Sacking The City In Lord of The Rings

Published May 13, 2019 · Updated July 6, 2022

Dear Lords of Shat On TV and my fellow Audience Members.

I understand that so much happened on this last episode ‘The Bells’ and no one can fully summarize, dissect, and unload everything in it, in such short time. But I will attempt to give you my thoughts and in depth analysis of three huge things that let down so many people, excluding myself.

1.) Clegane Bowl. The biggest one-on-one fight that fans have been crazed for ever since Robert Baratheon cut it short way back in season one. Fans wanted it, so the D’s gave it to us. I must be the only person saying this, but It was fantastic. Yes, let Cersei go and focus on the real battle. This is not a Hot Pie moment. The war is over, Cersei lost and Kings Landing is already burning. Focus on the task at hand, not politics. Maybe there was some ridiculous plot armor when he wrecks the other Queen’s Guard, but we wanted this fight and got it. And we all knew, including Sandor, that he was not going home before he even got back to Kings Landing. So when all hope was lost, and he was about to be Martell’ed, he ended the Mountain, and House Clegane by flying into the one thing he has feared most. Fire on Fire. He returned his debt, and now meets the Lord of Light.

2.) The Mad Queen. I can still remember my first time watching Season 6 Episode 10 when Cersei destroyed the Sept of Baylor in true Mad Queen Fashion, and thought that no one could ever be so evil. We all so deeply longed for Daenerys to come back and bring peace to the realm. Then she became the very thing she swore to destroy. She was once the liberator of whole city-states, freeing hundreds of thousands of people, and always looking for the innocence in every single person. Then she brought fire and blood. And it is not that she felt there was an ultimatum that wasn’t met, and was simply waiting for the bells. She lost herself in an insatiable rage for carnage at a magnitude not seen since the days of the Mad King. Echoes of her failed house to “Burn Them All” were ringing in here ear the moment Missande died. This was mirrored at a smaller scale when we see GreyWorm fall into a frenzy of blood lust with surrendering Lannister soldiers. It is obvious to see that most (if not all) characters in this show are shades of grey, but Dany and GreyWorm have lost any form of moral purity.

3.) Sacking the City. In Lord of the Rings the Return of the King, it is truly horrifying when the orcs break into Minas Tirith and start causing mayhem and destruction all over the city. But this episode gave an even darker look at the sacking of a city. The North Men. The ones who we have always known to be the good guys, ran into this city looking for blood, gold and rape. Then we saw the bad guys in Lannister gear protecting innocent people from falling debris. We saw a North Man try to kill Jon because he stopped him from taking a woman. Other northerners were killing innocent non-combatants. There aren’t shades of grey in this anymore. There are seriously evil people in these armies, and it makes me feel bleak to cheer for anyone. But that is also a testament to how amazing this writing is. People don’t know how to feel about the people we have been hating or loving for almost ten years.

4.) Golden Shroud. Cersei’s prophecy came full circle. And many are up in arms about it, not Jaime because he’s only got one and is under several metric tons of rubble. Am I really the only one who loved this? Jaime went from pushing kids from windows, killing kings and cousins, insulting everyone he possibly could, defying his father to a bitter end, to saving Brienne from a bear. He became loyal to a virtuous cause. He attempted to redeem himself in every way that he could, just to come to the realization that he can never love someone the way he loves Cersei, not even himself. Now, I understand the sentiment that people wanted a bloody awful death for Cersei, but she still met justice and you guys need to chill it with that yearning for the torment because it is slightly concerning.

lol I will send in more thoughts after the deep dive

Great job on the show, keep up the good work!

— Bryce

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