BlackberryJam

I think with the latest spoilers about slams us over the head with that prophecy. Yeah...no way is Cersei's nemesis Sansa. Also, hated the Vale storyline. Loved Sansa in Winterfell storyline, though I never want to see a character raped. The story wasn't "Sansa gets raped" though. The story was "Sansa gets a clue and tries, even though as a Stark she's destined to fail miserably." She was suddenly less of an annoying, drippy twit. She acted with purpose and forethought. Loved it. But she's not Cersei's nemesis. Cersei's downfall is going to happen long before Sansa makes it south again.

You know...Arya could kill Cersei wearing Jaime's or Tyrion's face? Or Tommen's? I absolutely hate the idea of Arya Stark: Child Super Assassin. It seems more likely to me that the HoBaW decides she is a total failure and sends her back to Westeros with a flea in her ear and she decides to go all personal revengey in the Riverlands.

Where the hell are Brienne and Pod going to be? And wasn't there a rumor of NCW going to Iceland to film?

Wouldn't that be a powerful ending to S6? Dany arriving in Westeros juxtaposed with Rickon arriving at Winterfell?

Looking at the locations in Spain, some of them could absolute work as exterior shots of KL. I think most of KL is going to be interior anyway.

Walder makes it to the end...and tries to marry Dany before it's all over.

I'd be fine with dead Jon, dead dragons, dead direwolves, dead Starks. All of that is fine. But do not fuck with Brienne of Tarth.

The only thing that would get me to quit watching is the show became solely a Stark kids/Dany show. The Starks are utterly boring on their own without wonderful antagonists like the Boltons and Lannisters. And the Lannisters are a far more interesting watch/read than the Starks. Both book and show Dany bores the crap out of me. I'm quite willing to fast-forward through all of her scenes, but if that leaves me with 20 minutes of Starks and then only 3 minutes of Lannisters/Boltons/Freys/KL drama, then I'd be...out. Because who wants to only watch 3 minutes of a show? If Brienne dies though...yeah. No.

Ian McShane cast in "mystery role." ...small but important. http://www.ew.com/article/2015/08/01/game-thrones-ian-mcshane

I'm wrong on the succession, but THIS THIS THIS. THIS is the question. When these guys are sent to ToJ, there is a very much alive King, a Crown Prince, and a third in line with Aegon, Rhaegar's son. There is no justifiable reason for the KG, who are sworn to Aerys, to accept an order from Rhaegar (who has Lewyn, Darry and Barristan, sorry I originally thought Lewyn was in KL, but he was at the Trident and kill there). So Rhaegar has his own protection. Rhaegar has three others, Whent, Hightower and Dayne, at ToJ, leaving Jaime alone in KL to protect Aerys, THE ACTUAL KING, and Aegon, the Crown Prince's heir. It just makes no freaking sense at all. "We are the Kingsguard, sworn to the King, except we aren't actually protecting the King at all, but doing his son's bidding and protecting some pregnant chick locked in a tower, KG out!" But I think there are a lot of parts of the books which are just going to get handwaved away. So, when a thread goes into, "who is the father of Robin Arryn," all I can think is "Martin probably has no intention of ever following up on that anyway, because it's not important to endgame." Which I find frustrating. I know Martin calls himself a gardener as a writer, but he should have been pruning and weeding all along. Instead, there are so many unresolved questions and hanging threads and it's we are never going to know. It makes me want to bang my head.

Why wouldn't it? At that point, Rhaegar is dead but Aerys is alive. So...that means Viserys is next. The KG at the ToJ should be protecting Viserys and Rhaella's unborn child (possibly male) to protect then line of succession. Then it goes Rhaegar's child male child, Aegon. THEN it goes to Rhaegar's unborn child. There is no way that Lyanna's unborn child ranks above Rhaella's unborn child.

And now that it hits me, Rhaella was pregnant too. So if Dany had been a boy that knocks Lyanna spawn further down the line. And Lyanna could have been having a girl anyway. Honestly, I've never seen a real explanation for the KG at the ToJ that really made logical sense...except they were all (led by Rhaegar) secretly planning to rebel against Aerys. And that Rhaegar was willing to sacrifice Elia, his kids, his mother and his siblings to do it. And they left Jaime there with Aerys hoping he'd get killed. But Jaime unwittingly foils the plan and kills Aerys, saving himself and messing up the plan. Had Jaime died at the hands of Robert and Ned, Tywin probably would have pulled his support and turned back to support the Targs. Rhaegar, with Lannister forces and his father dead, takes KL, with his new wife and child safe at ToJ. Only Rhaegar dies at the Trident. The ToJ is isolated and they don't hear word until it's too late. Jaime kills Aerys leaving Tywin still able to support Robert. Ned takes a force to ToJ, the KG there have nothing left to defend except this possible random Targaryen heir. Only...that's a convoluted mess of a story. I think it's a pretty big plot hole.

Sorry, I wasn't clear. I understand why Jaime was in KL. I don't know why the rest of them were not. I mean, three KG at the ToJ? Who ordered them there? And what were they supposed to defend? And if they were there to defend a potential heir to the Throne (Lyanna preggers with Jon), did Aerys know and was cool with that? And why wasn't there more protection for Elia and the existing heirs to the Throne, including Aerys' other children? How did Rhaegar (not the king) get three KGs to ToJ and keep them there to fight to the death to protect...the...what? Fetal third in line to the Throne? I mean Rhaegar dies at the Trident, leaving the King alive, then Aegon, then Viserys, then the other Aegon, all in line to rule before an unborn child of Lyanna and Rhaegar. Why are the KG even there, leaving the other heirs essentially unprotected? Not why is Jaime there...but why isn't anyone else?

Winds Winds Winds Winds. The more I delve into the fandom, the more it seems to me that there are too many fan theories, hints dropped, characters and story lines for it all to ever be wrapped up in a satisfying manner. Who is Robin's father? How did Howland Reed beat Arthur Dayne? Who was the father of Ashara's child? How did Elia really feel about Lyanna? Why were Jaime and Lewyn the only ones left in KL during the rebellion? What is Doran's plan? Is Sandor alive? Who is Septon Meribald? What happened to Benjen Stark? Is Brienne a descendant of Duncan the tall? And on and on...It's like if GRRM stopped adding characters and story lines right now, it would still take 4K pages to wrap it all up.

Oh...it would have been a better cliffhanger for Jon's eyes to cloud over, then close and come back blue, or red, or just open, than the current cliffhanger, because the same things would have gone on, #hairwatch, the Belfast stalking, but they would have had the massive, massive, massive extra buzz of having given a bigger hint towards resurrection. They didn't do that. I wasn't there in the meetings, but I can imagine it's a request of George's they granted. Of course, if he doesn't get the book out by April 2016, all bets are off.

They are filming in Northern Ireland. From the photos at Watchers, looks like Dany and the Dothraki.

Not that I'm knocking Turner here, but Natalie Dormer is doing Hunger Games, which does very well. And Gwendoline Christie is doing Hunger Games and Star Wars: TFA. I'm pretty sure Star Wars is going to blow everything else out of the water, success-wise. The X-Men franchise is a real boon for Turner though.

You know, the wait between the finale and next season's premiere is so damn long that I don't think there is any way that the Jon Snow questions could have been handled that wouldn't ultimately piss everyone off. And really, who cares at this point? Kit's been spotted all over Belfast. He's coming back. We get it. Let's move on to finding out some casting news. Is it really Euron? Randyll Tarly? Who is filming with whom and where? Is Jaime back in Spain? Or is NCW filming in Croatia? Where is Alfie Allen filming? And who is filming with him?

The Bran, Myrcella and Tommen pics are in London, not Belfast. They are just hanging out together. There is no indication that Myrcella is filming anything.

Kit is being spotted, this time with pics, in Belfast airports.

Oh...pre-series Joffrey, Robin Arryn and Shireen, being forced to hang out together in King's Landing. Now that would be quite the teen soap opera.

See what happens when a writer decides he's made some mistakes and decides to retcon?

It's "ANOTHER, younger and more beautiful." The QUEEN part is interpretation. So not being an actual queen is not a barrier to the prophecy. I've always held that the person who takes all from Cersei before she dies is a combination of Sansa, Dany, Margaery, Arianne and Brienne. Margaery and Sansa take her sons, Arianne takes her daughter, Dany takes her power and Brienne takes Jaime. But yeah, the prophecy kind of sucks.

Okay...Cersei is the one who defines the word valonqar in the books. She asks Maggy what a valonqar is, but Maggy doesn't answer. Cersei later tells Taena that she asked her Septa (Saranella) what a valonqar is and that it means little brother in High Valyrian. So to accept that valonqar means "little brother" we are relying on Cersei, who is a traditionally unreliable narrator, and trusting that she was telling Taena the truth, and that the septa was correct. I think Martin has plenty of wiggle room there. I really just think the whole prophecy thing is a retcon by Martin to try to give Cersei depth and motive.

Why give Ramsay a death like that? I'd prefer it if he were killed in battle by a random squire with no name, no history, no story, who just gets in a lucky stab. That would be fitting. Or wait...he chokes to death on his soup. Wait wait, I like this better. He tries to shove Walda down the stairs but doesn't have the strength and topples over himself.