Game of Thrones - The Collapse of King's Landing, The Mad Queen Triumphs

Just my initial thoughts (among the million others who probably feel similarly or much differently) on the second-to-last episode of Game of Thrones, it went sort of as I was expecting. King’s Landing in ruins, burnt to ash, peasants, army, and “royalty” alike buried under the rubble or roasted alive; Dany’s sound and fury, riding Drogon through the city with Messendei’s final “word” and decapitation on repeat in her head, leaves a lasting legacy of horror. Even worse than her father, with no “KingSlayer” to usurp her reign of fire, Dany set aflame the Red Keep, the many castles, as the entire city falls. No bell ringing surrender, no cries of mercy, no screams of terror would prevail against Dany once her vengeance-seeking mind was made up. Cersei would see her legacy fall, her father’s entire life-long goal to keep the family in power ending with his son and daughter—Jaime and Cersei—buried under the very castle he had often schemed and plotted to protect. No more. The Mad Queen, The Dragon Queen, The Queen of Fire and Ash, rent apart all Tywin held so dear. Tyrion, who tried and failed (and betrayed Varys when he told Dany of what he was planning to do), to keep the million of innocents within King’s Landing safe from harm, watched as it all burnt and crumbled into a heap. Echoing from the past, I wonder if he was reminded of what he once felt when on trial…they did fall and he was there to witness it in all. Walking through the rubble, seeing the bodies, Tyrion sees what Varys had feared…Varys wanted to be wrong before Dany burned him alive with Drogon’s fire. Cersei just sure her city would hold off Dany, the massive stronghold of crossbows and Euron’s Iron Fleet at her disposal, just crumbled and wasted by a fire-swath as one dragon, not three, scorched across them unopposed. Qybuin was often the bearer of bad news while Cersei looked out her window as her city was overwhelmed by the tide of fire by Dany and Drogon, until she could no longer hide behind anyone any longer. She’s no longer smiling. There is no devious grin. Fear and trembling. She crossed the wrong foe this time. No escape for Jaime and Cersei, either. Jaime, choosing her over Brienne, and his willingness to give up his life; this won’t sit well with his fans. Those who felt his path to redemption was complete when he left her for good, perhaps convinced he might kill her in order to save those in trouble thanks to her, weren’t given the results they felt would be ideal. His arc ended as the castle’s structural collapse buried him as Cersei (and their unborn child) fell to the “new queen”. And those who had been so deeply invested in Dany, following her through those seasons at Essos, from slave city to slave city, freeing those in chains and making those who enslaved them suffer, are left with a practitioner in genocide. Arya, on the ground, often running alongside them, dodging the falling debris, bobbing and weaving Dany’s continuing pulverizing of the city, seeing it all first hand. Looking down at a child burned alive, after having seen her mother injured and overtaken by fire; Arya has a new name on her list. On her pale horse, a symbol of death, could Arya be the avenger for the fallen innocent Dany broiled with Drogon’s fire? Jorah and Barriston Selmy wanted to support a queen who could rule Westeros unlike other tyrants perhaps are better off dead than seeing the one they believed in to the fullest maybe even worse than those before her. Lots to absorb in the episode. Jon seeing with his own eyes Dany’s reign of terror, unable to stop it, having to hopefully realize that he’s not safe any longer. And Sansa fans have to gulp because Dany will undoubtedly set her sights on the Lady of the North next. Fans got their Cleganebowl with The Hound (Arya calling him by his name before he encourages her to flee) and The Mountain (funnily depositing Qybun with one arm to his doom, head crashing into crumbled rubble)  fighting it out with swords and blows, resulting in the former just tackling the latter from high up in the collapsing castle into a fire on the ground. Seeing The Mountain’s zombie face and no dagger to the face or sword completely through his torso stopping him as The Hound can only laugh at the absurdity of it all, the two not worrying about how the structure surrounding them was falling apart…fans got their money’s worth. So the consequences of the episode—King’s Landing a bleak and devastating reminder of what can happen when the leader with the crown doesn’t take her opposition seriously—will no doubt be settled (we can only hope) in the very last episode of the series. The Mad Queen and her victorious army (including a bloodthirsty Grey Worm who dutifully kills Lannister soldiers while his queen burns innocent men, women, and children alive all around them) raise their blades to the sky, and Danaerys Stormborn will no doubt have a look of satisfaction on her face. She annihilated an entire city and so how will Sansa and Winterfell survive such an impending onslaught sure to approach them next?


*A thought came to me as I was finishing this...Braavos has sure put their money behind a number of failures. Stannis and then the Gold Company. Hilariously, Drogon burns them alive with relative ease with their leader trampled before they even had a chance of combat. For a city thriving based on "investments", they have not done so well when it comes to the Iron Throne. And Euron's fleet befell with little fanfare, just burned to a crisp, as he somehow gets away so he can fight Jaime later (even though he falls to the sword, he got his licks in, including a stab through through Jaime's side), puts to rest what all the fans were expecting from the previous week's previews.