Game of Thrones [SPOILERS]

[Jeff Kelly]

Resolving a story in a meaningful way is one of the most challenging things to do as a story teller. It's also that most writers are infatuated with writing the first and second acts because they are the most interesting parts to write. You can flesh out your universe, open up dozens of interesting conflicts, pose lots of interesting philosophical and moral quandaries and so on. Wrapping things up is boring and tough by comparison and a lot of writers have no idea how to resolve all of the build up that they crafted over a series of books in the final act.

That's also why a lot of genre fiction is now a mess of 10+ book anthologies with hundreds of plot threads dangling in the air until the author runs out of steam and they either completely abandon their work or hastily wrap it up so that they can get to the next interesting world building part in a new universe. Robert Jordan may be a prime example but he's not he only one. It's unfortunately very common that writers - be it for books, or TV and movies - have no idea how they want to wrap up their story in the end because they are much too infatuated with the beginning and middle parts.

You can only subvert story telling tropes for so long, at some point you need to start resolving things and that is usually boring and classical. You have a central conflict and so either one side or nobody wins, you have a power struggle and so either one person will become the ruler or no one will. It does not have that much potential for subversion of story tropes. Especially when you have to somehow live with the expectations of your fan base. You could potentially have Cersei rule over a corpse-ridden frozen post-apocalyptic landscape after everyone either died during the final conflict or starved or froze to death later as some sort of ironic phyrrhic victory and even that would be a major story trope and also would probably royally piss off your fans.

You can not make that part be novel, best you can hope for is that it's interesting.

In TV writing land it's also the fact that most staff writers never get to wrap up a story anyway given that most productions get cancelled half way through and usually don't plan that far ahead.

[Chimpy]

Whatever.

The guys running this show are hacks. The only good writing they have done recently is a handful of mostly Tormund (and that is probably as much down to the actor and his delivery) one liners.

[Jeff Kelly]

They seem to have given up on more than just writing. Latest episode prominently features a Starbuck's paper cup that someone had forgotten on a table and that no one in continuity and production or during editing has noticed.

[Riggswolfe]

That was really awful. Character motivations brought to you by words "roll int check" and "failed".

So, they're just going to make Dany fucking crazy, I guess. Yay. Go team. 

Her madness has been hinted at since at least last season. But they did just take our her emotional support system in the space of two episodes. (Jorah and Missandei)

[Khaldun]

Terrible stuff. They might as well have just have the two showrunners come on and go "And then Brienne and Jamie have the sex. Then we try to find a way to make Dany and Jon edgy with each other. Then, well, we want people to see Dany is going crazy, we don't really know how to show that though. Then a dragon dies! Just like that!"

Euron and his magical omnipotent plot boats fucking annoy me. That and the fact that it now takes about three hours in the middle of winter to go from one end of Westeros to the next on horseback or boat.

And Tyrion and Varys? What the fuck was all of that? How is Varys the guy who has always been looking out for the realm? During all the years he was letting the Mad King go mad? Or Robert Baratheon be a drunken idiot who mismanaged everything? What is it Tyrion and Varys are reacting to? That civilians might die in an attack on Cersei, especially now that she's gone full Hamas and made them come close to the Red Keep? Since when the fuck do even the most enlightened lords of Westeros let that stop them from doing what they need to do? Ned Stark fought in a war that killed not just knights and soldiers but many civilians, but he thought it necessary. The Night's Watch had a long-standing deal with a rape-monster who impregnated his own daughters. Tyrion used incendiary weapons to kill thousands of sailors. It's like we suddenly switched into the Disney Channel version of Li'l Game of Thrones. I mean, ok, I can deal with the two of them thinking it is a realpolitik mistake to kill too many civilians in King's Landing and even having moral qualms about it. But the idea that because Danerys is pretty much determined to go after Cersei whatever the cost, she's gone mad and has to be replaced with Jon Snow? Where did that come from? It's 100% unearned.

That was just bad.

Honestly, if they wanted to get all these plot points going, what they should have done is after The Long Night, have some feasting and some immediate business resolved (Jamie and Brienne screw, Gendry gets made Lord of Whatever) and then have Cersei announce that her troops and dragons are going to winter up in the Riverlands, where there's enough food to support them. Have Sansa and Arya hear the news about Jon after he and Dany have had their conversation. Then Dany & Co depart. Freefolk say they're going to winter at Castle Black, which still has stores. Most of the Northern banners head back slowly and painfully to their own castles. Then we see Euron and Cersei and she tells Euron her bun in the oven is his. Then she turns to Qyburn and says, "Build all the ballistas, whatever it takes. Grind the taxes out of the people. Euron, you take to the Narrow Sea as a pirate. Bring me back riches from Essos so I can keep paying the Golden Company. We will be ready when the Dragon Queen comes."

Then: screen goes black. ONE YEAR LATER.

Yes, one year of winter later. We open with a raven announcing the coming of spring. Armies are getting ready to march. Brienne and Jamie have spent all that time together. They're content. Maybe she's had a baby. Arya and the Hound left the castle in the late winter. No one knows where they went. Jon and Danerys have been having hot aunt and nephew sex all winter but she's become increasingly restless, angry, volatile, moody. Jon's been training her troops, and she can see that even the Unsullied and Dothraki love him. The dragons have been semi-hibernating but they've been flying off now for days at a time, and they've heard reports that they may have killed people and livestock again. The countryside is moody. Some of the Seven Kingdoms have been sending ravens questioning whether they will swear fealty to Danerys--the Vale, the Iron Islands--and she's getting really pissed at the idea she'll have to conquer everything. Tyrion and Varys were told by Arya, not Sansa, before she left with the Hound and they're starting to wonder if Jon Snow isn't a better horse to back, particularly because Danerys seems so unwilling to act like a ruler of Westeros. They head south; there's an ambush of ballista and one dragon dies, Missandei is taken captive. Jamie stayed behind but when he hears the news, leaves, with Brienne sobbing. Cue the final scene from this actual episode.

So you get to the same place more or less but with the time jump, it all makes some kind of sense.

[MediumHigh]

Don't start complaining now casuals. Just ride the wave.

[Tale]

"Dracarys" = "Burn them all". So yes, into madness and the Queenslayer.

Then Meera Reed takes the Iron Throne.

[Riggswolfe]

I'm so tired of you guys bitching and whining about travel times. The show has X amount of time. So they simply imply travel times. It's like you guys want constant black screens that say "6 months later" every time a character arrives at a new destination or in a 6 episode finale season you want 3 of the episodes to be nothing but traveling.

I enjoyed this episode. It established the stakes for next episode pretty clearly. I like that Tyrion truly appealed to Cersei in the only way that looked like it might work. I'm sure some people think she made a dumb decision but I think from her point of view it was the only one.

1) She probably doesn't believe Dany would let her live so she figures she is dead if she surrenders. Dany probably would honor her word but I'm pretty sure Cersei would wake up some morning to see Arya standing over her bed.
2) She figures with only one dragon that the ballistas have neutralized that threat. She may be right. I think Dany turned away from the attack on Euron's fleet because she was scared for Drogon and that may cripple her in this "Last War"

Finally, I find this laughable:

 But the idea that because Danerys is pretty much determined to go after Cersei whatever the cost, she's gone mad and has to be replaced with Jon Snow? Where did that come from? It's 100% unearned.

You must not be watching the show. Or you're simply too busy compiling your list of bitches to pay attention. It is totally earned. As for your gripes about Varys. We don't know what he was doing during the reign of the Mad King. I wouldn't be surprised if he was working to arrange an assassination to put Rhaegar on the throne then Robert's rebellion happened. He probably was content to let Robert be a drunken idiot because he wasn't causing much trouble for the realm. But once Robert died, I think it's easy to see that Varys's actions have been primarily focused on trying to get someone more stable than Cersei's children on the throne. It is literally there in the show though it's somewhat subtle. They're low on episodes now though so have jettisoned that subtlety.

[Sir T]

Deux Ex Arya only takes 2 seconds. 

[Hoax]

If you watched that ep and Dany's characterization is what bothered you not the dragon death circumstances...

Dany has never been that nice or that stable or that good. She also hasn't actually burned Cersei or civilians or whatever alive. Odds are she won't because she is a beloved character and I don't know if they have the balls. But yeah its possible they are setting up the tragic ending where Dany and Jon can't coexist anymore. That's one of the better possible endings available is it not?

Finishing up something like this was going to be a mess and that will be doubly so if GRRM tries to do it ever he has 5x the threads going nowhere the show did. Euron and his magic ships are annoying. Sadly there just isn't enough show to fit in Euron being some mystical crazyfuck borderline magical sea captain /and/ Arya becoming a 1-girl death machine background I guess. I think Euron for how pivotal he's turning out to be is a huge mistake in the casting/writing/costume dept. That and really the entire Iron Islands idea in the books never added up quite right either. Result is Euron has never stood out enough so whenever he pulls off some shit it feels unearned as all hell.

I didn't have a problem with the ep, its never going to be amazing sandwiched between two huge consequence battle eps (seemingly, I don't watch the annoying next ep spoiler fiestas, turn it off once hbo logo appears post credits).

Lastly crying about travel times not the fact that war wariness would be a thing and also where are we even finding living fighting age males at this point anymore?

[Chimpy]

While people getting bent out of shape about things stretching the bounds of verisimilitude might be a bit obnoxious at times, being “Oh this show is so amazingly awesome I loved every bit and everyone who didn’t is a moody bitch” is even more so.
 

[schild]

It's six episodes long.

doesn't change my theories

[Riggswolfe]

Finishing up something like this was going to be a mess and that will be doubly so if GRRM tries to do it ever he has 5x the threads going nowhere the show did. Euron and his magic ships are annoying. Sadly there just isn't enough show to fit in Euron being some mystical crazyfuck borderline magical sea captain /and/ Arya becoming a 1-girl death machine background I guess. I think Euron for how pivotal he's turning out to be is a huge mistake in the casting/writing/costume dept. That and really the entire Iron Islands idea in the books never added up quite right either. Result is Euron has never stood out enough so whenever he pulls off some shit it feels unearned as all hell.

Euron definitely is lacking in setup. No question. That said, I always hated the Ironborn chapters in the books. They always felt like they dragged the plot progress to a screeching halt. Though so did Dorn. Or Griff. Or, well, lots of BS he put into the last two books. Not sure if you're implying Arya's skills weren't developed or not. If you are, I mean, they spent 7 seasons showing her learning her skills. I think she did get a bit of a power bump from Season 7 onwards but I think it comes down to them running out of time. I suspect GRRM is going to have a similar problem if he ever actually writes another book unless he decides to do a time jump after all.

[Khaldun]

The travel time thing is annoying because it utterly mocks SEVEN seasons of build up to "Winter is Coming". So now Winter is Here and it's no big fucking deal.

In any northern society, winter is a time that armies stop moving around because it's nearly fucking impossible to keep them supplied and because they're risking freezing to death or getting stuck. It happens but it's a tremendous risk.

The entire idea of the show is built around these dramatic seasons and yet here we are at the end and it's completely who cares, we need to get off the air.

But they're also just throwing every characterization they've established to the wind more or less. Dany isn't nice, but this is not a world where "not nice" means "not qualified to be ruler". Tywin Lannister was a pretty good ruler of his own lands and then a good near-regent while being the world's worst father and being a horrible human being ethically. Khal Drogo led an army of rapey murdering plunder-barbarians and nobody said, "holy balls, he can't be a khal, he's too barbaric".

Shit, the show pretty much eventually confirmed that Danerys was if anything too nice to the rulers of the cities of Slavers' Bay--once she let up and tried to play nice with them, they tried to kill her and then they tried to kill her again, and it was only when she burned their ships and killed their emissaries that stuff got settled.

Varys and Tyrion's conversation makes zero fucking sense, and there is no way in which Danerys has shown unusual or extraordinary signs of madness or instability compared to every other powerful person in this show except for Ned Stark, Barristan Selmy and maybe Jon Snow, including characters we have clearly been meant to see as competent and basically admirable people like Jeor Mormont. If they wanted us to think that she was genuinely unstable, etc., then they needed to have been building that up really steadily since the last part of her rule in Meereen; instead, pretty much every time Lord Friendzone or Barristan or Tyrion delivered a Father Knows Best lesson, she's followed their advice (and often paid a price for having done so). Unstable people with power are known for being arbitrary, grandiose and erratic in a way that gets steadily worse over time. None of that groundwork has been laid.

[HaemishM]

I loved the first half of the episode. I think it only went off the rails in the 2nd half, which yes needed either another 1-2 episodes of time to tell, or at least some titles telling us "One year later" or something to give us a sense of time. It felt rushed and it was very dumb that Dany never thought "Hey, they had ballistas before that almost killed one of my dragons, I bet they've made more of those." There wasn't a very good staging of the sea battle to let us know this was an ambush, so it felt very out of nowhere.

They really did need a full 10 episodes for this part of the season.

[Rendakor]

I feel like winter is over now that they've killed the Night King. It certainly didn't look snowy down in King's Landing.

[HaemishM]

Varys and Tyrion's conversation makes zero fucking sense, and there is no way in which Danerys has shown unusual or extraordinary signs of madness or instability compared to every other powerful person in this show except for Ned Stark, Barristan Selmy and maybe Jon Snow, including characters we have clearly been meant to see as competent and basically admirable people like Jeor Mormont. If they wanted us to think that she was genuinely unstable, etc., then they needed to have been building that up really steadily since the last part of her rule in Meereen; instead, pretty much every time Lord Friendzone or Barristan or Tyrion delivered a Father Knows Best lesson, she's followed their advice (and often paid a price for having done so). Unstable people with power are known for being arbitrary, grandiose and erratic in a way that gets steadily worse over time. None of that groundwork has been laid.

I disagree with what you said. Varys in particular was characterized the way he should have been. As for the madness of Dany being out of nowhere, that's just not true. She's always been headstrong and brutal but in all her time away from Westeros, she was never intentionally cruel to THE PEOPLE. She burned slavers, she torched armies and lords, but when it came to the citizens of cities under siege, she bent over backwards to save them. The fact that she's even contemplating torching King's Landing with all those innocents in it should be a pretty good indication that something's off. Whether it's her father's madness or just her grief, it's not like her. And Varys would know that because he observed the Mad King's worst excesses, and if I remember correctly, he helped get the Lannisters in position to kill the Mad King when it was clear that the King was going to torch the whole city rather than give up his power.

[Khaldun]

It's never looked snowy there really, just slightly bleak.

The superballistas are just really damn stupid in general, even before we get to them being on Euron Grayjoy's magical fleet that is always waiting to fuck up Danerys' forces but that somehow no one can see.

So, like: a ballista. That has a max arc of what, 45 degrees maybe? That has to be hand-wound after being fired, unless Qyburn has invented steam engines as well. The dragons can go straight up to the cloud layers, we've seen that. So all Danerys has to do is go straight up and then go straight down over the ships. If Drogon has to fly off after dive bombing, fly off in the direction that the ships *aren't* already pointing--it's not like you can turn a boat around completely in ten seconds.

If Martin has it in mind to have Victarion do roughly the same shit in the books, at least he's going to have a magical horn to do it with. That would make more sense than Cheesy McMustache Greyjoy and his plot-powered Boats of Selective Doom.

[schild]

ships sneak attacking a fucking dragon that has sight from the sky is the dumbest shit ever

[Khaldun]

Varys has served rulers who have been perfectly ready to fuck with the people. He didn't do fuck-all about Joffrey, that was left up to someone else. The idea that he would suddenly be ready to toss over the ruler that he'd been searching for because she was contemplating just taking Cersei out regardless of the costs is just silly. That is something that almost any ruler or powerful person might be contemplating--it is more or less the same issue that modern governments face when an enemy leader or force nestles itself among civilians intending to use them as human shields. Varys is not Gandhi: he's shown himself perfectly willing to use subterfuge, violence and injustice to achieve his ends (book Varys even more so). The idea that he and Tyrion would instantly talk about treason simply because Cersei was contemplating doing something that any leader might contemplate makes no sense. What would Not-Mad Danerys be saying right now? "Oh, I guess we'll just have to sit here and wait for Cersei to run out of money, because we can't go out on the water due to Euron's magic boats, and we can't actually go to King's Landing because civilians. Thank you, my kind advisors. I will now go and hug a peasant."

[Hoax]

ships sneak attacking a fucking dragon that has sight from the sky is the dumbest shit ever

this is what i'm saying

Euron definitely is lacking in setup. No question. That said, I always hated the Ironborn chapters in the books. They always felt like they dragged the plot progress to a screeching halt. Though so did Dorn. Or Griff. Or, well, lots of BS he put into the last two books. Not sure if you're implying Arya's skills weren't developed or not. If you are, I mean, they spent 7 seasons showing her learning her skills. I think she did get a bit of a power bump from Season 7 onwards but I think it comes down to them running out of time. I suspect GRRM is going to have a similar problem if he ever actually writes another book unless he decides to do a time jump after all.

yeah the ironborn are stupid, its unclear what value they provide the other six at all iirc. dorn the show did a much better job with despite the fact that dorn had no point at all to the larger story. i'm saying if euron is this badass he needed some of the arya skill development screen time. that he had zero screen time at all besides showing up and tossing an utterly worthless and stupid character off a bridge and getting a crown makes everything he does feel unearned.

[Riggswolfe]

Varys has served rulers who have been perfectly ready to fuck with the people. He didn't do fuck-all about Joffrey, that was left up to someone else. The idea that he would suddenly be ready to toss over the ruler that he'd been searching for because she was contemplating just taking Cersei out regardless of the costs is just silly. That is something that almost any ruler or powerful person might be contemplating--it is more or less the same issue that modern governments face when an enemy leader or force nestles itself among civilians intending to use them as human shields. Varys is not Gandhi: he's shown himself perfectly willing to use subterfuge, violence and injustice to achieve his ends (book Varys even more so). The idea that he and Tyrion would instantly talk about treason simply because Cersei was contemplating doing something that any leader might contemplate makes no sense. What would Not-Mad Danerys be saying right now? "Oh, I guess we'll just have to sit here and wait for Cersei to run out of money, because we can't go out on the water due to Euron's magic boats, and we can't actually go to King's Landing because civilians. Thank you, my kind advisors. I will now go and hug a peasant."

You're being intentionally obtuse here. The other option is a siege. Not "I'm going to go home and pout and roast marshmallows." But Dany isn't patient and she's made it clear she wants Cersei gone at all costs. That comes down to doing exactly what her father was going to do with wildfire before Jaime put a sword in him.

As for Varys and Joffrey. Joffrey served Varys's purpose. He wanted the Houses weakened to prepare for a Targaryen to come back because he thought it was better for the realm. Just because he theoretically has the best interests of the "little people" at heart, doesn't mean he's not willing to make short term (relatively speaking) sacrifices to insure things go well in the long term. I get the feeling you're either not paying attention to what has been going on for the last 7 years or, again, you're intentionally being obtuse.

yeah the ironborn are stupid, its unclear what value they provide the other six at all iirc. dorn the show did a much better job with despite the fact that dorn had no point at all to the larger story. i'm saying if euron is this badass he needed some of the arya skill development screen time. that he had zero screen time at all besides showing up and tossing an utterly worthless and stupid character off a bridge and getting a crown makes everything he does feel unearned.

Dorn in the books is almost intolerable so I agree the show did it better. I still got impatient everytime it focused on those worthless characters (with the exception of Oberyn) but it was still better than GRRM wasting tons of book pages on it. I think the problem with Euron, and the book has this problem too, is that all of his character development is off screen. He spends years off being a pirate or whatever and I think we're supposed to assume he became a total bad ass naval guy in that time but we don't see it so it just doesn't feel right.

[Speedy Cerviche]

Dorn in the books is almost intolerable so I agree the show did it better. I still got impatient everytime it focused on those worthless characters (with the exception of Oberyn) but it was still better than GRRM wasting tons of book pages on it. I think the problem with Euron, and the book has this problem too, is that all of his character development is off screen. He spends years off being a pirate or whatever and I think we're supposed to assume he became a total bad ass naval guy in that time but we don't see it so it just doesn't feel right.

I kind of liked the Ironborn and Euron in the books. His legend is derived first from some big victories he won in the Greyjoy rebellion a decade or two before, he comes back and to become king he completely outmanouevers his niece again showing his capability, and after that he orchestrates a very successful and well planned assault on the wealthy southwest coast, threatening Oldtown so I think his story as kind of a half insane, mystic dread pirate is credible.

[Brolan]

It's just WTF is going on with the nuclear-powered ballista bolts?  In the books it's clearly explained that dragons are fully armored and extremely hard to kill.  If all it took was ballistas on a fleet or a castle wall to repel an attack by dragons then all of the dragon lore and related history in GRRM's books is complete bunk.  Things like Harrenhal wouldn't have happened.  Because I do believe in an era that dragon attack was a constant threat they would have the best anti-dragon countermeasures there were.

Plus entire ships getting completely demolished by ballistas?  18th century cannons didn't destroy ships that quickly or completely.  We're supposed to believe a hand-cranked ballista is going to do that?

[Miguel]

My prediction: they are going to pull some stupid 'circle of life'/'the wheel cannot be broken because people are stupid', where Cersei is essentially backend into a corner, so she'll instruct Qyburn to raise an army of 'Mountains' as she is being destroyed, to mirror the plot line of the Children creating the White Walkers at their moment of destruction.  #historyrepeatsitself

It's just WTF is going on with the nuclear-powered ballista bolts?  In the books it's clearly explained that dragons are fully armored and extremely hard to kill.  If all it took was ballistas on a fleet or a castle wall to repel an attack by dragons then all of the dragon lore and related history in GRRM's books is complete bunk.

Those scenes gave me flashbacks of this:

[calapine]

ships sneak attacking a fucking dragon that has sight from the sky is the dumbest shit ever

Yeah. And machine gun ballistas, "omnipotent plot boats" as Khaldun said.

Not commenting on the points you raised as I agree mostly. So to introduce a new angle:


How did anyone think that meeting-Cersei-at-the-gate would work like it did?

I know...parley, honor, blah blah. But I was Cersei I had put everything and everyone on them. End it right there.

And I especially would have not hesitated killing Tyrion. I don't understand why Cersei let him live.

[calapine]

My prediction: they are going to pull some stupid 'circle of life'/'the wheel cannot be broken because people are stupid', where Cersei is essentially backend into a corner, so she'll instruct Qyburn to raise an army of 'Mountains' as she is being destroyed, to mirror the plot line of the Children creating the White Walkers at their moment of destruction.  #historyrepeatsitself

IMHO anyone expecting a big twist is going to be disappointed. It's going to end how it looks its going to end.

[Speedy Cerviche]

It's just WTF is going on with the nuclear-powered ballista bolts?  In the books it's clearly explained that dragons are fully armored and extremely hard to kill.  If all it took was ballistas on a fleet or a castle wall to repel an attack by dragons then all of the dragon lore and related history in GRRM's books is complete bunk.  Things like Harrenhal wouldn't have happened.  Because I do believe in an era that dragon attack was a constant threat they would have the best anti-dragon countermeasures there were.

Plus entire ships getting completely demolished by ballistas?  18th century cannons didn't destroy ships that quickly or completely.  We're supposed to believe a hand-cranked ballista is going to do that?

Bronn reloading a heavy crossbow in one second also like it was a bolt action rifle was pretty laughable.

I'm way beyond expecting anything from this bunch though. Looking forward to a future 200 page thread on the F13 movie forum as they shit up a new star wars trilogy.

Gotta wonder if GRRM sized these guys up as total assclowns, got fed up and began to deliberately hold out on them with a plan to publish after the series wraps so he can get the final canon word in. Whether he actually can pull it off or not before he croaks is another story.

[Polysorbate80]

And I especially would have not hesitated killing Tyrion. I don't understand why Cersei let him live.

It’s partly TV writer plotting.  Wiping them all out as a sensible person would do ruins the last two episodes (other than Jon the Boring isn’t there yet)

Cersei is feeling confident and feels she can savor her victory.  It’s a bit of a failing but not out of character I don’t think.

[Rendakor]

How did anyone think that meeting-Cersei-at-the-gate would work like it did?

I know...parley, honor, blah blah. But I was Cersei I had put everything and everyone on them. End it right there.

And I especially would have not hesitated killing Tyrion. I don't understand why Cersei let him live.

I agree, I don't know why she didn't just order them to open fire. They had the dragonbane crossbows ready for Drogon; just go full-on Chaotic Evil and murder the lot of them. There's a decent chance Jon might have just given up and went to be King in the North while leaving the south to Cersei if Dany had died along with The Last Dragon (tm) and the rest of the Unsullied.

Speaking of the Unsullied, are there supposed to be more of them alive than what we saw? I couldn't tell if that was just a token honor guard or if there were only a hundred or so left.

Edit: words are hard

[Chimpy]

It's just WTF is going on with the nuclear-powered ballista bolts?  In the books it's clearly explained that dragons are fully armored and extremely hard to kill.  If all it took was ballistas on a fleet or a castle wall to repel an attack by dragons then all of the dragon lore and related history in GRRM's books is complete bunk.  Things like Harrenhal wouldn't have happened.  Because I do believe in an era that dragon attack was a constant threat they would have the best anti-dragon countermeasures there were.

Plus entire ships getting completely demolished by ballistas?  18th century cannons didn't destroy ships that quickly or completely.  We're supposed to believe a hand-cranked ballista is going to do that?

Bronn reloading a heavy crossbow in one second also like it was a bolt action rifle was pretty laughable.

I'm way beyond expecting anything from this bunch though. Looking forward to a future 200 page thread on the F13 movie forum as they shit up a new star wars trilogy.

Gotta wonder if GRRM sized these guys up as total assclowns, got fed up and began to deliberately hold out on them with a plan to publish after the series wraps so he can get the final canon word in. Whether he actually can pull it off or not before he croaks is another story.

It was a “double barrel” all he did was (I assume) click the firing mechanism to release the other side next time. You can see there were two bolts initially and then one after his shot.

[Khaldun]

If in fact Cersei's forces equal Dany's forces at this point in time, a siege is specifically NOT an option. Especially not a walled city with a port, where sieging it means preventing anything from coming in via sea or land. You have to have many times your opponent's garrison forces for that to work--and clear naval superiority, which is impossible as long as Euron has his magic nuclear death-boats.

Doesn't mean of course that the showrunners couldn't magically declare that she's sieging them because that is the wise and temperate and non-mad thing to do, but just in case you're unclear on the concept, sieging a walled medieval city is not an act of beneficient kindness. If you're not going to attack the walls at all because of the poor civilian people inside, what you are doing is starving the poor civilian people inside to death, and maybe hoping that they'll riot and kill the city rulers. If you let food and medicine go in without constraint, you're not sieging, you're just picnicking outside for months and months.

[HaemishM]

Without their fleet, they can't blockade King's Landing anyway. Their only shot is the dragon being able to roast the city, but of course it can't do that because of balista. I'm not sure what they think they are going to be able to do now.

[Selby]

I'm not sure what they think they are going to be able to do now.

The smart solution is nighttime dragon air raid under cover of fog or not-full-moon conditions to take out balistae (and Euron's boats too), but that would be smart tactics and if there's one thing that this show has shown us it's that no one left alive is a smart tactician.

[Khaldun]

The smart thing to do is wait until the show-runners say it's safe to do it, because nothing is working even remotely close to anything that would actually make sense and besides anybody doing it will be called mad if they're the wrong person doing it.