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In Game of Thrones S08E04,

Dany accompanies a few ships of unsullied on their way to King's Landing. While Jon and his army go by land, Dany has time for a detour to Dragonstone. To my understanding, Dragonstone has been deserted since they mined all the dragon glass and went north. In S08E04, they did nothing in Dragonstone except discussing the ambush led by Euron Greyjoy.

What did they want to achieve in Dragonstone in the first place?

Ian
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    So they could get ambushed by an improbable fleet arriving there through indetectable and mysterious ways with impossible weapons in order to save a plot that has painted itself into a corner. – Stian May 09 '19 at 12:04
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    It's nice! Best spelunking in Westeros. – Paul D. Waite May 09 '19 at 22:18
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    @StianYttervik You're absolutely right, except I don't know that they saved any plot by sacrificing logic that way. Not sure they gained anything except drama, upset, and panic by showing themselves capable of doing sudden things that kill characters but don't even make any sense. – Dronz May 10 '19 at 06:49
  • Why go to base camp when you want to summit? – Möoz May 15 '19 at 05:49

1 Answers1

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Dragonstone is a port-island sitting in the mouth of the Blackwater Bay. If you want to sail on King's Landing, it is a strategically valuable position, since you can control what ships go in and out of King's Landing. If you wish to lay siege on the city, you need to close off its access to the sea. For that, Dragonstone is the perfect base.

See here for a map of Westeros, and Blackwater Bay in particular.

Secondly, Dragonstone used to be the seat of the Targaryens, even since before the conquest. It was the first place Daenerys landed on her way to Westeros. She might also be drawn back there for emotional reasons.

lly
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JAD
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    If you want to sail on King's Landing, it is a strategically valuable position - it must have been fairly obvious then that either Dragonstone was taken by the Lannisters in the meantime or they were planning an ambush. Varys or Tyrion should have easily anticipated this. This is really bugging me from a writing perspective. – Ian May 09 '19 at 06:43
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    +1 because that's historically what Dragonstone's been used for but with the Ironfleet controlling the tides and vulnerability of meagre Targaryen fleet I doubt Dany was more concerned with a blockade at that moment. Oh wait she forgot all about it – Aegon May 09 '19 at 06:43
  • @Ian well yeah. Let's try and ignore that for the time being. – JAD May 09 '19 at 06:44
  • @JAD Well, at least they packed the plot armour. This answers my question! – Ian May 09 '19 at 06:45
  • @Ian Indeed. When Stannis Baratheon left Dragonstone for North, he had no doubt that Lannisters will take the Island eventually. He said as much in the books that he expected nothing different, he just hoped that Lannisters would be slow enough to allow them mining for Dragonglass (Lannisters were slow, but not slow enough). But eh, that's the books, not the show. – Aegon May 09 '19 at 06:46
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    Also, in the GoT boardgame, the key to taking KL is getting a hold on dragonstone first :) – JAD May 09 '19 at 06:48
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    @Ian Didn't you watch the Inside the Episode? Dany "kind of forgot about the Iron Fleet", so it all makes sense, just like everything else this season. – Nuclear Hoagie May 09 '19 at 13:07
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    @NuclearWang "Nobody expects the Spanish..err... Iron Fleet." – Ian May 09 '19 at 13:08
  • You're not wrong but look at the opening sequence map again: King's Landing is no longer connected to the sea. The only important thing here is that it's on the way between where she was and where she's going. – lly May 10 '19 at 02:58
  • @lly I'm not sure if the opening map is canon, exactly because these inaccuracies. I can only hope that the inconsistencies in the show are by accident, instead of trying to suggest Cersei upped and moved an entire city a few miles. – JAD May 10 '19 at 04:50
  • I don't think the ambush is that big of a plot-hole. They did expect to encounter enemies, either as a blokade, as a siege of dragonstone or as an ambush at sea. This is why they sent the dragons ahead as scouts. Which also worked - Dany did find the ambushing fleet before they could attack her ships. The big blunder was Dany's overconfidence in her Dragons - she was sure of her absolute supremacy on sea, because the way their last encounter with enemy ships went. She was sure the dragons could just fry every wooden ship without any real danger. – Falco May 10 '19 at 08:52
  • @Falco Aside from how believable you think it that ships perform better recon than aircraft, the bolts from those ballista would've been breaking the sound barrier and ripping Euron's fleet to pieces from the recoil. It was just awful, awful writing to land a cheap jump scare. There's nothing defensible about it. – lly May 11 '19 at 23:56
  • " the bolts from those ballista would've been breaking the sound barrier" [citation needed] – Falco May 15 '19 at 11:31