I may not write about Game Of Thrones here at HitFix, but that”s only because between Alan Sepinwall, Roth Cornet, and Donna Dickens, the show is already exhaustively covered. They do a great job of covering everything from the characters to the careful manipulations to the theories about the future, and they all clearly love the show.
Me, too. Every week during the show”s run, a close friend of mine comes over for the full Sunday night lineup on HBO. We watch Veep first, then Silicon Valley, saving Game Of Thrones for the dessert. While I liked the George R.R. Martin books, I love the show. Yes, things have been streamlined and shifted and consolidated, and if you prefer the books, I wish you well. But for me, the show has been an exercise in how to take a piece of material from one media to another, making strong decisive choices about what you find most interesting and exciting about the source material. David Benioff and D.B. Weiss grabbed hold of these books and these characters and they ran with them. It helps that they cast the show brilliantly, and now that they”re in the home stretch, there is an urgency to the storytelling that I find absolutely exhilarating.
One of the best things about the show is the way it portrays the subtle tides of power and the way various players in this game work to make things happen. Yes, it looks like the final chess board will feature exactly who I wanted to see in that final mix: Dany, Tyrion, Jon Snow, Cersei, the White Walkers… it”s going to be a hell of a collision, and the final images of this year”s final episode were the payoff for everything we”ve seen so far.
And who was right there over the shoulder of Daenerys?
The video above explores a fan theory that feels to me like a simple and obvious connection of dots. And that”s what I love. Lord Varys (the absolutely terrific Conleth Hill) may well be pulling strings behind the scenes, and those manipulations of his may well help get everyone moved into their current configuration. But his plans and the plans of others may simply coincide right now, with Varys still due for a rude awakening at some point soon. He”s in somewhat the same position as Littlefinger (the also absolutely terrific Aidan Gillen), whose plans are currently lined up with those of Sansa Stark (Sophie Turner, who really came into her own this season). I think Littlefinger is very happy about how things went at the end of the year, but I also think when the time comes, Sansa will happily have Littlefinger”s balls hung from the highest tower of Winterfell. Happily.
While that might not be the right way to threaten Varys, the point remains the same: he may be whispering in the ear of the eventual winner, but that doesn”t mean he”ll be there at the finish line. Is he the guy who wins Big Brother this season, or is he the last guy voted out of the house? How good is his game?
It”s a fun piece, and these conversations are exactly why I can”t wait for these next two short seasons and the big finish for what has become one of my favorite television experiences ever.
Game of Thrones returns in 2017, damn it.