Dany going dark was set up, but there's a difference between "going dark" and torching the city for what looks like the hell of it. Her motivation is very unclear there. It's a motivation issue rather than an arc issue. Though I also think the arc transition was pretty rushed.

I agree it was always a possibility and arguably the most likely outcome but I think they should have done it better.

If she wasn't going to heed Tyrion's words she should have just executed him.

Not a great ep. Spectacle gets boring when it's the same thing over and over again. How many scenes of a dragon flying over streets incinerating people and Arya miraculously escaping death do we need? Mad queen destroying everything, yes yes, we get the point, let's do some character moments instead please.

Unfortunately those were a mixed bag. Varys has been underused for two seasons, so his downfall felt rushed. The moments between Jamie and Tyrion, and Jamie and Cersei were nicely done. Cleganebowl turned out pretty much the way everyone expected.

Her overriding objective has always been to sit on the Iron Throne, and burning King's Landing to the ground was something she'd considered as an easy way of achieving that goal. But when the bells ring, that's mission accomplished. Absolutely no need for the counter-productive destruction. If the reason is that she's gone mad, the show's done a poor job of selling this. The comments on her deteriorating mental state have come from other people rather than something she's shown herself. This show used to be very good at getting inside character's heads, but not so much anymore.

No, she wanted to attack/kill Cersie and accept that there would be some degree of innocent collateral damage, she did not want to fly in and and purposefully massacre civilians. No one was talking her out of an arbitrary rampage across KL, they were talking her out of the relatively minimal loss of innocent life a decapitation strike on Cersie would cause. Even when she lost important allies early on, she did not proceed to KL, she instead took out the Lannister Army/wagon train, so its obvious this argument held some weight with her.

Its no surprise Danny has become the end boss, the show has been shoving this down our throats all season, but the manner from which she went from I will be ruthless ***** to oppressors, but break the wheel, free the slaves etc etc to burn literally baby burn was clumsy and rushed which is a pretty universal criticism with all arcs this season.

Still not to fussed as the blowing up of KL is a highlight of the offering GOT provides now.

Of course the whole show has been dumbed down to ****, but thats pop culture.

Jamie has had one of the worst rushes, yea just got to wrap this Brienne plot line up with a shag, then roll out of bed break of dawn to ******g hot foot it to KL to wrap it up with Cersie. Can almost imagine the end of Goodfella's esque internal monologue.

The showrunners say that the sight of the Red Keep made Dany snap, because it represented everything that had been taken away from her. Like, what?

Also can people stop using the terrible logic of X has had a foreshadowing, X has been referenced in plot/dialogue so therefore you cant criticise implementation of X.

Its dumb.

People want to justify terrible execution by good intent.
"everything makes some sense" doesn't justify horrible execution that turns some idea into trash.
That episode was way too long and you could have 30% removed at no cost: you remove Jaimie getting caught and freed by Tyrion easily, Arya could be edited out from the episode completely, dany rampage lasting 1/3 was enough.

I didn't read more than one chapter of the first book, at least with HBO botching pretty much everything past book 5, i ll have a good motivation to start some reading.

Ye I've never felt more motivated to read the books than now.

She goes from being the bullied(early parts of season 1 and prior to season 1 we assume), to the bully(her reign during the middling seasons), back to being sort of stepped over again and viewed as nothing more than a woman with dragons to many since arriving in Westeros. She feels underappreciated and now her enemies have just waved the white flag which in her eyes probably represents a victory for the "north" and the Starks rather than for Dany. She already witnessed her power in Westeros questioned from her own people as well and now she didn't even get to act revenge on the people responsible for the oppression of her bloodline.

Couple this with the recent losses of some of her closest allies Dany just snapped and decided to "finish" her enemy in this spot. Sorry but I've been watching Cobra Kai recently as well and in the words of John Kreese this was Dany's "An Enemy deserves No Mercy."; "Finish Him" moment. If she had just let the battle end when the bells were rung she would have still felt a 3rd wheel in all of this mess when the dust settled and still felt underappreciated in this land.

I can accept her "mad" moment was her making a statement that she is the one and only ruler of Westeros and the bully, not the bullied.

Not me. I basically said **** you to the books a decade or so ago when it was clear he had no intention of actually finishing this **** but still wanted to lead everyone on that the next book was just around the corner.

I don’t see this season as changing my mind there. If anything it reinforces that this series doesn’t deserve my money.

How would Dany have felt like the victory was the North’s or like a third wheel? Her dragon literally destroyed Euron’s fleets, the mercenaries, and the fortifications of the city.

Well she has basically announced to the world, I am the Queen, because I have a dragon and you dont, and I can/will **** you up.

Its hard for any other wheels to be in play in that regard.

Again I have no problem with this destination, its the journey that has been poor.

Also she could have implied all the above without going full yolo, but whatever.

Haha, ya. I agree with this sort of take 100% too and it's why the earlier seasons were much better. I mean, how many episodes were dedicated to Jamie and Brienne's journey in earlier seasons and it felt real and you really cared about their journey. These later seasons are just trying to capitalize off the viewer's feelings for these characters based on their relationships from those earlier seasons. Many things do seemed rushed and unintimate as compared to how things were in the earlier seasons with these characters.

He might pull his finger out now the show's over. He is passionate about it so I can't see why he won't do it. As long as he stays relatively healthy....

They said they wanted to give the viewer a perspective on what was being felt on the ground through the eyes of a character you care about rather than through citizens you are not attached to.

The story would be much easier to take if they had done full seasons and we had the character development we want. The pace has completely changed and now it's cramming so much into short periods of time that while from a technical perspective the episodes are fantastic, the story has suffered greatly.

Agreed

I think the problem is that he’s not particularly passionate about the books.

Edit: Plus, he still has the same fundamental problem of the tv series. Ending this series is going to take a ton of work. He’s either going to have to rush a bunch of things or it’s going to take 5-10 more books. My money is on the series never being finished by him.

This *just* happened in the North. Her dragons and her army turned back the army of death, and she got zero credit and negative loyalty from the people she saved.

If anything his problem is much bigger than the show because he has dozens of characters who were never introduced in the show who have significant stories and plots.

I've heard a lot of people say that the valonqar prophecy was fulfilled and I'm calling B.S. on that. It was stated pretty specifically that she would be strangled to death.

Also if you're gonna say "X was foreshadowed" and makes perfect sense and people were talking about it on the Internet, well people have been talking about literally everything. Tyrion riding a dragon was foreshadowed heavily and Bran being the Night King was also foreshadowed, not to mention a million other things. Literally every fanfic is based on some foreshadowing or prophecy that the show probably didn't pay off.

GRRM has stated that he wants to give fans the ending they deserve so I'm hoping he sticks to his word.

Passion or not, the only problems I can see is his age and the fact he is obviously overweight.

D&D have ruined GoT and if GRRM never finishes the book then this will go down in history as the biggest fictional anticlimax of all time.

Still, what I've enjoyed I have greatly enjoyed.

EDIT: Is it even an anticlimax if it never actually ends? I suppose not.

What? The dragons and her army did almost nothing to help in that battle. It was Arya that literally saved the day. The plan of ‘let’s get slaughtered until the NK is confident to attack Bran’ would have worked without her army or dragons.

Remember when dany locked away her own children because one innocent child died? lmao but yeh makes perfect sense for her to totally ignore all the innocent people and keep them alive, until they surrender, hears a **** bell and then she decides to torch the place and murder anyone in sight.

So **** bad. Should have just killed jon right there given shes gone full insane and doesnt give a fk about anyone anymore. And part of her being insane is because jon is the true king and denied her his dick right? Ugh.

Varys storyline aswell lmao, can plot to get dany on the throne for years and years through multiple kings, without anyone having a clue. First sign of wanting to change the king he goes around shouting it to everyone. Even to the guy who loves dany.

Cant believe anyone is praising this ****.

And tyrion, poor tyrion, best character in the show just butchered in 2 season.
Jamie arc completely rekt within 2 episodes

Shame.