Hey CMMAP, thanks for watching…appreciate the feedback and I’m not taking anything you said personal. We all realize we’re limited in being able to fix the sh!t show that was the final two seasons. Not to address each of your points, but you may feel differently with some more context. With Jaime particularly, we don’t see him make that promise but it’s easy to assume he did since he’s standing with Cersei as she’s telling Dany and Tyrion her army will help. Then he’s planning with his men before Cersei reveals she was lying. Jaime believes his brother and just wants to fulfill what Cersei promised to Dany. Having the full pit convo was no longer possible since Jon, Jorah, the Hound, and Davos were all up north still. And I had no plans of showing a wight to Cersei anyway since I thought that plot line was stupid.
And speaking of Cersei and the dead, I think the point here is that she wants to take advantage of the situation, harking back to her earlier words to Jaime about being clever and fighting Dany like her father would have. Whether or not she actually believes in the dead army depends on how you interpret Tyrion’s words and whether that’s enough to persuade her to fight for her unborn child. It could be a consideration in the moment, but I thought it was pretty clear that Cersei had no plans to send her army north, so she was just misdirecting Dany and her forces. Her real plan was to catch Dany off-guard and attack them returning to Dragonstone. Dany only brought Drogon with her to King’s Landing, so Euron’s sneak attack is meant to not just take out the ships but the dragons too. This also helps explain more why she didn’t just attack them at the gate meeting with arrows. All of this could have been set up better with additional dialogue if doing these scenes from scratch, but I thought it still worked, given what little I had to work with.
And yes, there’s not much that can be done with the dragons unless I was a CGI expert and had the resources to add more GoT-like dragons to scenes. This just requires a little suspension of disbelief/imagination here. 😃 Although, not seeing the other dragons in Ep 6 was intentional on my part. Yes, only Drogon was still alive in the show version of The Bells, but I think it was smart that Dany only brought Drogon to King’s Landing for the big battle. If her goal was to destroy the city, having all three dragons would have been perfect for turning it to ash. But Dany just wanted to free its people from a tyrant, so going herself with Drogon to pinpoint attack the ballistas and the gate would be more effective and less risk to the other dragons who would be haphazardly burning stuff. I would have preferred to show all three dragons during Euron’s sneak attack, but it is what it is. The dragons that were present from Ep 7 and forward though were accurate in my version, and aside from one being missing during Euron’s attack in Ep 5, having only Drogon in Ep 6 was intended (as Varys even mentions in the pre-battle talk at Dragonstone).
I can see what you mean about Dany at the beginning of Ep 6, but I needed a way to show her in a defeated state. Obviously, Missandei and Rhaegal are still around now so there’s less reason for her to be disheveled. But she DID just lose yet again in another attack (including several ships), plus was betrayed by Cersei who just went back on her word. I used that scene more to convey her state of mind and that she was done playing nice (instead of her mourning). She wasn’t planning on taking King’s Landing by force with dragon fire, but that’s off the table now because of Cersei’s actions. To me, this scene helped to show Tyrion’s failure to predict his sister and the realization setting in for him that he wouldn’t be able to stop Dany from using Drogon now that every other idea he’s had has failed.
Oh, and totally disagree about Dany in the final shots, but you’re entitled to your opinion. 😃
Again, I appreciate the feedback. I honestly believe part of these issues would be solved by “deprogramming” our brains to knowing what happens in the show. Because we have the source material as reference, we’re always going to expect certain things at certain times, and our brains are reacting to something it normally wouldn’t if seeing it for the first time. That’s why I said it helps to suspend disbelief in certain areas and use imagination instead, knowing it’s an imperfect situation we as editors have to work in to make a passable story. Thanks again for watching!