I really think you have to treat the Bronn scene as pure comic relief. Otherwise it falls apart rather quickly. There's the stuff you mentioned, plus

-He just strolls into Winterfell unmolested. OTOH Arya, who literally grew up there, had to spend 10 minutes arguing with two dunderheads at the gate and still wound up just sneaking in.

-Even if he pole-vaulted into the castle. He's just spent months riding, what, 1500 miles in the dead of winter? He looks like he's just come from a bath, well-fed and rested. Jaime made the same journey and looked like ****.

But if you just take it as an amusing meeting between three old "friends" initiated by a guy playing literally the only hand he has to play at this point, it's not the worst scene in the world.

Pretty obvious that Jaime is going to kill Cersei but it might be complicated.

Have you noticed that Jaime's hair looks very dark this season, almost like a Stark? And he's dressed like a Northman. The show doesn't do these things on accident.

It's not an apt comparison though. In the prior meeting, Dany still had an enormous army plus as far as Cersei knew three dragons. Also, Cersei had pretty much no army and hadn't had time yet to build all the giant crossbows.

So first, it would have been hard for her to pull off a successful ambush, as she'd had to deal with presumably three dragons. IIRC correctly, they also picked semi-neutral ground, so even if she had crossbows, it would have been hard to install them in ambush position.

Second, even if she killed Dany, her army would likely seek revenge, and Cersie would have been powerless to stop them. She needed time to get the Golden Company. Also, it was clearly in her best interest to let Dany waste her army up north fighting the Night King.

maybe he traveled light and had to purchase new threads from a local

Dany flying 1000 feet high and being utterly oblivious to the fact that the world's largest armada was taking aim & downing her other dragon was so difficult for my mind to accept, and so sudden, that the only way my brain could reconcile it was assuming it must be an anxious dream she was having. But nope! Just more inexplicable plot device nonsense chipping away at Dany's forces.

Sent from my SM-G892A using Tapatalk

I really don't buy this idea that Dany is a Mad Queen.

She lost more than half her army and people very dear to her, two of her "children." All of her worst fears were realized as people are already plotting against her. She kept her part of the bargain and the whole thing would have been easier had they just razed KL when she had 3 dragons.

Like Varys served The Mad King, Bobby B and Joffrey. What did you do to undermine them? Yes I know her aided efforts to protect Dany but he also sent assassins to kill her. She's set free slaves in multiple cities and killed slavers. She's done more for the little guy than the past 5-6 monarchs combined.

Like it's hard to believe he's not pragmatic enough to realize she's a lot better than the average ruler of Westeros. There's not really any evidence that Jon will be a good king. Harken back to Tywin's conversation with Tommen over Joffrey's dead body. What makes a good king? Kindness? Honor? Strength? No.

It takes wisdom, and there's not any evidence that Jon has any.

if only they had some way to scout out the waters ahead, like a guy who could see through the eyes of a raven

I really can't believe D&D's reasoning was that Dany 'forgot' the Iron Fleet existed. It's so dumb that it's almost surreal.

Had exactly the same experience.

I read in a review that Drogon was too hungry/injured to breathe fire, was that alluded to? Because I missed that. But it makes sense.

True but it felt like that was legitimately the only reason this scene was even there. "The fans like Bronn, let's give him one final scene where he gets to say some Bronn type stuff before the show ends". The idea that he shows up on a mission to assassinate Jaime, asks for a better castle, then leaves, was really kind of pointless.

Also I was sort of tilted by the scene of Grey worm and Missandei standing on the deck of the ship smiling at each other happily, like they were on a Caribbean cruise. It was 100% obvious that the scene was only there to foreshadow one of them dying later in the episode.

Except everyone said it was also 100% obvious that this was foreshadowed in Episode 2/3 and it didn't happen, and everyone was upset that it didn't happen then.

Is it possible that Cersei knew that Bronn was never going to kill Tyrion & Jaime, knew that he would double-cross her, and sent him just to rile up Jaime to return to King's Landing?

If Cersei really wanted to kill Jaime, she could have done it right before he left in the Season 7 finale, and I never took seriously the idea that Bronn would actually do this.

Re: Bronn sneaking into winterfell- in the establishing exterior shot of Jamie and Tyrion drinking, they are shown to be in a tavern and it looks like Winterfell castle is in the background. I imagine the purpose of that shot is to show that they are outside the walls with their guards down because they didn’t think they could possibly be in danger.

Yes, I think it was a reasonably good twist where everyone expected Greyworm to buy it last episode and yet he survives only to lose Missandei.

On a related note does it make any sense to execute a prisoner as valuable as Missandei? After Robert's Rebellion, Baratheon kept most of the small council and even Barristan Selmy. Seems over the top even for Cersei, I get that there's tilt factor and she wants to goad Dany into attacking. Tywin would have never approved.

And yet she doesn't kill Tyrion?

They talked about the Iron Fleet in their big war council!

if only they had an asset who's only useful skill is warging into a flock of ravens who can fly everywhere in Westeros and see what's happening below.

I think it's all about how it's done. Them talking about a happy future together, once the war is over, is definitely a foreshadowing, but fit with the flow of the episode. Not nearly as blatant as them standing on a ship - on their way to war with a brutal enemy - smiling at each other apropos of nothing, as if the war is over and they had already won.

In the first case I think viewers knew they probably wouldn't have the happy future they talked about. In this case, viewers knew one of them was dying within the next 20 minutes.

we talking about the show with a starbucks cup on the table?

The actual problem and it was one just one of the inconsistencies I was over looking, as one has to with this show for a few seasons now, is that Euron still has a fleet.

The moment he used it against Dany last season or whenever, anyone who is not militarily ******ed beyond belief would have used previously shown to be very useful against naval power dragons to wipe out his fleet and basically remove him as player in the game and remove the ability to use naval power from Cersei.

You dont have to risk innocent lives burning the fleet, its a military target that can be smoked in open water.

That Urine Greyjoy still has a fleet is ridiculous. I could live with it, one has to live with things in GOT now, but that said fleet was used to take out a dragon and is continuing to be a force in the game is becoming harder to live with.

The Dragon killing scene is just another example of dear viewer, switch of brain and enjoy spectacle. Mkkk Thanks.

Just don't think about it too much....

yea but not having to just shrug and grumble was wat made GOT great.

Make GOT great again.

ya, actually, a lot (all?) of the scenes felt weird and maybe dream-like

dany's mad queen paranoia during the celebration
gendry's proposal
half the squad retiring before the last war is won
jaime & brienne
jon ghosting ghost
bronn ambushing winterfell out of nowhere
euron ambushing dragons
missy warping into cersei's hands
the entire standoff at the end
etc

strange broad character moments frankenstein'd together
i, for one, blame Qyburn

Also, white walker army liked to do everything by halves.