Why does Rickon even exist? I figured that he exists in the books because he's going to be Lord of Winterfell in the far future, if Bran remains a tree and Jon is king. If they just kill him off this season, as I'm almost sure they will, I'm going to be really confused as to why there even needed to be five Stark kids.

One of the things I really liked about Jaime in the book was that even back when he was still in evil mode, he seemed genuinely repulsed by sexual violence because of his experiences as a young man, hearing Aerys rape his wife. I remember he even saves Brienne from rape at a point when he still views her as his enemy…

There are many great houses in England that do not belong to royalty that are that big and elegant—but I suppose that they were not mostly built in the medieval era.

At the rate they were going until very recently, Sansa would be marrying a new psycho every season.

Jaime's arc in the books was also very consistently associated with Brienne, even after they parted ways. He thought about her a lot and she played a huge role in convincing him that knightly honor could exist and be worth fighting for. In fact, I think the last we see him in the books, he's following Brienne…

I did think the castle was very pretty and even though Sam and Gilly are not the most interesting characters, it was nice to see the Reach, which is supposed to be the most courtly and sophisticated of the kingdoms. I'm excited to see their interpretation of Oldtown as well.

I would love Lady Stoneheart but I think there would be some rumors about the Catelyn actress being on set or *something.* This is such a universal fantasy for book readers. Someone would notice something. I don't know why but I think for whatever reason, they are just really dead set against Lady Stoneheart.

That would actually make Sam's storyline interesting.

Well, Bernie doesn't have a fetish for walking women naked through city streets to atone for their sins, as far as I know but the disheveled old guy with a populist message part is there.

It's just that he hasn't seemed to have had a personality at all in the past two seasons. He hasn't really moved in any direction. Despite having gone through all these dramatic upheavals, his character has stayed extremely static.

Yes, I was so creeped out by that. Even more creeped out by the people who made gifs and videos using the two actors, as at the time, one was a 13/14-year old girl and the other, a middle-aged man. From what I've heard, the actor playing the Hound was very creeped out by it too.

Yeah, I think it's a little gross that they decided to make both of the two significant gay characters (remember Renly not liking the sight of blood?) kind of weak and unmanly and fragile, when they are not remotely like that in the book.

I mean, the scene as it was filmed was a rape. It's not an overreaction when people are upset that a popular TV show films a scene featuring a woman repeatedly saying no and resisting during sex and then claims it's not a rape scene. That's fucked up for reasons that have nothing to do with TV. The people complaining…

I think it's an interesting transition to see because Victor in the earlier seasons was mostly portrayed as a prickly and flawed but basically good-hearted person, no more despicable than any of the other characters. This season, he has been entirely despicable.

Yeah, Jaime is my favorite male character in the books but his story arc is completely butchered in the show. I like many of the changes they've made but that's not one of them. I think they did a good job with him when he was with Brienne but once he leaves her and his arc becomes much more internally-focused and…

"Milady" is a term I so associate with pick-up artist culture and the whole fedora set that I was surprised to hear Richard use it. He doesn't really seem like that kind of nerd.

I agree. Also Brienne would be a total Hufflepuff.

Starks:

She didn't kill Jon Arryn—that was Lysa and Littlefinger. Come to think of it, she didn't kill Ned either.

Arya's storyline is so so boring and repetitive though. She's been going through the exact same scene over and over again for like two seasons straight.