Can I just roll my eyes at the events at Winterfell and be done with it? I swear they keep giving Littlefinger monologues that don’t have any meaning and think it advances the plot. Apparently everyone also forgot that kinslaying is a monstrous sin in Westeros, and that game bit gave information that are either illogical or blatantly incorrect.

They are also making Littlefinger stupider to fit their contrived plot. I don’t like the guy but he’s smarter than this stupidity.

The CerseiTyrion convo perfectly crystallizes what’s wrong with this show’s writing: no consistency in characterization or plot. I feel bad saying this because Peter and Lena sold the scene like nothing else, from the second Tyrion’s trepidation was glaringly obvious as he walked into that solar like a man walking to his execution to the furious exchange between the two siblings. But there is so many holes in that scene it’s practically see-through. We move from rational politician!Cersei to irrational murderous!Cersei in a blink in an eye. It’s not unlike her to throw the responsibility of Myrcella and Tommen’s death on Tyrion despite the fault being Tywin’s and hers, but I don’t get the start of the conversation at all; how her starting point was that he brought Dany there to aid the destruction of their family. Huh? But then she takes a step back and actually starts talking to Tyrion instead of having him murdered on the spot, even though every bit of characterization from Cersei, however inconsistent it was, points to how Tyrion should never have left that room alive. That he challenged her to do it and she didn’t despite seeing him as the one who brought their family’s destruction (I’m not gonna talk about the valonqar because apparently that was forgotten) makes zero sense.

And the stupidity begins!!

Why exactly would Jon’s vow to stay out of the fight be even a big deal for Cersei? I’d say she was looking for a pretext to reject the truce, except she did not ask for him to bend the knee, only to stay out of the war. But the North does not have that much of an army for Cersei to be concerned about an alliance between Jon and Dany, and she saw the threat that they are facing and knew the North would be heavily impacted in the fight. She has no reason to assign any importance to whether Jon would stay put after the war, or decides to march. He would not have the manpower to do it anyway.

This whole sequence is contrived to give us the conversation between Tyrion and Cersei so that Peter and Lena can emote at each other, to apparently make a point about how Good and Moral People Suck At Politics, and to invoke Ned’s name and honor and fatherhood to Jon to…. ease the revelation of Jon’s parentage somehow? The scenario just does not make any sense that I’m unable to even enjoy the little nicety of Jon making a point about negotiating in good faith (and the contrast to the Lannister negotiating in bad faith) and linking it to Ned’s ideals and honor. It’s the tiniest bit of recognition that hey, Ned Stark’s ideals aren’t actually bad at all because negotiating in bad faith makes peace impossible, as we’ve seen repeatedly with the Lannisters.

And do not get me started about how no one apparently knows that Jon has bent the knee, not even Dany’s Hand or Jon’s most trusted advisor. That makes total sense. That it’s been framed as a romantic moment when it’s transparently idiotic makes me see red.

“Can they swim?” “No”

I so want to pluck Cotter Pyke out of the novels and drop him in that dragon pit. I’m sure he’d have some choice words. But like, didn’t we see a couple of wights emerge from that frozen lake last episode? The ones who were dragging Tormund under?

On another note, I do not know what to do with the hints about Euron potentially pursuing Dany. Is that a hint that he’d try to go after her next season? Is that what the writers think is a clever wink to book readers? Hell if I know.

Jon is starting to sound like a broken record. We’ve been hearing the same speech in ten different ways for three seasons now. Like, I get that he has to argue the same case but it’s a bit repetitive to hear it with every single new character.

I do like his barely restrained anger at Cersei and how it showed how unhappy he is with being in King’s Landing and in the presence of the same woman who cost his father his life. It’s a refreshing change from his zen “everything is forgiven” state because it makes more sense. I generally understand his logic with prioritizing the war against the dead regardless of personal feelings towards the living, but showing that this is really hard for him is important because logic does not erase human emotions. Jon is human and he loves deeply, and I think the show should have lingered more on his conflicting emotions towards having to seek an alliance with the people who destroyed his family. Tyrion’s speech reflected that conflict and that hardship from the get go, while Jon only had that one moment.

I do not understand the point of Euron’s interruption at all, or why he waited till Tyrion started talking to do it when he could have went straight for Theon from the start. That stuff about killing Yara if Theon does not submit is equally perplexing. Euron does not need Yara as hostage against Theon. He, and everyone else on the Iron Islands, do not consider Theon a threat. You’d also think that Euron would have already killed Yara since he was all “let’s kill my niece and nephew” last season. Perhaps he only wanted to taunt Theon like the monster he is, but again, weird timing.

I do adore Tyrion’s and Jaime’s reactions to Euron’s statement about killing people with dwarfism in the Iron Islands. Peter and Nikolaj did a very good job with it. Almost made that unnecessary interlope worth it.

Is it just me or are they kinda sorta hinting at the “Jaime chooses Brienne over Cersei” thing through camera cuts? That was too obvious not to be meaningful.

Euron also looks really tempted at the sight of those dragons. That’s a Euron I understand, at least.

The tension as Cersei’s people and Dany’s people came together is good. I like the cuts between the characters: Jon to Cersei, Cersei to Tyrion, Euron to Theon. The conversation between Sandor and Gregor was…. actually kinda sad. The “this isn’t how it ends for you, brother” gives the feeling that if Cleganebowl happens at any point, it wouldn’t really be about revenge but mostly about mercy. I like that.

For some weird reason, that whole showing of power by making people wait for the Queen, whether on Cersei’s side or Dany’s side, really reminds me of when Cersei and Tyrion walked into Tywin’s small council for the first time and started moving chairs.

Ah, a conversation about cocks. So much narrative importance there.

But I love the spectacle of Dany’s army, and the contrast between the stoicism of the Unsullied and the loudness of the Dothraki screamers. I don’t think the two hosts have been shown alongside each other in such a way before, and I find I really like the image they make together, both for the show of strength of Dany’s complete army, and for how it shows off the difference in war technique between the two.