The HBO Series, Game of Thrones

I wonder how they are going to get the Unsullied out of there unscathed, or if they knew all along it was a one way trip.

And, just a little armchair tactical strategy - yea, sure they lost a dragon because they weren't expecting any opposition to dragons. But that fleet had two major flaws; they were in a bay with cover on both sides, and their weapons (while formidable) didn't turn around. A rear or downward attack by a dragon would have been super effective.

Dany, take note:

"If they are angry, disturb them" (Chapter One)
"If the general cannot control his temper and sends troops to swarm the walls, one third of them will be killed, and the city will still not be taken. This is the kind of calamity when laying siege to a walled city." (Chapter Three)
"He who is quick tempered can be insulted." (Chapter Eight)
"If he gives out punishments frequently, he is dire straits. If he is brutal at first, and then fears the masses, he is the extreme of ineptitude." (Chapter Nine)
"If the officers are angry and insubordinate, doing battle with the enemy under anger and insubordination, and the general does not know their abilities, this is called collapse." (Chapter Ten)
"The ruler may not move his army out of anger; the general may not do battle out of wrath." Sun Tzu (Chapter Twelve)
"Those angry will be happy again, and those wrathful will be cheerful again, but a destroyed nation cannot exist again, the dead cannot be brought back to life." (Chapter Twelve)

________________________

[popcorn]

I also considered the obvious aerial attack from the rear but then I wondered; are those ship-scorpions on a swivel.

I imagine you could still try it if you could maneuver your dragon into a quick swoop to the rear and a serpentine attack route before the Scorpions had a chance to re-target. But you'd be vulnerable when you stopped to "Dracarys" the first ship.

Here's something though. If the Scorpions make an unfettered dragon attack impossible now what does Varys have to bitch about?

But yeah, those Game of Thrones ground attacks are head-scratchers. It's like Westeros field commanders haven't heard of the flank.

Hmm, you've got a master assassin who can change faces and while celebrating how she saved humankind, let her wander away unnoticed and not even think of using her skills.

I also notice you ordered the gates remain open.

What could possibly go wrong?

If it weren't for the Dragon Queen everybody would already be dead. #LeaveDanyAlone :evil:

Skylar White from Breaking Bad/Lori Grimes from Walking Dead syndrome now in effect among the armchair general fans - even though the other characters, especially the male ones, are considerably more awful/stupid than the female ones the female lead will be held to such an impossible double standard that she somehow ends up as a villain. Hey, the feminists were correct all along about this kind of thing.

It's odd in a way now, that Dany's first pure-Targaryen instincts to burn the Red Keep, immediately after she arrived on Dragonstone, to ashes would have been the correct thing to do. Just melt it into an unrecognizable mass of stone just like Aegon The Conqueror did to Harrenhal three hundred years previously. Cersei would be dead, Ser Gregor would be dead, Qyburn would be dead. The Lannister army would have either surrendered or been exterminated. The entire South and the Ironborn would have had no choice but to submit or perish. And, when presented with the threat of the dead by the Northerners, she could have taken a much larger army to Winterfell to battle them. So by doing the "right" thing in sparing a shithole like King's Landing from a good scorching, Dany's actually done the wrong thing and has an enemy that can beat her deeply entrenched (and now with superior weaponry that's effectively negated her previous overwhelming strength) in an advantageous position.