No, the wrecked and empty throne room is what she means to achieve by unleashing her dragons on Westeros.
What I thought interesting in the presentation was that through her visions, you could still hear the dragons in the background (unless I was imagining it) as if nothing in the visions could compete with being a mother to them.
I also thought it was totally adorable that they made a Mongol baby.
I assumed the throne room was in ashes, burned from the top, as a result of Dany’s dragons, much as the stronghold of Harrenhall is all twisted and melted.
Had to share this parody. Like Lord of the Ring with tits!
I’m voting that “flay the prisoners” guy’s bastard razed Winterfell, on his father’s instructions. Cat said it: if Robb is perceived to not take his oaths seriously, neither will his bannermen. It also sort of goes back to Varys’ riddle. The Stark’s authority is based on the consent of their vassals, which is in turn related to the perception of power. If Robb is an oathbreaker and he lets his mother screw up important things, why follow him? What the heck is the plan for this war anyway? The northmen don’t need a Stark, they just need a king who can secure their independence from those soft dumbasses in the south and let everybody get back to canning vegetables ahead of winter.
Joffrey’s going along with the plan in the royal betrothal scene may signal a maturation of his (still rotten) character. Last season, he went off-message and killed Ned, with disastrous consequences. Maybe his granddad’s arrival or his close call with Stannis scared some sense into him.
I liked the way the warlock died. There has been an ongoing theme of people’s bad decisions, particularly when they think they have a clever plan, coming back to bite them in the ass.
The army of the dead was pretty damn awesome, but the White Walkers themselves were a bit of a letdown. I expected something more frighteningly alien. We got some dudes who look kind of like preserved corpses themselves; a little bit Celtic bog mummy, a little bit freeze dried Incan mummy, plus some glowy bits. The super cool creaking ice/insectile chittering sound effects of the last 2 seasons deserve scarier monsters to make them. On the plus side we haven’t seen the “spiders the size of dogs” that Winterfell knitting lady mentioned, so maybe they’ll be cooler.
I agree and also disagree that this episode was a letdown. The nature of this has so many different points of interest that trying to end them for the season in a way that was satisfying was pretty difficult. I think Dany’s story line should’ve ended with her chained in the House of the undying, then next season they could have spent a bit more time with her escaping. Jon, Jammie/Brienne, Theon and Robb’s story’s ended for the season well I thought. I thought they could’ve done away with Stannis until next season. I definitely would have liked a little more with Tyrion and his father and Arya I think cold have been extended to show a little more of the arc.
I guess this is how the books are, I wouldn’t know, but they certainly have some freedom to change that.
I love you and want to have your murderous shadow babies.
Was anyone else getting a little bit of a “vibe” from Jaime and Brienne?
He seemed genuinely awed at her physical abilities when she was dispatching those dudes. Also, the way that they immediately launched into a fictitious story about Jaime being a pig thief in unison… it was like they were suddenly friends, working in synch.
Of course that story fell apart pretty quickly.
What would be the outcome if Jaime and Brienne were to hook up? Is Jaime “free”? I was sort of the opinion that being a gold-cape King’s Guard was something akin to joining the Night Watch (celibacy, no marriage or kids, etc). And Brienne is (or was) a King’s Guard to Renly. Is she technically “Ser Brienne”?
Could two King’s Guards for different kings get married? And what kind of fallout would there be if they did?
But how he died makes no sense ! Back when Pyat Pree killed the 13 all in one go, Jorah put a sword through his back and he just laughed it up and popped back into existence across the room unscathed. Why would dragonfire be any different ? OK, magic, I get it, but aren’t there a dozen more of him around anyway ?
And were “the warlocks”, plural, just him the whole time, furiously masturbating inside his giant fuck-off tower when there wasn’t a party to attend or a household to murderize ? Was he telling the highborn of Qarth “yeeaah we’re like… there’s lots of us, OK ? But the others are super busy all the time. I do have a real warlock-friend, I swear, but you wouldn’t know him. He’s Penthosian.” ?
Gaaah, this whole arc just makes me angry :mad:. I had such high hopes for Riff Raff 
You’re mixing things up a little. The gold cloaks are the watchmen of king’s landing, the cops if you will. The King’s Guard are the white cloaks. And Renly’s bodyguards were the rainbow cloaks (I am not making this up, although I don’t remember if it’s been said in the series), which I would assume were disbanded when Renly was disemboweled. Stannis doesn’t seem to have any special bodyguard corps, or if he does they’re a pretty hands-off bunch 
I don’t think the White Cloaks have an oath of celibacy, at least it’s not come up that I can remember.
I think she barked to Jaime “I’m not a knight” when they got on the boat, and introduced herself as just “Brienne of Tarth”, but don’t quote me on that.
Cersei’s head would asplode, for one thing 
I think he was certainly awed by her skill, but I don’t think he was attracted to her at all. He was just stunned by the fact the she was a great fighter. Remember that Jaime and Ser Loras are considered two of the best fighters in all of Westeros, and Brienne already beat one of them.
Because we didn’t get a scene with Tyrion and his father we have to go by what was shown. Tyrion wakes up in what looks like a crappy store room -I’m pretty sure there’s a few nice rooms still available in that castle. Then dad took away any power he had and also let Cersei have her way - which we glean from Tyrion being informed about the Gold Cloaks. I think the reason we didn’t get a Tywin/Tyrion scene is because Tywin doesn’t give a rat’s ass about him. Doesn’t matter that King’s Landing would have been overrun by Stannis by the time Tywin got there had it not been for Tyrion’s leadership.
I agree the warlock’s death was a little anti-climactic but it showed that he had underestimated Dany and the dragons.
Ser Jorah stabbed an illusion. Dany deep roasted the real deal.
As he was giving the speech I joked to my wife that it’d be funny if he suddenly got an arrow through the head. Two seconds later, CLONK.
My take on it is this:
Jaime WANTS to be honorable.
-Jaime is secretly proud of being an honorable guard/knight/whatever. He knows politics is bullshit, but he actually wants to believe that the ideas of honor and bravery aren’t total bullshit, and for the most part, his actions reflect who he wants to be.
-Even with Cercei, he’s been…faithful. Yeah, he knows it’s messed up, but in his own way, he has embraced that and to hell with what the world thinks. Ok, so he killed someone to protect that relationship <and his sister, who would certainly be executed> but if it were a grown man rather than a kid, well…people wouldn’t think so much of it. And being battle-hardened likely made it just a little easier to just act directly without thinking of alternative solutions.
So, in all, Brienne and Jaime ARE compadres. In Brienne, Jaime sees a version of himself, oddly enough. There is definitely a war-buddy companionship there that you just can’t manufacture.
And most importantly…I think he RESPECTS her. And looking it over, I don’t see how many other people, at all, Jaime actually RESPECTS.
My impression is that members of the kingsguard aren’t celibate, but that they give up their or their offsprings’ right to become king.
So why did Jon Snow kill the guy who was captive with him? I thought they were pretending they were feuding, but that was taking things a bit far, wasn’t it?
Qhorin knew he was going to die anyways, probably a lot less pleasantly than a clean stab through the chest. Might as well sacrifice himself to give Jon an “in” with the wildings.
Yes I agree. The warlock’s death is far too quick and anti-climactic; he is supposed to be a powerful figure who has become even more powerful because of the dragons. They should have had a longer scene where perhaps all three dragons have to combine to kill him. And given that most of Dany’s henchmen had been killed she managed to overpower the “King of Qarth” might easily. Didn’t he have some guards protecting him?
Halfhand intended for Jon to kill him and he knew exactly what it would take to goad him into it.