History YMMV / GameOfThronesS8E4TheLastOfTheStarks

*** More charitably, Sansa is scared for Jon (as she's repeatedly mentioned she's worried about Jon's loyalty to Daenerys, who has already established she's threatened by him even ''before'' he told his family the truth and has said "Stark men don't fare well in King's Landing") and is legitimately concerned that history will repeat itself like it did for her grandfather, uncle and father. Some argue Sansa is trying to bolster Jon's value to Tyrion and Varys in order to protect him. However, if Sansa really believes Stark men don't survive in the South, then it's dubious that she's manipulating things so that Jon ends up on the Iron Throne -- a risky venture that has a bloody trail of history in its wake, for both the monarchs and candidates. Even if Sansa's efforts result in Jon becoming King, this will force him to stay in King's Landing permanently. To some, this makes it appear as if Sansa is aware of the danger but is willing to gamble Jon's life for the possibility he becomes King, as this would put somebody she trusts on the Iron Throne, who was raised in the Stark way, and who will be most likely to give Sansa what she wants in regard to Northern independence, which Daenerys keeps refusing to do.

** Sansa breaks her vow to Jon not to tell anyone about his true parentage and reveals the truth to Tyrion in a mere few hours. She does this because she wants to convince Tyrion that Jon would be a better ruler than Dany and everyone will benefit from this, but all it does is sow distrust in Dany's already weakened and weary forces in her war against Cersei. Now, Tyrion and Varys, the two trusted advisors of Dany, are in conflict with each other about whether to support Dany or Jon, and it's heavily implied that if the two know the truth, then sooner or later everyone will know about it, leading to conflicting loyalties en masse at the worst possible time, and Sansa is responsible for it all. Not to mention her trying to instate Jon behind his own back, even when he made it clear to her many times over that he didn't want to rule, makes it questionable whether she really respects him as a leader or just thinks he'll be easier to manage than Dany.

** Sansa's continual dislike of Dany, even after Dany sacrificed her two armies, risked her life to save the North from the White Walkers and is opposing Cersei (the source of much of the Starks' suffering over the series) makes her seem strangely short-sighted and spiteful, and raises questions whether she's just jealous another woman is more powerful than she is.

** The episode wants to portray Daenerys as slowly slipping into madness just like her father. But instead, the opposite occurs, particularly when people around her ''are'' plotting against her, in addition to Missandei's death. Also, while everyone is worried about her causing civilian casualties when taking the capital by storm, Cersei has to be dealt with ''somehow'', and none of Dany's advisors seem to be in any hurry to suggest any alternate strategies, other than the one already decided (besieging the city and turning the people against her), which has become less viable now that the dragons can't keep the Iron Fleet from resupplying the city by sea.

** "[[IdiotBall Dany kinda forgot about the Iron Fleet]]".[[labelnote:explanation]]According to David Benioff, Daenerys somehow forgetting all about Euron and the Iron Fleet. Even after she was briefed on Euron's fleet the scene before the ambush, as well as directly saw and battled with him in Season 7. This has led to online [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahoHDU0T44I mockery]] from the audience. "X kinda forgot about Y" has since become a popular joke to address plot holes, inconsistencies, and other questionable writing decisions made by D&D. For example, "the Dothraki kinda forgot they were completely wiped out by zombies last night" explains how they magically respawned this episode[[/labelnote]]

** Gifs and captions of "What do we say to marriage proposals?" "Not today." after Gendry's flop of a marriage proposal.

* AngstWhatAngst: Despite Varys’s assertion, Jon never says anything out-loud about having a problem with Daenerys being his aunt; it's only indicated via his behavior per interviews with [[https://youtu.be/u8K9XuPrXko?t=141 the showrunners]] and [[https://ew.com/tv/2019/04/21/game-of-thrones-bryan-cogman-knight-seven-kingdoms-interview/ writers]]. Even when they discuss the revelation in tears, while he’s slightly drunk, they only talk about sharing this secret with his family and a potential succession crisis rather than blood ties.

** Was Jaime breaking Brienne's heart motivated by the fact that he still loves Cersei, or because he hates himself and believes he doesn't deserve to be with Brienne? While the next episode confirms the former, to the disappointment and outrage of viewers who wanted Jaime to kill Cersei, it's still possible that Jaime's self-loathing influenced his decision.

** Does Varys think Jon will be a better ruler than Daenerys, or just easier for him to control? His stated reasoning for why a marriage wouldn't work is that he thinks Jon is too weak and would end up dominated by his aunt - hardly a sign of a good ruler.

** Sansa breaks her vow to Jon not to tell anyone about his true parentage and reveals the truth to Tyrion in a mere few hours. She does this because she wants to convince Tyrion that Jon would be a better ruler than Dany and everyone will benefit from this, but all it did is sow distrust in Dany's already weakened and weary forces in her war against Cersei. Now, Tyrion and Varys, the two trusted advisors of Dany, are in conflict with each other about whether to support Dany or Jon, and it's heavily implied that if the two know the truth, then sooner or later everyone will know about it, leading to conflicting loyalties en masse at the worst possible time, and Sansa is responsible for it all. Not to mention her trying to instate Jon behind his own back, even when he makes it clear to her many times over that he didn't want to rule, makes it questionable whether she really respects him as a leader, or thinks he'll be easier to manage than Dany.

** Sansa breaking her vow to Jon not to tell anyone about his true parentage and reveals the truth to Tyrion in a mere few hours. She did this because she wants to convince Tyrion that Jon would be a better ruler than Dany and everyone will benefit from this, but all it did is sow distrust in Dany's already weakened and weary forces in her war against Cersei. Now, Tyrion and Varys, the two trusted advisors of Dany, are in conflict with each other about whether to support Dany or Jon, and it's heavily implied that if the two know the truth, then sooner or later everyone will know about it, leading to conflicting loyalties en masse at the worst possible time, and Sansa is responsible for it all. Not to mention her trying to instate Jon behind his own back, even when he makes it clear to her many times over that he didn't want to rule, makes it questionable whether she really respects him as a leader, or thinks he'll be easier to manage than Dany.

** Varys is pretty much the walking definition of a FairWeatherFriend. When he sees that Dany is growing angry because of her losses, he decides that she is not the ruler he wanted, (even though many of those losses were due to lack of proper intelligence, ''which is his direct job'') and now that he knows the truth about Jon, there is a better alternative. Varys keeps saying that he is loyal to the realm, but what Dany said last season was true: if Varys dislikes one monarch he conspires to crown the next. Also, his statement that Jon would be the best ruler because he doesn’t want to rule is hypocritical considering that he said Robert was a bad king because he had no interest in ruling. So, Varys is just coming off as a backstabbing jerk rather than as someone who is trying to do what’s best for the Realm. Especially since we know from Season 3, from Jaime Lannister himself, that Varys was truly loyal to Aerys II the Mad King, counselling against Aerys opening the gates to Tywin and seeing it for the FalseFlagOperation it was. Daenerys hasn't remotely been as bad as Aerys II was, and yet Varys is quick to throw her under the bus for his favored male heir.

* InformedWrongness: Like Bran in the last season, Tyrion blames everything about Robert's Rebellion on Robert for 'loving someone who didn't love him back', ignoring Aerys, Rhaegar, and Lyanna's actual culpability in the situation. Nobody, including Robert, knew what happened with Lyanna's sudden disappearance, and even if she did run away willingly it didn't matter. Rhaegar broke the feudal contract in absconding with the betrothed daughter of a Great Lord, and the Mad King did it even more so in murdering Brandon and Rickard Stark and calling for Ned and Robert's heads. A rebellion started over much less a generation or so ago, in the form of betrothed Prince Duncan marrying Jenny of Oldstones instead of the daughter of Lyonel Baratheon. And this was under a sane, stable, much more liberal King like Aegon V. Rhaegar knew better, knew what his father was, and did it anyways, [[LoveRuinsTheRealm consequences to the realm, his wife, children and family and his duties as Crown Prince be damned]]. Lyanna herself also apparently never bothered to tell Robert she didn't love him, nor did she see fit to explain anything to her father or brothers, which directly led to their deaths when they marched South to "save" her from what they thought was her abductor.

* InformedWrongness: Like Bran in the last season, Tyrion blames everything about Robert's Rebellion on Robert for 'loving someone who didn't love him back', ignoring Aerys, Rhaegar, and Lyanna's actual culpability in the situation. Nobody, including Robert, knew what happened with Lyanna's sudden disappearance, and even if she did run away willingly it didn't matter. Rhaegar broke the feudal contract in absconding with the betrothed daughter of a Great Lord, and the Mad King did it even more so in murdering Brandon and Rickard Stark and calling for Ned and Robert's heads. A rebellion started over much less, in the form of betrothed Prince Duncan marrying Jenny of Oldstones instead of the daughter of Lyonel Baratheon. And this was under a sane, stable, much more liberal King like Aegon V. Rhaegar knew better, knew what his father was, and did it anyways, [[LoveRuinsTheRealm consequences to the realm, his wife, children and family and his duties as Crown Prince be damned]]. Lyanna herself also apparently never bothered to tell Robert she didn't love him, nor did she see fit to explain anything to her father or brothers, which directly led to their deaths when they marched South to "save" her from what they thought was her abductor.

* InformedWrongness: Like Bran in the last season, Tyrion blames everything about Robert's Rebellion on Robert for 'loving someone who didn't love him back', ignoring Aerys, Rhaegar, and Lyanna's actual culpability in the situation. Nobody, including Robert, knew what happened with Lyanna's sudden disappearance, and even if she did run away willingly it didn't matter. Rhaegar broke the feudal contract in absconding with the betrothed daughter of a Lord, just as the Mad King did in murdering Brandon and Rickard Stark and calling for Ned and Robert's heads. A rebellion started over much less, in the form of betrothed Prince Duncan marrying Jenny of Oldstones instead of the daughter of Lyonel Baratheon. And this was under a sane, stable, much more liberal King like Aegon V. Rhaegar knew better, knew what his father was, and did it anyways, [[LoveRuinsTheRealm consequences to the realm, his wife, children and family and his duties as Crown Prince be damned]]. Lyanna herself also apparently never bothered to tell Robert she didn't love him, nor did she see fit to explain anything to her father or brothers, which directly led to their deaths when they marched South to "save" her from what they thought was her abductor.