Game of Thrones - The Bells
Game of thrones - the bells
WHY PEOPLE HATED IT AND HOW IT COULD BE IMPROVED
In Episode 4 of the final season of Game of Thrones, Dany is en route to Kings Landing when one of her two remaining dragons, Rheagal, is killed by a number of perfectly-aimed scorpion (ballista) bolts fired from the decks of the Iron Fleet. Dany turns to attack, but is quickly overwhelmed by the sheer number of bolts being fired, barely dodging them. She chooses to flee rather than risk her only remaining dragon, Drogon. In the following scenes we find out that Dany’s target, King’s Landing, has scorpions topping all of the towers of the city.
After the show aired, the general consensus of audiences was: "Scorpions/ballistas kill dragons super easily and there are like 50 of them! Dany's dragon is useless now! How are we going to get around this?"
In the face of these seemingly insurmountable odds, theories arose, predicting that Dany would craft a giant suit of armor to protect her dragon. It was an absurd idea, but to some it seemed to be the only way forward.
Then Episode 5, The Bells, aired. At the start of the battle, Dany flies up above the clouds, using the blazing sun to protect her and Drogon on their initial attack. She dives and destroys a few ships in the Iron Fleet. She then proceeds to destroy the remaining ~50 ships, taking multiple attack runs. In this battle, the scorpions seem to have lost all ability to aim. They also now seem to take forever to reload (which didn’t seem to be a problem in Episode 4). Dany proceeds to King’s Landing and easily dispatches all of the scorpions on the city walls.
This sudden ability to overcome a seemingly insurmountable obstacle left many audience members feeling confused and cheated.
SOMETIMES TWISTS AND SURPRISES AREN’T A GOOD THING--THEY’RE JUST BAD WRITING.
There’s a reason people were predicting a dragon suit of armor and no one was predicting “Dany will fly down from in front of the sun and then torch all of the Iron Fleet and then destroy all of the ballistas with Drogon easily!” No one was predicting that outcome because it didn’t make sense given what the story had shown us.
If characters are facing an obstacle, and that obstacle has vulnerabilities that will eventually be exploited, you have to let the audience know about the vulnerabilities beforehand. You can't conveniently change the effectiveness of an enemy’s weapon in order to suit the plot.
Some defenders of the scene have pointed out that Dany had time to learn from her initial encounter with the scorpions. She could have figured out their weaknesses and exploited them.
This makes some sense. The problem is that, while it is plausible, it was not shown. There was no scene discussing battle tactics or showing her practicing attacking with Drogon. If there was a discussion of battle tactics, or a dragon montage, audiences wouldn’t have had an issue with Dany avoiding the scorpions. Unfortunately, the show runners didn't take the time. As a result, audiences didn’t feel rewarded by having Dany destroy all the scorpions; they felt betrayed.
now DANY DECIDES TO KILL THOUSANDS OF INNOCENT PEOPLE
The same problem can be found in Dany’s choice to burn down the city and kill thousands of innocent people.
No one predicted that would happen. Yes, people predicted that Dany was going a bit crazy and they were worried about her character. Within the confines of the show, Tyrion and Varys were concerned Dany was going to do whatever it took to win the throne. They thought she might burn the city to the ground, killing innocents, in order to win. Sansa also had concerns about Dany, but she was concerned that Dany was using Jon and that she was in the way of the success of her family. Sansa had no reason to suspect Dany was a tyrant, and never hinted at that being the case.
No one was worried that Dany would win easily and then decide to burn the city to the ground and kill innocents afterward. She has never, throughout being tried and tested for 7 seasons, killed indiscriminately and without cause. Yes, she talked about fire and blood, and yes she had crucified slavers, but she had never killed innocents. That was drastically out of character.
BUT SHE WENT CRAZY, RIGHT?
So maybe Dany went crazy? Maybe she hated the people of King’s Landing for not loving her? Maybe seeing her victory come so easily, after all she had done, she couldn’t take the thought of allowing them to surrender?
Sure. Maybe.
Unfortunately, that was not clearly conveyed. When Dany was sitting up on that wall, looking out over King’s Landing with the bells of surrender ringing, suddenly losing her shit, the viewer could only ask themselves two questions:
Who does she have cause to hate?
What does she want?
The answers seemed obvious:
She hates Cersei for killing Missandei.
She wants to rule the Seven Kingdoms.
Yet in her defining moment Dany decides to ignore the Red Keep and her chance at vengeance and burn the capitol to the ground, killing her future subjects. Based on what we were shown, we couldn’t have predicted her actions. They didn’t make sense.
Yes, we were given baggy eyes and a single line on “Let it be fear”--but those things do not convey the type of madness or hate toward a populace that would be needed to slaughter thousands of innocent people and burn the capitol to the ground. Dany’s descent felt rushed and forced. Despite the show hitting us with selective flashbacks and voice over talking about how half of Targaryen’s are crazy, many of us were Not Sold.
WE GET IT, IT SUCKED. HOW COULD YOU FIX IT?
The sad thing is, this could have easily been fixed. Earlier in the episode, in her conversation with Grey Worm, Dany could have said something like the following:
"Jorah warned me about landing on these shores with foreign armies; strange warriors from a strange land. He told me the people would see me as a conqueror, not a ruler... I didn't believe him. I thought I could change that, that I would show them. But the people don't care, do they? They don't care what Cersei has done or who saved then from the eternal night."
A conversation like this would have moved the cross-hairs off of Cersei and onto the population of Westeros. But instead we were forced to watch a character who had proven herself time and time again over the course of 7 seasons inexplicably slaughter thousands of innocent people. We were supposed to believe her actions were explained by one vague comment and a few troubled looks.
As a writer you want the audience to figure out the resolution of your story just before it happens. This is the recipe for peak satisfaction, allowing the audience to feel smart, but keeping them compelled to watch up until the last moment. Endings should feel surprising, but inevitable. In Game of Thrones season 8, Episode 5 the climactic points were definitely surprising, but they didn’t feel inevitable. They felt unpredictable. And the audience has responded accordingly.
