Conan Troutman

Ramsey is fun for sure, but I don't think he's strong enough to carry the load as a main villain without Roose, since he seems to lack the strategic thinking of his father and also isn't very good at hiding his evilness. But I agree, if they kill off the Boltons this season, there's going to be a lack of good villains they'll have to address soon. Maybe they'll introduce new guys or upgrade some players who have been on the sideline for the last season or so? Like Balon Greyjoy, Walder Frey or maybe even the Brotherhood Without Banners. Or they shift someone over to the "dark side". That would be great, but if Wikipedia is right, they won't take Memorial day weekend off this year, meaning the season's over before Father's Day.

Brienne probably wouldn't go herself, in case Sansa does light the candle, but I can totally see her sending Pod. Although she might think the Wall still isn't safe, and she's probably right - Cersei could easily send some men, just like Bolton did with Locke, to the Wall to kill her once word got out, and even as Lord Commander Jon wouldn't be able to do much about something he doesn't know. I guess Arya will hear the news eventually, though the Faceless Men don't strike me as the chatty type. But she can't be sweeping the halls there forever, so... I just can't see how that would really change anything. That might make the Wall an even more attractive option to go there and hide (and Cersei probably wouldn't care about her, though Bolton might), but I really don't see that as an narrative option after signing up for assassin school.

I actually think she's being set up to be the big antagonist in the endgame. A sympathetic one, not your classical villain, and probably one with a decent moral compass, but at the end of the day she'll be fighting on the "wrong" side: The fire in A Song of Ice and Fire. The Lord of Light to me seems like the ultimate (d)evil, with the burning people alive as sacrifice thing, the dragons and whatnot. I think Melisandre will eventually ditch Stannis for whatever reason and show up in camp Dany. I also kind of got a temptation of Christ vibe in that scene with Jon Snow last week where she tried to seduce him, probably to make more evil shadow babies. Of course I could be completely wrong here, but I don't think it's unreasonable at all to assume Dany won't be the hero of the story.

At first I was really worried Myranda was simply going to feed her to the dogs... But you're right, she couldn't do that. Even if nobody saw it and she somehow managed to make it look like an accident, she'd still be made responsible for not locking the doors properly and probably be flayed alive, whether the Boltons think she did it on purpose or not wouldn't be really relevant. Oh I think the Boltons are going to do exactly that - at least inside the castle walls. And IIRC from the pilot, that tower is inside the castle walls. Sansa may still be somewhat of a prisoner, but she'll also be the future Mrs. Bolton and Littlefinger probably told Roose that she might not like the deal, but for a lack of options is willing, however reluctantly, to go along with it - which isn't even that far from the truth, expect for the part where Stannis is expected to come in play. So there's really no good reason to lock her in a cell. She might not be allowed to go outside of Winterfell, as she might flee to a Stark loyalist, but I got the impression that she could walk freely inside the castle walls. Plus, she's been to the crypt, to the kennels and to the tower already, so that's supporting this. I also guess that whoever came up with that plan would've given that some thought, so I assume that if getting to and in the tower would likely present a problem, a different plan would've been hatched. I wouldn't be too surprised if Ramsey came to the conclusion that it might be better for his chances of inheritance if daddy were to have a little accident... Also that little screening of "How I Raped Your Mother" might not have been the best idea ever if he's supposed to like his dad. Would be a nice parallel to Tywin - his demise was being a shitty father and raising pretty fucked up children, and the Lannister kids are relatively sane and stable compared to the little psycho Ramsey. So yeah, I'm totally on board the "Ramsey for patricide" wagon. That's my impression, too - it's not supposed to help her once Ramsey's chasing after her with a knife in his hand, but to provide an escape route to avoid exactly that scenario in the first place. Back to Myranda: I'm curious what her plan is. Is she just jealous and trying to play off Sansa against Ramsey, raise a bit of chaos Littlefinger-style and see what happens? Could be, but I got the impression by the look on her face at the end of her scene with Ramsey that she might be done with him. So her wrath might be directed mainly at Ramsey for betraying her and she isn't specifically out to get Sansa. Maybe Myranda teams up with Theon, which would tie up another loose end? That would fit in nicely with my Ramsey-offs-Roose theory above: Not Sansa or Brienne or Stannis will be the downfall of House Bolton, but internal backlash from being irredeemable assholes to everyone in their vicinity. ETA: I see another parallel here, this time the Tyrion-Shae-Sansa love/marriage triangle being similar to the Ramsey-Myranda-Sansa triangle. And while Tyrion did his best in trying to explain the situation to Shae, it still led to her betraying him. So I can't imagine a different outcome for Ramsey, who of course didn't go the Tyrion route of compassion and trying to explain, but unsurprisingly chose the rape-and-death-threat solution. I'm not going to say Myranda will sleep with Roose, but she might not react all that differently than Shae, maybe a bit more extreme though.

I find all this superhero and action stuff extremely boring because it usually relies too much on flashy action and visuals which I don't give a crap about. Even on Buffy/Angel, those fighting scenes were easily the weakest part, at least for me. All the more surprising I'm still watching a comic book adaptation about zombies. While not a surprise after good reviews and very solid ratings, still good to hear it's officially renewed.

Yara being older would only matter in absolute cognatic. I'm asking because if Yara would be next in line despite there being living brothers (or their male descendants) of Balon, it would confirm that the individual kingdoms can have different succession laws than the Iron Throne.

Oh I didn't remember that at all. Yes, that would indeed put Stannis before Myrcella. Also explains why Myrcella isn't considered a more valuable asset by the Martells, which I found odd - just get rid of Tommen (or wait until Cersei inevitably does it herself...) and the Martells would seize the Throne via Myrcella's children. Hm, maybe I'm playing too much Crusader Kings when my first reaction is "Yay, just kill the kid -> profit!"... but that's how the Game of Thrones is played. Are there any brothers of Mace Tyrell in the books? If not, Marg and Sansa being next in line could simply be due to lack of any other male family members. Speaking of lack of member: Theon isn't heir to the Iron Islands, or is he? If it's his sister, are there any brothers of Balon left? That's definitely a way out for him, agreed. But I'm not so sure Jon will fight against the WW at all. Maybe they aren't such bad guys, we're just led to assume they are because everybody else on the show does. They didn't seem to be cruel to that newborn, just changing him into one of their kind. Sure, they're killing people, but so does everybody else and their on-screen body count is lower than Bronn's alone. I could see Jon potentially switching sides, just as he became sympathetic towards the Wildlings, he might become friendly towards the WW.

He was also the only child of his father. But yes, it's not uncommon for a bastard to somehow get his father's title - the point is just that illegitimate bastards don't have a claim or place in succession by law just by birth, there will have to happen something else in order for them to inherit, and it complicates matters a great deal if there are people with a better claim / higher in the succession line.

Some general thoughts on the episode: - Loved how Margaery (accidentally?) dropped her act for a few seconds, then decided to back to her regular routine. I'd really like to see her lose her shit completely. - So Cersei's shipping off Mace Tyrell to Braavos. Is that just to get him out of the way so he can't intervene about Loras? Or does she have a little accident planned for him? Either way, it's going to be dangerous if Arya takes a stab at his "bodyguard". - I hope we get Varys back in the picture soon. Was excited about his road trip with Tyrion and while Jamie/Bronn and maybe Jorah/Tyrion are a good replacement, I miss the old Spider already. - Damn those Sparrows - they murdered the beer! - Sansa's story gets more and more interesting. I'm really curious what kind of relationship she'll establish with Ramsay. - What will Littlefinger be doing in KL? Thanks to Cersei, there's more than enough chaos there already, so his job seems to be done for him. If he puts any more gas into the fire, KL might blow up completely. Anyway, he's not gonna like that the Sparrows are threatening his pimpin' business. Oh, and he better pray word hasn't come to KL yet about the Sansa marriage, Cersei won't like that one bit. - Obarra, a simple yes would've been enough. Killing the guy who told you about Jamie seems also a bit questionable. - Am I the only one who doesn't care about Grey Worm? He's fine, but I hope he dies, so no more awkward romance with Missandei.

Syrio being alive doesn't make any sense given the information we've got. Either him or Meryn Fucking Trant would've had to die in that fight (we heard the scream, we just didn't know at the time whose it was), and it obviously wasn't Meryn. Him escaping would mean Meryn was in on it, which I absolutely can't imagine. Only if he was specifically legitimized as Jon Targaryen (and he's a bastard, whether Ned's or Rhaegar's, so that would have to come first). Even then, he forfeited all claims when he joined the NW. And I'm assuming this holds true for all possible claims, not just the ones he knew at the time. Well, next in line is Stannis and then Shireen. Then comes Dany, since the Baratheon line ends here and you'd have to go back before Robert's Rebellion. As for Jon, see above. Jon's claim would be better, if he had one at all. But as you said, he's honoring his vow at the NW, so it's a moot point. In addition, we're talking about linear, peaceful succession - which obviously is not the de facto state of Westeros right now. Jon would have to take the Throne, it won't be handed to him, regardless of any potential claim or position in the line of succession. It seems to be pretty standard primogeniture succession, the firstborn son inherits all titles, see here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primogeniture. The only question is if and when women can inherit. Given that there are a couple of female title holders mentioned (the young girl form Bear Island who told Stannis to go suck it last week and others, such as Sansa's previous status as "key to the North"), the answer seems to be yes: "Male-preference cognatic primogeniture" as it's called in the article, also known as agnatic-cognatic, which means women are eligible to inherit if all male brothers and their descendants are dead - which is pretty much the same as in modern European monarchies, e.g. the UK. Though the Iron Throne could have a different gender law than for instance the Lannister household, where Cersei would've been next in line (Jamie's a King's Guard and Tyrion is on the run), but Kevan seems to be the official heir: He said "You're the Qeen Mother, nothing else", which indicates she didn't inherit Casterly Rock from Tywin. Or it's a mix between agnatic and agnatic-cognatic (agnatic meaning men only, cognatic meaning men and women), where women can only inherit if all other male family members are dead, though I'm not sure if there are historic examples. But as you said, those laws are rather meaningless right now, since Westeros is in a full blown succession crisis, where essentially anyone with a big enough army can throw his hat into the ring (which seems to be exactly what Littlefinger's preparing to do) and all the claims in the world can only help you to get this army and some allies, nothing else.

Oh Tommen, you lucky bastard! Oh... - Tommen, you unlucky bastard...

Well, he's Jon Snow, he doesn't have a family name at all, let alone the right one... Spoiler for those who haven't seen episode two yet: Of course, there's yet another family name he could potentially take if a certain theory is correct, so if you're referring to that one, maybe. I agree with your point that he could be a deserving contender. I just don't think, from a meta perspective, that Jon is being set up to be the guy sitting on the throne when it's all said and done. He clearly has a huge role to play, quite possibly the biggest of them all, but overall the point of the whole story seems to be that whoever's sitting on that godforsaken throne is pretty irrelevant after all, so being the One True King would probably be too mundane for his story.

I think it represents mainly White Walkers and Dragons, but Jon and Dany can certainly be the human leaders of the respective side. Of course how Jon could end up there is a total mystery right now, but we've got at least three seasons left, so a lot can happen until then. Fire could also represent the Lord of Light or the Red God, though that raises the question why Dany doesn't appear to be a follower of him. And of course whatever the hell the Ice God would be - could he possibly be related to the Old Gods? It would be nice if we got some clues this season. But back to this episode. I could've done without Brienne/Pod, that scene really went nowhere and frankly, I don't see what purpose those two serve at this point at all. Reminds me a bit of how I felt about Robb and Cat in season three - I liked the characters just fine, but their arc was slowly dragging along on the road to nowhere, so I was rather relieved when the Red Wedding finally put end to that. Wouldn't complain at all if Brienne and Pod won't see the end of this season. Tyrion and Varys can only be gold. Another great buddy cop road trip duo, this time with even more snark. Sing me up! But my favorite scene has to be the Cersei flashback. Great casting choice and acting, the girl certainly had all the arrogance and the bitchyness down. Minus the broken bitterness of course. Her friend looked like she could've been from Dorne, with the yellowish color and all - maybe she was Elia Martell, during the visit Oberyn talked about with Tyrion in the cell? Not sure if this would add up timeline wise though. She could also just be a random courtier, it's not that her role in that scene was anything other than "give Cersei someone to talk to". Anyway, the prophecy was certainly interesting. Let's take a look: - You'll never wed the prince, you'll wed the king - checked. - You'll be queen - for a time. Then comes another, younger, more beautiful, to cast you down and take all you hold dear. - The King will have 20 children, and you will have three - checked. - Gold will be their crowns, gold their shrouds Parts two and four are somewhat ambiguous. Golden crowns could mean the hair color, but it also could be taken literally - only Myrcella needs a crown now for that to come true, and Tommen isn't exactly safe. Golden shrouds, that could mean all three die while holding the Iron Throne - it could be only the King gets the honor of a golden shroud, and it looks like even Tywin didn't get one. Now to part two: Cersei will be queen - for a time. Now, what exactly does queen mean? Married to the King? Or does she have to hold the Throne herself? And for a time? Cersei was married to Robert roughly 17 years, I'd consider that more than just a time. The younger one could be either Margaery (if she only has to be married to the King) or Daenerys (if she has to hold the Throne herself, aka be THE Queen) or maybe some dark horse (speaking of dark, Queen Sansa would be fantastic). My speculative takeaway: Tommen will die sooner rather than later and Myrcella will follow him (both on the throne and probably also into the grave). Cersei will somehow seize the Throne without a birthright (if Tommen dies before Margaery gets pregnant, Margaery would be out of the way), only to be unseated shortly thereafter. This could take place during this season and the next and end with Dany taking over. But of course this could be a red herring or I'm interpreting too much, so we'll see.

That's not deus ex machina. Just because something isn't laid out in great detail beforehand doesn't make it deus ex machina. Anyway, that actually worked, maybe it wasn't incredibly logical, but it definitely was entertaining. If that show manages to draw more Buffy comparisons, I won't complain. I think the show did a good job of differentiating between Liv's true self and the personality of the week. It was pretty obvious this episode, with all the talk about how she hates that whole ASPD thing. The main problem at this point I think is that people are confusing the fact that she really doesn't have a strong personality of her own yet with it not shining through because of the adopts-traits-via-brain-eating thingy. It's been pointed out that old, alive Liv didn't really have much of a personality to begin with - other than nice, perfect and boring, there wasn't much. That's kind of the point of the show.

Now that's more like it! I already liked the first three, but this ep is the first since "Cooperative Poligraphy" that really got the seasons 1-3 Community feeling down. This was also the best use of Chang since season one. I never saw Karate Kid (and haven't seen Whiplash either), so I didn't really get the finer points of the parody, but I think the story worked well nonetheless. Jason Mantzoukas was great as always and the Annie Kim cameo was a nice surprise. Keith David's character finally felt like he belonged, maybe he can even fill some of the void Troy has left. The Jolene parody was awesome and I like that they are back to using Jim Rash for something other than costume jokes. I also felt like this was the first time the show did really benefit from the longer running time, didn't feel like 30 minutes at all.

Maybe she simply practiced? That drawing of the car looked somewhat competent, but hardly something only a professional painter could do. Plus she might have learned a lot faster while still in possession of the skills, so if she decides to pick up some of the skills or traits she experienced, her getting a head start over a total beginner wouldn't seem unreasonable. The major theme of the show seems to be how she's starting to live now that she's dead, so I guess she'll keep trying out things she finds out she likes (or sees as potentially useful), which she wouldn't have in her old life. And if she doesn't like something, well, no reason to "keep" it. To me, this reads more like character development than a crutch to fill plot holes.

It is icky, but hardly a solid motive for murder. Had her dad killed him, that's one thing, but for anyone else that may be reason to dislike or being grossed out by him, but not to flat out kill him. Though it would've added a new spin on the fairly common trope of the polygamous artist. Despite the rather weak case, the episode was still very fun. Liv hitting on everyone in sight was just hilarious, plus it gave us the great Bad Cop/Horny Cop line. I hope this becomes a regular occurence - she doesn't have to lust after everyone in the room every episode, but it would be a wasted opportunity if the personality traits she adopts didn't include sexual preferences or romantic feelings. Agreed. I haven't seen him in anything before, but I was surprised when I learned that the actor is just 34. Being (un)dead makes you look older, who would've thought? Yes, it seems that she loses those traits/skills rather quickly. Someone wrote that maybe she keeps a few bits, but loses most - she might find the desire to paint now and then, but for her artistic career to really take off she'd have to eat a lot of painter brains. Or she could simply forget them completely. And that's probably a good thing, the show could get pretty confusing and self-contradictory over time if she were to keep those traits fully.

Just watched the first two episodes and I like it so far (I also haven't seen Veronica Mars, at least not yet, seems like I may have to change that). I'm usually not a fan of anything supernatural, with a few exceptions (Buffy/Angel mostly), and the regular fictional concept of zombies looks inherently stupid to me - brain dead creatures who are easily identified, move slowly and can't even use any weapons are supposed to be a threat? Come on... the military wouldn't even need a whole day to shred them to pieces. But I like both the humorous take on it and in this case I can actually buy that those zombies represent a serious threat. Rose McIver looks like a home run casting choice (and yes, she's really hot undead) and I also like her boss a lot. What's bugging me the most, as others have mentioned, are the supporting characters. Of course you can't have them fleshed out from the very first episode, but they didn't seem very interesting. Best part I guess is the whole "adopts part of the personalities/skills from the victims" gimmick. That's a great source of comedy and I hope the show's going to take full advantage of it. I also like the visual style with the comic book art.

Now I so wanna see a Bollywood version of the Red Wedding...

I didn't make that connection before, but as I just wrote in the Mike thread, there's another layer to Stacey and her newfound appreciation of dirty money: At the beginning of "Bingo", Mike's talking to the older Philly cop. Both cops pretty much know or at least higly suspect that Mike killed the Hoffmann and Fenske out of revenge for Matt (the case notes from the notebook clearly show they're on his trail and they got most of the details right), but can't prove anything. The older cop makes it clear they'll be questioning Stacey again and she might talk (especially about Matt's phone call, which they rightly assume was with Mike), and Mike is just like "well, whatever, her call". So she's probably not just guilting him, but decided to more or less blackmail him after the second visit from the Philly cops. ETA: Just rewatched the scene with Stacey and Mike. As soon as she asks him about the money, he seems to get what's going on. Maybe I'm reading to much into Jonathan Banks' facial expression, but he seems well aware of what that's really all about, hence his immediate visit to the vet.

Finally got through reading and there aren't any Easter eggs or the like. What I can say, though, is that the Abbasi pretty much cracked the case - he seems to suspect Fenkse and the other cop could've killed Matt, probably related to the cash the found at their appartments, and Mike then took revenge on them, which as we know is exactly what happened. Of course, there's no mention of any proof whatsoever. Given that it's three month later already, it's safe to say he won't find any now - his only chance would be Mike's DIL, as Mike told the older cop between the lines. Oh wait - the younger guy probably showed up at her house with some questions and shortly thereafter, she's telling Mike she could use some money... maybe she's not just guilting him, but flat out blackmailing?

I'll try to make some sense of Chuck's relationship with Jimmy from his point of view. - He apparently either didn't want to hire Jimmy at HHM or was easily persuaded by Hamlin not to. And from a rational standpoint, that's absolutely valid: HHM clearly has to get lots and lots of applications, most or all of them from talented, hard working people from a respected law school with probably top degrees and plenty of other recommendations. Jimmy, on the other hand, went to a joke of a law school, at least compared to the other applicants, not the mention his more than shady past. There's no way in hell Hamlin would agree to hiring him over all of those other guys, and I can't blame him for it - though I do blame him for still taking the cake, what an asshole. Even Chuck couldn't possibly make a good case for Jimmy other than him being his brother, even if he wanted. So while it surely has to be heartbreaking for Jimmy, he really should've seen that coming and not getting his (empty) hopes up. - Back to the present (I assume the case indeed goes to HHM, as anything else would be a big surprise): Jimmy can't possibly take on that Sandpiper case alone. That's not even a question of competence, but simply one of manpower, experience and financial backing (it's going to be long and very, very costly before he's goint to see any money at all, even if the case is relatively easy to win). So Jimmy would have to find a big firm to back him up, and Chuck of course has to think "why shouldn't it be HHM?". In addition, Jimmy's reputation or lack thereof might lead to some problems if he were in charge of the case. So it wouldn't be only understandable from Chuck's POV to a) not having hired Jimmy years ago and b) taking the case to HHM, I'd argue that these decisions are really the only sensible options for him in both cases. So while Jimmy could still feel screwed and/or treated disrespectfully, Chuck has good reason to think he's doing the right thing and get in a defensive/stubborn position should Jimmy confront him.

Obviously he will be in a way better situtation financially than he is right now. But I think the point that G&G have made so far is that honest lawyer Jimmy won't be able to accomplish that, for various reasons - it'll be only once Jimmy turns into sleazy, amoral Saul that he'll finally be really successfull. I think he might get a nice chunk of money from that Sandpiper case (maybe roughly what he would've gotten had he agreed to the initial setllement proposal from the other law firm), but that'll be chump change in comparison what HHM (and possibly Chuck) will get out of it. It could be the beginning of his transformation into Saul (I assume this will happen gradually, over several seasons, but this might be the clear starting point) and the small "finder's fee" he gets from the case could be both his motivation and starting capital. And Chuck would've probably been right about that - I can easily imagine an alternate universe Jimmy who would've made a fortune in sales by now. In another show, he could've been Saul Wheelin, used car mogul.

The way it was shot, I totally expected him to have a heart attack or something like that at any moment. Of course Checkov's printer is going to backfire, it will inevitably lead to Hamlin finding out. I don't think Kim will jump at the opportunity and rat them out, it's probably more like Hamlin seeing the bill, sniffing something and forcing her to come clean. After that though, there are a lot of different ways how that could play out, we only know that Jimmy won't like any of them. Definitely. Especially since she didn't approach him with the topic in a seperate instance, but asked him right after she let him see Kaylee for the day. The underlying message was to me "if you want to see your granddaughter regularly, you better pony up". I can understand her, since she probably thinks that Mike's somehow at least partially responsible for her husband's death. I guess she also has no qualms about it now after learning he was a dirty cop, maybe she even assumes he's still got some cash lying around from that time. I was thinking "No Jimmy, don't go in there, there's gotta be another bin just for paper right around the corner", but he wasn't listening... I did laugh a bit, but I'm liking Jimmy too much right now to really enjoy that scene.

ITA. That her husband might have to spend up to 30 years in prison seemed to not worry her at all. Maybe it's because she doesn't buy that number (30 years seems pretty high to me, indeed, I guess Kim might have intentionally exaggerated a bit here to frighten them), but there's no doubt he'd have to face some serious jail time. If Betsy Kettleman is getting off without facing jail herself, it's an interesting choice, much like a season long equivalent to the stairlift scene in Alpine Sheppard Boy: It makes us experience the situation of Jimmy by putting us into his shoes and letting us feel exactly the same emotions. In the stairlift scene, it was the feeling of little payoff in relation to the time spend, much like Jimmy had to with the old lady for a relatively paltry sum of 140$. Here, Jimmy had to settle for helping Kim saving her career plans, but losing out on a big personal gain (he even had to pay back his "retainer") and we as an audience had to settle for a great scene with Mike and subsequently Jimmy's takedown of the Kettlemans, but lost out on seeing Betsy behind bars as well as seeing Jimmy reaping the rewards for his good deeds - we're still stuck in the nail salon along with Jimmy, at least for now.