I think Brienne will stay healthy until she gets to use her Valyrian steel against the White Walkers.
Stannis went from boring to despicable pretty quickly. As for who is going to win the Game of Thrones, it was always either going to be Dany or we’re missing the whole point of the exercise. The red wedding was a warning to readers(and viewers) that what we think the story is about is not necessarily what it’s actually about. That won’t be made clear until the end. Stannis is an archetype: we had Robb, the good idealistic young man, whereas Stannis is the inflexible, unfeeling leader who commands respect because he’s like “hard iron” as someone once said about him, but not a sick bastard like Joffrey(even the killing of his daughter wasn’t a sadistic act. Joffrey would have done something like that for fun). But such an archetype has serious weaknesses. These are the types of characters that can start a story as king, but never end it that way, because what kind of a BS story would end with such an uninteresting and not particularly likeable character as the winner?
See I know you’re being sarcastic, but Stannis never has believed in Mel’s fire god. Except when now he does.
As someone else said who the hell is going to be his heir now?
No heir, actions with plenty of witnesses will make him reviled to the public, this sacrifice might let them reach Winterfell but what then?
Exactly… he has always been a “cultural believer”, he even outright told Mel that “he said the words” when told about the Lord of Light and burning seems to him a method of execution rather than religious observance.
This is a man who only a few episodes ago told his daughter about how he struggled to save her life. This was completely out of character with him.
Are they trying to lose the audience with more shocking displays? First Hebephilia and then infanticide in the same fucking episode.
Given the daily horror of life in Westeros, I have to wonder just how much people care that he burned his daughter.
We have been told repeatedly that the only thing worse than killing a King, is killing you own Kin.
IT’s a stigma, but it doesn’t seem to cause anyone to lose their position. Jaime is still Kingsguard.
A couple of thoughts:
It was probably a mistake to schedule the first games on “Gold Mask Day” at the Mereenarena.
With the burning of Shireen, I kind of feel like they are just trying to top one horrific event after another.
I was not impressed by Drogon’s performance. Sure, he came in and fried a bunch of dudes. But I really felt like things would have gone very badly if he stayed around any longer catching spears with his face. I thought dragons were supposed to be game-changing army burning weapons of war? Drogon was almost taken out by a mob of soft rich jerks who are pissed because their slaves are gone.
Why is the Sons of Harpys even such a dangerous force? Weren’t the masters quickly overthrown because slaves outnumber masters like 10 to 1? Why are the Unsullied suddenly so uneffective in combat against them? They should be a minor nuisance in a city where Danys biggest headache should be preventing gangs of angry slaves from tearing former masters apart.
I wanted the flying on a dragon scene to rival anything in Avatar. I still felt giddy with what we got.
When all those harpies came out and surrounded Dany’s small force I was thinking, “That’s not a guerilla force, that’s an army.” Either they used all their manpower on that one attempt on her life and are pretty much spent as a threat now, or they are idiots for not just taking the city back conventionally. I’m guessing it’s the former. Their failure and heavy resultant losses probably has all but finished them off.
As for the dragon’s performance, that dragon is just a juvenile. Formidable, but vulnerable when it’s standing there taking spears.
Speaking of badass, how about that giant? I suspect if it was between him and that dragon, the giant would be eating very well for a few days.
And why the hell were the Son’s killing what looked like presumably former slave owning nobles in the audience?! I thought that is who they want to restore to power.
Anyone notice in the “fighters around the globe” fight we saw:
Jorah who is a Westeros fighter.
A Meeren fighter
A Dothraki fighter
A hard to see asian guy? from ?
A black guy with the exact same long pole axe as Doran’s guard.
Where are the last two supposed to be from?
I sure thought we were going to have Davos save Shireen at the last moment; he even requested to bring her with him.
In his discussion with Stannis, he sure seemed to know what was in the works. Did he not understand what was going to happen in his absence, or did he simply accept that there was nothing he could do to stop it?
Stannis initially didn’t believe, but he does now and has for a long time. He burned the leaches, he saw visions in the flames, and he constantly asks Melisandre to perform more blood magic.
The other two fighters were a Braavosi water dancer and the ax guy is someone you can’t tell from show material, but thinking he’s from the same area as Doran’s guard is a good assumption.
I think the dragons are still not completely grown - more like teenager dragons. Still fierce but probably still at their vulnerable stage without having experience with spears or war yet. I thought showing that the dragon, at this point, could be beat was more realistic than it showing up and having it been an easy win.
Ok went back and rewatched the scene, the “asian guy” was just the Dothraki from a distant angle.
We have
Westerosi(Jorah)
Bravosi(where Arya is)
Meerenisi(duh)
Dothraki
Unknown shirtless blonde guy(wildling maybe?)
Guy probably from the same place as Doran’s guard.
I don’t think Drogon was in danger of being beat, he was injured to be sure. But it would be like a human being hit by a couple of throwing darts, injured but chance of full recovery is almost certain.
I thought the Worst Thing was killing guests. Though I’m sure killing kin is not looked upon favorably.
My money would be on the dragon. He’s faster, can fly, and breathes fire. The giant might have odds in a melee fight, but if the dragon takes flight, he eats barbecue for a month.
Stannis clearly sent Davos away to prevent him from interfering, and Davos clearly smelled something fishy, but if he knew Stannis’ plans, he definitely would have risked everything to save her. On the same note, I think Stannis has lost Davos’ support forever now.
Didn’t look to me like Drogon was slowed down by the spears, let alone “defeated”. He managed to fly away with Dany on his back without any notable difficulty.
The same Stannis who has been burning people since the very first scene he showed up in? the one who had his own soldiers hung because he thought they might have been asleep just this episode? the one who ALREADY killed a member of his own family?
Most of that Shireen scene was either reaction shots or discretion shots - thank goodness. Kerry Ingram did an amazing job on the pleading and screaming - so amazing that I had to try and focus on the technical aspects of the shot, because it was so damn unwatchable. I bet if you turned it on mute that it wouldn’t really even be all that much, but I’m never watching that bit again to make sure.