Wow. Loaded house. Melania was here too. Perry, Zinke and the va secretary who I can't recall.

Im just here to see the sitting president in a close setting. I'm sure he will talk about how great the military is and won't field any questions.

It's a fair point, but the show is the show.  How many of you can recall every character in the show?  I know plenty of people who "love" the show, but can't remember half the characters' names, let alone recall the castles and their geographic location.  In the books, if you aren't able to retain this knowledge, you're going to get lost and quickly put it down.  The show can't afford to alienate its fanbase that only knows Dany by "Khaleesi" and still calls Tyrion "the imp".  So they have to "dumb it down" to appeal to the largest audience.  You all might have remembered Stannis telling Sam Dragonstone has dragon glass every where.  But there's a bunch of people who not only forgot that, but would have to think for a moment to remember Stannis.  "Oh yea, he's the guy who burned his daughter for the Red Woman."

That's why I try to avoid posting about "well the book did this..." kind of stuff.  Starting with the 2nd book, each book hits around 1200 pages, while each season is around 9.5 hours.  I listened to all 5 books on audible to refresh my memory between seasons this fall - spring. Each book was around 48 hours of audio, so they're already cutting it down to 1/5 of the book going to film.  That slashed 80% is going to undermine a lot of the plot points that build up to stuff that gets chosen to be on the show. 

If you want the really good stuff, you need to read the books.  The show is great television and some of its cinematography is the best ever done.  Martin can write about the battle of the black water all day long, but seeing it on screen is a whole other experience.  Yes, the show does some dumb things, but that's true about every fantasy story.  Take LOTR, the gold standard.  Why didn't Gandalf have the eagles fly Frodo and Sam from the Shire to Mordor and drop the ring in the volcano?  Because the story would have sucked and been boring.  Dany going right to King's Landing and unleashing her dragons would have been a great 10 minutes of film.  Then we'd have 6 episodes of every  house bending the knee and Dany looking at the ruins and tens of thousands of dead and wounded from her actions.  Not exactly compelling story that will attract millions of viewers each episode.  Dany could ambush the Night King's Army with her dragons right now.  They're all in one large formation with no terrain to take cover.  But again, that would be boring story.  I think fans need to keep this in mind when they do the what if game.

I'm hoping they nominate Warren or Harris.

My point is that just because they're Lannister doesn't mean they're mindless thugs. Again, Stark soldiers did horrible things too. Their actions certainly weren't reflective of Ned. Like the soldiers said, they saw an opportunity to see King's Landing. They romanticized the world. Then learned how fucked people can be. It's not a character arc. It's simply showing the human side of other people who may serve a different ruler. Soldiers in the Army don't all agree with Trump, nor did they Obama. They're people with individual beliefs and stories.

Arya could have killed them all if she wanted. I think that was her intent when she sat down. The camera certainly flashed to their weapons and positions from Arya's point of view. The idea that this girl could kill Cersei is absurd. They took it as a joke.

If you were in Wyoming around a campfire and a teenage girl joined you, and after being asked told you she was headed to D.C. to take out Trump, would you think she was serious.  There are no guns or bombs in this era. So put yourselves in their shoes. A girl armed only with a sword is going to not only infiltrate the red keep, but defeat armored soldiers and knights to get at Cersei all on her lonesome?  It's laughably absurd. 

They didn't immediately start laughing. They took a second to process it, realized the absurdity, and treated it like a joke. If your 5 year old nephew holding a toy gun told you he was going to kill the president, would you notify the SS and FBI, or would you laugh it off?

Those soldiers are so relaxed because they don't see Arya as a threat.

People want to classify others in black and white terms. And Martin is trying to destroy that trope and show the complexity and shades of humanity. I think this scene did that. It's not all titties and dragons.