Game of Thrones season seven trailer.

[Vympel]

This was easily the best episode of the season. There were no particularly egregious time/fast travel cheats (made amply obvious by the gold being sent on to King's Landing while the Lannister/Tarly army collected the Reach's harvest) except for Theon's curiously delayed return to Dragonstone. Standouts:

- Davos channeling Stannis when correcting Jon's grammar;
- Jon and Dany in the cave was really well done and they played the hints of sexual tension very well;
- Bronn and Dickon;
- Arya's return to Winterfell and the callback to her trying to get back in the Red Keep in Season 1;
- Arya/Sansa/Bran was very strong;
- Sansa wondering what the hell Littlefinger was playing at by giving the dagger to Bran (here's hoping Littlefinger gets executed);
- Dany showing signs of Targaryen fire/blood/madness in railing at Tyrion. The preview for Episode 5 makes it look like they may explore this further;
- LOL, Morpheus from Wasted (i.e. the show where Sean Bean plays the Ned Stark/Boromir caricature of himself as Morpheus' 'spirit guide') as the fat Winterfell guard got a laugh outta me, though he was implausibly fat. Clearly all the best men died south; and
- About 10,000 troops left in the North to fight - does that include the Vale troops?

EDIT: appreciated seeing dothraki using bows on horseback. I thought they'd make them completely shit and just have them using show!arakhs.

[LaCroix]

She most likely did not know what was inside those waggons, apart from "army stuff", and did not care about it.

She's not quite a military leader or tactician - the way she realized there was an "AD" weapon on the field and her first impulse was to attack it straight on shows that she still has much to learn. Should have left and leave the ground forces to mop up, as all was pretty much over, anyway, or notify troops to take it out, first. Maybe getting Drogon hurt and almost killed, herself, will make her be a bit more careful next time.

Also, there is a good bit of the baggage train already across the river with some troops to guard it (who most likely ran away, already, after seeing this), if I interpreted dialogue right, so there should be still a lot left to seize.

At least - finding the big blob of molten gold will be a nice surprise. (I doubt JAmie had let that car set over first and would not linger around it.)
I'll assume the Iron Bank will be _not happy_.

This one battle has pretty much turned the war around.

[Kane Starkiller]

Randyll Tarly reported all the gold is safely through the gates of King's Landing.

[SCRawl]

I don't understand why she went out of her way to napalm the grain wagons. She gets dumber with every episode, and next week's preview makes her out to be dumber still.

She's been dumb for the entire series. It's not out of character. And given her current losing streak, she probably didn't think straight.

She's like "I need to burn something, but I can't burn most of the soldiers because my horde is engaged in a melee". So she just burns anything she can find because something needs to burn.

The plan was to starve KL out by laying siege with troops from the Reach and Dorne. With those two armies out of the fight, perhaps the plan shifted to doing it with the Dothraki. I would still prefer to try to keep the grain for myself, if I were her, but if that wasn't a serious option I would still want to keep it out of the hands of the enemy.

[SCRawl]

EDIT: Drogon is a fucking pansy. Remember all those arrows Wun Wun took and still kept coming? This pussy takes one in the shoulder and cries like a little bitch.

Wun Wun didn't have to stay airborne. And if he had taken one of those ballista bolts, he'd have been finished.

[ray245]

The plan was to starve KL out by laying siege with troops from the Reach and Dorne. With those two armies out of the fight, perhaps the plan shifted to doing it with the Dothraki. I would still prefer to try to keep the grain for myself, if I were her, but if that wasn't a serious option I would still want to keep it out of the hands of the enemy.

It's not like things like food and grain are something the writers are too concerned with. Armies seemingly move around the world with no need for supply line.

[Imperial Overlord]

EDIT: Drogon is a fucking pansy. Remember all those arrows Wun Wun took and still kept coming? This pussy takes one in the shoulder and cries like a little bitch.

Wun Wun didn't have to stay airborne. And if he had taken one of those ballista bolts, he'd have been finished.

Go back a couple seasons and there's a scene where the Night's Watch does take out a giant with a ballista.

[FireNexus]

What's the over under on Dany going back to Dragonstone and fucking Jon Snow's dick off due to her gigantic, throbbing murderboner?

[TheFeniX]

Anyone else notice how much force was behind that dragon's breath? I thought that was a nice touch vs something like Reign of Fire when the flames just engulf what they hit. GoTs dragon's breath hits like a fucking bomb and near instantly "ashes" to the core anyone/anything it hits. I like it.

Bron shows miraculous aptitude with a siege weapon he's likely had 0 training time on and is unlike anything he's handled. Even with training, I'll give the second shot even though I shouldn't, but the first coming anywhere close like what it did? Rolling the hard 6. It would be like goose hunting with a crossbow. Hitting an airborne target is fucking hard. Even when it's coming straight at you (try Trap Shooting with a modern shotgun and let the "bird" get 50 yards or so away. Now try that will a bullet instead of pellets: HA!). With a ballista? You need to be looking at volume, not precision.

Still, doesn't take a tactical genius to use the dragon to strafe the pike line then let your light cavalry mop up the stragglers. Too many Dothraki and horses wasted breaking that line. That said, WAAAAAAY too many Lanny soldiers stood their ground when a fucking dragon just oblierated over 50? doods in one strafing run. This continues to be a point that annoys me: the cohesion of troops during outside context appearances. But those that are running seem to only be doing so because they are on fire. The rest hold because..... all the money they get paid?

I mean, maybe they hold because they "know" if they break the dragons will eat them and the Dothraki will kill their families, but I would think a few lines of dialog outside the Red Keep from Cersei could make an appearance.

Jamie needs a LEEEEEEROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOY JENKINS edit because "holy shit, what the fuck were you thinking?" Thank God Bronn was there to say "God damn it, Leeroy." I like Jamie, but he should have died right then and fucking there. Huge cop-out with the last micro-second Bronn save. Who does this guy think he is? Prince Philip going to slay the Dragon? Dipshit.

Ser Bariston gets offed by a couple Eyes Wide Shut extras and they can't even let Jamie die charging a dragon on horseback.

[SpottedKitty]

That said, WAAAAAAY too many Lanny soldiers stood their ground when a fucking dragon just oblierated over 50? doods in one strafing run.

Doesn't GoT use real actors for the big fight scenes? Maybe they should have tried the early version of Massive, the crowd generator program used in the way-back-in-the-past intro to Lord of the Rings. That's the version that had a slight bug in the behaviour routines — one army saw a bigger army charging at them, and promptly did a runner.

[JLTucker]

Ser Bariston gets offed by a couple Eyes Wide Shut extras and they can't even let Jamie die charging a dragon on horseback.

He's gotta kill Cersei.

[Elfdart]

Does he?

[Elfdart]

What's the over under on Dany going back to Dragonstone and fucking Jon Snow's dick off due to her gigantic, throbbing murderboner?

Leaving aside the fact that I really didn't want to see the incest they've already depicted on the show, and the idea of Jon boinking Danerys is creepy as hell (unless it turns out he's NOT a Targaryen), I thought for sure they were going to do the boom-boom in the cave. But then, that's because the scene reminded me of Gas, Food & Lodging when a geologist shows Ione Skye some fluorescent rocks in a cave, causing her to immediately strip down and bang him.

Given the insanity and stupidity of both queens, I'm wondering if either side will win in time to stop the Army of the Dead. Cersei has her gold and they mention a mercenary band she wants to hire and I guess they're supposed to be badasses or something (unless they have machineguns, how much can a company of fighting men do one way or the other?) so even if her brother is dead, she's not finished for a while. Danerys had a winning hand and seems hell bent on pissing it away.

[Napoleon the Clown]

Like LaCroix mentioned, Dany likely had no clue what was in those wagons.

Though even if it were weapons, you can never have too many weapons. I think she just fucking loves fire. It's in her blood. About the only good reason I can see for torching the wagons is while assuming they may have more soldiers hiding in there.

Her temper is definitely a worrying thing. If there's someone about to talk her down she can see reason, fortunately.

When the Dothraki's horses charged through the flames my wife commented "Those are some brave horses, you'd never get an Arabian (breed of horse, super high strung) to do that." My reply was that you couldn't get an Arabian to charge through tall grass that was swaying in the breeze. She laughed and agreed. She grew up around horses, so she's got a pretty fair idea of their temperament.

[Lord Revan]

Intresting since IIRC it's quite easy to get horses to charge thru flames as that's their natural instincts, the grass on the other side of flames is already burnt so there's no flames there while on the dry grass plains that horses are native to there's plenty of fuel so that you'd have to run for literally miles to outrun the flames, so the horses that tried outrunning the flames ended up exhausted and burned to death and thus couldn't pass on their genes, while the ones that ran towards and thru the flames survived and thus were able to pass on their genes.

[JLTucker]

Does he?

Yeah. The prophecy told to Cersei. Youngest brother offs her. She thinks it's Tyrion, imo.

[Crazedwraith]

Does he?

Yeah. The prophecy told to Cersei. Youngest brother offs her. She thinks it's Tyrion, imo.

"Younger" Brother. That's what makes it ambiguous. Both her brothers are younger than her. She think it's Tyrion, it's looking increasingly like it might be Jaime.

[LaCroix]

My guess is he wrings her neck when she berates him for losing an army to a couple barbarians and an oversized lizard.

[TheFeniX]

Doesn't GoT use real actors for the big fight scenes? Maybe they should have tried the early version of Massive, the crowd generator program used in the way-back-in-the-past intro to Lord of the Rings. That's the version that had a slight bug in the behaviour routines — one army saw a bigger army charging at them, and promptly did a runner.

Damn, I was hoping for a better read rather than just a behavior weighting bug. Like the Gunship AI in Half-Life 2, due to the "threat" weighting system it would ignore the player in favor of trying to shoot down the laser-guided missile the player just launched at it. This lead to an interesting game mechanic of having to fly the missile in odd patterns to keep it from getting shot down. Valve never intended this but kept it in anyway because it was so awesome.

I love reading about AI surprising the creators or doing odd stuff.... probably why I still bother with Elder Scrolls games. Thanks for the info. Still worth a read.

He's gotta kill Cersei.

Ugh... prophecies. It's like "An ancient evil awakens." It just makes me feel more like I'm watching a LotR sequel series. Bronn somehow not getting roasted after jumping 5 feet off the ballisa wagon after Danny blows it the fuck up. The flames just kind of sweep around his plot armor while the Lanny soldiers nearby roast alive. Bronn's alive because his character has a name and the Lannister soldiers don't. Maybe they shouldn't wear Red shirts/armor because this feels like an episode of Star Trek. Shit like that makes me feel like I'm watching a by-the-numbers action movie.

And what the Hell was even up with the "Go-Go-Gadget super ballista unhiding device," with the hinges and springs, and all that jazz? Can the Lannisters not just throw a fucking tarp over something? No wonder they're broke. Maybe that's why they only had one in the field:

"Hey, we got a dozen ballistas ready to g..."
"Whoa now, are they mounted on our overly-complicated faux wagon super firing platforms? Patent pending."

Oh wait, the writers wanted a cool reveal.

[Kane Starkiller]

I don't know Bronn seems to me quite established as a guy with great hand to eye coordination that I might just believe he could score a hit.
Daenerys keeping herself on a dragon in her fancy dress, no riding equipement and absolutely zero physical training that we have seen was far more jarring to me.

[Vympel]

I don't know Bronn seems to me quite established as a guy with great hand to eye coordination that I might just believe he could score a hit.
Daenerys keeping herself on a dragon in her fancy dress, no riding equipement and absolutely zero physical training that we have seen was far more jarring to me.

It's probably worth pointing out that while at a glance Dany looks like she's wearing the exact same thing she was wearing at Dragonstone earlier in the episode, she's actually wearing a very simple and unembellished fur-lined coat with gloves. The only fancy part is her chain.

Does he?

Yeah. The prophecy told to Cersei. Youngest brother offs her. She thinks it's Tyrion, imo.

That part of the prophecy isn't in the show, just in the books. Doesn't mean it won't happen though.

She most likely did not know what was inside those waggons, apart from "army stuff", and did not care about it.

She's not quite a military leader or tactician - the way she realized there was an "AD" weapon on the field and her first impulse was to attack it straight on shows that she still has much to learn. Should have left and leave the ground forces to mop up, as all was pretty much over, anyway, or notify troops to take it out, first. Maybe getting Drogon hurt and almost killed, herself, will make her be a bit more careful next time.

Also, there is a good bit of the baggage train already across the river with some troops to guard it (who most likely ran away, already, after seeing this), if I interpreted dialogue right, so there should be still a lot left to seize.

At least - finding the big blob of molten gold will be a nice surprise. (I doubt JAmie had let that car set over first and would not linger around it.)
I'll assume the Iron Bank will be _not happy_.

This one battle has pretty much turned the war around.

All the gold made it to King's Landing. Lord Tarly told Jaime at the start of the scene - it was (some of) the food that was destroyed (and a good portion of it probably intercepted / captured by the horde). Cersei's definitely hiring the Golden Company with a new Iron Bank loan - they've been namedropped so many times by now.

[Alferd Packer]

I've said as much before (and I've said that I've said as much before), but I really feel that Jamie's character arc has been building to the watershed moment where he must choose whether or not to kill Cersei, just as he had to choose whether or not to kill the Mad King. Killing Aerys has defined his entire adult life, so it only makes narrative sense that his arc concludes with A) killing Cersei or B) not killing Cersei, instead choosing to die with her. I believe either two outcomes are equally plausible, but I also think they are the only two outcomes that make sense for his character.

[TheFeniX]

My wife pointed out last night how Westeros beaches go from "ankle deep" to "Mariana Abyss" within a few feet as where the Hell was Jamie sinking?

I don't know Bronn seems to me quite established as a guy with great hand to eye coordination that I might just believe he could score a hit.
Daenerys keeping herself on a dragon in her fancy dress, no riding equipement and absolutely zero physical training that we have seen was far more jarring to me.

True, Bronn has been shown to be extremely capable at many things "murder" related. IIIRC, he even knows how to use a bow as he lit the Green Goo in Blackwater with one (well, with an arrow fired from one). But a bow isn't exactly hard to come by.

But none of that matters because Jamie and Bronn should both be dead. They aren't because "SANF:KSNDFGKASSDFGSAF." Look at the coverage of the breath hit on the ballista: how far Bron jumped and the angle, Bronn's roasted by the heat alone even if the flames just kind of jumped around him. And in the next cut, he's laying next to a wagon wheel. Both possible areas he could be near were engulfed in flames not .5 second before that.

During the shot where Drogon burns the weapon: you should see Bronn doing a "Stop, Drop, and Die Horribly."

So, he's not there to stop Jamie from YOLOing Drogon.

[SCRawl]

True, Bronn has been shown to be extremely capable at many things "murder" related. IIIRC, he even knows how to use a bow as he lit the Green Goo in Blackwater with one (well, with an arrow fired from one). But a bow isn't exactly hard to come by.

That was the Blackfish, Brynden Tully. Bronn wasn't there.

[TheFeniX]

That was the Blackfish, Brynden Tully. Bronn wasn't there.

Was it? I recall this scene, and it was a bitch to find.