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Exactly. This is the same reason the Lannisters give Littlefinger Harrenhal and send him off to marry Lysa. They don't expect Dorne or The Vale to actually contribute forces, but the marriages ensure that they won't be allying themselves with Stannis (or when they were alive Renly or Robb), it's worth the marriage to keep the Martells and Arryns neutral. Of course we all know they shouldn't trust Littlefinger to follow along with their plan, but if he was loyal to the crown it's an awesome idea. Now from the Lannister perspective they have ensured that i) The Tyrells are their allies via Tommen's marriage to Margaery ii) The Martells are at best their allies and at worst neutral via Myrcella's marriage to Trystane. iii) The Arryns are at best their allies and at worst neutral via Littlefingers custody of Robin Arryn (even though this isn't true) iv) The Freys are their allies due to them burning every other bridge by their conspiracy to murder Robb Stark. v) The Boltons are their allies due to Ramsay's legitimization only being valid under Tommen (or a Baratheon successor's) rule (if someone else becomes King, he is no longer a Bolton) and also because they have also burned every bridge by their conspiracy to murder Robb Stark. So now 5 Kingdoms are either with them, or neutral, and the only allies Stannis has left is if he can incite the North to rise up against the Boltons.

No confirmation on Maege's status, I don't think she was in that episode. The fact that Lyanna is Lady of Bear Island implies that Maege died, but it could also be that Lyanna is Lady of Bear Island the same way Bran was the Stark in Winterfell. Meaning she's just in charge cause all the other Mormonts are away.

Well we need to remember that Theon was brought to Winterfell as a very young boy, and they never treated him badly, in fact they treated him pretty much like an honoured ward, most likely Ned treats Theon the same way Jon Arryn treated Ned himself. Robb treats him the same way he treats his brothers. Ned even has Theon squire for him, which is typically a great honour, to squire for a great lord. I'm sure many Northern houses would love to have their own sons occupy a place like that in the Stark household. And here Theon is, as a hostage, and he knows he's a hostage, enjoying all these perks. They could just have easily kept him confined to quarters, never let him have weapons, and treated him like an enemy, which his family is by the strictest sense of the word. Theon also grew up according to Northern customs too, so at this point he'd see these things as honours. It's not difficult to see why he'd think he owes the Starks a great debt before he meets his dad again and remembers how the Iron Islanders look at things that aren't earned through the iron price. Balon on the other hand would see them as the Starks "taming" and "keeping" Theon. That he never earned anything, and the mainlanders made him soft. I'm sure George thought the same way when he wrote it.

The Warden titles are traditionally held by the head of the house. This is the argument Ned makes for naming Robert Arryn as Warden of the East. That stands to reason that those inheriting the Lordship would traditionally inherit the Warden title as well. Since Jaime will never succeed to the title of Lord of Casterly Rock, he also logically should never become Warden of the West unless also appointed to it. He would never succeed to it, because he can't succeed to anything. But Ned specifically talks about him succeeding Tywin as Warden of the West which would make him the Warden of the West and the East after Tywin's death. He even specifically says "No man should hold both the East and West" The bigger problem Ned has is of course the one you mentioned, that this would put half the realms armies in the hands of the Lannisters, but he leaves this concern unsaid, instead just voicing the concern about Jaime himself one day being the Warden of both directions.

Cersei has a completely self centric view of the world. The only things that matters to her is her. Even her love for Jaime and her children can be seen as extensions of her love for herself. Especially early on when the Lannister twins were said to look almost alike when Jaime had long flowing golden hair. This also explains her dalliance with cousin Lancel. Even if she can understand how the Martells feel, she doesn't care. She has no sympathy, because she isn't capable of sympathy.

There was an appeal it was trial by combat. Tyrion himself selected that appeal and he lost. You aren't allowed to kill the judge because you lost the trial. There is nothing justifiable about the murder (and it was murder) of Tywin Lannister.

There's a lot of early installment weirdness in the first book. Not only for facts established about Wardens and Kingsguard but also for things that he planned to happen and then decided wouldn't. We need to remember that George's plans changed somewhere during the writing of ACOK. This was really only supposed to be a trilogy with timeskips betwen books. So a lot of the plans he had needed to be changed. Maybe at some point in that other story Jaime does inherit the Warden of the West title giving him control of half the armies in the realm. Much of the foreshadowing George wrote in AGOT is foreshadowing stuff that may never happen.

It's pretty much what you said. The show is trying it's hardest to paint Tyrion with the whitest paint possible. He never has to do anything that's morally questionable, and he comes out of every situation with the audience's sympathy. In the books he's a gray nuanced character; in the show, he's the white washed hero, even moreso than Dany or Jon Snow I'd argue, because he also gets shit on more than them and therefore is always in the audience's sympathy. The show also wanted us to care about Tyrion and Shae's relationship, so her betrayal would be all the more shocking. The only true way to do that is to make her a sympathetic character, so we don't expect her heelturn. She needs to be someone who is in love with Tyrion, and wants good things for him, and cares about Sansa, and at the last second they just assassinate her character by making her turn her back on everything and hop into bed with Tywin. It doesn't make any sense, but it does make a lot of the audience say "You bitch. Poor Tyrion." which seems to be what the showrunners are going for. It's a typical heel turn, it doesn't need to make sense for most people, because it's compelling enough that this lady we trusted is turning on our poor hero. Even the actress who played Shae tried to ask for her character to avoid selling out Sansa, she could reason that maybe she'd be pissed enough at Tyrion to sell him down the river, but she could never rationalize Shae betraying Sansa. And the showrunners insisted she turn on Sansa as well, because they want us to hate her, and love Tyrion. Then when he kills her, all our sympathies are with Tyrion. He isn't the callous murderer who strangled a woman to death, a woman who was probably coerced into her testimony by powerful people. No no, he's the hero who killed that bitch who betrayed him and Sansa and hopped into bed with Tywin, and to top it all off, he was just defending himself cause she attacked first. How can we possible hold that against our hero?

Pycelle is already dead. He died at the end of ADWD. Or did you mean in the show? It's a book talk thread so I wasn't sure. I have a pretty short list on who I definitely think will survive, it's mostly just the Starks, I don't think we'll see Sansa, Arya, Bran or Rickon die in the final 2 books or the last 3 seasons. But I do think there's a very good chance that Bran will never leave that cave. Jon and Dany I'm torn about, I could easily see either or both of them going out in a blaze (perhaps a literal blaze) of glory in the no doubt upcoming battle with the Others.

I think it's going to happen the same as the books. I don't see why they'd being Kevan back just to give a little bit of exposition on Sparrow Lancel and then bitch slap Cersei. They could've just hired an extra to do that, or even just have Jaime (or literally anyone) explain what's been up with Lancel, getting the same actor back makes it seem like he'll be more important in later episodes.

Likely not. It's a recurring theme in the books that "No man is as accursed as the kinslayer." And Tyrion killed (or at the very least admits to killing) both his nephew and his father. He'd be seen as damned in the eyes of gods and men. Jaime would be looked at with a lighter touch, even though he broke a sacred vow he never turned against family.

Does Jon know that Bran and Rickon are alive in the show? When did he find out?

Yeah, has she forgotten about Gendry already? Remind me never to become Arya's friend.

Typically Dragonstone is awarded to the heir apparent during Targaryen rule. So it probably does imply that Dany is next in line for the throne. Just like the heir apparent in the British Monarchy is styled as the Prince of Wales. If Viserys was to have a male child, the child would probably be given the title over Daenerys, so it seems odd that Viserys would shoose to confer the title on Dany. He probably did it just to puff her and by extension himself up a little more.

I don't think so. Jaqen obviously had more things to do in Westeros, if he was heading back to Braavos that soon he could've taken Arya himself. I think the whole point is that any faceless man can use any face. So when Arya mentions Jaqen to the Kindly Man (or Angry Man) then he uses Jaqen's face to illustrate that.

He never really does. Not even in A World of Ice and Fire, it's all written as speculation. Apparently the Valyrians themselves

The hidden sand snake is easy to miss. There's only a few clues that point to it and it isn't confirmed yet. You could easily miss it if you aren't reading carefully. There's a novice known as Alleras (called the Sphinx) in the citadel, he claims to have a Dornishman for a father and a Summer Islander for a mother. He is also a slim comely youth, which is how a woman dressed as a young man would look. He has a widows peak and black eyes, two traits Oberyn also has. Sarella Sand, Oberyn's 4th daughter, also has a Dornishman for a father and a Summer Islander for a mother. She is remarked to have a love for learning and a love for Oldtown, both things which could lead her to the citadel. She is also known to "push in where she doesn't belong" and a woman does not belong in the citadel where only males can become maesters. Sarella is outside of Dorne when her sisters are captured by Doran, and Doran tells Hotah to "leave her at her game" Finally Alleras is Sarella spelt backwards. These clues lead many to speculate that they are one and the same.

Nope they took that out too. I remember cause I was very excited for Dinklage's delivery of that line. "Yes, I killed your vile son!" Would've been awesome, but it never happened. They parted as bros.

Correct me if I'm wrong though, but even Nym doesn't want to kill Myrcella. Nym just wants to wipe out everyone else, but that's more so the Martells can crown Myrcella and rule the kingdoms with her as a puppet.

Exactly. They are painting Doran as the sympathetic party here, and also as someone who really has no choice. Which is why it'll be all the more surprising when he reveals he's been playing everybody like pieces on a cyvasse board. It is unfortunate that they felt the need to assassinate Ellaria's character to do that though. In the books it's Obara who comes to Doran seeking vengeance (but even she doesn't suggest torturing and killing Myrcella, she just wants war.) I suppose they wanted us to see a familiar face in our intro to Dorne though.

The books paint Ramsay as pretty much the worst guy who has ever lived. The things he does makes actions taken by Joff and the Mad King seem forgivable.

Yeah, a lot of it is boring stuff. I said before that I think George knows where he wants people to be (or not be) at certain points in the story, but he has no idea what they should be doing until then. For instance he needs Jaime to be out of the capital but he doesn't know what to do with him so he just sends him on a Riverlands tour. In the show they are sending him on a Dornish tour. It's a good move in the show because as you said, this continues the story in Dorne that normally would be an Arys Oakheart/Balon Swann joint and makes it into a Jaime/Bronn joint therefore attaching characters we care about already instead of forcing us to try and care about new characters, and it also gets Jaime out of the capital like the story requires.

I don't know if they're actively plotting against her, they definitely don't like her very much though. The last we saw Sam he has told Archmaester Marwyn (whose Ring and Rod and Mask are Valyrian Steel) about Aemon's thoughts about Dany being the prince that was promised, and Marwyn leaves to be Dany's maester in Aemon's place. He tells Sam to forge his chain quickly and get back to the Wall. He also tells him to speak no more of prophecies or dragons, unless he fancies poison in his porridge. But also suspected to be in the Citadel is a concealed Sand Snake (Sarella Sand masquerading as Alleras the Sphinx) and the faceless man who once was Jaqen H'ghar but is now the novice Pate.

Jaime doesn't stay in KL in the books either. Cersei gets pissed off at him cause he spurns her offer of being the King's Hand and chooses the Kingsguard over her. Cersei then commands him to lift the Seige at Riverrun and some other Riverlands holdfasts still declaring for Robb and his cause. In the show they seem to have him care a lot more about his children, in the books he very rarely thinks of Joff, Tommen or Myrcella as "his children" and while he is devoted to them because he is a Kingsguard and it is his duty he doesn't have a lot of paternal feelings towards any of them. In the books he's much more preoccupied with feelings of restoring his honour and doing his duty. He wants to serve Tommen because he is the LC of the Kingsguard, he wants to save Sansa because she is his last chance for honour etc. I'm conflicted about that change. It makes him more sympathetic a character, but also a lot less nuanced. For instance I can't see this Jaime doing something like

Sweet, finally some Boltons. This season has been mighty deficient on flayings.