It was bad enough earlier in the season, when Littlefinger showed up in Mole’s Town just one episode after he was in the Eyrie giving a falcon to his small adult son, Robin Arryn. But last night’s finale showed Varys scheming with the ladies in Dorne, only to miraculously appear in the final shot by Daenerys’s side, sailing out of Meereen. Let’s get this straight: Dorne is at the southern tip of Westeros, a whole continent away from Daenerys’s mega-fleet in Essos. So basically, Varys traveled across the known world twice, just to get on a boat to make the same trip over again. And, while Season 7 may prove this wrong, there is no storytelling reason to have Varys on that boat at this moment and not, say, meet them when they land—Varys could presumably keep himself busy in Westeros while he waited. In comparison, it’s taken Daenerys six seasons to even begin the journey.
As people have pointed out, this isn’t just contrary to basic ETA logic, it’s also an affront to the world that George R.R. Martin has meticulously built.
@max_read normally im forgiving of this stuff but literally two extra books in the series exist because GRRM is a travel-time stickler
— Max Read (@max_read) June 27, 2016
In previous seasons, the show at least paid some respect to Martin’s attention to travel-time. We see Brienne make the slog to King’s Landing with her beloved prisoner Jaime, and the Hound marching Arya all over Westeros. Even Tyrion stuffs himself in a barrel just to get across the Narrow Sea. The speed at which characters have shot across the world fits into what seems to be the show creators’ larger intent this season: making Martin’s world smaller.