Angel Eyes

Which should have been taken into consideration by whoever thought it was a good idea to put civilians in the crypts.

Isn't that what I'm saying? He's clearly gotten cold feet judging by his actions throughout Season 7 because he's going up against Jaime. On the other hand Grey Worm allows Tyrion to speak even though he said "You do not speak" (slight paraphrase there).

Perhaps GRRM wanted to subvert expectations by making the catspaw dagger mystery this big event only to have it drop by the wayside, essentially just a small episode in the grand scheme of things.

Unless Tyrion was subconsciously making things harder for Daenerys out of his conflicting loyalties (which she does call him on in the show).

I wouldn't call an attempted rape a romantic story.

Not just his personality difficulties but his physical difficulties. The Dothraki respect strength, strength that Viserys doesn't have.

Well in that case it would be Cersei's tax policy.

Well, Ned and Tywin are opposite sides of the same coin: they're a subversion of the idea that a good man can be a good ruler. Tywin is a horrible person with his kids (just read Tyrion's backstory, nobody deserves to have their spouse gang-raped ordered by their father), but he's a damn good administrator (at least in his first tenure). Ned on the other hand is a fundamentally good man, does his best to be a good father, and is disturbed by unnecessary bloodshed but because of his soft heart leaves the kingdom in disarray.

I've contemplated this question a few times over the years. For the first example I thought of it more as an example of the Night King's stupidity, where he had a good 10 seconds to kill Arya before being stabbed. For the second it could have worked going the other way in that Arya's pursuit of vengeance would lead to her death.

Not surprised by Dillane since D&D disliked Stannis.

On the other hand in the books Ned's distaste for the Sack of King's Landing isn't widely known considering that Daenerys lumps him in with the Usurper's Dogs and brushes off Barristan's admonition that Ned protested against the attempt on her life.

Brienne I could see given she had a Valyrian Steel weapon and there would be a bit of poetry in part of Ice being used to kill the Night King.

Well yes, but he's shown to be different from the rest of the rebel leaders who brush it off as the reality of the situation. To quote the Robert Baratheon Histories and Lore about The Sack of King's Landing from Season 1:

I remember an article where Benioff and Weiss said they had Sansa's marriage to Ramsay planned out 3 years in advance, similar to Arya killing the Night King.

That's true. Instead we have Cersei staring out of windows, drinking wine, staring out of windows drinking wine, gets rocks dropped on head, which is surprising considering how she fared in Season 7.

It would make an interesting plot if it happened though, as well as a test for how immune Daenerys is to fire (I know she really isn't in the books but in the show she doesn't get hurt by fire, not even the fumes). Plus it isn't as if Benioff and Weiss can't inject black comedy like that (Tyrion getting conked on the head with an axe during the Battle of the Green Fork). "So our queen held back and got blown up... now what?"

Again, Daenerys never really tried to build a rapport with anyone except Sansa, and again she barely tried. As far as finding friends on the battlefield Daenerys spent most of the battle on her high horse so to speak for most of it and wasn't fighting along anybody except Jon (via dragonback) and Jorah (who she'd already worked with and was subsequently killed). So circumstances prevented that relationship from being established with anyone other than them.

There was always going to be some tension with Sansa and Arya from the get-go given their families' histories (Daenerys' father had their grandfather cooked alive and their uncle strangled), plus Daenerys should at least be wary of Varys given he was a high-ranking member of King Robert's court and at the least sanctioned an attempt on her life. Plus there was the question of Northern independence with Sansa, which neither tried to negotiate. Furthermore with Daenerys and Sansa, they were somewhat similar; both were married off and abused (while Daenerys gets Stockholm (not Helsinki) Syndrome in the books, she still acknowledges it as a hardship she had to bear in the show), and were only now really getting political power. Think of the idea with magnets where similar poles push each other apart.

If he's brought back.

Well, the books haven't shown the downsides of being a scheming psychopath (read: Littlefinger).

Granted, some of GRRM's plot points are because he takes issue with how they're portrayed in other works, namely Gandalf's death and resurrection which is why you have all these characters coming back but not themselves (Beric, Lady Stoneheart, wights).

Well, Quentyn's story is one long subversion of The Hero's Journey for example.

Tywin would have been the inside-man to Aerys?

Well @Curled Finger, my thought process is that in Lady Stoneheart's mind, Jaime has already broken his word to her since Brienne now wields one of the swords made from Ice. She's not likely to grant clemency now.

At least the show made it funny when plot armor was applied (Tyrion gets conked on the head and sleeps through the Battle of the Green Fork)...