I like Dany's decent into madness that has been developing since the first episode, but that's pretty much the only arc that I'm interested in at this point. And I don't think she's gonna be like The Mad King type of insane. two of her dragons are dead, her knight protector is dead, her BFF is dead, almost all of her Dothraki are dead, her boyfriend is now her rival for the throne, and there is a disrespect for her authority at every turn. I don't think they want her to be mad in the same way that The Mad King was certifiably insane. I think she's just really really pissed and she's gonna snap next episode.
The commonly cited criticisms of that episode that I also share:
- How are people teleporting all over the place? Bronn gets a crossbow then arrives at Winterfell in 2 days worth of show time (which is hilarious considering the very first episode of the show tells how Robert was going to take 1 month to travel from KL to Winterfell). Also: The forces from the north discuss a siege on King's Landing and then the next thing we know they're there. Of course we know that they aren't teleporting... It's just the show's very poor pacing this season, cramming all of the things that need to be crammed within a short amount of time and sacrificing any sort of sense of time and place.
- And speaking of Bronn, how is he able to just waltz into Winterfell and into the room with the hand of the queen unchecked like that?
- How is Euron's fleet just able to sneak up on Dany's fleet like that in the open sea? How does Dany get ambushed at sea for a second time, even? She had an aerial view and you would think that she would have learned the first time. Dany knew that Euron was a part of Cersei's forces. They discussed that in the war council. But there are no scouts or anything to prevent getting amushed like that?
- And speaking of Euron, I know that it's established how the Greyjoys are amazing archers. But going from "amazing archer" to "being able to kill a moving dragon by hitting it three times from a moving platform from the other side of a mountain" is more than a bit of a stretch.
- Cersei had Dany right there. She could have commanded any or all of her forces to rain down the full fury of King's Landing on a completely vulnerable Danerys Targaryen & Co. thereby ending the war of The Seven Kingdoms. The fact that she didn't, when it's perfectly within her character to completely ignore all of the rules of honor and peaceful negotiation is another stretch.
- How does Missandei even get captured especially when Euron's forces need to go through actual fighters to get to her, they don't even know who she, where she is and what her relation is to Danerys is?
- And speaking of Missandei, she had her own shot at ending the war right there if she had pushed or taken down Cersei off the wall. She was literally right at the edge with their arms wrapped together. This is more an observation than a criticism though.