[rating=7.00] “The Dance of Dragons”
“They hurt little girls everywhere in the world,” Cersei told Prince Oberyn last season, all too knowingly. Now, being said in season four, it stands a testament to the last days when Game of Thrones revelled in its own subtlety and nuance, which has been forgone in favor of an assembly-line style unraveling of adventure tropes at best (however effective they may be), and a boorish imitation of itself at worst throughout season five.
“If we can’t march forward and you won’t march back…”
Stannis’ march to Winterfell, and eventually King’s Landing, is slowed to a near crawl by the weather, as well as low on both food and moral, which is made worse when the camp is attacked in the night by Ramsay and the twenty men he’d asked for prior.
Completely out of options, as Stannis stares at his war map seeing no conceivable way out, he sends Daavos, his voice of reason, back to the wall for reinforcements. Not wanting to leave any chance of overlooked subtlety, he visits Stannis’ daughter, Shireen. She tells him of the book she’s reading, The Dance of Dragons (both an acknowledgement of the episode’s title and a foreshadowing to its final sequence), while he expresses his gratitude for pushing him into learning to read.
Given the earnest sentimentality, it becomes increasingly obvious what Stannis intends, right up to his asking her what she’d be willing to do to ensure his father’s (assumed) right to sit on the Iron Throne.
Over the course of five seasons, numerous injustices done to beloved characters, innocent bystanders and nearly everyone in between. However, leading a young girl to be burned alive at a sacrificial altar (by a smirking Melisandre, no less), will definitely be remembered as one of its most difficult-to-watch moments. It also singularly pissed off the internet to the point where one has to wonder if this is was a blatant attempt to cause any viewers still rooting for Stannis to be hastily cast off forcing viewers to align themselves with Daenerys, as the two remain the lone competitors for the Iron Throne.
“You have a good heart, Jon Snow. It’ll get us all killed.”
An unusually complimentary remark for Alliser to make, let alone to Jon Snow, Lord Commander or not, the Night’s Watch gathers around strictly to scorn and mean-mug Jon for leading them through the gates they’d protected for so many years. Little else is made of this significant moment, as the last time Wildlings stood at the gates of The Wall, in the previous season’s ninth episode, the stakes were very different.
“The word of the Kingslayer.”
The plotline in Dorne comes together as Doran (the most lazily named character in Game of Thrones canon so far) proves his eloquence and diplomacy as a leader. He offers a toast to King Tommen and seems to set up a plotline for next season by allowing Myrcella to return to King’s Landing, but with Trystane in tow to replace Oberyn’s seat on the small council. Jamie even manages to spring Bronn from his cell, as the scene ends with all the couth and refinement of your average Monty Python sketch. Fitting for how clumsy and utterly out of place the entire Dorne storyline has felt.
“All those bets you won bought you THIS!”
In case the drawn-out sequence of Arya not being able to throw her beloved sword into the bay of Braavos earlier this season wasn’t clear enough, she’s not having the easiest time becoming “no one.” Enter Meryn Trant, one of Arya’s staples in her long-recited death prayer showing up conveniently within her periphery just in time to upset her in-progress assassination and she’s suddenly reverted into her vengeance-minded younger self, though with the means to do something about it this time.
Of course, already having plenty of reasons to despise Meryn Trant, the show feels it necessary to double-down on his malicious personality by showing him scoff at any reasonable aged girl in a brothel, before grabbing a child by the arm and insisting to the Madam she’ll “have another” for him tomorrow. Arya, in the meantime, assesses the situation best she can at the expense of her duties given to her by Jaqen.
“My father would’ve liked you.”
The final sequence, the grand re-opening of the great fighting pits with Daenerys’ begrudging approval, Jorah once again appears in combat, clearly willing to stop at nothing to serve his queen. Once he emerges victorious, the crowd boos and heckles loudly over his victory, he lunges a spear forward, hitting a masked member of The Sons of the Harpy who was frighteningly close to killing Daenerys.
Putting this shocking, and not ineffective moment, aside for a moment, it’s worth noting, again, how COMPLETELY ineffective are The Unsullied as an army that they not only let this little slip-up by, but are completely overtaken by the swarms of the Sons of the Harpy teeming from the crowd. Granted, they have a certain element of surprise, but it seems like hardened warriors who’d spent their entire lives training would’ve been able to overcome some unarmored noblemen wearing gold masks, for crying out loud.
Anyway.
After several seconds of coordinated chaos, including several shots from the pit showing Daenerys’ back turned and woefully unprotected, Jorah is theme-song-inducingly brought back into the fold when he offers her a path to safety (again, her back was turned to an ARENA FULL of people trying to assassinate her). She smiles, takes his hand, and the audience is supposed to overlook the fact that Jorah likely just infected her with greyscale.
Once Daenerys, Jorah, Daario, Missandei, and Tyrion are backed into the center of the pit, surrounded on all sides with what few members of The Unsullied remain (again: Worst. Army. Ever), The Sons of the Harpy suddenly feel compelled to only attack one at a time, which allows them to be held at bay long enough for Daenerys to grab Missandei’s hand, and close her eyes to anticipate her death before Drogon manages to show up at the last second to seemingly save the day.
It is indeed a grand, majestic sequence, a culmination of many plotlines and years worth of eager anticipation as Drogon savagely protects his mother by any employable means necessary, which for a dragon means mostly burning and occasionally dismembering. Unfortunately, the scene overstays its welcome, as Drogon stays grounded, appearing to be almost overpowered by the Sons of the Harpy.
The chaos of all the fighting and killing quiets down just enough for Daenerys to have a long, forlorn look into her dragon’s face before mounting him. She then takes off like she’s riding fucking Falcor, using the best CG that 1970s cinema had to offer. The final shot of her soaring off into the distance was still a gratifying one, if you’re willing to overlook the fact that she just left her only trusted allies in an arena overflowing with their masked enemies.
With her other two dragon’s remaining chained in the pits, though presumably not for long, it seems as if the severity of rule once again wins out over diplomacy, and if she is to hold on to her increasingly wavering rule over Meereen, she will need all three to do so.
