WearyTraveler

Well, it's certainly possible as they are either completely off book or working with knowledge of WoW. We'll see. I don't have high hopes though. On the bright side, if the story is good I'll be pleasantly surprised.

The Dothraki and the Ironborn... two things I'm definitely not looking forward to in the next season, but well, I'll enjoy all the Northern goodness that seems to be coming our way too.

Well, I meant they should do both. Complain when they don't like it, but also show their support when they like a new development, so as to encourage the showrunners to keep doing the good things.

I'm advocating the exact opposite of censoring. I don't think you understood my comment at all.

See? They can't win! LOL! People should be jumping for joy that there's no more CFD, taking to twitter and demonstrating how happy that makes them. I mean, if we're going to have equally impactful reactions to good and bad news....

Yes, to the point that we, as readers, are thoroughly confused as to the comet's real meaning. Who do we believe? What I got from it is that it is, at the very least, a sign that magic is back in the world, and that we'll know which character had it right by the time the story concludes.

And the comet, don't forget the comet.

I think the beating might have been a one time thing, when Sarah died. The dad is certainly fucked up, but so far he doesn't strike me as a regular abuser. I think they use the gas to bring people from Cuba too. They can't purchase it, or it would look suspicious. Plus they are entering / exiting US territory illegally on a regular basis. I believe that when you come into port from the sea you have to register somewhere and state your course and where you have been. I don't think they regularly burn their boats, though. I once read or saw in a documentary somewhere how difficult it is for the coast guard to really be on top of illegal boats coming into US waters. It's a very large expanse and there will never be enough manpower to police it all. I think the boat burning was a last resort when they were spotted by the coast guard that one time. Presumably they use little, deserted keys to make the gas exchanges and to hide if they think they've been spotted.

Awesome job, Avaleigh! Truly! It seems that Dany's original plan was not to go into the fire herself, but to use the three lives in the pyre to give life to her eggs. Then, when she's watching the fire, it seems that she's hypnotized by it and some force compels her to walk right in. Martin has said Dany is not inmune to fire but that there were special circumstances in this one occasion, so that's why she didn't burn to death. So, I wonder, will Dany become as crazy as her father when it comes to fire or as her ancestor who actually drank wildfire? Is this a sign of the Targaryen madness showing its head? Is it foreshadowing of Dany's actual end? I also loved how the Dothraki males changed their minds when they saw dragons. I can't remember if the show actually had the dragons feeding from Dany's breast. I think they didn't, which is a shame because that explains her "Mother of Dragons" title so much better. I wish they had also had Dany's hair totally burned off and had Emilia use a bald cap for the next season. It somehow conjures up a more powerful image than the "silver" wig. Plus I think it's supposed to mirror her hair burning out when she confronts Drogon in the pit. Two monumental events in Dany's interactions with her dragons marked by her hair completely burning off: the birth of the dragons, and the time when she's finally able to ride and control a dragon.

Yeah, my answer was to beenteen's comment about Ned. I agree that it looks like a continuity error. Unless Catelyn is thinking of all the other castles in the south, except Riverrun.

I think most castles still have Goodswoods, but the weirwoods are not at the center of them as they used to be, and they might not be called Goodswoods anymore. The one in KL had a heart tree, but not a weirwood.

Like I said, I could be wrong. But I still think LF could have had something to do with all of it. Or might have been aware of Tywin's plan to negotiate with the Boltons. Tywin was writing letters in Harrenhal, even though Robb had not broken his promise yet. I think we are meant to think that Tywin actually wrote to his Lords in the Westerlands and offered them something if they compromised Robb, then he brokered an alliance with the Tyrells through LF, so, they'd come to the rescue when Stannis attacked KL, while at the same time courting the Freys and the Boltons. We're talking Westeros here. It would have taken several birds flying back and forth to set up the Red Wedding. Not all of which could have been done so quickly after Robb's mistake, IMO. I think Tywin was talking to Robb's more malleable, power-hungry supporters (namely the Freys and the Boltons) way before Robb slept with Jeynne. And LF could have provided Tywin the intelligence or the contacts to reach out and do just that. But, like I said, I'm willing to concede is not a fact in the books or the show just yet and that it may never well be.

In the books it's not very clear, but he did go to visit Tywin in Harrenhal on the show. I think the show was trying to say that he had some participation in that plot, by brokering alliances, maybe. But yes, not 100% confirmed, so, I could be wrong about that. But I think the show loves so much LF as a villain that it makes sense to them to have LF play a part in it, however small that might have been.

It doesn't need to be weighted that much more heavily. If you give Nora 10 points for the first challenge and you give Kevon 2 points, then apply 20% to that, you have Nora with a weighted score of 2.0 and Kevon with a weighted score of 0.4 For the second round, if you give Kevon 10 points and Nora 4.2 points and then apply 30% to that, Kevon has a total weighted score of 3.4 and Nora 3.3 making them 1st and second. So, Round 2 being weighted at 30% (only 10% more than round one), still allows Kevon to jump from last to first.

I can see LF going south, which is why I posited that if he's going to make a move with the Vale's army, it could be one in support of Olenna and the Tyrells. But I don't see Sansa going back south at all. Another possibility that is likely is that we don't see LF until much later. It's not uncommon for characters to disappear for long stretches. After the battle in episode 9, we could see LF's next move. He wouldn't have done much this season, if my speculation is true, but that would be fine. Now, since I think the show is moving characters to their eventual ending point in the series, according to what Martin revealed to the showrunners regarding everyone's fates, and that the books will eventually move Sansa North, I don't see D&D taking Sansa back south again. Add to that the lack of any casting news for Vale characters, and the casting news for Tarly characters, and I think it's clear that the show will not be doing any Vale related storylines this year. There would be no time for it. I think it's much more likely that Sansa will stay North and reunite with Rickon, asking Brienne to go look for Arya, which would move Brienne South to meet with Jaime. Since LF's stated plans are to take the North, I think he will eventually make that move, whether he makes that move in season 6 or season 7 is yet to be seen. I think Sansa will "slay the giant" as was prophesized, and this will happen in the North. Perhaps when LF returns there, confident that Sansa is his ally, only to discover that she finally has his number and is aware of his role in her family's tragedy. I think one way Sansa can find out about Petyr's involvement in the Red Wedding (and maybe Ned's capture) is if she interacts with people like the Umbers (where Rickon is on the show), who were involved in the war and presumably know better of the events that took place in KL when Sansa was kept locked up by Cersei. No one in the Vale (on the show) can provide this information for her.

I don't know, I'm not that close to my cousins and I still think it's icky. I understand this is supposed to depict a medieval world and that in this society such marriages were socially acceptable, so, I'm not discounting either one could happen. I'm just saying they are disgusting to me. I have a feeling I wouldn't be alone on that one, too.

Well, it's not straightforward. There's no way to prove definitively that no shenanigans were going on because the data we have is after the weights have been applied, so, you'd have to calculate it backwards. Plus we don't know the scoring system (is it 9 to 1 since there are 9 contestants? is it 30 to 0 since there are three judges that could give 10 points to each artist? is it 100 to 0? Is it some other total based on points for different aspects?) What you can do is decide on a grading scale (say 10 points for best 1 point for worst), apply that to the standings in round 1, and then play with percentage weights and the sliding scale to see what numbers would get you the combined results of the leaderboard. Doing it that way you see how many points each contestant would have to get in one particular round in order for his/her combined weighted score to place the contestant in the standing for that round. So, in round one Nora gets 10 points and Kevon gets 2, I applied the 20% weight to that. Then I looked at the standings after round 2. Assuming the same sliding scale and that round two is weighted at 30%, Kevon would get 10 points, which gives him a weighted total of 3.4 points. Everyone else after that you play with the points, so that the weighted total is less than 3.4 points. When I played with it, Nora had to get 4.2 points in the second round (the lowest points for the round) in order to come in under 3.4 points. To tie that score for second place in the weighted total after round two, Ben would have to get 7 points and Jordan 5. And so on. Applying a 50% weight for round 3, Evan had to get a little under 10 points in order to finish second (behind Nora). Nora couldn't get a 10 because she didn't win the round, so, I gave her a 9. But if I give Evan a 10, he comes out ahead of Nora in the weighted total, so, he'd have to get 9.6 in order to win the round and still end up second in the final standings. In any case, forcing the math to work with the standings doesn't ensure that I've figured out exactly how they scored each round or how they weighted it, but, looking at the numbers I had to use to make it come out in the same order as the leaderboard, I'd say it looks very logical and supports the judges' comments for the makeups. So, to me, it doesn't look like there was anything fishy about it.

True, but I think the vows did play a part. I think the guys from the NW would have had a harder task had they not decided to remind Jon of his vows in such a dramatic way. I think Jon was torn between two honor duties, like so many other characters in the series, before and after him. Do I honor my father or do I honor the NW? It's a tough choice.

I'm thinking something like this: Round 1: 20% Round 2: 30% Round 3: 50%

Awesome!

For me, all of it feels icky. Jon-Dany, Jon-Sansa.... eeewwww!

I loved this challenge. It was great to have the artists focus on the paint job and to minimize the gory aspects of the challenges. I wish we had a season of beauty make-ups only, as I think that seems to be what a lot of contestants lack. I don't even know why so many of them are so unskilled in that regard. If you want a career as a makeup artist in Hollywood, there are much more movies/TV shows featuring regular or beauty makeups than there are gory/scary makeups. It baffles me that a lot of the artists competing on Face Off admit to not having any beauty makeup experience. While I loved this challenge, I too am concerned about Face Off trying to shorten challenge duration for the future. I think they might be doing thi kind of shorter challenges as a way to test the waters and see if it could work in the future. I hope they realize that two or three challenges of this type a season is a good thing but that they don't go the cheap Project Runway route of having 99% of the challenges be one-day, stressful, drama generating challenges. That totally ruins the quality of the final products the contestants present and the enjoyment of the show. I really liked Nora's frost bitten guy and her goblins. She's one of my favorites this season. I didn't think Jasmine would go before Evan, but her makeups this challenge were very bad, so, I agree with the judges' decision this time. I think the next to go will probably be Evan and Megan, as the quality of their work seems inferior to the other contestants that remain. Unless they pull something really brilliant in the next couple of episodes. I also think Stevie is on borrowed time. Her paint jobs are always so bright they read almost cartoonish to me. That green was positively fluorescent. I didn't like it at all, but it must have read better in person, as the judges seemed to like it. Anyway, my guess for the next three eliminations is Evan, Stevie and Meg. Possibly in that order. All in all, good recovery episode this week. I hope they have The Gauntlet challenge again next season. Actually, I wouldn't object to the concept of a leaderboard for an entire season, like they do in Dancing with the Stars. If the show is looking for more audience participation, this could be a good way to have that happen. People could tweet for the contestant they wish the show to keep from the leaderboard's bottom three. Or even if they don't include the audience, this would allow some people who are good but have a bad day to remain in the competition longer, and to get rid of consistently bottom three performers sooner.

My feeling on the books Vale story is this: While LF is now in control of it, his hold on power in the Vale is tenuous. He's only got control because he's Sweetrobin's stepfather and the boy is kept under control. But once Robert Arryn comes of age, he's supposed to command the Vale. Robert is a wildcard at best, and who knows what he'll do once he becomes the ruler of the Vale. That's not something LF can trust. So, the plan is for Sansa to marry Harry the Heir, and probably have SR killed, so that Sansa, a player LF controls, is in a position to allow LF to continue to control the Vale. Presumably Sansa will have learned how to control and manipulate her husband Harry by then, so, LF will be behind the scenes as much as he was with Lyssa, but still in control. What may happen then is that either LF encourages Sansa to take back the North (through Harry commanding the Vale) or that Sansa actually becomes a better player than LF, discovers his role in her family's downfall, and tosses him aside. And then she urges her husband to go North. Whatever happens in the Vale in the books, I'm pretty sure that eventually Sansa will end up in the North and that the show has simply chosen to get her there sooner.

Your wish is my command :) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfmmUa_r-oo

I guess Pycelle could be one of the manipulators in KL. He seemed set up for it at the end of last season. I'm remembering that deleted scene of Pycelle and Tywin where Pycelle drops his weak, old-man mask and admits to Tywin that he's just pretending. But LF staying in KL for a while makes sense too. If the huge North battle is happening in episode 9 and the Vale armies are not there, then we have at least two possibilities: - LF and the Vale show up at the end of the battle, giving the Stark loyalists the edge - LF and the Vale show up in KL in support of the Tyrells. Since it seems they are scrapping the Aegon plot, perhaps they still need an army to threaten the Lannister rule in KL and the Vale will be it.