So.. uhh.. what's going on with Stannis' hands here?

I like how they had the dragon's head pull slightly forward with each flap of his wings, like a horse does when he's galloping.

Stannis is just pragmatic, that's all. Dispassionate and pragmatic, all business. He is who we thought he was. He's making an omelet and breaking some eggs.

I can't even imagine what the show (and this thread) will be like next season when no one has any idea what to expect week to week.

He didn't remove him as hand, did he?

I thought the build up was weird for Ramsey's secret mission for them to not even show them.

The Harpy scene was indeed awkward. It was classic "we have them surrounded and outnumbered, so let's make sure to attack one at a time"

Still, it feels like the Unsullied lose every fight they're in

Still think it's likely the Boltons lose Winterfell, though maybe not this season.

I think they're setting up Arya to be blinded as punishment for giving the gift without order.

Sand Snakes couldn't be any weaker

For the sake of argument let's say Stannis wins the war. So he's sitting on the Iron Throne and ruling Westoros...

Wouldn't he be haunted by the screams of his little girl for the rest of his life? Would her sacrifice have been worth it to rule?

If the answer is yes, then (in my opinion) they haven't done a very good job of showing how badly he wants to rule. This goes for the book as well as the show.

He thinks it's his birth right to rule, I get that. But I was surprised that his character was willing to go as far as he's gone to get there.

Maybe that was GRRMs plan all along and we just haven't read up to this point yet, so it's not clearly defined in my head.

But damn that scene was painful to sit through. They did such of good job of getting me to like Princess Shireen of House Baratheon.

I'm pretty bummed about Shireen.

Was seriously hoping that Davos learned of the plan, smuggled her to Castle Black and was then put in charge of taking her, Sam and Gilly to Oldtown.

No idea what Davos does now.

yeah, I thought about that too, even thought it would be the exact same plot as with gendry

Would be sick if Stannis takes Winterfell and then figures that he can burn Theon and Sansa for kings blood and then just steam rolls his way through the seven kingdoms.

Sansa dies next episode and is revived. She becomes Lady Stoneheart and is the one to revive Jon. In the books it will still be Catilyn.

There's no way book Stannis burns Shireen imo. The Red Woman has her a Castle Black and will need some kings blood much sooner than Stannis would ever get back to the wall.

I interpreted the tents and horse burning at night to be the work of Ramsey's strike force. Is that not the case?

Continuing to put them to use as security guards rather than as an army. I get that she has to use what she's got, but maybe should have had them train to be cops a bit.

badly want a gif of Jorah catching the Mereenese champion's spear when he's laying on his back about to get skewered. laughed out loud at that one.

oh wow. I like that.

Would have been way cooler if they put more Unsullied around Dany so they could form a wall with their shields so it would at least be somewhat believable that the harpy wouldn't all just bum rush and overpower them immediately. (or just chucked a spear at Dany's chest)

Ellaria not just putting her tail between her legs and walking away right? I think Bronn being let off the hook this episode may have been misdirection and he gets got next episode by Ellaria's hand either directly or indirectly. Then Hotah gives her the axe as a result.

Something's gotta happen there and I don't imagine they're ready to kill off Jaime yet.

yeah, this + bad fighting in the pits is hard to get over.

I'm curious what happens to Tyrion, Jorah, Daario now. there's no way Tyrion just dies in the pits, right? I don't think we'll find out until next season.

Stannis is a ****ing lunatic. In order to get to the throne so far... No grief for Roberts death, he cheats on his wife, murders his own brother, and intended to murder his nephew.

Do you see the pattern? Daughter was next.

Stannis is going to do whatever it takes to win.

--

And for those that think this show has a happy ending.. It doesn't.

The entire show up to this point has been about how the one/ the few in power continually **** things up for the people they're supposed to be "helping", and the lengths they'll go to in order to remain in power or to get in power.

And how the few who actually have good intentions/ want change / have strong virtues 100% believe in the system always get thrown under the bus before they get into a position that matters

If it's going to hold its course, it won't end well especially considering how this "game" hasn't changed much even in present day.

Bronn is marrying the short haired chick obv. He will live and be part of uniting Dorne and Dany reuniting with Tyrion.

Stannis' actions seem totally out of character. He is a cold distant man, but one of honour and duty. Being kin slayer, his only heir in fact, is just not backed up enough to be logical.

Also it pushes Mel into bad guy territory. King of the Free Folk Zombie Jon gonna put them both to the sword imo.

Dracarys scene didn't work for me. Too slow and plodding. The build up worked for me though.

A lot of fight and battle experts in this thread, apparently.

And LOL at being surprised about Stannis killing off his daughter. It's been set up from the very beginning - in the show and in the books. I guarantee you it will happen in the next book.

I didn't think the pit battles were too bad, especially compared to the Dornish battle scenes so far.

I'd have liked the Jorah fights a lot better if he kinda just won instead of being completely outclassed and then getting bailed out 9 times.

Ep 9 thoughts (tl;dr):

- Jon Snow: nothing but shade being thrown around. Is there going to be stabbage next week? Sure looks like some stabbage is imminent... will Davos factor in somehow now?

- Arya: taking the week off from being an insurance claims adjuster to try and cross another name off her list. Holy ****, this is taking forever. Just kill him. Oh, a brothel. Meryn Trant does his best pedobear impression. "Too old." Is Arya going to have to take him out O-Ren Ishii style? Like that would be kinda cool, but also really disturbing given everything else that's happened this season. Why did it take so long for Trant to get to Braavos anyway? Jaime went from King's Landing to Rosby to Dorne in like 2 episodes, Littlefinger went from the Vale to Winterfell to King's Landing BY HORSE in about 3-4 episodes, but it's taken a solid 4-5 eps to do a run from King's Landing to Braavos, a major port city that is about the same distance from King's Landing as Dorne? Now I see why they had to kill so much time with A Girl talking to Jaqen Miyagi.

- Dorne: holy pointlessness, Batman. Now, I am sure Dr. Bashir is cooking up something really good. I mean, it has to be something really good, or else we just wasted an entire season for literally no reason. If the showrunners are smart, we should learn in Ep 10 that Dr. Bashir orchestrated all of this for his own purposes to get Trystane into King's Landing for... some reason? If there is a point, they are arriving at it slowly, but they have maybe 10 minutes of screen time next week to prove that they didn't just waste a **** ton of screen time on useless actresses and corpse-washing this season.

- Daenerys: Maybe it would have been a good idea to have the Unsullied running security just to make sure that like 50% of the game attendees weren't hiding Klan hoods and daggers. Just saying. Tyrion, where was that advice buddy? Hizdahr Skinny-Jeans and Poor Man's Eric Bana exchange witticisms for awhile, then Dany and Skinny-Jeans and Tyrion have a philosophical discussion about cultural relativism that would probably get a C- in a freshman seminar. Dany making thinly veiled threats about burning Meereen to the ground and just saying "**** it," so stay tuned for that maybe? But then the Klan shows up and starts messing **** up right after Jorah was doing his best boombox-over-the-head moment. Skinny-Jeans must have been behind this... nope, wait, he's dead. Sorry, Skinny-Jeans. Cue another apparently hopeless fight until a dragon shows up and starts wrecking ****. Now it's time for How to Train Your Drogon with Daenerys! Wait... what about Jorah, and Tyrion, and Poor Man's Eric Bana? Weren't there still a pretty significant number of Klan dudes left? And who the hell is furnishing all these gilded masks anyway? Hard to imagine that guys who have actual uniforms rose up so autonomously, but we have like zero on-screen suspects, especially with Skinny-Jeans apparently stabbified. Since the show chose not to include people like Reznak, Skahaz, or the Green Grace, we have to somehow assume that the Klan just appeared from nowhere? Not a fan.

- Brienne: speaking of timelines that make no sense, I've been sitting outside Winterfell for weeks now. What gives? Theon snuck into Winterfell in the dead of night no problem. Winterfell doesn't get deliveries? You can't go in with travelers for at least some reconnaissance? Hurry the hell up and rescue the princess already. Or get killed. Or accidentally get Sansa killed. Or something.

- Bran: I AM GROOT.

- Stannis: can't delay this one any longer. Father of the Year award is officially rescinded! In what amounts to one of the more (maybe the most) horrific deaths in the show, Stannis wiped out all the good will he had gathered from fans and sent ‪#‎TeamStannis‬ up in smoke along with everyone's favorite 12 year old reading tutor. I wonder if Davos will continue to be so insistent that Stannis is such a "just" person, because if there is one taboo all of Westeros can agree on, it's kinslaying. Even if you do get magic powers now, Stannis, what lords or commoners will ever follow you when they find out you burned your own daughter alive to appease a god that no one in your country actually worships? Not very astute, bro. And also, this seems like really suspect character development.

[S2] I'm mad at you, Melisandre, because I lost at Blackwater, so I'm going to choke you nearly to death... but nah.
[S3] Let's throw some bloody leeches on the fire to let you demonstrate your power before we resort to straight up burning.
[S4] Blood magic is cool, but I also need cash. So clearly you do trust some conventional means.
[S5a] "Shireen, you're my baby girl and daddy went to a ton of trouble to save your life because he loves you." Awwwww
[S5b] Mel suggests maybe we burn Shireen. Stannis throws major shade and tells her to get the **** out.
[S5c] Oh ****, some guys burned a few tents? Well, better resort to straight-up daughter-burning. Let's not bother with a leech test, even though we know that works... wait, isn't Balon Greyjoy still alive in the show? Shouldn't he be dead if I'm going to trust Mel enough to go full heel? Nah, let's light **** on fire. And by ****, I mean my 12 year-old daughter. Holy ****, dude.

And while we're on that note, are we supposed to hate Stannis more because even Selyse, everyone's favorite crazy fanatic wife, thought this was a bridge too far? Let's look at her arc:

[S2] Our daughter is willful and sacrilegious.
[S3] Our daughter is ugly and I hate her.
[S4] Mel: we might end up burning Shireen. Sel: yeah that's cool, I never liked her, but the Lord of Light is awesome.
[S5] No, actually, burning our daughter is kind of a dick move. Inappropes, man.

Having characters turn in this manner is suspect. Yeah, Darth Vader eventually rescues Luke when he sees Palpatine torturing the **** out of him, but we saw flashes of humanity through Jedi, so it wasn't totally unexpected. We knew Stannis was willing to go to extreme lengths, but he was adamant against harming Shireen until they... ran out of food? Kind of a low threshold, bro.

Overall, it was pretty horrific to watch. But it was still less disturbing IMO in my mind than the Sansa rape, at least for me--I also don't have kids, which might up the ante for some viewers, since the prospect of murdering your own child is like that darkest of all turns for parents, from which there is no return. Well, no going back for Stannis now. He's in Ramsay/Joffrey territory now, which I also don't really like. Before, we could have been conflicted about the prospect of Brienne killing Stannis. Yeah, we know she has a good motive, but up until this week, Stannis actually looked to be a reasonable prospect for Westeros, and he was getting more and more likable with his reasonable-ish wildling policy, his respect for Jon Snow, and the nice things he said about his daughter. But now, we are straight-up cheering for Brienne to murder him and his stupid receding hairline. For a show that prides itself on moral grayness, the Stannis plot has become rather starkly (forgive the pun) black and white. Stannis a bad guy now.

Like Sansa's rape, I can't say Shireen's death was gratuitous, or merely for shock value, but it does strike me as another example of sloppy character development that the showrunners have painted themselves into a corner with (oh sorry, Stannis the grammar nazi tells me it should be "with which the showrunners have painted themselves into a corner"... wait, I don't have to listen to you anymore, Stannis, you dick!).

Overall a mixed bag. Given the developments of the last few episodes, I just say **** it, I'm on ‪#‎TeamWhiteWalker‬ now. Kill the humans. Kill them dead. They don't deserve to live, those rapey, daughter-burning, gay-bashing, slavery-loving hacks. Winter is Here, bitches!

He's united the two houses and got someone onto the small council (current members: Paecelle, idiot father guy whose name I forget. Not bad if you can get someone good in to that.

I've probably enjoyed Turn Prophet's recaps more than the actual episodes, aside from last week.

I really hope the story ends with the white walkers winning.