WhiteStumbler

Band of Brooders: Tormund Giantsbane, Jorah Mormont, Gendry, Jon Snow, Thoros of Mir, Berrick Dondarion, & The Hound. This one felt a bit rushed to me. From Dragonstone to Eastwatch at light speed (AKA the Littlefinger Constant). Gendry from working as a blacksmith (on the poetically named Street of Steel) to north of The Wall in what felt like 48 hours. Everyone goes from 'I don't like you and you don't like me' to going on a playdate to find a zomboni in even less time. And Jorah is along for the ride! I noted that Jon had Long Claw with him when they met, but Jorah made no remark about it. Gilly: This High Septon Maynard, he recorded everything. He even recorded his own bowel movements. What does "annulment" mean? Sam: It's when a man sets aside his lawful wife. Gilly: Maynard says here that he issued an annulment for a Prince "Ragger" and remarried him to someone else at the same time in a secret ceremony in Dorne. Is that a common thing in the south or--? Sam: These maesters, they set me to the task of preserving that man's window counting and annulments and bowel movements for all eternity, while the secret to defeating the Night King's probably sitting on some dusty shelf somewhere, completely ignored. I also noted the "annulment" reference, but I am not sure that it is as significant as it seems on the surface. Jon is a reluctant leader at best, Dany still has the military might (not to mention 3 dragons), and Jon didn't just want to be "not a bastard", he wanted to be Ned Stark's Son. He wanted to be an equal to the brothers and sisters he grew up with, not looked down on and treated with contempt by the only mother figure he had. I think knowing he is the legitimate son of Lyanna Stark and Rhaegar Targeryen won't change a lot about the past. There is also the fact that Dany's intent is to break the wheel, so the old rules of inheritance and succession might not be as important in her new world. It was pretty cool that Drogon allowed himself to be petted by Jon, an apparent nod / confirmation of his Targaryen identity, but Jon has the opposite hair color as Dany and isn't immune to fire (though Viserys wasn't immune to fire, and he was full blood Targ). Cool that Gendry prefers a hammer, like his Da... Robert: (My first kill) was some Tarly boy at the Battle of Summerhall. My horse took an arrow so I was on foot, slogging through the mud. He came running at me, this dumb high-born lad, thinking he could end the rebellion with single swing of his sword. I knocked him down with the hammer. Gods, I was strong then. Caved in his breastplate. Probably shattered every rib he had. Tyrion may be technically correct that "this war has already wiped one great house from the world", as the others might not be considered destroyed by "this war", but by my count 4 of the 7 Kingdoms currently have no known ruling House: Dorne, Highgarden, the Stormlands, and the Riverlands. Other Houses that have been wiped out include Bolton and Frey (though there might be some Frey children alive - it looked like Arya only killed the men who perpetrated the Red Wedding), while the fate of House Tully hangs by a thread. I believe that is correct, unless the bastard is legitimized by the King / Queen. They should have paraded a zomboni thru every capital city in the 7K, but I don't understand how they could have -- would the magic still work so far from The Wall? Whatever happened to the hand that Thorne was supposed to take to kings Landing? Which makes me wonder about the zomboni that attacked Lord Cmdr Mormont way back. Benjen said that "The Wall is not just ice and stone. Ancient spells were carved into its foundations. Strong magic to protect men from what lies beyond. And while it stands, the dead cannot pass." So why didn't the zomboni just crumble to dust when it crossed the halfway point in the tunnel on the way to Castle Black before it could attack Mormont? How could the magic that animates them have any effect on the other side of The Wall?

Oh it WAS nasty! Makes me realize how much I miss Charles Dance as Tywin Lannister. Tywin: You want Casterly Rock? Tyrion: It is mine by right. Tywin: We'll find you accommodations more suited to your name and as a reward for your accomplishments during the battle of Blackwater Bay. And when the time is right, you will be given a position fit for your talents so that you can serve your family and protect our legacy. And if you serve faithfully, you will be rewarded with a suitable wife... and I would let myself be consumed by maggots before mocking the family name and making you heir to Casterly Rock. Tyrion: Why? Tywin: Why? You ask that?! You, who killed your mother to come into the world? You are an ill-made, spiteful little creature full of envy, lust, and low cunning. Men's laws give you the right to bear my name and display my colors since I cannot prove that you are not mine. And to teach me humility, the gods have condemned me to watch you waddle about wearing that proud lion that was my father's sigil and his father's before him, but neither gods nor men will ever compel me to let you turn Casterly Rock into your whorehouse. Go, now. Speak no more of your "rights" to Casterly Rock. Go! Oh, one more thing... the next whore I catch in your bed I'll hang. I don't think "since I cannot prove that you are not mine" is an actual belief of Tywin's, but rather a "would that it wasn't so" - Tywin accepts it, but doesn't like it. He wishes he could prove otherwise, but knows that Tyrion is his. At least, that has been my take on their relationship.

Huh? Can you run me through your thinking here, because I am not tracking. Tywin said (on his death-toilet) "And what? You'll kill your own father in the privy? No. You're my son. Now, enough of this nonsense." How is Tyrion not Tywin's son? And what is the possible Targ connection? I don't think that the dragons need to each have a rider. It might be a bit too Boris Vallejo for this show.

Re-watching the Attack on the Wagon Train, there are a few absolutely top-notch shots: 1) Bron is trying to survive in a world on fire. His horse has been cut out from under him, he pulls a sword (out of a Lannister soldier?!?) impaled to a wagon, he shoves a few burning soldiers out of the way, there are flames and ash and smoke everywhere, and Drogon does another fly-by. Not at Bronn (since this attack isn't about him), but passing near by, and his huge wings stir up a cloud of ash while his flaming dragon fire cuts through the smoke. All of it is shot from a pretty low angle, and the clarity within the chaos is great. It reminded me of some of the better sequences in monster movies of the recent past. It shows what is happening, who is causing it, what the stakes are, and what is motivating Bronn to risk his life by trying to take out Drogon and Dany. 2) Right after Bronn uncovers the Qyburn DragonSpear and says "where are you?", there is a great shot of Drogon banking above the battlefield. Again, total chaos on the ground, but it establishes that there is a river nearby, and Drogon's wings do this amazingly realistic thing as they displace the smoke of the battle. Maybe a 5 second shot, but it rocks, and Dany is seriously engaged, almost willing Drogon forward like a rider urging her horse over a hedge. 3) The last shot I want to give a shout-out to is the shot of Drogon and Dany coming in fast and low over the river, and the way the displaced air in front of him makes a little shock wave on the water. Little details like that (and the others mentioned above) ground the show in a reality that allows the truly fantasy elements to seem real, to be thrillingly and horrifyingly believable. TL/DR version: I love Drogon.

I don't think we have seen Dany with any weapon, Valyrian steel or otherwise, but your comment brought this to mind... (At Harrenhall) Arya: It wasn't just Aegon riding his dragon. It was Rhaenys and Visenya, too. Tywin: Correct. A student of history, are you? Arya: Rhaenys rode Meraxes. Visenya rode Vhagar. Tywin: I'm sure I knew that when I was a boy. Arya: Visenya Targaryen was a great warrior. She had a Valyrian steel sword she called Dark Sister. The things won't shatter like normal steel swords, so it is possible that the ancestral Valyrian steel sword of House Targaryen is still out there somewhere. ETA: Re-watched the scene where Viserys gets his "crown for a king", and he has a sword that sort of looks like a scimitar, but I don't recall ever seeing it again.

My take on Bran is that he is totally incapable of human reactions right now. When you can look at a person and know the course of their life it might be hard to see them as a person, and not a series of interconnected events. I do wish he would appear to be trying to drop some useful knowledge on these folks, but maybe he is still trying to sort out the fragments of the mosaic so that he can see the pattern. Loved the previous comments regarding how much Davos learned from Stannis of House Grammarian, and the parallels between Dany's efforts to get Jon to bend the knee and Jon's efforts to convince Mance to do the same to Stannis. Jon: You know what Stannis wants? Mance: He wants me to bend the knee. And he wants the Free Folk to fight for him. I'll give him this much, he's bold. <snip> Jon: ... You brought (the Free Folk clans) together to save them because none of them will survive the winter, not if they're north of the Wall. Isn't their survival more important than your pride? Mance: Pride? Fuck my pride. This isn't about that. Jon: Then bend the knee and save your people. Mance: They followed me because they respected me. Because they believed in me. The moment I kneel for a southern king, that's all gone. Jon: And how many tens of thousands are out there right now? How many women? How many children? And you won't go out and rescue them because why? You're afraid of looking afraid? Mance: Oh, I am afraid. No shame in that. How will they do it? Beheading? Hanging? Jon: They'll burn you alive. Mance: Bad way to go. I'll be honest with you. I don't want to die. And burnt to death, I don't want people to remember me like that, scorched and screaming. But it's better than betraying everything I believe. Jon: And what happens to your people? You preserve your dignity and die standing and they'll sing songs about you. You'd rather burn than kneel. The great hero. Until winter comes and the White Walkers come for us all and there's no one left to sing. Mance: You're a good lad. Truly you are. But if you can't understand why I won't enlist my people in a foreigner's war, there's no point explaining. Here is Littlefinger giving Knifey! to Brann... Littlefinger: This is for you. The last man who wielded it meant to cut your throat, but your mother fought him off. The other dagger, the one that took her life, I would have stopped that dagger with my own heart (HA! As if LF even HAS a heart!) if I could have. I wasn't there for her when she needed me most. But I am here for her now to do what she would have done, to protect her children. Anything I can do for you, Brandon, you need only ask. So the name of the contraption that Qyburn made is a "scorpion"? Sounds very Dornish. I think Drogon is just injured, it looks like he took a spear to the R-shoulder. Unlikely to be fatal... unless Qyburn coated it with poison. And now I just made myself ill. Fav Quotes: Arya: Jon left you in charge? Sansa: He did. I hope he comes back soon. I remember how happy he was to see me. When he sees you, his heart will probably stop. Me: Again... Arya: Do I have to call you Lady Stark now? Sansa: Yes. Bronn: Men shit themselves when they die. Didn't they teach you that at fancy lad school? Davos: (to Missandei) King Snow, isn't it? No, that doesn't sound right. King Jon? Brienne: Who taught you how to do that? Arya: No one. Loved Tyrion trying to will his estranged brother to "flee, you idiot, you idiot. You fucking idiot".

Hey y'all - great stuff. I keep trying to digest it and respond coherently, but real life is interfering. In the meantime, there is a rumor that the next episode has been leaked online. BE CAREFUL! ...for the internet is dark, and full of spoilers.

Cersei's vengeance on Mom Snake is taking the worst thing Cersei can imagine, a vision that haunted her, and making it real for her prisoner. At the very beginning of last season... Cersei: All I could think about when she died was what would happen to her now. Every day, every night, what does Mama look like now? Has she started to bloat? Has her skin turned black? Have her lips peeled back from her teeth? I think about locking Myrcella in a crypt. I think about her beautiful little face starting to collapse. She has condemned Mom Snake to live out this dark Queen's Justice in reality.

Wow, what a nice insight into the "natural" resentment LF probably has towards Jon. I never even thought of that before. How would LF feel about Jon's existence, as opposed to how Jon would further or thwart LF's schemes. Very nice insight. YESSSSS!!!!!!!! Make it happen, Show!! LOVE that idea! It seems a little jarring at times, but one thing I am loving about last season and this season is the sense of forward momentum - things that used to take an entire season to play out happen over the course of two episodes, because the whole gang is on the same continent. Dany sends a raven to Winterfel, and Jon reads it in the next scene. Sam discovers a dragonglass mine, and news reaches the North the next episode. A battle plan is laid out, then smashed to bits within an episode. This is becoming like a nuclear reaction - atoms are squeezed closer together, creating more and more heat and energy. One thing I can't get my mind around after watching the "Cersei rallies the Lords of Westeros" scene again is - why is anyone there? She just killed the leading lords and ladies of Westeros who were in KL in the Wildfire Trial, and destroyed the Sept of Balor (which I imagine as being as important to followers of The Seven as St. Peter's Basilica is to Roman Catholics), she isn't even a member of the ruling House (House Baratheon died with Tommen), so why would any major House seriously consider rallying to her cause? Sure, her 'Dothrhaki and Unsullied are foreign scum' line of reasoning might keep some Houses from joining Dany (despite her dragons), but when she says "In Essos, her brutality is already legendary. She crucified hundreds of noblemen in Slaver's Bay", the rejoinder "As you killed hundreds when you blew up the Sept" seems too easy.

Ginger, that was great, and made me think of another wrinkle - How many of the Seven Kingdoms are currently ruled by a woman! Dorne: Ruled by Momma Sandsnake, though for how long...? Tyrell: Queen of Thornes Lannister: Cersei Stark: Sansa in charge since Jon is absent Targaryen: Dany Exceptions: Greyjoy (though Yara was a claimant for at least a few episodes), Arryn, and whatever is going on with House Tully. Two more callbacks to previous seasons I missed - Hot Pie: (to Arya) The lady knight? You know, I figured she was a knight 'cause she had armor on. She was looking for your sister, but I told her about you. Did she ever find you? Back in Season 2... Arya: Gendry's an armorer's apprentice. Hot Pie, tell Gendry what makes a fight into a battle. Hot Pie: It's when they've got armor on. Gendry: And who told you that? Hot Pie: A knight? Gendry: How'd you know he was a knight? Hot Pie: Well, cause he… got armor on. And Tyrion, practically winking at the camera as he proclaims again that he is an excellent judge of character. I also missed that Mel failed to even MENTION the fact that Jon Snow was killed by his own men and brought back to life! I was soooo wrong about her destination so far this season - I would have bet a stack of gold dragons that she would have run into the Brotherhood, but her at Dragonstone could be a very interesting wrinkle (as interesting as Momma Sandsnake being on the same side as Tyrion Lannister).

Ah, you are right! I heard it wrong. Maester Cressen just discovered it immediately, and it is not explicitly stated that HE cured it. Sam: Um Pardon, Archmaester. I met Stannis Baratheon's daughter at Castle Black. She had the greyscale as a baby and was cured. Archmaester: No. Sam: Isn't there some way Archmaester: Does this look like a baby to you? Sam: No. Archmaester: Have you studied the varying rates of greyscale progression in infants and fully grown men? Sam: No. Archmaester: Maester Cressen discovered Shireen Baratheon's affliction immediately. This is quite advanced. From your lips to the Seven's ears, old friend.

I had been thinking that the Dragon-Be-Gone would be some sort of fog or magical repellant or something. I had no idea that Qyburn would be up to something! And we can "blame" Robb and Talisa for saving Qyburn's life, so he could build a FrankenMountain and an Abominable Dragon Slayer Crossbow. Such small events ripple out and out... That scene with Qyburn and Cersei reminded me of Margaery (sigh) and Joffrey (booo!) playing with a crossbow... Mags: "I imagine it must be so exciting to squeeze your finger here and watch something die over there." I have a bad feeling about the fate of at least one of the dragons. :-( Also a nice callback to S01 - "The people drink secret toasts to your health", Illyrio feeding Viserys a line of horseshyte. I still don't understand why Varys tried to actually have Dany assassinated. I thought the Bad Wine Assassin was sent to be caught, but Varys contradicted that belief on Sunday. And another callback - Maester Cressen was the one who cured Shireen's grayscale and taught her to read (she told Gilly that at The Wall) - I wonder if that is the same maester who tried and failed to kill Mel with poison? Another callback - Tyrion's plan to take Casterly Rock sounds a lot like King Robb's plan to do so before the Red Wedding. Uh oh. Why was Varys OK with Mel? He said of her prior to Blackwater "The dark arts have provided Lord Stannis with his armies and paved his path to our door. For a man in service to such powers to sit on the Iron Throne, I can think of nothing worse." And I am looking forward to Davos v. Mel Round VI. Saddest quote of the episode... Hot Pie: What happened to you, Arry? Oh buddy, you have No. Freaking. Idea. And thanks for straightening out the Nymeria NON-reunion. I was confused, but you brought clarity. That was a long time to wait for such a disappointing "reunion". (sigh)

New one... He rode through the streets of the city Down from his hill on high O'er the winds and the steps and the cobbles He rode to a woman's sigh For she was his secret treasure She was his shame and his bliss And a chain and a keep are nothing Compared to a woman's kiss CHORUS: For hands of gold are always cold But a woman's hands are warm For hands of gold are always cold But a woman's hands are... (incomplete - Arya rode into their camp) "Hands of gold are always cold" - a veiled dig at Jaime's golden hand?

Urine: I don't expect you to trust me outright. You need proof of my honest intentions. In my experience, the surest way to a woman's heart is with a gift. A priceless gift. I won't return to King's Landing until I have that for you. This is important, I think. At first I was thinking the same as some of you, that it might be a person or persons. But who is "priceless"? Dany, and there is no way Capt. Greyjoy can capture her. Capturing Tyrion would be a "gift" to Cersei, but "priceless"? Plus, it is sort of narratively lazy to have Tyrion captured for the third time (after Cat and Jorah). Even without Tyrion, Dany would still have the Dothrhaki, the Unsullied, the Dornish, the Tyrell army, the fleet of Theon and Yara, and 3 dragons. Winterfel is too far from the sea, so I think Sansa and Jon aren't in the running. Could it be a place? Dragonstone is now occupied, so too late for that. Braavos and the gold from the Iron Bank? Maybe. Another dragon egg (or more) would be priceless, but sort of useless without Dany (and the requisite time to grow up). It could be dragon chains from the Warlocks of Qarth, but they have already failed once. I think the most likely "gift" is a weapon, and here are some spitballs... (please add more) Stone Men Army: Maybe the Stone Men are impervious to dragon fire? They live in the ruins of Valyria (on the Smoking Sea, home to "demons and flames"), so might their grayscale protect them from dragon fire? There would still be the little issue of controlling such an army, and the possibility that they could cause more harm than good, but Cersei has shown that she isn't much of a strategic thinker (see: High Sparrow, The). New Wildfire Recipe: Perhaps Urine has a new formula for wildfire? I doubt that the Iron Islanders could come up with it, but perhaps they paid the Iron Price for it while raiding and pillaging? Dragon-Be-Gone: Again, I don't think the Iron Islanders could come up with this on their own, but Urine might have "found" it while sailing as "the greatest captain on the 14 seas." Some sort of dragon-repellent would even the odds in a battle. Or something that does a lot of damage to dragons - like an ice spear or ice catapult, so that the dragons are driven away. My thinking at this point is that Cersei needs something, probably an offensive or defensive weapon, to make the coming war an actual war, rather than a foregone conclusion.

Knifey! More famous than we realized!! Even got his own spread in some ponderous tome. Good catch. I would do a lot of dark things for a copy of the book Gilly had - Legends of the Long Night. Great stuff y'all. I think the infected area of greyscale has to touch skin, so Dany was OK touching Jorah's hand. He told Daario "don't worry, it didn't touch you," not "I didn't touch you". Touching his arm would, I think, have been different. I thought Arya wiping out House Frey at the Red Feast was soooo wonderful and soooo sad. A Girl and A Hound are on two different trajectories - as he is regaining his humanity and becoming more than an agent of death (who once proudly proclaimed "killing is the sweetest thing there is"), as Arya has become capable of wiping out an entire house with just a smirk. It was justice, but it is a dark place that Arya is in. She has gone a little mad from all that she has been through (Barristan said "the Mad King gave his enemies the justice he thought they deserved, and each time, it made him feel powerful and right, until the very end"), but there is still a friendly girl somewhere in there, one capable of not killing some soldiers just because of the color jersey they wear. Sort of a change from her interactions after the Red Wedding when she killed those Lannister soldiers (though they were sniggering about attaching Robb's direwolf's head to his body, so that might have triggered her some). I hope her enemies list doesn't get any longer. And when did the Lannisters start enlisting relatively normal people, who aren't psycho-killers, to serve in their army? They must really be scraping the bottom of the barrel in the Lannister lands. And I saw some complaints about one of the Lannister lads being a pop star? I didn't recognize him, and it totally worked for me. He had a nice voice and seemed to play the part well, though he seemed a little soft to be a soldier. Did anyone else catch the Lannister lad lamenting that the dragon pit in Kings Landing was "a damn ruin"? Did the Targaryens fight dragons with each other like the fighting pits of Mereen, or did men battle dragons for the (fleeting) amusement of Targaryen nobility? Or is that just a place where the current Targaryen ruler (AKA The Dragon) could go to mope when they were feeling "in the pits"? :-) I loved seeing Pod becoming a capable swordsman, but I hope he hears the words of Bronn: "You want to fight pretty, or you want to win?" Brienne seems to know both (she knows her footwork, but also was fighting The Hound with every trick she had in their battle). I hope Pod remembers that. Ned Umber and Alice Karstark broke my heart a little. Two children, one named Ned and the other tall with red hair like Sansa, whose dead fathers were accused of treason, standing before a King who had the power to send them and their family out into the snow just as Winter truly comes to Westeros. Gods, Dany coming to Westeros was magnificently done. The look of the place was fantastic, slightly... alien compared to all the other throne rooms and castles we have seen so far in this world. The scale of the place was enormous. The dragons looked excited to see their new home. Worst line... Cersi: A dynasty for us, then. Me: I don't think that word means what you think it means. Best line contenders... Arya: When people ask you what happened here tell them the North remembers. Tell them winter came for House Frey. Lyanna: I don't plan on knitting by the fire while men fight for me. I might be small, Lord Glover, and I might be a girl, but I am every bit as much a Northerner as you. Hound: It's my fucking luck I end up with a band of fire worshipers. Dany: Shall we begin? Ginger, remember that Ghost is in Winterfell with Jon. Bran's direwolf died at the Three Eyed Raven cave. <sniff>

Adding onto Llywela's post... Dorne (yawn) and The Queen of Shade (Olenna Tyrell) have thrown their lot in with Dany as well. Dany named Tyrion to be her Hand. Jorah has been charged by Dany to go and find a cure for his greyscale. Urine Greyjoy has been elected King of the Iron Islands and was last seen vowing to kill his niece and nephew. Sam, Gilly, and Baby Sam are in Oldtown, with the Valyrian steel sword Heart's Bane that Sam swiped from his father. Jon was revealed to be the son of Rhaegar Targaryen (son of the Mad King), and Lyanna Stark, Ned's sister. This may be significant later, since Rhaegar was married to Elia Martel at the time. Elia was later raped and murdered by The Mountain during the sack of King's Landing (which Oberyn her brother attempted to avenge at Tyrion's Trial by Combat), so the Dornish probably hate the Lannisters / Baratheons more than anyone, but probably have no love for the Starks. Are the two extinguished Houses now Bolton and Baratheon? Is there anyone left who is either an actual Baratheon or ostensibly a Baratheon, since Cersei was crowned as a Lannister? (Gendry doesn't count since he is a bastard) Septa Unella is being torture raped by FrankenMountain beneath the Red Keep, where Queen Cersei, her brother/lover Jaime, and Qyburn (ETA "are probably part of Cersei's very, VERY Small Council") Bran is Beyond the Wall for now, but he has the mark of the King of the White Walkers on his arm, which was enough to overcome the magical protections of the Root Dude Cave - will that mark prevent Bran from crossing the Wall (Benjen said "The Wall is not just ice and stone. Ancient spells were carved into its foundations. Strong magic to protect men from what lies beyond, and while it stands, the dead cannot pass. I cannot pass.")? Or will it cause the Wall to fail if Bran gets to the other side of it? Mel has been banned from Da Norf and is headed south, where I will guess that she will cross paths with Arya... Arya: You're a witch. You're going to hurt him (Gendry). Melisandre: I see a darkness in you, and in that darkness, eyes staring back at me-- brown eyes, blue eyes, green eyes. Eyes you'll shut forever. We will meet again. I hope Arya stays at The Twins long enough to free her uncle Edmure. If she kills off all the other heirs to House Frey, would that make Edmure the head of House Tully and House Frey? Speaking of Gendry, it looks like the only characters left on my previous Milk Carton Westeros list of missing characters are these... Illyrio Mopatis (though Varys and Tyrion stayed at his digs on their way to meet Dany) Warlocks of Qarth (can't think of a reason for them to be relevant at this late hour) ETA: Hill Tribes (probably have also had their moment in the sun) Hot Pie (hopefully still happily baking at the inn) Gendry (last seen rowing away from Dragonstone) and Nymeria, Arya's wolf. Oh, and Knifey! The Most Distinctive Dagger in Westeros, and the cause of all of this bother.

Just stopping by to thank you all for your (usual and customary) outstanding and entertaining work, and to say that, if A Show's credits have the Stark direwolf sigil on top of the little twisty bit next to Winterfell in the credits on Sunday, that distant "FUCK YEAH!" you hear -- that will be me. I am preparing ice packs just in case, because I will probably injure something during my fist-pumping.

Thanks for the warm welcome, all! I think I am going to (mostly) lurk for now, then jump back in with y'all after the end of the season. There are still too many plot shenanigans (cough-Arya-cough), but this season has been fun again (knocks wood), which forgives a lot of sins, and makes me think A Show is back on track and worth devoting time and energy to. The HS definitely has incest on his list of charges... High Sparrow: There are those that say your children were not fathered by King Robert, that they are bastards born of incest and adultery. Cersei: A lie. A lie from the lips of Stannis Baratheon. <snip> I deny it. High Sparrow: Good. But these are terrible charges. And the realm must know the truth of them. <snip> Your trial will separate the truths from the falsehoods. Even with Trial by Combat off of the menu, I still don't see how the HS wins. As much as Gendry coming back would be cool (this season is Real Westeros Reunion season so far), he isn't legitimate, so isn't in the line of succession. Margaery is a maybe, but the HS would have to believe that she is still a schemer under her piousness, otherwise she would be shocked! by the removal of her husband as the legitimate king. Even if she is pregnant, the father of that child would be illegitimate, making his offspring likewise illegitimate. Kevan is a Lannister, not a Baratheon. The only things that work seem to be either Margaery (longshot) or the HS seizing power in the name of The Faith.

Well you guys have been busy! :-) Maybe I'll try to catch up in the off-season and be ready to rejoin you at the Wall and take my oath again, after a long drunken time in Molestown, where I was trying to dull the pain of some plot shenanigans from last season that we don't need to rehash. I'm not ready to jump (stumble?) back in with both feet, but I did want to see if any of you smart people had a solution to this dilemma... Thinking about the (assumed) upcoming Trial by Combat that Cersei is facing. If her champion Mountainstein is somehow defeated, then the charges against her (that her children are born of incest and adultery) are proven, and Tommen, the current BFF of the High Sparrow, is *not* the rightful king! There is no one else that I know of in the line of succession. TOTAL CHAOS! (cue Littlefinger) Or is the HS playing to loose? Thoughts?

Lady Pole: I have had my fill of you gentlemen taking what you want of me. But I have my voice now and I say you are a bore, sir! An uncivilised, unsightly, filthy bore, with your tasteless clothes and with your hair like... thistledown!

Now I finally understand your quote. I thought I had missed some throwaway piece of dialogue in one of the exposition-heavy early episodes.

Vinculus *is* known to have a few drinks. Easy mistake to make. If Raven King isn't a band name yet, I call dibs. Damn I'm going to miss this show. Great series all the way 'round.

It is as if this season of TD wants to rely on background music and (brilliant) cinematography to paper over some sketchy plot elements, uneven acting, and (occasionally turgid) dialogue and make it deep and profound. S2 seems intent on heading into more pulp territory, while I feel like the noir elements are the parts that are really clicking. I have been hearing good things about Bloodline. Maybe I will check it out.

I'm so mad. I watched the on-demand version on my local Comcast, and that scene was unwatchable - pixilated and broken up. Grrrr. I got the gist of it, but the impact was sadly reduced. Loved the rest of the episode. It moved fast but they still took the time for telling details. I'll be sad when this is over.

And super creepy. Thanks!