Game Of Thrones: Final Season --SPOILERS!

[Ziggy Stardust]

I think it's a bit of a leap to say that this is somehow pandering to misogynists, or whatever. Yes, the denouement of the plot-line has been hastily and sloppily done, but that has also been true of every other single plot-line on the show including the one's involving the male characters. The fact is that the plotting of the past two-ish seasons of the show has been this sloppy across the board. It would be one thing if every other male character had fully developed and well-fleshed out late season arcs and only Dany was this one-note, but that's not really the case.

As has been pointed out, this has been foreshadowed since the beginning of the show. In season 2, Dany even says that when her dragons are fully grown she will "burn cities to the ground". One thing that the show has done a good job of doing up through around season 6 is showing Dany to be a complex character that does have a genuine good side in addition to her propensity for extreme brutality. Yes, you are right that it is a shame that Benioff & Weiss took the outlines of Martin's likely more psychologically nuanced resolution of Dany's story arc and turned it into what we are seeing, but I think it's more a consequence of their overall approach to the entire show (penises and all) rather than any specific intention to pander to misogynists or to undermine Dany specifically. If you've ever listened to the "Inside the Episode" segments and heard the way Benioff & Weiss talk about the show, it's pretty clear that they aren't the deepest thinkers.

(And you know full well the show has very clearly depicted the brutality and savagery of warfare and violence throughout its run, regardless of the gender of the perpetrators. That is the one note the show has remained consistent on: not romanticizing warfare. So please don't act like this is the only time they've done this, and it was just to be sexist.)

[Galvatron]

Yeah, I'm totally on-board with Dany going off the deep end, it is seemingly the curse of her family. I just wish they had developed it further in prior seasons.

I'd say they dropped enough hints throughout the entire run of the series that none of this should come as a shock to anyone.

[Vympel]

Its derailment, and its pandering to a specific subset of the fandom- those who insist Danny is Aerys 2.0, which I have a strong impression tends to overlap with the section of the fandom who call Danny things like "entitled bitch" because she wants to rule.

Again - the idea that this is some sort of late change, like the writers decided to get up one day and go "we agree with toxic fandom" - is preposterous. That others saw in Dany that she was dangerous is a credit to them for seeing what the show hinted at. Not well enough, IMO - I certainly didn't think they'd go there. But the hints were always there.

Recap:

- Dany hatched the dragons in a human sacrifice of a victim of horrific war crimes whose crime was killing Khal Drogo - a vicious murderer.
- Dany promised that she would burn cities to the ground
- Dany fed a random guy to Viserion and Rhaegal in a fit of pique over Barristan Selmy's death, with no evidence whatsoever that he was involved.
- Remember this exchange? Season 5, Episode 9:

D: One day your great city will return to the dirt as well.

H: At your command?

D: If need be.

H: And how many people will die to make this happen?

D: If it comes to that, they will have died for a good reason.

Heck, VF (with a female author) wrote about this back in 2016.

https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/20 ... verso=true

[Kane Starkiller]

Daenerys was willing to plunge Westeros into war just so she can be the ruler of a place she's never even been to. For the last 7 years she's been gathering armies and developing nuclear bombers raising dragons for the "Operation Westerosi Freedom" while bestowing grandiose, long winded titles upon herself and making pompous speeches about how she's totally not another spoke in the wheel.

[Galvatron]

I've been expecting Dany to do something like this for years. She's always been a powder keg, but I think the recent deaths of her closest friends and the "betrayals" within her inner circle were just the last straw so she finally snapped.

[NeoGoomba]

I'd say they dropped enough hints throughout the entire run of the series that none of this should come as a shock to anyone.

Oh I know, I just meant maybe showing her become unhinged while across the sea only to reel herself back in at one point, and try and fight the Targaryan madness in her blood before finally succumbing. I have no problem with this being the culmination of her arc, I just think they could have really mined her descent for some interesting stuff.

[FaxModem1]

Well, it's as I said, Dany is a conqueror, not a ruler. Now she has conquered, and 'liberated' King's Landing. Now we'll see what happens when she rules.

I can sort of imagine that years later, this will be written as the time the foreign invader came in and destroyed the last true Westerosi monarch, using foreign armies to fight, and it was only through the nobility of the Stark clan that the day was saved.

[Nari]

I could have bought flying to and wrecking the Red Keep. But to go from “all I have is fear” into “burn everyone friend or foe”? At one point, she blasting fire within spitting distance of Grey Worm and Jon. So not even her own dudes are safe. Less so as the pillaging rages on and her soldiers are spread around the city.

Character assassination has finally completed. We’re at multiple episodes of Danny sitting on her hands to “burn them all.”

Eight fucking seasons so they can make a last minute move to reduce Danny to a one-note fannon cliche of "Mad Queen". Even going out of their way to show her slaughtering civilians for no reason. Nobody said Stannis was mad for trying to storm King's Landing. Nobody said Jon was mad for trying to retake Winterfell. But Danny is a woman. I guess she should have known her place.

Now all the little incels can fap over how the show has validated that women are too emotional to be good rulers.

Fuck them and the dragon they road in on.

I don't really get this. Dani has been (to steal an earlier post's perfect take on it) burning fools to solve her problems for several seasons. How is she different to a more attractive Stannis?

Waaay back in S1 her expression and response to her (asshat) brother Viserys getting his comeuppance was truly scary. I'd mark that as 'she's clearly been nuts since then'.
And she has burnt a large number of inconvenient and some completely innocent people along the way. All to what end? To take over an island that she cannot remember? She knows that 'the people' aren't exactly pining for her. She has only looked good by way of comparison to the people she's been fighting up until the invasion of Westeros.

And while torching Kings Landing obviously requires some level of madness, it seems perfectly rational to me from her perspective. She's wanted to be running the place for some time now, but now she has the problem with Jon's not very secret better claim to the throne. Varys already betrayed her, Jon's not returning her affections, she's not exactly a popular choice and she knows Sansa is doing what she can to undermine her, so she has one card left - the dragon. If she can show that she's not to be messed with, and she doesn't care what collateral damage results from messing with her, that's a very powerful statement to everyone who is attempting to prevent her from getting to the throne. I mean, it's not like she's ever shown any real concern for the people of Westeros or King's landing and since she is apparently barren she's not really going to save generations from tyranny; the kingdoms will likely fall into war again as soon as she dies (although reducing the number of standing armies as she did may mitigate that somewhat). This is pretty much what I pictured for 'breaking the wheel'.

What in her character development over the last 7 seasons gave you the idea that she was anything but power mad and not afraid to wield that power? I mean, I liked her too, but I'd say that the writers are being pretty true to the character here.

- Tyrion and Jaime in the tent. A great scene let down by a single line:

"to be honest I've never really cared about the innocent etc."

Really? Then why'd you kill Aerys? What the fuck are you talking about? This was so flippant and nonchalant it's easy to consider it a cheap lie that he's telling, but why? A sloppy line that let down an otherwise good scene.

That's an interesting take. I haven't read the books, but I'd always understood that Jamie's motivations there were complex and very related to Aery's behavior (depriving Tywin and heir, burning some Starks IRRC?) with potentially some self-preservation thrown in for good measure. And he certainly didn't exhibit a lot of concern for the populace of Kings Landing when he enacted some separation of church and state by force majeure in S6, which surely took out a bunch of un-involved people as well when the Lannister Army could have done the job much more surgically.

[Nari]

Otherwise I generally enjoyed the episode; considerably more than the previous couple.

I was disappointed that Jamie didn't eventually kill Cersei, but I was totally happy with how they ended. And I'm not believing that they're actually dead until the bodies are dug out of the rubble, although with only one episode left that's not likely.

Of course Euron had one more stupid scene (the sheer convenience of him surviving and showing up at the right time) but I found the fight satisfying. I was less impressed with Jamies' subsequent feats. I've torn muscles in the area that it looked like he was perforated and had trouble walking up stairs. I'd also guess that he must have had at least one punctured lung or should have bled to death if the blade went through him below the lungs, but I guess that love will get you up 30-odd stories of stairs. And why someone like him wouldn't have a suit of high quality mail on at all times is a good question, but it didn't bother me that much in the end.


We've hashed over the stupidity of how Rhaegar was shot out of the sky previously, although the converse was of course true now; the Scorpions were completely useless. The Dragon could have approached at a higher altitude (e.g. above the cloud cover) and come directly down on them, outside of their elevation arc etc. but whatever. Not putting some of the Red Keep seems to be an unforgivable oversight given how many of them they built, but in line with the complete lack of tactical ability of pretty much everyone. A bit like having the Iron Fleet too far out to harbor for the Scorpions on the walls and on the fleet to support each other.

And I did enjoy the dragon smashing through the walls, although flying directly in front of what were presumably a bunch of still manned Scorpions at point blank range was a bit on the nose. Perhaps it was some effective shock and awe (which, having had a large wall blow out next to you, I can credit).

Finally, I did appreciate the perspective of being on the business end of the dragon in the streets, both from the armies and then Arya. Although her final sequence with the horse seemed a bit like it was written by someone who was vaguely high.


Predictions:
Arya adds Dani to her list.
Jon or Arya kill Daenrys, the Unsullied kill them and Tyrian wins the game. If they can find the Throne. It was curiously not shown having the roof collapse on it, which surely must have happened.

[FaxModem1]

My predictions: Like all tyrants over a freshly conquered nation, Dany will now move against the one force that could hold against her, those who keep the knowledge. Expect the Maesters to be her next target, and for centuries of knowledge to be burned down in her wanting history to be written her way. Especially since Ser Jorah wasn't helped by them, and that makes it personal for her.

[PREDATOR490]

Watched it and was mildly entertained but by no means is this any less bullshit than the rest of the season.

The dragon somehow nuked the entire anti-dragon defence force because everyone took stupid pills. The Dragon is literally seen flying in front of the damn things and would have been the easiest target since last episode sitting in front of them. We do not even see them firing much shots because apparently the reload time is really shit... go figure the last episode had them bombarding Dany with a hail of shots.
Not counting the 3 shots that downed the last dragon in rapid succession. With this episode, that means 3 sharpshooters must have pulled those shots off with near perfect synchronisation on 3 different ships.

Jamie trying to go down with Ceseri - Called that but no body, I highly suspect they are not dead. Jamie - Probably but Ceseri is going to come back for a follow up. High chance this is going to involve Tyrion again.

King's Landing - Got nuked to oblivion. They even show wildfire explosions so that city should more or less be completely gone. I expect Dany is going to try and change the capital of Westeros to Dragonstone now.

Varys - Called it again but I expect he has let the word get out about Dany losing her shit and Jon is a better option.

Jon / Sansa / Arya - I sense a fight is coming between Dany and the Wolves. I would not half expect Varys to send a message to Sansa. This will cause Dany to go after her and Jon / Arya / Tyrion will intervene to the point that Dany gets whacked. I am still on the side of Jon and Arya dying in the attempt to challenge Dany.

Tyrion - Dany is going to try and kill him. If they want to follow through on that Bronn shit then he MUST survive for some payoff there. Although, I can see Bronn getting roasted trying to help Tyrion.

Winterfell - Dragon might be paying another visit up North to try and bring Sansa to heel.


That said, the biggest issue I have with this new season and increasingly with Game of Thrones is the complete disregard for time. People are literally teleporting all over the fucking place because noone in their right mind would believe that some people are getting to these places so quickly without any acknowledgement of time passing. It is bad enough that some people seem to be getting to places ahead of people that left earlier.

If I understood this episode - It took the army two days to go from Winterfell to Kings Landing. If that is the case, why the fuck did Dany take ships to Dragonstone ?
The ships could actually end up taking longer and your over-extending yourself for little benefit other than creating the contrived garbage that occurred


Stupid Moments - Kings Landing defence was apparently shit. They put all their scorpions on the front gate. I cannot figure out where the other ones were but clearly Kings Landing had severe placement issues. Dany could logically have decimated the Red Keep with little issue even though any defender would have put those things there to begin with.

The Iron Born fleet was arrayed in such a fashion that a single Dragon could decimate it so easily. It is hardly satisfying revenge when you cripple the
opponent so badly they are little more than a punching bag.

Dothraki - They should all be dead. The fact they are still around is bullshit given what happened against the NK horde.
Regardless, I thought it was established the Dothraki were poorly equipped to fight people in armour. So go figure that all of the Lannister forces wearing heavier armour are going down insanely easy to the Dothraki.
Further stupid that you give all the Lannister forces helmets that have face shields... then noone fucking puts the face shield down. Really ?
It is not as if these extras are getting much face time anyway so.. what is the point in that ?

[FaxModem1]

Regardless, I thought it was established the Dothraki were poorly equipped to fight people in armour. So go figure that all of the Lannister forces wearing heavier armour are going down insanely easy to the Dothraki.
Further stupid that you give all the Lannister forces helmets that have face shields... then noone fucking puts the face shield down. Really ?
It is not as if these extras are getting much face time anyway so.. what is the point in that ?

Cinematic language. We're supposed to empathize with the poor Lannister soldiers as they're being burned to death, so we want to see their faces as they react in horror/terror/sadness/etc.

[Nari]

That said, the biggest issue I have with this new season and increasingly with Game of Thrones is the complete disregard for time. People are literally teleporting all over the fucking place because noone in their right mind would believe that some people are getting to these places so quickly without any acknowledgement of time passing. It is bad enough that some people seem to be getting to places ahead of people that left earlier.

If I understood this episode - It took the army two days to go from Winterfell to Kings Landing. If that is the case, why the fuck did Dany take ships to Dragonstone ?
The ships could actually end up taking longer and your over-extending yourself for little benefit other than creating the contrived garbage that occurred

Not only can they teleport, but they don't need to conceal their faces once they get to an enemy occupied location. Last I remember Cersei had put out a hit on Jaime, and presumably the Kings Guard would have been more likely to kill him on the spot?

Maybe there was too much pandemonium going on for people to recognize Arya and the Hound?

Regardless, I thought it was established the Dothraki were poorly equipped to fight people in armour. So go figure that all of the Lannister forces wearing heavier armour are going down insanely easy to the Dothraki.
Further stupid that you give all the Lannister forces helmets that have face shields... then noone fucking puts the face shield down. Really ?
It is not as if these extras are getting much face time anyway so.. what is the point in that ?

Come on, helmets are clearly just a fashion accessory. Grey Worm was so enhanced with righteous fever that he completely forgot his.

[Mange]

The good parts were the deaths of Qyburn and the brothers. The rest was awful (Cersei casually walks by the Hound? WTF? Character shielding is one thing, but that... I imagined that Jamie would kill Cersei and then himself. Wasn't too far off, but I think Cersei was out of charscter). I had hoped for some creative writing, but it's all coming apart.

Dany will get killed by Jon. Jon will refuse to become king. Unfortunately, I think the most useless character, Bran, will become king with Tyrion as his Hand (if he survives, of which I'm not certain), otherwise it'll be one of his sisters (I told a friend the other week that I thought Arya would end up as a King's Guard, but then for Tyrion). I had hoped that Tyrion would've turned out to be another Targaryen, but alas... Predictable, unimaginative and rushed writing.

[Ziggy Stardust]

I'm a little confused why some people think Jaime and/or Cersei would still be alive. We literally saw the entire Red Keep collapse on them. Do you really need that followed by a close-up shot of their mangled, mushed remains leaking out from between the crevices in a pile of rocks in order to understand what happened there? (It's not like GoT has even really followed this supposed "no body" rule anyway. The Hound is literally the only character in the show that has had a death fake-out like that. John doesn't count because he did die, he just got brought back. Every other implied off-screen death like the Blackfish and Stannis have been real.)

[Nari]

I'm a little confused why some people think Jaime and/or Cersei would still be alive. We literally saw the entire Red Keep collapse on them. Do you really need that followed by a close-up shot of their mangled, mushed remains leaking out from between the crevices in a pile of rocks in order to understand what happened there? (It's not like GoT has even really followed this supposed "no body" rule anyway. The Hound is literally the only character in the show that has had a death fake-out like that. John doesn't count because he did die, he just got brought back. Every other implied off-screen death like the Blackfish and Stannis have been real.)

Nah, I'm pretty sure they're dead as well. And I guess your observation is fair. It's the cynic in me where I'm not feeling that the show runners have earned the right to imply things cinematically given some of the other things they've pulled this season (or didn't pull when no-one ever looked at Ghost, presumably because he was only added in post as an afterthought), and even going back to the Blackfish weirdly dying off screen a couple of seasons ago.

[The Romulan Republic]

I refuse to recognize any episode after 8.3 as canon. That's the true end of the show. Everything else is just pandering.

This is the only episode based on GRRM’s writing, which is why it’s mostly above average.

It’s really weird that you’ve got such a bug up your ass about the creators being some kind of traditionalist
caricature when the past two seasons have been filled with ridiculous female power fantasies.

Like what? I mean, unless you consider the idea of women having power at all to be "ridiculous female power fantasies".

Also, and this is a point that cannot be repeated too often, having women who can kick ass in a fight in your story doesn't mean it isn't sexist. Having women with power doesn't, either, if all of those women are portrayed as insane or manipulative bitches. What matters is that you right believable plots and characters which show women as diverse individual people. That is the only measure that matters. I'm sure they thought having Arya kill the Night King or having Melisandra light some swords on fire would placate the feminists, but it won't, and it shouldn't. Not when they make the far worse mistake of ham-fistedly vilifying their most prominent female character who wasn't an outright villain in the final three episodes, in a manner which directly validates a shitty fannon cliche and blames Danny for things for which male characters generally aren't.

[The Romulan Republic]

The show is being rightly eviscerated by some for its handling of Daenerys:

https://www.indiewire.com/2019/05/game- ... 202140198/

[Editor’s note: The following post contains spoilers about the penultimate episode of “Game of Thrones,” entitled “The Bells.”]

Daenerys Targaryen completed her full transformation into the Mad Queen during the penultimate episode of “Game of Thrones,” in which she attacked King’s Landing and made the polarizing choice to kill thousands of innocent civilians despite the rival army’s willingness to surrender. “Thrones'” final season has been full of choices that have divided fans (from Arya and Gendry’s sex scene to Jaime’s abandoning of Brienne), but the reaction to Daenerys’ dark turn in episode five, entitled “The Bells,” has been met with some of the most extreme criticism the show has ever seen.

“David Benioff and D.B. Weiss just ruined 30 years of George R.R. Martin’s work in 90 minutes,” Annapurna founder Megan Ellison wrote on Twitter after the episode aired. “They are obviously sexist fucks and obviously NOTHING without George R.R. Martin. There was no motivation for Daenerys to lay Kings Landing low after a lifetime of her saving innocents.”

While Ellison admitted her real-time reaction was “a touch emotional and harsh,” her criticism that the writers “poorly set up” Daenerys’ transformation into the Mad Queen has been shared by many fans across social media. While it can be tough to watch a beloved character turn into a villain, complaints against “Thrones'” latest twist have less to do with the twist itself and more to do with the show stumbling to make Daenerys’ dark turn feel authentic and earned for the character.

“If Dany went berserk and lit city on fire with a decent character build up, I would have bought it. This. Nope,” television reporter Carla Day wrote. “They moved through story this season too quickly and never established character development to support this. From honorable, freer of slaves to this?!?”

Daenerys’ Mad Queen turn isn’t entirely unfounded, as the character has proven to be quite hot-headed when things don’t go her way (had it not been for advisors like Tyrion she might have done something this unforgivable at an earlier time), but the final season episodes have rushed to set up the character as the series’ final big bad. The transition has been jarring since most of the series’ eight seasons have been devoted to showing Daenerys as a hero who cares for others and liberates slaves. That’s not to say Daenerys has been perfect (again, her impulsive side has always threatened to derail her), but the show’s final season has more aggressively explored the character’s dark side and many fans feel betrayed by the twist.

“Game of Thrones” airs its final episode this Sunday at 9pm ET on HBO.

Digitalspy posted this after the fourth episode, as well:

https://www.digitalspy.com/tv/ustv/a274 ... -daenerys/

We are eight seasons deep and Game of Thrones is still betraying its female characters. We have watched 71 episodes of the fantasy saga – that's almost 68 hours of television – and a number of central women are continuing to be mishandled, drawing the short, extremely damaging straw.

Women comprise a significant chunk of the Thrones audience. According to data collected by Nielsen and published on Wired back in 2013, roughly 42 percent of Thrones' 4.8 million viewers on average per week (that's around two million) were women.

HBO recently reported that 17.4 million people watched the season eight premiere, which equates to a huge number of women, and yet showrunners David Benioff and DB Weiss are failing to hit the mark.

While Thrones has, in parts, graduated from past errors, (mostly) eliminating the gratuitous one-sided nudity and the familiar theme of extremely limited, two-dimensional women solely existing to serve the male characters' stories, there has been one constant throughout: when women experience loss, they lose their minds.

Numerous male characters have experienced trauma and the death of loved ones. Davos Seaworth was left heartbroken after he discovered that Shireen had been burned alive by Melisandre and Stannis Baratheon. But Davos didn't descend into hysteria. Instead, he gained a steely grit and vowed to avenge Shireen.

And, lest we forget, Jaime Lannister has also lost three children.

Joffrey, Myrcella and Tommen all met grisly ends and yet it is Cersei who has become unhinged. She is the "monster", making increasingly rash and barbaric choices while the Kingslayer (following the loss of his hand) becomes a more sympathetic character. There is, despite his many past misdeeds, a human quality to Jaime. He is capable of emotion that didn't suck him into the darkness but offered him redemption.

But Cersei, consumed with grief and wrath, has continued to drift to the point of no return. That is all she is capable of now.

That issue stems from the fact that her children have always been her defining feature. And while it is both expected and instinctive for a mother to be emotionally tethered to her offspring, that is all she has become.

That also does Jaime a disservice, implying that his love cannot possibly be as great and all-encompassing as Cersei's because she is their mother, and he is merely their father. He remains pragmatic, Cersei is deranged.

If it were just one character we could let it go. But the same thing can also be said of Daenerys, who is seemingly repeating history by becoming the mad queen. Her dragons (or the singular dragon, we should say) are – in her words – her children, and she has now lost two out of three.

There are many forces operating against Daenerys, some within her own camp. She is fearful that Jon Snow will take from her what she has been coveting ever since she became the Mother of Dragons. Her outrage and concern is, whatever your opinion of her, understandable from her point of view. She has, in the basest possible way, put in a shift and now, her efforts could leave her with none of the spoils.

Dany has been underestimated, manipulated and abused on a colossal scale, but while male characters are able to shoulder betrayal and loss in such a way that they are imbued with an inner strength and measured focus, the same courtesy is not extended to her.

Following Rhaegal's death at the hands of Euron, Dany abandoned all reason to charge at him head on, endangering both herself and her last remaining dragon. Rather than attack from behind at speed, showering the fleet and their men in flames, she acted on impulse. Reason abandoned her.

She continues to be driven by raw emotion, her rationale falling away piece by piece – and while that is understandable when you break down what she has endured, the narrative feels determined to shut her out in the cold, establishing a dislikable character who alienates viewers.

And that's not all. In 'The Last of the Starks' alone, the writers stuck two fingers up at Brienne after using her to service Jaime's internal struggle regarding his twisted devotion to Cersei. Then there was Sansa Stark's conversation with The Hound about the abuse she suffered at the hands of Ramsay Bolton, Littlefinger, and Joffrey, and the way in her suffering was, in the words of actor Jessica Chastain, used as "a tool to make a character stronger".

She added: "A woman doesn't need to be victimised in order to become a butterfly. The little bird was always a phoenix. Her prevailing strength is solely because of her. And her alone."

Missandei, too, was failed. As one of the only two central people of colour in the entire series, her exit – her fridging, frankly – at the hands of a white woman was nothing short of woeful. She deserved so much more.

As we await the final two episodes of the series, it would be deeply unfair to not to praise Game of Thrones for what it has managed to deliver. In an age where many are concerned that communal viewing is becoming a rarity as streaming platforms continue to gain momentum, Thrones has succeeded in bringing people together in a way that few shows are able to.

It's a cultural juggernaut that both delights and enthrals, but it's all food for thought. It feeds our debates and conversations, contributing to the experience because, despite our protestations, we all love a good moan.

But while there are countless faults we can tolerate, the failure of its female characters is where we draw the line.

[Elfdart]

Watched it and was mildly entertained but by no means is this any less bullshit than the rest of the season.

The dragon somehow nuked the entire anti-dragon defence force because everyone took stupid pills. The Dragon is literally seen flying in front of the damn things and would have been the easiest target since last episode sitting in front of them. We do not even see them firing much shots because apparently the reload time is really shit... go figure the last episode had them bombarding Dany with a hail of shots.
Not counting the 3 shots that downed the last dragon in rapid succession. With this episode, that means 3 sharpshooters must have pulled those shots off with near perfect synchronisation on 3 different ships.

I assumed they had used staggered volleys last week. Anyway, this time Danerys came out of the sun at a steep angle and after the first Napalm strike, I'd imagine it's damn near impossible to stand at your position at all, let alone take aim and then reload. Even the most fanatical Japanese troops in WW2 would run out of their bunkers if possible when the flamethrowers were fired up.

Jamie trying to go down with Ceseri - Called that but no body, I highly suspect they are not dead. Jamie - Probably but Ceseri is going to come back for a follow up. High chance this is going to involve Tyrion again.

I hope she and Jamie both went down in the rubble, but unless you see the bodies...

King's Landing - Got nuked to oblivion. They even show wildfire explosions so that city should more or less be completely gone. I expect Dany is going to try and change the capital of Westeros to Dragonstone now.

I hope she gets shanked before it gets to that.

Varys - Called it again but I expect he has let the word get out about Dany losing her shit and Jon is a better option.

To whom, though?

Jon / Sansa / Arya - I sense a fight is coming between Dany and the Wolves. I would not half expect Varys to send a message to Sansa. This will cause Dany to go after her and Jon / Arya / Tyrion will intervene to the point that Dany gets whacked. I am still on the side of Jon and Arya dying in the attempt to challenge Dany.

I doubt it went to Sansa, since she's the reason Varys knows in the first place.

Tyrion - Dany is going to try and kill him. If they want to follow through on that Bronn shit then he MUST survive for some payoff there. Although, I can see Bronn getting roasted trying to help Tyrion.

Winterfell - Dragon might be paying another visit up North to try and bring Sansa to heel.

It would be funny if Bronn killed Danerys and Sansa married him for it. He was promised a "better" lady and a "better" castle and if he whacks the queen, he'll have both. Of course Bran would need to turn his warg powers up to 11 to get rid of Drogon, the Unsullied and Dothraki.

That said, the biggest issue I have with this new season and increasingly with Game of Thrones is the complete disregard for time. People are literally teleporting all over the fucking place because noone in their right mind would believe that some people are getting to these places so quickly without any acknowledgement of time passing. It is bad enough that some people seem to be getting to places ahead of people that left earlier.

I'm not bothered by it because the alternatives are worse:

a) they waste a lot of dlalogue on who left when and how fast they're going
b) they use maps and red lines like Indiana Jones

I just assume that if it took several weeks to march from Winterfell to King's Landing, then several weeks have passed. There's no reason Jon's forces couldn't have left much earlier than Dany's.

If I understood this episode - It took the army two days to go from Winterfell to Kings Landing. If that is the case, why the fuck did Dany take ships to Dragonstone ?
The ships could actually end up taking longer and your over-extending yourself for little benefit other than creating the contrived garbage that occurred

I understood it to mean Jon's troops were two days behind Dany's.

Stupid Moments - Kings Landing defence was apparently shit. They put all their scorpions on the front gate. I cannot figure out where the other ones were but clearly Kings Landing had severe placement issues. Dany could logically have decimated the Red Keep with little issue even though any defender would have put those things there to begin with.

I think the idea is to keep the dragon(s) at a distance. If they're close enough for artillery from the Keep to be in play, you're already fucked because that means the enemy is at the walls or inside them.

The Iron Born fleet was arrayed in such a fashion that a single Dragon could decimate it so easily. It is hardly satisfying revenge when you cripple the
opponent so badly they are little more than a punching bag.

I don't think there is a good way to array wooden ships against fiery dive bombing. The limited angle of the ballistas is an obvious weakness -one that got exploited.

Dothraki - They should all be dead. The fact they are still around is bullshit given what happened against the NK horde.

The show never did a good job reflecting casualties. When they mentioned last week that the forces were more or less halved, I thought they had gotten off fairly lightly. Maybe a bunch of them were simply lost in the storm in the dark.

Regardless, I thought it was established the Dothraki were poorly equipped to fight people in armour. So go figure that all of the Lannister forces wearing heavier armour are going down insanely easy to the Dothraki.
Further stupid that you give all the Lannister forces helmets that have face shields... then noone fucking puts the face shield down. Really ?
It is not as if these extras are getting much face time anyway so.. what is the point in that ?

It's somewhat easy to mow down people running for their lives after getting firebombed, no matter what armor they wear. Helmets and armor are always done badly in fantasy. I suspect the only reason anyone w

On the subject of the woman with the little girl who kept turning up before finally getting killed, I think she's supposed to be like the little girl in the red coat from Schindler's List, who kept showing up at different stages of the extermination of the Jews in Krakow.

[Solauren]

Dany snapping was actually well done.

Think of the shit she's been through since she got to Westros.

She...
Lost a child saving a man she was in love with
Found a lover, an partner
Found out that her lover had a better claim to her entire reason to being
Lost half her army helping her lover
Begged her lover to keep his secret
Lost another child
Lost her best friend.
Didn't sleep for two days
Found out her lover betrayed the secret that needed to be kept silent.
Was Firmly Rejected by that man when she asked for his love.
Found out at least one advisor had betrayed her.

All in a very, very short period. Probably less then 2 months.

Then, she saw the city surrender, and probably realized. "FUCKING HELL, I JUST CONQUERED IT FOR MY EX-BOYFRIEND"

That would make anyone snap.

[The Romulan Republic]

Sure. But the problem is that the show contrived, in a very short span of time, to pile more and more shit onto Daenerys while nerfing her capabilities in order to justify this plot twist, which just happens to conform to an oversimplified charaterization that stinks of double-standards that is popular with a segment of the fandom.

Oh well, at least it gives me a plot hook for that Game of Thrones/Doctor Who crossover I've been meaning to write.

[Solauren]

FUCK the vocal parts of the Fandom. They're usually just full of whiny little shits, that don't like the other vocal parts of the fandom.

Short period of time? Yes.
Would I have preferred things stretch out another 2 - 3 episodes? Maybe.

But, sometimes, in real life, shit happens in a short period to a person, that is almost seems contrived, or like some 'force', 'fate', or 'deity' is angry.
Sometimes the person snaps, sometimes not.

We got a shortened season, so it's got to be compressed. Shrug, go 'meh, to bad', and move on.

[Galvatron]

I'm probably wrong, but I'm going to call it now: Dany and Jon both die, thus ending the Targaryen bloodline forever. That leaves the newly legitimized Gendry Baratheon, Lord of Storm's End, as the closest thing to a rightful heir to King Robert's throne who then recognizes the North as an independent kingdom under Queen Sansa's rule.

The realm could do far worse and Varys will not have died in vain.

[The Romulan Republic]

I'd say they dropped enough hints throughout the entire run of the series that none of this should come as a shock to anyone.

Oh I know, I just meant maybe showing her become unhinged while across the sea only to reel herself back in at one point, and try and fight the Targaryan madness in her blood before finally succumbing. I have no problem with this being the culmination of her arc, I just think they could have really mined her descent for some interesting stuff.

See, this is what I hate- the idea that she has "Targaryan madness in her blood", that by her heredity she is fated to be a one note Mad Queen. Funny how no one says that about Jon. Not all Targaryens are mad. Its bad enough when fans turn characters into caricatures (like Evil Dumbledore, for a classic example)- here they've done it to a whole fucking family (except for the male ones other than Aerys), and then the show made it canon.

And funny you mention "reeling herself in"- because we had Danny step to the brink before- and then turn away. In Mereen, and again when she chose to put fighting the White Walkers ahead of seizing the throne. Which is part of why this sudden shift to Mad Queen feels so out of place, rushed, forced. Its a very sudden reversal on her recent character development.

[Lord Revan]

I'd say they dropped enough hints throughout the entire run of the series that none of this should come as a shock to anyone.

Oh I know, I just meant maybe showing her become unhinged while across the sea only to reel herself back in at one point, and try and fight the Targaryan madness in her blood before finally succumbing. I have no problem with this being the culmination of her arc, I just think they could have really mined her descent for some interesting stuff.

See, this is what I hate- the idea that she has "Targaryan madness in her blood", that by her heredity she is fated to be a one note Mad Queen. Funny how no one says that about Jon. Not all Targaryens are mad. Its bad enough when fans turn characters into caricatures (like Evil Dumbledore, for a classic example)- here they've done it to a whole fucking family (except for the male ones other than Aerys), and then the show made it canon.

I think with Jon it's less about him being a man and more about him being half Stark Blood, while all other Targeryan royals were products of brother/sister incest.

And you could say that Dany's brother was rather insane as well and obviously he was male.