Runaway Penguin

Not really - Lutetia was a town already before the Roman conquest, then Rome built it as a city. The King held court there because it was already an important city by the time the Frank empire broke in two and it was a natural center of the Western half. Note that when it was decided to move the capital from Paris to newly built Versailles, there was not much migration...

Note that to revive unCat, Beric had to give his own flame. To revive UnBrienne thus, UnCat would have to cease to exist. TANSTAAFL. And I doubt UnCat wants to leave her murder quest alone - if for no other reason that Brienne has no quest regarding Freys that would compel her to continue hanging her (or even Lannisters in general). So Brienne survives because she was cut down - and I doubt she would go to fetch Jaime if Pod and Ser Hyle died.

Yes, that is still more than exist on Trident and its major tributaries - and in few centuries, not 8000 years. the Romans also routinely employed large pontoon bridges. Especially if the Twins are told to be the only crossing point for hundreds of miles, and other lords being jealous of the wealth it brings - it would make sense for the lords or even the Targ King to commission another bridge across the Green Fork. And the rest of tributaries. Esp. around the Ruby Ford...

The lack of cities and towns in Westeros is commented upon enough. Especially around major trading routes. That being said, King's Landing position is similar to say Hamburg, Bremerhaven, Le Havre (Harfleur), Saint-Malo, Belém, New York, Norfolk, Hull, Edinburgh... It is not so unlikely. It is not in a river delta (then again say Saint Petersburg is THE river delta), but on a border of estuary, so there may not even be marches etc., at least on the rockier side of river. And at the same time the floods may not be that much of a problem - I would just assume the Southern bank is the flood zone and if the hovels between the walls and the river get washed away, who cares? In general Medieval cities were built on the first plateau above the river, with the area next to the river that was flooded on a regular basis being left to poor. So if there is something iffy it is "flea bottom" being inside the city walls instead of between the city and the river - then again major port there would explain why that estate, while risky, is valuable. So the King's landing position and even size are not suspicious - lack of other large cities is. And lack of notable bridges over large rivers.

She said she didn't see it coming. And that's exactly the point of the arc - we see Dany through her own eyes and devotees while in Essos (in the books as well), so we don't see things coming and we will see the bad things coming too late in the books as well, when she starts doing same things suddenly to people we have connection with. And so it seems sudden. This happens all the time - how often did we hear "He was such a nice guy, we never saw this coming" about people who should have raised all kinds of red flags? The New Yorker: She even in other interviews mentions surprising notes on how she should play some scenes in earlier episodes that did not go together with her perception (Entertainment Weekly): Just as an exercise: Do you think if Davos Seaworth was with Dany and we saw her in his chapters... But we saw Mel in her POV... Would their perception be the same? After all Mel helped prevent a major bloodshed with just a bit of magic and she was burning traitors and survived her death with a bit of magic... And did all to fight against the great Evil.

I think the #3 moment was the King's Landing BBQ (or in geenral Dany's coin finally falling and showing which side is up). I think in the books it will also be KL, but maybe not with Cersei, but with fAegon. To be honest... There is a lot of complaints about the last seasons being too rushed, but if GRRM sticks to just two final books, they would have to be rushed far more to fit these 3 "big" moments as well as the whole Others arc and so on...

Jon was elected because the two major factions would rather see him than the other faction there I suspect something like that would happen. Kinda Brexit plan voting situation: Not only no single candidate would get majority support in the Council, but every single candidate will also be unacceptable to at least few of the other factions. After some time of deadlock... Sam and Tyrion start to do the same Sam did in the NW election, quiet words with leaders of the factions, embellishing the facts, playing on their animosities with the others etc. (or maybe only Sam as Tyrion would play up to be another unacceptable faction). It just won't happen in few minutes among 12 people or so, but it will happen.

Politicians are not addressing their peers though. However... Politicians competing among themselves day for the freshly vacated party leadership seat would no doubts try to first read the room by having other people campaign on their behalf before putting themselves forward

She wouldn't do it in her mother's presence, her mother would do it for her. She did not like Edmure much and thought him incompetent (more than he deserved IMO). And no, in medieval noble setting it would not be a good way to be sent to convent, if you can just ask "you and what army?" Let's not forget there were - rare, but still - powerful female leads. For example Lady Aethelfaed of Mercia ruled one of the Saxon kingdoms after her husband's death and was rather active even before that, despite the custom of the era - and she was succeeded by her daughter before Edward of Wessex finished their father's project of uniting the Saxon England under one crown. So... Who is going to send Sansa, commanding the armies of North and Vale, to Silent Sisters? Gendry, who fought for her? Nah. Tyrion, who is for one prisoner and for two has a good dose of respect for her? Hu-uh. Yara? She may hate her but she would be against herself. Lord Glover gave finger to Dany for wanting him to kneel and Jon for kneeling to her. Lord Glover made it clear he obeys independent KitN. If anything, he helped Sansa give finger to Dany. She is Lady of Winterfell, in absence of KitN Lady Paramount of the North, of one of the Seven Kingdoms. You may not like it, but that is it. She also played major part in fight against Boltons, the Dead and Cersei while Edmure was busy being a captive. That being said, she might have been more diplomatic, but then again Edmure could have considered the mood in the Dragonpit before putting himself on the spot. He is not a bad guy, he is more competent than (basically) Catleyn's and Robb's POV make him out to be, but he is not as good as he thinks he is.

I was expecting something different - for one did not expect Jon to be able to go to place where he liked it the most and nobody annoys him with Game of Thrones I also hoped that as a part of tropebreaking the Kingslayer would be allowed to survive his redemption. him or Sandor. I think Bran's kingship was not built up properly, he does not interact much and when he does, it is in privacy and way too cryptic. Some clear concise involvements say in preparation for the battle of WF (apart from "Let's use me as bait") would go far in establishing this. Telling "ugly truth" advices that would be ignored as heartless ets., perhaps, kinda in Spock fashion. "Dear Dragon Queen, your riders will be totally useless, why did you bring them?" "Ser Jorah, if you charge with them, you will die" and stuff. Dany's turn to the dark was built up (IMO) well enough - including it not being too obvious. I mean just imagine how boring it would be if the turn was 100% clear conclusion since few seasons back - instead the Targ coin was spinning in the air all this time and there was always chance it will land either way. I like that the last episode shown it was not an emotional decision, that it was not "Mad Queen" per se as in mental disorder, but rather "Mad Queen" same way as "Mad Titan" - chillingly logical "Hero of her own story" approach. Overall while the season suffered from rushing too much (more shorter episodes would be better) and from too much focus on visuals, it did kinda work for me. As ending it was not bad. Heck, it was for sure far better for me than the Battlestar Galactica ("God did it and now your task is only to die and let this cute little kid enhance the genome of neolithic brutes"), it was kinda similar structure to Babylon 5 (with more bitter in the bittersweet ending, but still - remember, in Bab 5 the main hero also did not get validation from his "home court" and was de facto exiled). Ending such a story is always a problem, especially in the era of social media and I think even on this forum you can see a lot of people / factions "self-hyping" themselves with "desired endings" and often being rather salty against anyone who proposed another ending. I also did not mind the show dropped many book plot threads. There is just so much you could cram inside to keep the show understandable. Do not forget that show cannot very well just have half main characters disappear for two seasons or introduce a ton of new characters. This is not really "dumbing down" the story, but "keeping it manageable in a medium"Like it or not, myriad of characters does not really work that well. In a similar fashion, a lot of omitted stuff (esp. with regards to prophecies) is internal in the books - thoughts, dreams, visions... Those also translate pretty badly and inner monologues would have to be shoehorned into dialogues and look pretty weird. And as for battles... Yeah, show uses stupid tactics. So do the books. Rule of cool trumps everything. And stabbing through a solid breastplate... Nah. Not again!

Not only characters in the show/books. Just look at the "new interpretation of Nostradamus" every few years Or destructive cults often trying to make the prophesized end of the world happen up to and including terror attacks or mass suicides.

Mel also got a lot of things wrong in her visions - they were accurate, her interpretations were not and she focused on Others, likely not thinking about checking if Fire may be also on the side of the baddies

Not if he manages to successfully surf their resentment toward each other (divide and conquer...). Similar to Bran lading the 6K, I can well imagine the Lords of Reach would grudgingly accept new overlord because the alternative would be helping The Other Bugger Who Owes Me Money and Who Fought Against Me 200 Years Ago to take the title. Lesser houses also may not be too happy with the big houses and that is another thing Bronn could successfully leverage. More than one ruler in the history survived because while everyone hated him, they hated their peers even more

Another point is that none of the surviving Lord Paramounts / representatives of regions would be too happy with a member of another large "South Westerosi" family becoming the King. Stark outsider (moreover wheelchair bound and deceptively weak looking) ensures that a Tully will not rule over Westerlands, Prince of Dorne over Reach... Etc. This is emphasized when the North secedes. Now the new King is a total outsider. Kinda similar situation to, say, Sweden when instead of choosing own king they elected Marshal of France and born Frenchman for a new king.

Agree. Between Sam and Bran they have enough dirt on the old Archmaesters to make them drop any late return charges on the books from the library and to argue Sam got a very rapid education with practical experiments (I mean medical: Curing Mormont's Greyscale. Magic: Dragonglass. History: Finding Jon's parentage...). Plus they were wrong, he was right, and how many divisions do the Maesters have?