arry the orphan

Funnily Stannis just decided to give up his plan to take KL and send his entire hired army to the Wall. If he wants to ride down on the road to Kings Landing he first has to deal with Lord Bolton. Or he could return to the coast, load up his army and horses on his ships and sail South again. Anyway I doubt that Stannis will pose any threat to Cersei for at least one season. Especially as he decided to bring his wife and daughter to the Wall as well. So I think he wants to stay there and wait for the White Walkers. The situation in KL will be going downhill quickly (even without Stannis) King Tommens council: Queen Regent: Cersei Lannister - his mother; no longer cares if the realm knows that the King is an incest bastard, oh and she hates his bride-to-be Margary Commander of the Kingsguard: Jaime Lannister - his father, has never shown any interest in ruling, has only one hand and seems to become slightly obsessed with his legacy (that could actually be a good thing, as his oath to Brienne has shown), still he is even more obsessed with Tommens mother (his sister), freed Tyrion right before killed his father Master of Ships: Lord Tyrell - father of the future Queen Margary, considered completely incompetent, although he is now the most powerful man in the Seven Kingdoms (gold and army) Grandmaester Pycelle: seems to get replaced by Dr. Mengele Hand of the King: Tywin Lannister - dead at the hands of his own son Master of Coin: Tyrion Lannister - on the run - killed the Hand of the King and found guilty for killing the former King Spymaster: Varys - decided to leave KL, because he realized that things are going to get really ugly, helped Tyrion escape Oberyn Martell: killed by the Mountain, and Cersei so wisely decided to save the Mountains life. Dorne won't be happy about that.

Was the roots-guy an Old God? The Starks pray to the old gods and these trees with faces and now we find a wizard (seer?) hanging around in the roots of the Mother of Trees and with the powerful magic fairies.

I think Sansa was 13 in the pilot and Bran 10. So I suppose Arya was between them, because 9 would be very young. I think Sansa was 15, when she married Tyrion. So about three years have passed since the pilot (although the actors obviously look older).

We saw the 100,000 wildlings in the last scene of S2. Only it wasn't an army of 100,000 wildlings, it was the entire wildling population (including children, women and old people). Mance said in this episode that they were not conquerers, but that they wanted to hide behind the wall. I think it makes sense that he didn't bring the children who threw stones at Jon Snow to the frontlines. Letting the wildlings through, would have been the end of Nights Watch. They would have all broken their vows, and most likely the next king or Lord (Bolton) would have executed the lot of them. He needed the gold to hire mercanaries and the ships (Davos pirate friend) to transport his army! Davos said that the Golden Company has 10.000 skilled fighters and I think it showed when they attacked the wildlings. Well, he landed with his army on the coast and rode north of the Wall to Castle Black? They certainly didn't come out of the gate. No teleportation needed. To me, Stannis storyline makes perfect sense, even a little too much sense with the "we have no army"-->"lets hire an army"-->"we have no gold for that"-->"Lets go to apply for a loan from the bank"-->"now we have gold and need ships"-->"lets go to the pirates and pay them gold so we can get ships" etc... a bit boring. But it explained how Stannis managed to make a comeback after his defeat in S2.

Great summary Llywela, I seemed to me that Sansa joined Robin on his tour of the Vale (Shall we go?). So, I think we gonna check in with them next season again. Theon and the Boltons moving into Winterfell also serves as a good season end point for them. But we should really check in with Yara! She only got one really bad scene this season. Daddy Greyjoy got none! I think Brienne and Pod are going to meet Arya and the Hound. They will either fight each other or get attacked by Tyrions hill tribesmen from S1. Podrick should know the hill tribesmen from his time as Tyrions squire, right? We need to check in with Bran and co. I am not really worried about Tyrion. He really has a solid plot armor. Margary is the only one who knows that Tyrion is innocent, perhaps she convinces Tommen to pardon Tyrion and send him to the Wall? Varys owes him a debt, and does not forget! And there are Jamie and Bronn as well. One of them will help him.

Actually, Ros didn't go to KL in a Turnip Cart. She and Theon even talked about it, that she is just hitching a ride to the harbor. This is really bad continuity, because later Yara tells Theon that Winterfell is hundreds of miles (leagues?) from the sea. Definitely to great a distance for a farmer to bring his turnips to the market. Unless of course the harbor was at a river that leads to the sea...............

I actually like that this show is not good guys vs. bad guys. That would be boring, imo. I also don't think that there are more good guys in Kings Landing than in the North. For me neither "Blackwater" nor "The Watchers on the Wall" was a battle good vs. evil. All sides had good reasons to fight those battles. And I certainly prefer Jon and Sam on the winning side to Joffrey and Cersei. In the first few episodes it looked like the child killers Jaime Lannister and the Hound were among the worst villains of the show. They certainly aren't now. Even Arya, whose friend was killed by the Hound, now cares about him enough to treat his wounds.

Mance sent the the raiders over the Wall with the goal to kill as many people as possible. He thought that would draw the NW out of Castle Black. And Ned once said that the White Walkers were gone for thousands of years. So for the past 1000s years the Nights Watch killed Wildlings and the Free Folk killed Crows. The Free Folk complained that their lands were stolen when they built the Wall. The children of the Northerners (like Rickon) heard stories about the evil Wildlings. The Wall was so effective that the people in South (like supersmart and well read Tyrion) don't even believe that giants and White Walkers exist.

The very last scenes of each season: S1: Birth of the dragons S2: White Walker army S3: Dany freeing 200.000 slaves.... S4: ???

I don't feel there was ever a need for a turn-around with Thorne. In the first season he said that during the last winter he and the other rangers were forced to eat their comrades to survive. His goal was always to turn the recruits into hard men, instead of "soft boys", because he knew that they are going to die like flies. So, if he survives his wounds, he is going to continue being such a jerk. He is not a nice fella, but in this episode I felt like he was developing some respect for Jon Snow. And they are the only two capable leaders left. I actually expected Slynt to die some ironic death, like being shot by an giant arrow, but Slynt survived. So with Thorne wounded and Jon on the other side of the wall, is Slynt now in command?

I really don't understand the negativitiy about this episode and the NW storyline in general. For me the Jon Snow storyline is one of the best of the show. I certainly prefer it to Cersei, Stannis, Brienne, Theon and co. For me Tyrion, Arya and Jon Snow are the most interesting characters (yes even before Dany). And for a TV show this was really an excellent battle. Giants with bows shooting men on top of the Wall? Mamoths? The Chief Thenn with his axe against Jon Snow? Ygritte dying in Jon Snows hand? Grenn giving his life to stop a giant in the tunnel? Thorne vs. Toramund? Ghost? The long tracking shot of the battle? And babykiller "there-are-no-giants" Slynt hiding with the women? And of course Sam is becoming one of my favourite characters as well... I really loved it and I think it was a worthy Episode 9! Didn't their delivery system blow up before that?

I assume the Flayers of the Dreadfort have a really talented maester working for them. Qyburn also worked for Bolton in Harrenhal, before he went with Jaime! Mmm, I am still waiting for a maester duell (maester-off??) between Pycelle and Qyburn......................... The Hound isn't dead yet, and might still be saved if he gets to a maester in time and Drogo, well, his wound was treated by the evil witch, before it festered, so I think she might have poisoned him for raping her village.

I don't see Tywin as a villain at all. Yes, his soldiers comitted atrocities in the war and yes he orchestrated the Red Wedding, but Tywin is first and foremost a pragmatist. The Red Wedding was the easiest way for him to win the war (with the least amount of death). And we have seen Stark soldiers comitting atrocities as well (Brienne killed some of them and Robb executed Lord Karstark). Thats perhaps the most striking difference between Tywin and Robb. Tywin did not treat his prisoners worse than Robb (Gendry, Arya in Harrenhal, while Tywin was there), but while Robb forbade Lord Bolton to flay and torture his prisoners, Tywin let the Mountain torture his. Thats how Tywin got the loyalty of the monsters sworn to him, while Robb's monsters turned against him. Tywin even named Tyrion acting Hand of the King. He said that he always believed that Tyrion is a stunted little fool, but his escape from the Vale, his alliance with the Mountain clans and his correct analysis about the state of the war after Robb took Jaime prisoner impressed Tywin enough to give him a chance to proof himself. And I think Tywin was really trying to reward him with Sansa Stark as a wife and the position of Master of Coin. Knowing the financial situation of the realm Tywin gave this job to the smartest man he knew (and removed Littlefinger from that position).

There are really a lot of Lannisters in the Seven Kingdoms, almost as many as Freys. The sleepy Lannister, was Tywins cousin Reginald. Jaime didn't even know that he had a cousin called Alton, who once squired for him. He asked if his mother was the "fat Lannister", which she wasn't. All in all, having a large family isn't that surprising. Lets assume Tywins grandfather had a few brothers and ten children and Tywin had a few siblings himself, and the gold from Casterly Rock made them all stay there. No wonder that Tywin cares so much about the family legacy when Orson Lannister was probably not the only moron among them. I thought the two guys in the whorehouse were just Lannister guardsmen. I assume that Lannisters and Frey just stay with their family, while in the other families the sons who don't inherit will leave and try to make their own way in the world.

Tyrion sent Lord Commander Neckbeard to the Wall, because he wanted to prove that Joffrey had no "real power". After that, all that Joffrey did was abusing whores (and Sansa), talking big how he is going to defeat Stannis while everyone ignored him. The only one taking orders from Joffrey was Meryn fucking Trant. Even the Kings Justice was not no longer been seen after cutting out the tongue of the singer at the end of Season 1.