Similar to how they’ve seemingly time-traveled through the last two seasons, it wouldn’t shock me if Game of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss used Bran’s apparent ability to do so as a reset-button in Westeros.
WARNING: MAJOR SPOILERS FOR ‘GAME OF THRONES’ SEASON 8 WILL FOLLOW AFTER THE GIFs.
Say what you will about the pacing and the writing of the final season (which has been, we’ll say, sub-standard), the precedent for Dany going full-throttle Targ on the innocent and unsuspecting people of King’s Landing was set long ago.
In season one, she put Mirri Maz Duur to the flame. In season two, she leaves Xaro Xhoan Daxos to starve and lays waste to the House of the Undying. In season three, she burnt Astapor and in season four, she crucified the Masters of Meeren, before burning the Meerenise nobleman the following season.
Not to mention more recent pre-Missandei post-head chop roastings such as Vaes Dothrak, the Lannister wagon train, and the Tarlys.
All of that is just an over-elaborate way of saying if you squint hard enough, you can live with Dany’s heel turn.
BUT, what does concern me about Dany’s full-blown descent into villainy is the reaction of one Bran Stark and what that means for the final chapter of this epic tale.
My man Bran, despite doing everything he could to help in the war against the Night King and the army of the dead, did approximately ZLICH to warn his older brother Jon that, hey, maybe your aunt that keeps wanting to bang you is actually a little nuts.
And unfortunately for all of us, Bran is far too powerful of a character to never been seen or heard from again, so trust me when I say, his presence will be felt in the finale, and I’m beginning to fear that intervention will involve some sort of reset.
Despite the realms of men defeating the messanic-like figure of the Night King, they still found a way to devolve into savagery and war, as it was routinely highlighted during various sections of “The Bells.”
Whether it be Dany’s genocidal death-by-fire, the Northern forces putting the Lannister men to the sword despite their clear surrender, the raping of women by the remaining Dothraki, or the 9/11 like ash that covered King’s Landing, Game of Thrones made sure to put a dragon-fire-lit spotlight on the true atrocities of men.
As to what exactly such a Bran-manufactured reset entails, I have no idea (to be fair, does anyone have any idea about this final season), but following the clear emphasis on the utter brutality and gore that can be caused by mankind in the series’ penultimate episode, I can’t help but draw the conclusion that the ultimate point of this story is: “humans, so bad we may be a worse option than the actual emissary of death”.
