TooMuchCoffee

I wonder if his buddy Lord Varys is in on the plot(s) as well.

Rewatching Podrick burning the rabbit. Thank goodness for little bits like that. This show mainly makes me think way too much about who I want to kill whom and in what manner.

So Littlefinger is the criminal mastermind of everything? Poor Sansa.

I want to see the spiders.

I assumed the bodies were there for Dany's benefit. The bodies seemed fresh. You could be right; it might be something they do on a regular basis.

The fine citizens of Meeren made a decision to torture, murder and display the bodies of 163 children solely to send Dany a message that she should think twice before messing with them. I understand Selmy's point about mercy but if ever a city deserved an eye for an eye justice it's Meeren.

And he can't roll off the edge in his sleep... but he probably can't bribe the jailer either.

( I heard Edgar Winter's Frankenstein earlier today. They play it all the time on the Music Choice Classic Rock station.) Good point about Michelle MacLaren directing the nasty rapes. The only difference is at least there is no doubt that the rapists at Craster's are evil subhuman creeps as opposed to "ambiguously" immoral, exploitive twin brothers. Getting into the heads of the White Walkers and the Ice Meister(s), what compels them to arrange body parts into the lovely collages we've seen?

I think the Night's Watch is interesting in how the best, and worst, traits of these boys and men manifest under the extreme conditions and circumstances at the Wall and how they respond to the Oath they made when they took the Black. The title of this latest episode was Oathkeeper, after Brienne's sword, but we also saw the contrast between the Watch members that take that Oath quite seriously and those that quickly abandoned their Oath and returned to being the monstrous criminals they were before they were sent to the Wall.

Hmmmm...... sort of like mirror images? There are certainly a lot of parallels. There is some good WW discussion in the Oathbreaker episode thread. It would be nice to pull it over here. Speaking of Words and Prophecies... "There must always be a Stark in Winterfell." What happens if there isn't (like now)? Does winter arrive more quickly?

I love these ideas about the White Walkers! Would this discussion be better in the No Book Talk Speculation thread? I have a feeling it will span multiple episodes.

All of my votes go to Charlie. If he and Meryl both make the final I "might" consider a split vote but for now he needs the votes.

Has performing Stars on Ice made DWTS even more difficult for Charlie than Meryl? (My thought is that doing several shows a week, traveling, checking in and out of hotels for half of the week along with less practice time than other couples serves to offset some of the advantages they might have as ice dancers.) Some of you pointed out the difference in weight placement between skating and dancing. That means that these "ringers" are having to switch gears and retrain muscle groups but they can't temporarily switch off their skating muscle memory as they are still rehearsing and performing on ice. And not to take anything at all away from Meryl, but Charlie matches her twizzle for twizzle and has the added physical task of sustained lifts. Granted Meryl weighs about as much as a feather but I think he has a slightly harder "workout" in the skating performances and might well be experiencing more fatigue. (Yes, I realize Meryl is also working muscle groups while in a lift.) If Charlie switches his weight to the balls of his feet during a lift while they are flying down the ice, bad things could happen. The boots help prevent that; I'm just saying that the two skill sets of ice skating and ballroom dancing are possibly as different as they are alike.

Yes. That was an odd choice.

It occurred to me that Brienne and Podrick could meet up with Arya and the Hound on the road. Wouldn't it be logical to look for Sansa at her aunt's house? Sansa and LF are coming by sea so I think they will make it to the Eyrie without taking any of the same roads. A scene with Brienne, Arya, Hound and Podrick could be fun.

Yes, the second team was better. I still call bs because the playing field was so uneven. 1. All four of the men were pros. They could control the dance and provide that solid base and synchronicity that the judges complained about with Charlie and James. And they were saddled with the weakest female remaining. 2. As Len pointed out, a dress rehearsal is more relaxed. Live is harder. 3. Watching a 3D performance on a flat monitor simply isn't the same as watching live. Judge both teams from the televised rehearsal.

If Charlie survives Latin week, Sharna should have him stand in place and wiggle or just hold poses. That sort of crap seems to get better scores.

It's Istanbul not Constantinople. My dad had that album. The original, not the Giants. A single thumb up for your post about good ole Joff is insufficient. Bravo.

Stay on the positive side! Maybe now that we're approaching the middle of the saga the Stark luck will change. (Did I just jinx them?) I'm going to remain unspoiled but, for the first time, I am tempted to read book three. Just tempted mind you.

I just love Burn Gorman and the way he chews the scenery. He completely cracked me up in Pacific Rim. (So am I the only one that thought of Handles, the cyberman head, when Grey Worm picked up his helmet in the first scene? I have no idea why that image popped into my head.)

Hehe. GRRM and I are about the same age. Spring chickens we aren't. The world during our formative years was quite different from the world today. I wonder how much and in what ways that influenced his story telling.

Earworm of the day: Ice, Ice Baby

This episode really opened up some possibilities for more speculation. I'll head there soon to stay on topic. It's too bad Michelle MacLaren didn't direct last week's septsex. I think we would have had more clarity. I'm choosing to accept the director's stated intent and move on. The poisoning... the characters who play the game well are quite capable of long term planning and have the necessary patience to see it through. Despite Cersei's wish to see Tyrion dead (she doesn't care if he's guilty or not - she hates him and wants someone to pay and she wants it now), I don't think anything will happen to Tyrion. I think his life will be spared either by the boat and necklace washing ashore or the vote will be to offer him a trip to the Wall or another banishment option. I love that the humans in King's Landing are all caught up in the Game while completely unaware/ignoring the supernatural threats. The Starks might be scattered but Winter is still coming.

That thing seemed pretty powerful without any extra help.

Tywin could be part of the long game for all we know. Littlefinger was instrumental in helping make Marg The Queen and who knows what other scheming he's done. I think he got what he was promised (and really wanted) - Sansa. Jaime, Bronn, Podrick, Brienne - all of that storyline was wonderful.