Applauding Game of Thrones for an exciting run
Forget all of the whiners and complainers. HBO’s Game of Thrones series which is ending this week after nine years and eight seasons, has been fantastic and thrilling. There have been a few disappointments, like the rush to end the series in only six final episodes rather than 10. But the finale is living up to its hype and the final episode Sunday should be dramatic
By Ray Hanania
There is no doubt that Game of Thrones, the mega hit series on HBO, has been one of the best ongoing television series ever.
It has been difficult to follow because HBO only produces 10 episodes each season, which are usually one year long but went way past 19 months between this final season and last season.
But even a meagher 10 episodes a year has been thrilling.
It started out as a rumor among men, whispering qwith smiles of glee that the first season was filled with dramatic sex scenes with beautiful women. Lots of sex.
But once drawn in by the sex and beauty, the plot grabs hold and it’s very difficult not to want to see what happens the following year.
Game of Thrones is the product of creators D.B. Weiss and David Benioff off of the George R.R. Martin novels. It’s been brutal. One of the challenges is to accept the fact that in ancient times, governments were brutal. People were killed simply on suspicion, for rivalry and often for no reason. But Game of Thrones offered a very sophisticated plot involved the royal families in seven kingdoms that battle for power and prestige and positioning.
The series began on April 17, 2011, and th efinal season ends this week with the final Episode 6 of Season 8.
The pundits have been having a fieldday profiting off of Game of Thrones and its popularity among audiences. Season 8 Episode 5 drew more than 18 million viewers, which is huge. It would probably be a lot more but the truth is that not everyone subscribes to the cable TV giant, HBO, which charges a monthly subscription fee through your favorite cable TV system (XFinity/Comcast, AT&T or HBO direct).
Eventually, sex gave out to dragons for many men. We love dragons and the most beautiful princess, Daenerys Targarian, the last surviving daughter of the Mad King whose reign and death began the series plot nine years ago. Daenerys had three dragons who listent o her. And they are fierce firebreathing behemouths.
Sadly, two of the dragons are killed, one by a supernatural “Night King” who lords over the dead, an amry of zombies restored to life through his power. He’s dispatched pretty quickly in Season 8 Episode 3, but not until after killing one dragon at the end of Season 7 and raising it from the dead. But good prevails over evil and the zombie dragon is killed, leaving Daenrys with two dragons.
There arew only six espisodes int he final season, although several of the final are 80 minutes long. But that’s still not enough to create a logical sequence in love and war during the fictional ancient times.
The series is so popular it has produced a crop of journalism mimes in which writers have used the term Game of Thrones to descriube every political alliance and byzantine plot from Chicago to Washington D.C. It’s all cheap, of course. Really no talent if you ask me.
The bottom line comes down to whether or not good defeats evil or evil defeats good. I’m writing this as I approach days from the final episode on Sunday, May 19, 2019. Daenerys has survived. The vicious witch Cersie Lannister, and her incestful younger twin brother Jaime, appear tohave died, crushed under the stones of the collapsing and huge corridors of burial chambers. Daenerys 2nd dragon was killed rather ridiculously by th efiring of large metal arrows from giant crossbows called “scorpions” that according tot he laws of phsyics could not fire as fast as they are made to appear.
And one of her best friends is beheaded in spite by Queen Cersei as Daenerys and her armies demand her surrender before sacking King’s Landing, the seat of the crown of the seven kingdoms. Cersei ordered the hundreds of thousands of peasants to find shelter in the castle surroundings mainly believing it might protect her fromt he dragon’s fiery wrath. But that doesn’t happen. Daenerys goes berserk, like her father the “Mad King” and becomes the “Mad Queen” destroying the castles fortiifications with ease riding on her dragon and using his fire to incinerate everything, including women, children and the elderly.
Hey, they deserve it. No pitty from me. The public can’t blame their leaders when the public allows their leaders to hold power over them without even as much as a whimpering protest.
Corruption whether it is in a royal kingdom of a political Machine exists as a result of the weakness of the public’s tolerance for tyrrany.
I don’t know what’s going to happen. Many great characters have come and gone over the years. The creators have saved some of the most important in the final season for this last episode on Sunday.
My guess is Daenerys survives the byzantine plots and becomes the Mad Queen, bringing the series in a circle back to her father’s insane rule.
Regardless of who survives, I hope that the dragon, Drogon, is not killed. The dragon is the best part of the whole series.
In the fantasy world of Game of Thrones, people are expendable. Dragons are not.
(Ray Hanania is an award-winning former Chicago City Hall reporter. He writes a syndicated column published in the Southwest News Newspaper Group, the South Suburban News, and here at SuburbanChicagoland.com. Hanania’s personal website is www.Hanania.com. Email him at rghanania@gmail.com.)
Hanania also writes about Middle East issues for the Arab News, and The Arab Daily News criticizing government policies in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Hanania was named "Best Ethnic American Columnist" by the New America Media in November 2007, and is the 2009 recipient of the SPJ National Sigma Delta Chi Award for column writing.
Email Ray Hanania at rghanania@gmail.com.
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