Yeah Dany is crumbling pretty quickly. The Sansa scene, Tyrion frustration, Jon revelation, and even the Theon returning to fight for the Starks was telling.
Was reading an episode review that really drove home how much they want Jon and Dany to be the emotional core of the show...but literally everyone else ranks above them emotionally. Said something along the lines of, “You care more about Tormund blindly clapping in joy for Brienne than anything Jon has done since season three.” Wasn’t wrong.
I’m glad a majority of people here liked the ep. I can’t wait to hear all the people I know IRL who “like” this show to complain how nothing happened...
I love the spectacle episodes. But they don’t hit home without episodes like these to ground them. The “quiet” moments of high fantasy are often my favorites—Brandon sanderson is a master of it.
Dany is probably the most frustrating character. She hasn't changed since season 1. All she cares about the iron throne, like zero growth over 8 seasons. It's the end of days and it's all she talks about.
Dany’s growth has been more about learning how to lead/rule....but one thing she hasn’t learned how to do is win people over to her cause who have no reason to want to be. And she’s so used to the love/devotion of the slaves she freed and her closest advisors that she’s completely confounded at people like Sansa or Theon or etc. wanting to fight for something/someone besides her.
I liked how Bran told him it was a very long story, and then moments later we see Tyrion sitting by the fire with Jaime, apparently having already heard all of Bran's story. It was amusing to hear her tell Sansa that she came north to fight "Jon's war," as though her opting to head straight to King's Landing instead would have allowed her to completely avoid the coming devastation. I think that was one of my favorite episodes overall, though my enjoyment was slightly dampened by the feeling that most of these characters won't live through the next episode. Like probably everyone in the crypt. Putting them all in a tight space with minimal entry points is dicey to begin with, and that's before you take into consideration the fact they're surrounded by dead bodies and fighting an enemy who raises the dead. Yikes.
Man, there’s nothing worse than disliking something that other people hate for the worst reasons and make you look awful by comparison to them. My issues with her story this season are not with the sex scene by itself or that she is being treated as an adult (because those are the WORST takes), but that just like with the “Jon and Dany are in love don’t worry that we haven’t shown enough to justify this,” Arya has been rushed to a relationship that doesn’t feel realized in a believable way. She exists in this weird space where her character has been changed tremendously by what she has been through, but because the show is backed into a corner for the endgame, she hasn’t been given enough time to actually get from a teenager who cooks people into pies to feed to their parents and can’t even interact with her own family without playing sadistic mind games to a master flirt who can navigate her emotions perfectly at all times. I also find Arya to be a much more tragic and upsetting character in general than most people seem to, so having her get back to humanity seemingly with the flick of a switch is not nearly as satisfying as say Jaime’s really slowly developed arc from totally broken to..... slightly less broken. But yeah, all the pearl clutchers who are upset only because a woman can consent to sex and want it for its own sake but have no problems with all the other relationships on the show can go jump in the lake. Also if she is pregnant that will undo what little of that story has been a positive moment for her character and uuuuuuugh I don’t want to think about it.
I don’t have any problem with the character of Arya wanting to have sex, but let’s not pretend like we should all feel comfortable watching a 20-21 year old woman who we have been watching grow up for 7-8 years take her clothes off
I said the same thing as the episode was playing out. Every person who said what their plans were after the war = dead. Every person who talked about this being their last night on earth = alive.....until Tyrion changed his mind and said "I think we're going to win." Then I decided that was probably a stupid line of thinking. haha.
Yeah, this. It was nice to see in her interview they let her draw the line of how much we saw. But at the same time it’s very uncomfortable even to see what we did.
Daenerys has changed so much since the first episode of the series that it's kind of crazy to me that I still see people say she's had no arc or hasn't developed as a character. I think the way she's acting now and the way she reacted to Jon telling her the truth about himself is entirely in keeping with the character we've seen. She essentially grew up in Essos, where she had to adapt to an entirely different method of acquiring and maintaining power than that found in Westeros. The only way she knows how is the way that the Dothraki, and Qarth, and Slaver's Bay taught her to. And now that she's in Westeros, not only is everything much different than what she's prepared for, but the White Walkers have thrown an entirely separate wrench into the way she planned to win back the kingdom. She had no idea they were even a thing until Jon entered her life. And she doesn't know how to adapt, despite choosing a Westerosi Hand in Tyrion and having Jon as an adviser as well. And now on top all that she finds out she's been sleeping with her nephew who also just happens to have a stronger claim to the throne than she does. Jon just shattered her world again. It makes sense that she'd react the way she did. It's selfish and it lacks any kind of foresight on her part, sure, but it's also a really kind of human reaction. It's going to be interesting to see how this affects the battle next week.
Can't if he's in King's Landing as Jon's Grand Maester (although him taking Highgarden and marrying Gilly would be so damn cute)
If there was a situation where Dany gets the throne and Jon gets the North, I'd love to see Sansa then get Riverrun (assuming Edmure starved to death in the Frey's cells after Arya unknowingly left him there)