Stannis, Jon, and Daenerys All Made Bad Mistakes on Last Night’s Game of Thrones

Leave it to Game of Thrones to have us cringe at watching a person burn to death in one scene, and cheer as multiple people burn to death in the next. But it suits the larger theme of Episode 9, The Dance of Dragons, which asks the hard question: When do you fight and when do you lay down arms?

House Slate hosts Marc Faletti and Amanda Marcotte look at how characters on Game of Thrones deal with this question, with special attention to the Targaryen family history. The book Shireen was reading has a lot to say about the balance of war and peace; some of the characters on the show would do well to read it.