GoT - Is Over, Post Your Drogon Sightings

BrutulTM said:

This is the way I feel too. And they have been foreshadowing it since she got to Westeros. There's been half a dozen scenes where she's raring to go burninate King's Landing and Tyrion, Varys, and Jon Snow are begging her not to. Then she tried being the restrained queen and doing the right thing as her advisors told her too and it cost her 2 dragons and her 2 best friends. I don't think anyone should have been blindsided by her going apeshit.

Click to expand...

Even in Essos her adoring advisors are what kept her in check. Missandei and especially Ser Friendzone absolutely worshiped her, and kept her on the straight and narrow. Barristan too, up until his death, and Daario too. Once they're all gone, and without Jon's love to supplant theirs, she's off her leash. And we know what dragons do when they're off their leash.

The other thing is that the slaves of Yunkai, Meereen and Astapor all welcomed and worshiped her as a liberator, basically instantly. They pledged their love to her immediately. The common people of King's Landing weren't going to do that, they didn't all rush out and greet her and throw her up in the air like those slaves did, even though the vast majority of people of KL are not at all free people. They had to be conquered, and well:

Machiavelli said:

From this arises the question whether it is better to be loved rather than feared, or feared rather than loved. It might perhaps be answered that we should wish to be both: but since love and fear can hardly exist together, if we must choose between them, it is far safer to be feared than loved.

Click to expand...

Also from Daenerys earlier in the series: “People learn to love their chains.” If that quote alone didn't tell you she was going to end up on the t-shirt with the other Marxists at the end, I'm not sure what show you were watching.

Soygen said:

Actions and thoughts don't matter, only identity.

Click to expand...

It's not really identity politics. It's radical ideology in general, on any side of the political spectrum. Radicals have no problem killing millions in the quest to make a better world, and even 'moderates' of a polarized ideology are okay with it if someone else is going to be doing the killing.

Lithose said:

Foreshadowing is not character development. Dany's sadism and enjoyment of violence wasn't really the problem, that's a well developed character trait. The problem was just how it was used. It was foreshadowed she maybe wanted to let loose with it, sure, but her control over it to direct it at her enemies was well developed. Her lack of control and targeting innocents in order to satisfy these urges came from no where. The only development we got toward that end was maybe burning Sam's brother. But that's it. Breaking it in a single episode felt flat. She should have had a small history of losing her shit and killing small amounts of innocents if this is how they wanted to roll, or they should have made the citizens more gray (Have one of them try to ambush Dany after the bells ring, or have the bells not ring--something to explain better why she saw them all as enemies.)

Click to expand...

They should have spaced out Ser Friendzone and Missandei dying a bit, and had her go increasingly off her chain as she lost her most adoring and trusted advisors, and then finally snap when Jon, her new most trusted advisor, doesn't adore her like they did.

I really think the people around her kept her sane. Barristan would have never let her feed those nobles to her dragons if he was still alive at that point in S5.

The whole slide is rushed but really it's all there.

Szlia said:

I think an asterisk should be added to "the best story", it's the best story * for the people. Tyrion and Jon have great stories, but they also sided with Dany up until the moment she burned King's Landing to the ground. Arya has a great story, for us, but who knows her story really? And being a well oiled killing machine might not be the story you want for a King (or, in this case, Queen). Bran as a good story of trials and tribulations without being tainted by a long lasting alliance with Dany.

Click to expand...

Sansa has a pretty good story. It would have sense for Sansa to be queen, Bran to be Master of Secrets, etc. But I think they felt they had to give Sansa her 'independence' victory instead. Sansa also had basically no claim to the throne, but neither does Bran. (Really the only reason to make Bran king is because he already has his own chair.)

Making "who sits on the throne" the climax of the show was the stupid part though. The whole point of the series is supposed to be that the politics of the throne don't matter, defeating the white walkers is what matters.

In fact, the show would have made so much more sense if S6 played out in the opposite order:

Season opens as Dany begins a conventional siege of KL, attempting to starve out Cersei's army. She begins to show signs of madness when the people don't immediately throw down their weapons and worship her like they did in Slaver's Bay. The siege goes on longer than expected, into episodes 2 and 3, so Dany threatens to use her dragons against the city. Rhaegal dies making a strafing run against the city's main fortifications, much like in the show. She goes further mad as her advisors start to plot against her, as Jon, Tyrion, Davos, etc know that the seige is killing more and more soldiers on both sides, and wasting resources necessary to fight the white walkers.

Dany refuses to end the siege, mounts Drogon, burninates KL and sacks the city with the Essos armies, exactly like in the show. Also exactly like the show, Jon kills her, Drogon melts the Iron Throne (because it killed his mother and brother and because even he can see it's irrelevant) and recognizes Jon as the last living Targaryen (making Jon's parentage actually matter to the story, since it really doesn't in the version we got.)

KL and the majority of southern kingdoms' food to survive the winter is now ash, since Cersei and Jaime hoarded what was left in the stocks in KL and Dany burned it. Jon (atop Drogon) and the combined armies ride north against the white walkers in a final stand at Winterfel, Jon + Ayra defeat the Night's King. The armies and nobles try to make Jon king, but Bran uses his powers (again, so they actually matter) and says that all of this has happened before and all of this will happen again, I mean, that the white walkers were defeated before and will return once again. Greyworm and the Essos armies start to turn on Jon, for killing their queen. Not wanting any more politics, Jon refuses the throne, reforms the Night's Watch, with multiple characters (Sam, Davos) pledging to join. Sansa becomes Queen, as KL is sacked, and she moves the capital and rules from Winterfel (since this story is ultimately about the Starks) and has her own hand, Bran as master of secrets, Brienne as Queensguard, etc.

Show ends with Lord Commander Jon swearing in Tormund (who spent his whole life hating 'crows') as a knight of the watch, with Jon having Drogon (fire) and Ghost (ice) by his side.

After-credits scene is Tyrion and Bronn overseeing the reconstruction of KL, bullshitting about what to rename it. Queens' Folly? Targaryen's End?