AGuyToo

This episode seems to confirm that the plan to capture a wight was the stupidest plan ever. Not only are they not getting any help from Cersei, but they lost the Wall because they lost the dragon. I hope GRRM comes up with something better.

Why did Bran reveal Jon's parentage to Sam, whom he barely knows, but not to Arya or Sansa?

I thought Bran (the all-seeing) simply told them what Littlefinger had done -- which sort of raises the question of why he didn't do so earlier.

I see what Sansa is now doing at Winterfell as good governmental work -- preparing for a long winter. In the books, Jon, while he's still at Castle Black, does some of this same stuff. In the last episode, Jaime of all people worried about the food supply. That's the business of government, not motherhood.

Why? Sansa is not a mother, whereas Dany is (in a manner of speaking).

Rhaegar was the eldest child and heir apparent of Aerys. As such, his legitimate descendant (Jon) is the next in line, ahead of Rhaegar's sister Daenerys. This is the same idea that, in Britain today, puts William, son of Charles, ahead of Queen Elizabeth's other children. The one complication is that there is an (ambiguous) line in the books that suggests that Aerys disinherited Rhaegar (and his descendants). Here is the Quora discussion on the topics: https://www.quora.com/Did-Aerys-The-Mad-King-make-Viserys-his-heir-before-or-after-Rhaegars-death.

I really don't understand Randall Tarly's motivation. He says he already has a queen (Cersei) for whom is apparently willing to die. But why? Cersei just grabbed the throne; she has no actual claim. And she killed much of House Tyrell (House Tarly's liege lords) with wildfire. Dany, on the other hand, is the only (known) descendant of the last Targaryen king (for whom House Tarly fought during Robert's Rebellion). Her claim is clear.

Such as? I think Greta is right. For example, when Edward III died, the crown went to his grandson Richard II (son of the Edward the Black Prince), even though several of Edward III's other children (Richard II's uncles and aunts) were still alive.

Jon (if legitimate) would be ahead of Dany even without male-preference primogeniture. Rhaeger was not only the Mad King's oldest son -- he was the Mad King's oldest child. So even without male preference, Rhaeger would be the heir and all his legitimate descendants would be in line ahead of Rhaeger's siblings.

Proud? I don't think Sansa looked proud at all when she saw what Arya could do and how Arya and Brienne interacted. She looked worried -- maybe jealous.

This woman was probably the inspiration for Natalie. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonina_Makarova She was older (20 not 16) and the circumstances of her first involvement with the Nazis were different, but many of the details match: she was used as an executioner of Russian POWs (1500!), she caught a venereal disease from the Germans that was treated at a hospital, she lived in cognito for many years, and she was eventually tracked down and killed by the KGB.

I think the edition Pastor Tim gave Paige was this one: https://www.amazon.com/Capital-Communist-Manifesto-Writings-Library/dp/0394602021 It contains a collection of Marx's writing, including the Communist Manifesto and an abbreviated, simplified version of Das Kapital.

This idea -- decades-long loyalty -- would be applicable if D&D had stuck with the Dorne plot of the books. There, in GRRM's original vision, it was Prince Doran who plotted "Vengeance. Justice. Fire and Blood" over the course of 20 years. That version was organic and moving and powerful. But in the D&D television version, they instead gave that plot to the cartoon characters Ellaria and the Sand Snakes, who are not Martells. In fact, supposedly to avenge Oberyn Martell and Elia Martell, the cartoon characters basically exterminated House Martell. I know complaining about the TV Dorne plot is kind of tiresome at this point, but I can't help myself.

I'm also excited to see Dany in Westeros. We've been waiting five years for this, after all. But I think the thing I'm most excited about is an Arya/Jon reunion. Even though they interacted on screen only once -- 58 episodes ago! -- that scene involved Needle, and I've since constructed an elaborate back story in my head for those two.

It looks legit. It's way too elaborate to be a hoax, and I also didn't recognize it from an earlier episode. And GoT does film in Croatia.