Thursday, August 13, 2020

A wheelchair for a throne

One of the many, many complaints from the many, many people determined to tell everybody else how bad the final season of Game of Thrones was is all about the ultimate winner of the title game, and got to rule over the kingdoms of Westeros.

It was too arbitrary for many, and just too fucking silly even more. Making the crippled Bran Stark the king of all he surveyed was a terrific symbol for everything that was wrong with the story's end.

If you believed everything on the internet, it was just another little dollop of shit on a giant turd sandwich of a final season for Game of Thrones, but I thought it was a terrific solution to the dilemma of the Westeros monarchy, and not just because of the blatant symbolism of trading a throne made of melted-down iron for a sturdy and sophisticated wheelchair.

After a grieving dragon's destruction of the Iron Throne, reducing it to slag, it couldn't be clearer that the system of hereditary monarchy had to be broken, and something new had to be tried. Nobody would go as far as democracy, but something new.

And giving the throne to someone who has absolutely no interest in ruling, and is little more than a figurehead, was the best way to go. You could certainly do worse than give it to someone that can make final decisions based on cold rationality and certainty because of his access to all of time and space. It'll probably all go to hell in 50 years, but 50 years of peace in the land is a lifetime for many.
 
Sure, bran has that creepy soul-crushing stare, and the monotone of the truly bored, but the throne is gone and the wheelchair rolls on.

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