So many storylines and characters snuffed out, could have been worse I guess, but generally rather anticlimactic and lazy. I literally feel I could have done a better job writing this and I know nothing about writing. That is the joy I get out of Game of Thrones now, thinking about easy fixes to retarded writing.
I was really expecting Cersei to threaten to blow up the city with wildfire. If coupled with a reveal that Cersei has lied about being pregnant just to sway Jaime's loyalty, that could lead nicely to Jaime finally deciding to kill her. Would have fit nicely with the drinking wine and trying to get pregnant with Euron, with the wildfire which they surprisingly had not actually forgotten about, with the Jaime killing Aerys thing, the whole valonqar deal, and Euron could have walked in and made a nice "kinslayer" pun and then they could have fought. Cersei is killed, the city is saved, and then Daenerys does her thing.
Staggering that they did nothing to counter the scorpions. An obvious fix would have been Drogon nuking the water to create clouds of steam as cover, or if you want it over the top, the dragon showing of a newfound ability to divebomb into the water and resurface in the center of the fleet, like a seagull. Combined with pretending it got hit and for just a moment fostering the idea that it dropped dead into the water, that could have been pretty swell, albeit a little off the wall.
Cleganebowl was lackluster. There was fire all over the city, and they did nothing with Sandor's fear of fire. They could have had Gregor suddenly speaking a few lines, taunting the Hound's scars or his fear of fire, driving Sandor to finally rush through fire to kill him. Now Gregor was just a slab of meat and revenge did not seem satisfying. I did like that Sandor let Cersei calmly stroll by, reinforcing the idea that Sandor never cared about the big game going on.
Golden Company could have just fought well at the walls or in the streets, and after seeing half the company burn, they leader could have decided that no sum of gold is worth dying like that, having them break their first contract.
Daenerys I do not mind so much, when she was sitting on her dragon I was contemplating if I considered it convincing for her to snap. Initially I thought no, that it was very rushed, but honestly I am not sure what they should have done. There was quite a lot there, the death of Missandei + "dracarys", the betrayal from Varys and Jon splling his secrets, the not eating, the very well acted unhinged look and pale make-up, the burning of team Tarly, the "let it be fear" scene, the glances at Jon being adored after the battle of Winterfell while she was sitting alone, the chats between Varys and Tyrion.
Arya could have used ninja powers to open a gate or something, or start ringing a bell, the Arya that smugly ripped of her face after serving the Freys some humble pie should be able to do something instead of run around panting, for no reason other than to get innocent people killed, there was like 15 minutes of that that could made other storylines miles better. Maybe she should have finished the job on Gregor and wink to a dying Sandor who failed.
If only the writing made any fucking sense. Talk about a rush job, first of all. Varys "betrays" Daenerys and gets executed in ten minutes flat, just over and done with for no good reason. None of that made any sense. What did he actually do? How did they find out? No one reacted either to any of it.
They at least implied Varys was actively trying to poison Daenerys. They could have had Tyrion sniff a cup of wine or something, since wine is his only skill now, or have him shoot a meaningful glance at a little bird walking around and it would have been more complete but still subtle.
