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When she said something like "Maybe we should have an armistice with the Dragon Queen" I got the vibe that her unspoken continuation of that was "so I can figure out the best opportunity to stab her in the back". Especially considering she followed up with them needing to do what Tywin (Mr. Red Wedding instigator) would do. I could see Cercei pretending to go along with the idea of fighting ice-zombies only to try to turn her army against Dany's while they're fighting the dead.

Like Donkey and Dragon in the Shrek movies. A few months later we'd have firebreathing direwolves with wings hybrids. I wish I was a skilled enough artist to draw that, because that would be awesome!

I know the reason is "CGI budget", but I really would have liked to see Ghost accompany the Seven Snowmari on the trip north of the wall. He might have come in useful helping them find an isolated wight to kidnap instead of blundering into the main army of the dead. Then again, given what happened to Summer and that most of them are probably going to die anyway, best that he's chilling offscreen at Winterfell. Others above have pointed out some of Ned's motives for not telling Catelyn the truth: He didn't really know her when he brought Jon home, he wouldn't want to burden her with this treasonous knowledge, etc. Catelyn later confirmed for us readers that Ned was right to distrust her. When she confronted Jaime about pushing Bran out the window, she had a moment of understanding (even empathy) and thought to herself (paraphrasing) "I'd do anything to protect my children too". If the situation had ever arisen, she'd probably sell out Jon's secret in order to protect any of her kids.

I can see this playing out a couple of ways: Scenario 1. Arya confronts Sansa with the scroll, blames her for getting Ned killed, angry exchange of words until someone (Bran maybe) sorts it out for them. Scenario 2. Arya shows the scroll to Sansa and says something like "Littlefinger planted this so I'd find it and pull a Scenario 1 on you. Kind of dumb of him - if I thought he was getting rid of this evidence on your orders, why didn't he just burn it instead of hiding it for me to find? I think he's messing with us and I'd like to get stabby. Okay with that?" Sansa nods. Pretty sure the writers will go with Scenario 1, because it's trite and annoying.

I wonder if the annulment angle will be Show-only, or if it'll play that way in the books also. (Assume, for the sake of argument, that we actually get any more non-prequel books). I've always just assumed that Rhaegar and Lyanna got married in addition to him being married to Elia - bigamy wasn't really allowed, but it wasn't unheard of for Targaryens to have more than one wife. But if Book!Rhaegar gets an annulment, wouldn't that make his two children with Elia into bastards? Kind of like how Mary Tudor became a bastard after Henry VIII annulled his marriage to Katherine of Aragon. A whole new wrinkle to the fAegon plotline, because it wasn't convoluted enough as-is.

The World of Ice and Fire history makes it pretty clear that the Targs followed a "do what I want because I'm the king and I say so" policy of inheritance. 1. Aenys I: "The throne goes to my eldest son". His brother Maegor responds by usurping the throne. 2. Jahaerys 1: "My eldest son just died. Primogeniture says my heir should be his daughter, but I want it to go to my second son. The excuse we'll use is that women can't succeed" 3. Jahaerys 1, a bit later: "OOOkay, so second son is dead now. I'm left with either a) great grandson on eldest son's side, or grandson from my second son. The latter is a grown man, so we'll use the excuse that women can't pass on a claim either to bypass the toddler great-grandson." 4. Viserys 1: "Yeah, about that whole 'women can't inherit' thing? Forget it, I'm naming my daughter Rhaenyra as heir". Resulting in the Dance of the Dragons.

"I don't believe in the walking dead.... except I've got an 8ft tall abomination in black armor standing behind me willing to do my bidding. But that's different; you're talking magic, when Ser Gregor was reanimated with Mad Science". LOL, I've been watching too many documentaries about the British peerage. It comes up a LOT.

Male-preference primogeniture says that Jon is the "rightful" king. Eldest living son of the eldest son of the Mad King. Proximity of blood says that Dany is the rightful queen. She's the king's daughter, Jon is the king's grandson. Most of the realm follows male-preference primogeniture, which is why Littlefinger was sort of right calling Bran "Lord Stark". Technically, Bran is ahead of his sisters even though they are older than him. He doesn't want it though, so Sansa stays Lady of WInterfell. Dorne does absolute primogeniture, so eldest child (Arianne) inherits ahead of her brothers. Based on the stuff going on in World of Ice and Fire, the Targs seem to follow whatever they want. Mostly male-preference primogeniture, but various kings have basically chosen who their heir is regardless of which system applied. At one point, Aerys threatened to disinherit Rhaegar and leave the throne to toddler-Viserys. Dany really wins and question of "who is the rightful ruler" because of dragons. I totally agree. Joe Dempsey is a FINE looking man, but that buzz cut isn't doing him any favors. He might not have known about it. Rhaegar's new marriage probably took place in secret at the Tower of Joy.

I see that I'm gonna have to wait for some HD screen caps to figure out just which scroll he hid. It it was the one from Lysa to Catlyn saying the Lannisters poisoned Jon Arryn, I'm calling shenanigans. It was sealed when Cat received it, and after reading it she tossed it in the fire. There is no way Maester Lewyn could have copied it for his records. I hope this isn't speciesist of me, but I can't tell them apart. Drogon is easy since he's the size of a passenger jet, but the other two are interchangeable.

OOOH, is it the letter that Sansa was forced to send by Cercei? Both Robb and Catlyn immediately recognized it for a hostage note. Hopefully Arya will show it to Sansa and say "I think Littlefinger was hoping I'd find it so I'd be mad at you. Can I kill him and wear his face now?" At this point, it wouldn't mean anything to Sam. Bran needs to get that "Jon, you're Lyanna's son" info out, post-haste. My eyes rolled out of my head, across the floor, and into the dog's water bowl with that one. Just kidding - I don't own a dog. At this point I have to completely lay aside any characterization of Jaime from the books because other than being a blond Lannister, Show!Jaime bears little resemblance. He's never going to turn on Cercei now.

And Gilly unwittingly discovered that he's legitimate since High Septon Whoever annulled "Prince Ryegar"'s previous marriage and performed a secret wedding ceremony. I appreciate that there is still conflict between Arya and Sansa, I just wish it wasn't being driven by Littlefinger's manipulations. Anyone catch the text of the scroll he planted for Arya to find? I squeed like a little girl at Gendry.

The bottom edge of the maps you linked show a road approaching KL from the south-west (south of Tumbleton). That's the Rose Road, which runs from Highgarden to Kings Landing, and would be the more likely route the gold / food trains would follow. It's the same road that Renley was slowly marching up in season 2. I don't think they would have gone out of their way to get north to the Gold Road. I don't know why they didn't change it at the beginning of the season when they redid the CGI. I'm guessing we won't see the credits change this entire season just for budget reasons, so we'll always have Pike and Oldtown even if the Greyjoys and Sam aren't in the episode.

He was the 3rd son of the 4th son of the king (Daeron II "The Good") and was shipped off to the citadel to become a maester because he was smart (and there were too many Targs around at the time, which had the potential to cause problems.) He wasn't disgraced or anything, just far down on the succession list. Later, when that list got severely trimmed down by accidental deaths and disease, Aemon was offered the crown but decided to let it go to his younger brother, Aegon V "The Unlikely". To keep other Lords from using him in their political jockeying with the king, Aemon chose to join the Nightswatch.

Another dozen pages filled with "Sansa was [fill in the blank]" comments. She's a Westerosi Rorchach's inkblot. One sees what one wants to see based on pre-conceived notions. On the plus side, Dany knows about this weapon now and can devise tactics for dealing with it. Namely, don't do a Rickon and fly right at the things: serpentine dammit! I honestly expected D&D to save the supermegacannon weapon to spring a surprise on Dany and kill Rhaegal and or Viserion to give Cercei another win. I'm hoping Dany takes a few lessons back from this battle. 1. Have a saddle made since lying prone on Drogon's back looks uncomfortable and rather unsafe if he maneuvers too quickly and throws her off. 2. Find fucking riders for the other two dragons! That ballista wouldn't work against multiple targets

Reading the multiple interpretations of "How is Sansa reacting to Arya's training with Brienne?" in this thread, I'm reminded of the MST3K episode where they were trying to answer the question "What emotion is Kathy Ireland trying to convey here?". And the answer, every time, was "dull surprise". Seriously, I could not get a read from Sophie Turner's affectless face during that scene. It didn't help that Littlefinger was smirking and side-eyeing her the whole time. I really want his character gone, soonish. My reaction: "Oh, SHIT, they haven't seen each other since Theon captured Winterfell, Jon's gonna cut off his head. Oh, right, the Dothraki have his sword right now. Theon's going to get a mouthful of Jon's fist then."

In universe? I'm having a hard time seeing it too. Out of universe, it's easy -- the writers will just ignore the "how" and have Jaime lying unconscious on the land downstream somewhere. Same way armies and navies move about the world as the plot dictates. Since this is the season of call-backs, he'll probably wind up on the same rocky outcropping that Davos was on in Season 3.

Quoting extensively from The World of Ice and Fire, Aegon I chapter. "King Aegon... might have conquere the Seven Kingdoms by the age of twenty-seven, but now he faced the formidable challenge of ruling his newly forged realm. The seven warring kingdoms had rarely been at peace within their own borders, let alone without them, and uniting them under one rule required a truly remarkable man.... As [King's Landing] and its prosperity grew, so did that of the realm. This was in part due to the Conqueror's efforts to win the respect of his vassals and that of the smalfolk. In this, he was ofen aided by Queen Rhaenys.... The queen also did much to bring the realm together through the marriages she arranged between far-flung houses...."

When the Dragonstone crew were discussing why they couldn't use the dragons because that meant putting Dany in harm's way, I was expecting someone to mention that they need to find riders for Viserion and Rhaegal. If only Danaerys had someone advising her who was fascinated by dragons as a child., someone who knows Westerosi history and could point out that Aegon's sisters were riders also, and were able to split their dragons up to attack multiple regions at the same time... I guess we'll get that when one of the smaller dragons lands next to Jon and starts nudging him with a wing until he mounts.

His ship certainly was. Greyworm looked down at the attacking fleet and the camera zoomed in on it. It breaks the internal logic of the show in order to make drama and for plot convenience. If this was a different squadron of Ironborn ships attacking outside Casterly Rock I could buy it, but they made the point of showing Euron's ship.

Thinking about it, was this their first interaction on the show? Sansa left Winterfell in Episode 2, and Bran was still comatose. I don't recall them doing anything together in the pilot, certainly not speaking to each other. It'll be nice when Arya finally shows up: Sansa: "Oh, hey, a reunion with someone I've actually shared screen time with." Four times, though I agree with you that he may have arrived in KL the first time before Dany landed on Dragonstone. 1. Into King's Landing to meet Cercei 2. Out to attack Yara 3. Triumphant return to KL 4. Out again to chase down and destroy Greyworm's transport I guess I can maybe handwave that away because, in the books at least, it's possible to leave the bay without passing within sight of Dragonstone. When Tyrion sent her to Dorne, he gave directions to Myrcella's escorting ships to hug the coast and stay out of range of Stannis's fleet around the island. Maybe there's some network of worm-holes leading from Blackwater Bay to various plot-relevant locations around Westeros. Next week, Euron shows up at Eastwatch by the Sea.

Pillow talk as she's tracing the scars on his bare chest? I like this idea! Then again, I like most excuses to get Kit Harrington naked. I think part of the reason the Jon / Sansa reunion was so powerful was that it was the first time Starks(ish) have been together since season 1 really (not counting Bran and Rickon being together all the way to the Wall since Rick was a non-entity) I'm guessing Arya's return will be anticlimactic also... unless she's undercover and kills Littlefinger before ripping off her Scooby-Doo mask.

I read a comment from the Showrunners about that: "You may ask, who is leading in Dorne now? Well, that's a good question, that I think can be answered best with a distraction - oh look, Jon meeting Dany finally! Bran's back to Winterfell, and uhh, here are Lena Heady's (or possibly a body double's) tits for a second! Hand wave, hand wave!" I might be embellishing a little, but I'd bet they never address that and hope no one notices.

Euron's conversation with Jaime in the throne room completely took me out of the show because of the godawful sloppy continuity of the camera work. It was filmed as shot / reverse shot, but every time they showed Euron's side of the conversation, he was mostly facing Jaime, but when they'd cut to Jaime's coverage, Euron was almost shoulder-to-shoulder with him. It was really distracting.

I disagree. The Tower of Joy was nowhere near a weirwood yet Btan saw it. Bran knows everything but he said he's having a hard time sorting it out, so he won't remember Littlefinger's treachery with Ned until the plot requires it.

I'd reword that: "Dany, meet your nephew, who was dead but got better. Jon, this is your Aunt Dany she has cool pets". I liked how Davos almost mentioned Jon's death until Jon gave him a look, and they both Dany and Tyrion picked up on the "knife to the heart" comment. I expected it to come back during Dany's subsequent conversation wtih Jon, but I guess that's a Chekhov's Resurrection that'll be fired later. Edit -- Checkhov the writer, not Checkov the guy on Star Trek.