YMMV / Game of Thrones S7E3: "The Queen's Justice"

• Alternate Character Interpretation:
  • In assigning Sam to copy all of those scrolls, is Archmaester Ebrose just not showing Sam any respect despite the extremely difficult greyscale treatment he successfully pulled off, or is he being a Stealth Mentor by giving Sam access to learning material he might not see for years otherwise (since copying the scrolls also requires reading them)? Also, Sam will spend his time reading books instead of cleaning chamber pots. The answer becomes more clear in his next appearance.
  • How invested in the slave trade is the Iron Bank, really? Braavos is an abolitionist city, but it's pretty much the only abolitionist city in Essos^note Slavery is technically illegal in Pentos as well but is still practiced, with much of the rest of the continent having a slave-driven economy. It's possible that even if the Iron Bank has no direct, explicit ties to slaving operations, the simple interconnected, ripple-effect-laden nature of economics means that the major disruption of the slave trade has hurt their bottom line indirectly, and that this is what the show is getting at rather, even if it communicates it poorly.
  • Qyburn's evident relish at the horrifying punishment of Ellaria and Tyrene for which Cersei solicited his aid in setting up is rather ambiguous. While the most obvious reason for this sadism is his obvious amorality and Mad Scientist tendencies, given his apparently genuine support and affection for House Lannister and his Pet the Dog attitude towards the children he employs as spies, it may well be that the pointlessly cruel and spiteful murder of Myrcella by Ellaria (aided by Tyrene) was something that managed to genuinely upset and anger him, and thus give him extra impetus to assist in the most creatively cruel punishment that he and Cersei could imagine.
  • Is Daenerys dismissive of Jon because he is, in her eyes, a stubborn barbarian who is keeping her from, what she believes, is "rightfully" hers, or is it because, like most of the Westerosi she has encountered, he doesn't immediately bow and scrape to her many grand titles, and she is fed up of her Messiah Complex not being satiated by the Westerosi, and takes it out on Jon?
• Ass Pull:
  • The Retcon that allows the Iron Bank of Braavos to be involved in the slave trade for the sake of a cheap Capitalism Is Bad message. Said message doesn't even make internal sense, since if the Iron Bank cares only about money they should support the actually wealthy House Tyrell over House Lannister — who had previously been established, despite their vehement attempts to pretend otherwise, to be Impoverished Patricians to a degree where it was basically an Open Secret that they were struggling with heavy debt — and so ally with Daenerys, and Cersei also says "gold wins wars" when she and Jaime are winning despite being Mock Millionaires. Likewise, if they were against Daenerys crusading against slavery, it would have made sense for them to intervene before she completely conquered Slaver's Bay and renamed it the "Bay of Dragons", rather than punish a very dangerous woman for no reason other than spite. This is especially frustrating because there were logical reasons for the Iron Bank to support Cersei, such as the debts owed to them belonging to Robert Baratheon's regime, which they would expect Cersei to honor if she won. If Dany were to win, she could logically argue that since she's the legitimate successor of Aerys, the transactions with Robert were invalid to begin with and she doesn't have to pay, a situation which is also historically in-synch with the Wars of the Roses.^note The London Branch of the Medici Bank, which bankrolled multiple sides of the conflict, went under when Henry Tudor refused to pay outstanding debts because he claimed that they came from illegitimate rebel factions and that he was not beholden to them.
  • The Lannister army taking Highgarden can be this, along with Diabolus ex Machina. Once again, the Lannisters manage to conjure an army from thin air despite limited resources and manpower. Even with Randyll Tarly joining the Lannisters, the siege should have been a strategic nightmare. Highgarden is a castle situated on top of a forested hill and is the capital of the most resourceful and now richest region in Westeros. They could withstand a siege long enough before either reinforcements arrive or the Lannister army is forced to withdraw to deal with another situation. There is no indication that the Tyrell forces are spread thin as the assault on Casterly Rock was explicitly an Unsullied venture. As far as we're told, there aren't any flaws that could be exploited in Highgarden like with Casterly Rock. The Lannister army isn't seen with any siege equipment of their own and building them would take more than an afternoon much less bringing them up the hill. The Lannisters hold no hostages from House Tyrell so they can't do a repeat of the Siege of Riverrun. Finally, the Lannister army can be clearly seen approaching on an open plain so if by some stupid chance the castle was completely unprepared for an attack, it would still be able to muster a defence. The only reasonable explanation for Highgarden's defeat is the defenders simply just gave up, which we are told and shown is not true, with Olenna Tyrell stating that they were wimps who Jaime patronizingly notes went down fighting and that the Tyrells were such pushovers that Tywin could have annexed them without a second thought, which much like Roose Bolton fretting about supposedly cagey Northern alliances, ends up making Tywin the Great a total chump for trying to treat the Tyrells and Martells as equals. Not to mention there's no way an army of that size wouldn't be noticed moving from the western end of the continent to the eastern end, which would take days at least if not weeks.
  • The dismissal of Casterly Rock as worthless without its mines, as if nobody in the Westerlands will hold such a loss against Jaime and Cersei (who've already sullied the family name with incest, humiliation, and kinslaying). This goes against the verisimilitude of earlier seasons that clearly showed the loss of an ancestral seat as a Shocking Defeat Legacy that totally demoralized and delegitimized Robb's campaign and earned him the epithet "The King Who Lost the North", which he planned to restore by targeting Casterly Rock in the same manner, not to mention preventing such a loss being why Stannis was willing to be Reduced To Rat Burgers to hold Storm's End during Robert's Rebellion. Moreover, Tywin previously detailed how Money Is Not Power in a Histories & Lore featurette and, despite the lack of gold, valued Casterly Rock and his Westerlands prestige so much that giving them to Tyrion was so beyond the pale that he did all he could to force Jaime to reclaim his birthright.
  • To some, Lady Olenna's capture itself is an Ass Pull as well, since last we saw her she was advising Dany on Dragonstone and, unlike other characters, was never seen or said to be leaving. And while it's not inconceivable she would return home, there was still zero indication of it beforehand and the idea she'd effectively give up her place on Daenerys' small council and leave without a clear reason and sufficient strength to protect herself and her lands is somewhat counter-intuitive.
  • The capture of Casterly Rock relies on the sudden reveal that Tyrion wasn't just in charge of maintaining Casterly Rock's sewers but rather of building them in order to justify an otherwise unforeshadowed Secret Underground Passage whose reason for existence contradicts Tyrion being famous for his philandering, even in Season 1, and so must have been able to openly visit brothels and therefore not really in need of the hassle of building and maintaining secret tunnels to sneak prostitutes into Casterly Rock in the first place.
• Death of the Author:
  • In the "Inside the Episode", the showrunners describe Dany as looking down on Jon as an "unwashed barbarian" and a "bastard calling himself king", neither of which are remotely consistent with her prior characterization as an Impoverished Patrician who rose by her own merits (something she mentions in the scene being praised) and who was Happily Married to Khal Drogo, who also ruled on merit and was far more a Barbarian Hero than Jon Snow at his most haggard, in addition to Jon being the chosen ruler of the oldest and largest of the Seven Kingdoms.
  • Both the episode and the showrunners in "Inside the Episode" claim that the Tyrells are not good fighters and defenders. Such a statement is a serious Informed Flaw since the previous seasons established repeatedly that House Tyrell fields the biggest army of Westeros, that they turned the tide in favour of the Lannisters in the Battle of Blackwater, and that Littlefinger earned his Rank Up and the Lannisters became militarily unbeatable because of their alliance with the Tyrells. Moreover, Tywin was quite keen on maintaining his alliance with the Tyrells, who supplied grain and soldiers to the Lannisters. The same episode even has Olenna claiming that Tywin could have annexed the Reach before these events as a Lampshade Hanging. For either statement to be true, Tywin would have had to seriously overestimate the Reach and terribly overrate their potential, as would Robb Stark, who likewise didn't even consider an open battle with the united Lannister-Tyrell army, and the two smartest political and military minds in the show would have to be chumps in their field of expertise.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • Tyrion's "[It was] a long and bloody tale, and honestly I was drunk for most of it" became an instant hit with the fandom.
  • Fans have taken Bran's "It was/You were so beautiful" and run with it. Some memes feature Bran commenting on how beautiful a character looked during their most significant or worst experiences and some joke that Bran is so zoned-out because he's spending all his time watching thousands of years of free porn in his head.
  • "Tell X. I want him/her to know it was me". Usually used in the context of Curbstomp Battles or The Chessmaster-like moves even though in the original context it was more of a last minute taunt after defeat.
• Take That, Scrappy!: Ellaria and Tyene get even more of it, as they're pelted with garbage throughout the march to the Red Keep while Yara gets through relatively unscathed as far as we can see. Ellaria's punishment is either this trope or Alas, Poor Scrappy.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
  • Davos and Tyrion finally meet each other and Davos is face-to-face with the man who killed his son Matthos. Instead of a powerful moment of Character Development for both Ser Davos and Tyrion (Davos can gain catharsis for his son's death while Tyrion can confront the human costs of his actions), they only get one moment of interaction.
  • The episode does not mention Maester Aemon, Dany's great-uncle, which may have helped soothe tensions between the two after Dany demands Jon bend the knee. Jon mentioning Maester Aemon would have been more in keeping with his character arc, of letting grudges go (shown earlier when he pardoned Alys Karstark and Ned Umber), and shown his strong relationship with Maester Aemon, one of Dany's few living relatives for most of the series until his death, and his connection to the Night's Watch (with "Kill the Boy" being his Arc Words for Season Five and playing a major part in his decision to ally with Tormund). This is especially frustrating because his alliance with the wildlings is mentioned in the episode, which means Aemon's role could have naturally slipped in.
  • This episode finally gives us depictions of both Casterly Rock and Highgarden, castles known in the books for their Scenery Porn and for their impressive architecture. The episode barely provides proper glimpses of their size, with Casterly Rock, said to be the biggest castle of Westeros (after Harrenhal), looking fairly drab compared to even the exterior shots of Randyll Tarly's keep in Season 6. Many felt that given how long delayed both are, that it should have been shown with a larger scale or better detail than what is seen here.
  • The Lannisters soundly defeat the Reach. Not via any sort of subterfuge or strategy, but simply by marching to Highgarden and steamrolling over their defenses. Some viewers expected them to be able to put up some sort of resistance, given they ostensibly have the most resources of any kingdom at the moment, or for the Lannister victory to require some scheme more complex than "attack them" but such wasn't the case. Instead, they're conquered offscreen with no fanfare and Olenna even admits her people are terrible soldiers that were just waiting to be conquered by someone.
  • While admittedly less impressive than dragons, Jon would've cut a much more impressive figure and bolstered the Cool vs. Awesome of his meeting with Dany if he'd arrived with Ghost at his side.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic:
  • Both Daenerys and Jon are likely intended to come across well in their meeting, but some viewers saw her coming across as entitled and hypocritical. She talks about how she isn't her father, but expects Jon to honor an oath that his ancestor made to her ancestor, an oath that said father has already broken. As for Jon, some felt he came across as hard-headed, asking for her help in the war against a dead but unable to bring proof of this threat's existence. While Jon does speak the truth that it is coming for them all and human conflicts will mean nothing if the Zombie Apocalypse kills everyone, Daenerys can't be sure this is true or — as Tyrion later told Jon — be expected to drop her conflict with Cersei to fight a threat most of Westeros hasn't seen come back to life.
  • We are probably supposed to feel bad for Ellaria because she is going to be forced to watch her daughter die and decompose. But the thing is, Ellaria brought it all on herself. She murdered Myrcella just because she was a Lannister, even though she was an innocent girl who had nothing to do with Oberyn’s death. Even Oberyn never wished harm on Myrcella because she was a little girl. Then she stooped lower by murdering Doran and Trystane because they were trying to make peace with the Lannisters (which, as rulers, was the correct thing to do). She claimed that all of this was to “avenge Oberyn” even though Oberyn would be utterly disgusted with her actions. Ellaria, meanwhile is completely unrepentant about her crimes, appearing to silently gloat about it when Cersei asks her why she did it.