Game of Thrones Season 8 Episode 5: The Bells

By Nick on

About Nick

Founder and co-host of Cast of Thrones. Say hello on twitter. @rbristow

 

What an episode. Cinematic-ally flawless! Everything else…well not so much. This seemed to be a turning point for hardcore fans of the show. People are not happy about Danny and her turn to the darkside. We get into it, we get into it hard. Buckle up people. This one’s tough.

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The coHosts- Nick Bristow, Michael DiMauro, Tim Lanning, Jennifer Cheek

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9 comments

  1. Daenerys: “I will take what is mine with fire and blood”
    GOT Fans: “Ya! Burn it all Khaleesi!”
    Daenerys: *Burns it all*
    GOT Fans: “No, not like that”

  2. Dany absolutely kills unarmed prisoners that she has no idea whether or not they’re guilty. Hizdahr’s father as well as feeding a random master to Rhaegal and Viserion.

    Mirri Maz Durr was an unarmed prisoner that did nothing wrong (not a troll, she was a hero to eliminate Drogo).

    Plus, her whole goal of invading Westeros because of her birthright is evil.

    But yeah, agree with Tim that the turn was so fast and poorly done, but hard disagree that it was a character assassination or anything.

  3. Great discussion. But y’all have got to talk to Jennifer about cutting people off. It was hard not to get annoyed with the side stories about Jenn’s mom when someone was trying to make a point or cutting in to jump ahead of the topic. Her excitement comes across as very rude.

  4. overall, i totally agree that D&D just had Martin’s bulletpoint list and didn’t succeed in moving us between those points. i don’t even think they really tried. this episode felt like we were finally getting GRRM’s bullets, but that they got us there by drunkenly crashing through people’s yards and plowing down structures instead of taking a winding road that was laid out if they’d bothered to look.

    a couple of individual thoughts, though.

    i think Varys wanted to get caught. he confronted Dany last episode and the answer he got was pretty terrifying. he realized she was too far-gone to see reason, and that a LOT of innocents were going to die for it. he knew he could try to back Jon, but probably also knew Jon wouldn’t betray Dany, and certainly wouldn’t betray her quickly enough. he realized he’d helped yet another bad monarch rise to power and was about to watch yet another batch of smallfolk suffer for it, so the best he could do was try to hatch a sabotage plan, knowing it would be his death, but that at least he died trying.

    The show is not paying me to fill in the deleted scenes and figure out what Martin intended, so the fact that I have to do it while watching is a major failure on their parts. i still can’t help doing it, though. so i feel at peace with this week’s scenes in terms of believing Martin will get us to them in a satisfying way.

    i don’t want to write crazy amounts on your comments section, but if you are interested, my take on why Dany did what she did (my comment should be the first one by following this link to a general reddit post): https://www.reddit.com/r/NobodyWinsTheThrone/comments/bnk8g7/s8e5_postepisode_discussion/enano4s?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x

    and why i actually liked the Valonqar ending more than the one i was rooting for: https://www.reddit.com/r/gameofthrones/comments/bom9lh/spoilers_in_defense_of_the_valonqar/

    lastly, Jennifer – will we be getting one final round of Wine, Women, and Westeros? i know they’ve done many of the women depressingly dirty, but those segments have always been one of my favorite episodes of your podcast season.

  5. Thank you so much for the shoutout! You are my favorite podcast by a mile and hearing my name get unexpectedly dropped by the one and only Timbo Stuff Lanning was a truly surreal moment that made my day! Good thing I wasn’t driving or I’d be commenting from beyond the grave. And boy, what an honor to get a shout on on this particular episode. Y’all were so on point this week, with a delicate balance between rage, apathy, and laughter. I’m not being sarcastic when I say I will miss taking these donkey rides with the four of you more than I’ll miss the actual show. Tim, don’t worry. I’ve been right with you on that “maybe Jaime will finally do what he’s supposed to do” wagon since about 2014, so other “Zack types”, as you so eloquently put it, are united in our rage. It sucks that it’s come down to this, but to hell with it. At least I got an on-air shoutout from the good folks at Cast of Thrones. Of course, I wouldn’t be a proper nerd if I didn’t nitpick one tiny thing. Torgo Nudho means “Grey Worm” in Valyrian. It’s what he introduced himself as in season 3 and Missandei called him that as kind of a pet name from time to time. Whatever though. Who gives a shit? The other 99% of the cast was incredible and amazing and a whole slew of other positive superlatives. RIP Harry Strickland. Jennifer’s mom barely got a chance to know him. 🙁 It’ll be a bittersweet donkey ride into the sunset next week. Y’all are the best!

  6. Oh my fucking god.
    When this season came out I was so excited and very apprehensive about it after the last several seasons and the nose dive in writing quality.

    I’m a huge fan of the books and the show.
    A couple years ago I started another watch through so i could listen to all of Cast of Thrones after listening to Greetings, Adventurers several times.
    And then I wanted to hear your thoughts on the books so I read the books again along with your book clubs.

    I finished just before meeting my fiance. My poor fiance has heard me talk about game of thrones theories and just lore for countless hours for months. She had never seen the show or read the books and I was working too many hours to watch the new season without her because im not going to not spent my 3 hours after work and before going to bed with her.

    And oh my god. I kept telling her how dog shit the writing was now and just apologizing to her for making her watch this with me. It must have broke her heart to see just how disappointed I was with the season.

    Bless her heart though. She kept telling me she knows what its like for a show to be ruined for you and I couldnt say anything but “not like this”.

    I cant tell you how grateful i am that ive had your show to connect with through this journey of a song of ice and fire.
    The last few months i didnt have an opportunity to keep up with any podcasts and now that I do have the time, it feels like I’m reconnecting with old friends.

    This episode is giving voice to feelings that I couldnt articulate past shrill shrieks and incoherant babbling. This show was such an utter disappointment but i feel just as close to the hosts as ever.

    Someday my fiance and I will make it to Geekly con.
    Im looking forward to meeting you guys.

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