"[…]Christian-esque religious context nullifies the association between
patriarchy and abuse, since I'm pretty sure that kind of stuff is
frowned upon" - it frowns on the more overt forms of abuse as practiced by Ramsay, but not on more insidiuous and common forms like marital rape, which is sanctioned instead (it's…

Not terribly relevant for my point, since both is bad.

True, but in the books, Cersei also became pretty much a boo-hiss villain to me. But you're definitely right that G.R.R.M is usually way more elegant about his emotionalemanipulations than D&D, who tend to go for the bluntest beat.

Yeah, that's probably it.

He did have King's Blood, though. As I said, I forgot that that might be the qualifier, not necessarily the prophecy.

Well, she came round to Jon as new messiah. But maybe even messiahs can't make shadow-babies if they lack the correct lineage.

It takes two to make shadow babies and Mel probably correctly intuits that Jon doesn't seem up for it. Although in this case he should really consider taking one for the time, frankly, because I agree that shadow-baby would be the most elegant solution to the Ramsay problem.

But that would be a fairly stupid move on his part, because as far as puppet rulers go, Tommen is already the best case scenario. The High Sparrow claiming the throne for himself would totally mess with his personal brand.

I've gone on record as an incurable LSH-truther, but the promo for the next episode might have cured me after all. Seems like the big-show-down between Jaime and Brienne is set up to be about the siege of Riverrun, no LSH in sight. Way less poignant, but I'm used to that by now.

Well, it's also heavily implied that she murdered her childhood friend, who went with her to the fortune-teller, out of superstition/jealousy about Jaime, but that may be only in the books.

I think she's trying to be less abusive of Catherine in front of Majorie. Not very successfully - force of habit, I guess - but I see an attempt.

I have no clue about American politics, but the laws of poetic justice would say yes.

At the very least it means he can't get rid of Tommen in a way that deligitimizes him, which still means he's at the very least not currently planing to play the Cersei/Jaime-incest card.

As I said, the rule rather than the exception. Still more misogynist than others. Still worth pointing out.

Just as our world is still a sexist society. But clearly there are matters of degree. (I find enough to complain here, but I wouldn't want to join ISIS). And there are also matters of degree in Westeros. Girls are clearly raised with more agency on the Bear Island and in Dorne. In a generally sexist environment, the…

Well, I doubt she was genuinely attracted to little Tommen before. But yeah, she might have thought the whole repentant-sinner-act might as well be good for something and get her out of marital duties.

I think you're overestimating the role of charisma here. Point is, their cause seems pretty hopeless and everyone has already lost so much. Rob wasn't necessarily more charismatic, he just had the better pitch the first time around, when people still had resources.

I'm talking pragmatism too. Having Brienne kill Littlefinger might not be so easy, once he's installed himself with a couple of knights in Winterfell. We're of course assuming that Sansa could make the knights of the Vale drop Littlefinger with the bat of an eyelash, but I can understand why she's not willing to bet…

It's not confirmed, but there were a lot of hints. (The gravedigger….)

In the books he's with the Elder Brother (the character presumably played by the Deadwood guy), who also ascribes to the Faith of the Seven, albeit apparently a less fanatic version than the one currently practicsed in King's Landing.