Angel Eyes

For that last one, that depends. The White Walkers' original plan was to go around the Wall and they were close anyways.

Unfortunately I think it's the deconstruction nature of the story; since Game of Thrones is famous for having the unexpected happen (Ned being built up as a main character only to be axed before the first season was over, the Red Wedding) Benioff and Weiss believed that the bigger shock, the better, damn all logic. And I'll tell you this: it isn't hard to write Rule of Cool, it just has to make sense based on what's been established. For example: pour boiling oil since wights are vulnerable to fire? Cool visual, makes sense in-story.

They could have killed her off via her lighting one of the wildfire caches by accident (remember the green plumes of explosion going off every so often when she starts torching the city) and it goes off in her face, say when she's perched on one of the buildings when she'd won the battle and before she decided to burn everything.

I think it's the fact that Aerys chose to make a mockery of a tradition like trial by combat that really showed him as mad.

I remember a similar video focusing on the tactics of Daenerys' forces.

Like... kill the Night King even though it's not her purpose?

Darker than what he does in Volantis with the dead-eyed prostitute?

I hope you're right. Though people who listened to dialogue might wonder "where did this extra brother come from? I thought Maester Aemon's brother drank wildfire."

Now, something from the episode in-between: How does one forget about an entire fleet, especially one that can teleport from one side of the continent to the other? Conversely, if we're following the same rules, why couldn't Daenerys ask Yara to blockade King's Landing if she had retaken the Iron Islands and had their backing? If the fleet can teleport as Euron's can (or that's one of his acquired powers for all I know), they could have Yara blockade, choose not to engage the fleet and prevent it from resupplying.

Allowing your opponent ample opportunity to cross open ground isn't exactly a good option.

Question about Winterfell (really this applies to descriptions in both the book and show): why is there no moat? If Winterfell was built after the first Long Night you'd at least expect a moat around the castle to slow wights down and might have made the Ironborn easier to detect via all the sloshing sounds while trying to traverse it.

Maybe tears of joy for that first one. You know, that was a missed opportunity for that scene. If the gold was hot enough to melt as it would have been in real life, it should have been glowing. Imagine that visual, with the gold glowing as it’s poured on Viserys. Given that D&D like things as real as possible, why not throw that in, make that scene look cooler?

That's already been done with plenty of characters in the main books. Three of the more notable examples: Ned Stark is a deconstruction of The Hero as he is completely out of his depth in the capital and his actions to prevent a war and his sense of fair play by telling Cersei to leave King's Landing to prevent the deaths of her children only lead to a continent-wide civil war, his own death (on the orders of one of the children he wanted to save), and the destruction of his house. Really, House Stark is a walking deconstruction of heroes; known for their integrity, honor, sense of duty, high personal moral standards that they refuse to compromise and genuinely loving each other instead of seeing their relatives as pawns. However, these traits, good things to have in most fantasy settings, get them killed. Catelyn’s mama bear tendencies lead to her imprisoning an innocent half-man and freeing a hostage, ensuring that House Stark has no way to retaliate for the Red Wedding. Robb is one of the Young Conqueror; while a great general he is a bad king as he leaves his homeland defenseless against the Ironborn, pulls out the only cork keeping them at bay by sending Theon as an envoy, and his marrying a woman to preserve her honor (contrast with John Willoughby of Sense and Sensibility) pisses off one of his bannermen, who has Robb and his supporters massacred. Robert Baratheon had all the qualities of an archetypal hero (strength at arms, good looks, charm, generosity to a fault), but he's utterly wasted in peacetime. Only in times of great crisis (Robert's Rebellion, the Greyjoy Rebellion) does he prove his worth. Stannis Baratheon: mostly uncompromising in his sense of justice and duty, willing to work with smallfolk, concerned with the needs of the many and with his eye on a threat towards the entire world. To many readers he would be the best choice for King, but to most of the populace he looks like a madman. Quentyn Martell is a deconstruction of The Hero's Journey. Prince Quentyn Martell sets off with his loyal band of friends to find and woo the World's Most Beautiful Woman. Half of them get killed in a minor skirmish before we even get to their story. By the time Quentyn reaches his beautiful princess, Daenerys is already set up for an Arranged Marriage, while sleeping with a lowborn sellsword who's much more handsome and dangerously exciting than Quentyn. Believing that The Hero can't be killed, Quentyn then tries to steal a dragon to prove himself worthy of her, only to be roasted alive for his trouble.

I wonder that D&D think that they're echoing the fans' feelings about characters; in the case of Sansa, plenty of fans have been harping on her actions in the first book, like supporting Joffrey, being a bully towards Arya, and being blamed for her father's downfall. Yes she's supposedly smarter now than she was then, but how do you show it? This is one of the big problems with translating book to screen; internal growth cannot be seen onscreen, so how do you convey it? Put them in a situation where they have to show they've grown. Unfortunately D&D wanted to both subject Sansa to more suffering and so they put her in an unwinnable situation where she'd suffer grievously and couldn't think her way out.

I'm aware of that in the books, it's just that this goes unmentioned in the show.