(Unbefriedigende) Antwort von »Maischberger«

Auf meine Mail an die Redaktion der ARD-Sendung »Maischberger« (https://sascha-kersken.de/2024/01/23/auch-die-ard-braucht-feedback-zu-ihrem-naziproblem/) habe ich nach über zwei Wochen wider Erwarten doch noch eine Antwort erhalten. Da sie gemäß dem folgenden Absatz nicht an mich persönlich erfolgte, sondern auf alle derartigen Mails eingeht, erlaube ich mir, sie im Folgenden zu zitieren und zu kommentieren.

Bitte erlauben Sie uns, dass wir mit dieser Erwiderung auf Ihr Schreiben versuchen wollen, die wesentlichen Punkte, die in der großen Mehrzahl der Schreiben angesprochen wurden, zusammenhängend zu beantworten.

Dass Leute es nach dem allgemeinen Bekanntwerden der Deportations- (und, wenn wir ehrlich sind, letztlich wieder Vernichtungs-) Pläne der AfD nicht ertragen, den Chef-Deporteur (und, wenn wir ehrlich sind, letztlich wieder -Vernichter) auf dem gemütlichen Talkshow-Sofa zu sehen, erkennen sie immerhin noch an:

Gerade im Hinblick auf die Demonstrationen gegen Rechtsextremismus in der jüngsten Zeit haben uns viele unserer Zuschauerinnen und Zuschauer Unverständnis und auch Bestürzung zur Einladung von Herrn Chrupalla entgegengebracht.

Die nachfolgende Behauptung halte ich dagegen für äußerst unglaubwürdig:

Bitte seien Sie versichert, dass wir die Einladung von Herrn Chrupalla, wie alle Gästeeinladungen, sehr gründlich und in langen Diskussionen in der Redaktion abgewogen haben.

Schon im nächsten Absatz geht das Ganze in hufeisenförmige Äquidistanz über, die glaubwürdiger ist – und völlig verantwortungslos. »Zuschauerinnen und Zuschauer, die auf diesen Demonstrationen […] ihre Sorgen […] zum Ausdruck bringen« und »Zuschauer […], die ihre Fragen an unsere Gesellschaft gerade bei der AfD aufgehoben sehen« – szenetypisch offenbar (fast) nur Männer und/oder mit Verzicht auf (selbst binäre) Gendermarkierung – sind für »Maischberger« offenbar gleichermaßen ernstzunehmende Gruppen, und keine von ihnen scheint für sie eine Gefahr für die liberale, rechtsstaatliche Demokratie darzustellen, ohne die eine Sendung wie die ihre gar nicht stattfinden könnte. Zuletzt wird es praktisch noch als Tugend gepriesen, dass »alle anderen, die sich weder der einen noch der anderen Gruppe zugehörig fühlen, aber sich ein Meinungsbild machen wollen« sich aufgrund der »Neutralität« der Sendung frei für die Freiheit oder für eine Nazidiktatur entscheiden können (was im zweiten Fall vermutlich die letzte freie Entscheidung ihres Lebens wäre).

Als öffentlich-rechtlicher Sender sind wir grundsätzlich zu einer ausgewogenen Berichterstattung verpflichtet. Immer laden wir unsere Gäste themenbezogen und nach journalistischen Kriterien ein.Auch hier hat die Redaktion „maischberger“ intensiv abgewogen, wie sie die aktuellen Fragen zur AfD journalistisch thematisiert. Dabei hatten wir die Zuschauerinnen und Zuschauer im Blick, die auf diesen Demonstrationen ihre Sorgen bzw. Kritik auch gegenüber der AfD zum Ausdruck bringen. Umgekehrt hatten wir auch die Zuschauer im Blick, die ihre Fragen an unsere Gesellschaft gerade bei der AfD aufgehoben sehen. Und weiter auch alle anderen, die sich weder der einen noch der anderen Gruppe zugehörig fühlen, aber sich ein Meinungsbild machen wollen. In der Sendung vom 23. Januar 2024 haben wir daher die Positionen der AfD kritisch diskutiert und dazu auch einem Vertreter der AfD Raum zur Positionierung geben.

Der anschließend beschriebene und verlinkte Faktencheck widmet sich praktisch ausschließlich den Nebelkerzen von Chrupalla und anderen Nazis – und gibt ihnen teilweise auch noch recht. Bei der Transparentaufschrift »AfDler töten.« stellte sich Frau Maischberger im zitierten Sendungsausschnitt und stellt sich die »Maischberger«-Redaktion auch im Faktencheck absichtlich dumm und tut so, als sei der Satz ausschließlich als Imperativ zu verstehen. Dabei handelt es sich um die nun einmal wahre Feststellung, dass der AfD zuzurechnende Personenkreise Tötungsdelikte begangen haben (der Mörder des CDU-Politikers Walter Lübcke war beispielsweise Veranstaltungsbesucher, Wahlkampfhelfer und Spender der AfD) und – wenn sie je an die Macht kämen – noch begehen würden. Das Ganze wurde anhand der »Nazis töten.«-Aufkleber und -Plakate der Satirepartei »Die PARTEI« auch bereits hinlänglich juristisch durchexerziert (vgl. etwa https://www.lto.de/recht/nachrichten/n/vg-chemnitz-7l39521-wahlplakate-zulssigkeit-die-partei-satire-haengt-die-gruenen/).

Viele unserer Zuschauerinnen und Zuschauer sprechen uns auch auf Punkte an, die sie inhaltlich kritisieren. So weisen sie darauf hin, dass Herr Chrupalla in der Sendung etwa ein Bild von einer Demonstration in Aachen anspricht, auf dem ein Demonstrationsplakat mit der Aufschrift „AfDler töten“ zu sehen ist. Unter anderem diesen Punkt haben wir direkt am Tag nach der Sendung in unserem Faktencheck beleuchtet. Insgesamt wurden drei Themenpunkte aus dem Gespräch mit Tino Chrupalla und Olaf Sundermeyer in unserem Faktencheck analysiert:

  1. Wie finanziert sich das Recherchezentrum Correctiv?
  2. Wurde auf einer Demo in Aachen ein Transparent mit der Aufschrift “AfDler töten” gezeigt?
  3. Hat die Tagesschau von “Deportationen” gesprochen?

Vielleicht mögen Sie das nachlesen. Hier finden Sie unseren Faktencheck:

https://www.daserste.de/information/talk/maischberger/faktencheck/faktencheck-maischberger-468.html

Zum Schluss werden alle Kritiker*innen noch pauschal mit Einzelnen in einen Topf geworfen, die der Redaktion Unflätigkeiten bis Drohungen geschickt haben. Dabei ist davon auszugehen, dass diese ganz überwiegend aus rechten Kreisen kamen, die fanden, dass ihr Oberbonze dort »unfair« behandelt worden sei. Ein weiterer Grund, warum Talkshows keine Nazis einladen sollten.

Unser ausdrücklicher Dank geht an alle Zuschauerinnen und Zuschauer, die uns und unsere Sendung in dieser Weise kritisch begleiten.

Erlauben Sie uns bitte abschließend, noch ein weiteres Thema anzusprechen.

Tagtäglich lesen wir die Rückmeldungen unseres Publikums und versuchen stets Anregungen und Kritik für die Vorbereitung unserer nächsten Sendungen zu berücksichtigen.

Leider erreichen uns immer wieder und so auch gerade zur Sendung vom 23. Januar 2024 und zur Einladung von Herrn Chrupalla Zuschriften mit unangemessenen Inhalten. Wir haben auch hier lange abgewogen, ob wir dies ansprechen wollen, zumal das Thema dann auf diesem Wege auch unsere kritischen Zuschauerinnen und Zuschauer erreicht, die uns ihre Kritik sachbezogen und konstruktiv übermitteln, auch hier noch einmal danke dafür.

Wir beziehen uns auf Inhalte, die wir leider nicht anders beschreiben können, als mit dem Wort „obszön“, Inhalte die auf einer persönlichen Ebene beleidigend sind und sogar solche, die offen Drohungen aussprechen gegen Personen und von uns – zum Schutze der Personen – juristisch geprüft werden müssen. Wir möchten es uns und vor allem auch Ihnen ersparen, hier Beispiele zu nennen. Solche Inhalte zeigen eine Form von Respektlosigkeit, die uns mit großer Sorge erfüllt. Solche Beiträge sollten, nein dürften, in einer inhaltsbezogenen Auseinandersetzung, in der berechtigt unterschiedliche Positionen thematisiert werden, keinen Platz haben – auch dann nicht, wenn Frust und Ärger Motor für solche Beiträge sind.

Wir hoffen auf Ihr Verständnis, dass wir auch diesen Aspekt der bei uns eingegangenen Zuschriften hier einmal ansprechen wollen. 

Und zum Schluss das hier. Danke, aber nein danke. Ich weiß, warum ich solche Sendungen nicht einschalte.

Wir freuen uns, wenn Sie uns auch weiterhin kritisch dienstags und mittwochs um 22:50 Uhr im Ersten begleiten und verbleiben […]

Insgesamt eine äußerst unbefriedigende Antwort, die darauf schließen lässt, dass die Redaktion der Ansicht ist, alles richtig gemacht zu haben. Auch künftig werden sie wohl ihre warmen Sofaplätze an Nazis vergeben, die dort unter Unbedarften noch mehr Anhänger als bisher sammeln können (»sitzt doch im Fernsehen, wird also legitim sein – und ein paar Sachen, die er sagt, sind ja nicht falsch!«) und uns letztlich vernichten werden. Dass die Redaktion von »Maischberger« dann auch aufgelöst und wahrscheinlich (mindestens) eingesperrt wird, ist leider kein Trost.

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Auch die ARD braucht Feedback zu ihrem Naziproblem!

Habe der Redaktion von »Maischberger« (WDR) soeben auch eine E-Mail geschickt, da dort heute Abend der rechtsextreme Politiker Tino Chrupalla auftreten soll. Volltext folgt.

“Guten Tag,

aus den sozialen Medien habe ich erfahren, dass an Ihrer heutigen Sendung der AfD-Bundessprecher Tino Chrupalla teilnehmen wird. Da wird die Frage erlaubt sein: Warum? Was versprechen Sie sich davon, den Vorsitzenden einer Partei, die im Ganzen ein rechtsextremer Verdachtsfall und in seinem Landesverband (Sachsen) gesichert rechtsextrem [1] ist, zu befragen? Zumal der Aufbau Ihrer Sendung, wie der all der bekannten Polit-Talkshows, es noch nicht einmal möglich macht, den erwiesenen Lügen und Beschwichtigungen, die dieser Herr wie üblich äußern wird, mit der gebotenen Schärfe zu widersprechen und die von ihm verdrehten Fakten gerade zu rücken.

Ich halte ich die weitere Normalisierung der Positionen dieser Partei schon seit Jahren für völlig verantwortungslos. Nun, da auch einer breiteren Öffentlichkeit die Pläne der AfD bekannt geworden sind, und da große Mengen von Menschen endlich offen sagen, dass sie damit nicht einverstanden sind, sollte auch in den demokratischen Parteien und den (nicht nur, aber insbesondere) öffentlich-rechtlichen Medien ein Umdenken stattfinden: Viel zu lange haben diese Parteien und Medien sich die Themen (insbesondere Migration und Asyl) als vermeintlich besonders wichtig von den Rechtsextremen diktieren lassen, und oft genug werden sogar die vermeintlichen Lösungsvorschläge übernommen (Scholz: „endlich in großem Stil abschieben“), solange sie im Gegensatz zu den noch extremeren Plänen der AfD gerade noch verfassungskonform sind (wobei sogar das vom Bundesverfassungsgericht überprüft werden müsste). Es sollte endlich zu viel drängenderen Problemen (Klimakatastrophe, Wohnungsnot, für Normalverdiendende immer unbezahlbarere Mieten und Lebenshaltungskosten) und möglichen Lösungen dafür übergegangen werden.

Jedenfalls fordere ich Sie als Beitragszahler auf, Herrn Chrupalla für die heutige Sendung kurzfristig auszuladen und auch künftig sicherzustellen, dass keine AfD-Politiker*innen mehr dort auftreten. Es ist gut, dass viele Menschen sich auf den Straßen und online für den Erhalt unserer liberalen Demokratie einsetzen. Aber wir können das nicht allein stemmen, wenn die gemeinschaftlich von uns finanzierten Medien in diesem Punkt beinahe systematisch gegen uns arbeiten.

Seit spätestens 2014 (Pegida-Gründung) heißt es allenthalben, rechtsextreme Demonstrant*innen seien „besorgte Bürger“, deren Sorgen man ernst nehmen müsse. Dies geschieht auch in Form einer Ayslrechtsverschärfung nach der anderen und in Form von Grausamkeiten gegen Arme (vollständiger Entzug des Bürgergeldes für vermeintliche „Faulpelze“). Mittel- und Unterschicht werden mit anderen Worten fragmentiert und gegeneinander aufgehetzt, während die Gewinne der Großkonzerne und ihrer Aktionär*innen astronomische Steigerungen erfahren. Wer nimmt endlich die Sorgen aller Menschen ernst, die nicht rechtsextrem sind, sondern im Gegenteil in Würde leben und leben lassen wollen?

Mit freundlichen Grüßen

Sascha Kersken

[1] https://www.tagesschau.de/inland/innenpolitik/verfassungsschutz-afd-sachsen-rechtsextremistisch-100.html

Volltext der E-Mail in der Optik meines Mailprogramms
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Die öffentlich-rechtlichen Medien und die rechtsextreme AfD

Habe eben eine E-Mail an den Zuschauerservice des ZDF geschrieben, weil ich denke, dass nicht nur die – zurzeit Demos in eindrucksvoller Größe organisierende – Bevölkerung eine Verpflichtung hat, dem drohenden Faschismus entgegenzutreten, sondern auch und vor allem die – insbesondere öffentlich-rechtlichen – Medien. Gerade sie sollten wissen, was eine faschistische Machtübernahme für die Pressefreiheit bedeuten würde.

Es folgt der Volltext.

“Guten Morgen,

in Ihrer Sendung „Morgenmagazin“ wurde heute Morgen der beginnende Vorwahlkampf in drei östlichen Bundesländern thematisiert. Dabei wurden Georg Maier (SPD) aus Thüringen und ein AfD-Politiker aus Brandenburg mit der Kamera begleitet, als sei der AfD-Mann ebenso wie Maier ein demokratischer Bewerber um ein Mandat. Und obwohl im gezeigten AfD-Büroflur ein Plakat für sogenannte „Remigration“ (Deportation und/oder – wie wir aus der Geschichte wissen – letztlich Ermordung aller, die den Rechtsextremen nicht passen) warb, durfte er unwidersprochen behaupten, das sei doch gar nicht Programm seiner Partei.

Dies ist nur ein aktuelles Beispiel eines aktuellen, aus mehreren problematischen Komponenten bestehenden Trends in den (nicht nur öffentlich-rechtlichen) Medien:

1. Die AfD wird immer wieder zu verschiedensten Sachthemen befragt, als sei sie eine demokratische Partei, die mit den anderen demokratischen Parteien um die beste politische Lösung für Probleme wetteifert. Dies geschieht sogar in den Bundesländern, in denen die dortigen Verfassungsschutzbehörden die Partei als gesichert rechtsextrem eingestuft haben.

2. Bei AfD-Politiker*innen (und nicht nur bei denen) wird in Interviews nur selten kritisch nachgehakt. Bei einer schwammigen, ablenkenden oder gar nicht erfolgten Antwort wird einfach zur nächsten Frage weitergesprungen. (Nicht-AfD-Beispiel: Frau Hayali fragte Herrn Söder nach dessen Vize Aiwanger, der die großen, aus allen Teilen der Bevölkerung getragenen Anti-AfD-Demos der letzten Tage ohne Beleg als „linksextrem unterwandert“ bezeichnete, Söder ging nicht darauf ein, es ging einfach mit einer anderen Frage weiter.) Dabei gibt es gerade in Ihrem Haus Journalist*innen, die wissen, wie es geht: Legendär, wie Theo Koll den damals neu gewählten AfD-Bundessprecher Chrupalla vorführte. Oder das Interview, das Höcke empört abbrach. Oder die vielen harten, aber fairen (no pun intended) Interviews von Marietta Slomka im heute-journal.

3. Besonders in Textmeldungen besteht die „Nachricht“ allzu oft darin, die wörtliche Rede einer Person aus Politik oder Wirtschaft mit ein paar „sagte er/sie“ garniert oder als indirekte Rede wiederzugeben. Ohne Einordnung und Kontext. Das ist mit Verlaub kein Journalismus, sondern PR.

4. Spätestens seit Amtsantritt der Ampel-Koalition wird das Thema Migration und Asyl für viel zu wichtig und problematisch erklärt. Medien und demokratische Parteien übernehmen damit das Themen-Setting der Rechtsextremen – und oft genug sogar deren vermeintliche Lösungen oder zumindest den (wahrscheinlich) gerade noch verfassungskonformen Teil derselben. Das nützt ausschließlich den Rechtsextremen, denn es ist ihr Thema – wer die Rechtsextremen bekämpfen will, darf es nicht künstlich wichtiger machen, als es ist. Zumal Einwanderung dringend gebraucht wird, und wenn Deutschland sich nicht als weltoffenes, sondern als rassistisches Land präsentiert, kommen keine freiwilligen Arbeitsmigrant*innen. Umso eher sollte man dann Geflüchtete willkommen heißen, die oft Mut und Zähigkeit bei ihrer Flucht bewiesen haben, sehr ehrgeizig sind – aber aufgrund veralteter Gesetze nicht arbeiten dürfen.

5. Auch in Medien wird immer noch allzu oft die „Hufeisentheorie“ bemüht, nach der es eine „gute Mitte“ und „schlechte Ränder“ gebe. Nun ist jedoch selbst die demokratische Linke in diesem Land weitgehend marginalisiert, während die Rechtsextremen einen Umfragerekord nach dem anderen einfahren und bereits erste Landrats- und Bürgermeisterämter erobert haben. Ebenso ist es unverantwortlich, als wie „kriminell“ Klimaaktivist*innen dargestellt werden, während „Ungeimpft“-Judensterne tragende Quer“denker“ und mit „Ampel-Galgen“ demonstrierende Bauern als „besorgte Bürger“ in Ruhe gelassen bis angefeuert werden.

Zu diesem gefährlichen Zeitpunkt der Weltgeschichte, zu dem sich etwa Donald Trump anschickt, erneut Präsident der Vereinigten Staaten zu werden, müssen wenigstens wir unsere liberale Demokratie verteidigen. Die Medien tragen dabei eine entscheidende Mitverantwortung. Als Beitragszahler für den öffentlich-rechtlichen Rundfunk erwarte ich, dass zumindest er dieser Verantwortung gerecht wird.

Schöne Grüße
Sascha Kersken

P.S.: Dies ist ein offener Brief, den ich in meinen Social-Media-Accounts (Facebook, BlueSky und Threads) veröffentlichen werde.”

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Blauschwarzes Sachsen, schwarzblaues Bayern?

Nennt mich von mir aus paranoid — auch ich selbst hasse es, bei politischen Prognosen Recht zu haben. Aber das Verhalten von Kretschmer deute ich so, dass er die sächsische CDU für die nächste Wahl schon mal prophylaktisch als Juniorpartner der AfD positioniert. Die CDU wird dann “notgedrungen, aus landespolitischer Verantwortung” in diese Koalition eintreten, “um Schlimmeres zu verhindern”. Denn Kretschmer mag ebenso ineffizient sein wie seine drei Amtsvorgänger, wenn es darum geht, auch nur das Geringste gegen die gewachsenen rechtsradikalen Strukturen in seinem Bundesland zu tun — aber dumm ist er nicht. Er weiß, dass die AfD in den neuen Bundesländern, und davon insbesondere in seinem, mittlerweile stärkste Kraft ist und dort vermutlich auch die Landtagswahl gewinnen wird (was natürlich nicht zuletzt durch sein inkompetentes Herumgehampel verursacht wird). Vermutlich wird die CDU der AfD in 3-4 Punkten “Abmilderungen” im insgesamt absolut widerwärtigen (und, wie sich nach dem üblichen viel zu langsamen Mahlen der juristischen Mühlen der juristischen Mühlen herausstellen wird, auch in wesentlichen Teilen verfassungswidrigen) Koalitionsvertrag abtrotzen.

Noch davor befürchte ich Schwarzblau in Bayern. Die CSU gibt sich exorbitant viel Mühe, alle anderen infrage kommenden Koalitionspartner zu verprellen, dass sie ebenfalls “notgedrungen” mit der AfD wird koalieren “müssen”.

Im Moment bin ich noch für Hierbleiben und Kämpfen (zumal die Liste möglicher Auswanderungsziele angesichts des beinahe globalen Rechtsrucks immer kürzer wird), aber man wird sehen müssen. Jedenfalls müssen die Parteien links von der Union und die nicht rechtsrandigen Teile der CDU endlich ausdrücklich Farbe gegen die unsäglichen rechtsradikalen Umtriebe in dieser Republik bekennen, wenn Demokratie und Zivilisation gerettet werden sollen. Ich befürchte allerdings, dass das nicht geschehen wird, weil Wirtschaftsverbände schon seit Jahren immer deutlicher sagen, dass Demokratie beim effizienten Ausbeuten störe.

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Der lange Weg nach unten

Allzu viele Nachrichten, die man liest, machen eines klar: vor gut 16 Jahren, mit 9/11 und den Reaktionen der Regierungen Bush und Blair darauf, begann eine Kettenreaktion zivilisatorischer Rückschritte, die man so nicht für möglich gehalten hätte und die jeden, der an Demokratie und universellen Menschenrechten interessiert bleibt, mehr als beschämen muss. Die allgegenwärtige Abschaffung von Bürgerrechten zugunsten des “Supergrundrechts Sicherheit”, der Aufstieg Rechtsautoritärer wie Putin, Orban, Duterte, Trump, Erdogan oder der AfD, die absolute Verachtung und Aushungerung Armer bei gleichzeitigen Rekordgewinnen von Unternehmen und -einnahmen von Staaten, das Abtun des Klimawandels wider besseres Wissen, die systematische Verdummung durch Bildungs”reformen”, die vor allem kein Geld mehr für öffentliche Bildung ausgeben wollen — das alles und noch mehr sind Symptome für diese Abwärtsspirale. Um sie zu stoppen und umzukehren, wären ein entsprechendes Wissen in der Weltbevölkerung und ein energischer Mehrheitswille erforderlich. Jeden Tag in der realen Welt und in sozialen Medien dagegen anzurennen und zu -schreien, explizit nicht mitzumachen in der Gewalt- und Verdummungsmaschinerie und das laut und deutlich zu sagen sowie das kleine Bisschen gegen die Ungerechtigkeit zu tun, das man als Mittelschichtsmensch, der auf das nächste Monatseinkommen angewiesen ist, eben tun kann, das ist alles gut und schön und richtig und wichtig, genügt aber wahrscheinlich ebensowenig, als würde man einen Eiswürfel in einen Vulkankrater werfen, um diesen am Ausbruch zu hindern.

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Was man mit der AfD hätte machen sollen, solange es noch ging

In den Rechtsaußen-Bezirken der Politik ist seit jeher shady business zu beobachten, in direkter Kontinuität von Tätern der NS-Diktatur zu ihren geistigen und manchmal sogar leiblichen Nachkommen sowie interessierten kapitalistischen Kreisen, die schon die ursprünglichen Nazis finanziert haben, unter anderem weil es nützlich ist, unzufriedenen Arbeitern sagen zu können: “Da, der Jude/Ausländer/Flüchtling ist schuld!!!!!!1!!!11!!”. Dieser lesenswerte Artikel geht ein paar Spuren der fragwürdigen und möglicherweise in Teilen illegalen Finanzierung der AfD nach. Und hier werden ein paar ihrer Bundestagskandidaten mit ihren widerwärtigen politischen Positionen vorgestellt.

Bevor man endgültig Normen verändernde Fakten schafft, indem man zulässt, dass die gefährliche faschistische Partei AfD nach dem Einzug in etliche Landtage auch noch in den Deutschen Bundestag gewählt wird, hätte eigentlich folgendes Verfahren angewendet werden müssen:

  1. Die AfD wird per Einstweiliger Verfügung des Bundesverfassungsgerichts vorläufig verboten. Die dadurch eben nicht mehr “irrelevante” NPD auch.
  2. Die Bundestagswahl wird um so viele Wochen verschoben, wie es nötig ist, neue Wahlzettel zu drucken, auf denen AfD und NPD nicht mehr vorkommen.
  3. Alle Indizien gegen AfD und NPD werden gründlich geprüft – es ist davon auszugehen, dass ein endgültiges Verbot gerechtfertigt ist. Wenn man den lächerlichen Popanz des “Kampfs gegen links”, den de Maizière und zum Teil sogar Maas betreiben, aufgibt, ergeben sich auch genügend freie Ressourcen, um das Ganze zügig und gründlich zu bearbeiten.
  4. Nach dem endgültigen Verbot dieser faschistischen Organisationen werden ihre Vermögen eingezogen und an die zahlreichen Opfer rechtsextremer Gewalt ausgezahlt.
  5. Individuelle PolitikerInnen dieser Parteien werden nach Maßgabe ihres individuellen Beitrags zu Volksverhetzung, Aufstachelung zu Straftaten, Beleidigung etc. strafrechtlich verfolgt, vor Gericht gestellt und bei Feststellung einer entsprechenden Schuld rechtsstaatlich korrekt verurteilt.
  6. Sollten einige der radikaleren Neonazis und/oder Pegida-Anhänger das Verbot ihres politischen Arms zum Anlass nehmen, einen vermeintlichen “Bürgerkrieg” anzuzetteln, ist ebenfalls der Rechtsstaat gefragt, sie im Zaum zu halten. Das könnte zumindest der Versuch einer Wiedergutmachung für die Versäumnisse beim Pogrom von Rostock-Lichtenhagen und ähnlichen Vorfällen vor 25 Jahren sein: wären die Behörden damals konsequent gegen die Täter und ihr johlendes, hitlergrüßendes und sich in die Hose pissendes Publikum eingeschritten, gäbe es heute vielleicht überhaupt keine AfD oder Pegida.
  7. Die künftige Bundesregierung – wie auch immer sie zusammengesetzt ist – muss, um glaubwürdig zu sein, eine konsequent antinationalistische, antichauvinistische, antirassistische, feministische und LGBT-freundliche, mithin antifaschistische, Politik betreiben. Zu guter Letzt muss diese Politik auch antikapitalistisch oder zumindest stark reformorientiert sein, denn Kapitalismus und Faschismus bestärken einander in einem endlosen Teufelskreis.

Natürlich ist das alles nur ein schöner Traum, denn man scheint ja bis weit in die Mitte der Sozialdemokratie hinein immer noch den alten Glaubenssatz herunterzubeten: “Der Feind steht links.” Insofern: genießen wir die letzten drei Tage in Freiheit, bevor erstmals seit Gründung der Bundesrepublik eine zu überwiegenden Teilen offen rassistische, nationalistische, chauvinistische, homophobe und frauenfeindliche, also kurz gesagt faschistische, Partei in den Bundestag einzieht und nachhaltig das politische Klima vergiftet. Und schaut euren Abgeordneten auf die Finger, insbesondere denen von CxU und FDP: nicht den geringsten Versuch des Fraternisierens mit der AfD-Fraktion darf man ihnen unwidersprochen durchgehen lassen!

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Incompetent Leaders Refusing to Fight Forces of Nature?

We’ve seen it both in the real world and, recently, in the Seven Kingdoms. Some leaders think that climate change (global warming in our world, global cooling in Westeros) is just a hoax made up by their foes. Some of them even tweet about it:

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You Can Win A “Game of Thrones” Season 7 Blu Ray/DVD Box!

Now that Season 7 has come and gone and I have covered each episode in a recap blog post, you can enter a little giveaway reading these posts. Here’s how it works:

There’s a Harry Potter reference in each of the seven blog posts (starting here). Write an email to contest@sascha-kersken.de and write down a list containing all seven of these references, in the following format:

“Episode 1: [Quote]
Episode 2: [Quote]…”

Out of all participants who answer correctly until September 30, 2017, one lucky person will win a Blu Ray or DVD box of “Game of Thrones”, Season 7 (similar to the image below) that will probably come out in December 2017. Please include in your mail whether you would like Blu Rays or DVDs.

To be eligible to win, you must reside in a country that Amazon delivers to. I will choose the localised version of the box from the Amazon that is closest to your country.

If you should spoil the solution in the comments to this post or to my social media posts about the contest, I will delete said comment, and you will be excluded from a chance to win. Recourse to the courts is not permitted.

Have fun, and good luck everyone!

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Game of Thrones Season 7 Recaps: Episode 7, “The Dragon and the Wolf”

Hi everyone and welcome to the seventh of the weekly episode recaps I’m doing for the new season of my favourite television series, „Game of Thrones“. These recaps contain MASSIVE SPOILERS, so please proceed with caution: DO NOT READ if you haven’t seen the episode yet and intend to do so later.

Kings Landing

The army of the Unsullied is standing in front of the city walls of Kings Landing. On top of the battlements, Bronn and Jaime are supervising the Lannister army’s preparations. In other words, both sides have taken certain precautions just in case something should go wrong with the negotiations. Bronn wonders what motivates the Unsullied, as eunuchs, to fight in the first place. He also notices that Tyrion has sided with them, to which Jaime replies that he “has always been a champion of the downtrodden”. A war horn sounds, and the Unsullied are joined by an enormous horde of Dothraki on horseback. “I think we’re about to be the downtrodden”, Bronn remarks drily.
Jon, Tyrion, Davos, Missandei, Varys, Theon and many others arrive on a ship with Targaryen sails. Jon learns that there are a million people living in the city — more than in the entire North — and wonders why anyone would choose to live that way. “There’s more work in the city”, Tyrion explains, “and the brothels are far superior”. The Hound climbs below-deck and knocks on a heavy crate. It shakes heavily and a primal scream can be heard — the wight they captured during last week’s episode must be in there.
Meanwhile, Jaime has returned to the Red Keep where Cersei is talking to Qyburn. She wonders why Daenerys is not with all the other visitors and whether Tyrion is with them, which her Hand confirms. “If anything goes wrong”, the Queen commands the Mountain, “kill the silver-haired bitch first, then our brother, then the bastard who calls himself King”.
Jon’s group is on the foot march to the Dragon Pit, and they talk about how it came to be, protecting the city from the dragons the Targaryens could not allow to roam free. Tyrion thinks that it must have been a sad joke with the last few dragons, sickly creatures smaller than dogs, but “the most dangerous place in the world” in the day and age of Balerion the Dread. “Maybe it still is”, Davos jokes because a Lannister group is approaching from the other side. Brienne and Podrick are with them; Bronn, who is leading the soldiers, explains that they arrived earlier.
Tyrion and Podrick happily greet each other until Bronn urges them to walk on: “Come on. You can suck his magic cock later.” Then, the Hound and Brienne meet again; she last saw him when she left him for dead after defeating him in a duel. When he learns that Arya is alive at Winterfell, he asks who is protecting her when Brienne is so far away. “The only one that needs protecting is the one that gets in her way”, she answers. “It won’t be me”, the Hound decides.
Tyrion renews his offer to Bronn, to pay double of whatever the other side pays him. He also thinks that Bronn put himself at risk by arranging the meeting, but the former sellsword corrects him: he actually put Tyrion at risk and delivered two traitors right to Cersei’s door; she can chop their heads off if the meeting doesn’t go too well, “all thanks to Ser Bronn of the fucking Blackwater”.
When they arrive at the Dragon Pit, Sandor warns the soldiers about the crate with the wight, which is being pulled on a donkey cart: “Anyone touches it, I’ll kill you first.”
Everyone enters the ruins of the Dragon Pit. Jaime and Cersei arrive, too, with the Mountain, several other Frankensoldiers Qyburn has obviously created, as well as regular Lannister soldiers. Qyburn and Euron Greyjoy are with them. Sandor confronts his zombie brother and promises that he’ll be coming for him.
“Where is she?” Cersei asks impatiently. A moment later, Dany arrives on Drogon’s back, accompanied by Rhaegal. She dismounts, and the dragons take off to the air again. When Tyrion wants to start the formal meeting, he’s interrupted by Euron who reminds his nephew Theon that his sister Yara is his prisoner. “I think we ought to begin with larger concerns”, Tyrion takes up the original conversation again. “Then why are you talking?” the pirate asks. “You’re the smallest concern here.”
“We are a group of people who do not like each other”, Tyrion euphemistically takes up his speech for the third time. He explains that they’re perfectly capable of waging war on each other without meeting face to face. The gathering is about something much more important, Jon explains. “The same thing is coming for all of us: a general you can’t negotiate with, an army that doesn’t leave corpses on the battlefield. Lord Tyrion tells me a million people live in this city. They’re about to become a million more soldiers in the army of the dead.” — “I imagine for most of them it will be an improvement”, Cersei jokes. She realises that Jon and Daenerys are asking for a truce during which the other armies can defeat the White Walkers. She fears that it’s all a trick and that if she agrees, the joint Targaryen/Stark armies will come back to conquer the capital. Daenerys promises that they won’t, but Cersei scornfully says: “The word of a would-be usurper.”
Instead of arguing any longer, Tyrion says that they have something to show Cersei, and the Hound brings in the crate with the wight. He opens it, but for quite a while, nothing happens. It almost looks like the things slowly cease to be animated in the South, and a smirking Cersei seems to think that they’re all taking her for an idiot. Sandor violently kicks at the crate, makes it tumble, and now the wight comes out, screaming, and lunges at Cersei, yanked back only by a heavy chain around its neck. The Hound cuts it in half with his sword, but both head/torso and hips/legs continue to move independently. Now even Cersei looks a bit worried, while Qyburn stands up and walks toward the wight with a fascinated look on his face. He picks up the thing’s moving hand that Sandor has cut off next. Jon takes it from him and sets it ablaze, demonstrating that they can be defeated by burning them or using dragonglass, which he uses to kill the wight for good. “If we don’t win the fight”, he explains, “that is the fate of any person in the world”.
Euron walks up to the ex-wight and asks: “Can they swim?” When Jon denies that, the pirate decides that he will take the Iron Fleet back to the Iron Islands: “I’ve been around the world, but this […] is the only thing I’ve ever seen that terrifies me.” And off he walks. “The crown accepts your truce”, Cersei declares, “until the dead are defeated. They are the true enemy”. In return she demands that Jon remains in the North and won’t take sides in the Lannister/Targaryen conflict: “I know Ned Stark’s son will be true to his word.” He replies: “I am true to my word, or I try to be.” Meaning exactly what he just said, he explains that he has already pledged himself to Daenerys. His true Stark heritage shines through; his allies must think that he shows exactly the same traits that got Ned killed, and Cersei walks off with all of her court, saying: “Then there is nothing left to discuss.” Brienne tries to sway Jaime: “Fuck loyalty. This goes beyond Houses and honour and oaths. Talk to the Queen.”
When the Lannisters are gone, Daenerys and Tyrion both tell Jon that they’re disappointed; Tyrion thinks that Jon should have learned to lie, while the King in the North insists that stacking lie upon lie will never build anything stable. Tyrion makes a very brave decision: he will go to the Red Keep alone and try to talk to his sister (who probably still wants him dead for murdering their father).
When he arrives, Jaime has just left her chambers because she kicked him out after not listening. “I think we should just say goodbye”, he concludes, “one idiot to another”.
“I shouldn’t be surprised”, his sister greets him in her unique style. “She’s your kind of woman: a foreign whore who doesn’t know her place.” They argue about Tyrion killing Tywin, especially because Cersei thinks that his death was what got her two remaining children killed. Tyrion lists all the thing he did that she would consider crimes and challenges her to have the Mountain kill him immediately. Interestingly enough, she won’t. Tyrion helps himself to some wine. He slowly realises that she, unlike usually, doesn’t drink any. And when she holds her belly during the ongoing conversation, he understands: “You’re pregnant.”
Jon and Dany talk about the decline of her family, for which locking up the dragons in the very place they’re standing in was just a symptom. She also repeats that she can’t have children, but he thinks that “the witch who murdered [her] husband” might not be the most reliable source of information. In any case, they conclude: “We’re fucked” because of Cersei’s decision. But right then, Tyrion comes back, and Cersei, Jaime, Qyburn and several Frankensoldiers follow him. Apparently, Tyrion has managed the unimaginable: Cersei has decided to send her armies north and to fight the dead alongside the other armies. “Call our banners”, she commands, “all of them”.

At a later day, Jaime is discussing the march north with his generals. Cersei comes in and wants a word alone with him. “I always knew you were the stupidest Lannister”, she tells him. She says that she had never planned to cooperate with the Targaryens and the Starks, but to betray them. “This isn’t about Noble Houses”, Jaime tries to argue, “this is about the living and the dead.” His sister says that she intends to stay amongst the living. “I made a promise”, Jaime says. “Let the monsters kill each other”, Cersei counters. “And then we rule.” The Queen finally reveals to her brother that Euron didn’t really run away from the fight, but he’s sailing the Iron Fleet to Essos to pick up the Golden Company. “No one walks away from me”, she concludes. A moment later, Jaime intends to do exactly that. Ser Gregor gets in his way, and just like Tyrion, he tells her to give the order if she really intends to have him killed. She doesn’t, and Jaime gets the hell out of Kings Landing on horseback to ride north and to honour his pledge. As soon as he has left the city, the first snowflakes fall. Winter has come even to the South.

Winterfell

Littlefinger is playing his favourite game: make Sansa suspicious of her family. This time about Jon and his motivation to bend the knee to Daenerys, and possibly to marry her. “He was named King in the North”, Baelish whispers to Sansa, “he can be unnamed”. When she argues that Arya would never agree to it and murder everyone who betrays her family, he once again tries to play Sansa against her sister, too: “Sometimes when I try to understand a person’s motives, I play a little game: I assume the worst.” The worst reason for Arya to come back to Winterfell could be to murder Sansa, she muses in front of Petyr.

Many days later, Sansa walks the battlements of Winterfell in a black cloak and hood and tells a guard: “Have my sister brought to the Great Hall.” There, she and Bran are sitting at the High Table when Arya is led into the Hall. Many Lords and knights are are gathered, including Littlefinger. It must look to everyone like Arya is standing trial. Baelish is smirking, and Arya asks Sansa: “Are you sure you want to do this?” — “It’s not what I want”, her sister answers. “It’s what honour demands.”
“You stand accused of murder”, Sansa continues, “you stand accused of treason. How do you answer these charges…” She takes a long break during which Petyr’s smirk intensifies. And then Sansa finishes the sentence: “Lord Baelish?” His look is surprised, shocked even, while Arya looks quite pleased and adds: “My sister asked you a question.”
Sansa clarifies that she accuses him of murdering her aunt, Lysa Arryn, as well as having conspired to poison her husband, Jon Arryn, with Lysa’s help before that. He tries to tell the Starks that Lysa was “a troubled woman”. Sansa, however, paints the whole picture of how he singlehandedly created the whole Lannister/Stark conflict, had their father murdered, and so on. “None of you was there”, he tries to tell them, but Bran tells him: “You held a knife to his [Ned’s] throat. You said, ‘I did warn you not to trust me’.” Arya goes on about the knife which was not Tyrion’s, like Baelish claimed, but his own.
Littlefinger clearly starts to feel desperate and tells Sansa that he could easily explain everything if only he could talk to her alone. She just coldly repeats his own words about assuming the worst to him. “That’s what you do”, she concludes, “turn family against family, turn sister against sister”. Baelish then tries to command Lord Yohn Royce to escort him back to the Vale, but of course the old knight just replies: “I think not.” So Petyr finally falls to his knees and begs Sansa for forgiveness. “I loved your mother since I was a boy”, he practically cries. “And yet you betrayed her”, the Lady of Winter fell answers. “I loved you!” — “And yet you betrayed me.”
With this implicit sentence, Arya steps forward and slits Littlefinger’s throat with the Valyrian Steel dagger that he once gave to the assassin he sent for Bran. He tries to say a final sentence, but then he collapses on the floor of the Great Hall.

Another few days later, Samwell, Gilly and Sam jr. arrive at Winterfell. Sam proceeds to talk to Bran immediately. He tells him that he came back to help Jon in the fight against the Night King’s army, and Bran replies that Jon is on his way back to Winterfell with Daenerys. “You saw this in a vision?” Sam asks, but Bran shows him a raven scroll. And then Sam learns the truth about Jon’s real parents: Rhaegar Targaryen and Lyanna Stark. Since he was born in Dorne, Bran concludes that his last name should really be Sand, not Snow. But Sam remembers the information about Rhaegar’s annulment and remarriage in Dorne that Gilly found, and he concludes that Jon isn’t a bastard, but the true born heir to the Iron Throne.
Bran goes back to their wedding in a vision (we see that Rhaegar looks somewhat similar to his siblings, especially Viserys), and he confirms: “Robert’s Rebellion was built on a lie. Rhaegar didn’t kidnap my aunt or rape her. He loved her…” (cut to Jon who reluctantly knocks at Daenerys’s cabin door on the ship) “…and she loved him” (Daenerys opens the door). We also get full audio on Ned’s last encounter with his sister: “His real name is Aegon Targaryen. You need to protect him. Promise me, Ned. Promise me.” Meanwhile, in the here and now, said Aegon and his aunt Daenerys are consummating their alliance and their love. For some reason, Tyrion is walking up and down the corridor in front of the Queen’s cabin, looking very worried.
Arya and Sansa are standing on the battlements and discuss the aftermath of Littlefinger’s death. Arya tells Sansa that she did the right thing by passing the sentence on him. They have truly started to forgive and to understand each other. “When the snows fall and the white winds blow, the lone wolf dies, but the pack survives”, Sansa quotes her father’s words. “I miss him”, Arya says. “Me too”, Sansa answers.

Dragonstone

Back from Kings Landing, Daenerys plans her next moves with her allies and advisors at her castle. She agrees to Jon’s suggestion to sail to White Harbour together instead of heeding Jorah’s advice to fly there on her own for safety reasons: “I’ve not come to conquer the North. I’m coming to save the North.”
After that, Theon talks to Jon; he thinks that back when they were young, Jon was the only one who always knew what was the right thing to do. Theon argues that choosing between Stark and Greyjoy was impossible for him, which made it hard for him to try and do the right thing. Jon says that Ned was more of a father to Theon than his own father Balon ever was, and that Ned will always be a part of him despite the fact that Theon betrayed him. “It’s not my place to forgive all of it”, Jon says, “but what I can forgive I do”. Theon then decides to go and save his sister, just like she once tried to save him when he was Ramsay’s prisoner.
When he comes down to the beach and tells the remaining Ironborn of his plan, the commander who fished him out of the water weeks ago says that “she’s dead”. They want to leave and find their own island, just like Euron said he would leave. He spits into Theon’s face and insults him once more before he starts to seriously beat him up. But he hasn’t taken two factors into account: that Theon has a remarkable tolerance for pain (from his horrible experiences at Ramsay’s hands), and that a kick in the groin won’t fell him like it does to men with intact genitals. And so Theon wins the upper hand against all odds, leaves the commander for dead and tells everyone else to set sail for Yara’s rescue.

Eastwatch

Bran watches what is happening at the eastern end of the wall, warging into a flock of ravens as usual. Tormund, Beric and some other rangers are on top of the Wall when the army of the dead steps out of the frozen forest. They come to a halt in front of the Wall, but suddenly, the Night King appears on Zombie Viserion, flies over the Wall, and the beast breathes blue fire against it. The Wall starts to crumble and to fall. The rangers run down the stairs as fast as they can, but more and more fall to their death when part of the Wall comes down. The Night King’s army marches over the ruins and invades the Seven Kingdoms.

Takeaways

  • Did anyone really think that Cersei would agree to fight alongside her enemies? Of course she betrayed everyone and plans to conquer all of Westeros while they’re distracted fighting the zombie army. What she fails to understand, of course, is that each and every fallen Stark or Lannister soldier and any civilian who has the misfortune to cross their path will be added to the Night King’s forces. By the time they reach Kings Landing, they will crush the city like an avalanche.
  • Kudos to Theon for standing up to the commander and for his brave decision to try and save his sister.
  • Even greater kudos to Jaime for finally realising what his sister has become and for walking away from their toxic relationship.
  • Jon/Aegon’s true origins have now been fully revealed, and it will be interesting to see how he and his aunt/lover/Queen will react to the news. Since Targaryens used to wed brother to sister for centuries, a relationship between aunt and nephew wouldn’t even seem incestuous to Daenerys, but what would Jon think? And how does Dany feel about only being second in the line of succession? (Not that it really matters: Jon has pledged fealty to her and will stay true to his word even under the changed circumstances, and besides it looks like they will get married and be King and Queen anyway.)
  • One thing that has been pretty obvious for some time will now definitely happen: Jon will ride Rhaegal, the dragon named for his deceased father.
  • Littlefinger’s death was the most satisfying since Joffrey’s, even more so than Ramsay’s. He took the phrase “overstaying one’s welcome” to a whole new level. It’s also remarkable how masterfully the three remaining Stark siblings staged the whole event. A nice plot twist, too — not quite of “Prisoner of Azkaban” proportions, but still great.
  • Now the army of the dead is truly upon the Seven Kingdoms, and upon the living. It will take Jon’s and Daenerys’s full attention to try and defeat them. This may have been the main reason for Tyrion’s concerned look after Jon went into Dany’s cabin: how can they celebrate their young love when everyone is doomed and needs to fight for their lives?
  • Have Tormund, Beric or any others stayed alive through the collapse of the Eastwatch part of the Wall? I guess Tormund will (we need to see these monster babies who will conquer the world, or him joining Ser Jorah’s friend zone club if Brienne should end up with Jaime or no one), but Beric was warned by the Hound that he was on his last life, which now looks like foreshadowing.
  • Speaking of the Hound: Cleganebowl was teased this season, but hasn’t happened yet. There’s still hope that it will.
  • Will Arya travel to Kings Landing, wear Littlefinger’s face and give Queen Cersei the gift (preferably after Sandor has killed his big, bad brother, for he might be too much even for Arya)? After all, we don’t have the valonqar part of the prophecy on the show, and so the showrunners could go for it. In the books, my money is still on Jaime as the Queenslayer.
  • Speaking of which: What will come out first? Season 8 or “The Winds of Winter”? I’m not sure.

Conclusion

A solid finale to an overall good season, this episode deserves another five out of five Gold Dragons. And now the Long Night comes, in which we have to wait for the last season. Reports say that they will start shooting in October and that it may take up to 10 months, so I guess the release date will be late autumn of 2018 or even winter 2018/19.

The episode also fulfilled two of my predictions from last week: 1. The dagger which was passed around between the Stark siblings was indeed used to kill Littlefinger, and of course by the person everyone would have expected to do it (a nice story arc for Arya this season: she started it killing the remaining Freys and ended it removing one of the most dangerous players from the board, by her sister’s command). 2. The Night King has indeed both flown over the Wall on Viserion’s back and brought part of it down.

That’s it for the recaps, but I’ll be back next season with more of them. There will be one more followup article with conclusions for the current and predictions for the upcoming season. During the Long Night, I also plan to rewatch all seven seasons that have been released so far, and there will be posts about them, too.

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Game of Thrones Season 7 Recaps: Episode 6, “Beyond the Wall”

Hi everyone and welcome to the sixth of the weekly episode recaps I’m doing for the new season of my favourite television series, „Game of Thrones“. These recaps contain MASSIVE SPOILERS, so please proceed with caution: DO NOT READ if you haven’t seen the episode yet and intend to do so later.

Eastwatch and beyond

Jon and Company are on their expedition beyond the Wall. The blizzard we saw at the end of the previous episode is gone for the moment and they make good progress while talking about this and that. Gendry who has never been to the North before is freezing while Tormund likes the fact that you can breathe there, as opposed to “down South” (Winterfell, from his point of view) where it stinks like pig shit, or so he claims. He also says that the only way to stay alive in the cold is to keep moving: “Walking’s good, fighting’s better, fucking’s best”. When Jon points out that there are no women anywhere near them, Tormund suggests that “we have to make do with what we’ve got”, getting just what he wants: a somewhat uncomfortable look on Gendry’s face.
Changing the subject, Tormund asks Jon about Daenerys. When the King in the North answers that she wants him to bend the knee before she fights with him, Tormund indirectly advises him to do so, remembering Mance Rayder: “The King-beyond-the-Wall never bent the knee. How many of his people died for his pride?”
Next, Gendry confronts the remainder of the Brotherhood without Banners because they “sold him to a witch” years ago. “A priestess”, Thoros of Myr corrects, and Beric Dondarrion adds that wars cost money. The Hound points at Beric and says that he has been killed six times, but “you don’t hear him bitching about it”.
Jorah agrees with Jon that his dead father Jeor was a good man, but he says that “he deserved a better son”. Both their fathers were honourable men who died in horrible ways, Jon says. Jorah also remembers that Ned wanted to execute him many years ago, and rightfully so, but in retrospect they’re both happy that Jorah escaped. Jon wants to give Longclaw back to Jorah, but Jeor’s son won’t accept it because he brought shame onto his house and his father was right to give it to Jon.

Later, there’s a nice little encounter between Tormund and the Hound who are both “kissed by fire” (Tormund as a redhead and Sandor in the literal sense). Tormund tells the Hound about the woman he’s in love with and is surprised that the latter knows her (and was nearly killed by her, which remains unsaid). Tormund dreams of one day having babies with Brienne: “Great big monsters — they’ll conquer the world”.
Beric remarks to Jon that they have both been brought back from the dead by the Lord of Light, and that they’re soldiers in a (supernatural) war. “What are you fighting for?” Jon asks. “Life”, the six-times-resurrected answers. “Death is the enemy, the first enemy and the last.”

During the long march, weather conditions worsen again; the blizzard is back when they see an undead polar bear. Soon enough, it charges, immediately killing one of the few additional Nights Watch men who accompanied them. It even continues to fight after Beric and Thoros set it ablaze with their flaming swords. It takes the whole group to finally defeat it, but Thoros is badly injured.

Jorah later remembers how Thoros charged through the breach on Pyke during Balon Greyjoy’s rebellion against the Starks, swinging his flaming sword and scaring the somewhat superstitious Ironborn. Thoros doesn’t remember it, or so he claims, because he was too drunk as usual.
From some height, the group sees a few of the walking dead march by, and they ask themselves where the rest of their army is. After walking down the slope, they see that it’s a small patrol, led by a single White Walker, and they attack them immediately. It’s easy enough to defeat the patrol, but it proves quite hard to capture one of them — well, alive is the wrong term, so let’s say — moving. Among other inconveniences, the thing screams very loudly, alerting the whole army of the dead. They finally manage to put a sack over its head and to bind it with rope. It’s the “gift” they plan to bring to Cersei, should they make it out of the frozen wilderness alive.
Jon tells Gendry to run back to Eastwatch as fast as he can and to send a raven to Daenerys. Tormund convinces him to give him the war hammer because he’ll be even faster without it (the fact that the Hound was seen swinging the hammer in the episode’s trailer brought some people to the conclusion that something might have happened to Gendry).
All the others start to run away as well, but they soon reach a frozen lake. The ice is too thin and cracks under their steps, but when the Night King’s army arrives behind them, they go on anyway, reaching a tiny island in the middle of the lake. When the zombie army charges, the ice breaks, and some of them fall into the frozen water. So they gather around the lake, outnumbering Jon’s men several hundred to one, but they don’t attack yet. They probably know from experience that humans cannot stay alive for long in the freezing cold, and so they can simply wait until their enemies stop breathing and join their ranks.
After a long and tiresome run, Gendry reaches Eastwatch and tells Davos that they need to send that raven.
Many hours later, the half-frozen, half-unconscious party is still sitting on the island. During the night, Thoros of Myr has succumbed to his injuries. The Hound remarks that “it” (freezing to death) is “one of the better ways to go”, unceremoniously inherits the dead alcoholic’s bag of booze and takes quite a few slugs while Beric says a prayer to the Lord of Light. “We have to burn his body”, Jon says, taking the rest of the booze from Sandor and pouring it over Thoros’s body as fuel. With his flaming sword, Beric sets the corpse ablaze.
Jorah has noticed that nearly all of the patrol fell when Jon killed the White Walker. Jon thinks that he might have been the one who turned them. Jorah suggests going after the Walkers to defeat the whole zombie army, but Jon thinks that they need to take “that thing” (the captured wight) back with them and that Daenerys is their only chance. Beric suggests that there is another, pointing at the Night King who is on horseback on the other shore: “Kill him. He turned them all.” After all, the Lord of Light must have brought Jon and himself back from the dead for another reason than to freeze to death. “Careful, Beric”, the Hound warns. “You lost your priest. This is your last life.” A Video Game of Thrones.

Again, lots of hours must have passed, probably a day or more. The Hound throws a rock at the dead men’s army in frustration, hitting a particularly rotted skeleton in the jaw. He hurls another rock that doesn’t reach the opposite shore but hits the ice instead. Now the White Walkers know that the lake has frozen enough to be crossed again. The skeleton wastes no time and walks over the ice toward the island. “Oh, fuck”, the Hound regrets his mistake while more wights follow. They start fighting the approaching corpses, and they fight bravely and relentlessly, but more and more enemies come closing in, attacking everyone. Especially Tormund is in serious trouble some time later, being pushed and pulled toward a hole in the ice and into freezing cold water by several zombies. With the help of both Jorah and Sandor, he manages to barely avoid his demise. But they will never be able to make it alive out of the endless onslaught; their cause looks truly lost.
Then, when it looks like it’s time to abandon all hope, a great beast’s war cry and an immense firestorm come to their rescue: Daenerys and her dragons have arrived. Everything looks good for the moment: the dragons set the army of the dead ablaze and instantly unfreeze the lake once more; zombies sink underwater by the thousands (but we must of course remember that they’re already dead and will always be able to come out again as soon as there is no ice).
Daenerys lands on the island with Drogon, and everyone is getting ready to climb on his back as well. While Jon fights on to allow his friends to do so, one of the White Walkers hands a very long ice spear to the Night King. The leader of the dead takes aim and thrusts the spear with all his force and, to Daenerys’s great demise, hits Viserion right below his wing. The dragon crashes down, lands on the ice and closes his eyes, dying while he slowly sinks into the lake. Jon’s men and Dany all look absolutely shocked. When Jon sees that the Night King is getting another spear ready, he shouts at the others to leave while he holds off the rest of the dead men’s army. Some wights push him into the lake, while the others fly off on Drogon’s back. Thankfully, the Night King misses with the second spear.
While the White Walkers and their army seem to leave, Jon climbs out of the water again and tries to march off even though he must be half frozen. Someone arrives on horseback, swinging a fiery mace to charge through the retreating army of the dead. Once again, Uncle Benjen (or his mortal coil, animated by the Three-Eyed Raven, in this case Bran) has come to the rescue. He puts Jon on his horse and makes them ride off, staying behind and dying for good this time, taking a few final wights with him.
At Eastwatch, Tormund and the Hound load the captured zombie into a boat and say goodbye to Beric who will stay at the Wall. Daenerys and Jorah are standing on its top while she has her dragons search for Jon. “It’s time to go, Your Grace”, Jorah says, convinced that the King in the North is dead. Suddenly, a horn is sounded. Just once, which traditionally means that rangers are returning. It’s Jon on horseback.
Everyone embarks on a ship with Targaryen sails where an unconscious Jon is put to bed and peeled out of his frozen clothes. Daenerys watches and sees his various injuries, but she looks very relieved that he has come back alive.

Jon regains consciousness, and Daenerys is sitting by his bedside. He profoundly apologises because he feels guilty of Viserion’s death. The Queen takes his hand though and still thinks that it was important for her to see the army of the dead for herself to really believe in it. “We’re going to destroy the Night King and his army”, she decides, “and we’ll do it together”. “Thank you, Dany”, Jon replies, but she never liked that nickname since her brother Viserys used to call her that. So Jon calls her “my Queen” instead and feels ready to bend the knee. As for the Northern Lords, “they’ll come to see you for what you are”. They continue to hold hands, and we cannot be sure whether the (for now metaphorical) bending of knees is meant as an oath of fealty or as a marriage proposal.

Beyond the Wall, the Night King’s army pulls the dead Viserion out of the ice with heavy chains. Upon the Night King’s touch, the dragon opens his eyes that have turned deep blue like a White Walker’s before the end credits roll.

Winterfell

Arya and Sansa are on the balcony from which Ned used to watch them when they were children. Arya remembers how the boys trained to shoot arrows, and then Bran left his bow lying there, and a single arrow in the target. So Arya started to train on her own, and when the arrow finally hit the bull’s eye, she heard clapping and saw her father standing up there, smiling. “I knew what I was doing was against the rules, but he was smiling, so I knew it wasn’t wrong. The rules were wrong.” She blames Sansa for helping the Lannisters kill Ned and shows her the letter she found in Littlefinger’s room. Sansa argues that they forced her to do it, but Arya replies that she would never have agreed to something like that, but rather be killed than betray her family. Her sister says that they told her it was the only way to save her father – “and you were stupid enough to believe it”, Arya concludes.
She remembers the day of Ned’s execution (of course Sansa had no idea that she was there), and they somewhat unfairly blame each other for not having done anything to stop the actual execution (which would not have worked with Sansa being surrounded by Lannister soldiers and Arya standing at the other end of the crowded square).
Sansa then says that Arya should actually be grateful to her because it was the Knights of the Vale who made the difference in the Battle of the Bastards, and those had come because of her. Their argument goes on, changing the subject with every sentence. Sansa, for instance, thinks that Arya would never have survived what she had to suffer, while Arya suggests to her sister that she’s probably scared the Northern Lords could read the letter and not think too much of her: “What would little Lyanna Mormont say? She’s younger than you were when you wrote this. Are you going to say: ‘But I was just a child’?”

Sansa speaks to Petyr Baelish about the letter. She’s worried that the Northern and Vale Lords and their armies are just looking for an excuse to go home, which Arya could give them if she chose to show them the message. When Baelish points out that Jon chose her to rule in his absence and that she has indeed ruled wisely and ably, which many of the Lords appreciate, she finds the fact that they might even consider betraying Jon for her even more disturbing. Littlefinger advises her to talk to Brienne concerning her suspicions about Arya. (Please note that I’m simply reporting what is said; an attempt at interpretation will follow below in the “Takeaways” section.)

The next day, Sansa receives a raven scroll, inviting her to Kings Landing. Apparently, Cersei or someone else from her inner circle wants all of the remaining Houses of the Seven Kingdoms to be present at the big meeting. Sansa decides not to go, she will not set foot in Kings Landing while Cersei Lannister is Queen. “If they want another Stark prisoner, they can come and take me.” Instead, she decides to send Brienne to the capital to represent her interests. Brienne, of course, thinks it’s not safe to leave Sansa alone with Littlefinger. Sansa says that many of her guards would just love to imprison or to behead him if he should misbehave, and she commands Brienne to be on her way immediately in order to try and arrive in time: “You won’t be travelling on summer roads.”

An undisclosed time later, Sansa sneaks into Arya’s room and starts to search through her sister’s stuff, finding a bag with faces, for example Walder Frey’s. Arya comes in, too, and they start a conversation about who the Faceless Men are and what they do, and how both of them wanted to be other people when they were younger: “You wanted to be a Queen”, Arya says, “… I wanted to be a knight”. With the faces, she explains, she can become someone else, speak with their voice and live in their skin. “I could even become you”, she says to Sansa, which sound somewhat threatening as she picks up the famous dagger while saying it. Then, however, she turns the dagger, hands it over to Sansa, hilt first, and leaves without another word.

Dragonstone

Daenerys has a talk with her Hand. She says what she likes about him is that he isn’t a hero because heroes do stupid things and get killed for them. Tyrion remarks that all the heroes she names (“Drogo, Jorah, Daario, even this — Jon Snow”) fell in love with her. Dany says that Jon isn’t in love with her, but Tyrion jokes “I suppose he stares at you longingly because he hopes for a successful military alliance”. The Queen smiles mildly, then says “he’s too little for me”, which she instantly regrets when she realises to whom she just made that careless remark.
Tyrion wants her to be a good Queen who isn’t just respected out of fear, like all the rulers before her, starting with her ancestor Aegon the Conqueror. After all, he reminds her, she promised to break the wheel, the very wheel Aegon once built.
They’re also talking about how they’re going to meet Cersei soon, in the meeting Tyrion agreed upon with Jaime who promised to hold back the Lannister army, while his brother vowed to do the same with Daenerys’s various forces. Tyrion warns her that Cersei will likely say something provocative, to which Dany must not lose her temper as she has done before — for instance recently when she executed the Tarlys instead of allowing them to “contemplate their mistakes in the solitude of a cold cell”. And Tyrion does agree that he does indeed take his family’s side: “You need to take your enemies’ side if you want to see things the way they do.”
Tyrion is curious about succession once Daenerys takes the Iron Throne: “You say you can’t have children.” He suggests other ways of choosing a successor, naming the Nights Watch and the Ironborn as examples who have an open election or a Kingsmoot, respectively. But Dany decides that they will discuss succession after she wears the crown.

When Gendry’s message arrives, Daenerys wastes no time at all — she walks straight to her dragons to fly off with them and to rescue Jon and company. Tyrion tries to convince her otherwise: “The most important person in the world can’t fly off to the most dangerous place in the world.” The Queen asks who else can, and what she should do. “Nothing”, her Hand suggests. “Sometimes nothing is the hardest thing to do.” She mounts Drogo and says: “You told me to do nothing before and I listened to you. I’m not doing nothing again.” And off she flies with her complete dragon force.

Takeways

  • The fact that Benjen shows up in the last minute to save Jon proves that Bran is really watching over his family and stepping in when necessary. But that might also be the reason why the Night King knew that Jon and his friends, and later Daenerys and her dragons, were coming. The link to Bran that the Night King created when touching him during his vision seems to work much like the mutual telepathic connection between Harry Potter and Lord Voldemort.
  • What’s up with the whole Arya/Sansa/Littlefinger/Brienne dynamics? Superficially, it looks like Arya deeply mistrusts Sansa and might even be plotting to kill her sister. But as some people have rightfully pointed out, she has not only studied to be an assassin at the House of Black and White, but also to be a great actress with Lady Crane. For me, all of this looks more like a trap the sisters are setting up for Littlefinger, and the fact that Arya hands Sansa the dagger makes it clear to me that she does in fact trust her, but it also looks like she has been testing her loyalty before. I predict that this very dagger will kill Littlefinger in the season finale — you can’t pass around something that screams “I’m Chekhov’s gun, ahem, dagger” for a whole season and then not use it.
  • How will the first face-to-face meeting of the two Queens go? According to the episode 7 trailer, it will take place in the Dragon Pit of Kings Landing where Daenerys’s ancestors used to keep their dragons. A truly symbolic and historical place.
  • Jaime and Brienne are going to meet again, too.
  • The last episode of the season will be called “The Dragon and the Wolf”. Do I hear wedding bells ringing? Oh, bummer, the bells of Kings Landing were last seen crushing people when Cersei blew up the Sept.
  • Speaking of which: is there more wildfire? Will Cersei try to use it to kill all her enemies at once? And will Jaime repeat his heroic deed to step in and once again kill a Mad Ruler, even if she’s his own twin sister and lover? It would at least confirm the version of the valonqar prophecy I’ve been believing in for years. On the other hand, they never had that part of the prophecy on the show, so they can take certain liberties.
  • My prediction for the last shot of season 7 is that either the Wall will come down or that the Night King will fly over it on his new Ice Dragon’s back.
  • Maybe the Night King and Bran will struggle for control over the dragon next season. But I don’t really believe the “Bran is the Night King” rumours.

Conclusion

Many people have complained about technicalities and logistics concerning the timing of the events in this episode, claiming that running bastards, ravens and even full-grown dragons are too slow to make it to the rescue of Jon’s party in time. But this episode is so incredibly epic that suspension of disbelief will not really suffer for such petty reasons. After all, we cannot know how many days Jon’s group stayed on the island. At least long enough for Thoros to freeze to death, probably because of a major blood loss. And the rest of the patrol looks half frozen, too, when Daenerys finally arrives.
With everyone except for the Stark sisters heading to Kings Landing, we also have a great setup for the upcoming season finale.
This episode deserves another five out of five Gold Dragons, or shall we say Ice Dragons? I think the real reason people were disappointed is because they’ve come to expect more from a season’s penultimate episode — we’ve had stuff like the Red Wedding or Blackwater in previous seasons. But what’s not to like about a major battle of Ice and Fire?

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