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On the director’s commentary on the DVD, D&D comment on the framing of that scene, where Ned is in the foreground and Luwyn and Cat are in the background on each side, like the proverbial angel & devil on his shoulders, but you don’t know which one is which. They thought it was clever framing; I thought it screamed “film-school student”. I hadn’t read the books before watching S1 (in one long weekend, thanks, Blu-Ray!), but I came away with the impression that Varys was on the Targ side. I guess I assumed that he sent the poisoner but also sent the warning to Jorah so the poisoner could be stopped. In his conversation with Illyrio, where Illyrio said that Drogo wouldn’t cross the Narrow Sea until after the baby is born, Varys said, “’Delay’, you say. ‘Move faster’ I reply.” Setting up a narrow escape from an assassination attempt certainly motivated Khal Drogo to move faster. Of course, this series being what it is, the plan immediately went sideways. The way they turned Loras into a stereotype was infuriating. I think I first really noticed it in season 3 with his fixation on the lovely dresses at his upcoming wedding to Sansa. I mean, ugh. He certainly wasn’t written that way in season 1; back then he was an example of the chivalrous knightly ideal, who just happened to be in a relationship with another man.

Wow, the Previously.TV recapper questions Tanner’s professionalism even more than I do. That police line-up made no sense at all. Shower Harvey was the witness trying to identify someone, right? “Here are 4 strangers and a girl that you helped torment for a year. Do you recognize any of them?” That’d never fly in court. Was Shower also the person who provided the written description that Aria saw on Tanners desk (including the keychain), or was that someone else? I guess this does answer the question of “why don’t the PLLs just go to the cops about the texts”. Tanner is such a hack that she’d use anything they gave her as evidence against them. I’m sure if Emily had called them after receiving the egg-napping ransom notes, Tanner would put her on the top of the suspect lists for the lab break in. [it’s hard to capture Tanner’s tone and lilting speaking manner, so use your imagination] Tanner: “That fertility clinic has had a spotless record for the last five years. I find it very interesting that just after you use their services, they happen to have a break-in where all their stored eggs are destroyed, except for yours. Don’t you find that to be quite an astonishing coincidence?” Emily: “What are you insinuating?” Tanner: “I’m not insinuating anything. I just think it’s curious that your eggs were the only ones not destroyed. You were paid quite a bit of money for those eggs, weren’t you? Since they didn’t actually get used by anyone, they’re now they’re available to be sold again for even more money. That sounds quite lucrative to me. Wouldn’t you agree?” Emily: “You think I stole my own eggs?!?” Tanner: “Not at all. It’s funny though, that you jumped immediately to that conclusion. Why do you think that is?” Emily: [throws battery acid in her face]

Borrowed from the Quotes thread: I love how Liam has met Ezra like twice and already pegged how skeezy he is. He's so gross and manipulative in the scene where he convinces Aria to sleep with him, I mean, write the book with him, that I can't see anything other than manipulation in their other scene at the hospital. On the surface he seemed caring and supportive but it still had an undercurrent of trying to weasel his way back into more of her life. And reading fashion advice to Aria was all kinds of wrong. Though if she does get back together with him, she might want to keep that pamphlet on staph infections.

Dread Doctors are now the Dead Doctors, so there's that. I was kind of hoping Theo would be dead at the end of the episode, but no such luck. I see Jordan invested in some asbestos pants. Still nice to see him shirtless; there's been a noticeable lack of shirtlessness these last few episodes.

It was a great scene for Troian. Too bad she was acting opposite Keegan Allen. Though he did do a decent job at the silent slightly panicked look. His dialog was knida flat though, and I laughed out loud at his obvious "wiping away a non-existent tear".

I probably shouldn't have waited an hour to comment on this episode because most of it has slipped out of my memory. I'm having a hard time taking EmojA seriously because the texts keep looking like they were written by a 14 year old. Maybe the new enemy really is that group of teens Spencer saw in the premiere. I guess the PLLs won't be able to use Lucas's automated death trap loft as their forward base of operations any more. I liked how it was Emily confronting Mona. Emily has previously threatened Mona with violence, so her "get in the car" carried a nice bit of menace. Why does EmojA want the murder solved before the election? How this conversation should have gone: Tanner: "We'd like you to come down for a line-up". Aria: "Do you have a warrant? A subpoena?" Tanner: "No." Aria: "Then fuck your way right off my porch." Seriously, taking the word of Shower Harvey against the word of Shower's victims -- Tanner needs to be booted off the case for clear bias.

I was baffled as to the point of the Mercy chapter. Maybe it was supposed to be in medias res and we'll find out later what the context was.

Huh. I never would have guessed that was "controversial." But I've never been a SanSanFan. Now that Shimpy has finished, can we revisit Dany’s House of the Undying visions? I’d like to hear everyone’s thoughts / guesses now that we’re free of the spoiler tags: The Undying (before trying to eat her) showed her a few things, past present and future: 1. Viserys’s death scene 2. A tall lord with copper-skin and silver-gold hair beneath a banner of a fiery stallion, with a burning city in the background 3. Rhaegar’s death at the Battle of the Trident 4. A blue-eyed king who casts no shadow carrying a red sword 5. A cloth dragon on poles being cheered by a crowd 6. A stone beast taking wing from a smoking tower, breathing shadow 7. Dany’s silver horse trotting by a stream 8. A corpse in the prow of a ship with bright eyes and grey lips 9. A blue flower growing in a wall of ice My guesses are: 1 – The past, pretty obvious 2 – I have no idea. Is this supposed to be AU, the path not taken, the future if Rhaego hadn’t died? Or is Dany destined to have a baby with another Dothraki, because I don’t really want to wait for that kid to grow up. Maybe she will, and this is sequel bait for A Song of Ice and Fire, The Next Generation 3 – Also the past 4 – Stannis presumably, with his pseudo-Lightbringer and the shadowbaby assassins. 5 Aegon VI, indicating that he’s the Mummer’s Dragon, a.k.a., a pretender. 6. Yeah, no clue on that one. I guess it’s from a future book 7. Could be a random scene from her original trip though the Dothraki Sea, or could be the future? No idea. IIRC, her horse is currently parked in a stable somewhere in Meereen. 8. I go back and forth on this one. Victarion is in a ship, and, given his semi-dead fire-animated arm, could be a metaphorical corpse. The grey lips make me think of greyscale and Jon Connington, but he’s already off the ship and on dry land. I guess it could be a vision of him during his trip from Volantis to the Stormlands, but it seems kind of lame to have the corresponding real world events to one of Dany’s visions happen off-page. 9. No idea who this refers to. I’m absolutely flummoxed and confused and not at all thinking that this is a giant big red arrow pointing at R+L=J.

It's been some time since I read that preview chapter, but I don't seem to recall anything that would be controversial.

One of the things I've really enjoyed about this thread is how non-echoey it's been. People have different opinions and preferences and they're all respected even if others disagree.

I'd read three of those before, but finally read the Mercy chapter. I had a 'wut' moment: Book 6 preview chapter spoiler:

One of the more... inventive... theories I've read had the visions Dany received as being projected by Quaithe, and since Dany sees her as a mask of stars while in the Dothraki Sea, Quaithe is actually Shiera Seastar, half-sister/lover of Brynden Rivers aka Bloodraven. It's a bit far-fetched since she'd be very old but she was rumored to be a sorceress who bathed in human blood to keep her youth.

I don't think there were two wolves. 1. Sebastian fell into the mud and drank the footprinted water. 2. Next cut, he's sitting under a tree writing his letter to his seester. 3. Next cut, he and his buddy are trying to get into that cabin where the woman says "zhere ees a monster out zere" I think some time passed between 1 & 3, during which Sebastian was wolfing it around the area, causing that woman to be afraid. She didn't realize that the dude who burst into her cabin was actually the monster until he blew out the candle. The entire flashback sequence could have been handled with a few lines of exposition. "First person to kill the beast was our great-great-xxxx-grandmother. She used the following items: ". This reeked of "second unit episode" most of the filming was with guest stars so probably occurred at the same time they were doing a different episode with the main cast. Lydia's scenes were probably done while she was in Eichen House. I kept being reminded of that quote from History of the World Part 1: "We do not even have a language! Just a stupid accent!" "She's right! We all talk like Maurice Chevalier!"

Her inner journey might not be complete yet. She could be on the path to learning to integrate her peace-loving-I-want-to-plant-trees self with her fire-and-blood self. There's no reason she has to be one or th other -- Aegon the Conquerer was both a conquerer and a just ruler.

I thought it was weird that he mentioned Paula Deen in the same breath as Woody Allen and Roman Polanski. I thought her grave offense was using racial slurs in the past. That's bad, but I don't think it belongs in the same category as abusing underage girls. Maybe I missed something considering I don't give a damn about any of those people.

I can buy that Elliott was sleeping with Charlotte too, since he's quite the creep. And, he's a man in Rosewood. We're not going to get any resolution to this mystery this season are we? There aren't many episodes left, and the flashforward shows Ali writing "Mrs Rollins" on the chalkboard. If Elliot turns out to be the killer, or the "it's too late, he's here" guy it just seems weird that she wouldn't be back to Ms DiLaurentis. Another thing -- the election is in two weeks. What's the over/under on how many episodes they'll cram into those two weeks? Bearing in mind that this is the show that had a 2-season long November.

"She was our ancestor!" Dun dun DUN!. I expected Lydia to say "yeah... we already knew that didn't we?" Because I thought we did. When the Argents were introduced back in season 1, they revealed that the myth of werewolves being harmed by silver was based on their last name. I'm pretty sure they also talked about the legend of the first Argent killing the Beast of [French Mumble]. I liked Lydia's rebuttal to their story. "She didn't do it alone. She had help." I do wish she'd said more than "we need Parrish". Could have included "and Scott and his pack". I don't see how they're going to save Mason. The whole "drink from the footprint of a wolf and become an uber-werewolf" thing seems problematic to this universe. If it were that simple, why doesn't Theo just do that rather than concoct this elaborate scheme? I get that the Dread Doctors were trying to concoct a better version (since Chimerae aren't affected by mountain ash).

I liked her look when they were investigating Sara's hotel room. It was the first time she looked like a 20-something rather than a teen wearing her mom's clothes. I find Elliot one of the more repulsive characters on this show, which is saying something. Ali's unburdening herself about That Night (3), and he starts talking to her like a psychologist instead of a supportive boyfriend. Then when he insinuated his proposal I wanted to punch him in the throat. Ali: What are you asking? Elliot: I think you know what I'm asking you Ali: (should have said) Then ask me outright instead of playing some weird mind game you quack! The shirts are also one size too small. In one scene the sleeves were riding really high to the point that it looked like they were trying to show off Tyler Blackburn's bulging biceps. Unfortunately Tyler Blackburn doesn't have bulging biceps, like at all. Don't get me wrong, he's a good looking guy, but he isn't built like Andrew or Mikey or even Toby.

I wasn't paying enough attention to their conversation. What was it Ali allegedly said to Charlotte That Night (no, not That Night. Not that one either. The third That Night) that got allegedly got her upset? Did she admit that she was banging Charlotte's doctor? Also, when they showed up at Aria's doorstep for their impromptu wedding, they both looked a little hammered. I kind of got a Ross & Rachel in Las Vegas vibe, and they'll wake up with hangovers and regret the next morning. Maybe that's what the flashforward is about -- "he's already here!" and "he" turns out to be a process server delivering the divorce papers.

So Sara is also a mason. A hands-free mason. Okay then. Veronica: Thanks for reminding me why I did this Spencer: [something I can't remember] Veronica: No, I meant why I had kids. Me: What hack writing! I did "oh, shit!" when Ezra spilled about Ezria. Of course Liam took her back. Alison's hair looked really good in the first scene. Everything with Emily's adventure at the abandoned restaurant confused the hell out of me. How did she get there, why did she go alone, why did she think the car was gone after it'd only been out of sight for 5 seconds, why did she keep repeating that same mistake, and what the hell was the engine on that truck? It sounded like a jet engine. Hanna's conversation with Ella was really ham handed.

Heh, I only read The Bloated Stand. It had a forward from King how he got to add back in things that were, in his opinion, unreasonably cut. As I read the book I can remember thinking to myself, "I assume this entire section was one that was cut -- it was awful." That book pretty much soured me on ever reading King again. I've probably commented on this before, but you can see the moment J.K. Rowling achieved Immunity from Editing -- Order of the Phoenix is quite bloated and repetitious (Harry's continual mood swings made me rename the book Harry Potter and the Prescription of Lithium). She appeared to learn the lesson that Editors are Friends not Food, though, because the next book was much tighter and coherent.

They probably should have made it a 10 year time jump so things like Hanna's career taking off in her sophomore year in college, or Spencer and Mona being lobbyists a year out of college, wouldn't happen. But if they'd done that, they wouldn't have the Emily dropped out of college story line, and there's no way they could make Sasha Pieterse look almost 30 no matter how matronly they dress her.

Maybe you're thinking of Ser Arryk and Ser Erryk Cargyll, twin brothers in the Kingsguard who were on opposite sides of the Dance of the Dragons civil war. Sansa loves the song about how they fought and died weeping in each other's arms because of their intense brotherly love. Its so sad and romantic and all that. Apparently, it's also a fabrication -- they cursed each other as traitors during their battle.

Right up there with "my nuncle" for aggravating turns of phrase. At one point he even has her nibbling an olive. An olive! It's the size of ... an olive! Just pop the thing in your mouth and chew. Sansa nibbles a lot too. I guess it's to contrast their lady-like eating habits vs. illyrio the gourmand who can pop a whole chicken in his mouth. Well, ok, a lark, bones and all. To be fair, the Targaryens of Westeros didn't use magic to control their dragons. They put eggs in the cradles with newborn babies and raised the dragons alongside the children to acclimate them to each other. They were trained animals to the Targs. Specifically I don't think they used dragon horns -- otherwise Euron's Dragonbinder wouldn't be such a big deal. There would be others in storage in the Red Keep, and people would be familiar with them from semi-recent history.

"I bear you no ill will. This was not done from malice. It was for the realm. For the children." Later Varys says: "Aegon knows that a king must put his people first, and live and rule for them." I'm pretty sure Varys is referring to children in the abstract, the future generations. He believes that Aegon on the throne will bring peace and unity to the kingdom and will be a wise ruler, better than Tommen could ever be, which is beneficial in the long run to everyone. Now whether he is right is a different question, because as you stated, another war will be even more destructive to their society for generations.