Game of Throne season 8, episode 6: Jon Snow’s fitting end in the war for the Iron Throne
Last week, after Daenerys completed her transition from a doe-eyed chain breaker to a fire-eyed mad queen, I asked a few questions. The most important question regarding Jon Snow and his relationship with Daenerys since the events of “The Bells”.
The Question:
Is Jon now going to be compelled to get closer to Daenerys so that he can calm her down or will he be compelled to overthrow her because he’s seen her destructive capabilities?
Spoilers ahead
It turns out, my theory of Jon having the power to change Daenerys was not completely incorrect. I stated that due to his inability to provide a physical representation of his love to her, she decided to choose fear instead of opting to use love to gain power.
Daenerys burned down King’s Landing and destroyed Cersei and Jamie Lannister in the process and also murdering women and children. But, that wasn’t enough for her.
In the opening moments of the episode, “The Iron Throne”, Daenerys promises both the Dothraki and Unsullied that the war is not over and that they will break the wheel of the world.
This prompted Tyrion denounced his hand of the throne title and having already betrayed Daenerys by freeing Jamie, he was taken prisoner. During his imprisonment, he told Jon that Daenerys had to be killed because she turned into a tyrant.
It was Tyrion’s words that compelled Jon to approach Daenerys and ask her to change her approach to world domination. Unfortunately, Daenerys’ words made it all too apparent that she would continue to kill innocent people on her climb to victory.
Jon once again professed that she was his queen and with a passionate kiss, he stabbed her in the heart.
Shame.
While Jon’s hesitation to be with Daenerys may have contributed to her going mad, he used that “power of love” to comfort her to her death. She was literally begging him AGAIN to be with her and he believed that things would only get worse so he ended her life.
Drogan, Daenerys’ remaining dragon, senses her death and flies to her aide. Instead of attacking Jon who is holding her dead body, he burns down the Iron Throne symbolizing how futile the fight over the throne really was.
I did not see this coming. It came so early in the episode and it was so unexpected. Plus you find out later in the episode that Jon doesn’t flee the country. He’s imprisoned by Grey Worm and the Unsullied for killing their queen.
I usually try not to criticize creative decisions. However, I’m surprised Grey Worm didn’t kill Jon on the spot. Jon killed Daenerys and Grey Worm has been mourning the loss of Missandei. I would think that alone would be enough to take Jon out on site. They didn’t even fight. But he stayed a prisoner until the ladies and lords of the seven kingdoms were called to a meeting.
Grey Worm actually played a huge role at the end of the story. He brought Tyrion to the meeting where Tyrion was able to suggest a form of democracy to determine a new king or queen for the seven kingdoms.
The group ended up choosing Bran the Broken as the new king because he holds the stories of their history. And judging by Brans comments that he only came to King’s Landing to be king, I’m thinking he saw this coming.
Even Sansa reluctantly gave her approval, though she and the North will stay an independent nation because we all know Sansa was not about to let the story end without being some sort of queen.
Another thing I did not see coming was Tyrion making it through Daenerys’ rather and becoming the hand to Bran the Broken. So Tyrion Lannister is now going to be an aide to the king once again. He’s the only Lannister that made it through the Game of Thrones.
The real victors of the Game of Thrones turned out to be the Starks. Sansa ends the series as Queen of the North because she won’t bend the knee even to her brother. Arya opts to head west of Westeros and discover the world. Bran is the king and he rules that Jon will go back to the Knights Watch as punishment for his crimes.
I guess it was fitting that Jon ends up where he’s most comfortable, back in the North. He’s reunited with Tormund and Ghost. To be honest, sending him to the Night’s Watch does not seem like much of a punishment because technically if the whole Night King situation hadn’t happened he would still be there anyway.
Honorable mention to Brienne of Tarth. She went out of her way to finish documenting Jamie Lannisters life in the White book of Names. The final words she wrote about him were that he died fighting for his queen. Grey Worm also took the Unsullied to Naath like he promised Missandei. I thought that was sweet.
And that’s it. Game of Thrones is over.
