I will say this right now. Next season, Kekilli won’t be so low. If I were to rank her based on ‘Blackwater’ and ‘Valar Morghulis’ alone, she’d probably be hovering around 17-18. Girl has improved drastically over time, and I suspect a lot of her shortcomings from her lack of proficiency in English. I’d like to see her act in German.
That said, her recent outings cannot overshadow the very, very lacklustre performance she brought to the table for the previous 18 episodes (more like 10 episodes, but yeah). That performance would’ve earned her the very last place had I done these rankings two weeks ago. She had the unnerving tendency to break a fourth wall of sorts, in that I often saw an actress playing a character, rather than the character itself. She seemed unnatural, uncomfortable and thoroughly unconvinced by the very lines she was given, as if she didn’t really belong in the world.
Thankfully, she did improve a lot over the course of the second season and I’m fairly confident we’ll see her in better shape next season.
Best scene: without a doubt, the scene with Tyrion in the final episode. Not only because it was a surprising departure from the source material (though a potentially welcome one – we’ll have to wait and see where they go with it), but because she also brought something new and refreshing to the show. For the first time, I feel like we saw the genuine Shae, instead of Sibel Kekilli playing a character. It was oddly fitting, seeing as Tyrion himself discovers her for the first time as well.
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When you have nothing to say, quote yourself ~ Solfadore