This week’s episode was not good. More than anything, it illustrated that, for the last two seasons at least, Game of Thrones’ pacing has been wildly off. What was once a finely-constructed drama driven by characters has descended into an unsatisfying mess that denies a great show a compelling ending. WIRED's Sophie Charara and Will Bedingfield dig into the mess that was episode five.

Spoilers, obviously.

The rushed death of Varys

Varys’s death epitomised the greatest flaw of the last two seasons: pacing. The show has rushed its final revelations. In previous seasons, the shocking death of a major and beloved character would have been built to gradually, closing out an episode as a climax. Instead, Varys, who has done practically nothing for two seasons, chats to John; Tyrion chats to Daenerys; then Varys is burned to death with a little whimper, all in the space of about ten minutes. How could any viewer feel anything for a death that happens this quickly? Will Bedingfield

Euron and Jaime's ridiculous fight

Euron will go down as one of the silliest characters in the series, precisely because he became prominent around the time the show began to rush towards its conclusion. After being completely annihilated by Daenerys with the weapon that was hyped as the single way to destroy her, he washes up on a beach right next to Jaime, they have a scrappy, underwhelming fight, and Euron dies. (To be fair, complaining that Game of Thrones relies on ludicrous coincidence at this point almost feels redundant.) WB

Cersei gets shortchanged

This wasn’t inherently a bad end for the lovelorn Lannisters, trapped then crushed when trying to sneak away from the destruction all around them. It’s fitting they died together. The supremely self-aware Jaime travelled there knowing that was likely their fate and at her end, despite the prophecies, Cersei was happy to see one of her brothers. It’s also worth noting that no-one got the sweet satisfaction of torturing or killing Cersei – a victory of sorts.

That said, the writers did Cersei a disservice here. She isn’t given much agency at all; instead she simply receives bad news after bad news, watches the dragon torch the city then... cries. Even when she’s escaping, it all seems half-hearted for a character as formidable as this. Seeing her break needed more space to really pay off. Qyburn’s swift death at the hand of Ser Gregor was beautiful, though. Sophie Charara

The missing heroes

I’ll hold judgement on this one until we’ve seen the final episode but the Targaryen-Stark alliance felt a little light on, well, allies. I was looking for a more satisfying showdown of the characters still left alive.

During the 'battle' scenes we had to spend so much time with Jon looking helpless because there was no one else fighting on that side, except Greyworm, Ser Davos and Tyrion, to cut to. And not because everyone was already dead. Jaime took himself out of the fray and Tormund stayed at home, which was disappointing. Brienne was guarding Sansa and where was Gendry? Dany made him a lord to ensure his loyalty, so an appearance at King’s Landing wouldn’t have gone amiss.

You could argue Daenerys lost herself and became the evil dragon in this episode, but we didn’t even see her for most of the run time. This was a big day for everyone and it felt like we were missing some key perspectives. SC

Arya's wasted journey

I love a touching Hound scene as much as the next person, but Arya’s actions this episode frustrated me. She goes to King’s Landing to kill Cersei, no doubt still high off the fumes of Night King killing. So far, so plausible, especially after she’s also hot off rejecting Gendry’s offer of a ladyship at Storm’s End. In fact, she makes it all the way to Cersei’s map room, when a minute or two of Sandor Clegane imploring her not to become like him convinces her to give up.

All we can assume is that, as per the showrunners’ double-speed chess moves to get the characters where they need to be in this short season, Arya needs to be in King’s Landing for the final episode. No one’s arguing with that scenario, but it does mean that Arya is stuck looking like a miniature musketeer in Saving Private Ryan mode this episode. All she does is survive; she doesn’t even manage to save that one family which is clearly designed to represent all the innocents the Mad Queen is slaughtering. Seeing a life beyond revenge is wonderful for Arya but, overall, it felt (again) a rushed turnabout and a waste.

The only saving grace is that if we see Sansa on the throne next week (as I still predict), this sojourn of her sister’s could pre-empt the idea that the Starks are the only house in Westeros that will truly look out for the little folk. That seed has already been planted with Sansa telling Dany the men need to rest before the next battle and making the sensible points about food stores. SC

The implausibly rapid descent into evil

This brings us onto the episode’s biggest failing: Daenerys’s descent into Targaryen madness. The ingredients of a great character arc were all here: the tyrant killer becomes the tyrant and the daughter becomes her father (as indicated by the green fires exploding among the dragon fire in King's Landing). Daenerys burns the capital. This was the entire show’s big pay off.

But, yet again, there has been no compelling build-up. Her advisers say Daenerys has been hanging in her chamber, not eating; Jon then rejects her advances, she decides to choose “fear”, then burns thousands of innocent men, women and children. The only real insight into her mental health came in the segment that reiterates what happened in the last episode, as prophetic memories played over her looking angry. The writers have crammed a Walter White-esque descent into a few pages of script.

When Arya shuts Dany’s green eyes forever next episode, and Game of Thrones finally ends, we will be witnessing the end of a show that botched the character arcs of many of its best characters. Viewers will wonder what could have been. WB

This article was originally published by WIRED UK