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Her story to Talisa about Jon having a life-threatening fever as a child showed that she knew all along that her attitude toward him was wrong, but she did it anyway. It was a very human moment, showing that she's a flawed person. For me it made her more relatable, but not at all more likeable. I understood why she felt the way she did, but I thought she should have gotten over it, particularly as Jon got older and turned out to bee such a good brother to her children. It really bugged me when Catelyn "explained" Walder Frey's anger. "He wanted a king, and now he has to settle for Edmure." Yeah, no, Cat, not at all. Ned was still alive when she struck that bargain, so at the time all Walder was getting from the deal was the heir to Winterfell. Robb wasn't declared King in the North until later. As far as Arya goes, at the time Cat made that deal Arya wasn't old enough to marry. Catelyn might have been thinking she could weasel out of the deal later.

I'm pretty eye-rolly about the horns, and I don't have a problem with the show skipping them entirely. I know the show has magical elements like shadow-baby assassins and the walking dead and dragons, but mystical artifacts with magical properties just seems too... deus ex machina for my tastes. I don't even know if they'll perform as advertised in the books either. The Horn of Jorumund is something of fables. Supposedly it awakened the giants, and can topple the Wall. Are we supposed to take the legend literally, or is that a metaphor for something? The Dragon horn makes even less sense that it will work the way Victarion thinks it will. "Okay, Rhaegal, Viserion, listen up!" [minion blows the horn] "Now you must obey me! What, no, not him, he's just the guy who actually blew the horn, and he's been roasted from the inside out. But he is my thrall (or at least was until the aforementioned internal-roasting), and you are his thralls, by simple transference of authority you now are mine! Wait, no, stop eating him and listen to me! You are mine! Why are you looking at me like --- oh by the Drowned God that burns!" [Victarion is Quentin-ized]

Do you mean flying off from the fighting pit? If so, her plot line is really going to drag. I mean, there is some material to work with (Sons of the Harpy attacks, the politcking with that ends in her marrying Hizdar, even the Quentin stuff) but seven hells that would be dull. Maybe they'll have her fly off on Drogon in Ep 4, then be absent for a few episodes (cough Bran cough), with a triumphant return on Drogon's back, leading Kal 's riders against the army besieging Meereen.

And the bad facial hair. If Star Trek is anything to go by, clean shaven = good, goatee = evil twin. Cody Allen Christian is 19 years old, so drooling is legal, particularly at the picture on that link.

They've altered Rickon's story quite a bit, since Davos is at the Wall rather than trying to reach White Harbor, and the Stark boys didn't split up at Winterfell, so there was no way for Wex to follow Osha / Rickon and know where they were going. (In the books that was implausible anyway; did Wex tail them all the way from Winterfell to a boat with a "Next Stop: Skaagos" sign on it?) On the S3 DVD, one of the commentary tracks for the Rains of Castamere had Michelle Fairley on it. She mentioned that she ran into the actress that plays Osha, who was really excited because she didn't get a parting-gift at the end of S3. She took that to mean that she was coming back. Obviously that didn't happen in S4, but might in the future. I wouldn't be surprised if they recast RIckon though, given their track record for retaining young actors other than the 3 main Starks.

They didn't have the screen time, since it was much more important to dwell on Jon Snow: 1. toasting the dead with Mance. 2 watching the Night's Watch burn their dead 3. Talk about the dead with Tormund 4. Burn dead Ygritte. Jon Snow's wangst was more important than explaining Tyrion's motives. [/sarcasm]. Seriously, I found myself saying "get on with it!" every time they cut back to the Wall area. At one point I glanced at the clock and said "are they going to even have Tyrion escape this season?"

I completely agree, because there are plenty of other elements of a midieval setting that he left out. The big one that leaps to mind is the lack of religious conflict. Sure, Mellisandre and Aeron Damphair are fanatics, but they're priests of their respective religions, so it's to be expected. But until we get to the High Sparrow and Faith Militant, there isn't any religious persecution in the Seven Kingdoms, or any wide-scale conflict between believers of different faiths. Some characters display disrespect, like Northerns who don't trust people who worship the Seven, or southerners who think people who keep the Old Gods are heathens, but it rarely breaks into widespread slaughter.

Because the dragons are more realistic and lifelike? Maybe it's a running joke, that every time Dany is introduced she's added a new title. "Kaleesi of the Great Grass Sea, Breaker of Chains, Explorer of the Red Wastes, Frier of Warlocks..." The Brotherhood / LSH gave her the choice of hanging or killing Jaime. They started to hang her and her friends, but she yelled out a single word, then the chapter ended. She then showed up in Jaime's last PoV chapter and led him off by himself. Presumably she's leading him into a trap.

Spotted someone in the Unsullied thread asking about Dany's titles: "Queen of the Andals and Rhoynar and First Men.". Is this the first mention of the Rhoynar? I only remember Robert, Joffrey and Tommen being referred to as "King of the Andals and First Men". Name-dropping for Season 5 since Tyrion sails down the Rhoyne and the people of Dorne have Rhoynish ancestors?

I completely misseed it the first time. Someone on here noted it, so on rewatch I turned the volume WAY up and still only got incomprehensible sleepy muttering. Maybe it was more explicit in the closed-captioning. Incidentally, it was pretty easy to figure out he was in Tywin's room. The camera lingered on a giant lion icon for a few seconds, then had an unmotivated shot of the Hand-of-the-King badge. Both of those shots were so unsubtle it took me out of the scene. There was quite a bit of shoddy camera work to be honest. The Jon / Mance conversation scene was over the shoulder shot / reverse-shot dialog, but half the time Mance's face was obscured by Kit Harrington's poofy hair. It was really distracting. Stannis's army charging into the forest screamed "This is CGI!", plus it looked really hazardous. Hundreds of horses galloping into a stand of trees at 25-30 mph = hundreds of horses tripping on roots, slipping on snow/fallen leaves, impaling themselves or their riders on lowhanging branches, etc.

The whole time I was thinking "hire out his services for a fee, you know, like gainful employment". I was really annoyed that they didn't have al the Wall scenes, including the unnecessarily long and tedious "Jon talks to Tormund then burns Ygritte" scene, in last week's episode. They could have fleshed out some of the more pivotal scenes with the extra time in this episode, like maybe SOME explanation of why Shae was in Tywin's bed.

I thought the whole thing was anticlimatic. Stannis's arrival at the Wall, Bran meeting those weirdos at the tree, Tyrion killing Shae and Tywin, all of it. It didn't help that they spoiled Stannis's arrival at the wall by showing a "previously on" from last season with Mel saying "head north". I enjoyed Brienne vs. the Hound, that was good but ultimately pointless. Ice Zombie fight was good too, but if the Children of the Forest can through fire grenades like that, why didn't she KEEP DOING IT. That way Tyrion killed her in self-defence instead of vengeful murder, to keep his show!character's hands clean. At least we won't have to deal with "where ever whores go" fugue states next season.

I'd like to see Sansa also, even if it's just a dialog-free scene of her, Littlefinger and Robin at a feast hosted by some anonymous Vale lord. As far as Harry the Heir, I get the feeling that D&D have combined the characters "Harrold Hardyng" and "Robin Arryn" into a new character named "Robin Arryn". The story of how Harry is next in line for the lordship of the Vale is too complex for casual viewers to follow -- it's like the plot to that John Goodman movie King Ralph. Plus show!Robin is a) older and b) less sickly than book!Robin. Now that Lysa is out of the picture, Littlefinger can mold him into a suitable lord of the Vale and husband for the heir of Winterfell. (I just realized where GRRM got that plot; it's George I inheriting the crown of Great Britain from his distant relative Anne).

Scenes I’m expecting (in no particular order): 1. Arya and the Hound run into Brienne and Pod. 2. Jaime (and Varys) help Tyrion escape 3. Crossbow of doom 4. Stannis to the rescue 5. Grey Worm gets killed by the Sons of the Harpy (off screen, we just see Dany and Missandei react) 6. Drogon torches a child (again, off screen), Dany locks up the other two dragons. 7. Bran (remember him?) arrives at the tree from his vision and meets the Children of the Forest. 8. Multiple scenes of Emmy-bait dialog 9. Final shot, the reveal of Lady Stoneheart.

They haven’t written him that way in other parts of the show. He likes fighting, not killing. 1. He didn’t kill Ned Stark after an extra stabbed him through the leg because, as he tells Tywin, “it wouldn’t have been clean”. 2. His attempted murder of Bran, despicable as it was, had a point: to cover up the twincest. 3. He killed cousin Alton as part of an escape plan. 4. He killed (off screen) 10 or during the battle of Whispering Woods, but that was because he was trying to kill Robb, which would have ended the war. 5. He killed Aerys to prevent the murder of half a million people. Every time he’s killed it’s been for a reason, none of which were “he likes the killin’.”

Wasn't Shana attacked, knocked unconscious, then dumped in her car at the edge of town last year? Did she assault herself? I think Mona's new team should be called "The Avengers". Or, since they're a rag-tag bunch of misfits, "The Bad News A's" I get the impression that Marlene King is excited to have a new toy (Alison in the main cast) and is so eager to play with it that she's sweeping some of this other stuff under the rug with "answers" that make little sense. I expect dismissive answers when people start pointing out the discrepancies and massive plot holes.

Shana's another red herring. No fucking way did she have time to do all the NYC shenanigans and bury Mrs. DiLaurentis back in Rosewood. I speculated in the speculation thread that the reveal of Wilden's murderer would be pointless, and so it was. What a stupid, stupid season premiere.

I'm drawing a blank, help me out. King's Landing, Old Town, Lannisport... and? White Harbor, Gulltown? And the audience shrugs. "Who? Oh yeah, right." I guess they can work in a scene of Yara getting back tothe Iron Islands to find Euron sitting on the Seastone Chair. Nah, no one would care. Hell, even in-show, Stannis, the man who blood-leech cursed Balon to die, would probably react with "oh, okay. Bigger issues to deal with right now, sorry, I'll get to that later."

Aemon is Aerys's uncle in the show, great-uncle in the books. In both continuities, Aemon is Aegon V's brother: Aegon ---> [Jaehaerys] ---->Aerys ----> Dany, Visaerys, Rhaegar. The show clipped out a generation in removing Jaehaerys from the family tree.

Translation: no one you care about. He was killed by some third party he was blackmailing on the side, or the ghost of cousin Nate, or Ben, or someone's pet terrier. Someone who, when revealed, will instantly convert all the tension and worry from last season into another red herring. Seriously, I'm betting that Maggie Simpson shooting Mr. Burns will be more plausible and satisfying an answer than whoever they pin this one on.

I loved the beginning of the conversation; I wish I could remember the exact wording: Sam: What was she like? Jon: ... she had red hair Sam; [glaring] Did she have big feet? Sam's exasperated tone was perfect.

I hadn’t heard that interpretation of the Azor Ahai prophecy before, but I like it. GRRM seems to enjoy throwing in metaphorical solutions. My favorite is Mirri Maaz Dhur’s curse being interpreted with metaphors: “sun rises in the west and sets in the east” = Quentin Martell, etc. Tywin’s attitude strikes me as one of the landed aristocracy in Britain during the early 20th century. Title, lands, nobility, heritage, snobbery, and desperation to avoid apprearing poor. He was probably lending money to the crown a) in order to keep up appearances of being wealthy and b) hoping for a return on investment. I’m expecting a dialog-free montage as the second-to-last scene. Arya sailing into Braavos harbor, Tyrion looking broody on a ship, Cercei crying in Jaime’s arms as the look at Tywin’s fresh corpse, Littlefinger Sansalayne and Robin at a feast somewhere in the Vale, Jon and Stannis meeting, Bran talking to a Child of the Forest, Dany locking up the dragons. Final scene: Brienne and Pod discussing what to do now, deciding to resume their trip to the Wall, getting captured by bandits, including a cloaked woman…. Final shot is Brienne saying “who are you?” with her lowering her hood to reveal Lady Stoneheart. Credits.

Exactly. I really didn't understand why Ygritte kept setting her arrows on fire. It wasn't like Castle Black was loaded with incendiary materials that she could ignite, and the courtyard seemed pretty well illuminated already.

S1. Dany rising from the ashes, cute little baby dragons clinging to her S2. WW / wight army approaching The Fist of the First Men and scaring the bejeezus out of Sam S3. Dany body surfing on the shoudlers of former Yunkish slaves. S4: Uhhh. It really depends if they're going to go for a "this is awesome!" ending or "holy crap clifhanger!" ending.

Damned if they do, damned if they don't. I was expecting Stannis to ride to the rescue at the end also, and was prepared to be irritated because it would have been such a rehash of Blackwater: desperate battle at night (to save on CGI costs) followed by a last minute rescue from an unexpected outside force. I was pleasantly surprised they didn't do that, though I think it'll mean Stannis's arrival will get short shrift in the next episode since they have a lot of ground to cover elsewhere.