Wow, I actually laughed on this episode AND paid attention to the whole thing. Usually I just turn this show on to have background noise as I'm doing other stuff.

He thinks it's R+L=D and B+A=J, mostly because of the way Ned reacts to Robert and the Small Council sending an assassin to kill Dany and his interpretation of the post-Battle of the Trident timeline. It's been a minute since I've watched his explanation, but it's in his Tower of Joy videos.

Not really… cause correct me if I'm wrong, but in the books Doran Martell either knows about fAegon or fAegon was their backup plan or something. Like Dorne was in on the restore fAegon/restore Dany or Viserys plot. Sending Varys to Dorne to pick up that plot without introducing fAegon would make sense. Maybe?

Sending Varys to Dorne would be a first step to fixing that storyline and it'd answer a lot of reader theories about some of the Dornish plotting in the books.

Yes. I though last year's episode 8 was bad. This one was worse. Really makes you realize how great GRRM is. But I'm guessing episode 9 will be as magnificent as Hardhome was last year and we'll all forget about how bad this one was.

There's probably a lot more to it in the book. Arya had no intention of going to Braavos in the books. She was trying to go North and the ship's captain basically forced her to go east. Chances are high that the Faceless Men had some plans for her back when she was traipsing around with Jaqen in the Riverlands. She…

Agree. With all of this. Here's hoping the Battle of the Bastards and everything happening up North is handled better.

But did we need that reminder? Who didn't already know this? Especially in the same episode where Jaime basically spells out Cersei's motivations.

Should I admit this? But I subscribe to Preston's videos not because I believe any of his theories. But the level of research he puts into them is insane, lol. He's like exhibit A for how far down the rabbit hole one can go. If anything though, he's actually helped me be a better reader of the series. Before, I would…

That's another one that bothered me. I guess they wanted to show that Lady Crane took Arya's advice. But the whole time, when I wasn't think about how much time was being wasted, I was remembering that the other actor definitely told her not to change it.

And only for them to use a subpar knock-off version of Septon Meribald's Broken Man monologue.

I will say though that the split between book and show has really revealed just how great a writer GRRM is even with all his faults. Some of the writing and the plot decisions on this show have me scratching my head.

Awwww… But your story reminds me of the one time 3 van loads of my family from Detroit and Chicago called ourselves going to visit my grandmother and her sister's original hometown in Alabama. This was late 90s-early 2000s, so things like GPS and iPhone maps didn't exist. Every single one of us thought they grew up in…

I'm going to put some of the blame for this change on the writers basically re-writing and speeding up Tyrion's role in Meereen. But at the same time, GRRM is to blame too because after writing all of that greatness for Tyrion in the first few books, he's not really allowed to be little more than an observer of chaos.

For a second I thought I wasn't country at all reading through this list, but then you mentioned knowing anybody named Mae…. my grandma is a Carrie Mae and for years I didn't realize the "Mae" was spelled with an "e" and also part of her legal name until my dad wrote the obituary. We never used the "Mae" in our…

I'm finding the things that the fans (mostly show-watchers only) are into don't really get me excited. Like for one, I wasn't really begging to see Bronn again. He's a great character and the actor is terrific. But I couldn't help thinking this scene with him and Pod is just taking away time from more important stuff.…

I'm really trying not to be THAT person who reads the books and is then disappointed in the adaptation. Trying really really hard, but jeez these last few episodes have been mediocre.

Wait for It is hands down the best song on Hamilton. Which is like saying it's the #1A song on an album full of #1's.

Legit question: Who was Nikki again? I recall Julia Stiles being in all of the Bourne movies, but who was she to Jason? His handler or something??

**Puts on tin foil hat** I somewhat agree with you, except that Sansa is a better version of Catelyn in Littlefinger's schemes. I kinda buy into the idea that he's chasing some Harrenhall prophesy that surrounds the Tully girls. And too much of that prophesy fits Sansa better than Catelyn in his mind.