Spoilers Game of Thrones - Season 7

[The Nth Doctor]

But that ending... meh. Again, there was good stuff - specifically Olenna getting the last word. But man, it's all so rushed. Taking Casterly Rock deserved more than a five-minute montage. And relegating the entirety of the fall of Highgarden to a matte image and then five seconds of post-battle corpses was cheap. Even with Tarly turning traitor, House Tyrell deserved better. All that should have been it's own episode, and towards the end of the season; having the fall of Highgarden be a penultimate episode and the death of Olenna as well would have been a lot more satisfying.

Yeah, I mentioned this in my review as well and this is an unfortunate sacrifice due to a truncated season. I'm not sure if each battle would have been their own episode, but I certainly think they would've occupied large amounts of two episodes. One thing that's different here from the previous battle-heavy episodes (Blackwater, Hardhome, Bastards) is they each had numerous known characters involved, whereas these two two battles only had Grey Worm in one and Jaime, Bronn, Randall and Olenna (who didn't fight) in the other. Hell, I doubt Jaime, Bronn and Randall did much fighting of their own considering their position in the ranks (well, maybe Bronn). I agree it leaves a strange sour taste in the mouth, but considering how it looks in the larger picture, it's not so surprising.

I'm also already tired of Euron Greyjoy's magically teleporting Ironborn fleet; even with power of plot movement it's ridiculous to have him go from intercepting Yara on the way between Sunspear and King's Landing, sailing on to King's Landing to present his gifts to Cersei, and then making it all the way down around Dorne and catching up to Casterly Rock on the same day as the Unsullied get there.

Well, we didn't actually see Euron at Casterly Rock. It's fairly likely that he sent a large portion of his fleet directly there while he took out Yara's fleet and headed back to King's Landing.

 

[Mr Awe]

Euron... needs no dragons, magic, special swords or wolves. Just kicks ass and laughs in your general direction. He's the people's champion!

Apparently he has magic ships because he can conduct the battle against the first fleet, take the prisoners down to Kings Landing, and then get his fleet to Castlery Rock shortly after Grey Worms fleet even though Grey Worm's fleet went straight there from the islandand had a much shorter distance! It's handy when your ships can move at the speed of plot!

 

[The Nth Doctor]

See my above comment.

 

[Mr Awe]

See my above comment.

I read it after I post mine. If he split his fleet he shouldn't have had such lopsided victories. So, I don't buy it as something that could really happen. But, I do get that they want to level the playing field for a more dramatic story.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

We don't know how large his fleets are or how large Daenerys' fleets were. We haven't been given any actual numbers other than Euron's unrealistic goal of building a 1,000 ships last season.

 

[DigificWriter]

^ How is it unrealistic when it's exactly what he did?

He tells Cersei he has a thousand ships, so he obviously got them built.

 

[Turtletrekker]

Speaking for myself, I wouldn't trust a single word that Euron Greyjoy ever says.

And I honestly believe that Cersei will arrange an "accident" of some sort before she ever marries him.

 

[Captaindemotion]

^ How is it unrealistic when it's exactly what he did?

He tells Cersei he has a thousand ships, so he obviously got them built.

And it's unrealistic because, for one thing, the Iron Islands don't appear to have a lot of trees.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

^ How is it unrealistic when it's exactly what he did?

Unrealistic for the time scale, even in the time compression the show is in now, and because of the lack of resources on Pyke.

He tells Cersei he has a thousand ships, so he obviously got them built.

Ah, did he? I must've missed that. But I agree with Turtletrekker. Euron loves to embellish.

 

[Captaindemotion]

Speaking for myself, I wouldn't trust a single word that Euron Greyjoy ever says.

And I honestly believe that Cersei will arrange an "accident" of some sort before she ever marries him.

"Husband dearest, have you ever gone on a boar hunt?"

 

[137th Gebirg]

That definitely looked like Euron's flagship at the center of the attacking fleet at Casterly Rock. They've made a point of showing it frequently as being the biggest and most powerful in all its engagements. If that wasn't supposed to be Euron's ship, the confusion to the audience as a magical ship is understandable and a poor directing choice for the VFX team.

 

[Nerys Myk]

And it's unrealistic because, for one thing, the Iron Islands don't appear to have a lot of trees.

Probably from building a lot of ships.

 

[DigificWriter]

We don't know what the actual in-universe timescale for what we're seeing is, so it's impossible to say whether or not what we're seeing is happening at an unrealistic pace.

 

[Captaindemotion]

Probably from building a lot of ships.

But when we saw Pyke in the episode with the Kings-moot, where Yara and Theon stole the fleet, the island appeared pretty much barren already. And that was before he could build his 1,000 ships.

 

[DigificWriter]

^ Because said trees would already have been harvested on a consistent basis to provide for the maintenance and upkeep of the already-existing Iron Fleet, which Yara and Theon stole and which Euron has now destroyed.

Because the material to build his new Iron Fleet would've already been available, it would not have been as difficult as some want to pretend for him to build 1,000 new Iron Fleet ships.

 

[137th Gebirg]

We don't know what the actual in-universe timescale for what we're seeing is, so it's impossible to say whether or not what we're seeing is happening at an unrealistic pace.

Based on book times, it should take many weeks, if not months for some of these characters to get where they're going. IIRC it took 2-3 months to get from King's Landing up to Winterfell by traveling up the King's Road. Jon came from Winterfell, went to White Harbor and then to Dragonstone, which isn't very far to the east from King's Landing. So, yeah, 2-3 months on the outside. Maybe a little faster by sea, but still. Westeros is said to be the size of South America in our world. Takes a long time to travel those long distances based on their current tech level.

 

[Nerys Myk]

But when we saw Pyke in the episode with the Kings-moot, where Yara and Theon stole the fleet, the island appeared pretty much barren already. And that was before he could build his 1,000 ships.

It's a joke. Though obviously, they must have a source of timber somewhere. Sailing is their one claim to fame. They can't have built their past fleets without wood.

 

[Captaindemotion]

^ Because said trees would already have been harvested on a consistent basis to provide for the maintenance and upkeep of the already-existing Iron Fleet, which Yara and Theon stole and which Euron has now destroyed.

You'd think they'd replenish the supply of trees, if that was the case.

 

[DigificWriter]

Based on book times, it should take many weeks, if not months for some of these characters to get where they're going. IIRC it took 2-3 months to get from King's Landing up to Winterfell by traveling up the King's Road. Jon came from Winterfell, went to White Harbor and then to Dragonstone, which isn't very far to the east from King's Landing. So, yeah, 2-3 months on the outside. Maybe a little faster by sea, but still. Westeros is said to be the size of South America in our world. Takes a long time to travel those long distances based on their current tech level.

And it could've easily been months in-series. Just because we see events happening in quick succession in the same episode doesn't mean they actually are.

 

[Miss Chicken]

If I recall correctly we have only seen one of the Iron Islands in the show - Pyke. Maybe some of the other islands are covered in trees?

As for the time that passed between to two battles at sea. It must have been some time as Bran and Meera covered the 600 miles from Castle Black to Winterfell and Olenna made it from Dragonstone to Highgarden. Plus Grey Worm himself had the time to sail from Dragonstone to Casterly Rock.