Okay, about Blackwater. Don't take me wrong, I did enjoy the episode, it looked good, the acting was strong (f*** the city, f*** the king
), visual effects were nice, battle scenes pretty large, and all that. The problem was that this episode demonstrates that plot compression leads to nonsensical things on screen. The screenwriters probably didn't help it when they went for a D-Day re-enactment in medieval setting
In the books, it went like this:
After Renly died, the Tyrell knights mostly fled, while the Stormlands knights and levies joined Stannis. They marched on King's landing. However, the Blackwater Rush River separates the city from the Kingswood, and it is hard to cross there. Therefore, Stannis' fleet had to sail up the Blackwater to actually get his main host across so that it could lay siege. Tyrion knew this, he laid a trap, and because Stannis' fleet was commanded by a higborn idiot, it took the bait and was destroyed when it was trapped by Tyrion's underwater chains and subsequently burned with wildfire. Even so, some of Stannis' troops made it to the Mudgate (which faces the riverfront) and broke in. To drive them off, Tyrion led a sally during which he was maimed. Stannis would probably have won if a joined Lannister-Tyrell host didn't arrive and crush the core of Stannis' forces at the opposite bank of the river.
Now, what they did in the series:
- First, there is no mention of the land army. All of Stannis' troops are apparently crammed in his ships. Which is quite impossible, given the numbers of ships and men involved. The whole beginning reminded me of the opening scene of
Saving Private Ryan, down to the vomiting soldiers in the boat and
machine gun arrow barrage at the beach
The D-Day vibe was all over it.
- They let an enemy ship close and enter their formation - why? It should have been sprayed with flaming arrows and ballista fire long before that. (BTW, nobody gives an order to draw a bow and then wait for a minute - the archers can't do that. They either fire, or they have to rest their hands.) It would still explode (is wildfire supposed to explode? I don't remember), but probably cause less damage. Also, Davos was knocked overboard right at the beginning, whereas in the book he saw the whole fiasco.
- Second, in the spirit of the D-Day invasion, they land at the beach right under the walls. WHY??? If there is no land host to be transported over Blackwater, there is no need to risk landing there, even if it's the weakest gate. It would be far easier to land a bit further, without arrows flying at them, build all the siege equipment free of harassment, and
then advance on the city in perfect order. Instead, they just keep coming to the beach in landing crafts to be cut down en masse - just like in Normandy
Also, arrows aren't such a super weapon - if the soldiers wear at least some armour and the arrows don't hit them head on with full force, it's not "one shot, one kill" situation. Chainmail with padding was quite effective at stopping arrows. Also, shields - people generally knew how to use them in the Middle Ages
- So now they've landed. What do they do? They run to the walls like mad because they... probably want to be thrown things at. They were lucky the defenders apparently forgot about boiling oil, hot sand, melted lead or other wonderful medieval contraptions. However, instead of not interrupting their enemies when they're being idiots, the defenders actually
open the gate and run to meet them in a fair fight. Again, WHY??? Why not stay safe behind the walls and keep killing the attackers as they huddle below, or as they try to get over the walls one by one? Oh, I know why - they needed to include the scene with Hound where he gets scared of the fire. That was well done, but sadly without any credible need to sally against the attackers the whole thing seemed utterly pointless. If they had stuck to the book, they'd have a good reason to sally - to create a chokepoint and kill Stannis' troops as they were trickling over Blackwater, before they could deploy their full force. You know, '300 against a million Persians' style. Later also to try to destroy the battering rams which were being brought to the gate. So, in the end it all looked as if the Germans (keeping with my D-Day analogy) left the safety of their bunkers and ran to the beach to meet the attacking Allied hordes in a fair fight. Ridiculous.
- Tyrion's sally: WHY like that? Why not wait for them at gate and fight the enemies as they come, in small numbers?
- Stannis on the ladder: come on! Who did that? Stannis sees himself as
the king. He will NOT endanger his royal person more than is necessary. He's there on the battlefield, but it doesn't mean he will recklessly try to get himself killed (that's probably what Robert would have done, because he was an oaf). Actually, he would have been killed, because the first people over the walls usually died pretty quickly if the defenders were at least a bit competent.
- I won't complain about Tywin's surprise appearance, because Martin did that in the book as well.
I wonder if their mediaeval warfare consultants were asleep during the writing of this episode, or they were just overturned because the 'fantasy mediaeval D-Day with a twist' script looked so appealing to the producers
Now I am looking forward to the last episode
