See, this is interesting to me (and one of the reasons I brought up gaming as a corollary or coincidental reference-point if you'd like).
I've enjoyed the ramped-up pacing.
/snip
Coming back full circle to my initial statement, my gaming preferences follows suit; economy of time and action with a ceaseless deluge of hard choices + an onslaught of conflict as it snowballs then crescendos into climax and denouement...no "wasted" motion.
Ramped up pacing with logical sense thrown in sure...but this was senseless.
I also disagree with @
hawkeyefan with his (and I'm going to say it) apologist view of the scorpion use. Again this goes back to what feels 'more real'
For instance
Episode 4 scene
Instead of having Bronn complete the Tyrion sidestory (
I will pay you double), they should have tasked him with assassinating the Dragon Queen after the NK debacle. In that moment Missandei dies saving Daenerys taking the deadly bolt. Then we would not have that unnecessary Euron/Missandei moment and her silly execution but the grief would still be real.
Revised Episode 5
Remove dragon getting killed by Euron, rather have the dragon wounded in the battle by one of the scorpions, as it crashlands alive in KL. It makes the scorpions seem useful/effective but not supermagical and doesn't have to nullify them from one episode to the next. Jon, who was riding said dragon falls into the water before the beast crashlands into the city.
The Bells Ring, but the scorpions on the walls have already taken aim at the wounded dragon writhing and lashing about in the city, they ignore the bells and fire to slay the beast. The death of her dragon after the sounding of the bells sends Daenerys over the edge (having lost Jorah, been betrayed by Varis who attempted to poison her, Jon's secret now out, lost another dragon needlessly and believing to have lost Jon too, maybe even Greyworm - see below), she begins the massacre – and in the process slays innocents. Feeling alone and Mad with Emotion. Daenerys needed many losses in a short space of time to make her lash out the way she did.
Unbeknownst to her Jon survives and watches in horror at the the devastation she wreaks.
Davos pulls back the Northmen and the Vale soldiers (where is their leader) but Greyworm/Unsullied and a handful of Dothraki push on butchering and continue the slaying. Also we do not need to mushroom these forces everytime there is fight - it is ok to use less extras!!!* They could have also given Greyworm a cool action scene with the Golden Company captain, Harry Strickland. Perhaps Greyworm dies. What a wasted opportunity not to use Strickland.
Arya finds and kills Ilyn Payne – the one who beheaded her father. Cleganebowl ensues – with Arya forced perhaps to push the Hound/the Mountain over the edge into the fire, at the Hound’s behest as he asks for her help, thereby crossing off another two names of her list, leaving only Cersei as the remaining name. We didn't need a repeat of The Mountain/Oberyn fight.
Euron and Yara meet – with Yara killing her uncle and taking back the Ironborn fleet. Better this than that farcical moment and death scene with Euron/Jaime. Honestly, what were they thinking? Or forget Yara and just have Euron burned at his scorpion up by Daenerys - no more than 10 seconds wasted on this joke of a character.
Meanwhile Arya pushes on, to be surprised by Qyburn and the kids (Varys’s ex-little birds). Unable/unwilling to slay children Arya is overwhelmed – enter Cersei. Soliloquy ensues with Cersei moving to kill a bound Arya. In the last moments, Jaime rescues Arya, having heard a damning confession from Cersei, enough for him to pierce through the blind love he had for her and so he fulfills the prophecy with him strangling her as the building around them begins to crumble. Arya makes her escape and in the fleeing moments sees Maester Qyburn fall victim to the fallen debris.
That would have been a better episode 5, IMO:
1) Jaime/Cersei arc complete, prophecy fulfilled;
2) Arya crosses all her names off her list – arc fulfilled;
3) Cleganebowl – Hound arc complete;
4) Makes use of Harry Strickland and the Golden Company better;
5) Greyworm gets to show off and be part of an action scene;
6) Euron character limited to allow for more use of time for better storyarcs;
7) Use of Davos and depicts Northmen/Vale not as savages/wildings;
8) Qyburn’s scorpions seem useful/effective in a realistic manner as opposed to superweapon before the fight then a big 0 on the actual day;
9) 1 less dragon = same as before.
10) 1 dragon not used in the entire destruction of everything and at least losses are suffered on Khaleesi's side (1 dragon);
11) Death of the dragon would probably be more emotional with more on-screen time - as it is slowly butchered by the Golden Company and the scorpions, unable to escape its plight.
12) Better justifies Khaleesi’s descent of going ‘mad’ - adds in the 'mad with grief' angle too
Thing we lose with this
1) Missandei’s start and end story-arc in chains, I found it poetic.
2) Bronn/Tyrion –
I will pay you double side story.
* More on this. You want the viewer to see her forces diminish drastically to realise how isolated and unappreciated she feels - having lost 90% of her forces against the NK, so why do they keep mushrooming them in episodes thereafter. I mean the Long Night seems to have failed in all areas if they cannot reflect a much smaller army.