Spoiler
Great first half with some nice (if superfluous) character interactions. Dismaying second half with yet more strategic lunacy.
Army half knackered after the battle for life itself? No problem, just dispatch them to War 2 the next day!
The most fearsome pirate of the seas scuppered your previous fleet carrying the Dornish army? Divide your forces and send all your elite troops by sea anyway!
Didn’t spot the gigantic kraken fleet from your ariel vantage point atop a dragon? Oh, whoops, too late! RIP Rhaegal for no fucking reason.
It doesn’t have to be a strategic masterpiece, but when basic damn sense is thrown out of the window then drama becomes melodrama. Rhaegal and Missandei are both dead because the plot apparently needed them to be, not because the characters were acting to their true selves and facing difficult consequences. They died due to wanton idiocy.
The most grievous issue is that the undead story does genuinely appear to be over. Unless they pull something out the bag, that was it. What’s Bran going to do now, arse about as a flock of ravens for eternity? I really do despair for the direction they’ve taken the show.
EDIT - Just remembered all the Varys stuff. On the one hand, fantastic, I love any scene where Varys is involved. On the other hand, good lord how the mighty have fallen. He’s gone from the most cunning, elusive, esoteric man in the world with elaborate and subtle schemes to... this. Literally meeting with Tyrion in secret to go “Let’s do a treason!” He’s not so much the Spider anymore as... the Woodlouse? The Crab, scuttling sideways between loyalties? He’s gone shit like everything else, is the point.
Army half knackered after the battle for life itself? No problem, just dispatch them to War 2 the next day!
The most fearsome pirate of the seas scuppered your previous fleet carrying the Dornish army? Divide your forces and send all your elite troops by sea anyway!
Didn’t spot the gigantic kraken fleet from your ariel vantage point atop a dragon? Oh, whoops, too late! RIP Rhaegal for no fucking reason.
It doesn’t have to be a strategic masterpiece, but when basic damn sense is thrown out of the window then drama becomes melodrama. Rhaegal and Missandei are both dead because the plot apparently needed them to be, not because the characters were acting to their true selves and facing difficult consequences. They died due to wanton idiocy.
The most grievous issue is that the undead story does genuinely appear to be over. Unless they pull something out the bag, that was it. What’s Bran going to do now, arse about as a flock of ravens for eternity? I really do despair for the direction they’ve taken the show.
EDIT - Just remembered all the Varys stuff. On the one hand, fantastic, I love any scene where Varys is involved. On the other hand, good lord how the mighty have fallen. He’s gone from the most cunning, elusive, esoteric man in the world with elaborate and subtle schemes to... this. Literally meeting with Tyrion in secret to go “Let’s do a treason!” He’s not so much the Spider anymore as... the Woodlouse? The Crab, scuttling sideways between loyalties? He’s gone shit like everything else, is the point.