SeanC

There's been nothing indicating that, and seeing as I think the Pink Letter is probably in, it's unlikely. If any Bolton is going to die this year (and that's a big if), it will be Roose.

I think there are two possible explanations: (1) Since the explanation is almost universally considered underwhelming, and delivered way past the point when people are thinking about it, they decided not to bother with it. (2) They decided to make Littlefinger responsible instead (a common fix-it by fans who didn't like the book explanation), and will reveal that at some later date.

Arthur Dayne was mentioned briefly in episode 401, but otherwise no. The Tarly family sword is Heartsbane.

I really don't see how Sansa somehow taking over Winterfell would be remotely credible at this point. There's been nothing whatsoever to suggest it, and the writers have effectively written out things like the Northern lords at Winterfell, which is now garrisoned solely by Bolton loyalists. The extent of Stark support has been shown to be two old people, one of whom is dead and the other not even resident in the castle. I don't think it's the ending that's the issue as far as an eighth book goes, it's the size of the story involved in getting to that ending that has always been growing.

No, that was never brought up on the show.

First cousin marriage is not really a big deal, unless your families have a lot of prior close connections. It's legal in most of the world, though not common in the West anymore.

That's in the books. The show doesn't like complexity, so it has framed the arc as "Starks good, Theon bad" -- hence, him calling Ned his real father, a sentiment Theon in the books explicitly rejected.

The Wall plotline has consistently, by a country mile, been the best material in this season, and that continued here. My only niggle was the bit with Wildling Lady and the kids, because I guess her uterus was triggered and caused her to become ineffective against them. Strong scenery and action, good character stuff for Jon. The brief Cersei scenes were nicely done, and I loved having her lick at the water on the floor while "The Rains of Castamere" plays. I know there are a number of Arya fans who have been vocally disappointed both with her episode/screentime count so far this season, and the way the story has been told. Up until this point I thought they were overstating things, but at this point I have to say: this storyline is really boring, and this episode in particular had an outright baffling dramatic structure. The episode ends with a somber note about whether Arya can successfully kill this guy, but the preceding sequence just laid out plain as day that it should be easy. Is it meant to be a moral question instead? Because the episode really didn't raise that idea either. I liked the Sansa scene on its own, though having watched the Inside the Episode video I find D&D's interpretation of where this fits into her arc kind of baffling, in terms of how they've been telling this story. They say that the news about her brothers' survival is a total game-changer for her worldview, and comes at a time when she's in desperate need of hope and motivation -- but the Sansa we already met in that scene is the most ferocious we've seen her since she came to Winterfell already. If this is meant to be her lowest moment, she should be more like in her first scene last week; between the following scene of her trolling Ramsay and the start of this scene it already feels like she's rebounding. I wouldn't. As far as I know, that stone-faced nun isn't an unrepentant murderer and instigator of a war that has killed untold thousands. Cersei is only here because she tried to (and did) do the same thing to Margaery. That's called delicious karma.

Dany already seemed totally disinclined to have Jorah around. Tyrion just told her more or less what she wanted to hear (and supplied her with a rationale for not killing him).

So, it seems the show has confirmed the "Valyrian/dragonsteel kills the Others" theory -- though that seemed fairly probable to begin.

When you have aristocrats threatening to starve the entire city over their own personal troubles, don't you think that's a problem? We've seen the Sparrows engaged in various charitable activities. The HS clearly considers installing a moral government the best thing he can do to help the realm.

And yet Tyrion remains a popular character in the books, and he is not considered a villain. I have no idea why it would be "sacrificing" Dinklage to portray Tyrion more honestly to the book. Prestige cable drama is dominated by anti-heroes or anti-villains, like Tony Soprano and Walter White, in whose company Tyrion would be more than comfortable (he's more sympathetic and has nobler instincts than either of them). And ASOIAF has plenty of much more openly heroic characters. And even if I were to agree with you on Tyrion in ADWD, the show's whitewashing of Tyrion began long before that. He was never a "light or medium gray" character on the show (and GRRM personally called him "the greyest of the grey"), he was the funnier, more freewheeling Ned Stark.

A "flaw" that the audience is not meant to challenge the audience's perceptions of him is not really a flaw. Tyrion in the books is a grey character who semi-regularly behaves in ways that show he is not a particularly nice, and which challenges the audience's instincts to like him (or should; some people whitewash his conduct in the books too). The show has diligently removed all that.

From that Stannis video, one of the Iwan Rheon interviews in a BTS piece, and some shots in the promos, it looks like we get at least some kind of battle in the North, though we don't know whether we'll get the resolution. My guess for the Winterfell storyline: Episode 9: Sansa/Theon/Brienne escape, and there may or may not be a cliffhanger (within their storyline) of them riding for Stannis' camp. Episode 10: They get to Stannis (since Brienne meeting Stannis again was pretty heavily foreshadowed this season), and Sansa's escape prompts the Boltons to have to march out. The battle ensues. Probably we're left wondering who won.

"Any ethnicity" would rule that out.

(1) The show has never suggested his remaining in King's Landing is any kind of flaw. (2) The show went to extreme lengths to portray him as having no choice, and even suggested that he and Sansa were in roughly equivalent positions. (3) He's supposed to have the audience's sympathy in that too. (4) I've never seen this treated as a flaw. Generally, we're meant to agree with whatever he says.

The synopsis for episode 510 is out.

As far as speculation for next year, by region: - Braavos: No idea whatsoever, honestly. Arya's story is the biggest wildcard in the narrative, as it really feels like she could go almost anywhere (and there's a wide variety of hints as to where that could be, as she has unfinished business in several places). - Meereen: I think that the Sons of the Harpy stuff may be largely dealt with at the end of this season, but how exactly they proceed for there is open to question. That priestess character sounds like she'd most readily fit in the Meereen narrative, and I think the "mixed ethnicity" warrior is the sort of casting they've previously done for the Dothraki, so people thinking Dany wouldn't be spending time amongst the horse lords may be wrong (and besides which, Dany has to have something to do other than invade, because all the other plots have to have room to proceed). I'm also expecting Doran to send some of the Dornish characters here to meet with Dany. - King's Landing: Jaime will probably return here with Myrcella and some other Dornish characters, after leaving at the end of season 5. The trials, etc. will play out. What happens beyond that is open to question, and I'm not sure whether Jaime is going to stick around here or go somewhere else. - The North: Littlefinger is going to be showing up with Vale troops, which seems like how they're going to reintegrate him into Sansa's plot, something that I had a very hard time making sense of based on the changes they were making in early season 5. It seems like characters like Brienne and Pod should be in this setting too, unless/until there's some kind of general evacuation, but at the same time it seems like Brienne really should meet up with Jaime again. Now that I think about it, since Sansa's location is now public, I suppose Jaime could come up here -- but then, he has to kill Cersei, so that doesn't really feel like it works either. - The Riverlands: We've been told in the past that we will see the Freys again, and this seems like when it would be, but I have no idea how that will work on a narrative level.

Such as? Tyrion on the show is a white knight, who always does the right thing, and is always meant to have the audience's sympathy.

In the books there are tons of Tyrell cousins. There are also tons of Arryns, but none particularly close to the main line, and there's at least one mentioned Martell cousin. The Starks, Tullys and Baratheons are the families that are vanishingly small.

As of episode 506, he had 11 minutes of screentime to Jon's 30. I expect this episode closed that gap by a decent stretch, but by no means has he had more screentime than Jon.

Meribald didn't really "fight". He was a little kid who tagged along with his older brothers.

From Sophie's pre-season interviews, it sounds like the answer is yes.

I don't think so. They've built up Sansa learning that as the big moment for both Theon and Sansa. The fact that they're playing it this way (and presumably had this in mind for a while) does make her complete non-reaction to Bran and Rickon's deaths in seasons 3-4 rather bizarre writing choices, though.