And Now My Watch Is Ended

Warning: This post may be dark—and delicious—and yes, full of spoilers…

“Night gathers, and now my watch begins. It shall not end until my death…

…I pledge my life and honor to the Night’s Watch, for this night and all the nights to come.”

~The first two lines, and the last line, from the Night’s Watch oath

It’s a story, I get it. It’s a cable series, I know.

I did not, obviously, pledge my life or my honor to the Night’s Watch, but I did pledge my last six suppers to the watching of the final season of HBO’s Game of Thrones.

And now my watch is ended…

Or is it?

The Watch

As I have written about in prior blog posts, I was late to the Game of Thrones party.

I did not start watching the HBO series—or start to read George R.R. Martin’s books—until 2016. My initial watch started five years after the series premiered, and twenty years after Mr. Martin’s first book of the series was published.

Admittedly, Game of Thrones and the world of Westeros is not really my genre; or at least it wasn’t. It’s obviously my genre now, as I have been somewhat obsessed with the story and the characters, wondering who will live, who will die, oh and yes, who will live!

While not a conspiracy theory person, I have enjoyed reading all of the fan theories, the speculation about the prophecies in the books, how it will all end, how it should all end. When in reality, I am actually just sad that it is ending at all.

Rather, I’m sad that this part of our world is ending; this world that has become Sunday night events for all of us who have enjoyed the watch.

Game of Thrones

Why does my food blog have posts about Game of Thrones, anyway?

Because the food and drinks featured in the show are almost as good as the stories—and well, why not. I am going to eat anyway, and once I started to think about the final season, I knew I wanted to make meals that would accompany each episode.

Plus, it’s a good excuse to make a special meal and write about it. For me, it was a win-win scenario.

Not to mention we’ve been eating very well the last four weeks. These next two—as you will see—were no exception.

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P.S. These posts are also excuses to post photos of my beautiful dogs. Have I mentioned how much I love the dire wolves?!

(Look at my pretty dire wolves above!)

Now, back to the blog post about food, and death and stuff…

All Men Must Eat

Indeed, all men must eat, and when watching the final season of Game of Thrones, all men (and women) must eat well.

Also as noted in a previous blog post, the books and the series are full of meats roasted on spits, ale, wine, lemon cakes, lots of lamb and goat, eggs and sausages and bacon, pigeon pies, rabbit stew, fish, breads and cheese, even more ale and yes, much more wine. It was a true feast for the eyes reading through many of the book’s passages about food. The rat cook aside, they ate pretty well when life was good.

So, what was on the menu the last two weeks?

In The Kitchens

Weeks five and six were going to be extra special, because they would be the last official GOT suppers of this final season. A season that took forever to get here, and then could never be long enough.

But, let’s get cooking and talking about our two final nights on the watch…

Episode Five: The Bells

“Dracarys.” ~Daenerys Stormborn of House Targaryen, of the blood of Old Valyeria

Oh, Daenerys. The many seasons-ago abused princess, our breaker of chains, Khaleesi of the Great Grass Sea, Mother of Dragons, Queen of Mereen (maybe she should have stayed and ruled?), The Unburnt, who in the end—like her mad father always wanted to do himself—burns them all.

Or second to the end, that is, she burns them all.

From season five on, I kind of guessed that she would fulfill her destiny with more fire than justice. She wouldn’t just break the wheel, but burn it with dragon fire, and take a city with it. She’d be queen of the ashes after all.

Until episode six at any rate.

Now for our supper feast:

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Episode Six: The Iron Throne

“If you think this has a happy ending, you haven’t been paying attention.” ~Ramsay Bolton

“Even in dreams, you could not fall forever.” ~an excerpt from one of Bran’s vision in the book A Game of Thrones

Spoiler: In the end, Drogon ultimately decided that no one would sit on The Iron Throne. Although Bran doesn’t really need a throne, does he…

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The Stories Still to Come

Happy Post-GOT Watching!

Of course, I am still coming to terms with, and dissecting, and will need to rewatch many times to catch every little thing, but for now thinking about that man who started it all and wanting to give him my eternal thanks…

The one, the only: George R.R. Martin. 

Seriously. While obviously having a bias for writers and reading their works, I just want to say I am not really disappointed with the ending, per se, of HBO’s Game of Thrones. 

And they all lived, well, ever after (okay, not all lived…)

Maybe not disappointed but I am sad it’s over, because I think as dramatic series go, it will likely always be my favorite.

And let’s remember that an ending to a story is pretty much always anti-climactic. That’s why it’s an ending and not the climax of the story—or of the series.

Some of our overall favorite episodes of GOT (Hardhome, Battle of the Bastards, The Rains of Castemere aka The Red Wedding) are our favorites because of the drama they ended with (that had to be followed up on).

A show can’t end like that because then you’d/we’d complain about all the loose ends, right? But there will always be loose ends. And no one will ever get everything they want.

Perhaps the last season should have had more episodes and perhaps there should have been more explaining of certain things but the show has always had a lot of innuendo (one of the things I liked about it…you had to use your imagination and assume certain things have happened or not. I liked that they didn’t show every little important thing like some cheap soap opera…), and it’s just that the story in the middle is always the most exciting part. Shouldn’t it be? 

It started—and ended—with Bran

Perhaps also, because I read the books, I wasn’t that surprised by Bran or the way it ended for any of my favorite Starks. From the books, I always thought that Martin’s favorite characters were Bran, Arya, Jon and Tyrion. They were among my favorite characters too, with Arya and Jon always leading the way. 

Note: I’m sure Peter is happy that he won’t hear me anymore with my “in the books, Ser Devos has other sons”; “the book starts with Bran and he has so many chapters”; “in the books, all of the Starks can pretty much get inside their wolves”; “in the book, I hated the way they had Jaime and Tyrion part ways!”; “in the books, everyone is so much younger and so much uglier!” LOL Sorry, mi amor.

To be continued: A Song of Ice and Fire

The books are at times mind-numbing to read (so many characters, seven hells!) and the series would have lasted longer than The Simpsons if they would have included every Greyjoy and Martell not mentioned in the show, but all in all, it was A Song of Ice and Fire, and the battle was between ice and fire if not so much good and evil, but perhaps also love and duty.

Stories are complicated, humans are complicated, and to be fair, Martin never promised a happy ending—in fact, he warned us there wouldn’t be one!—but I hope I do get to read his ending one of these days. 

Life goes on

Life doesn’t end, it goes on—for someone, somewhere, whether all around the kingdoms, in Winterfell, on the open seas or north of the wall. Not everyone makes it, but life does indeed go on. As it should.

And we got to see Ghost again in the final episode!!! (I do love those dire wolves! XO)

So, my real MVP of all this Game of Thrones business? The main man who isn’t getting any younger…

(PLEASE) Write away, Mr. Martin, and thank you for creating some of my favorite characters in one of my favorite make believe worlds. 

Our watch may be ended, but I hope there is more of your story left to read.

Elda XO

P.S. My watch isn’t really over. I’ve already started watching the entire series again. Cue the intro music, and let me think about what I may want to eat…

Those meals will likely be the best things I eat those weeks, too. XO