Winter Is Here – My First Game of Thrones KAL (Week Five)

Winter Is Here - My First Game of Thrones KAL

Disclaimer: If you haven’t watched Game of Thrones through the current episode, Season 8 Episode 5, then you may not want to continue reading this article. There may be spoilers contained within. Also, this is not a sponsored post. I am participating in a Marinade Designs GoT KAL at my own expense and just want to share my progress with our readers. No compensation is being received from the KAL designer.

Previous GoT Show Thoughts/KAL Progress Posts:

Week One

Week Two

Week Three

Week Four

This week has been a pretty hectic one. School is coming close to the end for the year, so there are after-school band practices for my daughter’s upcoming concert, there have been doctor appointments, and my mom’s 70th birthday, and a wedding for the daughter of one of my husband’s friends going on — all right on top of Mother’s Day last weekend.

So, I’ve not had a lot of time to just sit and knit. Still I am just about done with Section 2 of the Marinade Designs Ice & Embers Shawlette (Game of Thrones Final Season KAL). So, I’ll take it.

I’m pretty sure (pretty absolutely sure) that I made a mistake in the first blue stripe of Section 2 and made the peekaboo holes too far apart. But, I was loathe to backtrack to do it the right way. I liked the way it looked and the stitch counts come out just right. So, onward.

Here’s how the asymmetrical shawlette is shaping up as I come to the end of Section 2. Section three is completely knit in the dark blue yarn and will feature a dragon scale lace pattern. Looking forward to it!

Marinade Designs Game of Thrones Season 8 Ice and Embers Shawl KAL-week five
Week Five Progress
Marinade Designs Game of Thrones Season 8 Ice and Embers Shawl KAL-week five
Week Five Progress
Week Five Progress

Man, I’ve been procrastinating about writing this week’s article, because episode 5 of GoT really has had my head spinning. I wasn’t really expecting Dany to lose it on King’s Landing like that. I did pick up on all the little hints of potential madness going all the way back to the first season of the show. Like when she watched (insisted on watching!) her brother die by golden crowning. And when she roasted the Harpys. There were other moments.

But, I really thought she’d been keeping her head together pretty well until after the battle at Winterfell. She didn’t get to be the one to save everyone from the threat of annihilation (thanks, Arya! LOL), everyone heaped praise on Jon while she was largely alone during the feast, she had just discovered Jon is really a Targaryen and thus a threat to her claim to the Iron Throne, and homeboy is not exactly on the romance train with her anymore now that he’s weirded out by their family relationship. AND she is still suffering acutely from the loss of most of her beloved Dothraki and the cruel dispatching of Missandei by Queen Cersei. Plus, now she’s lost the second of her three dragons, her babies.

All the foreshadowing I needed of her potential mind snap was when she told Jon she has no love here in Westeros. We all need that. It’s what makes life worth anything, right?

So, I was surprised but not really surprised to see her use Drogon to honor Missandei’s last word (and avenge the death of Rhaegal) perhaps a little too literally. Plus, it’s not like it really hurt Cersei to see King’s Landing and all its residents roasted and/or crushed to death. She doesn’t care about them, she only gets emotional when it becomes clear that she will lose this battle and not only die herself, but her unborn child will also die. Outside of her personal sphere of existence, she couldn’t give a crap how anyone else fares in this war. I kinda felt like Dany shoulda known that and thus limited her total destruction bid to Cersei’s armed forces, the scorpions, the Red Keep and Cersei, Qyburn, and the Mountain.

Ahh, the Mountain. And the Hound. Cleganebowl! It was pretty flippin’ epic. Start to finish, the fiery, fiery finish.

I still don’t know how I feel about Arya’s sudden turnabout upon the Hound’s advice that she should give up killing Cersei and go home or else surely perish. I kinda feel like Arya woulda been just fine with her life coming to an end if it meant also taking out the last name on her list. But, if anyone could’ve had that side convo with her, I guess the Hound was the right choice for it. We’ll see where she goes from here. Many people think Dany is now on Arya’s kill list for what she did to King’s Landing, and I have to say I cannot disagree with fans on that point. It’s gonna be fascinating to see where that story arc goes!

As I belatedly send this article to publish on the blog, there is only a few minutes to go until the series finale of GoT airs on HBO and my husband and I have just finished re-watching episode 5 in preparation for this event. How do you think the series will wind up? Who do you believe (or hope? or fear?) will ultimately sit the Iron Throne when it’s all said and done?