Francie

Short term, if just allowed to make some tweaks to the season? And if we're assuming all the major plot points were GRRM's, so we're committed to them? Small picture: Not have Cersei murder Missandei. Cersei knew back in Season 1 that the best thing to do with a hostage is keep him or her alive. Cersei should have strapped Missandei in like a baby bjourn, using Missandei as her personal human shield. Rather than Dany going mad over the bells, have her be pissed that she can't kill Cersei, so she slaughters Cersei's people in the hopes that they'll surrender or turn on her. Or have a decent fight and Dany can still go scorch earth after that surrender. The shift of balance of power was so lopsided from one side to the other. Lannisters should have fought well. And have the golden company live up to their reputation. Have it be a fight. I would have shown Dany's slide into (or reveal of) inhumanity by having had her burn Lyanna Mormont alive for not bending the knee. A tougher pill to swallow, but certainly within the realm of what Dany had shown she was capable of. I can hear the justifications already -- "Lyanna had a choice!" 'She betrayed her her queen!" But that still would have been one more layer peeled away, as some would recognize, "Ummm, yeah, but should Dany have really used her power like that? I'm uncomfortable." Bigger picture: With GRRM apparently not making himself available to script the season, and without detailed dialogue to steal from in the books, D&D should have swallowed their pride and hired a damn good writer, or writers, to help them write the season. Instead, they went with their two promoted former coffee runners, Bryan Cogman and Dave Hill. And I know a lot of people love Cogman and his knowledge of the ASOIAF universe. And that has its place. But the dialogue and story progression this season was horrible. HORRIBLE!!!!! It's been horrible for the 3 out of the last 4 seasons (Season 6 was a nice recovery season). They had four white dude bros who all liked each and hung out together, and Cogman and Hill were promoted because they were liked by D&D. Maybe if they didn't have such an echo chamber, they would have made better and more meaningful choices. This show excelled in nearly every department -- the effects, the acting, the costuming. The only two in which they failed were the writing and the continuity or maybe editing department. I guess I'll cut some lack for the lighting team, given that episode 3 was supposed to be as dark as it was. That was a stupid choice by D&D to make it what was happening on screen so unintelligible.

And I wish that when Sansa and Sandor was speaking, she credited her change on all those people who influenced her -- from Joffrey to Cersei to Olenna and Margaery to Littlefinger to Ramsay -- and not the physical and sexual abuse she suffered. I agree with izabella. The writing had her credit her transformation to Ramsay "riding her rough" (which, seriously, Sandor?) rather than on being present, and taking in, all the game players and their methods and motivations.

I vote to re-name this thread: Tyrion Lannister: He took a honeycomb and a jackass into a brothel...

HBO honcho [about D&D]: “They’re smart. They’re bright...” Tyrion Lannister: “Smart and bright mean the same thing.” Deadline writer, quoting HBO honcho: “I want to leave it as it’s own work of art.” Stannis [under his breath]: “Its.”

gods, I wish I had photoshop/meme creation skills. Because I really want to cut up the Season 4 “what makes a good king” scene with Tywin and Tommen with Tyrion’s suggestion of Bran as king. “What makes a good king?” ”Holiness?” ”Baelor the Blessed was holy. And pious. He starved himself into a holy grave.” ”Strength?” ”King Robert was strong. And he spent his time whoring and drinking and hunting until the last two kill him.” ”Wisdom? Wisdom is what makes a good king.” ”No, no, no! Having a story to tell makes a good king.” ”Wait, what?”

This is just my experience. But Friends and Seinfeld and even Roseanne were shows I remember talking about with others. I have only 2 friends, one lives in another state and the other in another city, who watch Game of Thrones. Over the last two months, I’ve only heard 1 person IRL who talked about Game of Thrones. And that was a conversation I overhead at a restaurant. It was Mother’s Day, and a woman at lunch was explaining how awesome a certain character was to the rest of her brood. The target of her monologue was her 30-something brother. Even he had never seen the show. GoT is still niche television. It may dominant twitter. It may be all the talk of entertainment media. But the fact remains — if 20 million Americans watched the finale, that means 300+ million Americans didn’t. Compare that to the M*A*S*H finale. 105+ million Americans watched that. And our population was about 230 million at the time. That’s 1 out of 15 people for GoT and nearly 1 out of 2 for M*A*S*H.

"I am not a politician. I am a queen." By "breaking the wheel," Dany meant that she was going to be an autocrat. A benevolent autocrat, but an autocrat, all the same. She intended on taking a sufficient amount of power away from the highest of the noble families so that they would not be able to launch an attack against her or otherwise threaten her sovereignty.

We kinda forgot that Arya was to kill someone with green eyes.

I think he was weeping for both, though he loved Jaime more and will miss him more. Tyrion and Cersei had a complicated relationship in that Cersei couldn't bring herself to kill Tyrion when he was right in front of her. And they did confide in each other occasionally when you look back at the earlier seasons. The three of them were the only ones who knew what life was like growing up as Tywin Lannister's children. And they are the last of his immediate family. His nephews and niece are gone. His father. Uncle Kevan. There was some guilt involved as well. It was Tyrion's plan that led them down there. Admittedly, if they had been caught, they would have been executed. But still, their exact death was due to trusting in Tyrion's plan. In fact, Tyrion was responsible for the death of his niece, by sending her to Dorne and her becoming an assassination target, his father, his brother, his sister, and his best friend. I think Tyrion recognizes that, too.

Bran did that.

So, beginning of the next sequel, Jon has Sam executed for fathering a child with Gilly. Wait, no, what? #NeverReleasedFromNightsWatch #OathSaysShallFatherNoChild

Hello, Bronn, the Wilbur Ross and/or Steve Mnunchin of Westeros. #WesterosiSwamp

So, wait, winter never came at all, did it? #WhingingAboutNothing

You know, this is all Jorah Mormont’s fault. If he hadn’t stopped that wine merchant ... his niece and the rest of Westeros would still be alive.

Second most important lesson to be learned: Robert Baratheon was right. Want to save King’s Landing? Kill the Targaryen girl before she can mount an army and cross the Narrow Sea.

Most important lesson of Game of Thrones: Sit out all the wars. Don’t commit your troops until the last minute. Stay at home, hide in your fortress, and don’t risk your own life. Play with moon door instead. Live to sit on council to vote for the new ruler. Cool. ~Robin of Arryn. 22 and haven’t been breastfeeding for, like, 15 years. Maybe. Yeah?

I’m imagining a level of seven hells right now where Cersei is cursing up a storm at Jaime ... ”If we had just stayed where we where, we would have survived! We were 10 feet away from living, you idiot!”

Look again. Hellllooo, Robin of Arryn.

Yara: No, seriously, Danaerys and I had a deal. I would give her the ships to carry you all to Westeros, and she would grant independence to the Iron Island. Tyrion: Yeah, sorry, do you have a receipt? Yara: Tyron — you were there! Bran, you see all things. Go back to Theon and I meeting Danaerys in Mereen. Bran: Yeah, no, I’m going to go flying as a raven now.

If this episode isn’t titled, “Sit down, Uncle,” I’m going to be thoroughly disappointed.

Brienne’s last entry for Jaime Lannister in the White Book: “Despite loss of dominant hand, remained able to please a woman elsewise, including with tongue. Allegedly.”

Let me do this right, in long form: Brienne: ... in an attempt to save the capital from destruction. Ghost of Stannis: Capitol. Brienne: What? Ghost of Stannis: Capitol. He came to save the building. Not the city. Brienne: I’m pretty sure he meant to save the city. Ghost of Stannis: Fine, then. Nevermind.

Arya’s end echoes the end of Season 4, where he is at the head of the ship from Westeros to Bravo. That sweeping music is on of my favorite moments. Still, a shame she didn’t want Gendry with her.

I felt like GRRM was too chicken shit to make Sansa queen of Westeros outright. Hence making the robot kid king instead.

Seriously! I wonder if Sansa might be rethinking Lysa’s offer of a marriage. “Yo, you don’t seem so sickly, anymore.”