Game of Thrones Season 8 Episode 6 The Iron Throne

Game of Thrones (2011-2019)
Season 8 - 6 episodes (2019)

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Created by: David Benioff, D.B. Weiss
Starring: Emilia Clarke, Peter Dinklage, Kit Harington, Sophie Turner, Lena Headey, Maisie Williams, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau,  Gwendoline Christie 

Plot: 
HBO's fantasy drama series adapted from George R.R. Martin's book series A Song of Ice and Fire follows the civil war of kings and usurpers in Westeros who wish to sit on the throne. The ticking clock signaling the end are the undead White Walkers descending from the North. The scale and scope of the story is staggering, fully realized with a large ensemble cast.

This is the final season of the series, though HBO is planning a prequel series.

Review: Episode 6 - The Iron Throne
Daenerys certainly seems to be written on a path where she's unlikable, labeled crazy, and must be dispatched.

I'm guessing Arya might be involved in that. I'm also predicting Daenerys's actions at King's Landing will be the catalyst for Jon Snow to halt his unwavering loyalty to her as Queen. The city surrendered and Daenerys leveled it with dragon fire. A mystery party may also come forward about Jon, who knows.

This is it. This is the end of Game of Thrones. Some how it doesn't quite feel ready to conclude. There is a fair amount of story left, but this season has been very fast and this episode is poised to be another one that moves quickly.

That's my biggest complaint with this season, it just seems a bit quick. This is a show that made note of how long it took to travel and it built the characters between those moments. This season travel is instantaneous, and while I understand the plot needs to move, we've been robbed of these character building moments.

 I feel like the opening theme song visuals should be changed since King's Landing doesn't exist anymore.

Tyrion is walking through the rubble... and bodies. Tyrion knows what this implies. It's not a good way to start a rule in Westeros.

Tyrion is headed to the Red Keep alone, despite Jon's protests. Does Tyrion want to see if Jamie and Cersei made it out? It seems that way. He finds them, and as we saw in the previous episode, they didn't make it.

Grey Worm is sentencing people to death when Jon stops him. You can't kill prisoners.
Grey Worm states he is following orders of the Queen, kill all who follow Cersei. It's about to go down between Jon and Grey Worm when Davos intercedes. What does the Queen have to say?

Jon and Arya are making their way to the Red Keep, but they no longer seem welcome.
Daenerys is looking a bit more imposing dressed all in black.

Grey Worm is named Master of War. Does that mean she's not done with war? Apparently not, she's going to liberate everyone. The way she liberated King's Landing was killing everyone, so I think she may get some push back on that.

Daenerys states Tyrion freed his brother, an act of treason, but Tyrion replies she slaughtered a city. The play on words is plain. Tyrion relinquishes his role as Hand to the Queen. He's taken away, giving Jon a wistful look. This train is moving and I don't think talk is going to stop Daenerys.

Arya finds Jon and explains that Jon will always be a threat to Daenerys. Arya knows a killer when she sees one.

Jon visits Tyrion. Tyrion asks Jon if there is life after death, but Jon hasn't seen it. Tyrion is resolved to his fate. Jon states the war is over, but Daenerys didn't sound done fighting.

Jon's trying to defend her but Tyrion calls him out. Jon wouldn't have burned the city to the ground. While Daenerys has killed evil men before, King's Landing wasn't evil men.
Love and duty are at a crossroads.
Tyrion can't convince Jon to oppose his Queen. Tyrion points out Jon's sister's won't bow the knee. While Tyrion and Sansa can't choose who rules, Jon can.

Daenerys finally gets the Iron Throne. This has been her arc since the first season. She's joyous, but Jon isn't. He questions the fact soldiers are being executed and Daenerys claims it's necessary.
Daenerys claims she tried to make peace, but that's only half the story. The city fell and Daenerys didn't stop. Jon wants a world of mercy, but Daenerys plan seems to be to murder everyone and then start with mercy. That's not how mercy works.

Daenerys wants to build a new world with Jon. Jon claims she is his Queen... well now, that's a shocker. Jon stops her reign. How is Jon going to live through this when people figure it out?
What's the dragon going to do? Somehow it knows what happened, realizing the instant it happened.
That's the end of the Iron Throne. It's certainly symbolic if not a strange thing for the dragon to do. The dragon scoops Daenerys up and flies off. That might be the last we see of them.
Jon could have had it all, but did what he thought was best.

Tyrion is brought before the council. It consists of all the familiar faces, most of them last seen in Winterfell. Even someone from Dorne I believe. They're all the heads of the great houses. Some time has to have had past, but Grey Worm is the one that brought Tyrion, so what's the deal here? Jon is a prisoner and Grey Worm is ruling the city. Seemingly it's known what Jon did. I'm surprised they just kept him prisoner. The Unsullied will not free Jon. I find it hard to believe they haven't killed him already.

Tyrion is surprised a King or Queen hasn't already been named. All the most powerful people are present. The Black Fish begins to make a claim, but Sansa exerts her dominance.
Samwell proposes some kind of democracy. He's ridiculed for such a silly suggestion. It's odd to try and insert comic relief at this point.

Tyrion is asked his pick and he talks of the strength of stories. He suggests Bran, the one who keeps all of history to lead them into the future.
When Tyrion poses the question to Bran, Bran responds, "Why do you think I came all this way?"

Almost everyone is in agreement, except for Sansa who states the North will remain independent. It has a certain amount of symmetry. Bran is the one that started a lot of this when he stumbled upon Jamie and Cersei. Here he is as the King. It was the conquest of power that put Bran in that role.
Bran wants Tyrion as his hand. Bran doesn't want the kingship, Tyrion doesn't want to be hand, so it works.

The Unsullied want justice. Bran sends Jon to the Night's Watch. Another bit of symmetry. Jon ends where he began. That's a hard fate after all he's been through. I assume he'll be the commander, though there can't be many men left there.

Arya is heading West of Westeros, where all the maps stop.

Brienne writes the history of Ser Jamie Lannister. It's a history she'll never be a part of, though she is a King's Guard as Jamie was.

Samwell is a Maester. He presents Tyrion with a book, A Song of Ice and Fire. Davos and Bronn are on the small council. I'm guessing Brienne is the Captain of the Kingsguard. How did Bronn become the Master of Coin? They're rebuilding the city.

 

Jon is greeted by Tormund at the wall. Jon made it back North after all where he's also reunited with Ghost. Sansa is a queen, as she always wanted, but she took a much different path than she ever imagined. Arya sets sail West.

I wasn't disappointed with the finale. It wrapped up all the story lines and provided a few surprises too. This season just felt truncated, but as a capstone to the series it got us to the end which was it's job. I'm content with how things ended up, though I had a few gripes along the way. I watched this show weekly as it came out, and while I'd like to watch it all from the beginning now that I know how it ends, that's a tall order. If would be fun to watch the very first episode again since there was plenty of symmetry. This has been an intricate and demanding series with plenty of characters playing all kinds of games. Few series ever reach such epic proportions and manage to capture the pop culture spotlight as this did. For nine years I was captivated by the quest for the throne. On this day that story ended. Now I wonder, will the books ever conclude or is this all we'll ever get? If the books do conclude, I can't wait to see what changes.

The series was never really about who would sit on the throne, it was about the journey each of these characters endured and it was a many marvelous journey.