The hard truths

In the real world, most situations involving more than two people are rarely simple. Even relationships between pairs can involve a dizzying array of facets and conturbations, depending on how long the two have known each other and how many other people they have to answer to (which is usually where the "more than two people" comes in.) When it comes to sociopolitical scenarios involving bloodlines, tradition, regional rivalries, and centuries of distrust (if not hatred), there will never be an easy answer to almost any question. Thus, we have arrived at episode 1 of season 8 of Game of Thrones.

When you've gone this far in an epic story, there are going to be complications. Even when you get to the point where the essential plot element is: "The world will end if we don't work together!", it's never going to be that simple as long as your characters are human with all the associated flaws and emotional responses that come with being... you know... human. Consequently, everyone in our collective audience should have known that things wouldn't be straightforward, even if the season is slated to be almost half the length of the first six. But I think the production team did a good job of presenting a lot of those personal and ethical dilemmas in a believable manner even if, like has often been the case in kicking off the season, the episode was mostly about reunions/setup/laying the groundwork for the titanic battle(s) to come.

Most of those dilemmas involve hard truths about the ethics and mores of war, but also those of personal relationships. Jon Snow is the most obvious case here, being central to almost everything. One of his hard truths is being confronted with the facts that a) acting for the presumed greater good can often have a significant personal toll and b) not everyone will recognize the greater good even when you're explaining it to their faces. The Northerners decided, against all tradition, that the bastard who'd sworn an oath to the Night's Watch should be the new king, not just of Winterfell, but all the North. Their king promptly went and surrendered his crown to the daughter of the famed Mad King who's not only a "southerner", but not even Westerosi. This misunderstanding of Jon's actions extends not only to the average northern lord, who may or may not be genuinely cognizant of the situation, but to Jon's sister, Sansa, whom other sister Arya now claims is the smartest person she's ever met. (I think Sansa is actually highly intelligent and learned a great deal from Littlefinger, but I'm not sure I'd lather her with quite that much praise.)

In addition to that, Jon's now confronting the fact that the man he idolizes, his deceased adoptive father, Ned Stark, lied to him for his entire life. This is the man that Jon just used as a case example in the final episode of last season as an argument as to why he was bluntly honest with Cersei about his loyalty. Ned Stark was too honest to play the game of thrones and now Jon discovers that he wasn't honest about a basic fact of Jon's life: he's not Jon Snow. He's Aegon Targaryen VI. And, uh, that means that the woman that he just took on all of these other ethical quandaries for, at least in part because he loves her, is now the person he supersedes for the goal that has consumed her life for the past several years: the Iron Throne. (Hereditary monarchies cause so many problems. This is why we have the estate tax, boys and girls!) You've just sacrificed a lot of personal loyalties by making a move that actually contravenes your existence as the heir to the throne AND you have to tell your new girlfriend that's she's been shuffled to the side because you're alive. Have fun!

But Jon's not the only one. Tyrion is destined to be the most tragic character in the series, IMO. He's finally confronted his sister on basic realities and accepted her word, only to have it thrown in his face by the formerly naive Sansa. He wants so much to believe in the basic humanity of even Cersei that he lets that belief blind him to the realities of who many of these people are. It's interesting to see one of the more canny political operatives let himself get led astray out of what seems to be simple fatigue. Having largely abandoned politics for the past decade, I can sympathize. But the confronting of difficult realities gets even narrower when Dany reveals that she elevated Sam to Lord Tarly by roasting his family alive. This is, again, where the basic humanity and emotional reactions of these characters are allowed to come to the fore. Sam knows that his father detested him, but still finds himself outraged at the callous actions of the woman that Jon claims is the answer to the slaughterhouse that the game of thrones has released; not to mention the army of the dead advancing from the north. It's often really difficult to act in a clinical manner, even when you might know it's the right thing to do; personally and publicly.

It's that kind of personal introspection; the shaping of characters as real, emotional, fraught, flawed, sometimes stupid, occasionally humane people that will let the show's legacy continue as really wonderful TV and a fine example of the last truly broad cultural touchstone in our now far more diverse market. Credit in that respect is due to the original creator, GRRM, but also Benioff and Weiss for shaping this into a story about people, instead of just Valyrian steel and dragons.

Production stuff:

The new opening was great. It was nice to see a big changeup for the last season, with the more elaborate presentations of Winterfell and King's Landing. But it was also interesting to see a lot of touches back to the first season and, in fact, the first episode with a young boy scrambling high to see Dany's armies parade in and Arya watching said parade go by in a very different set of circumstances from when she was a young girl swiping a guard's helmet. I will say that the one moment of CGI I felt was poorly done was the withdrawal from Winterfell, which lost all of its texture and became like the opening clockwork buildings. Perhaps that was intentional, but it threw me off.

Among all of the re-introductions and reunions, the raw emotion of Jon and Arya meeting again was great. Here were the two members of the Stark household who both felt like outsiders but whom had a connection with each other as a result of that, finally returning home and to each other, having both succeeded beyond anything anyone would have expected for them.

There were several excellent performances with almost all of the cast piled together. Isaac Hempstead-Wright was a high point as the Three-Eyed Raven Bran. The constraints of his role don't allow him to emote like your regular actor, so he has to convey things in a far subtler manner (the intensity of glances, the slight change to the set of his mouth, etc.) and he did an excellent job of it. One of the best moments may have been the last of the episode, when he finally sees the "old friend" he's waiting for, as he confronts the man who condemned him to a wheelchair for the basest of motives, likely knowing of Jaime's moral transformation and his importance to coming events. It's another one of those personal quandaries for a man who can now be every person and, thus, none of them, so the only tell that the past occurs to him is a very slight narrowing of his eyes. Maisie Williams continues to shine as the mildly unnerving assassin, Arya, as does Lena Headey as the endlessly aggressive and smilingly raging Cersei. And Pilou Asbaek has a great moment when referring to Cersei's sex life with her twin with a knowing glance.

There were a couple moments of mild annoyance, though. Telling Bronn to be the assassin of his two best friends, Tyrion and Jaime, with Joffrey's crossbow is just a bit too pat for me. It's clearly a setup for a personal challenge to Bronn, but it's also just a tad too obvious. Cersei sets it up as something singularly appropriate for a family weapon to lay low the family betrayers, but it struck me as too staged. Also, Davos referring to the enemy as the "Night King", rather than the "Night's King" is still a book vs TV difference that bugs me. The latter title is just more interesting, since it invokes the period of time (The Long Night) when the King first appeared, rather than just giving him a superhero title. Also, with so much story left to tell and only six episodes in which to tell it, did we really need a two- or three-minute roller coaster ride on the backs of a couple dragons? Also also, the wolf unit is still listed in the credits. Does that mean that Ghost finally makes a reappearance? Or perhaps Nymeria if the dead make it all the way to their presumed goal, the Isle of Faces? (The pattern of limbs left at House Umber resembles the pattern that was shown during the scenes with the Children of the Forest on the Isle.)

Lines of the week:

"Look at you! You're a man."
"Almost."
This is what I mean about Hempstead-Wright having grown into the role. The tiny curl of lip to indicate his pleasure at seeing Jon, followed by his matter-of-fact answer to Jon's slightly askew declaration. Great stuff.

"Where's Arya?"
"Lurking. Somewhere."
This is an embodiment of the reunion of the family, as they fall back into the comfort of old habits: Sansa's mild contempt for Arya's "weirdness" and Jon's eagerness to engage with his siblings.

"What do dragons eat, anyway?"
"Whatever they want."
This moment isn't particularly clever, but it's a pointed example of the venom passing between the two ruling women. Both Sophie Turner and Emilia Clarke played Sansa's initial disdain for Dany and the latter's growing response to it very well.

"The last time we spoke was at Joffrey's wedding. A miserable affair."
"It had its moments."
This reunion highlights both the earnestness of Tyrion to continue to try to play to peoples' better natures, as well as Sansa's maturity in resisting that entreaty. Her subsequent mocking of her ex-husband for his willingness to trust his sister only compounds that.

"You're insolent, I've executed men for less."
"They were lesser men..."
Euron still getting the best one-liners in.

"What if he doesn't want me to?!"
"Then I've enjoyed your company, Jon Snow."
The practical queen. If the royal consort can't ride dragons, then he can't be the consort. The hidden fact that he's a Targaryen is what makes this kind of funny.

"You want to worry about who holds what title and I'm telling you it doesn't matter! Without her, we don't stand a chance!"
This is the root of it, from a strategic perspective.

"I've always had blue eyes!"
Tormund and the endlessly practical Edd.