SeanC

I got my copy today, and there's actually three family trees, though the Lannister one dates back only about a century, and if you've read the "History of the Westerlands" con report, that pretty much covers all the pertinent information. I wrote up my thoughts on the family trees, bolstered by a few details from the main body of the book, if you're interested.

Child Protective Services needs to get Alana out of that house immediately.

You must have read different books, then. Sansa angsts about framing Marillion, a guy tried to rape her and was an accomplice to her attempted murder. She is not someone who murders people indiscriminately. I have no idea what Robb would do in that situation. He might try to conciliate the Freys via alternative arrangements. He might remonstrate with Arya and hope she matures (which, you know, she could). He might decide that he's won the war and the Freys can be happy with Queen Roslin.

Yes they were. Hence, the armed guards who dragged her to the sept. The swords were there; Cersei threatened her with them. Even if she hadn't, she's a prisoner -- the swords are always there. No, she was not treated "the same way girls are usually treated". And the difference between Tywin and Catelyn is a pretty big damn one, seeing as Catelyn isn't her enemy (among other things). Well, firstly, as the head of the family, the king, Robb would in that hypothetical scenario easily be able to tell the Freys to back off and take their time. Moreover, as king, he could simply make Arya's husband an officer of some sort in his court, if he wanted to keep her around (indeed, I expect that's what Lord Walder was expecting him to do, as with Emmon Frey and Genna Lannister). And it is quite different from "marriage at swordpoint", since Robb isn't going to beat Arya if she doesn't go through with it, though that would cause problems for everyone. Demonstrated where, exactly? At no point was Joffrey "terrified out of raping or killing her"; kindly point out where that was. Sansa was no more protected as Tyrion's wife than as a hostage; either way, she was Tywin's prisoner with strategic value. And, again, if Joffrey wanted to rape her, Tywin would not have stopped him (particularly as that would solve the problem of Tyrion not raping her himself). Tyrion wanted to leave King's Landing on his own account. Thing is, as far as viewing the Lannisters as a unit to hate goes, as far as Sansa's interests are concerned, they are a unit, whose interests are diametrically opposed to hers. I like a number of them, like Kevan and Genna, but they're both totally find with grinding Sansa's family into dust and using Sansa as a baby factory to supplant her own family (Tyrion himself wouldn't have been overly bothered either, except that it was him that Tywin asked to be the instrument of the latter). And Sansa is, in any event, perfectly able to regard kids like Tommen and Myrcella as nice people, and she concedes the Tyrion was as kind as he could be, despite his participation in the war against her family.

After that flashback where Jane sees Xiomara looking at El Presidente and commenting that he's attractive, I'm just glad we've established that Jane's dad knows what she looks like now.

In fact, he did "lay a hand on Sansa"; he groped her. And he was going to rape her, but changed his mind at the last minute. Absolutely nobody could have guessed Tyrion wouldn't have gone through with it, seeing as Tyrion himself didn't know that. Arranged marriage and being taken prisoner by enemies and forced to marry at swordpoint aren't the same thing. As far as Catelyn and everyone else knew, Arya was a prisoner in King's Landing. The assistance of the Freys was necessary to save her (indeed, ending the war would have benefited the non-prisoner Arya anyway, in principle). Tywin was already protecting her as a prisoner, to the extent that being married to Tyrion afforded any protection at all. It wouldn't have stopped Joffrey from raping her (indeed, that would arguably have aided Tywin). Sansa wasn't under any particular threat from Joffrey and Cersei at that point, either, so the idea that marriage to Tyrion saved her life has no support. They were asked about the show losing two of its main villains in Season Four (meaning Joffrey and Tywin), and they said they don't consider Tywin a villain, he's "Lawful Neutral" (in Dungeons and Dragons terminology).

Your comment contains the answer to your question. "Swaying the Freys into giving Robb passage" is key to their chances of defeating the Lannisters, whereby they hope to secure the return of Ned and the girls. Um, no it wasn't. How exactly did forcing Sansa to marry Tyrion "save her life"? Arranged marriage and marriage by swordpoint are not the same thing. Arranged marriages can go badly, of course, but they do not inherently equal being "raped until pregnant". That's a rather offensive suggestion. As is the idea that Catelyn wants her daughters back "as property". She wants her daughters back because they're her children. Because she wouldn't need to be. Sansa is miserable, and Catelyn, not being an idiot, knows that. There's really no possibility of her being pleased as punch at being raped by the Lannisters. Sansa loving Tyrion was never a remote possibility, unless she developed Stockholm Syndrome. It most definitely is, and you weren't reading Catelyn's chapters at all if you think otherwise. Her children's safety and happiness is all Catelyn wants. It's central to her whole philosophy, and, for instance, the pleas she makes to Robb to end the war. Um, no, she most definitely did not know that. She was certain that Sansa had been raped and was being impregnated, and would likely be disposed of once she'd born children. She had no thoughts about "what to do if Sansa returned huge with child" because on learning of Sansa's marriage she knew the Lannisters would never be giving her back, and since she knew the Starks were losing the war at that point, the odds of them ever being able to force her return were dismal. There's a reason why, in her anguished death cries, she considers Sansa as lost as the children she believes to be dead.

She still cares about Jorah, even though he betrayed her (see the book). Moreover, she told him to leave town; he's only back because he was captured and sold into slavery (unless she's a moron, she would know he didn't come back to pursue a career as a gladiator). And those couple of years make a big difference. She didn't "marry off" Arya. She arranged a betrothal, which was necessary to, you know, save Arya's life (as far as Catelyn knew). She absolutely thought Sansa was too young to be married. And she most definitely didn't want the girls back as "property". Based on the filming spoilers, Tyrion and Varys are in Volantis in episode 3, which would probably end with Jorah abducting him. Journeying with him, the Sorrows, etc. would be a couple more episodes, so his introduction to slavery would be episode 6 or so at least. Given that Yezzan has been cast, I imagine he's Tyrion's first owner (but Meereenese), and then, as we're speculating he may pass into Hizdahr's possession, given his location in those photos (basically akin to where Missandei is relative to Dany). Based on the setup, I doubt there's actually going to be a real conversation between Dany and Tyrion, in the sense of her knowing who he is. Daznak's Pit will interrupt that.

I definitely wouldn't call that silly. The eyebrows thing already bugs me, but with the beard there's, well, a lot more of it.

The spirit of the oath was to free Sansa, as he acknowledges. The fact that his family succeeded in murdering Catelyn is not relevant. Actually, no. Sansa is unusually young to be married (even overlooking the hostage issue). Tywin acknowledges that himself. That interpretation of Catelyn's character is completely unsupportable if you've actually read her chapters. She wants Sansa back because she loves her to a painful extent, not as property. Who's "canonizing" Littlefinger? People who ship the characters with people they're actually attracted to aren't remotely the same thing as the Sansa/Tyrion situation. I'm fairly certain there's very little overlap between the fans who condemn Tyrion and those who want her to be molested by Baelish.

I thought that was a clever line at first, but it really doesn't make any sense, because the only difference between Emma's dress and Elsa's in terms of coverage is the sleeves, and Elsa's looks like it's made of much thinner material.

Actually, in cases where this sort of switch happens, the kid usually isn't told. It's counterproductive to the image (and also, generally, to the mother trying to live her own life). Jack Nicholson, to cite one example, only found out that his "sister" was actually his mother after both she and his grandmother were dead.

In the case of Naya, at least, it sounds like she herself wants to be on the show a lot less this year (though I guess we're unlikely to ever get all the details about what happened last year).

Brittany seems to be doing reasonably well for herself so far (better, ironically, than Rachel at the moment), from what we've been told in terms of spoilers. She's got the girl and a job as a backup performer that she enjoys.

The biggest problem is that with most civil forfeiture cases the amounts involved simply aren't worth litigating over. Even something like $5000 will almost certainly cost you more than that in legal fees, and costs provisions for these cases aren't generous (indeed, costs provisions seldom are).

Okay, so they find the locket from Elsa's missing sister in Rumplestiltskin's store, keeping in mind that he is/was a known villain, and yet nobody ever considers that maybe he had something to do with Anna's disappearance, and instead go running off after Bo Peep, who has no evident connection to the present-day case? Charming and co. fail at being detectives. And then the episode ends with the reveal that Anna is off to meet...Rumplestiltskin! Duh. That should have been the obvious line of inquiry from the start.

That's her own role choice as much as options. Aniston is a zillionaire, and could have spent the last decade doing indie/small movies that gave her the opportunity to stretch, had she wanted to. I'm sure there are tons of up-and-coming filmmakers who'd love the chance to get the publicity/backing of working with her. Somebody at her level is really not comparable with anyone on Glee in terms of what their options are.

She's only 21. I don't think she has to "end up" as a backup singer. It's a place to start. As for being in college, that ship sailed (having her go back to university after giving up on UofL because she hated it would just make her look like she was wasting her time, and money), and in the show pretty much the only valid careers are entertainment ones (and Puck joining the army).

From the spoilers, they appear to be working together with Mercedes in showbiz, so their career endeavours appear to be aligned at the moment. One of the things I find most amusing about this season setup is that the non-regulars are the ones who avoid having to return to Lima as failures (instead, they just come back for visits because of their evidently copious free time).

I'm pretty sure that's not what they're going for there. It's a comedy. Unrelatedly, I wanted to hear the rest of Karma's song.

Martin isn't acting like somebody who's that close to finishing, so I doubt that's true (particularly as, in order to make an April release, it would have to be done around the New Year, based on the turnaround for ADWD).

It's not. There appear to be four systems of inheritance in Westeros: 1. Andal/First Men Succession, which governs all of the Seven Kingdoms apart from Dorne, and is male-preference primogeniture. In this system, male children come before female children, at which point you go to uncles/aunts/cousins in the same order. So, under this succession law, the succession to Riverrun at the start of the series is: 1. Edmure 2. Catelyn 3. Robb 4. Bran 5. Rickon 6. Sansa 7. Arya 8. Lysa 9. Robert Arryn 10. The Blackfish 2. Dornish Succession, which is absolute primogeniture, children by birth order. The Tully succession under this system would look like this: 1. Catelyn 2. Robb 3. Sansa 4. Arya 5. Bran 6. Rickon 7. Lysa 8. Robert Arryn 9. Edmure 10. The Blackfish 3. Targaryen Succession, which is the equivalent of the Pauline Law of Russia, placing male lines before female lines. Under this law, Tully succession would look like this: 1. Edmure 2. The Blackfish 3. Catelyn 4. Robb 5. Bran 6. Rickon 7. Sansa 8. Arya 9. Lysa 10. Robert Arryn There's also (and this is rarely brought up) the Ironborn, who appear to believe that women don't inherit under any circumstances, if most people's reactions to Asha are anything to go by.

It's to keep people who have never met Sansa from associating Baelish's illegitimate daughter with a missing redheaded fugitive. It's never for a moment been suggested that anyone who actually knows her would be fooled by it, as the Royce example shows. Arya can't be sent to kill Sansa or Qyburn, for the same reason: she knows them (she knew Qyburn at Harrenhal).

Yohn Royce at least half-recognized Sansa despite having known her for (at most) a few weeks when she was 9. GRRM has not been positioned the "Alayne" disguise as something that would fool someone who actually knew her. For that matter, Sansa in the books has aged from about 12 to 13ish since Arya last saw her.

where she says that she starts filming this Wednesday. As expected, she's only filming in Belfast this year, which would be a first for her.