Game of Thrones, Season 8 (spoilers allowed)

It was also a matter of death by stupid. Why have them attack the enemy so far away from Winterfell? Wasn't the entire point to hold off the dead long enough for the plan to draw the Night King out to work? Doesn't that make a more defensive approach seem like the way to go?

 

So now what?

I know Cersei has the numbers, but Dany still has two dragons. Seems like those two still have the ability to melt whatever Cersei puts out in the field ....

 

I think the idea was to thin down the dead some before they could get to the walls in hopes of holding out longer. The Dothraki would be useless inside the walls because they battle best on horseback, but they could make a mark outside, turn around, maybe make a second run, then come back and the remaining ones enter the gates for defense. And for them to be most effective, they need to get a good charge going. Odds are, they were planning on one charge in, a planned retreat, another charge closer to Winterfell, and then a final retreat.

 

I know what you are saying, but do the Dothraki have any other talent besides just riding heading into battle and killing everyone in sight?

 

But Cerseit also has her Scorpions, and they've had time to plan other defenses and attacks against dragons.

 

That is one of the little mysteries of how powerful the dragons are. In the Targaryen conquest, the dragons helped crush most of the kingdoms except Dorne. That war lasted decades and only ended with a marriage uniting them. Its been hinted that the mountains of dorne played a role in prolonging that war.

 

That all makes sense based on how the Dothraki fight, but Jon and the others had seen how the army of the dead works. They saw the overwhelming numbers. The utter failure of the Dothraki charge was completely predictable.

 

Half the stuff that went wrong in this battle was completely predictable. Half the stuff that has gone wrong in EVERY battle that Jon has led was predictable (mainly the Battle of the Bastards). But it still happened. Have you not realized that despite his winning out more than not, Jon really isn't the best at planning a battle? Jon might have known how the dead fight, but he had no way of knowing how good the Dothraki are other than a likely overconfident assessment coming from his aunt/lover, who likely thought the Dothraki hordes could surely make a couple of charges because they had kicked ass in every other battle she had sent them into. He's made bad battle decisions based on way less. Long story short, when it comes to planning a winning strategy, Jon Snow knows nothing.

 

True, but Jon wasn't the only one in on the plan. Tyrion, Jaime, Jorah or Brienne are all smarter than that.

It all fits in with the rest of the series, with most of the characters constantly doing stupid shit. Take the example of Dany hesitating with Drogon on the ground, allowing him to be overwhelmed. That leads to her falling to the ground alone. Jorah ends up sacrificing him to save her from a situation she created by being stupid.

Ned set the tone in Season 1 by being stupid enough to tell Cersei what he knew and then to double down on the dumb by trusting Littlefinger.

 

I agree. I was pretty underwhelmed by the whole episode, mostly because I couldn't even see what was happening. Screw these artsy directors who film scenes in about 1/8 of natural light.

Cool that Arya finished off that Iceman dude. Of course I couldn't see anything about how she stayed alive earlier in the episode.

 

I damn near screamed at the TV when Jon was trying to confront the Night King and he just turned his back on him and let the wights go at it. My lord. I am kind of disappointed the Night King is gone this soon. Even more we didn't get more about the history and such. Pretty damn anti-climatic if you ask me. The episode overall was awesome though.