It really made no sense for the ship to even go to King’s Landing after Myrcella died. It was a Dornish ship, not under Jamie’s command. Based on Bronn’s experience with the poison, it would have taken effect no more than a few hours after contact, when the ship wasn’t far out of port. With Myrcella dead, there was no point for the ship to continue on. Logically it should have returned immediately to Dorne with Trystane, since with the marriage off there was no reason for him to go. The Dornish might then have given Jamie a ship to return Myrcella’s body as a courtesy.
However, with Trystane in King’s Landing, it wouldn’t make much sense to let him go back to Dorne considering his value as a hostage in the upcoming war. (Certainly everyone will assume that Myrcella’s poisoning was a Dornish plot, which it was.)
Those scenes definitely needed more explanation of what exactly was supposed to be going on.
The Lord of Light’s objectives may not be the same as those who request his help. It has not been apparent that the Lord of Light will simply grant the wishes of his followers in return for a particular sacrifice (and this has now been confirmed). Melisandre may just be doing things she believes will please the Lord of Light. The Lord of Light may grant part of the request - the destruction of the Boltons - but not at the hands of Stannis.
Why assume that bloodhounds are the only kind of dogs in the kennels? Sansa needed to be captured alive and unharmed, that was made excruciatingly clear, so they used tracking dogs (and only a couple of them) to hunt her and Reek down. Back at the kennels, though, I bet there are a shitload of really nasty beasts, the kind you send out NOT on a leash to kill the hell out of whatever or whoever it is you’re tracking and I’m betting they ain’t no kind of bloodhound.
My point is that it was a Dornish ship, and not under Jamie’s command. The decision of what to do upon Myrcella’s death would have been up to the Dornish captain, not Jamie. With only Bronn at his side, Jamie could not have prevented him from turning around, as he surely would have done to protect Trystane.
Maybe, maybe not, but you have a good point that we only have Theon’s possibly imperfect assessment (“those must be the dogs that tear people apart!”) to go on.
Personally, I’m satisfied that they were held at bay by their handlers until the fight started, but then found themselves free and ran off. It’s one thing to tear into defenseless victims when urged on by your abusive handlers; it’s another thing when a big fight breaks out, your handlers are surprised and scared, there’s random heavy hoof steps all around, and their leashes are free. Fine, they skedaddled. It’s all a really minor point from some minor production clumsiness anyway.
I’m almost assuming that Cersei’s Frankenguard isn’t The Mountain since that would have to be the worst kept secret ever. (Hmm- this dead colored and masked 8 foot tall brute appeared just after we gave the not-a-Maester the 8 foot tall body of the Mountain to dispose of, isn’t that a coincidence?) I do hope we get to see some sort of showdown twixt him and his equally not-seen-in-a-grave-or-burned brother The Hound.
Most of the magic is imperfect in the series. I wonder if Daenerys might actually be able to have another child; the only word we have that she can’t is from the witch who cursed Khal Drogo.
We know very little. We certainly don’t know that the Lord of Light actually exists. But we have three times now seen Melisandre perform blood magic asking for a specific boon (sex to make shadow baby to kill Renly; burn leeches to kill Robb, Joffrey, Balon Greyjoy; sacrifice Shireen to cause a thaw). So far she’s 2 2/3 out of 3. I thought it was pretty clear that the sacrifice of Shireen was not beseeching victory, it was just breaking the frost so they could continue to advance on the castle.
I actually think that the mercenaries all abandoning at that point was was didn’t make any sense. Sure, to our modern eyes, particularly modern eyes that know that magic doesn’t work, someone burning his own daughter to ask for a change in the weather seems both monstrous and clearly insane.
But look at it from the perspective of someone who (a) is a mercenary, and (b) lives in a world where blood magic actually works. You’re stuck out in the wilderness, it’s super cold, most of your supplies are gone, and you are being paid to follow someone who is so dedicated to victory that he is willing to sacrifice his own daughter to bring a thaw… and it works! Why would you not continue to take that guy’s coin? Why would you instead just wander off into the middle of the trackless north, where you presumably have no friends and nowhere in particular to go, running very low on supplies? Presumably all of those guys who abandoned him are going to freeze to death the moment the weather turns cold again.
It makes sense that Stannis burning his daughter in a super-extreme situation loses him the respect of his wife, or Davos, or even himself. But it losing him his army is about the only thing that does not make sense.
Does the Red Woman go to bed real early? Seems that way. It was not even dark yet because they gave Davos until dark to decide to leave without being killed.
I found it a bit grating, to be honest; almost Pythonesque in a way. That’s not to say it wasn’t funny, though, just that when I see the Dothraki on their horses, I don’t really think ‘comedy troupe’.
Or the red woman knew exactly what she was doing. After all, she deserted before the battle, not after the defeat. So I would guess she didn’t expect a victory or she would have stayed by Stannis’ side.
And what she was extremely successful at doing was getting rid of all the Baratheon lineage (except for Gendry, and it’s not because she didn’t try), possibly to make room for another claimant, like Jon snow. Maybe she only needed Stannis to rescue Jon from the widling assault, and then made sure to dispose of him and his daughter.
Regarding the dogs : I would bet that the producer just didn’t want to upset the viewers by showing dogs being killed (especially by a “good” character like Brienne). It seems to me that a lot of people are more bothered by the onscreen death of dogs than of humans.