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There are roughly a million things wrong with Game of Thrones's later seasons, which are seasons 5-8 and some major cracks were already popping up as early as Season 4. Usually you see the obvious complaints and justifiable complaints with theses. Several character plot threads were for a lack of a better word...bad (Sansa, Arya ,Jaime ,Stannis ,Sam,Tyrion, Brienne, Littlefinger, Varys..etc) Each of these have significant problems that only get worse the longer the show went on and this all stems from the fact that the writers not only changed some major things from the books but also failed to give sufficient enough justification story wise for these change. For a source material as complex and difficult to adapt as ASOIAF it becomes increasingly difficult to make any changes and not have the entire house of cards completely fall over. All of these changes bring MAJOR problems for the show and it results in a story that is falling apart rapidly. But here is one in particular that rarely gets talked about. It's Jon's Resurrection in season 6. Now maybe it does but i haven't exactly been lurking in any major forums GOT/ASOIAF forums lately.
So what's the problem? Well, for me it's the complete lack of meaningful set-up and a complete lack of consequence to Jon's death and his resurrection in the show. Now i won''t try to compare this to the books because Jon's resurrection, will presumably happen at some point, probobaly near the end of the Winds of Winter...which as all of you know hasn't even come out yet and has a higher than 0% chance of never coming out. So it's difficult if not impossible to compare. This still doesn't make the show's execution of this concept any easier to swallow as it's completely nonsensical. For the death of one of the central characters and for this to be a big enough event to be a season cliffhanger, even one as deeply flawed as season 5, the way this got resolved at the beginning of season 6 was almost enough for me to drop the show. Now lets be clear about something here. Everybody knew that Jon will get resurrected. By everyone i mean we the viewers, not the characters. If the writers wanted to surprise viewers then this was the worst kept secret in history and they have failed spectacularly as prior to the season 6 premier everyone and their dog as well as every unborn child knew, that Jon Snow will be brought back to life in season 6. That's how obvious this was and the writers had to have known that this was obvious. It's not the act itself that's bad but everything around it.
So Season 6 starts and Davos who has no affiliation with Jon runs out in the middle of the night and decides to put his corpse on a table. Why? Well i would really like to know the answer as well because there is literally no explanation given for why Davos suddenly cares about Jon or even what the hell is he even trying to accomplish here by risking his life for Jon's corpse. He gets help from a bunch of other members of the Night's Watch who also have practically zero reason to risk their lives defending Jon's corpse, because he is dead and as far as everyone in-universe should know at that point is that nothing could ever bring him back to life. If something could it would undoubtedly be a BIG DEAL. Anyway Thorne, Olly and a bunch of other Night's Watch members decided to go to war all over a corpse. If Thorne and the other Night's watch members were worried about something happening? to Jon while he was dead then they really should have buried his corpse or just burned it to prevent him from becoming a wight as soon as they killed him. Instead we get these nonsensical events that just leave me dying for an explanation.
So anyway after a bit of fighting Davos eventually goes to Melisandre who he somehow thinks that she could resurrect the dead despite never actually seeing this. Heck Melisandre never sees this act in the show herself. So why should or could she know how to bring Jon back from the dead? No explanation. If Davos somehow knew about this and Melisandre knew that she could do this then why on earth didn't she ever do this to bring back a number of Stannis's men who were killed? No explanation. Also was anyone else find it strange how Davos suddenly cares for Melisandre in these first few episodes, despite everything that happened between them in previous seasons or that he doesn't bother to ask her what exactly happened that lead Stannis and his entire army getting wiped out immediately but no, instead the priority here to Davos is getting Jon back to life Well short and to the point she does. HORRAY THIS IS THE BIGGEST DEAL IN THE ENTIRETY OF WESTEROS. EVERYONE MUST KNOW ABOUT THIS AND EVERY LIVING BEING SHOULD GET RIGHT TO THE POINT TO TALK ABOUT THIS AMAZING MIRA....oh wait... that's not what happens. Instead the entire thing plays out as more or less like a big shrug after the next episode. I mean yes, some characters comment on how weird it is but that's it. Jon isn't impacted by this in the slightest in fact he is exactly the same character as he was in season 5. His resurrection is so inconsequential that it might as well not have happened. Seriously i have never been more perplexed by a story development like this. It's like this type of thing happens every other week in this universe. The only reason this happened is because it was used as a flimsy excuse for Jon to be able to abandon the Night's Watch without technically breaking them. That's it. Other characters like Sansa later don't mention this or any of the other Northern Lords who should know about the fact that they are talking to a dead man. It comes across like a thing that the writers desperately try to sweep under the rug as soon as it has served it's plot purpose, never mind the fact that it breaks internal logic that nobody in-universe cares about this. Ramsay doesn't mention it. He is at-least the only one who brings up the fact that Jon deserted the Night's Watch. Which nobody else does and that leaves me to assume that everybody knows that Jon got killed and got resurrected but is not really interested in mentioning any of this or be at-least a little bit phased by this miraculous event.
Now to be fair to the show it did kind of , sort of set this up by introducing a character in the third season who was resurrected six times. However Beric Dondarrion was mentioned both in the books and the show to have been significantly impacted by being brought back. He is essential a completely different character post resurrection than he was pre eesurrection. It's still a mystery as to why only he got resurrected and why seemingly the Lord of Light tends to have favorites as pretty much no one in the show aside from Jon and Beric gets resurrected. This is different in the books as one other major character gets resurrected who could potentially play a role in answering these mysteries in the future books but that's neither here nor there but because the show has dropped this character and the show decided to ignore Beric for two entire seasons. It just comes across as contrived to bring Jon back in such a way. Melisandre never even sees how Beric got brought back to life, so that she suddenly knows how to bring Jon back is incredibly forced and she doesn't even do it in the same way. So am i now to assume that there are multiple ways to bring a character back from the dead?
Now George R R Martin has stated that he always disliked how Gandalf came back from the dead and became essentially more powerful once he became Gandalf the White.
Based on that quote it would seem like this entire thing was a massive misfire.
Jon's resurrection in the show is nothing more than a glorified power up. Everything goes his way until the end of the season without any cost from this event. It comes across like Jon has won the ultimate lottery in a sense. This goes against the spirit of the source material in pretty much every way and is in fact a "cheat". I cant even fathom why this was executed so awkwardly and without any real meaning. The writers just sweep this under the rug, because even they probobaly know how badly this was handled and don't want to deal with it. Imagine something as nonsensical like this happening in the earlier seasons and the show would have been dead in the water most likely. I used to be really annoyed with season 5 and some aspects of season 4 but the way this part in particular played out in season 6 broke the show for me. It was the moment i knew that it's no longer really good and it has only slipped more and more into schlock territory from there. By the time it ends i wonder what kind of reputation Game of Thrones will even have because right now it seems like the bad writing post season 3 has finally caught up with it judging by the more negative reaction to some of these newer episodes than usual.
Anyways i just had to vent for a bit.
So what's the problem? Well, for me it's the complete lack of meaningful set-up and a complete lack of consequence to Jon's death and his resurrection in the show. Now i won''t try to compare this to the books because Jon's resurrection, will presumably happen at some point, probobaly near the end of the Winds of Winter...which as all of you know hasn't even come out yet and has a higher than 0% chance of never coming out. So it's difficult if not impossible to compare. This still doesn't make the show's execution of this concept any easier to swallow as it's completely nonsensical. For the death of one of the central characters and for this to be a big enough event to be a season cliffhanger, even one as deeply flawed as season 5, the way this got resolved at the beginning of season 6 was almost enough for me to drop the show. Now lets be clear about something here. Everybody knew that Jon will get resurrected. By everyone i mean we the viewers, not the characters. If the writers wanted to surprise viewers then this was the worst kept secret in history and they have failed spectacularly as prior to the season 6 premier everyone and their dog as well as every unborn child knew, that Jon Snow will be brought back to life in season 6. That's how obvious this was and the writers had to have known that this was obvious. It's not the act itself that's bad but everything around it.
So Season 6 starts and Davos who has no affiliation with Jon runs out in the middle of the night and decides to put his corpse on a table. Why? Well i would really like to know the answer as well because there is literally no explanation given for why Davos suddenly cares about Jon or even what the hell is he even trying to accomplish here by risking his life for Jon's corpse. He gets help from a bunch of other members of the Night's Watch who also have practically zero reason to risk their lives defending Jon's corpse, because he is dead and as far as everyone in-universe should know at that point is that nothing could ever bring him back to life. If something could it would undoubtedly be a BIG DEAL. Anyway Thorne, Olly and a bunch of other Night's Watch members decided to go to war all over a corpse. If Thorne and the other Night's watch members were worried about something happening? to Jon while he was dead then they really should have buried his corpse or just burned it to prevent him from becoming a wight as soon as they killed him. Instead we get these nonsensical events that just leave me dying for an explanation.
So anyway after a bit of fighting Davos eventually goes to Melisandre who he somehow thinks that she could resurrect the dead despite never actually seeing this. Heck Melisandre never sees this act in the show herself. So why should or could she know how to bring Jon back from the dead? No explanation. If Davos somehow knew about this and Melisandre knew that she could do this then why on earth didn't she ever do this to bring back a number of Stannis's men who were killed? No explanation. Also was anyone else find it strange how Davos suddenly cares for Melisandre in these first few episodes, despite everything that happened between them in previous seasons or that he doesn't bother to ask her what exactly happened that lead Stannis and his entire army getting wiped out immediately but no, instead the priority here to Davos is getting Jon back to life Well short and to the point she does. HORRAY THIS IS THE BIGGEST DEAL IN THE ENTIRETY OF WESTEROS. EVERYONE MUST KNOW ABOUT THIS AND EVERY LIVING BEING SHOULD GET RIGHT TO THE POINT TO TALK ABOUT THIS AMAZING MIRA....oh wait... that's not what happens. Instead the entire thing plays out as more or less like a big shrug after the next episode. I mean yes, some characters comment on how weird it is but that's it. Jon isn't impacted by this in the slightest in fact he is exactly the same character as he was in season 5. His resurrection is so inconsequential that it might as well not have happened. Seriously i have never been more perplexed by a story development like this. It's like this type of thing happens every other week in this universe. The only reason this happened is because it was used as a flimsy excuse for Jon to be able to abandon the Night's Watch without technically breaking them. That's it. Other characters like Sansa later don't mention this or any of the other Northern Lords who should know about the fact that they are talking to a dead man. It comes across like a thing that the writers desperately try to sweep under the rug as soon as it has served it's plot purpose, never mind the fact that it breaks internal logic that nobody in-universe cares about this. Ramsay doesn't mention it. He is at-least the only one who brings up the fact that Jon deserted the Night's Watch. Which nobody else does and that leaves me to assume that everybody knows that Jon got killed and got resurrected but is not really interested in mentioning any of this or be at-least a little bit phased by this miraculous event.
Now to be fair to the show it did kind of , sort of set this up by introducing a character in the third season who was resurrected six times. However Beric Dondarrion was mentioned both in the books and the show to have been significantly impacted by being brought back. He is essential a completely different character post resurrection than he was pre eesurrection. It's still a mystery as to why only he got resurrected and why seemingly the Lord of Light tends to have favorites as pretty much no one in the show aside from Jon and Beric gets resurrected. This is different in the books as one other major character gets resurrected who could potentially play a role in answering these mysteries in the future books but that's neither here nor there but because the show has dropped this character and the show decided to ignore Beric for two entire seasons. It just comes across as contrived to bring Jon back in such a way. Melisandre never even sees how Beric got brought back to life, so that she suddenly knows how to bring Jon back is incredibly forced and she doesn't even do it in the same way. So am i now to assume that there are multiple ways to bring a character back from the dead?
Now George R R Martin has stated that he always disliked how Gandalf came back from the dead and became essentially more powerful once he became Gandalf the White.
Based on that quote it would seem like this entire thing was a massive misfire.
Jon's resurrection in the show is nothing more than a glorified power up. Everything goes his way until the end of the season without any cost from this event. It comes across like Jon has won the ultimate lottery in a sense. This goes against the spirit of the source material in pretty much every way and is in fact a "cheat". I cant even fathom why this was executed so awkwardly and without any real meaning. The writers just sweep this under the rug, because even they probobaly know how badly this was handled and don't want to deal with it. Imagine something as nonsensical like this happening in the earlier seasons and the show would have been dead in the water most likely. I used to be really annoyed with season 5 and some aspects of season 4 but the way this part in particular played out in season 6 broke the show for me. It was the moment i knew that it's no longer really good and it has only slipped more and more into schlock territory from there. By the time it ends i wonder what kind of reputation Game of Thrones will even have because right now it seems like the bad writing post season 3 has finally caught up with it judging by the more negative reaction to some of these newer episodes than usual.
Anyways i just had to vent for a bit.
