Damn. Dany does the heel turn in a big way. So much unnecessary death and destruction. If she wanted to do any revenging or what not, she could have gone to the Red Keep and taken that down without destroying all of King's Landing. It still wouldn't have "fair", but it would have been far less gratuitous.
So, the question now is whether Jon kills her or Ayra does. Seems like the thing keeping Ayra alive despite so many near misses is the plot armor of her needing to be the one that takes out Dany.
The fact that our group of players did not get impacted much (sorry Brandon) has much to do with smart choices: avoiding Euron (which mean Yara will certainly live off camera), Jaime, the Hound (he knew his fate before this), the Mountain (so much for shots to the brain killing zombies in this world), and so on.
Where do things stand?
- Sara remains on top and the favorite since all of her characters are in Winterfell--no safer place these days.
- Rob's man Tyrion took a hell of a chance, and Dany might kill him before she gets got. But he had to save his brother because of what Jaime had done for him--that scene in the tent explained it well. Still, I rate Tyrion's chances at 50-50.
- Caitlin is still very much in the running with a heart attack or five, as Ayra survived so much as did Greyworm. My bet is that one of them dies next week, probably at the hands of the other. Still, this week's show defied expectations in so many ways--not the heel turn--but how various folks died (Jaime, Cersei, etc.)
- Art's chances took a big hit because it is really hard to see the show ending with Dany alive and on the throne after all of this. That would be very GRRMartin, but not Benioff and Weiss. Next ep will focus on the post-war phase, and, as we students of war/civil war (Brandon, Sara, and I) know so well, that really is the messy part. So, I am expecting Art to be the big loser, he gambled big, following Varys's example, but, then again, see what happened to Varys.
- Speaking of, sorry, Brandon, but you are down to Podrick, who is hanging at Winterfell with the ladies, and Ebrose is not to be seen at all. Varys was betrayed by Tyrion, so a bit of fire and poof.
- Wendy is looking ok for the moment. Sansa is safe, but Bronn is not. Tyrion may not be able to keep his promise, but, then again, Cersei can't either from under all that rubble. She ain't Daredevil. So, maybe Wendy still will have two characters alive next week, giving her a chance at a tie.
- Elliot. Sorry, man, you are down to two with Cersei wearing so much rubble. Sam's kid is safe, but Jon? Hmm, will he go down taking out the Mad Queen? Will she pre-empt to take out a rival?
Aside from some rape-heavy episodes, this was the most brutal episode of the show. Other battles took place at night or off camera. Only the Red Wedding competes because of the intimacy of the violence. This episode had so many people dying in awful ways---fire, being crushed, being sliced by Dothraki (shouldn't they all be dead after the Battle of Winterfell--where were all these survivors fighting that night?), etc. Jon prevented one rape....good for him.
The entire post-ep discussion will focus on Dany's turn to the dark side. Again, she could have gone straight to Cersei, but she chose to burn the entire city, putting her own troops at risk at times. The pops of green fire should have given her some pause, but they did not. One last thought--so much for home court advantage.
More thoughts on the show mid-week after I re-watch. Time for me to transcribe my interview notes, which is not quite as much fun as watching Brandon's character die in a collapsing keep.
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