WearyTraveler

It was how they did it before superglue and other similar products came along. They would use transparent nylon and sew with inside stitches, then hide whatever was visible with makeup. But I don't think they do that anymore.

What I most remember about reading this chapter the first time is how relieved I was that Davos had survived, much as I felt when I found out Manderly didn't execute him. Now I'm worried that third time is the charm and the next time we read Davos dies, he will :'(

"An old foe comes back into the picture" Walder Frey?

Game of Thrones has done that since their very first season. I loved this episode a lot. On the one hand I would have liked to see Norma realizing how truly sick Norman is, but OTOH, it was nice that she didn't

Also, let's not forget he offered his hand to Dany when all hell broke loose at the pits last season, and she took it. At the time I thought the camera lingered for an extra few seconds on that shot. I wonder if we'll find out that Dany is immune to greyscale as well as fire, or if that gesture spells doom for the Khaleesi.

You're welcome! I think many options are possible, I lean toward Jon, but I can see why others lean toward Dany. Time will tell (or the TV show will, even if Martin doesn't)

I think it's because of the story of how Azor Ahai's sword (Lightbringer) was forged. From AWOIAF: I believe the OP is saying that Dany's dragons are Lighbringer and that she "tempered" her weapons by killing Khal Drogo, while Jon hasn't tempered his sword by killing the woman he loves. On that point, I don't know why Lightbringer needs to be re-forged and re-tempered. It was created once, it was presumably passed down from generation to generation, or lost somewhere. There's no record of that sword having been destroyed. I don't believe that Azor Ahai reborn needs to make Lightbringer again. In fact, the prophecy says that (again from AWOIAF): The stars bleeding has been interpreted as the blood red comet, but we don't know if this is true. The cold winds blowing could be the resurgence of the WW, or maybe they have not blown at all. Maybe we need Winter to come, to have that part of the prophecy fulfilled. In any case, the prophecy doesn't say anything about Azor having to forge a new sword. It says that Azor will draw the sword from the fire. Some believe that Jon pulling Longclaw from the fire when he was defending the Lord Commander against the wights at Castle Black is the moment prophesized, I don't think so. In the books Maester Aemon wanted to know if Stannis sword emitted any heat. He found it curious that it would glow, but that the steel was cold. I think we haven't seen the moment Azor pulls Lightbringer out of the fire yet. I think something will happen and the moment will be quite clear and the sword will emit light and heat, as Maester Aemon thought it should. I find Longclaw a good candidate for Lightbringer. It's an ancestral sword from the North, where presumably Azor drove out the WW, and we have never heard how the Mormonts came to be in possession of it. This season the show has had a few shots where the camera is focused on Longclaw, I found that to be interesting.

I have a hard time seeing Dany as Azor Ahai because neither the books nor the show have her fighting with a sword of any kind, and she's never told the stories about the WW, or the long night. She doesn't even know about the Children of the Forest, or the Old Gods. She doesn't know about R'hllor. I think that for the "Dany is Azor Ahai" theory to work, she has to have some kind of connection to / awareness of these things before she meets her final enemy. There's no groundwork in the material (written or in the visual media) that establishes any of these connections, and since we are approaching the end of the story in both, the books and the show, it's a little late to start establishing any of that right now. Meanwhile, Jon, presumably a son of Ice (Lyanna) and Fire (Rhaegar) is aware and has actually fought White Walkers and wights. I think he's a more likey candidate. In the books Loras is said to be badly wounded and at death's door, but it's all hearsay, we don't know how good/bad he's doing. I would read the books when/if they are finished. I think Martin overindulges, but, in general, I find his storytelling better than the show, so I would be interested in seeing how he gets his characters to the ending point. Plus, I'm looking forward to reading about book characters that never made it to the show. But I'm a bit OCD when it comes to books (have to finish them, even if I hate the story two chapters in). LMAO! He didn't choose his successor, as they did during the battle with the Wildlings, he left someone in charge, which is not the same (remember "You have the Wall"). Even in the books, someone was left in charge while the brothers chose the next Commander. The position is temporarily filled by the most senior officer, or a committee of senior officers, or whoever they figure the LC would have left in charge. In this case the LC was there to make his choice, but that doesn't mean the NW isn't going to have a new election. Although with so few of them left... Regarding the part I bolded: It was planned and orchestrated by Tywin, Roose and Walder. They were playing "The Rains of Castamere" while it happened (both in the books and on the show); that's the Lannisters hymn. And while Roose killed Robb he said "The Lannisters send their regards" (for which he's later rewarded with the title of Warden of the North). Walder might have been itching for vengeance and Roose might have been thirsty for power, but there are strong indications that Tywin was the mastermind behind the Red Wedding.

Lord Rob pretty much just committed it to his cousin's cause. I wonder if we will not hear about them anymore until the BOTB or if somehow LF will get word to Sansa and Jon that they are coming. I know Jon just agreed to march on Winterfell with only 2,000 Wildlings, but I'm expecting a seasoned fighter like Jon will not attempt that cold and here's where we get Sansa (and perhaps Jon) trying to recruit some other houses, whichever ones are left (the Mormonts for sure). I expect we'll see Sansa sending Brienne after Arya in 605.

I did too. The problem for me is that she should have come out engulfed in flames or something. She just looks so perfect. Not even when the dragons were born did she look that perfectly clean. She should have had at least a bit of soot here and there, you know? Maybe her hair is singed a little, and maybe she throws off her burning gown. Anywhoo, bye, bye Osha, you were good until the end. I hate Ramsay. Jon and Sansa was wonderful.

Funny that if we take out ill-made and little, we get Cersei! I felt really bad for Tyrion in this chapter. He's even more disfigured, he's lost any power/support he had, and no one recognizes his achievements. That said, I don't understand what Tyrion was expecting would happen once Tywin came to town. Tyrion was Hand because Tywin was fighting a war, it was always Tywin's title, not Tyrion's.

I'm thinking that, at first, the Vale army will head north supposedly supporting Ramsay, so, he will not do anything to stop them or be worried that an army is heading North. Then, they will turn against the Boltons.

There's the Mormonts and the mountain clans that helped Bran when he was travelling North, although that last part didn't make it to the show, and, as you say, the Reeds. There's also the possibility of a betrayal from within from the Manderlys. I think it's logical to assume that Ramsay has absorbed whatever is left of the vassal houses, but the show can always have them be as intent upon revenge on Ramsay as the Karstarks are on the Starks. And they could always have Jon and friends recruit some houses not previously mentioned. Maybe Sansa can send a raven to LF about those Vale soldiers, or he might already be on his way, since last season Cersei authorized him to attack the North. Who the Vale supports if/once they get there is left to be seen. I get the feeling that the show will make up houses, if they have to, so that Jon can beef up his little army, if he decides to head to Winterfell

We have seen the WWs manipulate dead bodies, but never a live one. If they could do that, why not do it at Hardhome? Also, if Bran is to live for a while longer, and maybe even make it to the end, this little encounter had to be in vision world. I doubt that if the NK has the ability to manipulate a living person's body to that extent, he would let Bran, who appears to be one of the most powerful greenseers/warg to have come along in a long time in Westeros, live. If this encounter is not in vision land, Bran is toast.

The Kingsguard business is weird. In the books Oakheart is sent to Dorne to protect Myrcella, after he's assigned that duty, he's pretty much bound to her command, as the impracticalities of communications in Westeros (sending ravens who may or may not make it and then waiting for a raven with a response, who, again, may or may not arrive) make it really difficult for a KG to follow the King's order on every single issue. I think the France example is a good one, in that Vyserys could have been proclaimed Regent, or even King, and then any legitimate son of Rhaegar could have been proclaimed King after he was discovered and thus either force Vyserys to abdicate or start another war. I think in the case of the KG at the Tower of Joy, they were assigned to Rhaegar, presumably by the King, so they then followed his command. Rhaegar died and KL's was under siege by the Lannisters. Three King's Guard are not going to break the Lannister army and rescue Aerys, so, they have an added reason not to engage into a futile battle, follow their Prince's command and protect someone who could be the next heir. Could they go to Vyserys? Maybe, but he was in Dragonstone, which was later taken by Stannis. I haven't read the worldbook, so I don't know what was known to the three at the TOJ, but they could have been told that Stannis had set sail from Storm's End, or they could have thought that they wouldn't make it to Dragonstone on time. As I recall, they didn't have any boats. Leaving Rhaegar's possible heir unprotected, breaking their oath to their Prince... these would have been issues they would have considered. Also, by the time Rhaegar died and KL's was under siege, it was clear the Dragons were losing. No big army was coming to their aid. Perhaps one consideration was to protect Rhaegar's offspring in the hope of saving him/her from certain death and hide him/her until such as time as he/she could be brought out into the open, or not. It must have been clear that any Targaryen was in danger at that point. Perhaps they were thinking about the long game, as Jon Connington was with (f)Aegon. They couldn't have known that anyone in Dragonstone was going to make it out alive. ETA: There are strong suggestions that Rhaegar believed that "The Prince that was promised" would be one of his children. In Dany's vision, he seems to think it's Aegon, but then he met Lyanna and perhaps something clicked. From Dany's visions in the HotU we also know that Rhaegar knows about the "song of Ice and Fire", so maybe the thing that clicked when he met Lyanna was that the "prince that was promised" must have both, ice and fire (or he could have interpreted it that way) and Lyanna was the ice. If he believed this, he could have told the three KG at the TOJ that they were protecting, not only his unborn child, but THE prince of prophesy, and that might have trumped any succession issue for the KG: do they protect a King without a throne or do they protect the saviour of the world?

If Sansa marries Harry the Heir and sweet Robin, sickly as he is, happens to die, then Sansa would partially rule The Vale, wouldn't she? I agree that Arya is not really a FM and that she'll probably be Arya again at some point and start exacting her revenge, but I think as much as her FM storyline proves she's not cut for it, it also proves she can't be seat of the House, she's much too "wild" for it. Her destiny is actually one I'm very curious about, actually. Maybe she'll be the first ever female Lord Commander of the Night's Watch (I'm only half kidding).

If Sansa is meant to end somewhere else (as Queen or ruling the Vale, which seems highly plausible given where she is and what she's doing in the books), and Arya is meant to become a FM, and Jon is meant to die or take the IT, who will they give Winterfell to? You're left with Bran or Rickon. If they don't care about Bran, they care even less about Rickon, so, there's the choice.

I still think we have to consider the possibility that D&D are merging Bran and Rickon's storylines on the show. If Bran were meant to become a tree in the books and Rickon were meant to inherit Winterfell, I can see why D&D would want to cut those two plots down to one, plus the entertainment value of watching Bran in the cave having visions and communicating through the weirnet would wear off pretty quickly. So, they kill Rickon, with whom the audience has really not have a lot interaction, and get Bran out of the cave and in the Winterfell seat. I think that unless we get some sort of confirmation from D&D and GRRM as to some of the choices made on the show being the same that will be made in the books, it's pretty hard to say for certain how things will turn out in the books. One could speculate that whoever ends up in the IT and as head of house (for the major ones) on the show will end up there in the books, but in the case of the Starks, what difference does it make, for the show, if it's Bran or Rickon? Dramatically, the audience has spent more time with Bran, so, that makes more sense. For the books, it could still be different. As of the final book Davos was headed to Skagos, who's to say it isn't GRRM's plan to have a nice and long story catching up with Rickon so that book readers form an emotional attachment to the eventual heir of Winterfell? After all, he introduced Dorne and Quentyn and a bunch of other POVs in the 4th book, and I don't get the feeling he would not do the same just because it's book 6; he even hinted he might end at 8 books and not 7. We just don't know what his plans are. That said, I think that from now on we'll see a George much more reluctant to confirm/deny book vs. TV show alignment because he still wants to sell his upcoming books.

I wonder if this fixation you mention was passed on to the Tully children in some way and this is why Catelyn insisted that Ned accept the position of Hand offered by Robert. Lysa has a warped mind, but she's still partly about getting power for herself, Littlefinger and her son. Edmure seems to be afraid to marry an ugly woman, but still agrees to a Frey marriage, even though they are certainly not known for their good looks and he is obsessed with not losing an inch of territory to the Lannisters or anyone else.

In other news: #GoTSeason6, #JonSnowLives, #GameOfThronesSeason6 and John Snow are currently trending on twitter

I think if you're a book reader, you'd have to assume that. It's hard to tell from the show; Jon and Myrcella have been dead since last season and their bodies have been in display ever since, while Balon fell and was sent to the sea in the same episode. I think they are purposely being vague with time so they can hit the story beats they want to hit.

You're thinking of Lady Hornwood, a widow Ramsay married against her will (in the books) to get her lands, which were adjacent to the Bolton lands. After he married her, he locked her up in a tower and denied her food. She ate her own fingers, but she died, anyway.

There were interviews with D&D in the entertainment news outlets. I recall the quote "when he [Martin] told us how Shireen would die and that it would be on Stannis orders", I think they mentioned it in the videos they do after the episodes. Martin never contradicted them I remember this because, at the time, the forums were ablaze with the revelation that Stannis would sacrifice his own daughter. Many of us wondered about the logistics, off course, giving the geographical locations and distances of the characters in the books, but it doesn't need to happen the same way as it did on the show.