To be fair... Him charging forward did save him from a barrage of arrows already in the air and aimed right at him. Of course he could've turned around and fled back to his lines, but it takes more time to turn a horse around then to just command it to go. Now what happens next is definitely certain death if he wouldn't have been saved by his men. But the same was true the moment that he decided to ride out and attempt to save Ricon. In fact, those burning corpses on the battlefield were likely marks for the archers to use for quick aiming. It was a death trap from the very beginning.
My thought is, maybe she didn't know when or if the Vale would actually come or not? Maybe she never received a Raven or any confirmation that her Raven message was delivered? I am sure the Ravens do not have RFID tags like UPS so why would she get everyone's hopes up if she was not sure they would show? While I definitely think she schemed I think it will be a learning lesson for both Sansa and Jon on how to lead and how to trust one another in the future. In the preview for next week's episode Jon is telling Sansa, "we still have enemies" or something along those lines.
I think the main set up this episode was Sansa v Dany. Maybe they won't face off each other but as contrasting and parallel characters.
By the way, I am sooooooooo glad Davos Seaworth survived the battle. To a lesser extent, Tormund Giantsbane, too. But if Davos had been killed off? I would've been pissed like a muhf***a. I suppose Rickon and Wun Wun were the sacrifices of the night. I imagine we will see a whole slew of deaths next Sunday. Some of the Kings Landing actors have "Outlived His/her Contract" written on the forehead. I think the episode pulled 7.68 million viewers, solid numbers but not the record it could have been. The NBA Finals game crushed that hope. I watched GoT live and came back to the recording of the game, so I probably watched the Cavs' victory about 20 minutes behind real time (skipping all the damned commercials).
Now, I only watched it one time, but I thought he was riding back to his own battle lines when the archers killed his horse. If he knew about the Knights of the Vale, he probably would have delayed a day to muster the whole force to improve his odds and save some casualties. I don't mean to shoot Jon but to shoot Ramsay. There are Stark bowmen in the courtyard. Ramsay is an enemy in battle (and one you can tell your grandkids about killing), but they sit there and let him take 3 free shots at the commander without doing anything. Sure, it'd anti-climactic to take him out that way. Honestly, I think it's just a bad piece of writing. They wanted a way for Littlefinger to swing in and save the day and to empower Sansa. But the implication of the story is that she's an evil b**** that sent her brother and a couple of thousand loyalists to their doom while she throws in with this crook. They'll try to undo the implication later but it'll be tough to get over the fact that she knew what would happen and still remained silent. Even without a reply, it's valuable information she withheld. She keeps telling Jon they need more men and they should wait, but doesn't tell him she has a warm lead she's working on the side. Jon thinks they've used all their leads and sees no point in delaying further. If he knew the Vale was a possible ally, he would be much more likely to wait. I did a bit of an eyeroll at the whole riding-out-to-rescue-my-brother thing. So Hollywood. I suppose it moved the plot and served a couple of motifs -- no longer forswearing his family as he had in the Night's Watch, his surviving long odds by the grace of some God. But, I would have also respected it if he stuck to the battle plan despite his brother being out there since he knows it is a trap.
when the guy first showed up as Ramsey . . .i thought he would suck I guess carry over from MisFits but he was great Rocket River
Nope, he charges forward and he decides to do it before Ramsay lets the arrows fly at him. Ramsay smiles knowingly, knowing he has gotten what he wanted. Jon looks angry and determined and charges forward as the Boltons fire their volley. Daavos gets pissed and orders the men to charge after their commander. The volley kills Jon's horse and then there is a moment where it's like it all comes to for him and he realizes he screwed up. You see his face and you can see disappointment. He knows he messed up, drops his belt and holds his sword as a massive cavalry comes down on him. At no point does he look back so he never knows that his own army is right behind him.
Reminded me of TROY <iframe width="420" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/eS9kqq6PNnQ" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> Rocket River
I'm not confused about it. What you just laid out is right. I agree with you. That is a stupid decision though that got his men killed in a route. Others in here are trying to come up with ways that makes it a logical thing to do. It wasn't logical. He made a poor choice because he got emotional, just like Sansa told him was going to happen.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Tribute tweet to Hodor and Wun Wun. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/GameofThrones?src=hash">#GameofThrones</a> <a href="https://t.co/YGqPn6j0KJ">pic.twitter.com/YGqPn6j0KJ</a></p>— Daenerys Targaryen (@Daenerys) <a href="https://twitter.com/Daenerys/status/745071321042812930">June 21, 2016</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Do people like Troy? I loved that movie, Pitt was a badass. Whatever happened to Hector, haven't seen him in forever.
Maybe. But he didn't get himself killed -- he got all his men killed. It's all academic anyway (and made up besides) but it'd be more respectable if he could keep his head before the battle even starts. Brother or not, he literally has thousands of men who have entrusted their lives to him to be a leader in a life-or-death struggle and he blows it in the first 5 seconds. Likewise for Sansa, but she gets to think about it for days and still does the wrong thing. Littlefinger did right by his men -- waited until the opponent was spent and then swept in for the massacre. He probably didn't lose many men at all. If I'm sworn to House Stark, I'm thinking right about now about switching to the Vale, seeing as they have a leader with a brain in his head. Btw, everyone lamenting we're running out of good villains -- Littlefinger is the next villain. He's going to be pretty awesome too.
It's easier said than done to maintain that rationality when your little brother just got murdered right in front of you. My point is, I think a great many rational headed great commanders would also take the bait. It's hard not to with what Jon experienced.
