Episode sucked, way too bright and too much dust everywhere.

It looked great on my un-calibrated TV.

It was obvious Dany was going to torch King's Landing, huh?
Oh yeeaah...where were you guys before?
Not many around here said it before last night.
I love all this backfilling going on now...

I cant wait to see this episode again because I don't remember Jon rejecting her. I remember him saying he still loved her and that she was his Queen. Was it in the kiss? he didn't kiss her back? looked like he did and she pulled away afterwards. damnit, now I want to see this again ASAP. lol

On my end, I only ever said that she would become the Mad Queen, not that she would torch King's Landing.

For some sappy reason, my favorite part of the episode was Arya's farewell thank you to the Hound. She called him by his given name, Sandor, which few people had before.




... however, I would like to know how they got inside the city.

This season is definitely rushed, but I think it makes sense. Dany has always had a goddess complex and has always vowed revenge on those who took her birthright. She was talking about "burning cities to the ground" with her dragons since season 3. Her isolation due to the death or betrayal of those she held closest, and especially Jon's rejection of her love, pushed her over the edge. She became the Mad Queen that has been foreshadowed for a long time. This would have been much better with a few more episodes to flesh it out, but I'm not as dismayed by this season as some seem to be. I am disappointed that Jaime ended up ignoring what he learned over 8 years and went running back to Cersei, not to kill her, but to protect her. But that's his nature, GRRM has often had his characters turn to their baser instincts and do the wrong thing.

They showed them walk in with the crowds when Cersei still had the gates open. It was speculated in last week's thread this is how they'd enter.

The more I've been thinking about the episode and the season, I feel one of the main themes at play is " we can't escape who we are".

Yeah, after he said "You are my Queen", she suggestively asked him "Is that all I am to you?" . When he didn't return her kiss, she knew where he stood on the whole aunt-fucking platform.

That would make sense if they got there before Daenerys' army, but they didn't. The exterior gates were already shut. The crowds that were shown were entering the Red Keep.

One episode left! It's interesting to read all the theories here about how it'll end. I have no real theories of my own. I just don't want it to be an autistic kid gazing into a snow globe.

I think the moral of GOT is that all of the characters are flawed individuals, many capable of both good and bad. I think standard fairy tale stories need to be thrown out the window (which we learned in Season 1 and 3 with the Starks). Our heroes are not always that heroic, but our leanred behavior from all the typical stories we've seen over the years of our life make us want the same formula to apply to GOT. It is unsatisfying for the viewer expecting the fantasy ending, but maybe we get the ending the story deserves. Jamie's story was sad in that despite all the virtues of knightly honor he showed over the years, his main character flaw lead to his demise. In a way though, he was true to his character. I think Dany going Mad Queen on King's Landing was true to her character. She has behaved brutally many times over the seasons, she has some of her father in her and all of her allies had let her down in one way or another. She was alone, full of rage, and the prize was in sight, so she took it. Arya leaving when the Hound asked her to was actually out of character from what we've seen of her in more recent times. Perhaps there was some of the scared little girl left in her, but I thought her leaving was more out of character than anything Dany, or Jamie, or Jon have done recently.

I'm not a fan of this shortened season. The pace of everything has just been too rushed, but only one more to go and we'll have an ending. I'm sure people will be pissed about something to do with the ending because it's GOT.

Bunkaroo is correct.

Arya and The Hound are shown in Daenerys' camp the night before with the intent of killing Cersei before a battle need take place.

The exterior gates are not already shut. Arya and The Hound make it through the exterior gates. Jamie (also) goes through just before the exterior gates are called to be shut and we see them being shut.

Arya and The Hound just make it through the interior gate before it is closed. They are shut before Jamie gets through.

BTW something people are missing is that Varys tried to poison Daenerys but she refused to eat.

nothing like 1 dragon demolishing all the ships in 4 seconds flat as opposed to not doing that the last episode.

GOT writers fucking up.

So Cersei's forces re-opened the exterior gates after Daenerys' army arrived and camped outside (remember, we saw them all buttoned up and ready for war last episode)? That doesn't make sense. What a lazy plot hole.

I won't post my own comments after last week's thread but as someone who plays MMOs and looks forward to reading patch notes, I found this very amusing.

HBO definitely screwed up on this front.

If D&D wanted 20 episodes to wrap up the story, then HBO would have given them the budget for 20 episodes.

This stupid dig from the NBC review "The moral here is that war makes everyone look bad. But it's unfortunate that the showrunners had to turn a female lead into the stereotypical “crazy woman” to get this message across."

Like there hasn't been more than the fair share of crazy/stupid men in this series that have been involved in wars (battle of the bastards for example). I guess they just need to find a sexism angle somewhere.