Winter is Coming (GoT is back)

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

Stannis harming his daughter in any way would make me rage. I guess it'd be for me what the Ramsay/Sansa rape was for so many others.

This

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

I haven't read the books or any spoilers or anything, but there's like, literally, no chance that a TV show will feature a major character murdering his little girl by burning her alive. Even on Game of Thrones. I wouldn't worry about that at all.

There's a fair chance Selyse burns Shireen on her own.

My guess would be that Melisandre will eventually burn Shireen (albeit with Selyse's help/support) despite what Stannis said (not necessarily this season though).  I could also easily see Stannis having Melisandre burned in retaliation which would be both excellent poetic justice for a whole host of reasons.  Plus Melisandre is basically a witch and there is that whole trope about burning witches being the main way to kill them.

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

Humanity is screwed.

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

Season needs more Arya.

Agreed, although I am really hoping that she'll at least get to cross another name off her list when Ser Meryn takes Mace Tyrell to meet with the Iron Bank.

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

Season needs more less Arya.

I've noticed that book readers really love Arya, but I've always thought her plotlines were the least interesting on the show.

Well, actually I enjoyed Bran's even less, so I'm glad he hasn't been in this season at all. (Also, I enjoyed Theon up on the X even less than both of them, but that's presumably over.)

This season hasn't had the strongest Arya storyline (although Maisie Williams' performance in Unbowed, Unbent, and Unbroken was Emmy worthy), but I'd argue that overall she's still the best character in a series filled with many excellent characters.  Even weaker storylines can sometimes work really well if the character and acting are good enough.

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

The internet's on fire over Episode 9. Hard to blame them, honestly.

I see what you did there

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

Does Stannis have any cousins or anything?  Unless the Shireen burning was a big illusion, I feel like Stannis has got to be doomed now.  He'll probably get offed by Brienne, or something.  So who inherits the throne (in the eyes of the Baratheon supporters) if Stannis is dead?  Would it fall to Gendry, even though he's a bastard?  Will Season 6 be "The Search for Gendry"?

I'm not completely on the Stannis hate train. I loved Shireen, but consider the larger picture. R'hllor is as good as confirmed...

R'hllor is confirmed, but he seems rather inconsistent about what kind of sacrifices he demands.  One day, you can just have the king have sex with a priestess, and it gives you an assassin smoke monster.  The next day, you can kill two out of three usurpers just by drawing some blood from (but not killing) a bastard with kingsblood.  Why weren't leeches for Shireen, rather than death, good enough to stop a snow storm?  Also, what does this even get them?  Help through the snow so that they can win the next battle?  Will that battle end the war, and secure the throne for Stannis?  No, there's no indication that it does.  It just helps them with this next battle I guess, after which there'll presumably be a whole new set of problems.  Hardly seems worth becoming a monster over.

In any case, with Stannis and the Boltons now irredeemingly bad, I hope they just club each other to death, before the knights of the Vale march in to squash whoever's left from the Baratheon-Bolton conflict, and rescue Sansa.  Believe it or not, the hero in the story is now this fellow:

Ugh, Littlefinger is worse than the Boltons or Stannis.

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

I think characters like Joffrey and Ramsey have blinded people to the fact that Stannis is a supremely sh**tty guy too. In "normal" tv shows, Stannis would be the big villain of the show -- he's already killed his own brother (a huge taboo in the Westeros world) and has been burning people alive for 4 seasons.

Stannis has always been a morally repugnant character. Not as over-the-top about it as Joffrey and Ramsey, but still a completely terrible person. Let's not pretend like he was this upstanding guy that whose character was assassinated out of the blue by the writers.

There is definitely some truth to this.

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

This is a good blog post I found about why the Stannis storyline is really dumb: http://gotgifsandmusings.tumblr.com/post/121016611972/no-this-wont-happen-in-the-books

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OH GOD. Next thing I know you're going to be posting theculturalvacuum's unintelligible rants.

Both of these posters are unreasonable book snobs who have this season taken criticism of the show to illogical levels.

I don't really care about the books, which I have not read. I care about the television show, which used to be a good show but is increasingly poorly written and prioritizing SHOCKING TWISTS and torturing fan favorite characters over good storytelling.

I couldn't disagree with you more on that one.  Good writing mean you can't have "shocking twists" (ex: the Red Wedding, the Purple Wedding, Ned's death, Tywin's death, etc ).  Furthermore, in hindsight Shireen being burned by Stannis under these circumstances shouldn't have been that surprising and it certainly wasn't out of character for Stannis given the situation he was in.  It was tragic, horrifying, and probably the hardest scene to watch in the show's history to date.  However, it was incredibly well-done and there was nothing gratuitous about it.  I don't see how you can criticize it as bad storytelling, plus Martin apparently confirmed that this will happen in one of the future books, so it certainly isn't D&D's fault even if one believes it to be bad storytelling.

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

I'm halfway through the season, and I'd almost be tempted to say "so far, so good". Of course it won't last. Besides, through my Facebook feed I got the clear impression that Stannis was going to fail miserably, which means that Winterfell is probably still in the hands of the degenerate traitors.

At least I still hold out hope that Jon succeeds in convincing the Free Folk. And that Margaery will find some way to get back at Cersei.

Nah, this has been a great season aside from Dorne.

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

Another not very good episode where a lot of people died.

This was a perfect episode and season five was significantly better than FeastDance.

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

I can't get over how dumb the Sand Snakes plot was (thanks Obara).

I suppose we're going to get more of them next season in some capacity?  I doubt we'll see much of Dorne itself next year, since I don't think anyone left there is significant enough to serve as a point-of-view character.  But I imagine that Ellaria and/or the Sand Snakes will flee Dorne and infect other storylines, since staying there will risk re-arrest and execution by Doran?

I doubt it, but that could be wishful thinking.

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

Comic Con is on this week, and I guess there's going to be a Game of Thrones panel later today.  Last year, they used Comic Con to make a slew of casting announcements for Season 5, so maybe we'll get something for Season 6 this year.

And we got...absolutely no remotely interesting news

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

Part I (because yes, I actually exceeded the maximum allowable length of 11,000 characters, I need a hobby )

As usual, I'm a bit late to the party, and couldn't comment on the episodes as they came out (blame it on my Master's Thesis ). Still, if anyone's interested, here's my two cents on this last season.

Despite how disappointed I was with the final two episodes, it was still a solid season - probably stronger than the 4th, on average.

 Obviously, this is highly subjective, but I'd argue the last episode was among the show's all-time best and the ninth was pretty good too.

It started off really good - the King's Landing plot was really captivating, and even the two traditionally boring storylines (the Wall and Daenerys) were surprisingly quite interesting. In the first case, I can't say no to a good election/campaign story. And seeing Janos Slynt's head chopped off was worth waiting for. Plus, I really enjoyed the Jon/Stannis interactions, there are a few really poignant moments. As for Daenerys, at least there is something actually happening this season. The concept of an underground rebellion of former slaveholders makes sense, even though the Sons of the Harpy are pretty ridiculously overpowered. As for the KL storyline, I really loved how it added a new player to a game which had lost many lately (Joffrey, Tyrion, Tywin...). Having a religious "revival" movement makes a lot of sense in light of the economic and social context. And it's handled with surprising subtlety, with the High Sparrow being depicted as a genuinely humble and soft spoken man who nonetheless proves utterly ruthless.

I pretty much agree with all of this.

The two storylines that were annoying from the get-go were the Dorne one and Tyrion-Jorah's tribulations. The first one is a complete Idiot Plot from the very beginning. Seriously, Jaime, you're going to risk getting killed or held hostage (hence singificantly weakening your family's position towards Dorne) in order to rescue your daughter from a danger you only assume exists? "Fortunately", his stupidity is offset by the stupidity of the Dornish themselves. Ellaria and Doran sound like the caricatures of what warmongers and appeasers think each other is. Ellaria, I understand you're sad, but Oberyn's death is Oberyn's fault alone, and killing an innocent child won't make him come back! Doran, you have two friggin' Lannister hostages! How about you use this position of favor to exact concessions from King's Landing, instead of sending both of them back for essentially nothing? Seriously, everybody in this story is a f**king idiot.

Dorne is terrible in the books and it's terrible in the show.  I agree that Tyrion-Jorah was kinda boring (except the fight with the stone men, which was awesome), but it could have been so much worse.  Tyrion's FeastDance storyline is Dorne-level awful, so I can't complain too much since it didn't feel like that much of a drag.

But what really saddens me is that even the genuinely good stories go to sh*t in the last two episodes. Take King's Landing: from the point Cersei is captured, we see absolutely nothing of what's actually going on there. We are only told, in vague terms, that Tommen is making a nervous breakdown, Kevan is back in charge and the Sparrows effectively rule the city. Wouldn't it have been nice to actually see some of these things? But nooooo, instead we get scene after scene of what amounts to Cersei torture porn which doesn't advance the story in any way, culminating with that "walk of shame" debacle. I've been willing to cut GoT some slack for its keenness on sex, violence, and sexual violence, but that was unbearable. Besides, it doesn't even make sense story-wise. Does the High Sparrow seriously think Cersei is going to come back to him for the trial after he lets her into the Red Keep, instead of frantically preparing her vengeance? What a dull resolution for a genuinely great concept.

Why waste time showing Tommen being as incompetent and helpless as he's always been (the kid who plays him does a good job and ShowTommen is definitely better than BookTommen, but still, what would you want to cut from episodes eight and nine so that we could get that)?  As for the Small Council stuff, Kevan and Pycelle are no Tyrion and Varys.  I don't think it'd have been that interesting, tbh, certainly not entertaining (especially given that there is basically no one left to oppose them).    

The stuff with Cersei being denied water and told to confess certainly wasn't torture porn.  If they wanted torture porn they would've shown Qyburn vivisecting a bunch of living, unanesthetized people with a razor blade for fun like he does in AFFC.  The point of those scenes was showing Cersei gradually break down (at least partially).  

As for the Walk of Shame, that was probably one of the better scenes the show has done and I'm shocked that they were able to pull it off without it being even remotely gratuitous.  That was a horrific thing and very much in line with how medieval Christianity would've dealt with something like what Cersei confessed to.  As for the High Sparrow, yeah, I do think he thought Cersei would effectively be broken by the Walk of Shame and it probably would've worked were she a weaker-willed individual.  More importantly, it completely obliterates the perception among the smallfolk (who are essentially the Sparrow's political base) that she is someone to be feared while also communicating in no uncertain terms that the Sparrows rather than the political elites (be they Cersei, Kevan, the Tyrells, etc).  It's hard to still view someone as a person to be feared if you've seen them paraded through the streets naked with people throwing crap and yelling things like "brotherf**ker" at them.  Is the Walk of Shame an incredibly misogynistic concept?  Of course, but the High Sparrows are clearly modeled of off the medieval Catholic Church, so that kinda comes with the territory, no?  Plus, I don't know that Cersei (or Kevan) have enough power at this point for her not to return for the trial.  Cersei's incompetence unleashed a monster and now she's trapped in a prison of her own making.  Although I'm almost willing to bet money that she'll win her trial by combat due to FrankenGregor (who the Sparrows obviously have no way of knowing about).  

If you're really interested, there's actually some strong textual evidence in ADWD to suggest that the Walk of Shame was Kevan's idea rather than the High Sparrow's (although I'm sure he loved the idea).https://bryndenbfish.wordpress.com/2015/07/04/the-lions-shadow-why-kevan-lannister-doesnt-deserve-his-good-rep/

Then, there's Stannis. Look, I could buy that in particularly desperate circumstances, if he was absolutely 100% convinced that they were all going to die unless he did that, he could have accepted to sacrifice Shireen. He is pragmatic and determined, so he can make hard choices for what he believes is the "greater good". But we never see him reaching this level of desperation. Stannis would try everything else before burning Shireen, he would have his soldiers eat their comrades' dead bodies, or try some strategic maneuver before resorting to that. A besides, if R'hllor really wanted Stannis to do that, why did he abandon him right afterwards? Is the implication that Melisandre lied to him? That she suddenly realized she was wrong about the prophecy? Anyway, Stannis was one of my favorite characters, and they treated him like sh*t.

I'd argue that (along with the Arya storyline and the battle of Hardhome), Stannis' storyline was one of the best things about this season.  Stannis was and still is one of my favorite characters, and I was disappointed (to say the least ) that he burned Shireen too, but the thing is that he has always been right on the edge of being a villain (along with Joffrey, he was basically the co-Big Bad of season 2).  Yes, he did save the Wall, but he also murdered his brother, burned a bunch of people alive, burned Mance Rayder alive because he wouldn't pledge fealty to him, wanted to burn his nephew alive for a blood magic ritual, has made Rasputin Melisandre his most trusted advisor, etc.  Stannis is a very complex character, but he is not a good person, even by the standards of the ASOIF universe.  I'd also take serious issue with anyone describing Stannis as a pragmatist given that the whole reason he has basically got a 0% approval rating at the start of season two is that he's one of the less pragmatic characters out there.  Stannis also consistently displayed some pretty serious messianic delusions, even during his better moments.

TL;DR: If you look at Stannis and how he's behaved throughout the series, it actually isn't that surprising in hindsight that his story culminated with burning his daughter alive (i.e. going full-Agammemnon).  I get that he's a great character and people want him to come down on the "good side" in the end, but this just isn't that sort of story (thank God).

Just like Tywin last season, he deserved a more dignified end.

Tywin was probably one of the last people who deserved a dignified end.  As awesome a character/villain as ShowTywin is (bookTywin isn't as interesting imo), he's a horrible, horrible, horrible person by any remotely objective measure.  I really like that he died on the toilet because it's an awesome visual pun (sort of).  Tywin is a sh!t, you see

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

Although to be fair, I do like his actual death scene, he comes across as pretty badass, and the way he ends up accepting his fate is pretty damn cool. And obviously, it's poetic justice to have Brienne swing the sword.

At least we agree on this

I'm not as pissed about Jon's death as I am about the resolution of the Dorne, KL, and Stannis plots. It does make a good deal of sense that the Watch would react like that, even if it's unbelievably stupid in hindsight. Still, a question remains: why would they even open the gates to Jon and the wildlings in the first place? Honestly, I was expecting them not to. It would have made sense for Thorne to just say "screw you", and most people would have sided with him. But when they have opened the gates, the harm is already done, so why change their minds and kill Jon? This is only the last of a series of weird plot holes that marked this season.

Here's my solution: Don't have Alliser Thorne participate in et tu Olly  He was a much more interesting and complex character before that.

OK, so I ended up talking mostly about the negative stuff, but most of it happens in the last two episodes, and the rest of the season is pretty consistently good. The pacing is definitely much improved compared to season 4's, and it keeps me wanting to know what comes next. Hopefully, the new directors will work harder to come up with satisfactory resolutions for their stories, and avoid derailing their characters for plot convenience.

I'd argue season four was the best to date and had excellent pacing, but I suppose that's rather subjective.

Oh, and BTW, the Arya storyline is good too (though very depressing for an Arya fan ).

Arya's storyline was excellent and all the more impressive given that it is among the weaker ones during the section of the books covered by season five.  I'd add that the person who plays her really deserves an Emmy for this season even though she probably won't even be nominated  It did end on a down note (although it was nice to see her stab the living f*** out of Ser Meryn, couldn't have happened to a nicer guy ), but as a book reader, it certainly wasn't depressing.  In the books, it's more of an open question until the very end whether she's been indoctrinated by the Faceless Men to the point that Arya is quickly becoming replaced with "no one."  I'm glad they didn't go that route here because those were some really depressing chapters!  Imo at least, there was never any serious danger that ShowArya was going to simply fade away into "No One" and this made it much, much easier to enjoy that storyline.

And I'm really curious to see Littlefinger's next move.

Hopefully it involves dying  Man, I hate that guy!  And not in a love to hate way like with Joffrey either  When you think about it, Littlefinger is either directly or indirectly responsible for about 80% of the bad things that happen in the series.

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

I still don't get why he led Sansa to Winterfell instead of keeping her safe in the Vale. Does he plan on befriending the Boltons? If so, why then tell Cersei he's going to raise the Vale's army against them? I know Littlefinger likes chaos, but even for him this plan makes no sense.

I think things are actually set up perfectly for Baelish to seize the North. Think about it: John (probably) gets resurrected and takes command of the Wildlings and summons some minor Northern Houses to march on Winterfell to get revenge against House Bolton. As the Wildling/Northern forces approach Winterfell, Baelish moves in with the Knights of the Vale into Winterfell to "support" the Boltons.

Once inside, the Vale Knights stage a back-stab as John assaults the city, House Bolton is crushed and Petyr enters an alliance with John re-establish House Stark in Winterfell. Petyr, now much stronger and having taken little causalities in his own army due to the ambush nature of his attack, marches South with the North supporting him.

House Tyrell now has major incentive to side with Baelish and doom the Lannisters once and for all.

That actually would be an excellent outcome. Only problem is, knowing this show, it's far too good to be true.  

Speak for yourself, I'd probably quit watching if that happened

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

Littlefinger on the Iron Throne? Are you sure that's really that good of an outcome?

Now with The One True King His Grace Stannis Baratheon gone Lord Petyr Baelish is the only choice.

I call such bullsh**t on George RR Martin if he has Daenerys win the Throne at the end of the day. It would just be so utterly predictable and typical.

The two of the dragonblood will rule jointly. Its the obvious, logical ending.

They're both gonna die in the battle with the Others.

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

There are people who don't?

I hate it, but then I've never liked any of the Targaryen plotlines.

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

Some new clips from the early episodes of Season 6:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWhysppFOQs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6sobj8azzQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XlCFXpbX6eU

Man, I was hoping for an Arya clip

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

Some new clips from the early episodes of Season 6:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWhysppFOQs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6sobj8azzQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XlCFXpbX6eU

Man, I was hoping for an Arya clip

You're in luck:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JnAyka8p-8&list=PLbwWsMYt-N_QyVjfGB0b-9d0dZU1cSTlx&index=1

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

Owen Teale is a great actor.  Loved how they've made Thorne an unusually complex depiction of a racist.  ShowThorne has many admirable qualities (see Watchers on the Wall) and clearly believes what he's saying (that he was forced to do something terrible to save the Watch b/c Jon left him no choice) and I like that he didn't try to pretend Jon had anything less than good intentions.  Part of why this works so well is Teale's performance.  

Anyway, the episode was a strong start, set most of the storylines up very quickly, and did so quite entertainingly.

Btw, let's not forget, Dorne was as bad (arguably even worse) in the books.  This isn't a case of "they changed it, now it sucks."  Dorne always sucked.  At least they got a semi-entertaining scene with Doran in this episode.

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

Some more thoughts:

- The scene with the Boltons was excellent.  The stuff with Ramsay mourning Myranda was dumb, but that last line about what to do with the body was hilarious.  The conversation between Roose and Ramsay was what I really liked here though.  

- In defense of the Dorne scene: I think they're just killing off all the Dorne characters, which is for the best.  It didn't work in the books and it was a disaster on the show. I expect the Sand Snakes and Ellaria will die pretty quickly.  Also I just realized House Martell has been completely wiped out.  The Sand Snakes borrowing LF's teleporter was dumb, but Doran's death worked better than anything else in Dorne (I don't consider Oberyn as part of the Dornish storyline so it's a pretty low bar, but still).  It made no sense from a political standpoint, but if they're just putting the Dorne storyline out of its misery, I suppose we might as well get a surprising and semi-entertaining death scene out of it.    
____________________________________________________________________
Predictions for episode two:

- Winterfell: Ramsay suggests attacking Castle Black b/c Sansa and Theon are going there and Roose agrees

- Pyke: Euron kills Balon *Maybe, I'm not sure about this one just because IDK if there will be room in the episode

- Castle Black: Thorne and co. break down the door, Edd and the Wildlings arrive and kill the mutineers.  Thorne gets killed in a boss battle with Tormund and Ghost turns Olly into a Kid's Meal.  The episode ends with Jon being resurrected somehow (maybe Melisandre kills herself in a "only death can pay for life" type thing).  If this happens, the last shot will be Jon's eyes opening...and then Castle Black probably won't be in episode three at all (a good way to build suspense and HBO seems to enjoy that sort of weapons grade trolling).  As with the Pyke prediction, I'm not as confident about Jon coming back b/c there may not be room in the episode.  

- We briefly see Bran and Max von Sydow gives him a quick talk about his Super Bran powers

- Arya fights the Waif again (who has already shot to the top of my sh!t list) and loses really badly, but does better than last time (maybe at least is swinging her stick in the general right direction).  A third Jaqen lets her return to the House of Black and White.  I hope she wargs into Nymeria and think she will this season, but it seems a bit too early.

- Brienne tells Sansa that Arya is alive, but she couldn't find her after the fight with the Hound.  Sansa gives Brienne a new mission: Go back to the Riverlands, find Arya, and bring her back to a safe part of the North.

- Tommen confines Cersei to her chambers, but the men guarding her collectively crap their pants at the sight of FrankenGregor and get out of the way when she wants to leave.  

-Jaime convinces Tommen to let him confront the High Sparrow.  They have a tense, well-acted confrontation in the Sept of Baelor, but no one dies or anything like that.  The High Sparrow drops his "Every one of us is poor and powerless, and yet together, we can overthrow an empire" line from the teaser.  

- Meereen is still a mess, so Tyrion decides to try releasing the two imprisoned dragons, but he changes his mind when they try to barbecue him.  This is laying the groundwork for when he actually frees them either late this season (or more likely, sometime next season).  We get the "That's what I do.  I drink and I know things" line from the second trailer.

Thoughts?  Agree?  Disagree?  Anyone have their own predictions for the next episode?

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

- Castle Black: Thorne and co. break down the door, Edd and the Wildlings arrive and kill the mutineers.  Thorne gets killed in a boss battle with Tormund and Ghost turns Olly into a Kid's Meal.  The episode ends with Jon being resurrected somehow (maybe Melisandre kills herself in a "only death can pay for life" type thing).  If this happens, the last shot will be Jon's eyes opening...and then Castle Black probably won't be in episode three at all (a good way to build suspense and HBO seems to enjoy that sort of weapons grade trolling).  As with the Pyke prediction, I'm not as confident about Jon coming back b/c there may not be room in the episode.

Kill the mutineers?  Don't the mutineers consist of all but about 5 Nightswatchmen?  So will the NW be completely done once this battle is over?  Castle Black will then be occupied by....the 5 or so NW left, plus a bunch of Wildlings?

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Wait, you mean send Brienne away right now?  Wouldn't she want to keep Brienne around until she (Sansa) is somewhere a bit safer?  Also, wouldn't she think that Arya was in the Vale rather than the Riverlands?  The Brienne vs. Hound fight was in the Vale, right?

I haven't read the books, but I understand that San/San is kind of a thing in the books.  Do you think Sansa will have any reaction to the fact that Brienne (apparently) killed the Hound?

- I think that there were about 50 night's watchmen, IIRC.  Only like 12 seem to have been outright mutineers, the rest seemed kinda apathetic at the end of Thorne's speech.  In any event, yeah, I don't think most of the Night's Watch is in it for the long haul.  Dolorous Edd probably becomes Lord Commander, imo.  

- Logically, the Vale might make more sense, but narratively the Riverlands probably make more sense since a lot of stuff will be happening there this season and some of it will likely involve Jaime, especially since basically nothing is happening in the Vale and a bunch probably will in the Riverlands given that HBO already made it known that the Freys, Edmure, and the Blackfish will be back this season.  

- San/San isn't really a thing in the books either.  It isn't really a thing anywhere in book or show cannon, tbh.  It's basically a creepy (the age difference alone... *shudder*) cracked pairing that seems to have become extremely popular because a bunch of people looked at Sansa and the Hound's ACoK/Season 2 storylines and came to the conclusion that there were romantic feelings between the two.  Now Sansa is arguably a reminder to the Hound of the innocence he lost when his brother burned his face and his father lied about what happened and he definitely behaves protectively toward her *at times,* but that's about it.  I don't think Sansa will care about the Hound's fate, tbh (*hides under desk*).  She'll probably be more focused on the fact that Arya is still alive and on figuring out how to find her/get her somewhere safe.

- Yeah, Brienne and Poderick (and Theon, for that matter, he'll decide to head to the Iron Islands any episode now imo) probably won't be with Sansa much longer.  Narratively speaking, Theon needs to have a confrontation with his family and we're really running out of time for that.  It's like how Sam needs to confront Randyll or Arya needs to leave the Faceless Men either mid-to-late season (thinking episode 7 or 8, but we'll see).  Are there other entirely plausible courses of action open to the characters?  Sure.  But when predicting GoT, I try to ask "does it make narrative sense?"  That often narrows things down somewhat, at least in terms of broad strokes.


Edit: Actually, I think Mr. Morden might be right regarding Brienne leaving.  Narratively speaking, the important thing is that she reaches the Riverlands before the last few episodes of the season so that she's there for whatever goes down when the Freys and Jaime presumably face off with the Blackfish at Riverrun.  That wouldn't necessarily require her to leave this episode.

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

Has anyone read GRRM's original 3-page outline of the series?

This is back when he had only written under half of the first book. And the second book would have been Daenerys with her Dothraki invasion, and the third book the invasion of the Others (White Walkers).

There are multiple changes, but it gives you an idea of where some plot threads still might go.

Like Jaime taking the Iron Throne, Arya and Jon falling in love with each other and that being a problem until his true parentage is revealed (maybe Sansa will play that role now?), Tyrion in love with Arya, and the 5 characters who survive: Jon, Bran, Arya, Daenerys, Tyrion.

But there were definitely changes. Like originally Catlyn being killed by and becoming a White Walker (after taking Arya back with her to Winterfell, and Arya and Bran with her to Castle Black and then further north). Sansa having Joffrey's son and choosing them over her family but later regretting it (and presumably her and her son being killed by Jaime). Daenerys wanting revenge for her brother and killing Khal Drogo. Robb dies in battle, after maiming Joffrey who's later deposed by Tyrion after Tyrion destroys Winterfell. Uncle Benjen staying around longer. Ned's death seem the same.

http://www.businessinsider.com/game-of-thrones-was-supposed-to-be-a-trilogy-2015-2

I have and I'd argue that it really doesn't tell you anything about where things are headed.  Note that some parts of the outline are blacked out.  From this we can infer that the parts of the outline that are available to us are only those that were essentially scrapped.

- Additionally, it does not say that Arya, Jon, Dany, Tyrion, and Bran all survive, it only suggests that they are the core central characters.  In fact, I'd bet money that Tyrion dies in the last book (he basically checks all the boxes for someone who would bite it in a story like this imo) and I'd be shocked if Dany and Jon survive the battle with the Others (especially Dany, characters with messiah/savior complexes tend not to survive stories with bittersweet endings).  If Tyrion, Jon, and Dany are the three heads of the dragon (per Word of God, one of the might not be a Targaryen) then my guess is they and the dragons somehow die while successfully stopping the Others in some sort of better than it sounds manner.  Bran, Arya, and Sansa are probably safe though.  And Samwell Tarly, I'm pretty sure he survives too.

- As for Sansa/Jon and Arya/Jon if either of those pairings happen, I will eat my hat (or I would if I had one ).  Not sure which one makes me cringe more.  Probably Arya/Jon due to the age disparity.  Then again, it's not like Martin has ever missed a chance for incest in ASOIAF.  Btw, as the great Steven Attwell has noted on racefortheironthrone https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westermarck_effect is a thing.

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

Seconded.  Also Cersei is totally going to burn KL to the ground with wildfire.  Cersei probably sends FrankenGregor to kill Margaery and Tommen being Tommen, tries to save her which goes about as well as that picture suggests and then Cersei completely snaps.