I AM DAENAERYS STORMBORN OF HOUSE TARGARYEN, BLOOD OF OLD VALYRIA. VALYRIAN IS MY MOTHER TONGUE.
God that was an amazing scene. The fact that I'd guessed it would happen (I haven't read the books) didn't diminish it all.
As for why it was expected: Trading off a dragon just doesn't seem very much like Dany to me. She's the mother of dragons, and she's personally said that they are the only children she will ever bear. I get that House Targaryen's been filled with nutjobs throughout history, but I don't see Dany-who mother bears her followers- selling off one of her children.
I'm expecting that she'll be the one left standing at the end of it all, so long as she doesn't y'know, get assassinated.
White Walkers? Bitch please. All is reduced to kindling and ash 'neath dragons' breath. Harrenhall is proof.
Robb's a nice guy, so I want to root for him as well, but as one of the most morally upstanding characters, you just KNOW he's going to get killed sooner or later. GoT just isn't that kind of story.
My favourite characters so far are probably the Olenna Tyrell (C'mon,
"Queen of Thorns"? That's
BAD-
ASS) and Tywin. They're not nice and they're neither honourable nor humble. But they are smart. They are focussed. They are vicious, and vindictive, and they would cut through a million lives to achieve their goals without hesitation. But what I like about them the most is that they're just about the only two individuals on the entire show who aren't absolutely mired in themselves.
Cersei was right when she said that Varys was dangerous because he didn't have a cock. She was wrong about her not having one though, and I don't mean just in weird futa fanfiction either. Everyone on the entire show has some...
mortal, human desire that drives them, rules over them, makes them do what they do, that makes them easy to predict, manipulable and vulnerable. Margaery wants power, Cersei wants power, Littlefinger wants power even more (or at least more overtly) to make up for his insecurities, Robb wants to be left alone like a moody teenager, Catelyn wants her daughters back, Stannis wants to bone the red woman, shake off middle child syndrome and be king, Jorah wants Daenaerys, Tyrion just wants love from his family, doesn't get it, and spends his time and coin with other misfits licking his wounds and coming up with ways to spite the ones who spawned and spurned him despite desperately wanting to be loved at the same time!
Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying Olenna and Tywin aren't driven and motivated people. Olenna's trying to keep her family alive and probably make some sort of power play whilst she's at it, and Tywin's alllll about the family name. But they don't let those things lord over them. Tywin's had a son held hostage for almost one and a half seasons, two if you count both sons, and the guy just keeps going steamrolling over everyone in his path, completely immune to the squabblings and attempted manipulations of everyone else. Sociopathic? Perhaps. But also awesome.
As for Varys...well, he's sort of like that, I guess. Except the guy's way too nebulous with his plans for me to tell whether he's actually any good at getting his goals like Olenna and Tywin.