Conan Troutman

What the hell is up with Margaery? And the rest of her family? I kinda like the Tyrells, at least I don't want them to go down like that.

Do you want my answer or Abed's? Please tell me it's the latter. Some closing thoughts on Community, courtesy of Mazzy Star: Surely don't stay long I'm missing you now. It's like I told you I'm over you somehow Before I close the door I need to hear you say goodbye Baby won't you change your mind?

I guess he spins it that way in his own perverse logic. "She betrayed me by looking so delicious, I just had to eat her so I could forgive her for that." At least that's the vibe I got from it. Or maybe he asked her to eat someone together and she declined, probably not in a very polite and accepting way, which could count as betrayal and/or rude behavior in his mind. Or she wanted to tell the police, you know, like a normal person should. Either way, I'm sure the show won't give him a justifiable reason for killing (and eating) her to make us sympathize with him. It's "Hannibal" we're talking about, not fucking Dexter.

I found that one weird at first, too. But that wasn't a reveal for the audience as much as it was a reveal for himself, Bedelia had been pushing him towards that point. In that way, it made perfect sense that he said it out loud. Loved the episode and it didn't feel slow at all. Sure, it was artsy as hell, but if it's done so extremely well, I have zero objections to that. I guess it was also one of the last chances to take a breather and do an episode like that, before the plot has to take over again and who knows if we'll be getting a season four. My favorite moment of the season was definitely how Bedelia dropped the mic/sunk into the bathtub after asking Hannibal how his sister tasted. I really dig their interactions this season.

I didn't even know an organized re-read was a thing, but that sounds great. Sign me up!

I read this in a Leslie Knope voice.

Fuck Jon. I want Shireen back.

I think the LoL isn't just some thing his followers have made up, but I don't think he's an actual deity either. It's a kind of magic, so to speak. Since you mention the Children of the Forest: They're a bit too much like Littlefinger for my taste - you don't hear a thing about him/them, which makes me quite suspicious. It's always the quiet ones... IA that the tree guy was one of the Old Gods (again, not literal god, but whatever passes for one in this world), possibly the only one left. I'm still trying to figure out how the Starks are connected to him, or the Children for that matter and how this all intertwines. I'll catch up on the books now anyway, so maybe that'll clear some things up. Speaking of Sam Jr. and his strangely slow aging process, I can't help but think that could be a plot point. Craster's boys have apparently been turned into WW for quite a time, so there has to be some kind of connection. His daughters might age normally, but what if his sons wouldn't? Maybe because Craster has WW blood in him, but for some reason they seem to be a male-only type of race (why else would they need fresh babies?), so this wouldn't apply to females? I kind of think all those northern groups were quite happy to try out new things, not the it-stays-in-the-family types of the southerners.

I totally forgot about that part. I still believe she'll end up with Dany and that's another piece in the puzzle for why she could do it: A former slave seeking out the Breaker of Chains, makes total sense. I think it's about king's blood and there's a certain amount of youth or libido required. That's why she rejected Stannis' offer, saying he couldn't do it again, I think she said he could/would die because he was too weak. Or maybe she was just polite because he was a lousy fuck, who knows? How would she know that Jon has (presumably) king's blood? I guess she senses something about him, maybe another not-so-subtle hint that she'll resurrect him. I don't think she's evil per se. I think she's really believing what she says and while she knows she's using a variety of parlor tricks, she does believe she has an actual connection to the LoL. Her actions may be interpreted otherwise, but the way she's portrayed clearly suggests that she was genuinely surprised and even shocked by the developments with Stannis. It seems to me she sees a vision and then does everything she can, including her own magic, to help make those visions come true (i.e. helping Stannis to become king so he can fight the WW). She's just very bad at interpreting them.

I think her storyline could be really good next season. Dany was great in season one, but she's been running around in circles ever since. Now that she's completed the circle by being back to square one (geographically, at least) again, I hope we get to see the next step for her. It's going to be a big step for her, but one she'll have to take. The fact that she's probably going to have do it completely on her own makes it all the more interesting.

I don't see Stephen Dillane coming back to play a wight. Maybe in the books, but even there I doubt it. Another option for Stannis would've been to support Renly, wait until he takes the throne and then simply have him killed - much more effective use of the shadow monster, the army doesn't get slaughtered at Blackwater and he'd be King for three seasons now.

Same reason she does everything else: She sees some stuff in a vision and misinterprets the hell out of it. I don't think the Thoros stuff was there purely as a red herring. If Mel can't resurrect Jon, why the hell even introduce that stuff in the first place? We're definitely entering act three now, so it's about time for the Chekhov's gun to go off. Speaking of act structure, the overall very dark tone of the season makes more sense when you think about it as the end of act two in a three act structure or it's equivalent in a five act structure. I'm not going to deeply into this here (I think it's worth its own thread, but there's plenty of time for that in the following weeks and months), but generally we've reached the things-are-as-shitty-as-they-can-possibly-get part and things are going to get better as we're heading into the final chapters of the story. I still think the season is rightfully criticized for being too dark, but not because bad things happened but because D&D chose to double down on the misery and forgot the optimistic notes at the end. Ending with a ton of grim looking cliffhangers was a bad choice in my opinion. Now that's another interesting possibility. That's the one way Mel-as-red-herring works. I've said before how you can spin the Ice and Fire part so that Jon ends up on the ice side, teaming up with the WW and fighting Dany and her fire, but I had no idea how Jon could possibly team up with them - but that's a great way of doing so. Either way, I think Martin invested way too much time on his character to kill him off for good. You can do that in the early to middle parts of a story, as he did with Ned and Robb, but that late it's not going to work, it's simply bad storytelling. You can defy genre tropes, but you can't break the rules of storytelling without the story suffering greatly.

He might have a claim to the Iron Throne, but it's completely worthless now because absolutely no one will support him. And I doubt that whoever makes those decisions would declare him king even if Tommen dies and he'd be the only one left: "So, we have the choice between Stannis and an all out bloody succession crisis." "Yeah, bloody succession crisis sounds great." The only story worth telling is the one where he takes the Black and somehow does play a role in defeating the WW - thus actually making true on the prophesy, but having to lose everything was a necessary part begin with. But I doubt this is the story we'll be getting, I think his tale is simply over. Or he could somehow being reborn into Jon, if that makes any sense (I doubt it does, though), now that they've died conveniently at the same time, give or take a couple of hours. As for the cut away from the scene: If Brienne didn't kill him, I'm sure this would be about Brienne (being reminded of her duty to Sansa), not about Stannis as much. A good opener for season six would be Brienne stopping at the last second and getting to Sansa, while Stannis makes a brief cameo but is slain by a random Bolton soldier or Ramsey/Roose himself immediately - it's not that he would last long even if Brienne wouldn't kill him when there are still thousands of Bolton soldiers out there to kill him.

Sure, but Cersei will be damned if she's letting such trivial things as reason or not having an army interfere with her wrecking things up and starting a war. Her and Ellaria would get along greatly if they weren't after each other's throats.

Other stuff: Lena Headey really knocked it out of the park and then some all season and especially this week. She needs all the awards! I wish there would be less talk about body doubles and whatnot, and more praise for her fantastic performance. Arya going all crazy on Meryn Trant was both awesome and disturbing. Nice how she didn't flinch when he whipped her, so apparently she did learn a bit more than how to sweep floors and wash bodies - her stint with the Faceless Men was at least worth something. Other than her going blind, but I doubt that's going to last. If it would, the show could've easily have her getting blinded in the regular hot iron to the eyes fashion, doubling down on the shock factor as it seems to be its MO anyway. Instead, it was was magical, so it should be easily removable. It might be more of a lesson instead of pure punishment, which she certainly would've deserved for really screwing up in a big way. Which is why I have the feeling that the FM won't throw her out of the academy just yet. If they wanted to do that, Jaqen could've just killed her. But apparently he's feeling enough sympathy/pity for her that he chose to take one for the team instead. And then magically transform from little girl to grown man. WTF? Overall, that plot was hit-and-miss. I liked the world building and the House of Black and White, great use of the fantasy genre here. But Arya didn't really evolve as a character, at least not in the right direction - if anything, she took a step backwards. But maybe that was the point, she needed to go one step to take two forward next season. We'll see. I liked how they handled Stannis' downfall. Half of the killers-for-hire deserting because even they couldn't justify working for him any longer was a great follow up on last weeks scene. It was awesome how that decision came back to bite him so quickly. The only part that wasn't handled as well was Mel's exit. I wish we had been given a bit more screen time with her realizing what happened. But I disagree with those who said she was deliberately sabotaging Stannis. I can see why people think that, and that's exactly why I wanted the show to take more time to show her departure (or maybe it was intended to be ambiguous). She may be evil or not, but she did leave because she realized that she was betting on the wrong horse all along. And maybe, just maybe the look on her face when Davos asked her about Shireen was also a bit of regret about what she did. Maybe try to redeem yourself a bit by resurrecting Jon now? Sansa and Theon jumping was a weird cliffhanger, well, cliffjumper to be exact. But if Sherlock can pull it off, why not? Only in this case, they could totally just be dead. But I hope not, not just because I like Sansa, but because that would be a freaking depressing end of her story. Though it still beats being crippled and then found by Ramsay and I can only hope D&D won't go in that direction. If she does survive and escapes, she'll get picked up by either Brienne or Littlefinger, or Brienne picks her up, then takes her to LF. I want her to go full Arya-on-Meryn-Trant on him for having the genius idea of marrying her to Ramsey Fucking Bolton. So excited Varys is back, he's da man! Of course now the season is over, sigh. But him and Tyrion are the only people capable of cleaning up the mess Dany left them. For some reason, I'm also looking forward to Jorah and Daario, they could be fun. One last thought: The White Walkers probably went from Hardhome straight back to their place to catch up on the last two episodes and have a good laugh. The supposed savior of mankind just went out in a glorious, self inflicted mess, another war is about to start in the south over yet another stupid murder and to top it all off, their only worthy opponent has just been slain by his own men. Good times.

Yeah, I don't get their stupid "plan" either. War at all costs, what a great idea! Doran is also not all that smart, really. It was so painfully obvious that Ellaria would do something like this. Why didn't he at the very least keep them imprisoned until the ship has sailed? Or, you know, not fucking invite them to the goodbye??? Also, that was a comically strange way to poison her. I was thinking, what the hell, is she giving her the tongue now? The Dornish have a reputation for being sexually open, but that's a bit much even for them. I even forgot about the whole poison stuff for a moment because of that. Ha, exactly how I felt. "Oh Myrcella, you're so dead. Oh, you're really dead already. That went fast." +1 on the recasting bit. It's not that new!Myrcella was bad or anything, but old!Myrcella probably could've pulled off those couple of scenes just as well. Maybe they D&D really did tell him that he wouldn't be back, so he could sound a bit more believable during the crazy interview run he'll have in the next week or two. Then again, he's an actor, so he could just continue to play the part. I wouldn't even be surprised if HBO goes the extra mile and fake casts him for another show. I don't think they believe they can truly fool everybody, but spreading a shimmer of doubt instead of just announcing "yeah, he'll be back" is going to do a lot already. They really have great chemistry. We can even call them "Miserys", which is quite fitting with the general tone of the show... ITA, Cersei's definitely my favorite villain now that the Joffers and Tywin are dead. But we've had just the right amount of her dwelling in the cell and now her big public humiliation, I want her to get back to being active again. Maybe start with keeping your promise of killing that Septa? And the High Sparrow needs a special fate, too, I still haven't forgiven him for murdering the beer. Well, anyone with half a brain could figure that out. Which of course rules out the entirety of Dorne. If it's going to be a plot point that Ellaria and the Bland Snakes were acting on their own, it of course will end in Cersei totally ignoring that fact and declaring war on Dorne anyway. At least a lot of those stupid suckers are going to bite it, so that's a win I guess. Kevan also doesn't give a flying fuck about Cersei's well being. In fact, he has every reason to hate her after what her stupid schemes and all the incest have brought onto the entire house Lannister, including having Kevan's (sole?) heir deflect to the Faith Militant. Nothing happened to Margaery and Loras, nothing at all. I hoped we'd get at least a hint of a possible resolution, but alas, nope, nada. At least it keeps us busy speculating during the hiatus, so that's that. Of all people, the King of Grammar is the last person I expected to make such a mistake. Daughter burning hypocrite.

More like Awful Neutral.

I'll quote myself: It wasn't her sleeve, though...

Stannis and Mel are both stupid. My strategy: 1. Wait till Renly takes the throne. 2. Kill Renly. 3. ??? 4. Not rot in hell.

Where's Varys? He's founded his own dance group of course. Because what else would he do? "It's a perfectly good beat." https://soundcloud.com/tebz-tebz/tebz-varys-disco-is-coming-1

Remember when he insisted on addressing Jamie as "Ser Jamie, the Kingslayer" back in season 2? I wonder if he'll add Kinslayer to his own batch of titles or if his so called justice stops with himself.

Poor Bran. First getting thrown out of a tower, then getting stuck in a tree only to end up with Stannis' sloppy seconds.

There are certainly a lot of characters in the classical tragic sense, i.e. those connected with the gods (whether they're real or not) and/or aspiring to power, so it's definitely a modern take on the genre and we very well might see the tragic downfall of everyone of those. But there are also plenty of characters that don't fit the definition - of course that doesn't mean those are safe from harm, as the show is wont to remind us at every opportunity - but ultimately the real "winners", which in this case means more like survivors, more than likely will stem from that bunch.

Only that Brienne's idea of stealth is probably to knock at the door, politely ask for entrance because she's sworn to protect Sansa, then mow down their entire army before splitting the two Bolton suckers in half. Then again, she's badass enough to actually pull that off...

Ha, forgot about the entitlement part! Yeah, you're right, that's another knock on both. Agreed about Jon, he's not the most interesting character ever, but certainly the easiest to root for right now. And now we should all stop jinxing him.