“Here’s a fun little thought exercise: Review the story of Season 5, from the point of view of Hizdahr zo Loraq. If you’re like most of us, you probably spent the season thinking he was leading the Sons of the Harpy, but E9 kinda disproved that. So, to review: This foreign invader conquers his city “For its own good”, and has his father brutally executed for a crime other people committed; she wasn’t misinformed about his father’s guilt, she just didn’t care, and assigned blame based on social status. Eventually, Hizdahr manages to convince her to be generous enough to let him bury his wrongfully murdered father, rather than have the vultures eat him. During the audience, he probably noticed that she did not have a single Mereenese advisor in her inner circle. Rather than fucking off to watch her fail from a safe distance, he actually tries to help, because he wants to lessen the suffering of his city, and maybe even because he believes in some of the change she brings. For this, he’s treated his hostility, suspicion and contempt, but he keeps trying. One day, though, something really horrible happens, on a scale far worse than any of the death and depravity her siege has brought so far: A person from her continent is killed! Clearly that’s completely unacceptable, so she goes with what she knows: Executing random rich people, this time by feeding them to her dragons. Hizdahr watches one of his comrades be burned to death, ripped apart and devoured by her monsters, and then spends a night in the dungeons expecting the same for himself. Instead, she informs him that he’ll be marrying her (again, remember: This is the woman who killed her father.) At this point, Hizdahr is basically a more noble version of Sansa, dealing with what seems to be a more monstrous version of Joffrey. Then, the last day of his life. When he arrives at the arena after doing some last minute work to try to make sure everything goes smoothly, he’s greeted with the curtness he’s learned to expect from this invader. There’s a new person in his circle - the son of one of the men who betrayed and killed her father. It’s cool, though, because when he showed up he offered his help and advice, so now he’s part of her inner circle. Guess it just helps to be from the right continent - i.e., not the one she’s trying to govern. Hizdahr takes his seat, and enjoys some playful humiliation and threats from his future wife’s asshole lover, and some insults from her and her new advisor as well. She also makes it clear that she’s willing to burn his beloved city to the ground if it doesn’t straighten up and start being the kind of realm she wants to rule. Then, catastrophe: The Sons of the Harpy attack en masse! Hizdahr makes one last effort to be useful, offering to show her a safe way out of the arena, but the Unsullied have more important people to protect, so he’s stabbed a lot. As he falls over bleeding, his Queen’s eyes fill with guilt and affection as she stares soulfully at… someone else, that knight she had exiled a while ago. Then she glances back at him like “Oh, is he dead now?” before scurrying off to leave him to bleed to death.”
— ‘FreakyCheeseMan’ Reddit comment - Link (via guyion)
