I'm coming around to thinking that, no, GRRM may not be the maverick of darling killing. From the name of the novel series (A Song of Ice and Fire) to the telegraphed story arches for both Dany and Jon, I think those were his ultimate darlings. I don't know if it was in the novels (I would expect it to be) but Jon getting a reprieve from death certainly seems to, in hindsight, give weight to that idea.
I blame Jon for all this since he's being such a naive little tart wrt Dany.
You can't go and make yourself an existential threat, then drag your distrustful, but powerful, family into the circle, then just hope the entitled, paranoid, lonely, jealous, self-aggrandizing dragon woman will just be cool with it all, even when you turn her down from jumping in the sack?
What's his plan? Watch her just marry someone else, be KotN with some other girl, be loyal and hope she doesn't hold a grudge or paranoid thought (unlike she's always done?)
Jon done fked it up and untold #s die bc of him... again. I'm putting him on deathwatch just for being such an idiot, and for a romantic tragedy theme being played here.
Then Arya comes and kills her in revenge. Then it's Queen Sansa or King Gendry or some fkd up permutation and no one's happy, at least the few left alive.
Game of Thrones Patch 8.5 Notes:
-Reduced damage and accuracy of scorpions.
-Drogon's fire breath damage, flight speed and stamina increased.
Overall I liked ep5, and (whistling past some inconsistencies from the impact of ep3) thought the battle strategy was the best of the entire season.
I'm fine with the dragon being super powered.
A. It's a dragon, and they should be f'ing awesome
B. Zombie Dragon did blow the crap out of The Wall with a few puffs, so it's not like we haven't seen this before.
Overall best display of dragon power I've ever seen on film.
My biggest annoyance is at Jon, but he's been a tart for a while, so it's not really out of character. It's who he is. Choosing not to play the game is deciding to lose. That's why Sansa's always frustrated with him.
I hate to forget about the Lord of Light. I wonder if he protects Jon just to watch everything burn. If so, mission accomplished.
Wrt Dany...
So many people want her to be some feminist heroine, or virtuous ruler.. something something.. Putting all these metoo era values on her.
Really, she's been entirely, vengeful, murderous and cruel as any at different points. Yes, she's freed slaves and some oppressed peoples, but at huge cost. It's not entirely a given this wasn't just it's own power play rather than genuine altruism.
At the end, she gets her fierce foreign army, barbarian cavalry and unmatched air power to come and invade her old homeland.
After a series of distractions, lost opportunities, betrayals and harrowing losses, she ends up outside the gates of the Red Keep for the final battle.
Ok, so is her turn to apocalypse really that surprising?
The theme of season 8 is her as an increasingly embittered, isolated commander of a foreign military in a foreign land where the native people don't see her as one of them and regard her suspiciously.
All her closest advisors and friends are dead. Many have betrayed her, either through passive naivete (Jon) or intentional plotting (Varys plot string; maybe Sansa.)
On top, word is quickly spreading that she isn't even the rightful heir, beloved hometown Messiah Jon is.
So what choices are left to her?
That's what I read her long pause atop the perched dragon as the bells rang was to ponder.
She won the battle, alone and faceless on her dragon, but beloved Jon is down on the street with the men, accepting the Lannister surrender.
What's next? He bends the knee and they all follow, even tho she is a foreigner and not the heir? Allow Varys' whispers to continue to spread? Her barbarians will be welcomed as liberators?
That's the love path, which was rejected. She said she chose fear to Jon, as it truly was the only way she gets the throne.
So she burns out all the whispers, the questioners, the doubters and starts all over with her people as the new people of Westeros. She utterly defeated everyone in battle, why back down now and let politics defeat her?
This just made Rhaegal's death even fucking stupider than it already was.
E4 = Dragon flying around? Its np, fucking bullseye right through the neck.
E5 = Dragon flying around? Dragon nukes entire fleet of ships, does not get hit even once.
logic = out window
I liked her nuking the city. Go easy, and you're fighting smaller battles all over the place, with perhaps even more people getting killed. If some lord or another gets ideas of resisting, visions of his castle getting melted down around his head will put those to rest. War sucks, better to end it and make sure it stays ended.
The same effect could have been achieved if she'd just destroyed the red keep, but she HAS had a pretty bad few weeks. Hopefully it's out of her system.
Ask the question in reverse, why keep any of them around?
IRL, the Mongols were, in part, so successful as they tricked cities into surrendering, then proceeded to behead the entire population once they opened their gates and dropped weapons.
Why? So no one was left to oppose them and avenge the loses.
At every turn, nearly to a man, the Westrosi betrayed her. Even Jaime crawled back to pass her loves and return to treacherous Cersei.
Which Lord or Noble will surrender his castle and lands to her generals, Grey Worm and the Khals so they could make a new home? Tarlys weren't interested.
Or she could destroy all the opposing Lords and their people right there, and start over with her loyal people.
The dragon fire made very thick castle walls explode but only lit weak ass people on fire. Those people should have been straight up vaporized. This annoys me more than it should.
And we strongly dislike Dany in our house, she is only just now becoming interesting.
the standard "Fire breath" used to vaporize humans is just the auto skill; aka your slot 1 skill.
"Wall Blast" is your epic skill that requires a full rage meter to activate and comes with a 60s cd.