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

Samwell Tarley: a bulk bag of plot thickener

Brienne just getting caught in the Lannister trap seems too straightforward. My guess is she'll be a fulcrum to help tip them into chaos.

@avclub-acc564daafaaf26d45b5d37c5e68384e:disqus I liked the suggestion here in season one (sorry, commenter, I've forgotten who you were) that the lyrics should just be, "Hey, nerds, it's time to watch Game of Thrones" over and over again.

If Arya ends up going to assassin school, I wonder if the face-shifting thing is going to give the showrunners the option to switch to a different actress at some point. Is Maise W. going to age at the ideal rate to match the character? Are we sure the timeline of future seasons will even progress at a steady rate?

Fuck yes! Except — wait! No! They're not going to show us that either?!

I think that was intended to show how her character is gaining in power and effectiveness. This time, she didn't need to burn the city to the ground.

I'm in what seems to be the extremely minority opinion that there's no such thing as too much of this show. I would have been happy if the "stuff that did happen" in S3 had been stretched out over ten more episodes, rather than condensed down to less.

@avclub-782066c88e9c574d6085f3ddfc7032e4:disqus … and Syrio!

The A.V.Club
does nobody here read responses before replying themselves?

"- Joffrey insults Tywinn, room goes DEAD SILENT. that was special "

Yeah, Ramsey's not great, but as someone said elsewhere around here, it's hard to think how else he could play that role.

Adding in those irrelevant, somewhat boring scenes just to give those characters screen time makes the show worse. Clearly, they spend a lot of money in an effort to not make the show worse; why not budget some to keeping those actors on retainer and off screen until needed?

@avclub-d980b15d49101608dc407770f35b1d75:disqus Which, speaking of cynicism, makes me wonder if the showrunners made these choices, in part, to poke the journalistic/critical sphere in the eye. No such thing as bad press.

@avclub-e14267dedd4e1d0cc0093bc13643fd59:disqus 
The A.V. Club
"Why can't she free some white people for a change!?"

@avclub-f16faf5d680d7b88e2e157c1c137c497:disqus Yes, if Ramsey didn't sack Winterfell on Roose's orders, it gets much more complicated. 
Like you, I don't think it fits that Ramsey is enough of a rogue player to do it on his own. And even if Roose was only considering rebelling against Robb at that point, keeping…

Yeah, it does feel a little flimsy. But on the other hand, from Bran's perspective, what else does he have left? Go hide with Jon in Castle Black?

And did anyone else notice that Sam dropped that dagger?!?!

When we get together to do this again ten months from now (sigh!), it might help if you number your points, so we can refer to them more easily. Or even just break them out into separate comments? Kinda spammy that way, but more likely to get follow up on specific ideas, I'd bet.

@avclub-d980b15d49101608dc407770f35b1d75:disqus Thank god modern civilization has abandoned this practice. John Commentreader would be kind of embarrassing.