USC Traveler

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Did anyone even care about Rhaegal dying this week ? It seemed so forced and contrived, it didn't really land for my wife and I, and my wife was in tears when Viserion died. And then they spent no real time showing the impact on Dany. Contrast that with when she lost Viserion North of the Wall. These guys are on such a sprint to the finish that it seems like nothing else matters. For the second week in a row, Arya's story was the one thing in the show that made sense and didn't have her behaving stupidly or out of character. I would ordinarily not want her to take out both the NK and Cersei, but given how few reasons there are to cheer for anyone else at this point, I'd be fine with her taking out Cersei. I've got a bad feeling about the Hound though. Felt like obvious foreshadowing when he asked her if she would finish him off if he was dying. Could see him killing his brother, but getting mortally wounded in the process, and Arya putting him out of his misery. Hopefully I'm wrong and they both survive. With the way things are going in the other storylines, I'd rather see the Arya and Hound roadtrip killers spinoff and the Tormund/Ghost frozen adventures spinoff, with D+D nowhere near either one.

The rampant stupidity continues unabated: . Dany doesn’t want to wait let her dragons and the Northmen heal, or wait for reinforcements from Dorne. Jon, Tyrion, etc don't want to Dany to kill innocents and look evil by burning the city, so they're going to starve them out instead ? That will make her look benevolent ? We don't get to see Arya and Sansa's reactions to the news of who Jon's parents were. After Dany's fleet was savaged by Euron last season because Yara apparently had no scout ships, Dany once again goes back to sea instead of marching overland, and has no advance scouting to see where Euron might be hiding ? D+D literally said after the episode that "Dany forgot about Euron." LOL Euron's ships apparently can’t be seen from the air ? Euron has ship-to-air guided crossbows that can shoot around mountains and are deadly accurate at long range and high altitude, but not so much during a low-altitude frontal attack ? The Unsullied are able to swim ashore in their armor, but somehow Missandei can’t, even though she grew up on a tropical island and is only wearing leather ? My wife and I had low expectations for this week, and were still disappointed. These next two weeks could get really ugly. A complete crash and burn isn't out of the question.

Agreed. It would have been much better to see ebbs and flows in the battle, where the good guys have moments, like taking out some WWs and big chunks of the zombies dying as a result, only to then have a setback when the NK blows a hole in the wall and the horde starts to pore through. Instead, it's a complete demolition that our main characters somehow miraculously survive unharmed.

The best parts of the episode were the Arya/Hound/Beric/Red Witch sequence, Arya killing the NK, and the Little Bear going out like a boss vs the giant. I'm with you there. What would have made me much, much happier, though, is if D+D didn't make all of the main characters look so stupid. I've been letting the bad writing go over and over the last few years, but this last episode burned off whatever last vestige of patience I had. D+D talked repeatedly about using the siege at Helm's Deep as a model in their preseason interviews. You know what the good guys didn't do at Helm's Deep ? They didn't put their entire fucking army OUTSIDE THE WALLS OF THE CASTLE!!! D+D have the characters literally forget their life experiences in pursuit of false drama. Ned Stark told his kids that 500 men could hold Winterfell against 10k. With a proper defensive strategy, that would have given them good odds vs the zombie horde, without even factoring in the dragons. D+D literally have all the Starks ignore this. And why wouldn't Tyrion (who successfully defended KL in a siege), Jamie (who has taken castles by siege), Ed, Beric or anyone else with a brain speak up about the fact that the entire army was outside of the castle to start the battle ? It was a complete joke that threw me out of the story, as it made every person in the planning room look like an idiot. The worst amongst them being Jon. He knows the NK and his army better than anyone, and he successfully defended Castle Black in the exact same circumstance when they were massively outnumbered vs the Wildling army. Why did Jon forget all of the lessons he learned that night ? Use the fortifications for protection to even the odds. Where were the barrels of oil to pour fire down on the dead from the walls of the castle ? Where were heaps of dragonglass shrapnel that could have been launched at the zombies ? Why was anyone except the Dothraki outside of the castle at all ? We saw in the Loot Train attack that the Dothraki can shoot arrows effectively while at full gallop. But we didn't see one Dothraki archer in this battle. So instead of using their bows to weaken the zombies from a distance and using their horses to stay out of reach of the zombies, we get the entire Dothraki making a headlong, unsupported charge against an unseen enemy that we know is endlessly deep and isn't going to break out of fear. AND THEY DON'T EVEN HAVE DRAGONGLASS WEAPONS ? The answer to all of this stupidity is that D+D feel the need to create false drama. We saw it in BOtB, the Frozen Lake Battle and again with this episode. D+D put the good guys in a position where things are absolutely hopeless and then save them via Deus-ex Machina. But instead of making things great, it takes the reality and consequences out of the show. All anyone has to do is watch Two Towers (or the defense of Jerusalem in Kingdom of Heaven) to know that you can have all the excitement and tension you ever wanted as the defenders use smart strategies and tactics to fight against overwhelming odds on a more even footing. You're worried about the heroes, but you're cheering for them because they're smart and valiant, and there is some hope of victory. D+D think you have to eliminate any hope of victory to make it dramatic, but that's where these episodes become ridiculous cartoons, as none of the truly important characters die, despite hopeless odds fighting hand to hand and literally everyone around them dying as the zombie horde overruns the home team. It's the difference between a heavyweight classic like Ali-Frazier or Ali-Foreman vs Mike Tyson steamrolling a patsy in the first round. One has great ebbs and flows and endless tension. The other is a joke. I can't believe these guys used Helm's Deep as a model and gave us the steaming turd of a battle that we got, where these guys have their main characters ignore/forget their had-earned life experiences. If you asked me after the end of S4, I'd have said GOT was the greatest tv show ever made. Now ? No way. D+D are so out of their league that it's slowly killing the show. Their need to create false drama has turned GOT into a parody of what it once was, as the characters we want to root for act utterly and completely stupid. In S1-S4, people doing stupid things die. Now ? They just move on to the next idiotic plan where all hope will be lost until they're miraculously saved. My expectations for the last few episodes are very low, so hopefully I'll be pleasantly surprised.