Game of Thrones begins....

[Valmy]

Betraying the Slaver's Bay merchants and burning them alive, crucifying hundreds of Masters, feeding the heads of Mereenese great houses to her dragons, burning all of the khals alive, demanding that the heads of the Slaver's Bay armies pick one of their number to die and then killing the two who didn't volunteer, burning the Tarlys alive, etc. Her solutions are always violent and often wantonly so.

that.

I disagree it is wanton in the context of the world. It was all calculated and rational uses of force.

[Habbaku]

Well. Dany's heelturn was forseen.
But the execution. Pff

Yeah, gotta agree with that. It has been telegraphed since season 7, and like most things done in the past two seasons, executed rather poorly.

But it's a compelling story if done well, hopefully the books can succeed there.

It's been telegraphed since season 1, at the very least. The foreshadowing has always been there (Fire and Blood, after all), but the execution is lacking.

[viper37]

It's not merely a problem of bringing all the different threads to a conclusion, though.

You could arrive at the same place without involving supersonic bolts and widespread stupidity.

Yeah, if Dani is going to go crazy in the end, then show us why

they kinda did, over all the years.

That she/we felt justified because she was targetting slavers and mysogenists does not change the facts: she likes to play with fire when she's just upset.  Kinda like Carrie

[FunkMonk]

The best part of the episode was Dany coming out of the sun and dive bombing the fleet like a Stuka at Dunkirk. Hell yeah.

[Razgovory]

It's been telegraphed since season 1, at the very least. The foreshadowing has always been there (Fire and Blood, after all), but the execution is lacking.

Yeah, it's always been a possibility.  Such as when Tyrion talked her out of destroying Mereen.  I don't have much problem with the execution, but I think the show would have done better with full seasons rather than the last two truncated ones.

Something I thought was interesting was the show has Cersei as a main villain due the abuses she suffered.  Two of the female leads go through similar abuses slowly become Cersei.  It's a show about how people become villains.  Sansa isn't a villain but certainly has the icy plotter thing going.

Most of the characters evolved in some way.  Except Jon.  Jon is still as dumb as he was in the first episode where went to join the Night's Watch.  I dislike Jon becoming King.  His main strengths appear to be making poor choices and losing battles.

[viper37]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/05/13/how-talk-your-daughter-khaleesi-about-that-game-thrones-episode/?utm_term=.5cccc35f3c7c

[FunkMonk]

The city didn't rise up so they were enemies. If she can't be loved in westeros then she will be feared. She basically told you this at the beginning of the episode

Sure it is internally consistent within the episode itself, if you ignore everything that came before.  That is CC's point, which I agree with - a spat with the boyfriend and losing her BFF is not really sufficient explanation. 

Also one creates fear by establishing an expected consequence to the behavior one wishes to suppress.  Demolishing the entire capital in a fit of madness creates desparation and fatalism not fear in that sense.  For fear to work, the target still has to think they have something to lose.

She's not gone mad, she's just being the person she's always been: A zealot. If you're not with her, you're against her. She decides what is Right, and if you don't agree, you're Wrong, and you deserve whatever punishment she decides. She's a neoconservative's dream. This has been patently obvious for years.

[The Minsky Moment]

She's not gone mad, she's just being the person she's always been: A zealot. If you're not with her, you're against her.

She forgives Jorah his terrible betrayal.  She pushes back against Tyrion again and again, but still keeps him and often allows herself to be persuaded.  She sacrifices her overwhelming military advantage and risks her lifelong dream for a dangerous fight in a northern wasteland that has no connection to her, and then doubles down after the catastrophe of losing a dragon.  Contra the revisionist history presented here, she actually made concessions to the Essos slavers and gave them multiple opportunities only to be attacked and betrayed at every turn.  She condemned her dragon-children to prison over a shepard's daughter.

Over the past two season, she had multiple opportunities to win the war with an immediate strike on King's Landing but refrained over and again.  If she was *always* a zealot, why not attack immediately on arriving?  Oleanna urges her to do exactly that, she follows Tyrion's advice instead.  It is Oleanna who tells her to be a "dragon," Varys who threatens "fire and blood". Instead she acts with restraint and does some GHW Bush style coalition building.

To paint her as a zealot requires ignoring much of the actual history and conduct of her character.  The thrust of the books and and TV series both is to portray her as a complete person - fiery but compassionate, determined to assert her perceived rights and harsh is responding to slights but also fair-minded and just, quick to anger but also willing to reflect and reconsider.  Virtually every person she comes to know who also knew her father comments on the clear distinction in their character and bearing.  The show writers basically shitcanned all that to force a quick plot resolution while tossing in a couple of references in a forced effort to retcon her character history into a simple hereditary fairytale of scary Targaryen genes gone awry.  Lazy, lazy, lazy.

[Zoupa]

Had a flashback to last season while she was burning the city: "Isn't their survival more important than your pride?"

LOL guess not! Bitches be crazy yo.

[The Minsky Moment]

The hallmark of the series is that there are no true saints and only a few true sinners. The "good guys" include a patricide (Tyrion), a secretive bureaucrat responsible for countless deaths (Varys), an oathbreaker and killer of his own brethren (Jon Snow).  The earliest chapters/episodes firmly establish Jamie Lannister and Sandor Clegane as evil bastards that throw kids off walls or butcher them only to subvert those understandings later.  What makes Danaerys work as a compelling character is that she fits the series mold of flawed protagonist.  Turning her into a straight up nut that finally snapped blows it all up.  It can't be justified.

[Tamas]

IDK what you guys wanted. Yes the writing is kind of lame but how is that in any way surprising at this stage?

And for at least this season but IIRC in the previous one as well, we had scenes upon scenes where on of her advisors or more went "Puhleaze don't burn King's Landing" which was met by Dany's angry gaze.

She was held back from similar butcheries by her advisers, whom have all failed her from her point of view. So she snapped. I think it is entirely unrealistic to expect a rationally timed berserk snapping.

And in terms on no gradual buildup of her inner torments to the boiling point: well, hello, this is Emilia Clarke in a series that's been rushing to a hastened conclusion at breakneck speed for two seasons now. Maybe you should have watched the series instead of joining in at this stage.

[celedhring]

Two episodes ago she allowed her force to be decimated and her life to be put at risk to save those she's now wantonly burning alive. So yeah, the snapping makes no sense. I agree this needed at least one more season or a longer one. Too much rush.

I understand people not wanting to spend all their life doing this (it's been 8 years...) but at least they should have gone for regular 10-episode seasons.

[Zoupa]

https://www.reddit.com/r/gameofthrones/comments/bo6gqw/spoilers_i_am_amazed_how_well_that_fits/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x

Just watch it 

It's better to laugh than cry I guess.

[celedhring]

Also, Cersei deserved better than dying caught in debris, imho. Rather anticlimatic. But instead we had enough "Arya nearly dies" scenes to last us a lifetime.

And what was the entire point of Euron Greyjoy as a character? GAH.

I think I better stop thinking about the episode/season. Get done with the sixth and move on to better things.

[Josquius]

I had thought they'd kill Arya in the stampede. Would be a realistic though painfully cheap end.

Euron and Qyburn felt just there to give cersei someone to talk to after their relevant parts of the series were done.