Game of Thrones season finale spoiler-free review: The Winds of Winter
The Winds of Winter was an engrossing, brilliant and emotional hour of the best kind of TV out there but am I ready to forgive it for eight episodes of a plot with enough holes to put Swiss cheese to shame?
You know how a lazy employee starts working extra hard around appraisal season so as to not get kicked out for another year? I hope you understand what I am getting at with this analogy. In case you didn’t, that’s what the finale of Game of Throne (GoT)’s sixth season felt like.
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Sure, The Winds of Winter was an engrossing, brilliant and emotional watch of the best kind of TV out there. But am I ready to forgive the series for eight episodes of a season that had enough holes to put Swiss cheese to shame? Honestly, I don’t want to, however, my adrenaline spike after this episode demands that I do.
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This is what happens every time.
You are made to wade and wade through the Dothraki Sea and then are given some dragons at the end of the season. Suddenly, behold, you are bound for life... or until the next season at least. You are made you sit through Lady Olenna’s tea sessions but then Jon Snow is killed. How do you imagine getting out now? You suffer through Tyrion’s confidence building classes with Missandei and Grey Worm but then a Battle of The Bastards makes you count your every breath, waiting for spring 2017.
I hope things will be very different in season seven.
In this season finale, not a lot of unexpected things happen, if you’ve been reading your fair share of fan theories that is. But if you have managed to steer clear of them, then oh, boy! I wish I could be you for an hour and live this episode again. All the separate story threads, which so far drifted apart on their own, finally weave together to become a picture you begin to perceive as a whole. Characters come together and play a vital part in other story lines, and we’re all the more happy for it.
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I don’t imagine that there is any episode that ever fitted as many parallel stories in one episode. We get our last goodbyes from King’s Landing, Dorne, Mereen, Winterfell, Riverrun, Oldtown and The Wall. And even with all these stories clubbed in a single episode, it doesn’t seem chaotic or confusing. Each goodbye holds its own strength.
I know I said a lot of fan theories are proven right, but the cat is not entirely out of the bag.
The powers-that-be (creators David Benioff and DB Weiss) make sure that there is still enough room to toy with our emotions if the need were ever to arise. Which is a good thing, really. You don’t want to be a know-it-all when it comes to the Game of Thrones (since when has that been a GoT thing anyway?)
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A special mention must be made here for Ramin Djawadi, the music composer behind GoT’s background score. Winds of Winter will go down as the episode with the best music ever in GoT history; Djawadi gives everything he has got in this one.
If at any point you forget that this was a season finale, the music brings the reality with such gravity. The entire episode sounds like a dream, but that piano piece in King’s Landing will ring in your ears for a while.
With the curtains down on season six, I’ve realised how much it made me hate the show — what with the slow trudge from episode one to eight. But Benioff and Weiss proved why GoT is worth the wait in the last two episodes. Now season 7 cannot come any sooner.
Sigh! I hate how much I love you, Game of Thrones. I hate it so much.
Follow the writer on Twitter: @soumya1405
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