My guess is it's about giving Bronn something to do this season - the surviving Sandsnake is the one he flirted with on his trip to Dorne. Time to get chivalric, Bronn!

Ah, I think it's happening in the books. But even Tyrion, Baelish and Varys themselves don't get to be cunning any more in the show. The show doesn't really do intrigue any more. It requires too much exposition and slows down the pacing.

The good news is that Jon isn't sufficiently pragmatic for such considerations.

Theoretically, Jon could be more efficient than Sansa if the plan is a marriage alliance. Sure, that could be negotiated by Sansa too, but maybe Jon wants to use his masculine wiles to sweeten the deal.

But who on this show doesn't? Why should Sansa be the only one to escape the general dumbing down in the name of narrative economy?

i have hated all their scenes together, and I'm not given to anti-shipping normally. But I'll be fine with this happening, if it spares us the snuff of whatever Cersei has planned for the occasion.

Absolutely. Also, Jon himself is safer at the Wall than he would be as one of Ned's bannerman. The Wall is the only place the Crown can't quite reach. In case Robert gets suspicious at some point.

I agree that Cat's treatment of Jon is a taint on her character; I disagree it's on the same level as Tarly's abuse. He goes out of his way to hurt his son, whereas Cat mostly just fails to be particularly nurturing.

Yeah, the Sand Snakes were all informed bad-ass-ness; you could see the promise in the premise but it never really paid off.

To the eye, hopefully!

Really, there's nothing to lose by getting rid of Littlefinger. Unless Sansa thinks he might still have something to teach her.

For starters, there's still some unfinished business with Bran.

The constraints of the show. Everyone needs to be just that crucial bit more stupid, for the plots and plans to be simple enough to work without too much need for exposition.

Yeah, Dany's got plot armour, but she's hardly the only one.

Well, she never threatened to just plain murder Jon if he wouldn't go along with her plan, unlike Tarly (only in the books, granted, but this is experts' review after all).

The Faceless Men wouldn't be the first organisation to be a bit hypocritical about their stated code of conduct, as soon as it's violated in a context that suits them. I could imagine that Arya going through with a couple of political assasinations, destabilizing Westeros, might not be entirely misaligend with certain…

Honestly, for me that's a feature, not a bug. I would love if all the obsession with super special swords turns out a red herring - I think it's one of the most boring tropes in medieval fantasy. Like, I can see why you would pay hommage to it, just for the sake of atmosphere, but I've always just been waiting for a…

Yeah, I didn't see this separation as quite as final as the reviewer apparently did. Maybe it's just supposed to signify that Arya has lost herself on her quest for revenge, and that's why the wolf turns away from her. But maybe it's just waiting for Arya to find herself again.

I haven't seen the second episode yet, so lots of this speculation might be obsolete.

Oh, in many ways book!Euron is even more ridiculous - so fucking extra! - but you're right, also more terrifying.