We got one last really touching moment between Missandei and Grey Worm, on the ship to Dragonstone, hands held tight, unwilling, perhaps, to separate now that they survived one of their most dangerous nights.
And, well…
I kept going back and forth on this, because this is a relationship recap, not a full recap, but I’ve decided it would 1) be disingenuous to pretend that I haven’t typed this whole thing with my brain yelling “WOW SO THEY REALLY KILLED THE ONLY WOMAN OF COLOR ON THIS SHOW TO FURTHER MOTIVATE THE WHITE SAVIOR QUEEN” and 2) Missandei’s death did break one of the core ships of the show. So it counts!
I’m really mad about Missandei’s death. I’m not mad Cersei killed her – anyone expecting Cersei to spare anyone ever has not been paying attention – but I’m mad the writers made the choice to put Missandei in her path. Dany was already spiraling into the Mad Queen. She didn’t even need an extra kick beyond the death of Rhaegal. She was already there, so Missandei’s death just felt gratuitous, even for a show known for its shocking deaths. Even if Dany had needed a push, using the death of a character of color to once again push her storyline also feels gratuitous.
I’m torn on if this means I want Dany to win the throne, so that it could mean something, anything, or if it means I don’t want her to win the throne, because goddammit, stop letting her rule on the backs of POC and their deaths!
The only good that could come of this would be Grey Worm getting more screentime as he deals with her death and his grief, but I’m not sure they’ll give us that – or at least not a satisfactory amount.
The Battle of Winterfell successfully lured me into a false sense of security by not killing off any of the really major characters (though all of the deaths did hurt me, personally, in my heart). I forgot one of the core rules of this show: Whatever Game of Thrones gives us, it’s going to take away even more.
Just…maybe give us Jaime and Brienne back at least?
Header Image: HBO