Sunday’s Game of Thrones finale ended dramatically, capping off another action packed season. With more deaths and naturally, more talking points, here are some thoughts and takeaways on “Mother’s Mercy.”
Myrcella Baratheon’s tragic death
Based on Cersei’s prophecy from Maggy the Frog, we always suspected the death of Myrcella would be upon us soon but the timing was tragic. Having appeared to have made up with Ellaria Sand, she sets off for King’s Landing along with Trystane Martell, Bronn and Jaime.
On the voyage, we see Jaime and Myrcella talking alone where he tells her just how lucky it is that the person she was to wed, was a person she loved. Jaime’s trying to get the point across that you don’t choose who you love and Myrcella immediately understands and confronts him.
She knows that he’s her father. And she had no problem whatsoever with it. They hug with Jaime truly connecting with his own offspring for the first time until Myrcella’s nose starts to bleed and we assume she’s dead as she falls to the ground.
We learn that this was the work of Ellaria, who still doesn’t see that Myrcella had nothing to do with Oberyn’s death. And so, the Dorne story this season ended in an ironic twist where they do indeed kill children.
Battle of…five minutes?
The Battle of Winterfell was one of the big anticipations of this season. Just as Stannis is ready to start with the proceedings, he learns that half his army deserted him after seeing Shireen burnt alive. Then, he learns that his wife hung herself out of guilt. Then as he proceeds to Winterfell, he gets surrounded by a huge army – quite clearly not his day.
But just as the swords are drawn, the epic Battle of Winterfell is over in within five minutes? We cut to Stannis struggling in the woods, just about killing two soldiers before sitting near a tree where he comes face to face with Brienne, the one person who hates his guts. He seems resigned to his fate as Brienne asks if he has any last words.
“Do your duty.” Not only are those badass last words but even as Brienne swung her sword afterwards, right when Stannis said that, her facial expression changed. It’s as if those words reminded her that her duty was to protect Sansa, not kill Stannis.
And this is why I think Stannis is still alive. Every major character’s death is shown and for a character as central to the plot like Stannis, if he’s going to die, we definitely will be seeing it and not be left with a cliffhanger.
Meanwhile, Ramsay is still alive and well. Where was he when Stannis was surrounded? Do bad things ever happen to Boltons? Regardless, the fact that this battle was anything but a battle was a huge disappointment.
Cersei’s atonement
I thought this scene was done to perfection. As she started walking through King’s Landing, naked and ashamed, you could see that she was doing whatever she could to hold in her humiliation.
At one point, I thought she taking it extremely well but gradually, you could see her slowly collapse emotionally and why not? People are saying all sorts of vulgar things to her, throwing shit, spitting on her and what not.
Given how we’ve been used to seeing Cersei, it was very shocking to see her in this predicament at all. As she sees the gates and the atomenment comes to an end, the emotions come pouring out as she’s consoled by Maester Qyburn as Kevan Lannister and company watch on. Just wait until she finds out what happened to her only daughter.
Qyburn then introduces what seems to be Ser Robert Strong – or the newly revamped Mountain if you didn’t guess it. Notice those creepy eyes? He’ll definitely come handy in a not so far trial.
It was coming. We all saw it but Jon Snow is dead. In the books, it was a bit of a cliffhanger as to whether he was really dead but given the brutal way he was stabbed by Alliser Thorne and company, there’s no doubt in my mind that Jon is dead.
But that doesn’t mean his role in the story is over. He’s not warging into Ghost but notice how Melisandre took a deep rooted interested in Jon? Well, she’s back at Castle Black, having presumably lost Stannis and with the powers of R’hllor, she’s surely going to resurrect him now, right?
I’d be very surprised if this is the end of Jon, especially considering Sam’s foreshadowing of “Jon always comes back” in “Hardhome” along with the fact that his true parentage hasn’t been revealed yet. My only question is where were the Wildlings at the time?
Other points
I really enjoyed Arya’s revenge over Meryn Trant. It was definitely one of the more brutal kills of the series but he completely deserved it. And Arya’s punishment for taking the wrong life resulted in her becoming blind ended her Season Five story on a definitely more interesting note when you compare it to the rest of the season.
Reek finally manning up and helping Sansa escape was also an interesting plot point, especially as it involved the death of Myranda. We may actually see Ramsay freak out for once.
Tyrion’s lines were great as always and his new role as governor of Meereen will certainly be something to look out for if it lasts long.
All in all, I might be in the minority but Oberyn aside, I really enjoyed Season Five, considerably more than Four. We got to see so many things that never happened in the books and those last 20 minutes of Hardhome were an absolute masterpiece. Here’s hoping for a successful Season Six.
