The difference is the rider

[hallam]

Lots of complaints about the difference in the effectiveness of the scorpions. But the difference is between a dragon with a rider and one without. There was the same difference against the Night King and it makes perfect sense for a dragon with a rider to be better at understanding the threat from the scorpions.

[adiman83]

I believe the difference wasn't the rider, at least not completely. The difference I believe was the dragons' health. It is one thing to hit an injured dragon that is barely flying and an entirely different story to hit a healthy and very pissed off one.

[Skills]

I think you're both right, it's probably a combination of all those things.

[Lord Buckethead]

We were meant to believe that having the sun behind her would help defend Daenerys and Drogon from the Scorpions. (Which is why we see Euron looking up using his hand to shield his eyes from the sun.)

Of course that strategy only makes sense on the first charge. As soon as the dragon has descended, other scorpions would not be bothered by the sun.

Anyway, that was Daenerys' strategy, and  D&D needed it to work, so it worked.

I am actually more bothered by how easily they shot down dragons from the sky in earlier episodes. Hitting a flying dragon should not be such an easy task.

[adiman83]

3 minutes ago, Lord Buckethead said:

We were meant to believe that having the sun behind her would help defend Daenerys and Drogon from the Scorpions. (Which is why we see Euron looking up using his hand to shield his eyes from the sun.)

Of course that strategy only makes sense on the first charge. As soon as the dragon has descended, other scorpions would not be bothered by the sun.

Anyway, that was Daenerys' strategy, and  D&D needed it to work, so it worked.

I am actually more bothered by how easily they shot down dragons from the sky in earlier episodes. Hitting a flying dragon should not be such an easy task.

As we saw this episode, hitting a flying dragon is anything but easy. The only reason Rhaegal was shot down was because he was injured and not as fast as he could've been. In episode 4 Drogon was very capable of dodging the bolts.