Ehtisham Hussain

Euron and His Iron Fleet Is A Contrived Plot Device And I Don’t Like It When I created an account on Medium a few days ago, never in a million years did I imagine that my first blog post here would be a rant about Game of Thrones. That being said, I just watched the third episode of the seventh season and I cannot help but complain about inaccuracies and lazy writing in the most successful television show in the history of the world. If you haven’t seen the third episode of Game of Thrones, do not read any further. This post is full of spoilers. (Image: Pixabay) While a number of things happened in this episode, the most important was the complete destruction of all of Daenerys’ allies. Jamie Lannister took the bulk of the Lannister forces to High Garden and defeated the Tyrells, which is okay I suppose, but what does not make sense is the presence of the Iron fleet at Casterly Rock. According to Tyrion’s plan, Theon and Yara were supposed to take the Dornish Queen to Dorn, and the unsullied were supposed to take Casterly Rock. Both actions were to happen simultaneously. That means that Yara left for Dorn and Grey Worm left for Casterly Rock on the same day, at the same time, together. Dragonstone is located to the east of King’s Landing, Dorne is to the South, and High Garden is all the way around to the West on the other side of the continent. This means that both fleets, that of Yara and of Grey Worm, had to go the same route and Yara was supposed to break off at Dorne while Grey Worm was supposed to continue sailing. So where were the unsullied when Yara was attacked? Furthermore, after capturing her and Ellaria Sand, Euron took them back to King’s Landing while Grey Worm presumably sailed on. However, a few Westerosi days later, we see Grey Worm take Casterly Rock, only to find his fleet rear-ended by Euron’s Iron fleet. In other words, Euron intercepted Yara’s fleet somewhere between Dragonstone and Dorne, then went back to King’s Landing, through Dragonstone, then came back with his fleet, through Dragonstone, and went all the way around to High Garden to catch Grey Worm in action. That is impossible in the world of ice and fire. Furthermore, Euron visiting Cersei in the first episode with his fleet is also impossible. Why? Dragonstone, that’s why. Let’s take a look at where Dragon Stone is located. According to wikia, “Dragonstone is a volcanic island in the Narrow Sea that guards the entrance to Blackwater Bay and the sea approaches to King's Landing, off the east coast of Westeros.” Let’s take a look at the map: As you can see, there is no way Euron could have gone past Dragonstone unnoticed to meet Cersei after Daenerys had arrived, and there is no way he could have gone past Dragonstone unnoticed to catch up with Yara’s fleet. How is Euron doing all of this? My theory is that the writers want to desperately establish him as a legit villain while turning Daenerys into an underdog. It is an age old formula in writing where you take your protagonists and put them in impossible situations so they can overcome the odds. You create and heighten conflict by giving your protagonist hope, then taking the hope away from them at the last minute. Stephen King did it wonderfully in Misery, where the protagonist plans his escape and almost makes it out of the house only to be caught mid-act by his captor. However, when you do this as a writer, you put yourself at the risk of relying on deus ex machina to resolve the conflict you created. While I get what they are trying to do with the story, they are not executing it in a manner worthy of the source material. The movement of the fleets does not make sense, entire armies are moving from point A to point B all the way across the map without being noticed, and the characters are on the verge of looking directly at the camera and breaking the fourth wall. I, for one, do not like the way they are rushing things and I hope to god that Winds of Winter will alleviate some of my pain.