It wasn’t hollow, though; she did what she said she would.  And her liberation agenda was not a side-effect — indeed, it eventually came to be her first priority, hence turning down offers to leave the region.

No, she did not want to raze the city.  She wanted to retake it.  She succeeded, and then burned it all down anyway.

Er, no.  She went on a rampage destroying the entire city, not the Lannisters.

No, it unambiguously states that the valonqar will choke the life from her.

That’s what I mean, from a character perspective this sort of complete non-fulfillment is meaningless for Cersei’s characters.

There really was not.  Dany going too far to win was certainly set up — but she had already won.

Yes, she empowered them. She quite literally gave them power, and routed their enemies.  Where they go from there is in their hands.

Dany had a dark side, but there’s a huge difference between “going too far” in pursuit of a goal and just going berserk and killing everybody after you’ve already won.

I know that GRRM will actually deliver payoff for the things he’s set up.

Prophecies are tropes and what better way to make them appear initially tropey they twist than to not fulfill the trope?

Dany is the only character who conquered cities, forced her vision of a culture upon them, and then abandoned them instead of staying to rule.

Every character on the show is an imperialist.  They live in a monarchical world.

Sansa’s one mistake was in assuming that Varys would be a better conspirator.

The prophecies in the books come true. The problem is that interpreting them regularly leads people astray. And Maggie the Frog’s prophecies are by far the most literal ones given in the books, and multiple of them have already come true.

Credit where it’s due: Emilia Clarke has usually not been much more than a decent actress (though I’ve often defended her from critics who assert she’s bad, which I don’t think she has been), but she has been absolutely wonderful this season, even as the writing for her character has turned into a trainwreck.

A group of mostly middle-aged women versus a violent Alexander Skarsgard?  Yes, I’d say so, especially given what could be demonstrated about his violent behaviour.

Why would the therapist not be able to testify?

This could all have been avoided if they had just correctly identified what happened as self-defense.

Stepping away from something as lucrative as a CBS procedural is a real money-where-your-mouth-is moment for the famed director, because sure, Steven Spielberg is rich—but he’s not necessarily “turn up your nose at syndicated NCIS money” rich.

I’m not going to get bogged down in Cheryl Blossom’s reasoning for staying behind and letting Toni Topaz escape when they both could have easily made it out of that window.