[amphibian]

In b4 millions of furballs from Sothoryos swoop in and overturn everything once again at the end.

[worry]

The Iron Throne has to be destroyed, ultimately, right? If anything's the "One Ring" of the series, it's that. Plus it's essentially Valyrian steel, even if not completely literally, since it was dragon forged.

[Terez]

Maybe, maybe not. I can see it either way. I don't think it's anything like the One Ring, though; if anything, it's what a throne should be: not easy to sit upon, potentially dangerous to a careless ruler.

[worry]

Terez, on 07 May 2016 - 10:41 PM, said:

I don't think it's anything like the One Ring, though

Tell that to Stannis!

[Terez]

He never even sat on the thing.

[Nevyn]

Oponn Relationship, on 07 May 2016 - 07:02 PM, said:

The Iron Throne has to be destroyed, ultimately, right? If anything's the "One Ring" of the series, it's that. Plus it's essentially Valyrian steel, even if not completely literally, since it was dragon forged.

The show will end in a major apocalypse with the walkers winning narrowly and only the night's king and Tyrion surviving (Tyrion will make a deal with the walkers). Then the nights king will sit on the iron throne, cut himself on a Valyrian blade and die. Tyrion = last being alive.

[worry]

The lore things do tell the stories from various character POVs to mirror the Rashomon element of the books. I suppose it can get repetitive if you watch all 6 hours of them in a row, but I dug them. But that's what I like about the Rebellion anyway...can't say I care about it in terms of just how the action played out (at least, not as much).

[worry]

Season 2 has four more Robert's Rebellion things, three Greyjoy Rebellion clips, a few House histories, and a bunch of things on Qarth.

[Terez]

Was disappointed in tonight's episode. It feels like it was really short, for one thing; even the 'inside the episode' stuff was over by the end of the hour. And since I was hoping they would go back to the Tower of Joy, I felt cheated. They really shouldn't have hyped us for the Tower of Joy on Mother's Day if they weren't going to give us the goods.

Didn't Ned remember killing Arthur Dayne personally? Maybe not. That's not so important to me, but it had the feel of being a B&W idea. In any case, I'm glad they didn't cut Howland Reed.

RIP Shaggydog.

Still not convinced Jon has left the Watch for good. I figure he's just having a moment. His role is still against the White Walkers; he just has to consolidate the North first.

Was anyone else hoping Frankenmountain would bash Pycelle's head against a wall?

[amphibian]

Someone pointed out that most of the seasons have been exactly 560 minutes, with the one exception being 544. So the shortness is somewhat outside enforced, rather than story dependent.

The Mountain is going to paste Tommen against a wall.

[amphibian]

It feels like the show is condensing a ton of stuff into Ramsay, now that he has Rickon and a gathering of the North. I think GRRM will have Him come off the wall and deal with the Boltons before Rickon comes back into the story there.

[Slow Ben]

Is there any chance this is a scheme by the Umbers to take back Winterhold?

I'm going to hope so and assume no.

[JPK]

I don't see how it could be. I hope it is, but the North seems to be dancing to Ramsay's tune at this point. I do feel that the way that the Tower scene was done all but confirmed R+L=J though.

Also, goodbye Sir Alliser. It's was a LONG time coming.

[worry]

Huh. I don't love the heel turn of the Umbers, but that's just affection from the books I suppose. Plus I imagine what's left of the House are those who didn't ride south with Robb anyway? What I did like about that scene is that Ramsay finally has an outside world to deal with. He's been a big fish in a much smaller pond than he understands, and there's a whole wide world of people who aren't scared of him. Also while the Rickon stuff is indeed bigtime condensing, I think he's gonna come out of it ok. After Theon and Sansa, they can't go back to that well a third time without flipping it. And if Ghost eats Ramsay that'll be poetic canine justice.

[Coltaine -]

First Episode: Doran, Areo, Trystane

Second Episode: Roose, Walda, Balon

Third Episode: Thorn, Olly, Shaggydog

I recognise a pattern

Who will be the next three? Any guesses?

We got explicitly tolded about the Umbers, Karstarks and Manderlys as the biggest houses of the North. So the Manderlys are still missing. I guess they will ally with Jon as they did with Stannis in the books. Good possibility to use scenes with Davos.

As for Ramsay I have the feeling that he will fail due to his attitude. Due to his inability to control people by other means than fear. No one will really be loyal to him and once he shows weakness there will be a dagger waiting for him. Or a Manderly stabs him into the heart and says "Jon Snow sends his regards". Would love that

Did anyone else think that Jons "Now my watch is over" was a bit harsh. Poor Edd.

[Terez]

amphibian, on 09 May 2016 - 02:44 AM, said:

Someone pointed out that most of the seasons have been exactly 560 minutes, with the one exception being 544. So the shortness is somewhat outside enforced, rather than story dependent.

The Mountain is going to paste Tommen against a wall.

Do you think? I know Tommen has to die, and I wouldn't be surprised if it's this season, maybe soon, but why would Frankenmountain do that? I doubt Cersei would ever stoop that low; she actually loves her children. Do you think Frankenmountain is not as much under control as he appears to be?

Slow Ben, on 09 May 2016 - 04:09 AM, said:

Is there any chance this is a scheme by the Umbers to take back Winterhold?

I'm going to hope so and assume no.

Someone who is more active than me at Westeros pointed out to me that the wolf's head appeared to be tarred, and that it might be a shout-out to the fake-out that led people to believe Rickon was dead in the first place. And the Umber guy refused to swear any oaths to Ramsey.

One thing I am wondering is what exactly the Faceless Men are doing with Arya. They seem to be pushing for something. They asked her if she wasn't forgetting any names on her list, and she said, "Which name would you like a girl to speak?"

Her TV hit list is very different from the one in the books, partly because characters were mixed up and killed in different ways, but also partly because of Melisandre's visit to the Brotherhood camp. That put Melisandre, Thoros, and Beric Dondarrion on the list, but to the Faceless Men, she only mentions Cersei, Gregor, and Walder Frey.

In the middle was some confusion over the Hound—wasn't he on the list at one point?—but a girl said that Arya had sort of taken him off the list before he'd died. So I'm guessing they pared her list down to the 3 people she hated the most so they don't have to kill so many this season. My guess is that Arya will be assigned to kill other people, but someone else will be assigned to take out those three. But Cersei at least has to die at the hands of the valonqar, so maybe the Faceless Men won't get a chance. Or maybe they will recruit the Hound.

Arya's line, "Which name would you like a girl to speak?", seems to be a recognition of the fact that the Faceless Men are going to do this list without her. That's why she only spoke 3 names; she was showing self-control.

Am I reading too much into this? I wouldn't be surprised if the show is taking the Hound=valonqar route while GRRM is taking the Jaime=valonqar route. For example.

[Cause]

In the books it's strongly implied that a faceless man can't kill anyone they knew before the contract. Lest their own motivations be mixed up into the motivations of their God

[Terez]

Right, hence me thinking other people will finish off her list.

[Cause]

Edit - I hope the umber are planning something. There was always so much foreshadowing that the Boltons and Grey's must suffer for their crimes. The North holds guest right sacred. They can never accept the Bolton as rulers unless they are strong enough to hold off all the other houses. They are no longer anymore. The North must remember! The Boltons also killed great John. The one brother didn't care but the other definitely did. Plus we never got to see the manderlys feed the freys their own cousins! For all the subversion of only good things can happen we always get some small snippet of satisfaction eventually

[Nevyn]

My what a tease this week was ... everyone should have seen it coming from these showrunners. One cry from the Tower of Joy, and then "its time to go". Its like whenever Bran says "I want to stay here longer" he is a surrogate for the audience.

A girl has her eyes back, but it is still tough to see where this story is going. She has to get back involved at some point you would think, but tough to see how she can detach from the faceless men, and tough to see them giving her leave to hunt her list, or even Westerosi missions.

They have managed to make Mereen and Vaes Dothrak incredibly boring thus far. Tyrion had better pull something off soon, because at the moment his great leadership doesn't seem too great.

Convenient that all the Khalasars are back. in Vaes Dothrak A dragon + a stirring speech =giant army? Or just a Dany escape for now, pursued by Khalasars to come in handy later ...