WearyTraveler

The books never say anything of the kind, but Varys knows Illyrio Mopatis and sends Tyron there. I think he had the three chess pieces at play (Viserys, Dany and Aegon) and was just waiting to see which one he could use. ----------------------------- Since we are asking questions, why do some people think Aegon is fake? Has the book given any indication to that or is it only a theory? Funnily enough, I remember better the stuff that happened in the first 3 books than in the last two

you're right, off course An Unsullied view of Tywin: Muahahahahahah!

Maybe the description of his funeral scene will jog your memory: There was a scene for his funeral with Cat, Robb, Cat's brother Edmund, and Cat's uncle The Blackfish. Hoster's body was on a boat floating down the river, Edmund was supposed to shoot a fire arrow into the boat but he kept missing. Finally, when the boat was almost out of sight, The Blackfish took the bow, shot the arrow and lit the boat.

Would that I could! (he, he!) Maybe we should start a petition, how many signatures do you think will be needed to convince HBO to hire me?

If it is, then forget everything I wrote! LOL!

Sorry for the long post! I don't think all of that will be in the last episode, but split between the final two episodes. Next episode is the battle at the Wall, as per the previews, but they can'0t spend the entire hour there; so, some of those things (if they happen at all) would happen this very Sunday. I think next week we might have something like this: - Main focus: Battle of the Wall. It will probably cut to other storylines at tense, cliff-hangery points, for suspense purposes and keep coming back to the Wall until the whole thing has played out. The whole progression would be something like: Ygritte and company attack from the South, Mance attacks from the North. Slynt is useless, the brothers follow Jon instead of him (thus setting up Jon's eventual rise to LC sans Sam's manipulations, as I think you're right when you say we won't have time for it). Jon coordinates all the battle lines and strategies. Sends some people to the top of the Wall, others to the gate and the main force to deal with the attack from the South. Ygritte dies, Jon goes to her: "you know nothing, Jon Snow". The NW defeats the attackers from the south, just as the people defending the gate start screaming that it will not hold much longer. Giants and mammoths attacking the Wall. The gate shattering. Cue war horn. Enter Stannis' host. Bloody fights and brutal action scenes, Mance's capture. Wildlings running away. Stannis triumphant with Mel by his side (total time 20 mins). - KL: Council meeting where Tywin discusses The Mountain's health state with Pycelle and we learn about the poison slowly killing him and someone complains about his screams of pain (after Oberyn's death, the audience needs to know how slow, agonizing and painful Gregor's death will be), mention of how they need to send his head to Dorne when he dies. Tyrion's escape, with or without a fall-out with Jamie, I think it wouldn't be OOC on the show for Tyrion to want to see Tywin, particularly after Tywin so gleefully proclaimed Tyron's death sentence after the duel. Tyron finds Shae in Tywin's bed and kills her, then he opens the door to the privy, exchanges a few words with Tywin (about Shae and Tywin's hate of Tyrion) and twang! arrow to the bowels (total time 20 mins) - Riverlands: Brienne finds some hanged Freys, someone tells her it's the Brotherhood without Banners, which has a new, female leader (total time 2 minutes) - Winterfell: Ramsey discusses his upcoming wedding with Reek and introduces his bride: "Arya Stark" (total time 2 minutes) - Arya and The Hound: Sandor collapses in the middle of their walk as they are within sight of a port city (they might mention it's Saltpans, they might not). Arya abandons him ("you should have saved my mother") and rides off toward the port city. She talks to a ship captain and tells him she wants passage. When he asks how she intends to pay, she says "Valar Morghulis" and opens her palm to show the coin that Jaqen H'aghar gave her (total time 4 minutes) - Essos: Dany in council. Rumors that Yunkai might be breeding ground for an upraising. Missandei enters to announce the petitioners line is pretty big and she should get to them. Two or three petitioners with small grievances. Final petitioner with bag of bones. Dany encourages him to come forward, petitioner spills the contents to reveal a child's skeleton badly burned (total time 4 minutes) That's 52 minutes of show. More or less what we usually get. The Finale might go something like this: - Main focus: the aftermath of Tywin's death. Varys and Tyrion getting on a boat. Short conversation about Varys' position, maybe their destination. Tywin's funeral, he stinks. Outside the sept, acidic conversation between Cersei and the Tyrells about the urgency of marrying Tommen and pressing her on marrying Loras. Night time, Jamie standing guard over Tywin's body. Cersei comes in and asks him about the investigation; he tells her about the passages and that they have looked everywhere but found nothing. She tells him she's now in charge, that she needs him to be her Hand, he refuses. She leaves pissed off at him. Cersei on the Iron throne offering a reward for Tyrion's head; asking Loras to take back Dragonstone and promising to marry him upon his return (what better way to get out of that marriage than sending Loras to his death?); ordering Jaimie to take Riverrun back from the Blackfish, or to take their father's bones home, or both; and putting Qyburn in charge of The Mountain (with accompanying Pycelle objections to his credentials and creepy, evil expression on Qyburn's face). Total time 25 mins - The Wall: Stannis demands that they let him burn Mance, Aemon says he's a prisoner of the NW and only the LC can decide such things. Stannis demands they choose a Lord Comander, sooner rather than later. Jon is summoned to Stannis' presence. He offers Jon Winterfell and the North, Jon goes off with Ghost and ponders. Someone calls him into the common hall as the voting is about to take place. Candidates propose themselves with the accompanying short speeches of qualifications. Sam (or someone else) proposes Jon, citing his recent actions in battle as reasons to choose him. There's no button voting, the cheers and support are evidently in favor of Jon and it's clear he's the chosen one (no pun intended). Total time 20 minutes. - Riverlands: Either the Frey hanging I discussed above or the encounter with Brienne. Total time 4 minutes. - Essos: Barristan asking Dany: "Your Grace, are you sure you want to do this?", "I have no choice, Ser". Dragons in the pit, doors closing, long climb up the stairs, more doors, Dany crying. Total time 2 minutes That leaves us 1 minute for any other quick scene they might want to do (no dialog, just images of characters), like Ellaria traveling with Oberyn's bones, Arya on a boat that is passing under the Braavos statue, Stannis looking out the top of the Wall, etc. Take a couple of minutes out the KL or Wall scenes and you can show Bran heading into the cave or just him meeting Coldhands (who is a very creepy figure that would lend Bran's future storyline a lot of suspense: where is he going? what does Coldhands want with him? etc)

I think it will be much more interesting (and more TV appropriate) to end with some form of a Stoneheart reveal. Maybe we have missed the window for a creepy rising from the river after being pulled in by Nymeria, but that would have been my number one choice. Who knows? They might still do it. In a series where there are wights, white walkers and dragons, anything can happen. Option number two is an encounter with Brienne. To me this is possible because if they were going to do Brienne following Crab and fighting what remained of Vargo Hoat's circle of friends, they would have had some set-up to that. So far she was pointed to the Hound by Hot Pie and she is now heading toward the Riverlands to try to find him. This is when she goes to the Quiet Isle in the books, learns of the Hound's fate, and ends up in LSH's presence. It may be that they accelerated Brienne's story line with the purpose of introducing UnCat at the end of the season. Option number three is a Frey hanging. We could have the Brotherhood do their trial and a hooded UnCat ordering execution. When the Freys complain that they have no evidence, Thoros or Beric can say "you're wrong, we have a witness"; at which point UnCat pulls down her cowl and we see her face. Roll the closing credits. I think this would leave people on fire, talking about the series for many, many weeks after the season finale. As for the other characters: Sansa: I think we're done with her this season. Maybe we get a traveling shot of her, Petyr and SR descending from the castle, or being greeted by one of the Lords of the Vale as they take SR on the Vale's Mystery Tour. The Hound: Most definitely we'll see him collapse from his infected wound and Arya leaving him to die, denying him the gift of mercy. I believe they'll probably keep her partying words in the book just as they were: "You should not have hit me with an axe... You should have saved my mother!" Arya: Her last shot should be on the ship to Braavos, leaving Westeros behind, or arriving at the symbolic and much publicized (in the credits and in Stannis visit) statue. Stannis: he will show up to save The Night's Watch from the Wildlings next episode. In the finale he will be pressing TNW to choose a new Lord Commander, so, some decisions can be made. One of them being whether to burn Mance as a sacrifice to R'hollor. We might even get the scene where Maester Aemon asks Sam to describe Lightbringer and the audience will know that the sword is supposed to emanate heat, not only light. This way the seeds will be planted for the audience to wonder who the "savior" is. Most will take it as confirmation that it's Dany. Jon: Ygritte will probably die next episode during the attack of Castle Black, providing Jon with plenty of heartache. I think they will make the two attacks simultaneous, thus making Stannis' save more grandiose. In the finale, I think after Stannis presses TNW to choose a new LC and threatens not to let them leave the hall until they choose one, Jon's story will end when he's named the new LC, with everyone knowing he will have to go deal with Stannis and the question of what to do with the wildings after the battle is won, accompanied by evil looks from his enemies on the Watch (Janos will definitely give him the evil eye!) Cersei: She will end either on a high, seemingly victorious as she gains her authority again after her father's death, or she will end on a low, raging about Twyin's murder and calling for Tyrion's head. I'm not sure we'll have enough time to get through Tywin's funeral and Cersei having the power to make decisions again, but if we do, I bet her first orders will be for Jamie to go get Riverrun back and for Loras to get Dragonstone. I know in the books they say she's not supposed to sit the Iron Throne, but I think it will make for a great, albeit rage inducing, image for her to end the season sitting on the Iron Throne, commanding Jamie and Loras to go away. It doesn't look like they will do the Ironborn story in detail, so, we need a reason for Loras to go to Dragonstone. What better reason than Cersei being drunk on power and trying to rid herself of the Tyrells, given her animosity toward Margaery? And she's been on the outs with Jaimie, if he refuses her when she asks him to be Hand, I can see her ordering him to go away as a consequence. Jamie: See Cersei Tyrion: We'll see him leaving KL on a little boat, like Sansa did, only this time he will be with Varys. Thus setting up Varys' escape too. Bran (and his companions): meeting ColdHands and walking into the frozen tundra beyond the wall with him, perhaps even entering the cave that will lead them to the Children of the Forest's dwelling. Ramsay, Reek, Roose: Ramsay's wedding to "Arya" at Winterfell, with Reek murmuring to himself "that's not her" or a significant look between him and the bride Ellaria: riding away to Dorne with Oberyn's bones The Mountain: As Cersei is walking toward the throne room, screams are heard and she speaks to Qyburn about it, mentioning how they have to send his head to Dorne and with a sinister convo that gives all sorts of suggestions as to what Qyburn is actually doing to/with him. Dany: Drogon will roast a child and she will be decide to lock up her babies. I think it would be cool if the final minutes are a montage with the following images in succession with the appropriate medieval music playing in the background: - Bran and company following ColdHands, heading toward a dimly lit cave in the middle of a snow storm - Jon being congratulated and raised on the shoulders of his black brothers while Janos and company give him the stinkeye - Stannis surveying the north from the top of the Wall - Toasts and celebrations in Winterfell while Ramsay puts his arm around a terrified "Arya" and Reek averts his eyes, scared and antsy - Jaime leaving KL with a host - Tyrion and Varys at sea - Arya arriving at Braavos - Danny closing the door behind her as her dragons scream bloody murder - Cersei imperiously sitting the Iron Throne - UnCat's cowl falling back revealing LSH

In the books, it is mentioned a couple of times that The Mountain raped Elia so brutally that he "split her in two". I think that's where the comment comes from

Cajones means drawers (furniture). Cojones means balls. One small vowel makes all the difference! ;-) Come on over to the dark side! We are waiting for you! LOL!

There's no shortage of material to strangle someone in one of those bedrooms. The cord they use to tie the bed's curtains would be a good choice, for instance. Or they could choose to have him murder her some other way, perhaps sticking a fire poker in her belly. If there's something book and TV Westeros have in common it's that there's a million and one ways to die :) As for the Shae character, I think the show is choosing to do a pretty straightforward "woman retaliates after she's been cast aside, insulted and sent away". I think show!Shae is hurt by Tyrion's actions in past episodes including him refusing to have sex with her, calling her a whore, and trying to send her away to Essos. I don't see her betrayal on the show as out of character at all. Yes, she was portrayed as truly loving Tyrion and being protective of Sansa, but that doesn't mean she wouldn't feel hurt and betrayed by Tyrion all the same, or that she would take the moral high road and not act on her feelings. She thinks Tyrion has cast her aside and abandoned her, why wouldn't she lash out at him? When it comes to Shae's TV character, the part I found hard to swallow was that she never seemed to understand how much danger she was in, despite Tyrion's repeated warnings. This was true of book!Shae, as well, but easier to swallow on the book because book!Shae was such a shallow, one-dimensional character. Then again, neither book!Tyrion nor show!Tyrion ever provided enough explanations of the dangers to Shae. It was always "my father will have you killed", "my sister will have you tortured" with no specific examples to back up that reasoning. For all Shae knew Tyrion could have been paranoid, or exaggerating, or augmenting the dangers to keep her at arm's length. In the books Shae's lack of concern for the dangers is somewhat explained by her being a survivor and a greedy little minx. She was not concerned by the dangers because she knew whatever went down, she'd play it in her best interest. She'd bed whoever had the power, allied herself with the surest choice and live to see another day. On the show, Shae is portrayed as smarter than your average Westerosi whore, so, it's more difficult to understand why she's so nonplussed about the dangers of staying in KL and continuing to see Tyrion. But the show has also emphasized Shae's desire to run away with Tyrion because she loved him and really wanted to make a life with him, so, maybe the message was that she understood the dangers and was just trying to convince Tyrion to run away from them with her. Unfortunately, the book is better at explaining Tyrion's motives for not wanting to go away than the show has been. In the books money and comfort are factors, but there are also tons of explanations about what it means to be a dwarf in that world (in Westeros and Essos), but, on the show we haven't really seen all the implications of being a dwarf in that society, so, Tyrion's reluctance to leave comes off a bit more petty and selfish than in the books.

Is that the same actor they used in S1? I seem to remember him with more hair, but I'm not sure now

A Storm of Swords, Chapter 56, Bran. Or you could read this handy summary from ASOIF wikihttp://awoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/Night's_King It's interesting that Old Nan hinted his name was also Brandon and that the wilding king at the time was Joramun, presumably the same one with the horn that could topple the wall.

I'm not clear on the rules for the season's previews on this site. In some places I've been it's ok to discuss previews in episode threads, in others they are considered spoilers, so, I'll spoiler tag, just in case. Regarding Shae's fate, the preview before the season aired: