YMMV / Game Of Thrones S 5 E 9 The Dance Of Dragons

• Alternate Character Interpretation:
  • Stannis's actions are either seen by fans as absolutely irredeemable religious fanaticism that makes him no better than the Boltons or that of a Tragic Villain making the ultimate Sadistic Choice for the greater good, defending the realm against the White Walkers, a threat which he alone of any major power recognizes and places on priority. The other question is if Stannis could have done differently in the situation of a Cold Equation.
  • Melisandre's actions likewise. While her magical abilities are beyond any doubt, the reliability of her visions and her interpretation of the same are subject to debate. If she could foresee the future, why not Ramsay's attacks? Did she foresee Ramsay's attack but said nothing because it conveniently plays into her desire to get royal blood? If she did foresee Stannis' inevitable victory, how would a Human Sacrifice of his only heir, and so the future of his line, aid him? Does she do this out of genuine belief or personal jealousy and manipulation?
• Death of the Author: The episode's "Inside the Episode" featurette gets a lot of this.
  • According to David Benioff, Stannis chooses ambition over familial love in this episode, yet even in the show canon, Stannis speaks of being Resigned to the Call of both kingship and being the Lord of Light's Chosen One, particularly when he visits Davos in the dungeons in Season 3.
  • Benioff also makes an outright error when he claims, "From the very first time we saw Stannis and Melisandre they were sacrificing people," when in fact they were burning idols. Since this quote is part of a larger discussion of D&D's reaction to GRRM's outline, it's worth noting that this is even less true of the novels, where Stannis is first seen brooding Shakespeareanly over the Painted Table.
  • Benioff states that, "Once Stannis makes a decision, he never changes his mind," yet Stannis's actions in this episode can only be described as a complete reversal of his "No. Just… No" Reaction and Get Out! response to the same idea in his previous appearance in "The Gift".
• Ending Fatigue: The burning of Shireen is one of those unique moments that leaves the audience speechless and gloomy as the credits start to roll, but this time we are treated to another twenty minutes of sword, sandals, and dragons, and admittedly another climax.
• Fridge Brilliance: Due to Maisie Williams being on set the Braavosi brothel featured surprisingly little nudity compared to the whorehouses in King's Landing and Winterfell. In many licenced legal brothels in Real Life, nudity is strictly banned outside of the private rooms, and we only got to see the public areas. Braavos is shown to be very progressive with a working banking sector, insurance companies, etc., so it's not unlikely that prostitution in the city could be regulated in some ways as well. The under-the-counter child prostitute is not an actual prostitute, as she's not wearing any makeup, she's wearing plain clothing, and she's clearly ignorant of what's about to happen to her.
• Moral Event Horizon: Melisandre crossed it when she suggested burning Shireen at the stake in the first place, but Stannis has his own moment here when he agrees to it and, despite his wife's protests, watches his young daughter burn alive.
• Narm: Somehow, Ramsay and his "20 good men" managed to sneak into the camp of several thousand veteran troops, burn all of their provisions, destroy all of their siege engines, kill hundreds of their horses, and sneak back out again, all completely undetected. Not only that, but Stannis and Davos are somehow able to tell the exact number of men behind the attack from the tracks they left behind, despite the chaos their attack must have caused, the fact that nobody saw them, and there has been continuous snowfall during and after the whole event. To many viewers the moment comes across as downright surreal and absurd, and reeks to high heavens of an attempt to create a Forced Meme.
• Nightmare Fuel: Shireen's screams as she burns painfully to death are horrifyingly realistic and disturbing.
• Special Effects Failure: Drogon admittedly looks amazing, as always. Dany riding on Drogon, however, looks painfully fake, with very obvious green-screen effects, a clear separation between Dany and Drogon, and little-to-no wind in Dany's hair.
• Win Back the Crowd: The story in Dorne had been pretty reviled with its poor acting and choreography, and unpopular characters. However, this episode with the increased presence of popular Doran Martell, some really funny moments, as well as calling out the foolishness of the plot and sanity generally prevailing has made fans warm up to it.