So I gave it another watch, and a bit more thought. Let's recap:
- Arya can apparently already pass as pretty much anyone. Instead of having the Freys change side, or something even remotely useful, just wipes them out. I get that they've been trying to build her up as a badass assassin on a quest for revenge, but then again, in the next scene we get a clichéd "wait, people can be normal and nice too??!?!?" scene with a bunch of rando Lannisters soldiers no one gives a F about.
- Bran miraculously comes back to the wall. Not sure how they went past the ginormous army of ice zombies. Benjen disappears again. I guess he doesn't give that much of a fuck about his nephews. And then nothing. Not a single scene even hinting that Jon Snow knows is alive, and here. Let's forget he lost yet another sibling just a handful of episodes earlier, mkay? And when asked why they should believe he's Ned Stark's son, apparently the convincing argument Bran comes up with is "let me tell you what I know you did in season 2". Sorry, how does this follow?
- Sansa thinking it's a good idea to contradict her brother, officially her freaking king, because "bu-bu-bu-but Jon they betrayed us we need to punish them". Also tries to teach him about being "smarter than Dad". Well that's convenient, considering the role you played in his demise. And the death of a poor butcher's boy. And covering LF's ass when he murdered your aunt. Speaking of LF, literally 5mins later, when Brienne asks why he still sticks around, Sansa explains that it's "because he has soldiers and shit". Well hold up, wouldn't that work for the Umber and Karstark kids too then? Guess the fact that he made her marry a complete psychopath is all forgiven.
She was already a garbage character in the books, they somehow managed to make her even more insufferable and useless in the show.
- No one apparently thought it'd be a good idea to hold Dragonstone. Including Cersei who was told in the same episode "Well they're most likely going to make landfall at Dragonstone". "Because of its port" by the way, says Jamie. And then we see MuhDragons arriving later on, and landing on a small shitty beach.
- Cersei invites Euron to hang out and shit, knows (or strongly suspects) he's going to propose an alliance via marriage, but then tells him to fuck off. OK? She also sounds like she never actually gave a fuck about her kids.
Also, Euron now looks like he would fit right in a shitty metal concert. Or maybe the Village People, I dunno. The fuck was that attire and haircut.
- So the archmeister believes Sam but doesn't seem to give a fuck. One of the highest ranking meisters doesn't think that maybe the fact that an gigantic army led by the Night King, which hasn't been seen for millenia, might be a bit of an issue?
As for Sam, we got that he's having a shitty (
) time, but there's no need to repeat that succession of lowly tasks for 5mins. Point was taken in the first 1. But then Sam decides to act for once, and we Harry Potter now. Minus magic blanket. Oh and the big revelation that there's a fuckton of dragonglass in Dragonstone. Although "Oh yeah Stannis mentioned something about this...".
- MuhDragons is back in Westeros for the first time in like, forever, knows that pretty much everyone wants to kill her (and banned her most loyal follower for that reason), yet walks head first into one of the strongest fortresses in Westeros, with just a handful of people walking like 20m behind her. Well that makes sense too.
Thankfully based Sandor is still awesome. It's quite amusing how scenes about three rather minor characters (especially in the original material) are a fuckload better across the board than major stuff. Hound for Prez.