I can't even. 

I figured they were heading that way with everything... but I was still pretty shocked after the bells rang.

I'm going to avoid going on a crazy rant, but I'm just going to say I'm so disappointed with these writers and how the characters have been portrayed this season. I'm cancelling my HBO. I don't even want to see the final episode. -goes back to reading books to redeem the series, forgets about the show-

I'M MAD.

Okay so first of all, I saw Daenerys turning into the mad queen coming from a mile away.

BUT ARYA. YOUR ENTIRE STORYLINE WAS REVENGE. The whole thing. The entire show. She was driven by her desire to kill Cersei and then in the 11th hour she just quit?

ALSO what the fuck, Jamie? AND THAT IS NOT THE DEATH CERSEI DESERVED.

Also also, how will they even know that Cersei is dead if they can't find her body under all that rubble?

AND why go through all of the many faced god/faceless men stuff for Arya to not use it in this time of need? What is happening?!

I enjoyed parts of it and hated parts of it.  I will say I think Emilia Clarke acted the crap out of those final scenes.

Sam and Mame have completely voiced my issues with this episode. I wish I could go back to the books, but what will erase this when the books aren't written??

On the other hand, the dragon is faster than the scorpions, so knowing the right strategy, plus having the element of surprise, could make it plausible.

Fuck this episode. It woke me up in the middle of the night to think about it 😒

Honestly I'm not too terribly upset about how things went down, at least given how the rest of the season has gone. Some things could have been handled much better and there were some real "wtf" cringey out-of-character actions happening. Point by point:

- RIP Varys, kudos to you for not screaming when you got it. Part of me is wondering if he was attempting to or in the process of poisoning Dany given his Little Bird working in the kitchens and worrying that she isn't eating ("We'll try again at dinner.") I also wonder (if it was a gradual poison) if that may have had an impact on Dany's mental state and her snap during the battle/surrender... hmm.

- Tyrion and Jaime's reunion/farewell was better than half the goodbyes prior to the BoW. I have to wonder now how Bronn will handle things since not only is Cersei not around to pay him, but Tyrion is still alive.

- I had a hard time suspending my disbelief that they emphasized Tyrion and Davos' knowledge of the smuggling shaft up into the Red Keep in order to give Cersei/Jaime an out, but nobody ever proposed trying to sneak into KL/RK to assassinate Cersei. ffs they have the Hero of Winterfell/Hero of Mankind (aka ya gurl Arya) who's been puffed up as the best assassin in the Seven Kingdoms - why do this roundabout, unreliable "hey convince her to surrender even tho she's never listened to us and use this super secret backdoor to get out" line instead of trying something more solid?

- The Golden Company not doing jack-all cracked me up, even if in the books their reputation is incredible and they'd like not have been such a write-off if not for Drogon.

- Drogon being able to dodge the scorpions wasn't that much of a stretch to me, not nearly as much of a stretch as Rhaegal's being hit by not one but three of those bolts within a span of a few seconds, taken by surprise or no.

- Daenarys snapping was not a surprise or a stretch for me, I just think they could have made it a little more of a logical thing. I would have done something like:

Rhaegal doesn't get taken out by the scorpions in e4 and so is present at KL, helps Drogon take out the scorpions on the battlements and nuking the Golden Company. Thinking they've won, Dany turns toward the Red Keep without going Fire & Blood on the general populace to seek out Cersei. There's some dramatic exchange with Dany and the dragons encountering Cersei or Qyburn or other baddies on some sort of balcony or whatever for exposition and tension - then a hidden scorpion is fired from somewhere inside the RK and takes out Rhaegal. Dany falls back and lands, and sees the general populace cheering the fall of her child - rooting on her destruction instead of hailing her as a hero and rightful ruler as her dream has always been... and then she snaps in spite of the bells ringing the surrender.

- God fracking bless Sandor Clegane.

- THE CLEGANEBOWL WE DESERVED. (I found the ending of that saga totally poetic - their hatred/rivalry of each other started in fire and violence when Gregor burned Sandor as a child, and Sandor finally found his satisfaction and revenge in more fire - truly facing down the fears that have plagued him.)

- I giggled really hard at Qyburn's demise. (YEET)

- Arya's actions confused me initially - why would she turn back from the name that's been on her list for practically the longest time? - but made more sense to me as soon as she got on the streets. Her fear and confusion reminds me of how she was in the latter half of the BoW, after she's concussed (?) or shaken up and starts almost blindly running through the castle. Seeing all the death and blood and realizing the futility - what can she actually do in this situation without an enemy to fight or a target to stab? - has her running scared. I'm curious about the horse that finds her at the end - maybe Bran's "Do Not Disturb" sign from all of e3 was for him to try and get this horse in the right place at the right time for his sister...? I do believe that Arya realized that Cersei was going to die without her interference in the RK, and seeing all the destruction wrought by the one who would claim to be the "true queen" gave her a new name to top her list... watch out Dany, Arry's comin' for ya

- I felt terrible for Jon, but he might have been the one character who didn't have any weird stretches/out of character moments in the episode. He stuck to his morals/convictions turning down Dany's attempts to reignite their romance. He watched in horror as his allies shed their honor to turn into the horrific sort of tyrants they were supposedly coming to rid KL of (aka FUQ U GREY WORM), and he realized that even if he may not want to rule, Dany shouldn't be allowed to sit the Throne after all this either.

- wtf Euron you should have just drowned. The battle with Jaime was totally pointless, since Euron didn't even react to the jibe that Cersei's baby isn't his and Jaime didn't even seem to be slightly bothered by literally having been stabbed in both kidneys ("'tis but a scratch!")

- I gave up on Jaime as a character last episode so not going to waste letters here.

- I worry for Tyrion - he needs to get his arse back up north with Sansa.

In any event we have a full eighty minutes next week to see how much further D&D will sink the series. I haven't read the supposed leaks (which I guess proved out for e5 at least?) so I'm not expecting anything. At this point Cersei could be reincarnated as a tap dancing pink elephant wearing a paisley cowboy hat and I wouldn't be surprised.

At least Sansa is alive. #DAKWEENINDANORF

My theory with not sneaking in is because Tyrion didn't want to tell Daenerys because I think in his heart he knew what would happen and ultimately he wanted both of his siblings to escape (plus he's forever cynical and I'm sure he likes to have knowledge that she doesn't have about secret passageways).

I do wonder if the girl will carry out his wishes to have her poisoned without him, and honestly I think that would poetic because sneaky poison has been a running theme in this show. Or maybe Arya will use her faceless men gift to pretend to be the girl and murder her with poison.

I also like that take on Arya's actions, I had forgotten about that during the battle of winterfell, but I'm still unhappy. Mostly because I wanted Cersei to have a brutal death.

Argh. I hope that somehow Jaime redeemed himself like one last time, like they find the bodies and there's a knife in his back, or we find out he knew the floors were going to collapse. SOMETHING.