I like that she's finally learning to play to her strengths. When she tries to fight grown men head on, she get's her ass kicked, because she's a tiny girl. But when she plays the tiny, helpless girl card, they let their guard down and let her get close enough to strike.

But it did mean that Sansa and Arya didn't get out cleanly, so Ned had to do whatever he was told to try to save them.  If he hadn't been willing to make a public "confession" that he lied about Joffrey's dad, I don't think Joffrey would have had the political cover to execute him (Cersei certainly wouldn't have had…

They should have played Alphaville over the credits, right?

Arya! If loving her as a murderous 12 year old is wrong, I don't wanna be right.  That scene had me cheering, before I gave a thought for what I was cheering *for* and then felt bad.

I can't remember if the show was super clear about this or not, but Ned had a plan to get the girls (and himself, I think) out, after his showdown with Cersei.

You realize that our Odo's idea of love has been largely informed by romance novel at this point right? I can understand him being a little naive about what is or is not reasonable for someone to do out of love.

I think there's a difference between love and creepy obsession.

But everyone needs to know the tale of Captain Jack Sparrow!

Because he didn't think that anyone should be raping Sansa that night. The underlying motivation is different, I think.

I donno, at first I had her pegged as the street-smart foil to the clueless booklearned noble.  But I guess that would have been too much of a parallel to Ygritte and Jon Snow. So Tarly gets a simpleton (which makes sense, what with the inbreeding/isolation)

I've been doubting a lot of people, lately. You're forgiven.

See, now I want to imagine Ned having to restrain himself from punching Littlefinger in the face. And I think that we can all agree that the urge to punch Littlefinger is one of the most noble.

A minor point re: Ned forbidding the bedding ceremony

I don't know…he had plenty of chances to bow out of that relationship gracefully when he realized how bad she still had it for Squinty-Eyes, but he was too attached to the position that the marriage would bring him to give up on such a valuable asset.

How does that work when there are like 9 pages of comments because WTF GRRM?!

It was your job, Disqus! Your ONLY job!

That line was so lame I figured it had to be sarcastic.

What I like about him being shut out is that his character is pretty much going to turn exactly into Sir Richard from Downton Abbey. Iain Glen does spurned asshole well.

In my version of the final season, it's Arya, Syrio and Nymeria* riding dragons and burning down the world.

1.) The crush predated the leech. It was maybe just the thinking about what was inside there that was interesting. Also, he totes swooned.
2.) I assume that the boys would be more disturbed than interested in that scene compared to us girls.