Jenksismyhero

Jaime's was the worst "arc." I don't think they had any idea what to do with him. He was bad to start, and then when he lost his hand, had his hot tub scene with Brienne and was good to her, you thought he was turning a corner. Then he fucks Cersei again and tells everyone he'd burn the world to the ground to be with her. Then Cersei goes too far and he flips back to Brienne and fighting humanity and blah blah, only to then turn around and want to be with Cersei again. The dude flip flopped too many times to count and each time it was not very believable.

A good watch. Gives a little more background for what they were intending with certain scenes, including Dany deciding to burn the city.

I don't disagree with you that there didn't seem to be a good reason for her to suddenly burn the entire city. I just rewatched the scene. The bells ring and she seems to calm down but then sees the Red Keep. The rage starts to build and then she flies off. IMO losing her second dragon wouldn't have been enough justification for me either. So, I think at the end of the day, "cuz she's mad and wants the world to pay" is the only satisfying answer to this. The Greyworm stuff is not signalizing premeditation, from my second viewing. I think it's pretty clear he sees her continuing to fight and then decides himself to also get his revenge and kill everyone in sight. The Double D's in the post-show comments also said this - she crossed that moral line and that allowed everyone else, even some of Jon's men, to do the same.

If the realization is for her to kill Dany instead of Cersei, that comes well after her decision to turn around. The Hound tells her that Cersei is going to die anyway and to not become him (e.g., a monster with a single minded goal of revenge). There is no connection between her decision to turn around and her realization that Dany is now her target. IF they had written the episode better and IF it was clear that Arya recognized this, then sure, it would be a great reason for her to turn around. And BTW, Arya killing Cersei is not a "twist." It's literally what everyone has been expecting for years now.

She's been saying for 4 or 5 seasons now that her entire purpose was to get revenge against the people who killed her family. She traveled all the way to King's Landing from Winterfell just to do that. And steps from her goal she stops and suddenly realizes that because of the risk of death she shouldn't do it? That's weak. And I think they set up that the Hound was becoming more "human" and cared for others, in his own way, the last 2-3 seasons. They didn't need another example of that. The problem with the Clegane Bowl was that it was for nothing. Who won didn't matter. The Mountain wasn't protecting Cersei or anyone else. It was just someone was going to die, and then the other was going to die from the fire/falling debris. I don't have a problem with the Hound killing himself to kill his brother, but without any stakes behind the fight it felt pretty hollow to me.

What would be a good explanation for her to do that though? Not sure there is one other than because she's pissed/crazy.

Yeah I really wish they would have set this up a little better. They were offered 10 episodes and chose to do less. The couple of extra hours would have really helped sell the Dany gone Mad Queen angle. The more I think about it though, the bread crumbs are all there. She worked her entire life to regain the throne. She gets to Westeros and immediately her closest friends and allies either fuck things up, die, or stab her in the back. She loses two of her dragons. And then the one person she loved not only has a better claim to the throne, but is loved by everyone. And then the last straw is that he no longer wants to be with her. She has nothing left. There needed to be more build up to that moment with Jon to make it more believable, but I understand why they didn't want Jon to tell the audience what was going on. And I think this arc for her is 100% GoT. Her being the prophesized good guy and then actually winning at the end of the story is more Tolkien than Martin. There were plenty of bigger problems in this episode IMO. Suddenly those ballistas aren't shooting 100%. Dumb. Euron surviving dragon fire. Dumb. Jaime really coming back to be with/save Cersei. Dumb. Cersei having the least satisfying death for a show villain ever. Dumb. (The two of them dying at the same time was nice, but a little too cute). Arya getting 99% of the way to her goal and then stopping just because the Hound tells her to not be stupid. Dumb. The Clegane Bowl was fun to watch, but had zero stakes. Dumb.

It's not the tension that his true identity creates for them, I get that. It's that Jon is supposedly a better leader than Dany and so now Varys and Tyrion are talking about removing her. Based on what? What has she done to show that she would be a bad leader? Because she wants to kill Cersei? Because she got mad and wants revenge for losing her dragon and Missandei? So, Dany can't be irrational, but Jon, committing the North to suicide in battle when he goes after Rickon out of a fit of rage, makes him a good leader? The dude's put his life on the line multiple times (needlessly) but that makes him a better option? What's the point of being a good leader if you're constantly needing to be saved by others? I don't buy any of it. Yeah, Dany's pissed. I would be too. Jon would be too. The whole storyline is weak. IF Dany had gone off about killing Cersei, screaming that she doesn't care how many innocent people die, MAYBE the "Dany is actually a bad guy" storyline would be earned. But she didn't. So far all she has done is stick to her goal of winning back the throne (after a lengthy and costly side mission to save humanity!), a goal that she has been open and honest about for several seasons now.

Why didn't he do that before the 2nd dragon was killed?

He does. I agree, I think killing his sister and their unborn child seems like a big ask of him at this point. It's kind of funny that most people seemed to dislike like last week's episode but liked this one and I'm the opposite. Whereas a lot of battle strategy/convenient plot armor points were no a big deal to me in the first episode, some of the stuff this week was just beyond stupid. Euron being able to hit the dragon, not once, but like three times, while on a ship bobbing up and down in the water? Dany not seeing Euron's fleet despite being hundreds/thousands of feet in the air? Dany really thinking she and her 45 person army can take King's Landing? Dany continuing to think her one dragon can take on all of those crossbows (which again, apparently have heat seekers on them)? I like Sansa playing the Littlefinger role and telling Tyrion about Jon to get Dany out of the way. I like Arya and the Hound leaving together. Everything else? Meh. We're two episodes away and Bran is still the most useless character in the show. Is he really not going to play a significant part of the end of the story? His role was to worg into some birds during the Battle of Winterfell and act as bait for the NK and now he can just spend his days in Winterfell? Sam has no further role? He confirmed what Bran already knew, told Jon, kept himself from being killed and now he's just going to be a dad? Ugh, and the whole main end here - Dany v. Jon. So fucking stupid. Absolutely none of that is earned at this point.

It's the perfect hire. Not only is he a GarPax yes man, but he's also terrible, so when the inevitable happens and they lose 50-60 games again for the next two years he's the scapegoat. Saw this on Twitter about the Bulls under him: The last two stats are particularly noteworthy. The FO is so clever they're playing the long game. Getting ready to pounce in 10 years when the league moves the 3 pt line back and/or allows hand checking again. Post play will be back. Brilliant!

Some of you will probably like this article: https://theconcourse.deadspin.com/cersei-lannister-is-smarter-than-all-these-morons-1834386681

I mean, if the standard is a bad choice here and there, frankly the Seven Kingdoms would be better off with Dany over Jon. How many times has Jon made incredibly stupid decisions? Going after Rickon in the Battle of the Bastards, continuing to fight the white walkers instead of getting on the dragon in "Beyond the Wall..." Other than being brave, Jon's a pretty terrible leader, at least in battle.

Other than killing the Tarly's (enemies who refused to bend the knee when given a choice), what evidence is there that she's bad or vindictive? Seems to be she's made a lot of choices that were good for the world (ending slavery, diverting her quest for the throne to save humanity in the north, etc.)

100% agree. I didn't have any lighting issues but we watch it in the dark. The visuals were sometimes fast and blurry but I never had a problem seeing who was on screen. I got confused a bit during the dragon fight but that just added to the tension. I knew going in that it was likely all this buildup about NK would end "easily" with a one hit death. They've been setting that up for years. The fact that I saw his death coming but was still shocked (and so happy) when Arya leapt through the air to get him...man, kudos to everyone behind the show. So awesome.

This thing will go on for a while IMO. The City filed a civil suit against him. The two brothers he conspired with just sued his attorneys for defamation (for calling them MAGA-hat wearing, homophobic criminals). That case will be interesting because if the case can proceed, which is doubtful (tough to prove the attorneys knew the truth/falsity of Smollett's claims), it will be a case within a case....the brothers will have to show that it was all a hoax and that Smollett and/or his attorneys knew it. The attorneys will have to show it was true (i.e., they committed the crime). Also I think the DoJ is still looking into him for his mail fraud claims involving the threat letters. And I dunno how much, if anything, is going to happen to the investigation into Foxx and the States Attorneys Office. Still a lot of meat on this one, even if it's not a daily story.

Yeah that was such a dumb scene when you really think about it. They refused to get into the water to attack Jon, et al, but they had no problem going into the water to drag the dead dragon out. If they're already dead, why couldn't they just walk along the bottom of the Narrow Sea until they get to Essos?

I thought about that too. There are theories online about some of the dead Starks coming back to life during the battle. Seems a bit far fetched to me. My guess is that the Knight King wins the battle, a handful of characters die, and the remaining major characters retreat to the crypts which just happens to have a tunnel exit that allows them to escape south. The idea that all of the "good guys" win a battle against the Knight King and then turn around to win another battle against Cersei and episode or two later just seems super weak. Something else has to happen to get these two story lines together more.

I was ok with it. You need this set up to make all the coming deaths more impactful. Plus it was fun to see a lot of these characters together in the same room. Tormund was the best part.

Greyworm for sure giving his dreams of retiring to the beach. I'd also guess Theon and Jamie. Theon for sure will have completed his character arc by saving Bran and dying in the process. Jamie seems to have completed his by finally putting honor over blood, telling everyone in the north that Cersei isn't coming and knighting Brienne. To SS' point, while I really enjoyed the first two episodes, I also feel like this whole ending is super rushed. We went 60-70 episodes waiting for Winter to arrive and now it's all going to be over in 1-2 episodes?

Watch out for falling concrete!

Western suburbs here. I take the BNSF daily. It's a shit show, but for the price and convenience there is not a better choice. My express is 22 minutes and I have 3-4 options each way during rush hour. I would say at least once a week the trains are late and once or twice a month there is a massive incident/switch problem that causes trains to be late by 45 minutes or more. But, I think that tends to be par for the course with most Metra lines coming into Union Station, the worst major transit hub in the country probably.

I thought that too, but then the reaction by everyone at CPD (and the City) doesn't make sense. Supposedly Johnson and the lead investigator were never given a heads up about this before the decision was made. And they've been pretty pissed off since. You would think if someone was covering for them (or the City) they would be getting a heads up. Also, CWBChicago was able to get a response to a FOIA request within a day, meaning someone at CPD told the FOIA officers to get that paperwork ready to go immediately, before the court could revise the order sealing the file. So the CPD wanted their investigation materials out there.

So, here's what confuses me about this whole situation: who the hell is this guy and why is he worth protecting? He's got supporters. He's got some kind of connection to Foxx or someone in the SA's office. He's clearly got friends in high places who pulled some favors to get the charges dropped. Why? Why is he so important that he needs to be protected from these claims? I mean, the fact that Rainbow Push and Sharpton are having protests/rallies. Why? Any reasonable person could see that his claims are very troubling and it's at least possible he made the whole thing up. So why not at least be neutral about it? See where the trial goes. Why do this big favor and protect him?

Agreed. Check out the Warren Tavern over there too. One of the oldest (if not the oldest) bars in Boston. Good chowd-ah.