Maybe the threat became apparent too late, when the Others had already figured out how to make themselves armies of zombie-bodyguards. Knifing Others with Obsidian may be straightforward enough, but good luck getting past all the zombies first.

Eh, some of the theories the fans came up with for the name are way dumber, eg. the one from the guy who thinks ASOIAF will turn out to be just another version of the myth of Ragnarök. The theory relies on mapping every GOT-character onto a character of Norse mythology, with Hodor standing for Hodr, Baldr's blind and…

Eh. She might just have done her research. Varys' stance on organized religion is probably no secret and she probably knew she would have to face some opposition from that corner. Also, I would expect these types to be good at cold reading.

Wights as warged corpses? Totally. But the COTF trying to assimilate Bran seems less likely after this episode. They sacrifice themselves to help him escape the case, thus also escaping their sphere of influence. After that last attempt at controlling humans for their own purposes didn't work out so well, they didn't…

Not if he discovered the necessity to do so only after Rhaegar had already done the thing Bryndon might have found necessary to prevent.

But it would be even dumber to not investigate the possibility of Tully support. And I think she can trust Jon to do all he can to protect her against bodily harm. If there's a situation where his loyal men can't protect her, Brienne couldn't either. But I also get why she doesn't quite trust him to let her have a say…

I think Victarion will die horribly trying to mess with Dany (eg. by trying to steal her dragons). Hard to see that storyline going to Jorah. Or Yara and Theon for that matter. The visual of the smoking ember arm is really the only thing I could see them giving to Jorah instead.

I think the Hodor incident kinda closed the door on that possibility.

Well, she's sending Brienne to verify. Sansa needed to bring up the possibility of Tully support to keep up the morale - the guys were already sounding pretty defeatist there. It's not like she's planning to gamble everything on that card. They're also going to recruit the smaller Northern houses. If there are rumours…

It's quite hard to be more sullen than Victarion though. I mainly miss the character in the show, because he's so pathetic, it's darkly hilarious. .

Euron as a Quentin-stand-in? The way I remember the books, everything points to him turning into a bigger problem than Ramsey. And let's face it, Ramsay is overdue for replacement as Westeros top sociopath.

A potentially near _ominicient_ exposition machine with unqiue acess to all kinds of secrets of all kinds of strategical importance. Bloodraven used to be the most powerful magic user in the history of Westeros. He's chosen Bran as his successor. I might find the kid annoying too, but if I had any stake in that…

Haha, good one. The whole point of the shot was that the thing had warts on it. Let's exchange the equippment, and keep the same amount of visible disease and see you wax lyrical about that.

Another vote for theme. One of the great risks of using others as a means to an end is forgetting that they might have a will of their own that fucks with your plans.

Three-Eyed Raven wanted to teach Bran a lesson about interfering with the past. After seeing what he did to Wyllis, Bran will be more cautious about it.

It could have been her own spear after all. Someone else mentionned in the comments that Sam gave them Dragonglass. At any rate, it's about the Dragonglass.

I think the idea was that _Bran_ "deserved" more to live than Hodor, since he's more mission critical. And that wasn't necessarily Meera's idea in the first place, but how Bloodraven and the COTF framed it. They sacrificed themselves as well. Unfair to blame Meera for that choice.

Beric already cheapens Jon's resurrection. For me that's okay - it's the least interesting thing about Jon's arc.

Did she use her own spear? I thought she used one from the COTF.

Littlefinger will definitely try to come between them, and it's going to cause some dramatic tension, but she's ultimately going to make the right choice this time.