SeanC

I would have been shocked if they hadn't. That angle should guarantee their market entry.

The early reviews from the TIFF premiere are strong.

After last year, I'm really not eager to see the show do anything more with Sansa's sexual/marriage history, since I'm rather skeptical that the aftermath of spending several weeks as a tortured sex slave is going to be given any meaningful expression.

Not only was there no will, the show removed the entire context in which the will was deemed necessary.

I imagine them killed Mordane for the same reason they killed everyone else in the household: in case Ned had told her something. Also, of course, the Lannisters tend to use murder as their default option.

The final line about how she's always been "a good girl" is such a perfectly sad way to end Sansa's story in this book. This is one of those moments that would have worked better if we had actually seen any indication of why Sansa trusted Cersei again in King's Landing. It just sort of happens offscreen. All the same, this hits on what I think is an important part of Sansa's story going forward. Sansa is going to spend a lot of the next two novels being told regularly by pretty much everybody that she's dumb; heck, even the Hound, who she comes to regard as an ally and who really does care about her, is always telling her that she's a fool and doesn't know anything. And she really does take this to heart. Which, in turn, is something Littlefinger, in turn, really exploits in his handling of her; he's constantly telling her that he thinks she's clever, and even the mildest compliment in that vein makes her feel incredibly grateful. It serves a double-purpose, though -- it allows him to manipulate her, but Sansa also needs that sort of confidence in order to start to really learn to play the game.

I'm not clear whether Luwin delivering Robb is a GRRM goof or not, since it's very hard to explain why he would have been at Riverrun during the war (if he was supposed to have been Riverrun's maester, surely Catelyn would have thought about that at some point). As far as Luwin's attitude toward magic goes, I don't think that's a North/South thing. There's plenty of talk about sorcery, witches, etc. in the south. I think it is because he's a maester. This is especially a theme in the worldbook; the maesters are uber-rationalists who try to find logical explanations for everything. Indeed, it's not like Old Nan, as far as we know, has any actual evidence that magic is real; she just believes a lot of old wives' tales, which as it turns out are true.

I expect the players are what she does between being the blind beggar and her confrontation with the Waif, a la the books.

Yeah, it looks like Arya's return is more in the coda to the season. I think the first is more likely King Robert, since it's not a dwarf role (unlike the actor who played Tyrion in "Mercy"). The others are definitely Ned and Joffrey.

WOTW: They were filming a notable action scene involving Arya and the Waif (seeming the Waif attacking her), which based on the director and its correspondence to earlier scenes is in episode 7 (or possibly 8).

It's true that Balon basically gave up on Theon, but nobody on the mainland understood that. Indeed, Theon himself didn't. They all thought his presence in Winterfell was guaranteeing the peace, which is why Catelyn objected to sending him back.

Theon was a hostage. He was there to ensure his father's good behaviour, and had his father rebelled again, he would have been executed. Ned himself refers to him as "hostage and ward" in his first POV chapter. Likewise, this exchange between Catelyn and Robb in her first chapter in ACOK: C: "You'll have [the Ironborn] sooner if you keep his son as a hostage." R: "He's been a hostage half his life." C: "For good reason. Balon Greyjoy is not a man to be trusted. He wore a crown himself, remember, if only for a season. He may aspire to wear one again." Ned trained Theon, etc., because the idea was that he would eventually go home and become lord (though given his age, it seems like they were going to wait until Balon died. That's what you do with noble hostages of that sort, in peacetime conditions. Theon was a well-treated hostage, but he was a hostage nonetheless.

The early part of the Ironborn plot in AFFC occurs contemporaneously with early ASOS (it opens with Aeron being told of Balon's death), so the fourth king is Robb, who was still alive at the time.

I had planned to see this movie a second time in theaters, but it never ended up happening (for a while I had planned to see it again with my brother, but that never came together, and after a certain point it slipped my mind). Anyway, now I own it on Blu-Ray, and it holds up extremely well. Indeed, it's great to get a chance to examine the finer details of the film, as there's a lot going on in the background, etc. And the supplemental materials on this disk are goddamn amazing. The main featurette about the making of the film should be shown to everybody in the directors branch of the Academy before they vote for this year's Oscar nominations, because I can't think of a more concise and compelling case for George Miller as an action auteur. And the BTS footage of the stunts are astounding in their own right, particularly the "polecats."

Tyrion offering to end the engagement wasn't an offer to send her home, it was just an offer to halt her engagement to Joffrey; she would still have been a hostage. That's an interesting alternative interpretation of the show character, though not what the writers were going for. But I really don't see how the "You won't hurt me" line is meant to be ironic; it's meant to be a climactic moment of mutual understanding (which is why it makes little sense as to why she doesn't leave with him).

I agree, I was quite impressed with what they did with the Battle of the Blackwater on the show. It remains their best episode. The bit with Beth Cassel also makes an important point, namely, that what Theon is doing with her is really not any different from what was done to him. Rodrik angrily insists they're different, but he's wrong. There, I don't agree. The shows changes to that scene just render it nonsensical. Sansa doesn't go with the Hound in the book because (1) he's angry and violent, (2) he never actually gives her that option, since immediately after his berserk fit he flees before she can say anything else and (3) she already has her own escape plan. In the show, the Hound is never anything more than this gruff guy who occasionally rescues her for no obvious reason (given that most of their important interactions are cut, including the Hound's backstory and the foundational conversation), and despite Sophie Turner arguing that Sansa didn't go with the Hound because she doesn't trust him, the scene is a big buildup to Sansa confidently saying that the Hound won't hurt her. And she has no escape plan of her own. So...why doesn't she go with him? The show tosses in this random line about how Stannis' army won't hurt her, even though the entire rest of the episode is built around everybody proclaiming that Stannis' men are going to wreak havoc on the whole city, which just makes her look naive. All the same, apart from that scene, that episode is probably the high point of Sansa's character in the show, despite the many adaptation issues in Season 2. But then we get into Season 3 and, ooh boy, it's a long way downhill from there.

Not really, though some speculated. Sam's planning to visit them in the books, and it seems like the show is bringin Randyll down to Oldtown, probably to replace the absent Tyrell brothers for whatever bad stuff will be happening in the area. It's a pretty logical thing to have them on the show in that regard. Per WOTW: Nothing as big as last time, but they've started filming in Girona. A still-blind Arya is filming for either episode 3 or 4 in the streets, getting beaten by the Waif. The stage that a lot of people think is for some version of "Mercy" is still under construction. Evidently there's going to be some big crowd/fight scene filmed in Girona toward the end of filming in Girona.

Honestly, I doubt it. First because, on a practical level, the way these guys are depicted there's no way Arya would ever survive them. But we've already seen them offer Arya, at one point, the equivalent of a lifetime pension if she didn't want to go any further. If she just decided the whole thing wasn't for her, I don't think it would be any problem. That happens every season, so I don't know that it really means anything. The Tyrells faded out in seasons 3 and 4 as well.

Sure, but Ned's last chapter is after he's been jailed for treason and is facing his near-certain demise. I don't know that you can extrapolate anything about his prior priorities from that (the show, of course, has Ned say he'll tell Jon about his mother the next time they meet).

I've never really understood this theory. Why would Ned, who was desperately trying to keep Jon's identity a secret, have taken any incriminating evidence of Jon's paternity anywhere? He was never planning to tell Jon anything. I don't think Bran is going to be ordering characters around like that (initially, anyway). Arya leaving the Faceless Men is a huge moment for the character, and one that should come on her own accord, not because somebody else told her to. The siblings were separated so that they could develop on their own. And from the sound of it, anyway, Bran's going to be focusing on flashbacks this season.

Er, why? We have no idea what prompts her to go home, but clearly something will, and that's the case in the books too.

Now cracks a noble heart. Good night, sweet prince, And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.

Nobody, I expect. An Arya who has returned to the Riverlands will most likely be doing it on her own initiative, having decided she can't be a Faceless Man (or possibly the Faceless Men having made that determination themselves). There's no way she has time to complete her training (GRRM has pretty much admitted that), and they aren't going to send some rookie on an expensive mission a continent away.

Arya returning to the Riverlands was always likely at some point, it being where Nymeria was last seen. It was just unclear whether she'd head somewhere else first.