Bass90

Lol, at least something good came out of that line

Sam only needs littlefinger's teleportation device

Damn... so many book questions after this episode: Is the pink letter true? Did Stannis really die fighting the Boltons and Freys? If so, What would be the point of making him burn Shireen in the show? And Mel is back at Castle Black, where she was supposed to be anyway. Does it mean she burns Shireen after she hears about Stannis defeat hoping to resurrect him but is Jon who actually comes back? Would Selyse be ok with it? I don't remember any particular hate or shame towards her daughter in the books.

Hopefully Wun Wun crushes Olly, there is no "Ser Patrek" in the show after all Poor Trystane, it's going to be an awkward trip to King's Landing

I like how the season opened with Littlefinger telling Sansa that she’s been a “bystander to tragedy” and needs to “stop running” and “avenge them”, which leads to: sulking at Winterfell, then being raped and abused for a while, failing on different occasions to run away, and then successfully running away after being rescued by somebody else Wasn't the whole point of moving Sansa to Winterfell to speed up her character progression over her stay at the Eyrie in the books?

"This is Stannis Baratheon, the man will fight to the bitter end and then some" He's gonna come back as a wight, isn't he?

And Balon is still alive....

So, next episode... Olly (all that foreshadowing) and Thorne stab Jon. Brienne stabs Stannis. Melisandre will be all like "Lord of light, shine your light upon him...." but it's Jon who wakes up?

Exactly, the end result is all that matters, apparently. Ramsay's successful sabotage felt so contrived. At this point I'm starting to believe he's Azor Ahai, he can do anything. Give him some 50 good men and he could kill the white walkers easily. Winds of Winter can't come sooner...

Shame, I really like Dillane as Stannis. And here i was thinking that the Sansa rape and the Dorne plot changes were the worst part of this season....

I think D&D really were on to some solid ideas for how to improve the story, they just failed to execute on them. Cutting Aegon to speed up Tyrion is a great move, and I've liked Tyrion more than his book counterpart this season.. Sansa in Winterfell could have been good. Never cared much for the Vale plot, but had they adapted its main thrust of her learning to play the game and gaining allies among the lords, it would've been great. Sure, there would be unpleasant scenes with Ramsay, but it would've been tolerable because we could see her executing on a plan to take the Boltons down, instead of just waiting miserably for Stannis. And Theon should've provided a great opportunity to showcase her fundamental kindness, even in terrible situations, as she helps along his reawakening so he can help her in the end. Instead we got no Northern lords, no action from Sansa, rape, and Theon has regressed even further and committed even more heinous crimes Jaime in Dorne could have worked just fine if they wrote Ellaria and the Sand Snakes as something other than villanous cartoons. Cut the stupid bucket-whipping, merchant-killing scene and instead just have some actual character developing with them talking about why they cared about Oberyn so much, and coming up with a smarter plan than "murder Myrcella!" I like Cersei's plot so far, but it could have used some set up for the commoners' increasing religiosity leading up to the Sparrows last season. People would have hated Meereen no matter what they did. So yeah, I think they actually hit really close to a general framework for a condensed season that would have worked better than the books. They've convinced me that's totally possible, it's just not what this season is. Which is worse, because I can't just say "Well, the book was unadaptable!" They just missed the mark and the result, so far, is bad.

Roose may let winter do the job for him

The current Lady of Bear Island is 10 years old. It could be that many houses are in the same situation, ruled by little lords or just by people that are not at all prepared. It's hard to know how the Karstarks feel about the Boltons. Robb "denied them their justice" and executed Lord Rickard. His last words being "Kill me and be cursed, YOU'RE NO KING OF MINE"

Stannis in episode 2 mentions he asked for house Mormont's help but they replied that they would only follow a Stark ("bear island knows no king but the king in the north, whose name is stark"). I imagine Stannis asked for other northern houses help with the same result. That being the reason he wanted to legitimize Jon. It's odd that Jon never told him about Bran being alive. if Rickon is with the Umbers, they could use that against the Boltons... Hi to all and sorry for any grammar mistakes, english is not my first language... hopefully Stannis is not watching