![]() Other highlights of the episode include Tyrion’s fantastic dialogue with a slaver regarding whether or not Tyrion is anatomically proportional, along with Olenna Tyrell’s arrival back in Kings Landing after Loras is arrested for buggery. For the first time in the series, we are shown the Hall of Faces, when Arya’s mentor Jaqen H’ghar takes Arya deep below the House of Black and White for what has to be one of the strangest tours of all time. The reasons “Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken” lands as the worst episode of Game of Thrones come from all over the map, but let’s start with the good stuff. ![]() “Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken,” Season 5, Episode 6 As it is, we were left with the truncated mess that was “Starks.” 72. Dropping season 8 to just six episodes might have sounded like a good idea to someone, but more time for these storylines to settle and breath and stretch could have helped things. Like most of season 8, it wasn’t the events themselves that were frustrating, but how as an audience we were supposed to buy into said events without the groundwork being laid. Thanks to an image leak beforehand, we knew the episode would start in Winterfell with the funerals and end with Missandei and Rhaeghal’s deaths, and yet I still couldn’t believe how quickly things moved. ![]() You could point to small moments like the infamous coffee cup, or showrunner David Benioff’s comment about Dany “kind of forgetting” about the Iron Fleet as proof of the episode’s status as the worst in the series, but really it was more about pacing, and characters making nonsensical choices simply to serve the plot. The opening funeral scene was also well done, but the good doesn’t outweigh the bad. Sure, there were small moments to enjoy - Arya and the Hound on the road to King’s Landing was a nice callback to season 4 - but they were too far and between to overshadow the what felt like two episodes mashed together. See also Bronn’s sudden appearance and immediate disappearance. Sure, you could argue we didn’t need to spend time endlessly walking up and down the Kingsroad, but having Jaime and Brienne finally act on their romantic feelings only for Jaime to depart for King’s Landing five minutes later didn’t pay proper respect to their complicated, long-developing relationship. More than any other episode, “Starks” was a microcosm of the issues many fans had with season 7 and 8.Ĭhief among those issues was the rushed pace that was out of step with the slow burn we’d come to expect from the show. Its flaws are legion and its bright spots few. Season 8’s opening episode, “Winterfell” was a mixed bag, but “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms” was amazing, and while “The Long Night” had its issues, season 8 looked like it was heading in the right direction before “Starks” aired. This was it, folks this was the moment many of us knew season 8 was going to let us down. “The Last of the Starks,” Season 8, Episode 4
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