If S7E7 witnessed the two idiots pulling down the drama from the plot, then S8E2 repeated this tragedy from the character.
Martin has created many amazing women. Little Rose relies on marriage rather than sex, and has raised her status to the desired position step by step. Sansa grew up in pain and frustration, and used her weakness as a shield. Arya was never a lady, and she successfully came before the God of Many Faces, honing herself through death and blindness. Brienne was a warrior, who yielded neither to the enemy nor to the man. Cersei uses sex as a weapon of power and a reward for herself. The Dragon Mother gradually became a qualified ruler with her firmness, kindness and broad vision. In a world set in the medieval context, they break through the established framework of women in history.
There's a lot of sleight of hand in it, which Martin has planted into their fates through a clever plot setting. Little Rose and Sansa survived in this sinister world with their virginity and cleverness. Arya threw away the shackles of identity, and the shackles of the other characters. As a woman, Brienne has no right to enter the traditional hierarchy, so her allegiance is to individuals: Renly, Caitlin, Sansa, Arya... She is free in her outer position. These restraints are born out of their female identity, and they have a consistent effect on their lives. The typical characters of his characters lie in these stanzas.
However, the play breaks these stanzas step by step.
Since Little Rose was blown up, the TV series' destruction—or sacrifice—of these unique women has been carried out in the form of blunt knives. Cersei's "end without means" in order to protect the family has turned into a paranoid desire to control. The Dragon Mother once said "I'll break the wheel", but now she is thinking about the wheel; she acts to resist the Night King, but she never has a strong enough personal motivation, so the whole plot of coming to the north is extremely awkward.
That's all. But today's episode completes the destruction of Winterfell's female characters with a kind of extreme conservatism and an implicit, stench of machismo. Four episodes made me thoroughly feel this conservatism and machismo.
One, Arya. Arya's actions in this episode seem reasonable, but in fact it skips the simplest premise: what Arya has learned from the God of Many Faces is not only a superb assassination technique, but also a contempt for death ( Or face it up). The calmness after her return came from this strong and brave heart. This is unmatched by all but Bran, male or female. How could such a character have to experience the love between men and women because of the "last night"? She was interested in Gendry, which was understandable; she wanted to try, and it was understandable. But to come up with such a lame reason, it simply subverts the character's long-term tempering. In fact, this seemingly active love scene is as clumsy as the one in which Little Flay rapes Sansa.
Two, Brienne. It seems that several men broke through the tradition to be crowned for a woman, which seemed very exciting and "anti-traditional". However, on closer inspection, this is to put the free Brienne back into the rules. The screenwriter does not seem to have given much thought to the class meaning represented by "Knight". Including a woman in a man's game doesn't mean respecting that woman, it means alienating that woman. In the past, Brienne only knelt down to those she was loyal to, and now, she needed to kneel down to James. A simple question: why? Why does she need the approval of a knight in the end? Is she after this? No, what she pursued was never the identity of a knight (Knighthood), but the spirit of a knight (Chivalry).
Three, Sansa. Sansa's performance is almost terrific (albeit nothing at all), but the last scene ruins her: her relationship with Theon. This "love" came without warning. Just because Theon liked Sansa before and saved her from a skinny boy? That's not a sufficient condition for love, because the Hound has done the same thing for Sansa, and even Littlefinger has done almost the same thing for Sansa (until the TV show foolishly asks Littlefinger to give Sansa to Sansa small peel). As the owner of Winterfell and the de facto head of the Stark family, the writers put Sansa in the eighth season back into the little daughter mentality of the first season.
Fourth, the dragon mother. He still "breaks the wheel", he will never rule like his own father, let alone. Not to mention her suddenly strong feelings for Jon - especially in this season, when Jon is mentioned on the same level as the king of horses.
In general, it is "not enough personality, use love to make up". This episode seems to have written the heartfelt feelings before a war, but this feeling came out of nowhere, and it was just rude, obviously for the purpose of "resonating" with the audience. However, resonance does not depend on distorting the original characters and pulling them (especially, they are all "them") who have broken the frame back into the rules, so as to fulfill the audience's expectations of women's behavior.
So here comes the question: if I want to watch this, I'll just watch a medieval historical drama, why watch your fantasy epic?
View more about Winterfell reviews