Winter is Coming (GoT is back)

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

Love how they trolled the fans for a week about Jon Snow.

Either way we need George RR Martin to get off his fat lazy ass and write the next two books. He's gotten caught up in his own fame and worthless blogging, every normal person would have been fired long ago. Send out the goon squads and beat him until he finishes it.

and it's got nothing to do with fame, he took forever to write sh**t before the fame too.

First 3 books written in 4 years, then they became popular and he started slacking. Next 2 books 11 years, up to 5 years now, likely a year or two more before the next book, it's pathetic.

There are better authors who can put out a book every year or every other year. That's because they treat writing as their job and write 8 hours a day instead of blogging.

As for Malcolm X, yes he does owe us. He signed a contract and is supposed to do his job and write the book. Last year he said he "put away all his side projects and conventions to write seriously" meaning he's been faffing about for the last few years not caring. Any regular person would be fired a long time ago. He's also doesn't care about the story either, said if he does he will make it so no one can finish his books.

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

Anyway, enough of Masterjedi being awful.  Prediction time:

- Arya trains, gets much better, fights with the Waif (we get the fight scenes from the trailers), finally lands a hit on the Waif and gets her sight back.  Also, at some point Jaqen says "A girl has been given a second chance.  There will not be a third.  If a girl is truly no one, then she has nothing to fear.  And if she isn't, it doesn't matter.  One way or another, the gift will be given.  One way or another, a face will be added to the Wall."  

- Jon executes Thorne, Marsh, Yarwyck, and (after a brief hesitation) Olly.  

- Obligatory "Tyrion drinks some wine and says something funny" scene

- Qyburn has Pycelle and Kevan murdered on Cersei's orders

- Tommen tries to confront the High Sparrow and it goes about as well as you'd expect

- Bran sees the fight part of Tower of Joy, but nothing else

- The Umbers give Rickon, Osha, and Shaggydog to Ramsay who has the latter two killed.  Ramsay writes a show version of the Pink Letter to Jon which includes the line from the teaser "Winterfell is mine.  Come and see..."

[SATW]

Love how they trolled the fans for a week about Jon Snow.

Either way we need George RR Martin to get off his fat lazy ass and write the next two books. He's gotten caught up in his own fame and worthless blogging, every normal person would have been fired long ago. Send out the goon squads and beat him until he finishes it.

and it's got nothing to do with fame, he took forever to write sh**t before the fame too.

First 3 books written in 4 years, then they became popular and he started slacking. Next 2 books 11 years, up to 5 years now, likely a year or two more before the next book, it's pathetic.

There are better authors who can put out a book every year or every other year. That's because they treat writing as their job and write 8 hours a day instead of blogging.

As for Malcolm X, yes he does owe us. He signed a contract and is supposed to do his job and write the book. Last year he said he "put away all his side projects and conventions to write seriously" meaning he's been faffing about for the last few years not caring. Any regular person would be fired a long time ago. He's also doesn't care about the story either, said if he does he will make it so no one can finish his books.

No, he doesn't know you or me anything. Also, he signed a contract with a publisher, not you. #KTHNXBYE

[Enduro]

Anyway, enough of Masterjedi being awful.  Prediction time:

- Arya trains, gets much better, fights with the Waif (we get the fight scenes from the trailers), finally lands a hit on the Waif and gets her sight back.  Also, at some point Jaqen says "A girl has been given a second chance.  There will not be a third.  If a girl is truly no one, then she has nothing to fear.  And if she isn't, it doesn't matter.  One way or another, the gift will be given.  One way or another, a face will be added to the Wall."  

- Jon executes Thorne, Marsh, Yarwyck, and (after a brief hesitation) Olly.  

- Obligatory "Tyrion drinks some wine and says something funny" scene

- Qyburn has Pycelle and Kevan murdered on Cersei's orders

- Tommen tries to confront the High Sparrow and it goes about as well as you'd expect

- Bran sees the fight part of Tower of Joy, but nothing else

- The Umbers give Rickon, Osha, and Shaggydog to Ramsay who has the latter two killed.  Ramsay writes a show version of the Pink Letter to Jon which includes the line from the teaser "Winterfell is mine.  Come and see..."

Malcolm, you're scaring me with these predictions.

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

Anyway, enough of Masterjedi being awful.  Prediction time:

- Arya trains, gets much better, fights with the Waif (we get the fight scenes from the trailers), finally lands a hit on the Waif and gets her sight back.  Also, at some point Jaqen says "A girl has been given a second chance.  There will not be a third.  If a girl is truly no one, then she has nothing to fear.  And if she isn't, it doesn't matter.  One way or another, the gift will be given.  One way or another, a face will be added to the Wall."  

- Jon executes Thorne, Marsh, Yarwyck, and (after a brief hesitation) Olly.  

- Obligatory "Tyrion drinks some wine and says something funny" scene

- Qyburn has Pycelle and Kevan murdered on Cersei's orders

- Tommen tries to confront the High Sparrow and it goes about as well as you'd expect

- Bran sees the fight part of Tower of Joy, but nothing else

- The Umbers give Rickon, Osha, and Shaggydog to Ramsay who has the latter two killed.  Ramsay writes a show version of the Pink Letter to Jon which includes the line from the teaser "Winterfell is mine.  Come and see..."

Malcolm, you're scaring me with these predictions.

I do what I can

Also RIP Shaggydog, FF

Edit: Btw, this episode gets an 11/10. The fact that Arya 1) basically told the Waif to her face that she also wants/wanted to kill her (I'm gonna be so happy when that finally happens, episode seven or eight would be my guess) and 2) that she finally landed a hit on the Waif is worth a bonus point.

[Lumine]

I said it before and I'll say it again, Ser Kevan is a really underused character (and it was great to see Pycelle and Qyburn back again).

[The Other Castro]

That was some major fan service with what happened to       Olly.

[Mr. Morden]

Assuming Sansa, Brienne, and Pod make it to Castle Black OK, what if anything is going to happen between Brienne and Davos/Melisandre, given that the latter two worked for Stannis, and Mel is even responsible for killing Renly?

The questioning of Arya about her past and her family got me to thinking about whether there’s any kind of hidden motive here on the part of the Faceless Men.  Will we ultimately find out that they took an interest in her at least in part because of her family?  Do they have a special interest in say, either Jon or Bran, because they’re “special” (in different ways)?

Also, regarding Arya’s “list”…

Note that this is the second episode in which we got Arya’s abbreviated list. She used to include folks like Ilyn Payne and “the Red Woman”. However, in Episode 5×02, when she was stuck outside the House of Black and White, she kept repeating her list over and over again, and it was this abbreviated list:

Cersei
Walder Frey
The Mountain
Meryn Trant

Now that Meryn Trant is dead, she only includes the other three names. I don’t think it’s an accident that the writers decided to trim the list to these names. I’m assuming that the writers decided to retcon her list to match up with their plan for the endgame of the show. When Arya returns to Westeros, she’s going to try to kill those remaining people one by one. She already got Meryn Trant, and I’m assuming that Walder Frey will be next (maybe at the end of this season).

[Mr. Morden]

On another topic…what to make of Ned “hearing” Bran call to him in the past?  Is this a hint that they’re actually going to resolve the White Walker conflict with time travel or something?  Bran goes several thousand years into the past, whispers an important message to the First Men, and that fixes everything, the end?

[dead0man]

On another topic…what to make of Ned “hearing” Bran call to him in the past?  Is this a hint that they’re actually going to resolve the White Walker conflict with time travel or something?  Bran goes several thousand years into the past, whispers an important message to the First Men, and that fixes everything, the end?

better not end that way

[Gustaf]

It's really beginning to look like they're gonna run the book plot with Stannis v Bolton but with Jon Snow taking Stannis' place.

In the grand scheme of things this suggests to me that they're stalling the important plot lines, holding out hope for GRRM to finish the next book. I mean, 3 episodes in and what we're seeing is essentially resolving sideshow plots like Stannis and Dorne and essentially getting nowhere on the big stuff.

So far nothing has happened in the show this season that hasn't either already happened in the books or was very easily predicted after the last book (like the return of Snow).

[The Other Castro]

On another topic…what to make of Ned “hearing” Bran call to him in the past?  Is this a hint that they’re actually going to resolve the White Walker conflict with time travel or something?  Bran goes several thousand years into the past, whispers an important message to the First Men, and that fixes everything, the end?

The past is already written, so the type of time travel shown is that anything Bran does is what has already happened. For example, if Bran warged into a young Hodor (Willis) and made him into the modern day Hodoring Hodor, that wouldn't be changing the past but making the past as it had already been.

[Gustaf]

I wouldn't go so far as to say that "nothing [not easily predicted] has happened," however. Sure, most of the major plot developments that we've seen have been the subject of theories and speculation for years, but there are also plenty of credible theories that either have not occurred or have been outright contradicted by events in the show.

Such as? I agree, btw, on the point of them not knowing where Martin is going. That is why I think they are afraid of deviating and are trying to buy time.

Take the North. If my guess is right and they're doing the book Stannis plot that's gonna be a couple more episodes at least. I expect that after Ramsay says "we need houses Umber, Karstark and Mandelay" and 2 of them have now joined him it's gonna be a thing about getting the Mandelays on board. Jon will make the same analysis and send his new right-hand man (no pun intended) Davos there. They will do the book plot of that. Rattlebone will go with some spearwives equivalent to Winterfell, with Rickon playing the part of Jeyne Poole. If that is the rough plan (and I strongly suspect it is) that sounds like it'd take several more episodes, which in turn suggests this season is gonna end with us knowing:

a) Stannis is out
b) Bolton is out
c) Jon Snow is alive and important
d) North rallies around the Starks

All of that is stuff we basically knew after the last book anyway. I feel the tactic is to get rid of the less important storylines, with the reasoning that since they are less important that can be done in whichever way anyway and not risk rocking the boat on the main plotlines.

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

Assuming Sansa, Brienne, and Pod make it to Castle Black OK, what if anything is going to happen between Brienne and Davos/Melisandre, given that the latter two worked for Stannis, and Mel is even responsible for killing Renly?

The questioning of Arya about her past and her family got me to thinking about whether there’s any kind of hidden motive here on the part of the Faceless Men.  Will we ultimately find out that they took an interest in her at least in part because of her family?  Do they have a special interest in say, either Jon or Bran, because they’re “special” (in different ways)?

Also, regarding Arya’s “list”…

Note that this is the second episode in which we got Arya’s abbreviated list. She used to include folks like Ilyn Payne and “the Red Woman”. However, in Episode 5×02, when she was stuck outside the House of Black and White, she kept repeating her list over and over again, and it was this abbreviated list:

Cersei
Walder Frey
The Mountain
Meryn Trant

Now that Meryn Trant is dead, she only includes the other three names. I don’t think it’s an accident that the writers decided to trim the list to these names. I’m assuming that the writers decided to retcon her list to match up with their plan for the endgame of the show. When Arya returns to Westeros, she’s going to try to kill those remaining people one by one. She already got Meryn Trant, and I’m assuming that Walder Frey will be next (maybe at the end of this season).

I'd be shocked if this happened, tbh.  I think ShowCersei and FrankenMountain will die in episode ten of this season when Cersei lights Chekov's wildfire and burns down King's Landing while Walder Frey will die during a show-only Battle for Riverrun.  Part of Arya's arc next season will be finding something else to keep her going and realizing that revenge will not bring her peace (and getting back to Jon and Sansa, I expect she'll hear about Jon re-taking Winterfell pretty soon after arriving in the Riverland, shame Rickon's probably a goner this season).  I imagine she'll join the theatre troupe for a few episodes and then split with the Faceless Men permanently, kill the Waif, recover Needle and get the hell out of Braavos.  Episode ten will have her arriving in the Riverlands where the cliff-hanger will be her running into either the Hound or (less likely given the lack of warging) Nymeria.  The shortened list is probably just narrative economy and the fact that the dude who played Ser Ilyn got cancer. 

[dead0man]

when Cersei lights Chekov's wildfire and burns down King's Landing

And now my laptop is covered in green tea, thanks.

[Mr. Morden]

My reaction to what happened to Shaggydog (Rickon's direwolf):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWaXbCsh0po

[Mr. Morden]

Is there any significance to the fact that in the flashback, Arthur Dayne said “I wish you good fortune in the wars to come”, the exact same line spoken by Mance Rayder to Stannis before he (Mance) was executed?

[Türkisblau]

My reaction to what happened to Shaggydog (Rickon's direwolf):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWaXbCsh0po

I'd like to think that this is just a big fake-out by Small Jon, seeing as he wouldn't swear an oath.

[Citizen (The) Doctor]

Is there any significance to the fact that in the flashback, Arthur Dayne said “I wish you good fortune in the wars to come”, the exact same line spoken by Mance Rayder to Stannis before he (Mance) was executed?

There has to be. It's the second time they repeated a line in a flashback, and this is only the second flashback.

Also Dayne is an absolute monster. I wish they let Hightower kill more people to show how good he was (although I guess losing to Ned Stark isn't horrible).

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

My reaction to what happened to Shaggydog (Rickon's direwolf):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWaXbCsh0po

I'd like to think that this is just a big fake-out by Small Jon, seeing as he wouldn't swear an oath.

Because that worked so well when Littlefinger tried it

[Blue3]

Anyways, nice to see forgotten characters and plotlines finally brought back, from the Greyjoys to the Northerners. from Pycelle/Kevan/Tyrell's to Rickon/Osha, and even a mention of the Hound and his presumed death. Also the Arryn kid is in the preview to the next episode with Littlefinger. Even the Dothraki are back, and the other cities of Slavers Bay and some of the Free Cities (well, one, Volantis) are getting a plot.

 Who/what else needs some resolution? I can think of
 -Gendry
 -Brotherhood Without Banners
 -that strange woman from Qarth who could see Dany's future and had a weird mask hiding her face
 -that guy is Pentos, who Arya overheard talking to Varys, and gave Daenerys the dragon eggs... Magister Illyrio? something like that
 -Tully's and Frey's in the Riverlands (definitely happening at some point)

[Mr. Morden]

Is there any significance to the fact that in the flashback, Arthur Dayne said “I wish you good fortune in the wars to come”, the exact same line spoken by Mance Rayder to Stannis before he (Mance) was executed?

There has to be. It's the second time they repeated a line in a flashback, and this is only the second flashback.

Is "the wars to come" about the White Walkers?  Assuming that, as I think we're all expecting, Lyanna is giving birth to Jon in the tower, did Rhaegar know that the kid would be some kind of child of destiny against the White Walkers, and he told Dayne as much?

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

Predictions:

- Jorah and Daario try to rescue Dany.  Jorah has a pretty dumb-looking wrestling match with one of the Dothraki and wins, but doesn't actually kill him.  Daario kills some with a blade of some sort until Khal Whatshisname breaks his neck.  He takes Jorah as a live prisoner b/c he didn't shed blood in Vaes Dothrak when he had the chance.  Drogon (creative name ) stops playing with his food and torches the place.  The Dothraki decide Dany is a God or something b/c muh dragon and we get another cringe-inducing scene where the savage barbarian horde bows down to the blondest possible white savior.  

- Tyrion meets with some slavers and does his best political Tyrion circa season 2 impression.  The slavers tell him they're gonna attack.  Tyrion makes some deal to buy time. 

- Sansa gets to the Wall and Jon just left.  Davos argues with Brienne about her murdering the Mannis, Jon comes back and reunites with Sansa and gets the Pink Letter, so he now wants to attack Winterfell to save Rickon.  

- The Vale Lords hate LF, but do what he tells them and agree to attack Winterfell b/c reasons.  At least Robin Arryn a.k.a. The King Westeros Deserves will be back

- Margaery decides to confess to avoid Walk of Shame, Olenna is pissed b/c Loras will be screwed and it scraps Cersei's plan to have FrankenGregor off the High Sparrow at a trial by combat.  

- Kevan's got to do something one of these episodes, so I'm just gonna say he gives an awesome reason you suck speech to TeamTwincest.  

- Asha is pissed at Theon for staying with Ramsay, Theon says sorry.  Aeron is mad Euron's back and has a temper-tantrum when they meet again.  No Kingsmoot, Euron acts menacing toward Asha and makes dick jokes about Theon b/c of course he does.

Posted from phone, sorry.  Expecting the weakest episode this season thus far

[Blue3]

Wow! That ending...

Also...

* Jon and Sansa!!
* Sansa finally has her act together... and seems quite Queenly
* Brienne meets Melisandre and Davos... uh oh
* Tormund & Brienne?
* Poor Osha (at least it was over quickly, but if her killing Ramsay was supposed to be part of the conspiracy, I hope they have a Plan B)
* Yara has decided to become just as cold as her father I see, but at least Theon made it back to her ok
* Cersei finally makes an alliance with the Tyrells and a plan to overthrow the High Sparrow... but I have the feeling Cersei will betray them
* Well, at least we got to see Margaery and Loras (RIP my short-lived High Sparrow theory, lol)
* The Vale finally going to see some action... I think they're the kingdom I forget the most
* Mereen was actually semi-interesting and finally had a plot development

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

The good:

- Robin Arryn was hilarious
- The Meereen scenes were actually pretty good
- Pyke continues to be a highlight
- Ramsay offing Osha was a morbidly entertaining scene
- The High Sparrow's speech didn't make much sense, but boy did Jonathan Pryce act the Hell out of it.

The bad:
- Jon and Sansa wasn't handled well and didn't really land emotionally
- Sansa was OOC as all hell (not to be all bookreader, but come on)
- KL stuff was much more boring this episode than last time
- The show continues to waste Kevan

The Ugly:
- I officially hate ShowBrienne now.  It's bad enough she killed the Mannis and called Renly the one true King, but now she had to go and rub Stannis' murder in Davos' face.  Seriously?  Blargh.  Not so sad that she is only 50/50 to survive the season now.  

- Jorah and Daario continue to be a waste of screentime

- The Dany scene at the end with the temple was 1) pretty dumb and 2) even more cringe-worthy that I thought when I made my predictions.  We're talking last scene of season three-level cringe.  *vomits*