Are we supposed to take hints from how the unsullied are being represented in the show so far, or ignore it for the sake of drama / time frame / whatever? I was under the impression that the unsullied were built up both in the show and in the books as a very formidable fighting force. The conditioning alone seems to go far beyond anything else in the world, while being trained from such a young age seems like something reserved only for the nobility of Westeros. I always imagined them to be some kind of jedi / samurai mix. Being open minded I can see this compensating for the fact that they are a very lightly armored phalanx formation, that might ultimately have to face heavy medieval cavalry in potentially foreign and unfavorable terrain. The discipline would allow them to withstand a charge, skill / dexterity to unhorse the knights... something, i can definitely see it happening. However, after watching the show, it got me thinking, and now i'm concerned. I take the watered down TV plotline as a hint to what will happen in the books. As in, lady Stoneheart might not be as important to the main plot line, as she is to giving weight to the red god, or some satisfaction to the reader when killing Freys. But you can definitely see which subplots are important based even on the all-in-one merged characters. With all that being said... the Unsullied seem way too puny to be considered as a real fighting force. They are very lightly armored / partially uncovered. Joffreys entourage can cut through hundreds of rioters with ease, mostly because of steel - advanced weapons and armor. The finest swordsman from Bravoos may have been killed by Trant, who the Hound considers a laughing stock, not a real fighter. Again we're shown that advanced medieval armor can give an inferior fighter advantage over a superior one. We are specifically told that slaves suck at fighting, especially compared to the Unsullied who have been raised to fight. The masters seem old, obese, frail, even gentle when we consider Hizdar. But now we see Unsullied dropping like flies to UNARMORED slaves / and or / masters (they wear robes or are half naked). The only other type of fighting unit are the sell swords. They seem to be somewhat less disciplined than the standing armies of Westeros, Unsullied seem to posses very little skill at actual hand to hand, unarmed combat. Samurai knew ju-jutsu so they could fight heavily armored opponents. When a sword doesn't cut through armor, a throw is more efficient. They also seem to be very poor tacticians - a spear is no weapon for street patrol and house sweeps. I seem to recall that they had some kind of a short sword in the books? The way they were scattered around the coliseum didn't make much sense either. The love / whore cuddling angle. Could their freedom have made them soft? These are supposed to be vicious baby killers, but compared to the Mountain, they don't really match up. This uprising is basically butlers, socialites, carpenters and linguists vs. an army of jedi, SAS, SEAL, 300 types, but the latter are losing. If the heavily armored lannisters, kings guard, or possibly even the city watch were in there place, the harpies would have been slaughtered with little to no casualties on the defenders side. One heavily armored Mountain seems like he could deal more damage than Drogon. The Hound's armor cannot be pierced by Arya's castle forged fine sword. I wonder if the producers ever saw riot police at a soccer match, given that they are filming in Croatia and all. It looks a lot different, but it actually looks like the legions or the phalanx may have looked like thousands of years ago, more like what one would expect the unsullied to be. If the unsullied can't figure out that it's better to block off the entrance to the arena with their shields and spears, rather then let them pour in, how will they fare in the diverse landscape of Westeros, where every faction seems to be used to their terrain (northmen in the north, we've seen in this episode, Beylish mentions how the lords of the Vail used the mountainous terrain, etc). Could it be that Essos is simply unaware that Westeros is hundreds of years ahead in war technology given that there has been no direct engagement between the two? I don't think the Dothraki would fare well against heavy cavalry, plate armor, pikemen, wildfire etc. either. Are we in for a surprise when Dany's "army" faces an actual real army, with or without the dragons? Could this be a hint, or am I overthinking this?
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