Cara Delevingne And Ashley Benson Are Spotted With A $384 Sex Bench

Sometimes, a news story sets the world on fire, and this one is the latest: Model Cara Delevingne and rumored girlfriend Ashley Benson were spotted lugging a sex bench in Los Angeles. The Daily Mail was possessed to go all caps regarding the "SEX BENCH." The Cut wondered if you should buy one. And Jezebel sent their congratulations. Still, scores of people were probably left wondering: What is a sex bench? And why would anyone want one? And if I had one, what would I do with it?

The box that Delevingne and Benson were seen transporting into what theDaily Mail maintains is their Southern California crib indicates the model is the [WARNING: Clicking on this Amazon link will take you to a webpage with adult toys on it) Master Series Obedience Extreme Sex Bench with Restraint Straps. Currently, it has a 3.3-star rating on Amazon, and 10 reviews. The product description mentions a host of features, including but not limited to: a "sturdy" steel frame that can hold up to 400 pounds, "optional straps" should one want to engage in "bondage play," and a "U-shaped head rest [that] allows you to hear your partner's moans and gasps." It also notes that the device is "perfect for spanking."

The reviews range from four stars--"it's super comfy"--to one star--"I couldn't put it completely together." The biggest customer issue seemed to involve height; after all, one's spanking bench must be optimally proportioned for both spanker and spankee. One customer had a breaking problem during repeated usage: "That's when she broke the headrest where it attaches to the two tubes about the 2nd or 3rd time we used the bench." And one added, simply: "Works as advertised. We enjoy it a lot."

For a piece of sex furniture, a price tag of $384.46 seems reasonable. When I visited the Amazon page, only five were left in stock.

At 26, Delevingne is a model and actress whose visage has appeared in numerous fashion campaigns, Prada, Burberry, and Chanel among them. The daughter of a British property developer, she grew up in London. Benson, 29, was one of the stars of "Pretty Little Liars" and is from Southern California. The press have enjoyed following their sometimes public relationship.

According to the Daily Mail, the women were spotted with their sex bench in West Hollywood. Curious to find out where they might have purchased it, if they'd done so locally, I called The Pleasure Chest, a popular adult store in West Hollywood. The employee who answered the phone informed me that they didn't have that particular sex bench.

White House, Navy exchanged emails about keeping USS McCain out of Trump's sight

President Donald Trump and John McCain's long-running feud is back in the spotlight following reports that White House and lower-level US Navy officials traded emails about keeping a warship named from the late senator's father and grandfather out of sight ahead of the President's trip to Japan.

Two Navy officials confirmed to CNN Wednesday night that the White House Military Office asked lower-level US Navy officials about keeping the ship out of view. One of the Navy officials further clarified Thursday morning that the discussion included obscuring the ship or moving it, which was not practical because the ship was under repairs at the time.

"Once leadership heard about it, they said knock it off," a senior Navy official told CNN.

Speaking to reporters Thursday morning before leaving the White House, Trump denied knowing about the plan and said that although he "is not a big fan" of McCain, he wouldn't have supported it.

"Now, somebody did it because they thought I didn't like him -- OK -- and they were well-meaning, I will say. I didn't know anything about it. I would never have done that," he said.

The ship ultimately was not moved nor was anything done to obscure McCain's name, said Cmdr. Clay Doss, a spokesman for the 7th Fleet, and Trump tweeted Wednesday night that he was "not informed about anything having to do with the Navy Ship USS John S. McCain." But the emails underscore Trump's extraordinary and bitter personal feud with McCain, with whom he frequently sparred when the Arizona Republican was alive and even after he passed away from brain cancer in August.

The Wall Street Journal first reported the discussions about moving the ship. The President ultimately spoke to troops at a Memorial Day event aboard the USS Wasp in Yokosuka, Japan.

The Journal reported Wednesday that a tarp was put in place to cover the ship's name since it could not be moved due to repairs, but three Navy officials speaking to CNN pushed back on this claim.

"We didn't do anything to obstruct the name of the ship. The Wall Street Journal piece refers to a photo of a tarp covering the ship, that photo was taken Friday, May 24, the tarp was removed the following day," another US Navy official told CNN.

The official said they had not seen the emails in question, but was adamant nothing had been done to obscure the ship.

Another Navy official with direct knowledge of the matter told CNN that the tarp and paint palette were there for preservation and maintenance purposes, adding that the palette is a typical fixture for docked ships. The official said the ship's commanding officer wasn't aware of the tarp and that it was gone before he arrived on board Saturday.

Doss told CNN on Wednesday that he could confirm "that the picture of the tarp is from Friday and it was taken down on Saturday. Paint barge was also removed ahead of the visit."

Officials pushed back on the Journal's reporting that a barge had been moved so as to obscure the name of the ship. One official said "the barge had been there regularly. At one angle, you might not have seen the ship's name, but the name was visible at all times."

The US Navy's chief of information, Rear Adm. Charlie Brown, also tweeted Wednesday night that the name had been visible.

"The name of USS John S. McCain was not obscured during the POTUS visit to Yokosuka on Memorial Day," Brown said in a tweet. "The Navy is proud of that ship, its crew, its namesake and its heritage."

Trump, Shanahan deny knowledge

Trump first said Wednesday night on Twitter that he had not been made aware of any plans concerning the ship: "I was not informed about anything having to do with the Navy Ship USS John S. McCain during my recent visit to Japan. Nevertheless, @FLOTUS and I loved being with our great Military Men and Women - what a spectacular job they do!"

On Thursday morning, acting Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan told reporters, "in terms of ship movements, the only ships I've moved is the USS Abraham Lincoln," a reference to recent US military moves to pressure Iran.

"Furthermore, I would never dishonor the memory of a great American patriot like Senator McCain. I also think it's important -- I'd never disrespect the young men and women that crew that ship. I've asked my chief of staff to look into the matter," said Shanahan, adding that he first learned of the incident Thursday morning.

Trump and McCain, who was the 2008 Republican presidential nominee, were frequently at odds before and during Trump's presidency. In 2015, Trump attacked McCain -- who had been a prisoner of war in Vietnam -- as "not a war hero" and again criticized the senator from Arizona after he died of brain cancer last August.

The barbs against McCain from the President did not stop after his death. Seven months after McCain passed away, Trump mocked him on Twitter inaccurately for coming "last in his class," and rebuked McCain for voting against a GOP bid to repeal Obamacare. "I was never a fan of John McCain and I never will be," Trump said at the time.

McCain's daughter Meghan McCain, reacting on Twitter Wednesday to the Journal's report, called Trump "a child who will always be deeply threatened by the greatness of my dads incredible life."

"There is a lot of criticism of how much I speak about my dad, but nine months since he passed, Trump won't let him RIP. So I have to stand up for him. It makes my grief unbearable," she wrote.

Former Defense Secretary William Cohen, a friend of McCain's, said Thursday on CNN's "The Situation Room" that while he gave Trump the "benefit of the doubt" that he did not know about the incident, he also thought the President was responsible for the climate in which it had occurred. Cohen, who served under President Bill Clinton, went on to defend McCain's legacy in the face of Trump's continued criticism.

"There's no question he was a hero of tremendous proportions," Cohen said. "And also the fact that John was a hero on a global scale. Whether you were talking about Japan or China or any other place, they looked to him as a man of great courage who would endure tremendous personal suffering and still not yield his place in going back to the United States."

During his time as a Vietnam POW, McCain refused a preferential release offer, made because his father was an admiral. He turned down the offer until his comrades could also go home.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is a tense and daring reboot of the beloved shooter series

After the slightly off-the-wall Black Ops 4 — which featured a time travel-themed zombie mode and Fortnite-style battle royale — Call of Duty is making the jump back to reality for its next release. Today, developer Infinity Ward officially announced Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, a reboot of the long-running sub series with an intense focus on gritty realism.

Unlike BO4, the new Modern Warfare will indeed have a single-player campaign, and it’s the main focus for the reveal today. As you might guess from the name, it’s not a direct sequel to 2011’s Modern Warfare 3, but instead a soft reboot that kicks off a new storyline with a few familiar, returning characters. The campaign will be split into two halves: in one you’ll play as a Tier 1 operator, a special forces soldier, and in the second part you’ll take on the role of a rebel fighter in the Middle East.

One of the goals of the game, and its dual-perspective storyline in particular, is to show various viewpoints of a conflict. “We are telling a story about modern war in the real world,” says Jacob Minkoff, the single-player design director on Modern Warfare. “If we  whitewash it, if we backpedal from it, if we show a world where the heroes fight the terrorists and win, you never see the impact on the average person, the collateral damage, or the morally gray situations that soldiers themselves have to face.”

 

The shift seems aimed at regaining some of the grit and, at times, controversial appeal of the original Modern Warfare franchise, which mixed action movie theatrics with more politically aware plotlines. Starting with 2007’s Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, the series set itself apart as one willing to take risks, like the disturbing “No Russian” terrorism scene in Modern Warfare 2 that urged players to take part in an airport civilian massacre, or the various instances in which players were put in the shoes of victims of nuclear attacks unfolding in real time.

Call of Duty lost its ability to both shock and impress with its single-player campaigns as years went on and the series jumped further into the future and borrowed more science fiction elements. The scattershot approach ultimately dulled its narrative mode until, withBlack Ops 4, Activision and developer Treyarch decided to remove it altogether. But theModern Warfare reboot is an attempt to reestablish Call of Duty as a vehicle for strong storytelling.

Part of the shift to a more contemporary story means a larger focus on realism in virtually every aspect of the game. Modern Warfare was built using a new, purpose-built engine, and features a frankly absurd level of detail. The game makes extensive use of photogrammetry in particular, a technology that allows artists to scan real-world objects to create virtual approximations. In Modern Warfare, this means that almost everything you see in the game looks lifelike, from guns to brick walls — the team at Infinity Ward even scanned an entire tank into the game.

How the Raptors Won Game 1 Over the Warriors

The 24-year wait for Canada’s basketball community to finally get a taste of the N.B.A. finals officially ended Thursday night with something else the locals, so often heartbroken in the playoffs, scarcely could have imagined until it happened.

The Toronto Raptors pulled away for a 118-109 triumph in Game 1 of these finals against the mighty Golden State Warriors at a raucous Scotiabank Arena, despite Kawhi Leonard shooting just 5 of 14 from the field for 23 points.

To do so, with Leonard swarmed throughout by the Warriors’ smothering and constantly switching defense, Toronto turned to the third-year pro Pascal Siakam. Described just days ago by Warriors Coach Steve Kerr as “a young” Draymond Green, in a nod to his versatility at both ends, Siakam, in his finals debut, dramatically won his matchup with the seasoned Green.

Green was good, posting 10 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists for a triple-double. But Siakam was spectacular, draining 11 consecutive shots in one stretch en route to 32 points, 8 rebounds and 5 assists for the Raptors, who also hounded Golden State into 42.9 percent shooting from the field.

In an on-court interview with ABC’s Doris Burke, Siakam dedicated the performance to his father and praised the fans in Toronto who he called the best in the N.B.A.

“Tonight, Game 1, we did what we were supposed to do,” he said.

Siakam’s outburst more than offset Stephen Curry’s 34 points, and the Warriors, for the first time since Kevin Durant’s injury, seemed to truly miss the two-way star who will likely not be back until at least Game 3.

Golden State got 21 points from Klay Thompson, but he, Curry and Green were the only Warriors to score in double figures.

That was not nearly enough to counter Toronto’s depth.

With Leonard struggling to get into an offensive rhythm, the Raptors turned not only to Siakam, but also to Marc Gasol, who scored 20 points.

Fans, eager to see a Canadian team in the N.B.A. finals for the first time, began lining up for entry to the viewing area adjacent to the area, known as Jurassic Park, before 5 a.m. for a 9 p.m. tipoff. Inside the arena, Toronto role players such as Fred VanVleet (15 points off the bench) and Danny Green (three 3-pointers after Green made just four in the Eastern Conference finals) appeared to be lifted by the roars that followed every basket they mustered.

How Olivia Wilde Created a Fantasy Musical Scene for ‘Booksmart’

In “Anatomy of a Scene,” we ask directors to reveal the secrets that go into making key scenes in their movies. See new episodes in the series each Friday. You can also watch our collection of more than 150 videos on YouTube and subscribe to our YouTube channel.

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How do you put together a dance scene with someone who hasn’t danced before? Very carefully.

The comedy “Booksmart” follows two soon-to-be high-school graduates, Molly and Amy (Beanie Feldstein and Kaitlyn Dever), who have spent too much time studying and no time partying. They’re correcting that in one wild night before graduation. This scene has them arriving at a party they’ve been trying to find for much of the film.

Molly spots her school crush, Nick (Mason Gooding), and the scene transitions into a fantasy musical sequence showing Molly’s inner thoughts. In her narration, the director Olivia Wilde discusses using classic Hollywood musicals as inspiration, what it took to pull off this sequence in one shot, and how she and her choreographer, Denna Thomsen, got great work out of Gooding, who hadn’t danced before this.

Terminator: Dark Fate’s first trailer sees Linda Hamilton’s return as Sarah Connor

Arnold Schwarzenegger said he’d be back in the first Terminator movie back in 1984 and 35 years later, that’s come true, again.

He’s returned a few times since, but the first trailer for Terminator: Dark Fate reunites Schwarzenegger’s T-800 robot with Linda Hamilton’s Sarah Connor. The movie will introduce new characters to the franchise, including Mackenzie Davis (Halt and Catch Fire) as a new hybrid between terminator and human. Other actors, like Gabriel Luna (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.), will play Dark Fate’s new homicidal robot.

Dark Fate also marks director James Cameron’s return to the Terminator franchise, reuniting all three for the first time in years. Cameron will produce the film, while Deadpool’s Tim Miller is behind the camera as director. Although this is technically the sixth installment in theTerminator franchise, Dark Fate is a direct sequel to The Terminator and T2: Judgment Day. So, don’t worry about catching up with Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, Terminator: Salvation, or Terminator: Genisys.

Dark Fate follows a trend of sequels to action-blockbusters that pick up the story in real-time, while ignoring some of the ill-advised sequels. The idea is to transition the franchise from Hamilton and Schwarzenegger’s characters to a younger cast with an in-continuity franchise reboot, kind of like what Disney and Lucasfilm have done with the recent Star Wars sequel trilogy, or like what Universal did with Jurassic World and Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom,both of which pick up the story years later in real-time. Based on this new trailer, age really is just a number. Hamilton is just as badass as ever in her return to Connor.

The film is designed to be the start of a new trilogy, but that’s also been said of 2009’sTerminator: Salvation and 2015’s Terminator: Genisys, both of which saw those ambitious plans dropped after they flopped at the box office. Hopefully, with Cameron returning to guide the franchise, that won’t be the case here.

Terminator: Dark Fate will hit theaters on November 1st.

Trailer: 'Terminator: Dark Fate' Promises To Be Good This Time

Terminator, like Alien and Predator, is one of those beloved franchises that hasn’t produced anything of note for decades, yet remains fondly remembered, the power of the original films enough to attract second, third, sixth chances.

This is likely Terminator's final chance to attract a decent amount of moviegoers, the last few attempts were so absurdly forgettable that James Cameron has promised to remove them from canon entirely, Dark Fatetaking place directly after Terminator 2: Judgement Day.

Returning to the strongest chapters of the story to start afresh is a smart approach; why bother acknowledging the convoluted narrative of hastily produced sequels if you can simply wipe the slate clean, pretend that said sequels were, essentially, expensive fan fiction?

Thankfully, Dark Fate appears to be returning to the simplicity that made the first two films so enjoyable. Time travel twists aside, the original Terminatorfilms were relatively straightforward stories of pursuit, one prolonged battle to the death between man and machine (or rather, Linda Hamilton and machine).

As compelling as Emilia Clarke was, there is only one Sarah Connor; bringing back Hamilton is one way to assure the audience that the franchise’s former greatness has not been forgotten. New machine-hybrid Mackenzie Davis (Halt and Catch Fire) shares much of the same vibes with Hamilton’s tough-as-nails Connor, while new antagonistic Terminator Gabriel Luna (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.) echoes the shape-shifting villain of Judgement Day, seemingly with the new ability to clone itself.

Violent tornadoes lash Missouri, killing 3 and causing extensive damage

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — The day after violent tornadoes ripped through parts of Missouri, authorities in the Jefferson City area and other parts of the state sifted through debris and swept the most devastated residential areas searching for people in need of aid.

About two dozen people were reportedly injured when the “wedge” tornado — which looks wider than it is tall — ripped through the capital at 11:43 p.m. Wednesday. The twister left a 3-square-mile trail of destruction. Authorities had received reports of collapsed apartment complexes and shredded mobile homes. People called to say they were trapped in their homes. Yet, there were no reported fatalities.

Earlier in the night, tornadoes flew around southwest Missouri, near the Oklahoma border, setting off alarms in Joplin, where on the same date eight years earlier a tornado killed 161 people. Tornadoes caused damage in nearby town of Carl Junction and landed a deadly blow in the town of Golden City, where three people were killed. The Missouri State Highway Patrol identified the victims as Kenneth Harris, 86; Opal Harris, 83; and Betty Berg, 56. Berg’s husband, 56-year-old Mark Berg, also suffered serious injuries in the storm, Ozarks Firstreported.

We were very fortunate last night that we didn’t have more injuries than what we had, and that we didn’t have more fatalities across the state,” Gov. Mike Parson (R) said at news conference.

President Trump tweeted that Missouri residents are “strong and resilient."

The destruction in Jefferson City is the latest in a week of severe storms across the central United States. There were more than 60 tornado reports and nearly 400 river gauges in the region had exceeded flood stage as of Wednesday, resulting in several deaths and inundated communities, The Washington Post’s Jason Samenowreported.

Across Jefferson City on Thursday, the power was out, the gas had been turned off and dazed residents wandered the streets, stepping around the fallen trees that now obstructed their neighborhood streets.

In the center of East Dunklin Street, a windblown Mickey Mouse stuffed animal sat soaking wet. Twenty yards away was a home with no roof. Fallen power lines draped the pavement, and an uprooted cross walk sign lay on a front lawn. Broken windows outnumbered intact ones.

“It’s devastation right now,” Jerri Bowles, who lives in the state capital, said Thursday. “Jefferson City hasn’t had a tornado in many, many, many years, and we all had this false sense of security that tornadoes just don’t happen here. So last night we had our eyes opened.”

Before midnight Wednesday, the National Weather Service had urged Jefferson City residents to “shelter now!” as the tornado moved at 40 mph through the central Missouri region and shot debris about 13,000 feet into the air.

Eric Wright of Jefferson City took refuge in his basement as the tornado went by, but not before he caught a glimpse of the storm.

photos of missouri tornado

A violent tornado tore through the Missouri capital overnight on Wednesday, and as morning dawned, the extent of the damage was becoming clear: homes with roofs shorn off, wrecked stores, downed power poles and reports of people trapped in the rubble.

The Missouri Department of Public Safety said the damage in part of Jefferson City, the capital, was “extensive.” As shelters opened for residents, state troopers and local emergency officials went door-to-door searching for survivors.

At least three people were killed in another tornado in Golden City, Mo., two hours outside Kansas City.

“We are very thankful we didn’t have any more fatalities than we did,” Gov. Mike Parson of Missouri said Thursday. “But three is too many.”

[Here’s what you can do to stay safe when tornadoes threaten your area.]

Mr. Parson added that the death toll could grow larger. “We’re just getting to daylight,” he said.

In Jefferson City, Dwight Days looked for a missing cellphone in his damaged house.

 

Neighbors embraced after returning to homes that were destroyed during the night

Raptors Defense Pushes Bucks To The Toilet's Edge In Game 5 Upset

The Milwaukee Bucks, the best team of the 2018–19 regular season and by farthe best team through the first two rounds of the playoffs, find themselves in the deepest of caca following a 105–99 loss to the Toronto Raptors in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Finals. The Bucks will have to stave off elimination Saturday in Toronto without the benefit of their half-court offense, which seems to have dried up and died. May it rest in peace.

Things started out encouragingly for the home team. The Bucks jumped out to a 9–0 lead in the first quarter, and led by as many as 14 points early on. The Raptors fought their way back into it, largely by making some shots of their own to keep the Bucks out of transition, where they are unstoppable. The Bucks still held a narrow lead headed into the fourth quarter, but it’s hard to overstate just how stagnant and one-dimensional Milwaukee’s offense has become over this series, culminating in the fourth quarter of Game 5. They once again stuck to the Ram Giannis Into The Wall offense, even as the returns have gotten more and more feeble. By the fourth quarter of this game Giannis was just chaotically splashing into multiple defenders seemingly on principle and often failing to notice open shooters stationed around the perimeter, even with a thicket of hostile arms writhing between him and the bucket.

Not that the other Bucks were much help. Khris Middleton attempted just nine shots in the game, and made just two of them; the pasty bench trio of Nikola Mirotić, Ersan Ilyasova, and Pat Connaughton combined for three points on five shots over 32 total minutes; Malcolm Brogdon was the only Bucks player who didn’t suffer at least one minutes-long identity crisis in the loss. The Raptors have committed to walling off the paint, sagging extra bodies into Giannis’s path to the cup and forcing the Bucks to beat them with well-timed and accurate passes to and around the perimeter. In order for Milwaukee’s offense to get unscrewed, either the other Bucks need to take some initiative, or Giannis needs to start dishing the rock a little more willingly and a little more accurately. The Raptors are way too sharp defensively for Giannis to wait until after he’s taken all five steps of his average euro-step move before noticing that a good layup isn’t in his immediate future.

This all came to a head in the first six-ish minutes of the fourth quarter, when the Raptors held the Bucks to six points and three turnovers and turned a three-point Milwaukee lead into a seven-point deficit. Kawhi Leonard, who was largely responsible for erasing Middleton from the game, scored 12 points in the run, including consecutive step-back three-pointers over Brook Lopez when the Bucks were a little too willing to concede switches on perimeter screens.

Brew-haha: Yelich, Rodgers chug at Bucks game

Green Bay Packers lineman David Bakhtiari was back to his beer-chugging ways courtside at the Milwaukee Bucks' NBA playoff game on Thursday night -- and this time he got a pair of local MVPs to join in.

Neither Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers nor Milwaukee Brewers outfielderChristian Yelich could down a beer quite as quickly as Bakhtiari, though they tried their best.

While being shown on the video screens at the Fiserv Forum, Bakhtiari put back two beers in a matter of seconds, then pointed toward Rodgers.

The two-time NFL MVP couldn't get through his entire beer in one go, and Bakhtiari, who has slammed beers during other games in the Bucks' playoff run this season, proceeded to show him how it's done with a third cold one.

Rodgers did offer somewhat of an explanation, implying in a tweet he'd prefer a different libation.

Later in the game, a fan wearing a Bakhtiari jersey was shown downing a beer on the big screen, prompting the lineman to empty a can into his own mouth.

And soon after, Yelich -- the reigning National League MVP who was seated next to Bakhtiari -- got in on the fun by finishing his own beer, much to the delight of the crowd.

Yelich was a bit faster than Rodgers, but the QB wasn't impressed and indicated that Yelich's cup had been slightly less than full.

Their antics couldn't inspire the Bucks to a win, however, as the Toronto Raptors prevailed 105-99 to take a 3-2 lead in the Eastern Conference finals.

Why 'Game of Thrones' fans aren't happy with this final season

"Game of Thrones" fans are fed up. This final season was supposed to be a climax of brilliant storytelling, a time when all the pieces in this sprawling, intricate Westeros puzzle finally snapped into place.

Instead, fans are grumbling on social media about rushed storylines, unexplained loose ends and beloved characters doing things that don't feel true to their nature.

Last week's 80-minute episode took a sudden, dark turn by making longtime heroine Daenerys Targaryen a mad war monster who used her lone surviving dragon to waste hundreds of thousands of innocent lives.

With one episode left before the series ends, that's a lot for fans to take in. More than a million of them have signed a Change.org petition urging HBO to re-make the final season. (HBO is owned by WarnerMedia, CNN's parent company.)

"David Benioff and D.B. Weiss have proven themselves to be woefully incompetent writers when they have no source material (i.e. the books) to fall back on," says the petition, referring to the two "Thrones" showrunners and the source material by author George R.R. Martin.

"This series deserves a final season that makes sense."

HBO has declined to comment about criticism of "Game of Thrones," but it's used to saying goodbye to series, such as "The Sopranos," with divisive endings. 

As we head into Sunday night's finale, here are some of fans' biggest complaints

 

Dany has gone mad, and the plot's execution didn't prepare fans for it.

The show foreshadowed the Mother of Dragons becoming the Mother of Ashes like her villainous father, the Mad King. But it happened all too quickly.

Earlier seasons, in which Dany liberated slaves and showed compassion for the downtrodden, led many fans to believe she would be the show's big hero.

And let's not forget about Team Cersei fans who wanted an epic death for their ruthless queen. Seeing her crushed by falling rubble in the Red Keep's crypt was not as climactic as some had hoped.

Many fans expected more, especially if there was no rush to end the series.

Benioff and Weiss told Entertainment Weekly that HBO would have been happy to have more episodes in the final season. But the showrunners decided to limit the final season to six episodes instead of the usual 10.

"We always believed it (the series) was about 73 hours, and it will be roughly that," Benioff said. "As much as they wanted more, they understood that this is where the story ends."

The writing leaves too many questions

How did Arya and the Hound get from Winterfell to King's Landing so fast? Either Westeros is smaller than we think or those Uber horses ride at warp speed.

She's a trained assassin, but how is it that Arya is one of the only people who appear able to survive the flames from Dany's dragon Drogon?

Then, just as Arya seemed doomed to die in the flaming wasteland of King's Landing, a white horse magically appeared to rescue her. Seriously, what are the odds? Was it a Biblical reference? A real-life symbol of the toy horse the girl from King's Landing was holding onto?

Or take Euron. In Episode 4 he and his fleet are long-range sharpshooters, but come Episode 5 they suddenly can't hit a thing when Drogon flies right by them.

What about Brienne, who was left crying in Winterfell after being jilted by Jaime Lannister? Where is Bronn? Samwell Tarly? And can we get an update on Ghost? Jon just left him like he hardly knew his direwolf.

Too. Many. Questions.

It's one thing to leave some mystery for viewers to figure out on their own. But many fans found these recent episodes straight-up confusing and frustrating.

Characters' choices don't make sense

It's not just Daenerys and her sudden urge to rotisserie all of King's Landing.

Fans had such high hopes for Jaime. He was on the upward trajectory to be a good person ...then he decides after sleeping with Brienne to go back to his sister/lover Cersei? The woman he had abandoned over her treacherous ways?

That was a real sharp mood change.

Arya had Cersei atop her kill list before the Hound told her no way kid, get out of here. And Arya obeyed him? That was new.

Tyrion, who prides himself on being the smartest Lannister and keeps saying how Daenerys wants to make the world a better place, thought it would be OK to tell Varys the truth about Jon Snow without Dany getting mad? Then he crosses Dany AGAIN by freeing his brother Jaime?

Some fans feel these episodes have betrayed seven seasons of painstaking character development. And they would know. They've grown to know these characters so much they probably could predict their rising signs if it came down to it.

That's how fierce the "Thrones" fandom is.