SeanC

Another round of WOTW news: - Theon filming in the Iron Islands scenes. - Aeron Greyjoy is on the show. - Jaime and Arya will be in the Riverlands this season.

I'm speaking from a narrative perspective. It makes no sense for the narrative to send him south, given that; among other things, such as the fact that there's going to be a Northern plot this season, and Sansa is at large there. His hold on the North is not secure.

No way is Roose leaving the North at this point. Among other things (though he doesn't know it), if he did that he would be immediately arrested by the Lannisters for going behind their backs to marry Sansa into his family.

Per WOTW, we have our Euron. The part goes to a Danish actor named Pilou Asbæk, who I've never seen in anything, but he certainly looks like he could be related to Alfie Allen (a little on the young side for the part).

Where did I say he was a hero? More to the point, the "Show me a hero quote" is, in full, "Show me a hero, and I'll write you a tragedy", meaning Nick is being described as a tragic hero, undone by his tragic flaw, the need for recognition. That doesn't mean he was heroic; indeed, I'd say the series shows the opposite; he was a relatively decent guy who opportunistically rode a wave of resentment into office and then had to grapple with doing the actual job, where he mostly tried to take the reasonable path (before his disintegration after he lost office). The series is quite clear that he was just one of many actors.

The sad downfall of a man who could not find satisfaction in anything outside of municipal politics, and was destroyed by it. No Springsteen this week, signalling that we're truly in the dark period of Nick's life. Billie's storyline is marred by the fact that the guy playing John is the one dud actor in the ensemble. I had never realized, until they were all in one room, how all of the POV characters in the projects (sorry, complex) were women (and typically single mothers).

The pilot was there to pick up Caleb at the prearranged time.

WOTW update: The two Northern lords they were casting for earlier are Smalljon Umber (as most had guessed) and a new Lord Karstark.

GRRM delivered the manuscript for A Dance with Dragons at the very end of April 2011, and it was published in mid-July of the same year, so it will not take anything close to 9-12 months to get the book out when he's done with the manuscript.

Who's fit to marry who is really not that fine a gradation. For most of Westeros' history, the great houses married mainly their own bannermen. The extensive intermarriage of great houses dates only to the era of Robert's Rebellion, and even then not that far. Given that Baelish is now a major lord in his own right, and more importantly is instrumental in Sansa's rescue and her putative political rise, not to mention supply the soldiers she would need to retake the North, there's really no reason to think he wouldn't be considered a viable marriage prospect. In any event, her being married to Ramsay only affects the least-significant consideration in her marriage viability, that being that she was a virgin. Being a widow really does not matter when you're a widow with a stupendously valuable theoretical inheritance, and anybody who objected to Baelish marrying her on those grounds would not care whether she had previously been married.

They're both daughters of great houses. Sansa is theoretically an heiress, sure, but at the time Baelish has possession of her her heir status is more theoretical than real, and requires considerable exertion to redeem, whereas Lysa grants her husband immediate Lord Protector status over a major military region. Sure, you can quibble this way and that, but if Baelish is considered a fit husband for Lysa, he should realistically be a fit husband for Sansa, particularly if he's bringing her major military assets that she'd need to actually reclaim her home.

The writers explicitly stated that he didn't know. Also, he was able to marry Lysa just fine, and their statuses are roughly equivalent, socially speaking. And in any event, Sansa isn't "soiled" as far as anybody in Westeros would understand it, and devaluing her status is contrary to his own political needs for her.

No, Murph, don't go rescue him, it's a trick! The same one your dad fell for! Having finished the book, which was quite well-done, I think it's a very good template for a film, too.

Though it would actually be their first scene together -- one of the things that has become more apparent to me when contemplating various character reunions is how many of these relationships exist only in theory. I don't think Sansa had so much as spoken Bran or Rickon's names until Season 5 (I'm pretty sure episode 507 is also the first time Jon is ever mentioned in her presence); that same season hinges a lot on the supposed familial relationship she had with Theon, who ahead never mentioned or had a scene with before. It's the same for Arya, with the obvious exception of Jon. Bran has never interacted with either of his sisters, either.

The protesters might as well just be replaced by the South Park townspeople yelling "rabble rabble rabble!", but otherwise this continues to be a pretty compelled and reasonably nuanced series, though the side-stories with the residents are still scattershot. Some of them, like Norma's, feel more relevant; the Dominican lady, on he other hand, still sticks out (also, either have her speak English all the time or have her speak in Spanish and use subtitles; having her speak in unsubtitled Spanish except when she has something important to say comes across as very contrived). I had never seen Carla Quevedo in anything before this, but she's been quietly one of the more engaging parts of the series. The music supervisor for this series is just an iPod loaded with Bruce Springsteen songs and set to "shuffle."

Renly was dead by that point.

How does that fit at all?

The general assumption is that the woman is Westeros and the four rat-men are the four kings waging war at the time Dany is in the House of the Undying.

It can't really be left to Ned's personal choices, since none of the other great lords not in the capital seem to have any formal representation there either. Considering it was part of a deal to acquire thousands of soldiers for House Stark, I'm pretty sure Ned and Catelyn would feel bound by its terms.

The lack of any delegates from the great lords in the capital is one of the bigger holes in GRRM's world building. The Starks, Tullys, Tyrells, Martells (maybe not then, post-rebellion), etc. would all want to have emissaries who would advocate for regional interests, act as conduits for the administration of the state, and keep their bosses apprised about what's going on. In Ned's case, especially, it makes no sense that he didn't leave some supporter of his to represent the North on the small council (it makes sense for him not to take that role himself, at the end of the Rebellion).

But Ned's army had already crossed the Trident before that to link up with Hoster Tully and rendezvous with Robert at Stoney Sept for the Battle of the Bells.

That always confused me. If the Twins is the only place for an army to cross north of the Crossroads, where did Ned's army cross in Robert's Rebellion? Because the crossroads area is full of royalist houses, not to mention that it's skirting rather close to King's Landing, etc.

"Lindsay the friend" didn't act anything like that, though.

The reason Yoren was at Ned's execution was because he had been summoned to pick Ned up. Which means he was presumably planning to travel to the Wall in his little cart. No, it doesn't make any sense -- but nothing about Night's Watch recruiting does.However, Ned would never have actually gone to the Wall had he been spared. After the utter disaster at Whispering Wood and the Camps, the Lannisters would have used Ned to negotiate at least a prisoner exchange and probably an end to the war.