Game of Thrones season 8 episode 5 "The Bells" aired earlier today and it featured the last great war between Daenerys Targaryen and Cersei Lannister. The second last episode of HBO's acclaimed drama showed multiple deaths but these deaths were not shocking at all and somehow proves that the writers rushed into creating these hour-long episodes.
Major Spoilers ahead:
Game of Thrones season 8 episode 5 "The Bells" started by showing Lord Varys writing letters to several other Nobel men in the Westeros and revealing all of them that Jon Snow's parents were Rhaegar Targaryen and Lyanna Stark, which makes him Aegon Targaryen — the true heir to the Iron Throne.
Following which, when Tyrion Lannister meets with Daenerys Targaryen, she tells him that Jon Snow revealed his true identity to his sister Sansa Stark, who in turn revealed everything to Tyrion. As a result of which, Tyrion shared the most secret information with Lord Varys, and who actually betrayed her in episode 4 "The Last of Starks." Daenerys ordered to execute Lord Varys and this is how we saw the first death of the episode.
Tyrion Lannister tries his best to convince Daenerys Targaryen to leave the city unharmed if she hears the ring bell from the Red Keep. The ring bell sound will be an answer from the citizens of King's Landing telling that they have surrendered. We know from the very beginning that Daenerys is here to win the war — hook or crook.
When the battle day begins, we see the Golden Company and Iron Fleet going into dust in just a couple of minutes. If killing the entire army was this simple then why poor Rhaegal died in the previous episode? Well, we may never know.
This is apparently for the first time when we see Cersei Lannister afraid and for a second, one can actually feel sorry for her. If a viewer can sympathize with the character, then it becomes extremely hard to hate her for her previous crimes. By doing this, the Game of Thrones writers actually disappointed several of the fans.
The rest of the episode featured nothing but Daenerys Targaryen burning down the entire King's Landing. In the parallel story, we see a short but enticing Cleganebowl. The Hound tried his best to murder his zombie brother but failed to do so. In the end, he simply jumps from the top of the tower into the burning fire. This was somewhat a poetic ending to The Hound.
In other cut-scenes, we saw Jon Snow finally realizing that Daenerys Targaryen is the Mad Queen and she will destroy everything and everyone who will ever come in her way. He even asks his Northern army to fall back and stop attacking the Lannister army. Grey Worm from Unsullied sees this betrayal and will snitch it to Daenerys in the next episode.
In the final scenes of the show, we saw a wounded Arya Stark running away from the burning town on a horse. While, deep in the dungeons, we see the end of Cersei and Jaime Lannister. The entire wall crumbled on their heads but as of now, we are not sure whether they have died or survived Daenerys' madness.
Game of Thrones season 8 episode 5 "The Bells" could have featured something else entirely. The creators had a scope to do something out of the box but everything in the episode was pre-guessed by all the fans. The deaths were not shocking and for instance, a character like Lord Varys did not deserve an end like this. He has been with us from the very first episode and something else could have done with him.
In addition to this, the end to Euron Greyjoy and his army was needed but again, it could have been played better. Euron has been hated by all the fans but at the same time, he was crueler than Ramsay Bolton. He deserved the end by the hands of Daenerys Targaryen.
Well, we only have one more episode left in Game of Thrones season 8 and we just have to wait and watch to see how Arya Stark is going to kill Daenerys Targaryen and how Jon Snow will rule the Iron Throne.
