Game of Thrones script explains away the dumbest part of the finale

Ask most anyone who watched the final season of Game of Thrones, regardless of whether they were passionate viewers, and they will readily point out the same uncharacteristically laughable problems with both characters and plot. To the surprise of many, the final episodes of the HBO drama were nominated for a record 32 Emmy Awards, […]

Ask most anyone who watched the final season of Game of Thrones, regardless of whether they were passionate viewers, and they will readily point out the same uncharacteristically laughable problems with both characters and plot. To the surprise of many, the final episodes of the HBO drama were nominated for a record 32 Emmy Awards, including for Outstanding Writing. Now that the finale’s script has been released online, fans are free to take a closer look at that inglorious farewell episode.

Game of Thrones devotees will undoubtedly point out several narrative goofs, such as Arya trying to warn Jon about Daenerys by telling him, “I know a killer when I see one,” as if no one else noticed the Mother of Dragons immolate a substantial portion of King’s Landing’s populace. Thanks Arya. There’s also the matter of Drogon melting the Iron Throne, seemingly displaying a sudden — and laughable — awareness of symbolism and human politics, and the role it played in the death of Daenerys.

That heavy-handed scene left viewers to wonder whether dragons were far more magically gifted than previously thought, or if it was just an instance of clumsy storytelling. Written by showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, the script does offer something of an answer, although fans shouldn’t expect to be any more satisfied with the ending.

In that pivotal scene, the script reads, “We look over Jon’s shoulder as the fire sweeps toward the throne — not the target of Drogon’s wrath, just a dumb bystander caught up in the conflagration.” There you have it. The script goes on to explain that Drogon really just intended to blast the back wall in anger, as he found himself unable to destroy Jon Snow. The throne didn’t matter to the dragon at all. It wasn’t that Drogon grasped the concept of human greed or the complex structure of medieval society, or that he realized the coveted Iron Throne was the crux of a bloody and violent wheel. That bizarre turn of events was little more than coincidence.

Let’s be fair. Writing a script of any kind is a difficult task. Writing 73 episodes for a television adaptation of a monster-sized series of fantasy novels is a daunting task and the writers — not only Weiss and Benioff, but Vanessa Taylor, Bryan Cogman and Dave Hill, among others — should be given credit for creating what was undeniably one of the most enjoyable series on television for a time.

No matter how well-written a scene is in the script, because this is a TV series we’re talking about, it must be conveyed visually and in such a way it can be interpreted by the audience as the writers intended. This one scene is a great example of how things can go wrong in the process.

It could easily have been the case that the show chose to focus too heavily on the obvious symbolism, and in so doing, sacrificed any attempt at accurately communicating Drogon’s fury and its target in a way that felt organic. That much is actually evident in the script. There are multiple action lines that focus on the throne itself, “The fire stops. The smoke clears revealing a puddle of smouldering slag where the throne once stood” followed by, “who will sit on the Iron Throne? No one.”

Perhaps the strangest aspect of this scene is that the destruction of the throne itself ultimately didn’t impact Westeros in any meaningful way. There was still a king in the end, albeit one chosen by the oligarchy. It’s still up to the viewers to determine what the throne and its destruction actually represented, if not a flawed and unjust hierarchy.

Clearly, the textual explanation does very little to make that scene any less absurd, and disgruntled fans will continue to be disgruntled at the slightest mention of Season 8. Along with the Iron Throne, the show managed to incinerate much of the passion that glued viewers to screens for eight years.

Source: CBR.com