[Book Spoilers] Last Scene of the Episode

[Boi]

She tortured nobody. She killed, but that's what happens in battles, and she only killed slavers. And the slaves she took, she immediately freed.

Did I say she tortured anyone? We saw a brief description on slavery torture via crucifiction In Astapor. Along a bay or beachfront one could presume that bay meant all of the slavers cities or even that entire region of the world. Although it was specifically in Astapor. Or there was a nipple being sliced off her warriors. While she freed her hand maiden and her army. There may have been Dothraki among them?

So because they came out of the city to her, as opposed to her going in to them, this makes her a tyrant? I do not understand. She didn't know if the city was safe for her. If it was true that the people didn't want her there, then walking right through the gate could be a trap.

Anybody would be seen as a tyrant when Freedom is brought on your back being carried. A mother goes to her children or beckons them to her, making a good mother. No, it is feeding time kids come to me? She didn't know the city was safe for her. Drugs are really bad don't take them, something a mother might say. She has an army, dragons, bodyguards the finest stick twirlers on the continent. No, she'd rather lay on her back.

When did she threaten any one of the freed slaves with her army OR her dragons. Her Unsullied fell into attack position as the crowd approached because they were protecting Danaerys. She didn't order anyone to do anything, not call her "mother," not carry her, nothing. She even stopped Missandei from telling them that they "owed" her anything.

She sent her dragons in the air as they approached the formation of her army and her bodyguards with their swordhands twitching. You are right profound, that she didn't do anything, but lay there

I also didn't see any flinging. She walked down to the people. It was kind of a leap of faith. She trusted that they wouldn't hurt her. If they'd wanted to, they could have very easily. Her army and dragons couldn't do much against a crowd that size.

It was a stage or hill, how did they lift her the fireman hold, no. Feet and back weyeee look flying. An unarmed crowd with no possessions nothing, against the Unsullied. It really is no wonder she trusted them, she could see they didn't posses nothing, no weapons nothing.

[GoldenFleece]

Well I am glad that according to their Twitter account Linda and Elio are not impressed with the "white saviour" claims about Dany bandying about internet at the minute.

Linda & Elio ‏@hippoiathanatoi 7m

It really, really doesn't get much dumber than this: http://ow.ly/m1I27

Linda & Elio ‏@hippoiathanatoi 6m

While the show, with its simplifications and production limits, may cause more issues, why not at least wait for the end before whining?

Linda & Elio ‏@hippoiathanatoi 4m

Judging a storyline that isn't finished means making a lot of assumptions. Just look at what happens with Dany's rule in ADwD.

Linda & Elio ‏@hippoiathanatoi 4m

She _isn't_ some white saviour who can wave a magic wand and "fix" a culture that isn't her own.

[kephv]

GRRM has addressed the whole white savior idea on his NaB:

Most of these people have obviously not read the books.

If they had, they would know there is no racial component to slavery as practiced on Essos. It is based on slavery as it existed in the ancient world. The Romans and Greek were just as willing to enslave other Greeks and Romans as they were Celts, Goths, Germans, and Africans. It's on the page.

However, when you are filming scenes in Morocco, and you put out a call for extras, it's Moroccans who show up. Most of them are darker skinned than our European actors (though there is actually a lot of different races and ethnic groups represented in the country, including Arabs, Berbers, Africans, French, etc). It is not so different from shooting a scene in Belfast and putting out a call for extras, whereupon a lot of Irish show up.

We fly our actors from country to country and continent to continent, at considerable expense, but that's not a practical consideration when dealing with extras. So in any big crowd scene, the prevailing skin color is always going to echo that of whatever the location is that you're shooting in.

But just for the record, yes, Dany is white, just as she has been from the beginning, and she may or may not be a savior (the last scene in "Mhysa" is not the end of her journey by any means), but she frees slaves of all colors, races, creeds, and nationalities.

[Boi]

A klingon not an dothraki betta is known by baggage carrier?

Fantasy at the finest inventing names, places, lore, but will use people to set the TV scene... When reading those books there is no image apart from a readers thoughts and any image conjured is likely to be different then desciption.

The main issue of complaint wasn't the freedom, it was how that freedom was portrayed and in context it was shown here on this show.. A scene showing freedom would work using more thought.

When looking at that picture? Why possibly could it bring offense in this today's world climate? Or are all as lost in that alternate world? In a reality generation, I would argue differently

[cade]

Sometimes I think people see or read what they want to see and read on these forums when it comes to Dany. I think an earlier post in this thread said as Dany was being lifted up by the freed slaves in the TV show she was "laughing manically". Of course she was just smiling, I don't know if this person was lying or on mushrooms or mistaken.

Yes, there's a lot of discussion of some "Dany" person here but it's often a falsified construct, not the actual character from the books/show. A classic example is the near-ubiquitous claim that she was "crowd surfing." The definition for that is "being passed over the heads of the audience," not being lifted up and turning in a circle to acknowledge and greet people. But as usual, the truth doesn't matter, even when it's on video.

I also think there's been a remarkable lack of regard for the slaves who were freed, a lack of consideration for their perspective that contextualizes and completely justifies their supposedly "cheesy" exultation, and Dany's.

Linda & Elio ‏@hippoiathanatoi 7m

It really, really doesn't get much dumber than this: http://ow.ly/m1I27

Quoted from the comments section of that article: "So would this somehow be better if Dany just left the Dothraki and let them continue raping, and left the Unsullied to be slaves? Why is it so offensive that a character with no power at all, who was sold as a sex slave herself by her brother, rose above her situation and is releasing thousands of others from their bonds? This isn't okay because she's white? That's racist."

It's striking to me how people are more bothered by the one light-skinned character who actually tries to stop slavery than all the others who benefit from it or just don't care. I think some of this involves a desire, perhaps unconscious, to alleviate guilt for people's own inaction and apathy regarding mass suffering in the Third World. Jorah tells Dany to turn a blind eye to rape and slavery and it's hard to find any criticism of him. When he told Dany not to interfere in Slaver's Bay, and then to abandon the 70,000 or so freed slaves who'd followed her, many concurred and insult Dany to this day for not following his advice.

I asked before and got no reply: Is Bill Gates a racist symbol for all he's done to help the sick, poor and needy in Africa? There are hundreds of millions of "dark-skinned" people across the world who actually need help (no, they are not the only ones, but they have been the primary at some points in history, including now) and would love for someone rich and powerful to save them from oppression and low-wage slavery, even if this helper is Frosty the Snowman.

The implicit argument in this "white savior" critique is that the slaves of Slaver's Bay shouldn't actually need saving, that they should be fine on their own, but that the story contrives an implausible scenario where they need a white person's help because they're genetically inferior to this person. This argument is baseless and antithetical to history. It's actually racist itself, in that it argues that darker-skinned people wouldn't need help from a white person unless they were genetically inferior. Which we categorically know is not true. In many cases from our own reality, these people were and are victims of white imperialism, which is still ongoing, mostly in more subtle ways through the IMF and World Bank.

Similarly, the Ghiscari are victims of Dany's ancestors, who repeatedly invaded and enslaved them, burned their cities to ash and sowed their fields with salt. Dany should feel a responsibility to help these people (and should give up any claim to that damn Iron Throne that people bash her for not racing away to) and she does so not by virtue of her skin color or the backing of any white institutional power, but only with the help of her dragons and the Unsullied. She's leading a revolution more from within than without.

[Boi]

Prententious or false as viewed by any Westeros'en'er might appear.

It wasn't the fact she is a saviour your arguement is sound anybody can be a saviour and often would be in almost any circumstance.

It was the ridiculous showing of how that scene was shown. I supose you are right though in racist assumption. A former slave may call anybody ruler, then as they have done previously they would carry a ruler on their backs. Would you not think that now that those people are free. As their saviour she might have gone to them and regarded them as her people, by actually setting them free, going into their city and beckoning them to her, stopping their carnage? Then in turn they would have granted her with title, and honour her by following her as her children?

Setting them free but without any respondsibility, done from a command tent until they threaten in large numbers but being unarmed she can approach? Regardless of any crowd surfing for the celebration of numbers.

The story reads that because she stopped their carnage, and lead them away as Yunkai yeilded, unlike in Astapor. Yunkai later rose up again to threaten her. In the next city of Mereen which she liberates. She rules her people, mostly by not allowing them to slaughter their former masters. She tries and believes to be creating a utopia for them by giving equal opportunity. Even when terrorism occurs she doesn't succumb to the slaughter of population. Rather she rules. Creates taxes for food, also takes certain hostages to be trained of the powerful families thought be connected. She also tries to marry not through love, in hope of resolving conflict. Doing anything that she can for her people being a ruler for all of those that she has liberated. She is given many chances to go home, but wants for her people to come with her. Often thinking of them, for all of those who have called her mother.. Until it all starts to fall apart............

In absolute disbelief that scene can in any way be defended as appropriate.

[The Idiots Lantern]

It was a stage or hill, how did they lift her the fireman hold, no. Feet and back weyeee look flying. An unarmed crowd with no possessions nothing, against the Unsullied. It really is no wonder she trusted them, she could see they didn't posses nothing, no weapons nothing.

A crowd that size doesn't need weapons. One man with strong arms is enough to snap the neck of a girl her size. If she was coming among them as a threatening Tyrant, someone would have just had to reach out and kill her. She'd have been dead before anyone, dragon, Unsullied, or Knight, could have done anything about it.

And once she's dead, THE ARMY IS GONE. She's the only thing holding them all together. Kill her, and the Unsullied have no commander, and part of their training is they only kill the people they are instructed to kill. Jorah will fight to avenge her death, but he'll do that for personal reasons. Barristan isn't sworn to a corpse. The Dothraki will get back on their horses and leave. And the Dragons are animals. They don't understand "vengence." If she's dead, they'll cry and might burn a few things, but they'll eventually leave. The army will scatter.

If you want her dead, and she's alone, and surrounded by your people, and within arms reach, then just kill her. Nothing can stop you.

[Wsaharan]

The scene was better when viewed a second time, I can admit that. But still, it's way to prolonged and stiff and felt staged. The speech simply did not work.

Here's my take on it: Dany & her entourage waits on the cliff overlooking Yunkai (which is partly on fire btw, it has just been conquered, right?). Then the slaves come pouring out shouting "Mhysa!". She descends from the cliffs, order her unsullied to lower their spears and goes to greet them. Queue music!

She is swept up on their shoulders, lots and lots of headshots of happy slaves and liberator Dany. Camera pans out and voila. End of season 3.

[silentwanderer]

GRRM has addressed the whole white savior idea on his NaB:

I can't blame him, its completely ridiculous in my opinion.

Only someone who hasn't seen the show would reach that conclusion, if only because Doreah was a slave (the first slave we ever met on the show I may add).

And she was a caucasian girl.

[The Idiots Lantern]

Here's my take on it: Dany & her entourage waits on the cliff overlooking Yunkai (which is partly on fire btw, it has just been conquered, right?). Then the slaves come pouring out shouting "Mhysa!". She descends from the cliffs, order her unsullied to lower their spears and goes to greet them. Queue music!

Except the fires had been put out or contained and were in the process of burning themselves out. This was probably the reason for the delay in leaving the city, no matter how nervous it made Dany.

Also, I remember that the slaves were not shouting "Mysha" when they came "pouring out." They were silent. They looked scared and apprehensive and were holding their children and loved ones close. I was reminded of the line from the books where Dany looks at the frightened women she'd just claimed for herself to save them from Drogo's rapists only to see they were as frightened of her as they'd been of the rapists, "wondering if she'd saved them for a worse fate."

The speech proves to them that she doesn't have an alterier motive. She saved them for themselves, not because she has a worse fate in store for them. Only THEN do they call her "Mysha." And only when the calls have spread through the crowd does she walk forward.

[The Monkey]

Found this "script" for an alternative ending of the episode where Lady Stoneheart is introduced.

HOW EASY IT WOULD’VE BEEN TO INCLUDE LADY STONEHEART

Following the Robbwind scene, we cut to Arya and Sandor riding through the woods. They’re close to the Trident, and Arya, glassy-eyed, spots a Frey banner near the riverbank. A group of Freys are laughing and pointing at something in the water. Arya cranes her neck and sees red, unmistakeable red - hair she’s seen a hundred times, dreamt of a thousand - and before Sandor can stop her she stumbles off the horse and runs to the riverbank.

The Frey men are still laughing when they spot Arya running towards them. They laugh less when they spot Sandor bounding after her. Arya ignores them all, even when they argue, and then fight, and wades out into the water, trying to reach what is clearly the corpse of her mother.

The body is beginning to bloat, the face pale, the throat red. Arya reaches out her hand, terrified, so close, but someone yanks her away from behind before she can touch…

‘She’s gone, child. There’s nothing there. Your people are all dead. Do you hear me?’ Arya cannot tear her eyes from the river, even as Sandor shakes her. The body is so still, even as it floats gently in the river, hair traiing behind it like a sea of fishes. Arya’s eyes are bright, but she does not cry, cannot cry. The river has taken all of her tears. Dimly, she hears someone move behind her, and turns slowly to see one of the Frey men, trying to crawl away, bleeding from a wound in his side.

Quick as a shadow, Arya grabs the knife on Sandor’s hip that she has been eyeing for days and breaks loose. She is on top of the bannerman in a heartbeat, eyes wide and unflinching, stabbing everywhere she can reach, not stopping until the red runs. In her violence Jaqar’s coin falls from her pocket.

She stabs until nothing is moving underneath her. Sandor has gone to corall the horse, unbothered by her actions. Arya stands to leave, and notices the coin out of the corner of her eye. It is covered in blood. She picks it up and turns it in her hand.

‘Valar morghulis’.

She does not look back.

-

We pan over a forest clearing where the Brotherhood Without Banners are making their camp. The sound of running water is close by. Beric Dondarrion, looking more haggard than ever, is walking past a group of men when he overhears a shout of ‘floater!’

‘Wolf or lion?’, another man replies, and they all laugh. Beric, interested, moves closer to the water. The conversation continues:

‘Look, it’s a woman!’

‘A she-wolf’, someone quips, snickering. Beric moves closer to the bank and a look of shock registers on his face as he takes in the body that has drifted close to shore. He moves down beside it, telling one of the men to find Thoros.

Thoros appears, and it is apparent he knows the body too. His shakes his head. ‘Lady Stark,’ he says under his breath, crouching low near the river. ‘She should have stayed at Riverrun.’

‘The Tullys draw their strength from the water,’ Beric replies, ‘it’s their tradition to send their bodies off to sea. The Freys make a mockery of her.’ The disgust is evident in his voice.

Perhaps it is pity, or sorrow, or simply sadness at seeing the evidence of such cruelty that leads Beric to order the Brothers to bring the body for a proper burial. As they begin to wade into the water, Thoros gives Beric a knowing, disapproving look. Beric ignores it, and turns away.

-

Following Bran’s scene at the Nightfort, we zoom out from a torch, flickering in the darkness. Two voices argue in hushed tones, clearly not wanting to be overheard.

‘It will not work! It only barely works on you, and she’s been dead for days-‘

‘We must try.’

‘Why? What good will she do for the smallfolk? For these men, your men? Beric, she belongs to the dead - leave her there!’

‘You forget, Thoros.’ If Beric remembered how to smile, he would have done so. ‘I am of the dead too. And it is long past the time that I should join them.’ The look on his face speaks clearly: we failed Arya Stark, we failed the boy Gendry. We must not fail her, too.

Thoros is visibly upset. ‘The Lord Of Light chose you, Beric, and I cannot revive you both-‘

‘And this is what I choose. The stories they’re telling of this wedding at The Twins’ - Beric shakes his head - ‘such a thing should not go unpunished. She deserves her retribution Thoros - even the Lord of Light should know that.’ He lies back, staring upwards, resolute. ‘Let it be done.’

Thoros looks close to tears, but he does as he is bid. He kneels over Beric’s body, for the final time, closes his eyes, says the incantation. The little life left in Beric Dondarrion rises from him, contorts his body, blows the torch out.

In the darkness, Thoros is alone. ‘Valar morgulis, my friend.’

-

Before the gates of Yunkai, Daenerys Targaryen stands amongst the people, and they cry out to her - Mhysa! Behind her, Jorah and Missandei look on in astonishment.

‘What are they saying?’, he asks Missandei, in a voice filled with wonder.

‘It is Old Ghiscari,’ she replies, her voice laden with some unspoken emotion, ‘it means ‘mother’”.

The chanting continues, the screen fades to black…

…a torch is lit. The man holding the torch joins his brothers, and they look on as Thoros of Myr steps back from a person laid out on a makeshift bed. We pan up the body..

Mhysa!

past the feet, the skirts, the bodice…

Mhysa! Mhysa!

the slashed throat….

Mhysa!

A pair of eyes, milk white, fly open.

In a cave in the Riverlands, Lady Stoneheart awakens.

[The Idiots Lantern]

Found this "script" for an alternative ending of the episode where Lady Stoneheart is introduced.

Problem with introducing Lady Stoneheart in the last scene is that even though it's a dramatic moment....where does it go? What will Lady Stoneheart be doing next season that's SO IMPORTANT it merrets being the topic of the very last scene of the very last episode of the season? Killing Freys and Lannisters? Tywin dies by someone else's hand and Waldor is still alive. Was it when she tried to hang Brianne? We never even learn how that ended: next time we see Brianne she's free and LS is somewhere else.

Lady Stoneheart's storyline is too much of a question mark to get the last shot of the last scene. Danaerys will be dealing with the protection and governence of these people for the next two books and her actions will have an effect on the bigger plot as word of the "dragon queen" spreads and people start heading to Essos to meet her. Lady Stoneheart doesn't have that much payoff. If she were going to reign death down on the Twins, going from room to room tearing Freys appart with her bare undead hands, that'd be one thing, but absent that, Michelle Fairley got a haircut and said her goodbyes.

[LordStoneheart]

Purple Wedding in season 3 defenders, please respond.

Okay.

I'll never stop thinking this: the show runners missed a completely golden opportunity and splitting the books the way they gave way to some pretty bad story telling.

Most people have complained about many scene of this season as a waste. A few come to mind. Too many Theon/Ramsay scenes for such a small payoff of Reek. Varys and his concern for Shae. Any and all scenes with Ros. (for her defenders, what the fuck did she accomplish this season? At least last year she was Alayaya.) Which brings me to Littlefinger. His climb speech was such a bullshit scene. A complete waste of time and horrible change from how Littlefinger and Varys are in the books. Also, the scenes with Bronn, Tyrion and Pod. completely useless, even if Pod is the Apollo lover and the Mereenese Knot was a clever joke.

All or most of these scenes could've been skipped, and it would've added a good half-hour to hour of storyline. It was a complete mistake for the showrunners to delay the PW and Balon's death. But since they didn't kill either of them, what the hell was the point of the Mel/Gendry seduction dick leech and then leech burning scene if only one king is dead and the other two nowhere close to it?

The PW did not happen this season, and that was a storytelling mistake. What was the purpose of Margaery being in the season at all but to exist as the upcoming queen? What was Olenna's purpose? Loras? None of their storylines came to any sort of resolve. They had no arc. They were simply on screen. Margaery at least was a way to show how maniacal Joffrey is.. something we already knew. No real need for those scenes.

.

Also, to those who hated the Mhysa scene... I saw a bunch of white freed slaves in the crowd. Get over the racial stuff already. Its not like there weren't ever white slaves in our world's history.

[cade]

Except the fires had been put out or contained and were in the process of burning themselves out. This was probably the reason for the delay in leaving the city, no matter how nervous it made Dany.

Also, I remember that the slaves were not shouting "Mysha" when they came "pouring out." They were silent. They looked scared and apprehensive and were holding their children and loved ones close. I was reminded of the line from the books where Dany looks at the frightened women she'd just claimed for herself to save them from Drogo's rapists only to see they were as frightened of her as they'd been of the rapists, "wondering if she'd saved them for a worse fate."

The speech proves to them that she doesn't have an alterier motive. She saved them for themselves, not because she has a worse fate in store for them. Only THEN do they call her "Mysha." And only when the calls have spread through the crowd does she walk forward.

You make a key point that many have missed in not looking at this from the slaves' perspective. They were naturally wary of this foreign lady and her slaver-created army. Even in the book, they only start chanting "Mhysa!" after Missandei tells them they owe their freedom to Dany. I like what D&D added in having Dany say "Your freedom is not mine to give. It belongs to you and you alone."

Many say that's too discordant with the slaves then hailing Dany as "Mother," but we are dealing with two vastly different perspectives here. It would've been forced and condescending to have the slaves react and think in concordance with Dany. She can downplay her role, stress their personal autonomy and the importance of self-reliance all she wants, but slaves hearing those words are naturally going to see her as a liberator and (as David Benioff says on HBO's

) a religious figure who they'll want to depend on in that miserable world.

[Stannis the Wight]

Problem with introducing Lady Stoneheart in the last scene is that even though it's a dramatic moment....where does it go? What will Lady Stoneheart be doing next season that's SO IMPORTANT it merrets being the topic of the very last scene of the very last episode of the season? Killing Freys and Lannisters? Tywin dies by someone else's hand and Waldor is still alive. Was it when she tried to hang Brianne? We never even learn how that ended: next time we see Brianne she's free and LS is somewhere else.

Lady Stoneheart's storyline is too much of a question mark to get the last shot of the last scene. Danaerys will be dealing with the protection and governence of these people for the next two books and her actions will have an effect on the bigger plot as word of the "dragon queen" spreads and people start heading to Essos to meet her. Lady Stoneheart doesn't have that much payoff. If she were going to reign death down on the Twins, going from room to room tearing Freys appart with her bare undead hands, that'd be one thing, but absent that, Michelle Fairley got a haircut and said her goodbyes.

I think that just showing Beric give the kiss and her eyes open is enough until the epilogue scene as season 4 finale. through season 4 they can just mention from time to time during any scenes in the riverlands about something out there in the woods killing... could be nymeria and her pack or stoneheart... but maybe they scrap the whole angle? I would like to see it think it would work for TV and it is pretty big WTF moment to end a season, this one was so underwhelming

[Stannis the Wight]

Found this "script" for an alternative ending of the episode where Lady Stoneheart is introduced.

HOW EASY IT WOULD’VE BEEN TO INCLUDE LADY STONEHEART

Following the Robbwind scene, we cut to Arya and Sandor riding through the woods. They’re close to the Trident, and Arya, glassy-eyed, spots a Frey banner near the riverbank. A group of Freys are laughing and pointing at something in the water. Arya cranes her neck and sees red, unmistakeable red - hair she’s seen a hundred times, dreamt of a thousand - and before Sandor can stop her she stumbles off the horse and runs to the riverbank.

The Frey men are still laughing when they spot Arya running towards them. They laugh less when they spot Sandor bounding after her. Arya ignores them all, even when they argue, and then fight, and wades out into the water, trying to reach what is clearly the corpse of her mother.

The body is beginning to bloat, the face pale, the throat red. Arya reaches out her hand, terrified, so close, but someone yanks her away from behind before she can touch…

‘She’s gone, child. There’s nothing there. Your people are all dead. Do you hear me?’ Arya cannot tear her eyes from the river, even as Sandor shakes her. The body is so still, even as it floats gently in the river, hair traiing behind it like a sea of fishes. Arya’s eyes are bright, but she does not cry, cannot cry. The river has taken all of her tears. Dimly, she hears someone move behind her, and turns slowly to see one of the Frey men, trying to crawl away, bleeding from a wound in his side.

Quick as a shadow, Arya grabs the knife on Sandor’s hip that she has been eyeing for days and breaks loose. She is on top of the bannerman in a heartbeat, eyes wide and unflinching, stabbing everywhere she can reach, not stopping until the red runs. In her violence Jaqar’s coin falls from her pocket.

She stabs until nothing is moving underneath her. Sandor has gone to corall the horse, unbothered by her actions. Arya stands to leave, and notices the coin out of the corner of her eye. It is covered in blood. She picks it up and turns it in her hand.

‘Valar morghulis’.

She does not look back.

-

We pan over a forest clearing where the Brotherhood Without Banners are making their camp. The sound of running water is close by. Beric Dondarrion, looking more haggard than ever, is walking past a group of men when he overhears a shout of ‘floater!’

‘Wolf or lion?’, another man replies, and they all laugh. Beric, interested, moves closer to the water. The conversation continues:

‘Look, it’s a woman!’

‘A she-wolf’, someone quips, snickering. Beric moves closer to the bank and a look of shock registers on his face as he takes in the body that has drifted close to shore. He moves down beside it, telling one of the men to find Thoros.

Thoros appears, and it is apparent he knows the body too. His shakes his head. ‘Lady Stark,’ he says under his breath, crouching low near the river. ‘She should have stayed at Riverrun.’

‘The Tullys draw their strength from the water,’ Beric replies, ‘it’s their tradition to send their bodies off to sea. The Freys make a mockery of her.’ The disgust is evident in his voice.

Perhaps it is pity, or sorrow, or simply sadness at seeing the evidence of such cruelty that leads Beric to order the Brothers to bring the body for a proper burial. As they begin to wade into the water, Thoros gives Beric a knowing, disapproving look. Beric ignores it, and turns away.

-

Following Bran’s scene at the Nightfort, we zoom out from a torch, flickering in the darkness. Two voices argue in hushed tones, clearly not wanting to be overheard.

‘It will not work! It only barely works on you, and she’s been dead for days-‘

‘We must try.’

‘Why? What good will she do for the smallfolk? For these men, your men? Beric, she belongs to the dead - leave her there!’

‘You forget, Thoros.’ If Beric remembered how to smile, he would have done so. ‘I am of the dead too. And it is long past the time that I should join them.’ The look on his face speaks clearly: we failed Arya Stark, we failed the boy Gendry. We must not fail her, too.

Thoros is visibly upset. ‘The Lord Of Light chose you, Beric, and I cannot revive you both-‘

‘And this is what I choose. The stories they’re telling of this wedding at The Twins’ - Beric shakes his head - ‘such a thing should not go unpunished. She deserves her retribution Thoros - even the Lord of Light should know that.’ He lies back, staring upwards, resolute. ‘Let it be done.’

Thoros looks close to tears, but he does as he is bid. He kneels over Beric’s body, for the final time, closes his eyes, says the incantation. The little life left in Beric Dondarrion rises from him, contorts his body, blows the torch out.

In the darkness, Thoros is alone. ‘Valar morgulis, my friend.’

-

Before the gates of Yunkai, Daenerys Targaryen stands amongst the people, and they cry out to her - Mhysa! Behind her, Jorah and Missandei look on in astonishment.

‘What are they saying?’, he asks Missandei, in a voice filled with wonder.

‘It is Old Ghiscari,’ she replies, her voice laden with some unspoken emotion, ‘it means ‘mother’”.

The chanting continues, the screen fades to black…

…a torch is lit. The man holding the torch joins his brothers, and they look on as Thoros of Myr steps back from a person laid out on a makeshift bed. We pan up the body..

Mhysa!

past the feet, the skirts, the bodice…

Mhysa! Mhysa!

the slashed throat….

Mhysa!

A pair of eyes, milk white, fly open.

In a cave in the Riverlands, Lady Stoneheart awakens.

Dammit that would have been a much better ending

[The Idiots Lantern]

I think that just showing Beric give the kiss and her eyes open is enough until the epilogue scene as season 4 finale.

Why would it be ANY season's finale? I know there's the WOW factor of "holy crap they brought Cat back from the dead" but what does Lady Stoneheart actually DO after that? She kills Frey and Lannister minions we haven't met before. She doesn't kill Brianne for unexplained reasons. Thats kind of it.

Like or hate the "Mysha" scene, at least you know that Dany trying to be "mother" to all these people is going to be a huge part of her story next season. Why would you give Lady Stoneheart this huge season-ending epic introduction.... when you know she's THEN going to vanish into the plot basement for at least the next two seasons? It makes no sense. It's trading long-term payoff for short term spectacle and this show is too smart for that. Right now, at least.

[Roose Seal]

^Season 2 finale was a big scene that has absolutely no repercussion on s3 at all.

We see a giant army of the dead, oh shit's about to hit the fan! Nope. Fade to black battle and Sam and Gilly making smores.

If they could make up all those scenes for Theon/Ramsay, surely they'd find stuff for LS to do.

The problem is not that LS doesn't have anything to do, is that no one but the book readers care about the Starks really. The showrunners certainly don't, and as a result, completely botch their storylines and as a result, Unsullied think the Starks are boring, especially compared to the oh-so-colorful and witty and badass Lannisters. (the way they ignored Sansa's PoV in favor of Tyrion was egregious)

This season was a lot of build-up for things that had no pay-off (royal wedding was the major focus of like 75% of the season; Theon was nothing but build-up, little pay-off) or pay-off for things that had no buildup (Red Wedding build-up was completely botched, Dany just walks in Yunkai and takes it)

LS would've been the perfect ending, it would've gotten people talking and you don't even have to see her every episode next season. Have other characters mention her once in a while "there seems to be a vengeful ghost roaming the Riverlands" and keep us in the dark for a few episodes, to finally reveal her in her full glory in ep 7 or something. That's TV gold right there. But I guess since she can't disrobe, it isn't HBO gold.

[The Idiots Lantern]

^Season 2 finale was a big scene that has absolutely no repercussion on s3 at all.

We see a giant army of the dead, oh shit's about to hit the fan!

The giant army of the dead was an escalation of the threat introduced in the very first scene of the very first episode....and, for that matter, the very first chapter of the very first book. It's the ticking clock that fuels only the entire story. We got to see, finally, the size of the threat that's coming for humanity. We know why this shot is important.

Why is Lady Stoneheart important?

only readers care about the Starks really. The showrunners certainly don't,

D&D have called the Stark family "the beating heart of the show." I don't know why you say they don't love the Starks when they did things like make Robb a POV character, and give Arya some high-stakes one-on-one time with Tywin Lannister. Why'd they write more stuff for the Starks if they don't care about the Starks?

Your point about Sansa's POV being shifted to Tyrion was a matter of convenience; Tyrion is more deeply involved in the mechanics of Tywin's court and by following him, we get a clearer idea of what's going on behind the scenes. It wasn't that they didn't like Sansa.

Red Wedding build-up was completely botched,

All the heartbroken tweets and youtube videos I saw seem to disagree with you. Not to mention my own mother's screaming.

[Roose Seal]

The giant army of the dead was an escalation of the threat introduced in the very first scene of the very first episode....and, for that matter, the very first chapter of the very first book. It's the ticking clock that fuels only the entire story. We got to see, finally, the size of the threat that's coming for humanity. We know why this shot is important.

You misunderstood. I was not saying the s2 final scene wasn't important, I was saying that it had absolutely no repercussions on s3, so I don't see why the final scene of the season has to be a game changing moment?

Why is Lady Stoneheart important?

Never said she was, but why should the final scene be something important? So they wouldn't break a 2 season tradition?

D&D have called the Stark family "the beating heart of the show." I don't know why you say they don't love the Starks when they did things like make Robb a POV character, and give Arya some high-stakes one-on-one time with Tywin Lannister. Why'd they write more stuff for the Starks if they don't care about the Starks?

They said that? well clearly it's not obvious at all. You'd think they consider the Lannisters the beating heart of the show considering how they botched Cat's storyline all throughout s3. And don't tell me the Talisa love story was a good addition.

Your point about Sansa's POV being shifted to Tyrion was a matter of convenience; Tyrion is more deeply involved in the mechanics of Tywin's court and by following him, we get a clearer idea of what's going on behind the scenes. It wasn't that they didn't like Sansa.

Are you kidding?

The treatment of Sansa's character this season makes it painfully obvious that they don't really give a shit about her. They turned her into a one-note naive girl and made all her storylines about other characters.

The whole Tyrion/Sansa wedding was entirely about Tyrion in the show. It's about Tyrion not getting laid, it's about Tyrion having to deal with a moody wife, it's all about Tyrion. Sansa's feelings don't ever register.

All the heartbroken tweets and youtube videos I saw seem to disagree with you. Not to mention my own mother's screaming.

Most of the reactions I've seen was more about how shocking and unexpected the scene was (which it was), not exactly how sad people are that those characters are gone.