Well, in practice, the Boltons are governing the area around the Dreadfort, and the Umbers are governing the area around Last Hearth, and the Mormonts are governing Bear Island, as usual. But if Bolton attempted to enforce his rule on the rest of the North, he probably couldn't until the rest of his army got back…

The show has English text all over the place. The genealogy book Ned was reading, the book of the history of the Kingsguard, Robert's will I think….

They run away because Theon is dead; there's no mission goal anymore.

It also took less time for news of Dany's conquest of Meereen to reach King's Landing than it took for news of the Hound's adventures in the Riverlands.

The Fingers are in the Vale, but he spent much of his childhood at Riverrun because his father was war buddies with Hoster Tully.

He's not an "outsider" exactly; he's *from* the Vale. But he's of very minor background—he started out as the lowest-ranking nobleman in the region—and so, as you say, unlikely to get a lot of support from the major Vale lords.

We know what the director says he intended, yes. Lots of people fail to do things they intend to do. Alex Graves is apparently one of them.

…Which is also when the Stark family was founded.

The reason Margaery doesn't inherit the throne from Joffrey isn't because women aren't allowed to rule; it's because she's *not actually descended from* the previous king. (Well, neither is Joffrey, but, you know, *officially* he is.) Women not being allowed to rule is the reason *Myrcella* doesn't inherit the throne.

Last week's episode had exactly such a rape scene.

Sorry, thought we were talking about the books (in which Jojen and Meera clearly know a whole lot about the revolution).

Not true; Howland Reed knows and is still alive and offstage. (Which also means Jojen or Meera *might* know.)

"I don't know why they made Jaimie and Brienne show up at King's Landing earlier than in the books"

Presumably merely so that Jaime's and Brienne's plot arc in season 3 would come to a satisfying conclusion (getting back to King's Landing) in the season 3 finale, and so they didn't have to come up with some reason for the (fairly short, mounted, and escorted) trip from Harrenhal to King's Landing) to take four whole…

No, Samurai's right. Bronn and Littlefinger are both doing AOK so far, and Dany's quest to make peace in Meereen left her so depressed she ran away, at which point it all fell apart.

I'm not sure you know what a "pun" is.

(That's in ADWD I'm pretty sure.)

The first verse of that makes me want to see the opening credits of the early-'80s cop-show version of Game of Thrones.

He was fine at his *job*, i.e., being an effective commander of the Goldcloaks. He was sent to the Wall because he's an amoral self-satisfied jerk who accepted a bribe to double-cross the Hand of the King, but that doesn't bear on his capability as a commander and strategist per se.

Well, unlike like 80% of new Night's Watch recruits, he's got not only military training but command experience; and he showed up at a time when a lot of the Watch leadership (Jeor Mormont, Qhorin Halfhand, and Benjen Stark) were all missing, ranging, or dead. So they were probably glad to have someone show up who…