the fact that some people genuinely believe this is a top 20 episode of all time will never make sense to me. the highest peak is at the beginning, and yes, it is well-acted, shot, and scored, etc, but it is so ridiculously flawed in it’s writing that it feels like a lazily written copy of earlier episodes of the show. [SPOILERS] death used to matter in the first four seasons. ned stark’s death will always be my favorite episode of the show because it quite literally sent half of the characters spinning in a new direction, practically being the sole cause for so many later character deaths. his death advanced the power of the lannister family and began robb and catelyn’s war, arya’s nomadic lifestyle, theon / braun’s conflict that would lead them both to their individual journeys, and sansa’s cycle of abuse from the rich. obviously ned is an extreme example, i do not expect every character death to impact other characters as drastically as ned did, but what i do want is something. when cersei explodes the sept and kills a cast of characters that had been prominent to the show for multiple seasons, there is ZERO impact. this is because at this point in the show, all of the major plots had become completely divided from eachother. so, when cersei kills FUCKING EVERYONE from her plot in kings landing, the main fucking plot in the show, there is literally no one left to deal with the repercussions of said deaths. i remember being excited when tommen saw the exploded sept, implying the death of his wife and the people he trusted. i was ready for any sort of consequence of so much death to happen. i mean, tommen is the fucking king? they could do so much with him! the conflict with his mother has got to be insane! but no, he commits suicide right there, and the scene that allows for this episode to have a 9.9/10 on imdb effects none of the characters from here on out, except for cersei, who does nothing memorable for the rest of the show. it’s remarkable how tommen was a major character for three seasons and did nothing in all of that time. they could have had tommen’s arc get slowly built up to make him a stronger king. as he grows throughout the show, he could have slowly tried for independence from his mother and other forces trying to control him, failing constantly yet building confidence, but still always being a pawn to other people. maybe that scene of him looking at the great sept explosion through the window could have instead been a moment of inner-conflict, where he needs to decide if he is going to allow himself to be complacent for the rest of his life, or if he is going to be half of the king his father was. i am not a writer at all, but i genuinely think this is ten times more interesting than the instant suicide we see in the show. tommen’s instant suicide is also nothing but weightless shock value. i did NOT FEEL BAD FOR TOMMEN. it seemed to be the goal of the show to make us feel bad for him in retrospect, but he had absolutely zero depth or personality to make me care. his plot of being manipulated throughout seasons 4 and 5 is not subtle at all, midway through season 5 i had given up on caring at all. and i am not hard to make cry or sympathize. i cry and tear up to media a lot. if a show puts effort into conveying an emotion, i will probably feel it. but tommen, like most characters past season 4, became less of a person with struggles and desires and more of a concept to remove when the time is most shocking. there are 800 other issues with this episode, a major one being the fact that the consequences of the sept-explosion itself are fucking stupid and everyone just accepts cersei as the leader of kingslanding ? what the fuck? but i won’t be addressing anything else because i never really hear tommen’s character critiqued in regards to this episode or the entire show, and i would rather just have this review be about one strong point than multiple other points i hear constantly. embarrassing episode.