Just How Dumb Are the Heroes on 'Game of Thrones'?

Last night, Game of Thrones aired what might have been their best battle scenes to date, which is saying a lot—this is the show that lit TV screens aflame with "Blackwater" in 2012. But in "The Battle of the Bastards," the focus was less on the spectacle of wildfire explosions and more interested in the pure gruesomeness of medieval warfare. The main point of the battle scenes shot by director Miguel Sapochnik was to show just how much of a clusterfuck these sort of fights are, that most of your survival depends on luck, and that you're just as likely to be trampled to death by your own men as you are cut in half by the enemy. The ground-level perspective of the battle between Jon Snow and Ramsay Bolton('s army) was immediate, thrilling, and suffocating.

After an hour of watching—and feeling the relief of the good guys prevailing—it was easy to immediately feel that this was a flawless episode of Game of Thrones. And in that same afterglow, it was hard to criticize any of the actions of our heroes, Jon Snow, Sansa Stark, even Daenerys Targaryen. But I've had some sleep since then, and there are a lot of questions that need answering. Namely, are these people very, very stupid? Do George R.R. Martin, Benioff and Weiss have us rooting for a bunch of idiots?

Let's go character by character (Arya "The Expert Assassin" Stark, you too will be judged) to find out.

Here's a summary of some of last night's episode (these quotes are not exact):

Jon, buddy, what is up, man? Like, I get that you're a man in a regressive society and your natural instinct is to turn your ears off any time a woman speaks, and I get that you love your brother (even though you haven't seen him in like five years?), but MY GOD. Clearly Ramsay's whole ruse with Rickon was to force the issue and get Jon to play by his rules, and Jon was all too eager to fall into the trap. It was borderline hilarious seeing Tormund and Davos watch this whole thing play out and be like, "Come on man, don't be an asshole," and then, "Welp, looks like our leader is dumb af."

Another small gripe at Jon's seemingly subpar intelligence: after he's actually won/been saved by the army of the Vale, he and about 20 of his soldiers have Ramsay cornered. So what does Jon do? Does he use those numbers to his advantage? Nope! He PUTS DOWN HIS SWORD, picks up a shield, and walks toward an arrow-firing Ramsay—alone. Don't get me wrong, it was totally badass—and no one loves a recreation of that hamburger meat scene from The Patriot more than me. But it was incredibly stupid. Deep down, I was hoping that Jon would just pull the Game of Thrones equivalent of Indiana Jones shooting a swordfighter and let all his men light Ramsay up with arrows.

Jon Snow is talented with a sword, he's a charismatic leader, and he has a beautiful face. But like Ygritte told him so many times, he really knows nothing.

Verdict: Love you Jon, but you're pretty dumb

As we already established, Sansa is much smarter than Jon. She knew not to underestimate Ramsay, she was smart enough to know that regardless of how the battle went, her brother Rickon was as good as dead the second the Umbers turned him over to the Boltons, and she knew that the army she and Jon had amassed was not big enough to defeat Ramsay's. Women like Sansa are the true heroes of Game of Thrones, but that doesn't mean they're free from criticism.

In terms of what Sansa did last night, it was a temporary stroke of genius getting Littlefinger to devote the Vale's army to her and Jon's cause—and it made all the difference. But someone needs to explain to me why Sansa felt it was a good decision to not tell ANYONE that thousands more soldiers may or may not be on the way. That's pretty useful information, right? Like, the kind of information that might've caused Jon to press pause on the whole thing, saving thousands of lives in the process?

Did Sansa think Jon would turn away Littlefinger's help if he knew it was coming? Did she not want to make a promise she wasn't sure she'd be able to keep? Did she just really enjoy the end of The Two Towers, and want to recreate that Gandalf scene for herself? Whatever the answer, keeping those reinforcements a secret was selfish at worst, stupid at best.

It also speaks to Sansa's shortsightedness. Her war is far different from Jon's—he wants to defeat White Walkers and save mankind, she pretty much just wanted to exact revenge on Ramsay. In stopping at nothing to accomplish that, Sansa once again tied her fate to Lord Petyr Baelish, the man who's partially responsible for getting her dad decapitated. In her mind, bringing the Vale to the Battle of the Bastards is repayment for Littlefinger marrying Sansa off to the most sadistic man in Westeros, but she should know better. Littlefinger doesn't do repayment—he only does things that benefit himself. And now that he's helped Sansa get what she wants, you better believe he's going to be expecting something from her in return.

Verdict: Only a little dumb—but very misguided

Ever since Dany birthed a few dragons from firepit, her argument and strategy for anything has basically been, "I HAVE DRAGONS!!!!" Which, to say the least, has worked to varying degrees of success so far.

Last night, Daenerys went total boss in quelling the siege of Meereen, defeating the Masters unequivocally, on the ground, in the air, and on the chessboard. But the victory was less a result of her tact, and more thanks to Tyrion Lannister, a character who is definitely not dumb. Her initial plan—which she and Tyrion were just then discussing hours deep into being bombarded by cannonballs—was literally, "I will crucify the Masters, I will set their fleets afire, kill every last one of their soldiers and return their cities to the dirt."

Tyrion responded, smartly, like, "Maybe we should try something else?" They did. They stopped the siege efficiently and resoundingly, avoided burning every ship to ash—ships they can use for themselves—and left one Master alive, so that he could go spread the word about how unfuckwithable Daenerys now is. Much better plan, IMO.

Verdict: Let's just say it's a good thing Dany has the smartest character on the show as an advisor

Let's chart out Arya's chain of events from the last couple episodes:

This all worked out for Arya in the end—a chase scene thankfully brought her and her would-be assassin to the neighborhood in Braavos where that poorly lit alcove (and sword) was located—but man, it really should not have. For all the talk and montages—two seasons worth—of Arya becoming a trained killer, she did not play how she practiced. Arya should be dead, for so many reasons, chief among them that she was unforgivably stupid.

Ned Stark taught his children many valuable things, but he did not teach them how to think critically. In retrospect, that's probably because he didn't know how to either.

Verdict: Infuriatingly dumb (loves sunsets though!)