The Dothraki are going to make terrible liberators of Mereen, because even if they ride in on horseback, defeat the masters and the Sons of the Harpy and free the slaves, the next thing they’re going to do is to pillage the city and rape all the women. As I remember, Dany got Khal Drogo killed when she insisted that his men not rape the women of some village they invaded. He then had to fight another Dothraki who was pissed that he didn’t get to rape the women.
They might if it means rescuing a true Stark. He has Sansa on his side, contributes a fairly sizable army on his own and has a letter from Ramsay admitting he has the Stark heir hostage. If there are any Stark loyalists left they would at least unite forces with him if they are not willing to follow.
Maybe not, but in combination with Sansa, the oldest Stark child still living? I’d say it’s a fair chance.
In the long term, perhaps, but in the short term, he’s good leverage to get to Jon Snow, and get Sansa back in order to use her to secure his hold over the north.
Also, right now, I think the best chance anybody has defeating anyone else is just to throw Daenerys at them, and have her come out at the top of yet another army.
There has to be some payoff for “the north remembers,” right?
Unrelated note- does Sansa even know about the White Walkers?
I don’t know. He’s a lunatic, but we have seen Ramsay do some pretty impressive things. He pretty much single handedly took out Stannis’ army, didn’t he?
Daario has been a real jerk to Jorah. I get that’s part of his character, that if his mouth is open, he’s mouthing off. But still, pretty damn rude to be rubbing Jorah’s face in the fact that Daenerys didn’t want him.
Regarding Missandei, keep in mind that she doesn’t have the history with Tyrion that we do. We know that he’s a badass when it comes to diplomacy. We know he’s smart, resourceful, good at reading people, and above all, a good person. Missandei doesn’t have any of that history, all she knows is that these two people just showed up from Westoros and Daenerys decided to trust them. She hasn’t yet seen the true depth of Tyrion’s competence, nor his commitment to doing the right thing. She just sees a willingness to compromise with despicable people.
I hope that Tyrion’s gambit gets a chance to play out, and not just truncated by Daenerys’ reappearance with her new army. I really think he’s exactly what this Slaver’s Bay situation needs. Neither side wants to compromise because they each see the other as sub-human.
This was a better episode because things got rolling again. We know several things are going to happen over the course of the rest of the season:
(1) Ramsay is going to get his comeuppance
(2) Dany is going to ride with the Dothraki and set things right in Slavers’ Bay
(3) The faith militant thing is going to go badly for the Tyrell’s
I’m hoping they resolve these quickly so we can get on with the main stories of the competition between the contenders to the iron throne and winter coming.
I feel that now that they’ve moved past the books, the show has become a much more typical fantasy epic than the more twisty unpredictable beast it was in its earlier days. Nonetheless, I enjoyed just about every aspect of it thoroughly this week. Interesting forward progress made on all storylines.
Extra props to the actor who plays Robin Arryn, who is every bit as weaselly and pathetic as he was before, but in a different, older, way. Man he’s just the worst. Well, no, Ramsay Bolton is the worst. But Robin is the worst.
And best of all, I have literally no idea what’s going to happen next.
We had three different brother/sister reunions this episode and all three basically boiled down to the women telling the men to quit being pussies.
Dorn comes to mind.
I really hope we don’t have to have several episodes of “Dany travels back to Mereen” now.
We almost never do unless they serve a purpose, hence we have Sansa and Theon both making their destinations at the same time without any issues.
Well, hopefully all that came from the time of mirroring the [unmentioned source material]; she wandered the desert pretty much aimlessly for practically real-life decades. Yes, hopefully now they can just teleport her like they did this episode with Theon (in particular; finding a boat and then sailing all the way to Pyke) and Brienne/Pod/Sansa.
Please please no. I want the Sparrows story to be over, its boring and pointless. Let’s have the Tyrells and the Lannisters slaughter the sparrows and thats the end of it.
I assumed Roose was in command at the battle at Winterfell.
Ramsay did a little raid on Stannis’s camps and lit tents on fire, but we don’t know if he has any sort of strategic mind.
Sansa was close to Catelyn, who hated Jon as a reminder of Ned’s (supposed) infidelity. Sansa no doubt followed Catelyn’s example in distancing herself from Jon. As a tomboy, Arya was closer to Ned and thus interacted more with Jon.
The Bolton forces had no problem following Ramsay before he was legitimized. (However, he was acting as his father’s deputy at that point, and Jon doesn’t have that authority.) I don’t think if Ned’s bannermen want to get rid of the Boltons they would have a problem with following Jon. He’d be better than anyone else.
Given this, I have my fingers crossed that Littlefinger’s end will involve him being tossed out the Moon Door after he’s crossed Robin in some way.
Cersei has engineered things so that only Tyrell forces will be involved in the assault on the Sparrows, putting Margaery and Loras at risk. She’ll be overjoyed to see them both killed. I’m surprised Olenna doesn’t catch on to this. (But I wouldn’t put it past her that she does and has something else up her sleeve.)
They don’t have to follow Jon, they would follow Sansa, who is the eldest heir of the Starks and the legitimate lord of the North. She can appoint Jon her lord commander and thats that. AFAIK we’ve never been told that the Starks follow strict male primogeniture, or have we? Or even if they do have male primogentiure, she’s the regent since the oldest surviving male heir is under age or captured. Either way she should have no problem commanding the loyalty of the north under her own banner.
Yeah, and if things go wrong, it’s Kevan who let the Tyrell forces into the city.
So if things work out, everyone is happy, if things go wrong, Kevan and Lady Olenna get booted from the small council or maybe beheaded.
Well what are Olenna’s options? let the Lannister forces help? That is obviously right out of the question. So is letting Margaery do the walk of tits or Loras confess his sword swallowing. The reality is that Cersei would be fine with either outcome, but this is still the best move for the Tyrells.