SeanC

. For all we know,

With all the 'dragon has three heads' discussion, I'm not sure there's going to be just one person fulfilling the role. And I really don't believe any of the Nissa Nissa theories, regarding Dany or any of the series' other major female POVs; the idea that the culmination of their stories is going to be to die so that a male character can save the day is a really regressive notion.

Discussing some spoilers for upcoming episodes:

No court would ever give Rafael full custody. This is one area where the court have an extremely strong preference for mothers, even if there were any other reason to deny Jane, which their isn't, as she's of pretty much unblemished character. Conversely, I don't know that I think Jane's argument against Rafael would have worked, but it was less about whether that would have worked than what ugliness would have resulted from such a battle.

The poster said that dragons are not useful outside of open warfare. Aegon conquered six of the seven kingdoms when their armies met him in the field. The only one he couldn't conquer and hold was Dorne, because the Dornish refused to face him in open combat. The letter claims that. Most don't believe it.

This season has been said to be more or less TWOW spoiler-free, so I doubt it'll be any time soon.

Roose also wanted him to stop torturing Jeyne in the books, but he didn't. And having Ramsay say "I won't hurt her" right after Littlefinger admits he knows nothing about Ramsay is blatant foreshadowing that he's going to hurt her.

There's a lot of fuss made about the warden positions in the early chapters of the book which the rest of the series really doesn't justify, as they really don't see to be that important.

They've been doing that in Europe since A Storm of Swords.

Earlier in the season a lot of us were speculating that Nadine worked for Sin Rostro, but I'd discounted that theory since nothing really came of it, so it was interesting to see that revived and confirmed now. Lina, as a character, has always felt way more peripheral to the show than her status as Jane's supposed best friend seemed to suggest she was meant to be (as did the few episodes that tried to sell that as an important connection). This episode, I thought, went a long way toward establishing some grounding and an emotional connection between the two of them.

The scene with Lyanna establishes that she's the Lady of Bear Island, so that means no adult Mormonts (none have been cast, anyway, that we know of). Non-Stark noble houses have been nonentities on the show apart from the Boltons and (briefly) the Karstarks, so I'm skeptical about the show changing that, unfortunately.

Actually, Lollys said "when mother dies" in this episode, seemingly retconning last season's changing of the ruler of Stokeworth into a man.

No, Cersei is Lady of the Rock in the books. Women can inherit if they don't have brothers. They haven't established that Cersei is the owner of the Rock in the show, though.

She has no reason to trust Brienne -- same as Arya, who also turned her down.

Rewriting a main character's story to include brutal sexual assault, as if she's interchangeable with a very minor character, and turning her into a victim that needs to be rescued yet again, is a rather obvious cause of "fuss".

Iwan Rheon has given indications that he'll be in season 6. There's been nothing to suggest Sansa's going to be doing anything other what Jeyne Poole did. The whole "least like a Stark" thing is one of those ideas that I really dislike. There's no one way to be a Stark -- all the kids are different (it's especially the case when people treat Ned as the paragon of Stark-ness, when we know his siblings Brandon and Lyanna were nothing like him). Sansa definitely started out as the person who was the least interested in aspects of Northern culture, but one of the main themes of her story is her increasing attachment to that stuff.

We know that Sansa is going to Winterfell from the trailers. We know there's a marriage at Winterfell, per Michael McElhatton. And we know that there's a new main character joining the storyline, and that Ramsay gets a new plaything, who he horrifically abuses. It's all quite clear that Sansa is getting Jeyne Poole's plot, more or less unchanged.

He means an actor new to the storyline. Turner and Allen were both in the Winterfell courtyard scene, but they did not interact or really "work together" in any meaningful sense. Everything about these interviews points to Sansa being a damsel in distress again.

Olly is a show-only character.

As far as the non-inclusion of the valonqar prophecy, my guess is that the identity of the valonqar is exactly who you would think it is, and the show wants that to be another shock twist. Whereas Tommen and Myrcella can be killed by any number of people, so the effect is just to keep people guessing.

The Eyrie’s back in the title sequence! Even though they’re not at the Eyrie, they’re at Runestone (which goes on the short list of locations we’ve visited in the show, but not in the books). A pretty consistent episode, on the whole. One of the best premieres. Rude and abrasive Brienne still jars me, I have to say. The scene with Loras and the male prostitute was the only scene that comes to mind as irritating, on reflection. But then, I think TV Loras is pretty much a lost cause at this point. Two major, major improvements in this episode: First, Dany's storyline finally seems to be reconnecting with her inner life, something that was terribly absent from so much of her material post-season 1 (we even finally get the dragons' names, something that to me kind of symbolized the lack of concern so regularly shown for Dany's personal side, that we don't even get her children's names); and second, Stannis is finally, consistently acting like his book version.

It doesn't. The love triangle where one person feels unrequited (at present) affection for somebody who's in a relationship with someone else is every bit as common as one person being attracted to two people.

Er, why? She was a hostage-bride who was not fulfilling her one function, to be raped and produce little Lannisters. What bargaining power would she have acquired, when everyone knows she's a powerless prisoner? Yes they would have. Tywin showed no inclination to let them leave, and his word is law. Tywin has no reason to send them off to the Rock so that Sansa can get an education or whatever fanciful notions. Quite apart from the fact, of course, the Tyrion never demonstrated the slightest desire to teach Sansa how to "play the game", let alone to play against House Lannister, which would have been the only reason for her to play. She does not want to be a loyal little cog in the Lannister machine, which is what Tyrion is at that point, and what he desires to remain. House Lannister's servants are loyal to House Lannister. Sansa is a prisoner of House Lannister. All servants would be spying on her constantly and making sure she didn't do anything she wasn't supposed to. First, that's clearly not the context in which an altruistic mentor was mentioned (beyond which, Mordane did not teach her much of use). You're ping-ponging between the books and the show here, but Septa Mordane did not sacrifice herself in the books, and in the books she was a useless ninny. As well, Sansa was never rude to her in the books; that was nonsense invented by the show.