8x05 General Discussion: Post-Show

As others have said, Arya's arc about revenge ended when Sandor had a talk with her. She called him not the Hound but Sandor - his real name. IMO that and white horse were sorts of symbols of her letting it go, leaving the death, destruction and killing behind. Unless I missed something and she goes after Dany which would be anti-climatic. Her big kill was the Night King.

My favorite parts were with Arya and Sandor.

Oh wait wait wait - one more thing....lol

Drogon and Dany coming from BEHIND the wall to blow it apart while everyone is waiting in front of it was....AWESOME.

I think at that moment on the walls when the bells began to ring, Daenerys realized that though victory was right there in front of her for the taking (flying straight up to the top of the red keep vs what she chose to do) it wouldn't matter because she had lost the people already. They feared her and she "chose violence" as Cersei (and the writers) put it. In many ways she sadly ended up becoming a mirror of Cersei which isn't at all what I expected and I'm NOT ok with it. It's broken my heart too. I'm not a super Dany fan like some others in our group, but I've always rooted for her and supported the Jon/Dany relationship 100%. I had a glimmer of hope that Tyrion/Varys would decide to push for them to marry. And that wasn't a perfect answer but it was a preferable outcome to what we got tonight. Don't get me wrong, I didn't hate this... I didn't love it but man it was powerfully filmed and acted so it's hard not to be in awe despite not wanting the outcome we got.

Part of me feels like I did after Arya killed The Night King in 803... elated she got the kill but at the same time feeling like "what's the fucking point now?!" ... only on a much bigger/sadder scale. I fee like what's the point of Dany's entire story arc if she's just going to prove everyone right that she's a mad Targaryen? I felt like that when the Night King died... what's the point of this big bad wave of death if the south never knew just how real it was and it meant nothing to the rest of Westeros? Now Daenerys has become the big bad wave of death instead and I'm just not happy with it. I know moiaf, nic and a lot of others are more brokenhearted than me, at least I can rationally discuss it but damn, that was just brutal on my emotions. I imagine a lot of folks felt the same way the first time they saw Ned beheaded, or the Red Wedding too.

Just watched Inside the Episode, and I've been meaning to say this for years:

The way David says "Missandei" and Dan says "Cersei" .....MAKES ME INSANE. Ok, glad I got that off my chest.

I am not as big of fan of Dany as they are but I imagine this hurts a lot. This is not some ice zombie we have little to no emotions or attachment to. Dany, on the other hand, we've grown to admire or like or love or appreciate. We all embark on this epic journey to see it fall right on the finish line. This is supposed to feel like a victory but it is more of a defeat for Dany and she knew that when the bells rang.

I would say it's a perfect analogy to Ned's beheading, Red Wedding. Ned made mistakes and ended paying the ultimate price. Robb and his family made mistakes and paid the price. Dany made a mistake and she'll pay the price.

Moral of the story is power corrupts people, war is dirty, death is ever-present and people are flawed.

It does hurt a lot! I've sported my wolf/dragon forum image for years and years now because I believed in the merging of Jon and Daenerys whether that was just as a family or as a couple. Long before that I was a firm believer in R+L=J and felt it was a central key important theme of the story - again what my 'sigil' stood for, the merging of ice and fire to create a better world. But that's not what we're getting at all and it does hurt. Doesn't mean it wasn't beautiful and terrifying, and heart-pumping and all of that. Because it was... I'm not so bad off I can't admit that. I'm just really shell-shocked from the rapid turn of events especially with Daenerys going from what I thought she was, to what she's become in just a few episodes. That was too fast for me.