If this was ending in another season, I'd agree that this was too much of the same. But to me, the key is that we know we're somewhere less than halfway through an epic series.

Seems like it's the claim to one of the kingdoms that's important, perhaps moreso than the actual keep. The lands, banner men, inheritances, and so forth are still potentially worth a lot.

I agree that the Robb/Talisa stuff has been pretty syrupy, but that bit about naming the baby Ned… that got me. Stupid kids.

With commander Mormont gone, my guess is that Jon will now lead the defense of the wall.

He's the Westerosi Al Davis.

Just like he seemed to say, "Oh, only room in the hall for a few of us, eh? Sure, it'll be OK if everyone else waits outside."

"I used to be an adventurer like you. Then I took an arrow to the knee."

Also, with all the dissatisfaction Tywin's seeded amongst his offspring  lately, and with Jaime en route to King's Landing, House Lannister seems due for a shake up of their own. I was expecting some kind of intra-family insurrection to be the big twist this week.

Which class, please?

@witlesschum:disqus Didn't Ned trust Littlefinger, at least in part, because Catelyn encouraged him to? Am I remembering that right?

It was great (by which I mean, terrible) that Robb met the same fate as Ned even in the midst of trying to learn from his mistakes.

@avclub-9d66a6ebf0e17da71a6441374275370a:disqus But I think that's the great thing about how magic and the Lord of Light religion are portrayed in the show. As unlikely as it may be that Tywin is a secret LoL priest or something, it's all been murky enough so far that we can't logically rule anything out completely. 
We…

cf. "Why didn't Sam pick up that dagger?"

It seems like the timing of the Tyrion-Sansa wedding ties into this, too. If Tywin was plotting this all along — perhaps even making Casterley Rock look like an appealing target to Robb, so he'd have to go back to Frey? — then locking up one of the few potential heirs to Winterfell was a key piece of the plan.

@avclub-33807fbc68d335db8080d3c10cb78822:disqus Ugh! This episode was so slow! Nothing but table setting and checkins. Yeah, OK, so they killed some people, but when is this show going to get to some action?!

@avclub-9ce04591654645426079a7c2faa385e4:disqus As an Unsullied watcher, I think the show set this up brilliantly, too. Looking back, there's a nice breadcrumb path leading up to it, from Bolton's bastard and his horn — seems pretty likely that he sacked Winterfell — to all Kat's warnings about Frey, which she herself…

This was a great line, but it felt like it was there so that a couple seasons from now, when the Hound is Arya's Bronn, we can look back and think how cool it was that she used to want him dead.

God, that was the sloooooooowest episode of GoT yet.

@avclub-da496e2db2e50a068b4ae5549d4ae1b0:disqus Sorry about that.  Like Cersei, I'm a mean drunk.

Whew! I'm glad someone finally mentioned this.