she survives, she's doing exactly what she has learned to do -- planning for the next move, and the next move beyond that.

For a few characters, the last night was all about its redemptive potential. Theon returned to Winterfell, continuing his neverending quest to atone for past decisions. Jaime Lannister began in a more resigned mode -- he wasn't even sure if he'd live to see the battle, depending on how Daenerys and the Starks reacted to his arrival. But he gravitated toward redemption as he asked to serve under Brienne in the battle... and then ultimately found his opportunity to do one final good thing in knighting her.

The knighting of Brienne was a wonderful moment, played beautifully by Gwendoline Christie. With almost no dialogue, she conveyed how much it meant to Brienne, how hard she was trying not to show that, and how impossible it was not to show it as the moment overwhelmed her. The characters with her there in that moment were perfectly chosen too -- Tyrion (who could appreciate achieving something that one would have thought impossible), Davos (who could appreciate rising so far above one's station), Podrick (who has been with her for so long), Tormund (who, though mainly used for comic relief with Brienne, got to earnestly enjoy this one serious moment), and Jaime (finally able to balance the ledger with her). When most people talk highlights of Game of Thrones, they talk about shocking deaths and soul-crushing plot twists. This was not one of those moments, but it was absolutely a highlight.

Arya's chose to spend her "final night" with Gendry. For a character who's chased after nothing but death and vengeance pretty much for as long as we've known her, it was great to have her chase something else. And yet, as she lay awake in bed afterward, you had the sense that she didn't exactly get what she'd been hoping for. It was simply transactional, a different sort of "list" of Arya's that she got to cross something off of. A very interesting and truthful moment for the character.

The episode also got out the war map for us, laying out the "plan" for the battle ahead -- one which we must assume won't unfold quite that way. But by getting that business out of the way now, the next episode can begin with its foot on the accelerator and never let up. It should make for quite an episode.

This was quite an episode too, in its own, different way. I give "A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms" an A-. I appreciate how carefully it worked to wrap things up with characters -- so many as to introduce some doubt about what will actually happen to some of them in the battle. Clever and essential work.

Winterfell

At long last, the wait of nearly two years is over. Last night, Game of Thrones fans eagerly received the beginning of the show's final, six-episode season. (And folks, this post is just straight up going to be SPOILER-filled. If you care about the show, you haven't watched it yet, and you're on the internet today, you are playing with fire.)

Centered in Winterfell (it's in the title), the episode mostly dealt with the arrival of Daenerys and Jon Snow, and the friction it created with Sansa. All the while, the threat of the undead army marched ever closer.

I feel as though some will complain of this episode that the plot progressed only incrementally. I myself was quite happy at the pace. The well-drawn characters have always been the greatest strength of the show (and the books). It's because of that that you care when they experience hardship, or are suddenly killed off, or what have you. Yes, there's a lot of plot ground to cover in the few remaining installments. But if the show doesn't spend a good amount of the time left on the characters, then what's the point?

In that respect, the episode hit every beat you'd want it to. Reunions were key, with characters coming back together who haven't seen each other in years -- or, in some cases, since the very first season. Arya in particular had a lot of the reunions that you knew would be fun to see, and they were: Jon cluelessly asking if she's had a chance to use the sword he gave her, playful taunts with Gendry, and not-so-playful taunts with the Hound.

But while the Arya scenes might have been among the more anticipated in the episode, they were not the most potent. Setting aside the episode's final moment, a powerfully silent reunion between Bran and Jaime (that had been cleverly foreshadowed with earlier Bran creepiness), I'd say the most effective reunion was the one between Sansa and Tyrion. Of all the trials that all the characters have experienced, a compelling case could be made that Sansa has changed most in the last few years. She's certainly not the same as when Tyrion last saw her. She's studied at the University of Littlefinger (and supplanted the teacher), and it was quite the transposition to now see her schooling Tyrion in the true motivations of power players. The scene showed us how smart Sansa is, as did her interactions with Daenerys -- we didn't just have to rely on Arya telling Jon about her savvy in a different scene.

The episode wasn't just about the re-unions, though; several important moments happened between characters meeting for the first time. (We did, after all, get to see pretty much every surviving character but Brienne, Melisandre, and Gilly.) Lyanna Mormont was once again a great element in the episode, serving as the belligerent face of the Stark bannermen, distrusting of the new Queen brought to them by Jon Snow. Qyburn and Bronn had an uncomfortable scene in which the latter was tasked to track down and kill Cersei's brothers. (But does anyone think he'd actually do that? Like, anyone, including Cersei?)

The most potent "first meeting" was that between Sam and Daenerys, a scene that started light but quickly turned dark when Sam learned his father and brother had died at her hands. This felt like a very important milepost in the grand scheme of what's left in the story, a subtle reminder of what I think it's been carefully building toward all along: Dany seems far more likely to me to be a villain than a hero when it's all done.

Of course, just because character was king in this episode doesn't mean some plot moves didn't happen. Theon rescued Yara from Euron. The dead were shown to be on the move toward Winterfell (in a truly creepy scene at Last Hearth). Plus, of course, the biggest scene: Jon Snow no longer knows nothing. Sam dropped the bombshell of his parentage on him. Though an important scene, I think it won't be nearly as impactful as the moment when Daenerys finds this out. Something to look forward to.

All of this, and a surprisingly different opening credits sequence too -- with just a couple of major locations worth showing, the clockwork map took us deeper inside those locations, after making clear the advancing undead army coming through the fallen Wall.

Though no one would likely hold this episode up as one of the best of the series, I found it a good and encouraging start to the final run. I give it a B+.

Gotta Hand It to You

A Game of Thrones: Hand of the King may be a ponderously titled game, but it's quite small in almost every other respect. It comes in a box barely more than palm sized, containing just a handful of tokens and around 50 cards of two sizes. It plays in about 20 minutes or less, taking 2-4 players.

A 6x6 grid of character cards are dealt onto the table. One is Varys, one of the two key puppet master characters in George R. R. Martin's epic series. The other 35 characters are unevenly divided into six different houses from the tale. The rules are simple. On your turn, you move the Varys card orthagonally as far you like, stopping on top of a different character. You claim that character card, removing it from the grid and putting it in front of you. You also claim any other characters from the same house that Varys passed over in reaching that new destination.

If you claim the final character of a house, you get a bonus: you choose from one of 6 smaller "unaffiliated" character cards. Each of these has game text, and you use it immediately before discarding it. (There are more than the 6 characters you need for a game, so replays afford different strategic options.)

Players take turns around the table, moving Varys, skipping over any empty holes left by prior moves, and claiming house characters. So long as you have the most characters from a house, that house is under your control and is worth 1 point. When Varys is out of legal moves (with no House characters orthagonally in line with him), the game ends, and the player with the most points wins.

It's a super breezy game that's easy to learn and fast to play. It was taught to me in about two minutes at this past GenCon, and we went on to play it several times each night of the con, as part of unwinding for the night. For what it aspires to, in the amount of time it takes, it's a super tight and fun little bit of design. Also worth noting, the illustration style is pretty great. These character likenesses are based on the book descriptions, not the HBO series, so they may not be quite what you're used to. But as many good caricature pieces do, they pack a great deal of personality into stripped down line work.

My one reservation about the game struck me on the last night we played at the con. It occurred to me that in every four player game we'd played, the player who went first won. Each player didn't get enough turns, with that many opponents, to make up for the strategic advantage of making the first move. At least, I think. I really thought about, trying to remember for sure if what I remembered was true. It had been for the two or three games we played that night, but I really couldn't say for sure on the nights prior.

If true, that's obviously a big black mark against this game -- basically telling you either not to take it seriously at all, or to never play with 4 players if you want it to be fair. Between this, and the fact that no one in my local circle of friends owns a copy, I haven't played it since GenCon. The game did stick with me though, and the game is cheap enough that buying a copy to test the hypothesis isn't unreasonable.

Provisionally, I'd give Hand of the King a B+, ignoring my reservations about the imbalance. My group is always moving onto new games, so I don't know if we'll ever move to this one (or stay there long). But perhaps if we do, I'll have an update down the road.

The Dragon and the Wolf

With its season 7 finale, Game of Thrones reached a pinnacle, a new level of delivering what it's been delivering throughout the season (particularly in the back half): moments that are satisfying because you've been waiting for them so long, yet also a bit hollow because the run-up to them has been truncated. I'll take it a step farther. Much of the finale, while making you cry "oh no!" or "oh yeah!" at your TV, didn't really make sense.

That didn't manifest right away. We began with the big peace conference at King's Landing, and because they allowed this episode to sprawl to 80 minutes, the sequence was given time to hit all the needed beats. All the needed "reunion" moments, specifically: Tyrion and Podrick, The Hound and Brienne, Tyrion and Bronn, The Hound and the Mountain, Theon and Euron, Brienne and Jaime... I don't think a single meaningful pairing was overlooked. There were other great character moments scattered throughout too; my favorite was Qyburn's very different reaction to the wight than everyone else, an eager curiosity. He wanted to immediately begin some sort of experimentation.

Jon Snow's gotta Jon Snow of course, and would rather forfeit everything than tell a lie. They sold this moment to us hard, enough so that I suppose I must believe that this is the choice the honorable-to-a-fault Snow would make. It's also the moment we have to have if people are later expected to fall in line behind him as their ultimate leader -- people need to know Jon would never, ever sell them out. But still, when Dany gives you the silent nod indicating it's okay for you to lie, when the safety of the entire world is on the line, when this is what you've been working for literally for years.... really, Jon Snow?

Like I said, it had to go this way, whether it was completely believable or not, not only to set up things next season, but also to set up a big confrontation between Cersei and Tyrion. It was a largely satisfying scene, but you had to explain for yourself why Cersei in fact didn't kill Tyrion when given a chance. I think it tracked because she didn't really want a battle with Daenerys and her allies right then and there, which she most assuredly would have had if she'd killed Tyrion. So Tyrion gets the satisfaction of thinking he's persuaded Cersei, and Cersei gets to do what Cersei does: lie to everyone about her intentions. (I suppose the fact she did so provided further narrative cover for Jon Snow's decision not to lie. We don't really want our hero to be like Cersei, do we?)

But then we get into much shakier territory as we head to Winterfell. Weeks ago, talking with a friend about the rift between Arya and Sansa and how rushed it seemed, he noted that many viewers had rallied around the notion that it was all a ruse to counter-ensnare Littlefinger. I scoffed, not because that seemed impossible, but because that reading of events was even less supported than the the rift between sisters. But that's exactly where we ended up.

Yes, it was satisfying to watch Littlefinger sqiurm and beg and finally feel out of control for a moment, satisfying to see him finally get his come-uppance for kicking off this entire sad series of events, and yet it simply made no sense. If Arya and Sansa were leading him on the entire time, then why the charade when he wasn't around to see it? If they figured out at some point that they were being misled, then what occurred to make them realize it? This entire plotline was staged for an audience, staged for a dramatic bang at the end, but didn't track at all from the perspectives of any of characters -- perhaps least of all Littlefinger himself, who really shouldn't have gone down so easily after all the masterful manipulations we've seen him pull off.

Jon Snow talked the spine back into Theon Greyjoy, who now heads off to rescue his sister from Euron... who we would later be told did not abandon Cersei. There again, a plot point that's hard to reconcile. Euron was just supposed to have invented a reason at the summit to walk out? It's not like either of them actually believed they'd see an actual wight, so what was the pretense going to have been originally? "Oh, I guess seeing you all actually here is too much for me! I'm out!" Euron and Cersei's plan only makes sense with events unfolding that neither could possibly have foreseen. Guess that's where all of Littlefinger's cleverness went.

Samwell returned to Winterfell for a meeting of the minds with creepy Bran, and all the threads were finally laid bare. Samwell hadn't ignored Gilly, it seems, and had heard about the marriage between Rhaegar and Lyanna. So Bran hit the search function on his third eye and confirmed Jon's -- Aegon's -- legitimacy and claim to the Iron Throne.... right as Dany was, uh, receiving several inches of Snow. I guess the story never ends. Maybe some day, we'll get Game of Thrones: The Next Generation, where the incestuous child of Cersei and Jaime struggles with the incestuous child of Dany and Jon. (Okay, probably not.)

The big, final scene of the season was the most "satisfying, yet illogical" scene of the all. The Wall finally came down, and the Walkers finally marched their army into the South. Yet as cool as the visual of an "ice dragon" is, I'm not sure that using ice to instantly shatter ice feels quite right. Then there's the fact that this is a calamity of the hero's own making. If Jon Snow's "capture a wight" plan hadn't been so woefully deficient that Dany had to sacrifice a dragon rescuing him, then the Night King would never have had a dragon in the first place to so easily get through the Wall. I mean, I'm not arguing for hindsight here -- I'm saying Jon Snow had NO plan, and here are the results.

So we're now all teed up for the final season, though we're told it could be until 2019 before it comes. We're definitely accelerating toward AN ending, which is more than George R.R. Martin is ever likely to give us. So on that level, I am satisfied. But as plot dominoes continue to fall out of expediency and not logic, the ride feels less compelling than it has before. I give the finale a B.