Game of Thrones is arguably one of the most shocking television series in the world today. No matter how much you get used to all the plot-twists and surprise endings, chances are that you’re gonna get caught by surprise again.
That phenomenon can be explained in two words: Brilliant storytelling.
Last Line Goes Boom!
Two of the most important things to take into consideration while creating a captivating story are the beginning and the end. Yes I know, the main plot is everything, it’s the Rosetta stone upon the which you build your story.
But how you open the story and how you close it is what ultimately makes the difference if the audience want to see more, or if they should even read or watch your story to begin with.
“Angier: He's a dreadful magician.
Cutter: No, he's a wonderful magician. He's a dreadful showman.”
― The Prestige.
When it comes to endings, George R.R. Martin and the rest of GOT’s creative team are true masters.
Very often they close episodes (and even seasons) with some totally unexpected and seriously shocking events.
Let me give you a few examples.
Let’s take that episode where Sansa got married to Ramsay, the episode ended with Ramsey tearing Sansa’s clothes apart in the middle of ghastly dramatic melody while the screen fades to black leaving the viewers with a deep sensation of perplexity.
The next day in the press, no one could stop talking about that episode. Outrageous, shocking, provocative… Countless adjectives were thrown around and nobody knows which one is more accurate.
The only thing that we know for sure is that no one was left indifferent.
The very same thing happened a few seasons before that when the Red Wedding took place.
Or even more recently when out of nowhere Cersei Lannister blew up a church full of people in last season’s finale… And the examples go on and on.
But if you think about it, all of these episodes have one thing in common:
The last line goes boom!
As I said earlier, true masters of the craft. Just think back to that season where the final scene had Jon Snow being suddenly betrayed by his friends including a young boy each taking turns stabbing him and leaving him fatally wounded with his blood tainting the snow red.
Do you remember that one?
People spent the entire summer trying to figure out if Jon Snow was dead or alive.
And now you must be wondering: Are we set for another shock-finale this season as well?
I don’t know that for a fact, but a case could be made that at least one main character is set to die in the last scenes of this season’s finale.
That person has been prophesied to die since the first episode of the first season, and was foreshadowed several times to die exactly in the way the series is leading to.
Yes, it’s an important main character, and no, I won’t reveal it today.
Stay tuned for Thursday’s post where a new adventure awaits us where together we’ll decode all the genius hints and puzzle-pieces left to us to decode by the masterful storytellers of Game of Thrones.
Meanwhile I leave you with a question, who do you think it will be?
To be continued...
