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 Mr Morden wrote:

 BaconCatBug wrote:

 Mr Morden wrote:
I don't understand why the Unsullied die in daylight in naath? Am I missing a joke or story element?

Butterflys.

I am not even kidding.

https://awoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/Butterfly_fever

Ah right - Missendri probably should have mentioned that then!

Yeah its pretty fun.

Electing Bran as king seems odd to me.
I mean, shouldn't they form a Republic in that case, or everyone splits off to form their own kingdom? They north go to secede, so why not everyone else? The Queen of the Seven Kingdoms is dead with no heir, the Iron Throne is destroyed and King's Landing is a smoldering, lifeless ruin. Bran being elected as king of a dead kingdom with no throne makes no sense.

Why did Drogon melt the throne? Also, are Danny and all of her followers cretins? She just burned a city to the ground, and she calls them liberated. And then she acts surprised that Tyrion (who supposed to stop her from being a tyrant) and Jon betrays her. Like, I get what they are going for, but holy gak was it heavy handed and made of stupid.

 CthuluIsSpy wrote:
Electing Bran as king seems odd to me.
I mean, shouldn't they form a Republic in that case, or everyone splits off to form their own kingdom? They north go to secede, so why not everyone else? The Queen of the Seven Kingdoms is dead with no heir, the Iron Throne is destroyed and King's Landing is a smoldering, lifeless ruin. Bran being elected as king of a dead kingdom with no throne makes no sense.

Why did Drogon melt the throne? Also, are Danny and all of her followers cretins? She just burned a city to the ground, and she calls them liberated. Like, I get what they are going for, but holy gak was it heavy handed and made of stupid.

There is no way in all seven hells that Dorn or the Iron Islands would accept the North being able to be independent and not them.

 Asherian Command wrote:


Something with Daario seeing the body of Dany delivered to him and a hint of that dany comes back to life and she is now with her true lover. This would satisfy a lot of plots and would give some credence to the lord of light. But she decides not to rule and goes to her house of the red door and tree. Home if you will. (Someone suggested this)

The unsullied arrive in Naath and all die because they arrive during the day.

Dorthraki would stay in westeros they wouldn't go back across the narrow sea.

Oh yeah, I was wondering what's with Daario. Didn't the Dothraki leave with the unsullied though? If they are just hanging around in Westeros that's going to cause some problems.
What's with that wildling exodus at the end? Are they implying that Jon is going to live with them and become the Wildling king or something? Because that would be cool.


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 BaconCatBug wrote:

 CthuluIsSpy wrote:
Electing Bran as king seems odd to me.
I mean, shouldn't they form a Republic in that case, or everyone splits off to form their own kingdom? They north go to secede, so why not everyone else? The Queen of the Seven Kingdoms is dead with no heir, the Iron Throne is destroyed and King's Landing is a smoldering, lifeless ruin. Bran being elected as king of a dead kingdom with no throne makes no sense.

Why did Drogon melt the throne? Also, are Danny and all of her followers cretins? She just burned a city to the ground, and she calls them liberated. Like, I get what they are going for, but holy gak was it heavy handed and made of stupid.

There is no way in all seven hells that Dorn or the Iron Islands would accept the North being able to be independent and not them.

Exactly. As soon as Sansa chirped up the Dornish rep and Miss IronBorn wazzerface should have gone "oh, we can do that? We want out", and then everyone else wants out, and that should have been the end of the Seven Kingdoms. I mean, who's going to stop them? There's no Lannister or King's Landing army anymore, so anyone wanting the crown isn't going to be able to fight for it, and the Unsullied sure as hell aren't going to help anyone who's not Danny.

Also, why in the blue hell did Grey Worm not slit Jon Snow's dumb throat the second he killed Danny? Grey Worms ENTIRE BLOODY CHARACTER has been unswerving loyalty to Danny, he's literally been brainwashed into being loyal to whoever holds the whip.

Once Job stabs Dany I donlt think a single scene makes any sense.

Grey Worm would have butchered Jon and Tyrion mintues after Jon confesed to what he did, a much more powerful scene would have been the juxtaposition of sending their heads in a sack to the gathered "great and good" - cut back to him and his men boarding their ships. Then the unseemly squabling of the remaining nobles, the meeting breaking up in recrimination and anger as they all seek the crown of whats left..

What are thousands of bored, angry Dothraki doing? The Unsullied are happy to sail away, the Dothraki will see weakened peoples and cut a swath across whats left of the Kingdoms and who is going to stop them?

Apparently Kings Landing regens as effectively as the Unsullied, Northerners and Dothraki do - certainly the red keep is fixed pretty damn quickly - how - with money from where. Are they not massively in debt to the Iron bank?

Jamie the Good - well Jamie the guy who drops a child to his apparent death - with a quip. Who raped his sister, etc etc.

Bran the story teller (who never bothers to do so) will just be seen as a puppet of his sister who is building her power base - Dorne and the Iron Islands would break way in the same way. Yeah I get that apparently he is sceeming sod who does not care who dies but to those not part of hs direct family I guess they just think - we can get rid of him easily enough

So is he actually the super schemer who destroyed Jon and Dany so he could be king and or does he really not care about anything anymore? Is a disinterested king the right one for for a number of shattered, indebted kingdoms that look weak to anyone left with an army - hello Dothraki.

Bron in charge of coin was amusing but it won't be in a few months when he sods off with what he can get.

Yeah, if you think about it realistically, Jon murdering Danny should actually do more damage to society than letting her have her Lawful Stupid Evil moments.
If he were smart he'd agree to be her king and use her love of him to try to temper her madness. Jon is not smart. For a Targ he's a true Stark - all honor and heart but no brains.

Bronn being in charge of coin was stupid. Funny, but stupid. He should have been Master of War or something, but NOT in charge of finances. That is a recipe for disaster.
Jon could have been pardoned as soon as Grey Worm buggered off. You'd think Sansa would try to talk Bran into doing that, but whatever.
Davos being lord of ships actually makes sense, so good on the writers for that, though you'd think that a Master of Laws would have been the first seat to be filled considering how its a new system of government.

Also, where are they supposed to be based? Isn't King's Landing a smoldering ruin filled with damaged masonry? Wouldn't installing the new seat of power there be very, very dumb? Since we're on that note, Danny is most certainly a cretin for destroying the city she wanted to occupy. That's like, Conquest 101.

 CthuluIsSpy wrote:
Yeah, if you think about it realistically, Jon murdering Danny should actually do more damage to society than letting her have her Lawful Stupid Evil moments.
If he were smart he'd agree to be her king and use her love of him to try to temper her madness. Jon is not smart. For a Targ he's a true Stark - all honor and heart but no brains.

Bronn being in charge of coin was stupid. Funny, but stupid. He should have been Master of War or something, but NOT in charge of finances. That is a recipe for disaster.
Jon could have been pardoned as soon as Grey Worm buggered off. You'd think Sansa would try to talk Bran into doing that, but whatever.
Davos being lord of ships actually makes sense, so good on the writers for that, though you'd think that a Master of Laws would have been the first seat to be filled considering how its a new system of government.

Also, where are they supposed to be based? Isn't King's Landing a smoldering ruin filled with damaged masonry? Wouldn't installing the new seat of power there be very, very dumb? Since we're on that note, Danny is most certainly a cretin for destroying the city she wanted to occupy. That's like, Conquest 101.

Yep Honor did not help save the people in Kings Landing - not telling his sister as she asked, sorry begged him not to and staying in her bed would have helped more than his brush off. But nope - Jon is his step fathers son = the kingdom can fall but my honour will not.....

meh - thre were some (occassional) good moments in a weak season. On to the next show - there are plenty better - rather enjoyed the Expanse recently.

Sister? Are you talking about Danny? Danny is his aunt, not sister.
Danny is his father's sister, making Jon her nephew.
I mean, its not great but we're not talking about Jaime tier incest, more like Emperor Claudius tier.

Fun fact - apparently, Avunculate marriages (between Aunt and Nephew, or Uncle and Niece), were actually quite common and not that frowned upon, and today is still permitted in Australia, Russia, Argentina, Canada and Finland.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avunculate_marriage

So yeah...it would have probably been fine for Jon and Danny to get hitched in (well, European, dunno about Westeros ) medieval society.

Historically non-sibling incest was common even in prudish western societies as much as 100 years ago. There were usually rules to it, like only marrying a woman from your mothers side and vice versa but it’s only really recently that anyone about 3rd cousin or closer became off limits.

 CthuluIsSpy wrote:
Sister? Are you talking about Danny? Danny is his aunt, not sister.
Danny is his father's sister, making Jon her nephew.
I mean, its not great but we're not talking about Jaime tier incest, more like Emperor Claudius tier.

Fun fact - apparently, Avunculate marriages (between Aunt and Nephew, or Uncle and Niece), were actually quite common and not that frowned upon, and today is still permitted in Australia, Russia, Argentina, Canada and Finland.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avunculate_marriage

So yeah...it would have probably been fine for Jon and Danny to get hitched in (well, European, dunno about Westeros ) medieval society.

Jon telling Sansa after Dany begged him not to.

 Mr Morden wrote:

 CthuluIsSpy wrote:
Sister? Are you talking about Danny? Danny is his aunt, not sister.
Danny is his father's sister, making Jon her nephew.
I mean, its not great but we're not talking about Jaime tier incest, more like Emperor Claudius tier.

Fun fact - apparently, Avunculate marriages (between Aunt and Nephew, or Uncle and Niece), were actually quite common and not that frowned upon, and today is still permitted in Australia, Russia, Argentina, Canada and Finland.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avunculate_marriage

So yeah...it would have probably been fine for Jon and Danny to get hitched in (well, European, dunno about Westeros ) medieval society.

Jon telling Sansa after Dany begged him not to.

Ah pardon, misread it. Yeah, that was a dick move. The fact that she didn't immediately execute him like she did with Varys should have been a hint to him that she really doesn't want to kill him (like Tyrion said. Tyrion has a track record of being wrong these days, holy gak), which gives him a bit of power over her. Which he didn't use. Because Jon is dumb.

I swear, the writers' took the "You know nothing, Jon Snow" line and interpreted it to mean "you are dumb, Jon Snow", and just impregnated his character with stupid.

Has anyone bothered to point out that the show started going downhill in s2 and the endgame was ruined by s5?

In s2 Asha Greyjoy was renamed Yara because apparently viewers would confuse her and Osha...how many scenes do they have together?

Jeyne Westerling was replaced by Talisa and Robb went from mirroring his father's actions (marrying out of duty and honor) to marrying a commoner out of love.

The best change is arguably that Tywin was present at Harrenhal a great deal more and he had very good scenes with Arya.

Lady Stoneheart was removed which changed everything. Beric died to resurrect her so he wouldn't have appeared in any of the final 3 seasons. Lady Stoneheart would have likely been responsible for killing off the Freys instead of Arya so Arya wouldn't have been turned into a psychotic killer that feeds a man his own sons or somehow manages to poison and kill off an entire family.

Young Griff/Aegon Targaryen was removed and he likely would have been the one to seize control of the south instead of Cersei which means Daenyrs would have been facing off against a false Targaryen/Blackfyre/her own true kin instead of Cersei.

Marwen the Mage was axed along with the entire Citadel conspiracy storyline.

Euron in the show was a bastardized, neutered composite character of book Euron and Victarion. Book Euron was considerably more menacing and Victarion clearly had some small role to play.

The Faceless Men infiltrating the Citadel was also cut out.

Honestly, they kind of had to cut stuff out otherwise they'd need 13 damn seasons to get through the first few books and then a near decade long hiatus because there are so many unconnected but they were brought up and now need to be resolved plot threads actually finishing the story would be impossible.

I like the books, but there's a lot of really pointless and unnecessary stuff in them (and this is coming from someone who loved the way the Malazan books meandered through PoV characters not advancing the plot one iota).

 LordofHats wrote:
Honestly, they kind of had to cut stuff out otherwise they'd need 13 damn seasons to get through the first few books and then a near decade long hiatus because there are so many unconnected but they were brought up and now need to be resolved plot threads actually finishing the story would be impossible.

I like the books, but there's a lot of really pointless and unnecessary stuff in them (and this is coming from someone who loved the way the Malazan books meandered through PoV characters not advancing the plot one iota).

I think they could do it ten, ten episode seasons without cutting out the most plot relevant content. The bigger problem is that without a resolution already written the books look like they're only halfway or two-thirds finished at best. Also, we don't know what is and what isn't necessarily pointless because without a resolution we don't know how everything ties in together. "Everyone" thought fAegon and LSH were pointless until seasons 7 and 8 were finished and then suddenly realized that both were critical to an ending that made sense. The Citadel conspiracy and Faceless Men stuff probably ties in as well. I'm not sure how the Dornish Prince and Victarion going to Mereen tie in though...unless Victarion's arc was loosely replaced with Asha/Yara going to Mereen and honestly, Dorne was basically dropped from the show after s6 for all intents and purposes.

Also consider that things that dominated the season 6 plotline and parts of season 5 had no basis in the books. We don't know where the Sparrow plotline is going or how significant it will be. Arya's training will probably be completely different. Daenyrs may not even have anything to do with the Dothraki anymore.

If WotW ever gets published then we may know.

More and more I just want a few small satisfying changes. In addition to more time developing these story beats that shouldn't have fallen as flat as they did (most were very much telegraphed, if only D&D could have told them better). My ideal final episode would be more or less the same, but Grey Worm is present when Jon stabs Daenerys and Grey Worm attacks Jon in retribution, slowly getting the upper hand and defeating Jon, disarming him. Before grey Worm can finish him, Drogon lands and screeches about his mother's death just as in live, Grey Worm backs off and decides to leave Jon's fate to Drogon (thinking him assuredly dead) who blasts Jon and the Iron Throne behind him. Throne melts just as in live, but nekkid flame-bathed Aegon Targaryan emerges from dragonflame untouched to Grey Worms anger/annoyance, but deed is done and Drogon flies off w/ Danny's body as in live. With no Danny to betray and Jon the heir apparent, Tyrion and others intend to name him King at the council meeting but Jon completely and absolutely REFUSES the crown, exiles himself to the north beyond the wall (possibly taking mantle of King beyond the Wall) and specifically leaves the lords/ladies of Westeros to determine a new and better king. Tyrion blathers on just as in the final episode, and names Bran. Bran shuts down Sansa's independent nation BS, but acknowledges the North as a semi-independent state with their own king-reagents and queen-reagents subservient ONLY to the absolute authority of the crown, blah-blah-blah 7 kingdoms remain but North is effectively independent without technically being a separate kingdon. When Sansa protests, Bran shuts her the F down again pointing to their diminished households and promising provisions to see them through Winter. Sansa 'accepts this", while showing to the viewer that she is thinking long-term and independance in fuure (possibly MUCH farther future long after the Starkss). Bran then generally does Bran crap, scenes of Bronn and Brienne and Tyrion arguing etc.

But in the final shot shows Bran looking in a mirror, where he smiles exquisitely to himself and admits out loud that "Chaos is indeed a ladder", cementing what he wanted all along: His own control of the thronw. It shows that Bran the Broken knowingly sacrifieced thousands if not millions of lives on the one and only, THE exact timeline that let he himself ascend the throne.Eespecialy since three-eyed ravens live for a very, VERY looooong time...


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Basically, I want exactly what we got, just with a little more context and a lot more finesse

That would have at least been a little more cohesive.

Though Bran ending up being some overarching mastermind who did the whole thing to become King just feels weird.

Bran being nothing that felt nothing and wanted nothing but got everything feels wierder

Game of Thrones Season 8 the Season of Wasted Potential, Bad Memes, and subverted expectations.

And Look a dark souls boss:
https://twitter.com/FreeFolkMemes/status/1131006020266778624?s=20

This is still funny to me : https://twitter.com/FreeFolkMemes/status/1125708884746784770?s=20

Anyway may it rest in peace. Now time to go watch True Detective Season 3

I just finished watching the season. It just felt so horribly rushed. I was kind of expecting Dany to go psycho but because it was so compressed in time that it felt weird, then the final episode of tying up loose ends just felt awkward, forced and often illogical.

They would have done better if they’d just ended at Jon killing Dany then call it the end and let fans guess how things wrap up (not saying they should have done that, just it would have been better than the half episode they gave trying to tie up those loose ends).

They should have spent a few seasons working through all that happened and spent more time on the writing. Ideally would have been better if GRRM actually finished with the books before the end so that they had something to work from.

Welcome our new Lord of the Iron Kingdoms! Luckily his only weakness is an allergy to the full spectrum of human emotions.

 Asherian Command wrote:
Anyone notice how little dialogue there has been this season?

Its mostly been action and not character talking or even interacting.

It feel very disjointed from a relationship view for the character.

The fact is that GoT writers are not very good. It has always been the case that whenever they had ventured outside of what GRRM has laid down for them, the results ain't great. It has been that way from very beginning, not just last few seasons. Series became ever crappier as they had less and less Martin-written material to rely on. Particularly they seemed to have problems writing very intelligent, scheming characters like Tyrion, Varys and Littlefinger.

It is obvious that many of the problems of the last two season are due to extreme compression. They squeezed like 25 episodes worth of stuff for 13 episodes. It's bound to hurt the presentation. Many of the arcs were resolved either too quickly or poorly. Still, I think the fanbase is too hard on the showmakers in this. You can't expect to keep this sort of show running forever. Principal actors will eventually want to move to other things, this is not like a sitcom where you just write someone out or wrap up things within an episode. As I understand, many of the GoT cast were quite burnt out for the show towards the end.

Despite the obvious issues with Season 8 (episode 4 was particular stinker), I still liked the ending. It was quite fitting. Frankly, many people seemed to be hoping for more fairytale-ish ending. This is a story where surprise twists, character deaths and subverting of expectations is the norm. Queen Dany or King Jon??? Oh no, we have one more twist for you, it's King Three-Eyed Raven. Don't like it? Too bad, this is what you signed up for. Hey, even LotR actually had bittersweet ending.
Also I really liked cinematography in these last episodes. This season had many quite awesome visuals and cuts. It was at its best, very epic, even when the writing wasn't always up to snuff.

But thankfully his strength is being able to know anything. Past, future or present. And he’s barely into his Teens.

When you need a long period of peace and stability to rebuild numerous kingdoms, and possibly rework your economic model? I can think of no one better.

Indeed, not being emotional as a leader is a massive, massive leg up. All his acts will be inherently dispassionate.

If someone reports a crime or a land grab etc, Bran the Broken can simply see the truth. He’ll also be able to see Assassination attempts in advance.

He’s pretty much destined to have a long and beneficial rein.

And that’s exactly what Westeros needs right now. A man without any emotion is fundamentally incorruptible. Any big decision that lands upon his lap can be analysed with predictive vision.


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Sure, the way Tyrion pitched him was weak. But if I could vote for a omniscient Premiere, with no stake in what they saw? You goddamn better believe they’re getting my vote.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
But thankfully his strength is being able to know anything. Past, future or present. And he’s barely into his Teens.

When you need a long period of peace and stability to rebuild numerous kingdoms, and possibly rework your economic model? I can think of no one better.

Indeed, not being emotional as a leader is a massive, massive leg up. All his acts will be inherently dispassionate.

If someone reports a crime or a land grab etc, Bran the Broken can simply see the truth. He’ll also be able to see Assassination attempts in advance.

He’s pretty much destined to have a long and beneficial rein.

And that’s exactly what Westeros needs right now. A man without any emotion is fundamentally incorruptible. Any big decision that lands upon his lap can be analysed with predictive vision.

Is that what he is really? Cos at the moment it looks like he is a psycopath who has manipulated friends, allies and family, shruged at the deaths of tens of thousands all so he can sit on a throne that he claims to care nothing about?

So if Bran can see the future, can alter it and is not a bad guy- why did he allow the last two seasons to happen - why allow everyone to die at Winterfell when he knew he just eneded Arya in a tree.

When did he gain telepathy?

When did he ever use his gift to ebenfit someone other than himself.

If he is not the bad guy and is simply Bran the broken who "mostly lives in the past" I give him six months before he is killed and shattered, in debt likely starving kingdoms return to civil war.

 Mr Morden wrote:

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
But thankfully his strength is being able to know anything. Past, future or present. And he’s barely into his Teens.

When you need a long period of peace and stability to rebuild numerous kingdoms, and possibly rework your economic model? I can think of no one better.

Indeed, not being emotional as a leader is a massive, massive leg up. All his acts will be inherently dispassionate.

If someone reports a crime or a land grab etc, Bran the Broken can simply see the truth. He’ll also be able to see Assassination attempts in advance.

He’s pretty much destined to have a long and beneficial rein.

And that’s exactly what Westeros needs right now. A man without any emotion is fundamentally incorruptible. Any big decision that lands upon his lap can be analysed with predictive vision.

Is that what he is really? Cos at the moment it looks like he is a psycopath who has manipulated friends, allies and family, shruged at the deaths of tens of thousands all so he can sit on a throne that he claims to care nothing about?

So if Bran can see the future, can alter it and is not a bad guy- why did he allow the last two seasons to happen - why allow everyone to die at Winterfell when he knew he just eneded Arya in a tree.

Bran is not Thanos. Three-Eyed Raven has quite limited powers. Could he have stopped Dany destroying the city by warning the others? It's a stretch, and it might have led to something worse. Basically, he was doing what Strange did in Infinity War - pick up the best possible future shown.

He can see at least *a* future. And it could be, going on the show alone, that he can see multiple, and goes for the least worse option, manipulating events just so to get there.

He is indeed utterly emotionless. That, in a leader, is not an inherently bad thing. Any decision he makes isn’t coloured by ego, desire, wrath etc.

And there’s nothing wrong in doing a Dr Strange.

What Dany did was objectively horrific. She could, and arguably should, have done is just torch The Red Keep. Nothing and no-one could’ve done a bad thing about it.

But....what if Bran saw somehow intervening would only lead to more widespread destruction? What if Dany’s excess of wrath hasn’t played out in King’s Landing, and was used on pretty much everyone else? Better than a couple of hundred thousand suffer injustice, than millions. It was Dany going full on Tonto that saw Jon put and end to her.

So, the Three Eyed Raven is neither benevolent (despite my earlier assertion, which was erroneous) nor malevolent. Bran, as ‘the host’ has a decent moral compass. And all we’ve seen so far is him using it for the collective good - even when it means massive casualties.

As I said, Tyrion’s selling of Bran to the others was weak. But, when us the audience actually consider, he’s a mighty fine candidate.

Wait a second, I think I just figured it out.

Bran...all-knowing, emotionless, and theoretically pragmatic. Bran is the Skynet of the Seven Kingdoms. He will eventually realize the only way to save the Seven Kingdoms is to remove all of the people infecting it.

(Terminator theme begins playing) You done fethed up.

And we know Bran is right and/or good because?

Same way he is described as the greatest most important story teller, because he never does?

The relationship between Jon and Dany was twisted by him at a pivotal moment and it just so happens that then Mr nice guy ends up king once those peices are removed from the board?

Hmm ok, not at all suspicious.

Why are we assuming that Bran - the emotionless, gitfted with powers from an alien race is the good guy?

What tells us this in the shown narrative?

Again when has he ever used his powers to save others?

Right so:

no rage - or care for others or anything
no hate or compassion for others.

Yeah either he is the big bad or the remaining nations are fethed big time.

The Skynet annology is pretty good.

Bran, as ‘the host’ has a decent moral compass. And all we’ve seen so far is him using it for the collective good - even when it means massive casualties.

When and how did he do this on screen?

The problem with Tv Bran is that we don;t know what or why he does anything, he never seems to do anything that matters, never tells anyone anything that matters - even for us as viewers seeing the big picture - he does and says nothing. He really is Bran the Pointless. maybe you are right, maybe you are wrong, but we have absolutely nothing to base anything on. The only thing he has done is save himself by killing a friend, a devoted friend.

I'd argue Bran is (in his current status) simply a blank slate...with no actual moral compass. I'd imagine logic would prevail vs. emotion.

Vox has a pretty good piece up arguing that Daenerys was right to burn King's Landing.

The underlying presumption of the actions undertaken by Varys, Tyrion, and Jon over the course of Game of Thrones’ final few episodes is that Daenerys is in some sense unstable, as reflected by her willingness to harm the civilian population of King’s Landing.

But this simply isn’t true.

Daenerys has an objective — to induce the Lords of Westeros to bend the knee and acknowledge her supremacy — and her attack on King’s Landing in “The Bells” was well-calibrated to achieve that objective. She had previously offered Queen Cersei the opportunity surrender, and Cersei refused — packing the city with civilians and ringing it with air defenses that pose a lethal threat to Drogon, Daenerys’s one remaining dragon. A combination of skilled piloting and poor marksmanship allowed Daenerys to overcome the city’s air defenses, destroy the Golden Company, and induce the Lannisters to attempt to surrender.

If Daenerys had simply allowed King’s Landing to surrender without consequences only after she evaded its air defenses, then every other recalcitrant lord in the Seven Kingdoms would have incentive to resist her. After all, it only takes a lucky shot or two to bring down the dragon — and the Queen riding him — and if she manages to burn your scorpions, you can always just surrender.

The Breaker of Chains can be legitimately faulted for not explaining the strategic logic of her actions to key subordinates before the battle began. But in her defense, those same key subordinates had spent the previous days spreading treasonous talk about Jon Snow being the rightful heir to the Iron Throne, so she can perhaps be forgiven for not fully taking them into her confidence.

Making an example of King’s Landing was a harsh decision. It was a cruel decision. And it’s certainly a decision whose morality one could question. But it wasn’t a “crazy” decision or the act of a Mad Queen — it was a rational calculation based on a clear-eyed assessment of the strategic situation.

The whole article is more about how the idea of elective monarchy doesn't work, which wasn't quite as interesting to me as the above take, that what she did was more of an Ender-like move to win all the fights that would come after as well.