They were on the way to Dorne to get the army still.
I think the scene with Euron in King’s Landing happened sometime before Dany got to Dragonstone. He already left before they showed up. He knew the only chance would be to take them on in the open ocean. Going straight to Dragonstone would leave them vulnerable to the dragons.
If the encounter took place between Dragonstone and King’s Landing it would be the most extraordinary failure of intelligence that we’ve seen on the show so far, in a world where armies are regularly caught flat-footed by the failure to do even minimal scouting.
Euron has just sailed probably the largest armada Westeros has ever seen halfway round the continent, past a thousand miles of hostile coastline in the Reach and Dorne. Apparently no one has seen them and passed the word on to Danys alliance.
Varys is an experienced spymaster. His “Little Birds” in King’s Landing have been co-opted, but surely he has other sources of information. He knows about the Sept being blown up and Cersei’s other doings, but has no hint that she has acquired an enormous fleet.
If Yara is coming to King’s Landing from Dorne to land a Dornish army, one would expect her to have sent a few ships ahead to scout a landing site, at least. (And as has been pointed out, there seems to be no sign of any Dornish troops on her ships.)
If Euron has ambushed them on the open sea, there are other anomalies. He must have sailed past Dragonstone on his way out. Surely he would have posted a garrison at such a strategic site.
In any case, it makes the most sense if the ambush took place on the open sea, as Yara was heading to Dorne. That they could effect such total surprise is implausible, but I’ll give them dramatic license for that bit.
If Euron has been at sea since before Dany arrived (he couldn’t have sailed past Dragonstone undetected afterward), it begs the question as to why he didn’t attack her much smaller fleet on the high seas as they came in. But maybe the dragons would have been enough of a deterrent.
I don’t think so, I’ve been watching out for something like that. The subject usually doesn’t come up…
I believe Sansa and Brienne discussed the relative aliveness of Arya but I don’t remember specifics.
Push You Down, Brienne told Sansa that Arya’s alive.
A lot of the “why haven’t characters A and B had a conversation about topic C” questions, I assume they just had those conversations off camera. There’s only so much screen time.
Am I missing something? Everyone is saying that Dany’s fleet was destroyed and she no longer has ships but that isn’t true, is it. Didn’t she send her own (Targaryan) ships to Casterly Rock?
Discussed on page 1. A portion of her total ships were destroyed. Yes, she has more.
A pretty good episode, I thought. I particularly liked the scene with Dany and Varys as she grilled him, made him admit his past scheming and extracted his promise of future candor as her advisor.
Enthusiastically agreed. Mrworrr.
I listened to her several times, and it sounded like “That’s not you” to me, too. The dire wolf wasn’t Nymeria, not anymore, just as she is not Arya who reluctantly drove the animal off. They both have changed too much to return to their old ways.
Yes. Littlefinger has a knack for provoking the lords of Winterfell.
Ebrose.
Fair point. I wonder if she’s maintained some level of plausible deniability in King’s Landing, even though Hot Pie, for one, seemed in no doubt as to what she’d done.
These both seem plausible.
Best. GOT. Misdirection. Ever.
Yeah, I wondered that, too. Yara seems too good a mariner to be caught so badly flat-footed.
The assumption wasn’t that Theon had killed them since Samwell had met Bran when they crossed the wall. Presumably he told Jon about it, and he knew they could be both alive, Bran north of the wall and Rickon south of it.
Re: Euron’s fleet sneaking up on Yara’s.
One factor could be that his ships were pretty much identical to hers, down to the kraken on the sails. So her fleet would have been riding at anchor, drinking and flirting with Dornish women, when what looks like part of the same fleet moves out of the darkness. "No problem, they must be stragglers just arriving, or moving to a different anchorage for the night...holy crud they're attacking!"I guess it’s the same dark magic that enabled the Masters to sail a fleet into Meereen that couldn’t be seen from an 800 foot tall pyramid until they were in trebuchet range.
Honestly, the “army/fleet showing up at the last minute to turn the tide” meme is getting a bit old. There are no such things as scouts or sentry pickets in Game of Thrones military doctrine? Jaime and Bron admonish the Freys for letting them march a Lannister army up their ass during the siege of Riverrun, so it’s not like the concept is completely foreign.
Sansa had been far worse to Jon than she ever was to Arya. Mind you, she’s not cold and hungry and desperate for shelter and protection anymore. But I still think she will embrace Arya and apologize for past misdeeds.
I’m not so sure about Arya’s initial response, but in the end, all Starks will support the pack. Winter is here.
I think Jon isn’t sure what to do with Littlefinger. Jon absolutely doesn’t trust him (as he shouldn’t), but I don’t think he can just summarily kill or dismiss him. Which is probably the very situation Jon didn’t want to get into from the beginning. If we can learn anything from previous Stark interactions with Littlefinger, the more that Littlefinger appears to be the solution to a particular problem, the more likely he will turn on you at the worst possible time and make your problems a thousand times worse.
It’s not really clear to me what Baelish’s move is here, given that his ultimate end game is to sit on the Iron Throne.
I actually think that Jon could just murder Littlefinger and get away with it. The reason nobody killed him in King’s Landing is because he was very good with money and nobody else wanted to bother with it. He was safe in the Vale because Robin listened to him. Robin isn’t in Winterfell though. Yohn Royce hates Littlefinger, and he commands the men that went north, not Baelish. Kill him, let Sansa soothe Robin, and be done with it.
I’d be curious to hear his thoughts about the Army of the Dead. I imagine he doesn’t believe. I wonder if Jon has a doubting Thomas show and tell, let everyone stick their fingers in his wounds.
When Dany is questioning Varys, and he claims that he’s a servant of the people who want a just ruler, and he acknowledges that the Mad King was terrible, she asks him why he supported Viserys, if he Varys knew that he was cruel and stupid and not far from the Mad King. Varys avoids the question.
But it’s a completely valid question that brings into question Varys’ characterization. Early in season 1, when he’s plotting with Illyrio, he simply looks like a Targaryen loyalist. But if we’re to believe his character since then, he’s only trying to serve the realm, and wants to replace Robert’s incompetant but relatively peaceful rule. But he had to know that Viserys would not be better than Robert, so then what’s Varys’ interest in bringing about a Viserys rule? Dany isn’t in the picture at this point as a potential ruler. It seems incompatable with him wanting what’s best for the realm.
Unfortunately that is a question that can only be answered by referring to those Things That Shall Not Be Mentioned.
I wondered when Ellaria killed Doran who the hell is ruling Dorne now, because I doubt they’d follow the person who just murdered their beloved ruler in cold blood. Although supposedly they did… but now, who the hell is ruling Dorne? Are we going to finally see a Dayne?
Ellaria isn’t dead yet, but she might as well be. Either way someone needs to step up in the interim to lead Dorne, which is more than just five people as far as I can tell. Dany can’t do it from Dragonstone, and don’t the Dornish hate the Tyrells, and vice versa? So Olenna can’t take over.
I’m not sure either Jon or Sansa know this, though. They just know Littlefinger rules the Vale now, not aware of the very shaky grasp he holds on the nobility there. Baelish sure isn’t broadcasting this weakness, though I’d expect Jon to have at least talked to some of the leaders of the Vale army, including Royce. But maybe he hasn’t? At least not with Baelish out of earshot.
Right. Best guess based on previous information is she may have lost around one third of her ships (Yara’s part of it).
Has it ever been stated that Theon is castrated? He lost his “favorite toy” or whatever Ramsey called it, but he still has facial hair and all.
Sansa knows exactly what kind of hold Littlefinger has over the Vale. She lived there with him for some time. Robin likes her more than he likes Littlefinger. A good move for her would be to become betrothed to the little tit-sucker.