SeanC

WOTW: What looks like a Riverrun set being built.

From Maisie's interview here, she's almost done filming, due to some sort of technical hitch with a set(?). A blogger/friend of Sophie's said that, per a conversation they had in London the other day, she's not filming in Belfast for the next two months. So whatever she has left to film will be in December. Given that Yohn Royce's actor is also filming then (after filming in July), that's another possible link between her and the Vale characters (whatever they're doing).

Weirdly, Lena was the win I thought they'd get even if they didn't win anything else.

Getting her away from Saint Tyrion is one of the things I'm most happy about, since any other character he shares the screen with ultimately plays second fiddle to him. I really didn't see anything interesting about their interactions (well, novelty of seeing castmembers meet, I suppose).

Honestly, I think there's a lot of potential in this Dany story, in that it could be a lot more character-based than anything we've seen with her since season 1, and hopefully more focused on her (as long as they don't turn it into a story about how she needs to be rescued by Jorah and Daario).

WOTW: Two new minor castings, both for non-white actors, so most likely Essosi. A young widow (probably a member of the Dosh Khaleen) and a young warrior (probably Dothraki).

Tywin directly planned the Red Wedding, though. He had no involvement in Littlefinger's various activities on the Crown's behalf, beyond not ordering him removed, and Littlefinger played him expertly once he actually got to King's Landing, getting everything he wanted out of Tywin. One of the things that most infuriated me about how the show handled Sansa's story in season 3 was how, for the most part, the enagement to Loras was treated as something the audience should laugh at her for. The second Sansa chapter in ASOS shows her in a bit of a happy cloud, since after being abused for so long she thinks she's finally found friends and will be getting out, but there's a pervasive sadness to the whole thing -- like her dreams of having children that all look like her believed-dead siblings; or when, on it being suggested that the Tyrells are mainly interested in her claim, she hopes that even if that is the case she can make Willas love her anyway -- that is almost entirely absent from the show. The show is mostly interested in "tee hee, Sansa likes Loras and doesn't realize that he's flamingly gay", and that also played into a lot of viewers thinking that Tyrion was a better option for her since he was actually into women. And it's not like a Sansa/Loras engagement couldn't have worked as a dramatic choice, in my opinion. For instance, have Loras be honest with Sansa about his preferences, but that they can get married anyway for mutual self-interest -- Sansa can mourn the loss of a romantic dream, but be practical and accept that it's still way better than where she is, and talk about her dream of children; this could even be a vehicle for Loras to talk about the loss of Renly. That could have been a strong scene for both characters.

WOTW: The Tower of Joy will be filming soon in Spain, and there's a few more details from the ongoing Saintfield filming, where "several" armies are participating. Apparently Kit and Iwan are filming this week. The Emmys are this Sunday, with presumably much of the cast going, so expect lots of interviews where absolutely no information about the next season is conveyed.

Robb wasn't planning to besiege Harrenhal. Edmure argued for releasing his bannermen to go retake their homes precisely because the army was otherwise sitting around doing nothing.

I think the lack of fostering (and, perhaps, marital planning) is, in-universe, meant to be a legacy of Ned's own generation's experiences (though I guess that doesn't explain why Catelyn hasn't had any thoughts about it either; realistically she should have been sounding out Lysa, Jon Arryn, etc. about Joffrey years earlier), though on a meta level it's because GRRM wants to present the Starks as the closest thing the series has to a modern nuclear family. I think that's the same reason the Starks' court at Winterfell is so unrealistically barebones. Ned not sending his sons away is one thing, but his lack of squires and wards is quite another. There should realistically be a flock of boys and girls from the banner houses to serve as companions to the Stark children, but amongst the boys there's only Theon (who is a hostage), and the girls' (Sansa's, effectively, since Arya doesn't get along with any of them) social circle consists of two children of the household staff.

He visited Harrenhal to talk about the Tyrells. Outreach to the Freys would not even have been contemplated at that point, since Robb hadn't broken his marriage alliance.

I'm going to focus on this part of the post since, like I said, the discussion about the merits of Season 5 has gotten off-topic. Except we have clear filming reports of Sophie Turner filming at Winterfell. Why would Littlefinger go back south if he has Sansa and an army with him in the North? It's not, though, because Jaime left Dorne at the end of the season, he has obvious unresolved story elements and new setup elsewhere, we have filming information placing him outside of Dorne, and we have plentiful casting information and, indeed, actual WOTW confirmation, that he will be going to the Riverlands. But we do know that the show's changes have rendered the Vale storyline setup non-existent. There is no "Alayne Stone", and her identity is known to all the major players there. There is no conflict between Littlefinger and the Lords Declarant. There is no point to killing Robert and marrying Harry, since the point of that is to gain control of the Vale and make use of their forces elsewhere (most particularly, in the North), and Littlefinger on the show has already done that. Further, there has been absolutely no focus on Sansa's relationship with Robin, which is what would give that story weight, and Sansa on the show is now in a consummated marriage to Ramsay, meaning she cannot marry anybody else until he is dead (even if she was inclined to). And, again, doing the Vale storyline would require significant new castings, of which there has been not the slightest trace. There's no Harry, no Shadrich (since you bring him up), no other characters from the Vale, no sign of Sophie doing any filming in southerly areas (and that filming is underway right now), nothing, really. Given the way that many characters seem to be being kept in one location toward midseason at least when we know they end up elsewhere by the end (Arya, Jaime), I'd guess it's possible he remains in KL longer, and only arrives in the North toward the end, setting up a new dynamic for the following year. Littlefinger wasn't involved in the Red Wedding.

Doran and Trystane can't have been in on it. Why would they allow Jaime to leave?

This discussion has gotten kind of off-topic, so I suggest we call it a day on that point.

We don't know how the story plays out. Simple as that. But we do know that Littlefinger's plans last season all point to invading the North, that his only filming report so far suggests he was filming at Winterfell, and that all of the story buildup for Sansa on the show has been in the North (while at the same time rendering her Vale story irrelevant). Shifting goalposts. It did change the story; it didn't change his season 5 plot, but it's not required that the knowledge change everything. In comparison with Sansa, whose entire plot was pretty much junked. Any number of reasons? Er, no she didn't. Ramsay summoned her to taunt her about having foiled her escape. She was a prisoner in her room, and could only leave when he wanted it. And Sansa didn't do that in the show either, with Tyrion or Ramsay. Every single interaction she had with Ramsay was initiated by him. That was not any different from Sansa's participation in her escape in King's Landing. Somebody else gave her a plan, and she tried to execute it. She vented her spleen at Theon, and he blurted out information she was unaware he had. 1) Book Sansa doesn't "confront" people because it's dangerous and foolhardy to yell at people when your position is precarious. TV Sansa used to understand that, before she started insulting Ramsay to his face for no reason. 2) No different from Book Sansa deciding to escape King's Landing, even though it was dangerous and risky. 3) You mean when the Hound, drunk and covered in blood, appeared in her room acting unstable and dangerous, then put a knife to her throat, and then vanished? And when Sansa already had her own escape plan? 4) That reason being that people helped her escape. 5) What decisions? Littlefinger was the one who sent her to Winterfell. Once there, she obediently followed his plan of sitting around, until it became clear the plan wasn't going to work, at which point she followed the plan Brienne devised of trying to use the signal, at the failure of which she decided to...well, we never find out, since she's then captured by Myranda and then rescued by Theon, who initiates their escape. 6) You're conflating her entire experience as Alayne as if it's all happening at once. She's certainly experienced more prestige toward the TWOW material, but that wasn't what it was like in the beginning, and regardless, you can see quite clearly that being a bastard did really influence her psychology.

Where did Eliza D say he was? She said Littlefinger could claim that. How did his scheme fail, in this scenario where he's got a huge army and Sansa and is in the North. Seems like things are going pretty well. And the Boltons did not absorb Stannis' men; that was just a justification some people came up with for why Ramsay's army looked so big. The changes the show has made to the story make GRRM's Vale plot impossible. The secret of Sansa's identity? Exposed to the major players, and in any event the "Alayne Stone" identity was never a thing in the first place on the show. Conflict between Littlefinger and the Lords Declarant? Resolved. Control of the Vale, which was the whole point of the Harry the Heir scheme? Achieved. Sansa's relationship with Robin, set up as something of a potential moral conundrum or turning point? Nonexistent on the show. And, again, there has been no new Vale casting. It did, in fact. It prompted his little sojourn to Craster's Keep. The North is a pretty big place. They could be fighting anywhere. As to the Boltons' army, that they lost Winterfell (potentially) doesn't mean they lost their whole army. Sansa got an out-of-nowhere IQ boost in episode 408, after the show had cut virtually all her character development, in a scenario where Littlefinger had to be a complete idiot in order for her to do what she did, and then amicably separated from her brain in 501. Moreover, Sansa has shown her ability to act far more in the books, where her facade in KL was meant to be flawlessly charming, unlike the show version, who most sat around looking obviously distressed (much like she did in Winterfell, when she was meant to be charming the Boltons). I have no idea how you think Sansa "getting information from Ramsay" constitutes some kind of achievement; that was no different from Myranda Royce telling her the same information. Likewise, she yelled and Theon and he then blurted out information he didn't know she had. And it was Theon who came up with the idea of jumping off -- and escaping is not something book Sansa has never done; indeed, she showed this far earlier than the TV version, when she took an active role in her escape from KL. You think it's not a significant detail that a character who started out with the firmest belief in the class system ends up living as a bastard, which initially horrifies her, and in the process both experiences some such prejudice and makes friends with others like Mya? Alayne is certainly privileged compared to many, but so was Jon Snow.

In truth, I frankly think that even if she does meet Rickon (and I expect she will), it will be a weak payoff, for two reasons: 1) Given that Rickon is with the Umbers in the show, it's not like this is not information Sansa could not have come by any other way. Had she been in a rational plot, one where Sansa tried to rally the Vale to help her drive the Boltons out, or even just reached out to potential Northern allies, instead of marching happily to Winterfell to become the Boltons' hostage, she would have learned that he was alive anyway. 2) Similar to the above: Rickon is apparently safe with the Umbers. He doesn't really need her help. If anything, she needs his help, particularly if she ends up finding him because she flees to Last Hearth and stumbles across him by accident, as many have speculated. If she had learned somehow that he was on Skagos, like he is in the books, that at least would have been information she wouldn't have likely come by otherwise, and would have lead to her possibly being of real assistance. There's 3 full months of filming left, at least, even if she had been filming an atypically small amount to date (which is debatable, really, since we don't know how long any given scene takes. The filming reports said there was no sign of anything White Walker-related. It was Jon vs. Boltons.

The weird part is that we've only heard of one casting in relation to Meereen, the new Red Priestess, Kinvara. What are Tyrion and co. going to be doing all year?

Absent consistent Twitter updates, Littlefinger wouldn't have daily updates on everything happening in the North. He was waiting for one of Stannis or the Boltons to win; that has happened. He has to initiate his invasion plan. The Stark loyalists wouldn't attack him unless Sansa told them to. And as for Littlefinger's goal, his goal is to become ruler; Jon and co. are not expected players, but if Sansa is still amenable (which is what he believes) then he has a plausible outreach to them. We do know broadly what he's planning, because getting Cersei's permission to invade the North was the whole point of his scheme last year. If he doesn't do that, it makes even less sense. Moreover, in your scheme, why would Littlefinger then leave even after he finds Sansa? The point of going North is to consolidate his power, and with Sansa and the Vale army, he can do that. And what, in this version of events, is the point of...anything that happened in Sansa's season 5 story? She doesn't do anything with the information about her brothers, or have anything to do with the Boltons' fall, or anything. There's a Bolton army in the field, but that doesn't mean that it's at Winterfell, or that the Boltons still have it. We have no idea what exactly Littlefinger will be doing. Perhaps his part of the Northern story at that point will be about interacting with Sansa, while Jon and co. go fight, since Sansa's story is meant to be about politics. Lots. The entire "Alayne Stone" story is about Sansa's class prejudices, and the struggle to suppress and reassert her Stark identity (akin to Arya's story at the same time). And she's actually learning to play the game of thrones in a plausible manner, whereas Sansa just got +50 IQ points for one episode, and then forgot about it and went back to being Season 1 Sansa in Season 5 (well, actually, Season 1 Sansa would have had the good sense to be too scared to go to Winterfell, so maybe that's unfair to her). The Vale plot is about gaining control of the Vale. They've already done that. All of the conflicts in the Vale plot in the books either don't exist or have been resolved or rendered irrelevant, and there has been no new Vale casting this year that we know of. No, it doesn't. Depending on how charitable you are, it shows either that the show didn't have space for it or the writers didn't care about Sansa's character development enough to give her her own story.

Er, because Littlefinger isn't actually allied with the Boltons. He's planning to attack them. Why would Littlefinger go back to the Vale because Sansa is missing? He's planning to attack the Boltons, and if Sansa was missing he'd stay and look for her. And there's no way they're going back to the Vale; the events of the previous two seasons have rendered the whole book Vale plot irrelevant, since it's all about gaining control of the Vale and Littlefinger and Sansa have already done that in the show. The plot in the Vale is about Sansa's character development, and the struggle for power in one of the remaining uncommitted political powers -- the show has skipped over the former, and is massively condensing the politics of the series, so the latter was dealt within in one episode.

The second trailer for Creed, Ryan Coogler's somewhat improbable followup to Fruitvale Station: RIP Paulie.

The other possibility is that they're in the North, but doing something else. The battle with Jon isn't stated to be at Winterfell, for instance, and (at least it appears) Baelish was filming there. But in the books, his story is with Sansa -- who is in the North, the region he evidently spent all last season orchestrating some big plan in relation to. That, to me, is the paramount consideration.

Why would Littlefinger's last scene with Olenna keep him in King's Landing? The evidence for him filming at the Winterfell set is not incontrovertible (IrishThrones reported on Twitter that they saw his trailer there), but it fits with what I think is reasonable to expect. Littlefinger is probably the main antagonist in Sansa's book story, and after the Jeyne Poole detour it makes sense to bring them back into the same plot again. And getting permission to invade the North was seemingly the whole point of his plan last season.

If you mean "Vale" as in the physical location, I think pretty clearly not; the Vale is coming to her, when Littlefinger invades. I don't think much can be deduced from her filming schedule, other than that she's not likely at "Snowbowl" -- but I don't know why anyone would have expected her to be. She isn't a combatant. She was filming at the old Winterfell set in Moneyglass in July, around the same time that Aidan Gillen was rumoured to be there, but that's the only actual filming information we have for her.

Per this set report, the big scene with Jaime and the Tyrell soldiers (apparently 200 extras for that group, which should look pretty impressive) is in episode 606. Between this and the news about Arya, it seems like the Riverlands are only going to feature fairly late in the season. And Sophie is back in Belfast after spending the better part of a month in England (London & Leamington), Canada, and Croatia.