It's a shame that all the rape talk has obscured what I thought was one of the most interesting and important conversations of the season so far: Where Tyrion tries to discover why Jorah is so devoted to Dany.
It's important because it shows that the show is entirely aware of what most people's position on Dany is - She's not the rightful heir to anything but the Targaryen house (and thus her sense of entitlement is offputting), she's not guaranteed to be any kind of decent ruler (and unlike Tyrion, we know she struggles with that), Westeros may completely reject her and hates Targaryens, and the idea of being ruled over under the terror of having your land scortched by dragons isn't exactly a happy ending for Westeros etc. So hearing a character bring that correct level of scepticism to Dany's story was great and reassures me that what's happening in Dany's storyline isn't just tone deaf, but is being executed according to plan.
Bringing me to the second part of the conversation, which was equally as important - when Jorah asks 'Do you think there's some grand plan for this world?' - again this the question all the people watching the show are wondering having seen so much mindless violence. Now, it's obvious that the show itself has led us to believe that no, there is no plan - the world is harsh and deals out rough judgment in random ways dependent on the whims of often cruel men. But Jorah makes a decent argument against that. There's magic in this world. The gods are clearly real, and act to affect the world. Dragons exist. Dany survived fire. Melisandre can see visions and birth shadow creatures. White walkers move south. Bran can warg, and so on. So it's absolutely possible that the gods, who are clearly involved in this world, have in fact chosen their fated warriors and are lining them up, and this will have a standard fantasy ending of some description, and we're just getting there in a particularly grim way. It is actually possible. Feels unlikely, but possible. And I thought that that viewpoint was welcome after all the random bullshit and disparate storylines we've been subjected to this season. Maybe there's a plan. Maybe things will start coming together again. Maybe it's all worth it.
It also stressed that Jorah isn't some random lonely guy putting a pretty girl on a pedestal - he's a brilliant warrior with genuine, visual evidence and personal experience to lead him to believe that Dany is in fact some kind of magical 'chosen one'. Devoting himself to her cause in that circumstance is actually reasonable or rational. (Yes, the falling in love was unfortunate.)
Whatever about the rubbish Dorne story, it's more interesting that I don't share the same enthusiasm for the Arya storyline as other people do in this thread. The scenes themselves are good, but what is the point of all of this? Why are we following one little girl get trained? This has no bearing whatsoever on the politics of Westeros, and teaches us nothing about that land, or anything really other than Arya herself. It feels like if she wasn't a Stark there's no way we'd have this time devoted to her. In past seasons she was used as the 'war child' who showed how badly politics amd war had affected her family and the kingdom and torn them both apart. Now I'm not sure what the point of her is, but it makes for pretty dull viewing at the moment. Feels like the endgame is just that she's going to kill someone important. Well, hurray. We don't need all this to show that.
And the fact that they're still obsessively following the movements of all the Starks, even those like Arya who are 'out of the game' leads me to believe that the Starks will have some kind of comeback. If not, all this time spent on Arya and Sansa really will have felt like a massive waste of time.
Entire sandsnakes sequence with Bronn and Jamie could be the worst in the entire series so far. It's so unbelievably half arsed and weak.
It would stand out more in past seasons, but the general 'weakness' of this one makes it seem more at home. It really is shockingly bad.
The King's Landing scenes, in particular, have dropped in quality to a tremendous extent. The Queen's brother is on trial and it looks like it takes place in pantry somewhere, for fuck's sake.
I've asked this question several times and haven't gotten a response: Realistically, what else could have happened?
Here's a response, the obvious response, and what people assumed would happen until the twist answer to 'Where is Littlefinger taking Sansa":
She could have stayed with Littlefinger or in the Eerie, learning more how to play the game and remaining a powerful pawn for Littlefinger to control. Even now, sending her to possibly get pregnant with Ramsay's son makes little sense unless LF is convinced the Boltons might win and wants to be on their good side. All people are asking, though, is that she not be sent back into a situation where she's a victim or hostage again, and despite her being 'at home' she undoubtedly is until the moment she gets away from her rapist husband. We've seen this fucking story before, you know? It was past time to move the character beyond this. The same applies to the Stark call backs. Yes, I get it, I just don't find that constant beating of the 'torture the Starks for their honour and naiveté' drum very engaging any more.
