WearyTraveler

I only see a black square, what is it?

Also, what is a main character? Is it one that is a main character in the books? Is it one whose actor appears in the opening credits? Is it both? Maybe it's one that has been on the show since the very first season, in which case Pycelle, Varys and LF make the cut,

I don't think D&D care about the number of deaths. In season 1 they killed 10 named characters and one direwolf In 6 episodes this season, they have killed 12 named characters and 2 direwolves, and we still have 4 episodes to go!

It's Randyll Tarly, guys. Sorry! I'm having a bout of OCD

If Clegane Bowl is supposed to happen, and I think it's plausible, then The Hound needs to be mad at Lannisters, not TBwoB. So, if anyone is murdering septons, I'd say it's the men left behind by The Mountain. Maybe, in order to approach the towns safely, this groups pretends to be BwoB, but are actually not.

Well, I have my disappointments when it comes to Mr. Martin, but I don't think all his chapters are torture porn. Out the last three chapters released (Alayne, Arianne and Aeron) only one has that element.

A few more details on Frikidoctor's video:

That is a good point, but considering LF's travel prowess, one that I think the showrunners won't reflect. Although I think sending Varys ahead might be something they'd do. Didn't we also hear something about Varys leaving Meereen early.

Wasn't there a shot of the shadow of a dragon over King's Landing in one of the trailers before this season started? Maybe Dany makes a fly over while her troops are on the way. I'm thinking that now that she seems to have full control over Drogon, maybe she can fly over to Westeros in search of allies. Her army doesn't need to go with her. If Yara/Asha and Theon reach her, perhaps they convince her to take a flight to the Iron Islands to steal Euron's ships. Then she can stop over at Dorne to hook up with the Sand Snakes, who might lend her some more ships because they want to bring the Lannisters down. I'm thinking they must have kept Dorne for a plot reason important enough to warrant the butchery they've made of that particular book plot. Adding Dorne's strength to Dany would be one of them (and might be what ends up happening in the books, anyway).

In both, book and show, Ned was injured way before he was arrested, even before Robert died. Jaimie and his men attacked Ned and his men because Catelyn had taken Tyrion prisoner, accusing him of attempting to kill Bran by sending an assassin with the fateful Valyrian steel dagger to Bran's room. Robert even went to Ned's room to visit him after that and restored him as Hand of the King. Ned had resigned because Robert had approved the order to kill Daenerys in Essos. After that, Robert went on his hunt and Ned even sat the Iron Throne in his name, while his leg was in a cast. ================================== Regarding the Baratheon's claim to the throne, Robert rebelled and took it because he had the larger army and support, but let's not forget that once Rhaegar, his heirs, and King Aerys were dead, the Rebellion decided Robert should be King because, as Ned put it, he "had the better claim". One of Robert's ancestors had been a Targaryen, so, they decided Robert should be King. Off course, they could have done the right thing, name Viserys King and appoint Robert, Ned or Jon Arryn as Regent. But that's for another thread :)

Two occurrences do not a pattern make, which is why my guess is that Finch had been going to the café on the anniversary of his first date with Grace every year. Once a year is enough to think that you wouldn't be recognized by the staff at a coffee shop in NYC, which must see millions of customers a year. As for a system, it's hard to imagine a retail shop with heavy traffic, such as a coffee shop in NYC not having some sort of system to handle orders, their accounting, their payroll, etc. Any device with software (and cash registers count as such) connected to the electric grid can be accessed by the Machine and Samaritan. I remember one of the episodes where the number was picked because of an anomaly in his pattern, which was paying for gas in a service station that didn't fit with the person's pattern. So, eventually, Finch put it together that Samaritan could track his patterns before Root installed those servers and that any repetition of one such pattern would immediately cause Samaritan to identify him.

I think the Machine is talking to Samaritan in that opening speech

Yes, you are right, the waitress recognized him, but she also recognized his order, which would be in the system and show up as a Harold pattern to Samaritan. Their exchange was as follows: W: Double shot and cappuccino. Glad to see you back. It's been a while, hasn't it? H: I'm afraid that you are confusing me with someone else. This is the first time I've been to this establishment W: Oh, sorry, it's just I thought I recognized your order too. H: What a coincidence. 42!

I believe bigamy has been "legal" for the Targs since they first conquered Westeros, although maybe the later kings didn't practice it. I haven't read the World book, so I don't know if it was officially banned by the Westeros authorities by the time our story takes place. Can anyone who has read the World Book chime in on that?

So, I guess they are going for 13 episodes to complete the series split in two seasons. Bummer! I wish we could just get them all at once, but I suppose HBO wants to milk the cow as long as it can.

The chosen warrior has to accept to fight for the side that chose him, so, there's no point picking someone you know will never say yes. =============================== Also, now that I think about it, the charge that the Faith brought on Cersei regarding Lancel was adultery. I believe they withdrew the incest charges. In any case, that "crime" is forgiven because she did the Walk. And since she denies the murder charge, a trial must follow. She's in the Red Keep because she's in Westeros' equivalent to House Arrest.

Harold told the waitress she was confusing him with someone else. She replied that their system (not her) had picked up on the fact that Harold was a return customer because he ordered the same thing he always did, and he did have two cups of coffee in front of him. This is when Harold realized that he had made a mistake that Samaritan could catch. It is implied, I think, that Harold went there every year on the anniversary of his first date with Grace and ordered the same thing they had ordered that day. So, there was a record of a pattern that Harold followed and that was documented in a system to which both machines had access. ================================== Someone upthread asked if the S5 opening speech said something about being the only survivor. It didn't. I've transcribed the speech: "If you can hear this, you're alone. The only thing left of us is the sound of my voice. I don't know if any of us made it. Did we win? Did we lose? I don't know. I'm not even sure I know what victory would mean anymore. And either way, it's over. So, let me tell you who we were. Let me tell you who you are. ANd how we fought back"

There's no need to guess. That's how the show presented it. Cersei was charged with incest for Lancel and Lancel only, and with the murder of King Robert. She confessed to the incest (after she had been taken by the Sparrows and imprisoned) and paid for that crime with the walk of atonement. However, since she denies killing Robert, there will be a trial by combat for that charge and that charge alone. Her champion will be Mountainstein, the Sparrow's champion will be....

What was his latest? The new chapter he read at that Con?

Numbers are mine, for clarity. 1) I think that we might hear about Lord Rickard and Brandon again, but I don't think we'll see them, and that probably has more to do with the size of the current cast and the budget than their importance to the story. At the end of the day, seeing Aerys is more important than seeing Bradon, and we can get the story from people discussing it. 2) Arya used a face when killing Meryn Trant (from the King's Guard, he was one of the ones that did Joffrey's bidding). I think we'll see that she's able to change her face now. 3) The CotF inhabited Westeros before Men came with their metal weapons and started conquering. They pushed the Children out and took their lands. They also substituted their gods (weirwood trees) with their Seven. Leaf explained that they were losing the war against men and that's why they created the WW. It's Westeros' version of a super soldier. I think the implication is that at some point, the Children lost control of their creation and/or their creation rebelled and started acting on their own. I don't think WWs creating other WWs was part of the plan. And so, the CotF made peace with the First Men and built the Wall to keep the WWs out.

Dany didn't kill Viserys. Drogo did that with the molten gold crown. Dany tried to stop it both, in the books and on the show.

I think Yara and Theon are going to warn Dany about Euron, so she'll be ready to fry him and take his thousand ships. Arya might actually join the theatre troop, which might be headed to Westeros

Arya is not in the House of the Undying, she's in the House of Black and White. The House of the Undying was the place where Dany had her visions in Qarth.

I think that was the intention too (great reference, BTW!), but it didn't work so much for me. Let me say first that I like Dany; I like her character in the books, and I like a lot of her stuff on the show. Also, I think she has suffered her fair share, even if the show hasn't always been good at showing it. There's the stuff Athena pointed out upthread, but there's also stuff from her internal monologue that didn't make it on the show (i.e how she feels after Mirri and Jorah's betrayals, the grueling travels across the Red Waste, her frustrations at Qarth), and the complexities of the politics in Slaver's Bay (Astapor, Yunka'i, Meereen) which can never be properly conveyed on the show, given that they don't have all the time in the world and that no show could afford the amount of money it would cost in sets and number of actors needed. At the end of book 5 Dany is loosing Slaver's Bay, Astapor and Yunka'i are in the hands of the Slave Masters, Meereen is under siege, the pale mare is decimating her citizens and her fighters, and the Sons of the Harpy are wreaking havoc from within. A number of things happen that seem to indicate the tide is turning for Dany at the end of book 5, but it's not all flowers and rainbows. I also don't think Dany's mad. Her internal monologue in the books is quite rational and there's nothing to indicate, to me, that she's on the path to becoming Aerys. All of that said, the speech at the end of this episode got a "meh" from me. There's gratuitous nudity, gratuitous violence, and now, gratuitous power displays. And that's the main reason the speech fell flat for me. If she had given them this speech as they gaze upon a fleet waiting in the water to take them to Westeros, it would have been a great speech, with perfect timing. But they were just riding down to Meereen, not even close to the city yet. There were no signs of dissent or rebellion, no threat in sight. There was no immediate need to work the Dothraki into a frenzy, and thus, the speech and the dragon were not necessary. I suspect that since the episode was less action packed and less tense than the 5 that preceded it, D&D just wanted to close with a big "holly shit!" moment, and they know dragons!!!! generally do the trick.

What I was wondering was what guesses, if any, were made upon seeing a casting call for