Was burning all of that food really such a good plan?

[Wagshell]

That seemed insane,

They had the battle won, so the "spoils of war" are hers. She has thousands of soldiers to feed. So she burns all of the food that she would have gained. What? If she'd spent that time mopping up soldiers and archers, more of her dothraki would have survived too.

 

[Brightstar_]

yup, while I absolutely loved the scene, this didn't make any sense to me. It should have been clear to Dany that the battle was won, burning the food at that point was just handicapping herself. Admittedly, logistics such as feeding your army has never been important to the show, so it probably will never be a crucial point. ( although it really should be, how are 100k dothraki feeding themselves and their horses?)

My guess is, they showed Dany mainly burning the caravan line to show her being "compassionate" which is also stupid IMO, either you commit to burning people on the battlefield with your dragon or you don't. Once you're there you don't show mercy, that comes for after the battle.

[falcotron]

14 minutes ago, BrightStar Of The Day said:

Admittedly, logistics such as feeding your army has never been important to the show, so it probably will never be a crucial point.

If they hadn't just had Dany bring up the issue of feeding her armies, the first time anyone's talked about that in years on the show, then made a big point of making sure that we knew that Jaime had looted not just the gold but the food from the Reach and was delivering it to feed the people of KL and/or the Lannister armies, then sure, we could just ignore this as "the show doesn't usually do logistics". But they did just bring it up, and hammer it home, so we can't just ignore it here.

Think of Jaime's march to Highgarden. He got halfway across a continent in under a week, which is ridiculous. But fine, whatever, travel times are always ridiculus are on this show (and even in the books), so we can accept it. But if they'd had Jaime and Cersei discussing exactly how many miles the trip is and the fastest an army can possibly move in a day, and then showed Jaime covering 65 miles in two days, and then suddenly he was there at the end of the week anyway, that would be a lot harder to just shrug and accept.

[Brightstar_]

6 minutes ago, falcotron said:

If they hadn't just had Dany bring up the issue of feeding her armies, the first time anyone's talked about that in years on the show, then made a big point of making sure that we knew that Jaime had looted not just the gold but the food from the Reach and was delivering it to feed the people of KL and/or the Lannister armies, then sure, we could just ignore this as "the show doesn't usually do logistics". But they did just bring it up, and hammer it home, so we can't just ignore it here.

 

I'll admit I missed the fact that they did indeed hammer it down, sorry about that. I just hope that now, FINALLY, hunger actually becomes a real problem in KL, with people rioting, like they should have been doing the very moment Cersei blew up the fucking Vatican. Knowing the show though, I fear it'll never be a real problem.

[Lightice]

3 hours ago, Wagshell said:

They had the battle won, so the "spoils of war" are hers. She has thousands of soldiers to feed. So she burns all of the food that she would have gained. What?

 

You may notice that the incredibly difficult logistics of actually transporting that huge caravan of grain was what allowed Daenerys to attack it easily in the first place. Transporting all those carts to the Stormlands would be just as massive undertaking as taking them from Highgarden to King's Landing, and would be extremely vulnerable to guerilla attacks. Taking the carts instead of attacking them outright would also have been a much more difficult undertaking, costing more lives and running the risk of the Lannisters simply destroying or ruining the cargo, themselves, rather than let their enemy have it, rendering the enterprise moot. With all that in mind, Daenerys had to make a calculated decision; most benefit with least cost, which is to deny the supplies from her enemies without taking the risks that come with attempting to capture them for herself.

Drogon is powerful, but he can't be everywhere at once or be all that precise in what he destroys with his firebreath. He is best used as a tactical weapon that gives vital advantage to conventional troops, rather than an all-out superweapon to be depended on in all circumstances.

[daemonTheBlack]

She only burnt the carts the Lannister army was forming around. A small part of a large caravan. She took away their defensive objective giving them more reason to flee. It was a good move.

They have plenty of supplies left to take to Dragonstone.

[Tywinelle]

2 hours ago, falcotron said:

If they hadn't just had Dany bring up the issue of feeding her armies, the first time anyone's talked about that in years on the show, then made a big point of making sure that we knew that Jaime had looted not just the gold but the food from the Reach and was delivering it to feed the people of KL and/or the Lannister armies, then sure, we could just ignore this as "the show doesn't usually do logistics". But they did just bring it up, and hammer it home, so we can't just ignore it here.

And they showed that Dany was deliberately getting Drogon to target the wagon train.  It wasn't fire that went astray.

[snow is the man]

They did it because it looked cool.

[mattnj81]

I'll play devil's advocate and defend her burning the loot train. First, it was a flammable target directly behind the enemy lines that she could safely torch without hitting her Dothraki as well. With cavalry ahead and flames behind, the Lannister/Tarly forces had no where to go. Second, it does send a message of "mutually assured destruction" at the very least for anyone who opposes her. Stealing the food might seem like an act of desperation, while destroying everything in sight forces one to consider that any opposition to the dragon queen may be foolhardy. 

[The Bastard of Summer]

It was a very bad idea to burn those wagons. That was Dany being hot headed and short sighted. She literally just bitched and moaned about Cersei taking everything. Then only to have it all in her grasp and set fire to it. If that isn't fucking insane....I'm not saying she is Mad King or Cersei crazy. But it was pretty fuckin stupid.

[Quoth]

I opined this in another thread:

Re: Burning the food. I think it's got to do with some plot device.  The gold arrived at KL. So, the IB will want to be paid. But , now with the food all very "well done", Cersei will need the gold to buy food to keep her subjects happy. Voila! Instant conflict.

[elder brother jonothor dar]

42 minutes ago, Quoth said:

I opined this in another thread:

Re: Burning the food. I think it's got to do with some plot device.  The gold arrived at KL. So, the IB will want to be paid. But , now with the food all very "well done", Cersei will need the gold to buy food to keep her subjects happy. Voila! Instant conflict.

Loved the episode but my slight gripe is that they have leveled Danys army to make it a contest, smashed the Lannister army for the spectacle so now the Lannisters need a new army out of thin air; my friend that money has been spent already and the gold company is on its way.

[LokisRaider]

I'm going with next week they will not address it and she will have plenty of food or they will use a reason like the supply line was long so she only took out the smallest possible portion.

 

I did really like that scene, but the whole time I was watching it I was thinking about her burning the food trucks. I kept thinking well it costs less and is not as dangerous to blow up some wagons then to CGI or have stunt men burning. Then I thought that really sucks that instead of just being immersed in the show and thinking that scene was awesome I'm justifying the bad decision based on production costs and how it was easier to do the make this terrible choice at the cost of the story to give the viewers a cool scene.

[cade]

From what we saw, Drogon only burned about 50 wagons, not even enough to feed her massive army for one day. So those wagons were completely insignificant compared to the importance of killing the enemy soldiers among and right next to the wagons, and she also trapped the other soldiers between the fire and the incoming Dothraki she had to avoid burning.

The big flaw was not having Drogon hit a lot more of the phalanx before the Dothraki got too close. The battle should've been over in 30 seconds, with the Dothraki just mopping up the fleeing survivors, but as LokisRaider pointed out, it's a lot cheaper to blow up wagons than use CGI or have thousands of stunt men burning (they already set a record with the number they did set on fire). Also, the writers wanted to make the battle more dramatic. Same reason why Jaime was mostly allowed to watch it as if he was a harmless hologram, and several times we saw Dothraki right behind Bronn, not fighting anyone else and just inexplicably letting him target their queen with that huge ballista contraption.

[Pandean]

Probably not. I don't really think battle tactician is one of Dany's stronger qualities.

[Denam_Pavel]

Westeros sure is in for a fun winter now.

[Hol Horse]

Who needs plans when you have dragons?

[Ygrain]

Depriving your enemy of crucial supplies is a good strategy. If there existed a possibility to secure the supplies for her troops and Dany didn't take it, it was a mistake but she still caused a considerable blow to Cersei. If such a possibility didn't exist, then it's a full vistory for Dany. Worst case scenario, she scored 50 points when she could have gone for a 100, but either way, Cersei is going to be in a big deal of trouble - IIRC, she relied on both the gold and supplies from Highgarden.

[Lucius Lovejoy]

21 hours ago, LokisRaider said:

I'm going with next week they will not address it and she will have plenty of food or they will use a reason like the supply line was long so she only took out the smallest possible portion.

 

I did really like that scene, but the whole time I was watching it I was thinking about her burning the food trucks. I kept thinking well it costs less and is not as dangerous to blow up some wagons then to CGI or have stunt men burning. Then I thought that really sucks that instead of just being immersed in the show and thinking that scene was awesome I'm justifying the bad decision based on production costs and how it was easier to do the make this terrible choice at the cost of the story to give the viewers a cool scene.

Co-signing on this.  My thoughts exactly.

[dbunting]

Agree with a lot of what is said here, I said the same thing in my ratings vote.

The spoils of war was likely the reference to the gold, which made it to KL. Likely Jaime gets to KL next episode and sees that Cersie couldn't really care less about him or all the men that died, since she got her gold. Now she can have Bravos get her the Golden Company. Would be the beginning of the end for her and him.