Dany's dragons are essentially teenagers at this stage, two of which were locked away for a period of time. Her dragons have never been as powerful as the ones from Valeriya, or even from the Dance of Dragons era. That said, we've gotten a pretty strong understanding of what Dany's dragon's strength and weaknesses are (battle in Meereen, Loot Train, Battle at Winterfell, etc). And while everyone up north has been preparing for the battle up north, Qyburn and Cersei have had that same amount of time to plan and perfect how to a kill a dragon. It's easy to overlook Jaime's confliction when it comes to Cersei when someone like the Blackfish or Edmund Tully are on the opposite end of his decision making, as opposed to a fan favorite character like Brienne, but Jaime literally spelled it out to Brienne before riding south. I think Jaime will ultimately do what is right once arriving south, but he's going to need a push. His inability to shake Cersei or the power she holds over him seems very true to his character. He's flip flopped like 3 different times up to this point. He very clearly has strong affection and love for Brienne, but he's loved Cersei for a lot longer. Also, don't forget that Brienne is the first woman that Jaime has ever been with aside from Cersei. I'm sure in a lot of ways Jaime is now also feeling somewhat guilty about that, further driving his desire to run away from Brienne and back to Cersei. One of the show's bigger mistakes, in my opinion, was not introducing Euron a season or two earlier, just showing his general adventures on the edge of the world. Could have been really interesting to see some of the stuff that is only ever described in the books, as well (a la Hardhome), and would have solidified his importance in this last season. Lmao, they literally shot the Winterfell battle scene over the course of 55 nights or something like that. But yeah, everyone working on this show is suuuuuper lazy. Give me a fucking break.
"I mostly live in the past now." "Okay, yeah, great, but maybe fly some of those ravens south to scout for ambushing sea pirates? Thanks." Also, a great time to point out that once again, in a war council meeting, Sansa was fucking right. REST YOUR DAMN ARMY, DANY. Then maybe you'd all be making better decisions and not getting snuck up on.
I really don't like how many people I've seen reducing Daenerys' (or Cersei's, for that matter) state of mind to "madness". Or the people who have hoped Daenerys "goes full Mad Queen." She hasn't gone mad, the circumstances of her life have molded her into the person that she is right now and everything she is doing is pretty well-grounded in her character up this point. It's pretty tragic that she's reacting the way she is to what has happened over the course of the last few episodes, because we're watching a character with so much potential for good give in to her anger and frustration and the results will be catastrophic. It's a fall from grace we're witnessing, not a descent into madness.
The rush to get to Cersei only makes sense from the outside standpoint that the show is ending. Time would absolutely be on their side in their world. Plus, you know, the whole Arya thing. Everyone can stay home and she can waltz in and fix it, easy peasy. From a character/story standpoint Cersei falling because of her family makes sense and Arya killing ANOTHER big bad doesn’t, but in universe it’s the perfect plan.
I loved that episode. Narratively, I am okay with Euron taking out the dragon even though I hated to see it happen and it was handled VERY CLUMSILY. Hearing a little bit about how he is in the books from readers kinds helps that make sense. I am very much hoping that Jaime is heading south to take out his sister and not reunite with her. People saying that Bran hasn't done anything yet are definitely underselling his contributions so far - BUT you have to admit he is a VERY funny character, and it seems unintentional. He does seem like his mysterious powers could be SUPER HELPFUL in tangible, logical, real world strategic ways and instead he stares creepily a lot and busts out "I like this chair."
I laugh about it but i think bran’s unintentional comedy takes away from a lot of scenes, i dont think the scenes were written and intended to be taken the way we do sometimes when we laugh at bran.
I think about the common people of the seven kingdoms just going about their lives, not giving two shits about Dany v Cersei because they're just trying to survive their dull ass existences
To be clear, I don't think I or anyone here has said that Bran hasn't done anything yet. But the whole series built him up to be basically the most important person/thing on the planet and personally, I don't think being bait to bring the Night King and then living on as history's memory is anywhere near the level of importance of what's been implied about him.
I'm 50/50 with you here. I 1000% buy that Dany, after knowing what she knows about Jon, seeing how everyone loves him, and her distrust of Sansa (and the love that Sansa also endures from the Northerner/the Vale/Theon), would want to get the hell out of Winterfell. Her primary objective from the jump has been the Iron Throne. She's taken a shit ton of detours, lost dragons, lost half her army, and now she's aware that there is a person with built-in support who has a better claim than her. Of course she wants to get the hell down to King's Landing asap to sit herself upon that throne. It's not the smart thing to do, but I totally understand why she would be thinking that way.
And when they all get set on fire next week I don’t think they will care whether or not it’s been “earned” by the ones doing it.
Well the ones in Kings Landing are fucked but everyone else is just out there surviving the winter, tending to their livestock, drinking their wine ,etc.
Sansa is so god damn smart. She obviously knew Tyrion is the one to tell ... as he will be traveling on a boat with a certain individual who spreads knowledge to everyone. She knows how to destroy Dany from the inside. The news of Jon will spread probably by where we are next episode.
Yeah this is a really good point. They even said this in the episode: having the throne is the only thing giving Cersei any semblance of legitimacy. Daenerys must realize that if she has the throne before word about Jon spreads too far, she'd have the same advantage in that conflict.
That is pretty much my issue. Beside the fact that they placed three perfect bolts from behind a cliff and then missed 20 on a bigger dragon flying straight at them, Westeros hasn't had a very rough time handling the dragons. I feel like they shouldn't have perfected it without seeing them first. They are sniping them with no experience. The very first time Westeros saw the dragons in battle, they nearly killed one. The Spoils of War was awesome, but Drogon got wounded. I just wanted to see the dragons really cripple an enemy without consequence which accelerates the need for a response. I feel like that never happened, and they had a response right away. Mostly, I'm just upset about the way they killed Rhaegal. The lack of awareness from Dany and the Greyworm is just dumb there. They know Cersei has a powerful navy somewhere, and they just get ambushed that easily? The terrible battle strategies from Jon and Dany has just been weird so far.
I’m upset that we didn’t get a scene of Arya and Sansa being like, “Can you actually believe what is going on right now?!” before Arya peaced out forever.
Jon, Daenerys, and Grey Worm have zero experience with naval battles/tactics. Literally the only person in their contingent who does is Davos and he was with Jon. And even Davos is likely no match for Euron when it comes to naval warfare. They all just assumed that the Iron Fleet would be protecting the Blackwater; it probably never occurred to them that Euron and Cersei would risk their biggest advantage (their naval superiority) on a surprise attack at Dragonstone.
The idea of Dany sitting on the throne and just being like, “I win no takebacks nothing to see here forget that we just killed a woman who also had no claim usurping machine’s broken,” is hilarious.
It just gives her the appearance of legitimacy. Her siting on the throne, looking like a Targaryen, and with a dragon at her command is a powerful image. Jon is a black-haired bastard from the North, the "son" of an executed traitor and the "brother" of another one. It's not hard to see how it would be massively beneficial for Daenerys to claim the throne as soon as possible.
Cersei has known about the dragons long before Dany flew them to Westeros. They were always a threat, so of course they'd be thinking of ways to defeat them. How do you kill something flying above you? Shoot it with an arrow. That's common sense 101. It's just a matter of creating an arrow powerful enough to do it. They attempted that at Loot Train, Drogon was hurt, but he still crippled an enemy anyways with very little consequence. That accelerated the need for a response and the better, more powerful scorpions that Qyburn created. The complaint about the 20 arrows missing Drogon after they took down Rhaegal I can understand, though it's worth mentioning that arrows can't move after they've been shot whereas Drogon can. And there's also a look of shock on Euron's face after they miss Drogon, as if he's impressed with Dany's ability to ride Drogon and navigate him through that danger. Still a bit unrealistic, from and odds standpoint, but I also can't help but laugh about these type of complaints when they're included in sentences that mention riding a dragon.
You can include their advisers in my sentiment. It doesn't take a genius war general to think that they should use the dragons to scout out for the known armada that's possibly out there. Its weird to have them flying so low with the threat around.
It’s just back to the same old same old that she has been ranting about going against for forever. Like obviously she has always been a massive hypocrite who is no more fit to rule or rightful to the throne than anyone else, but she’s really given up on the “break the wheel” nonsense now. She would be in exactly the same position as Cersei now, which is not anywhere near any kind of endgame and doesn’t actually accomplish her stated goal of being the lasting ruler. It’s not even that it’s particularly out of character, it’s just a comically bad plan at every turn.