Varys is Littlefinger's opposite extreme.  Littlefinger upended the realm for the purpose of personal advancement; Varys upended the realm for some grand ideological purpose (which seems to be one part Targaryen/Blackfyre loyalism and one part poli-sci experiment in raising the ideal monarch).  Varys is no more…

"I love Tully girls.  I get older, they stay the same age."

She's my favourite as well.

In the books, at least, that seems to be almost as much from neglect as anything else.  She's clearly shown to favour the sociopathic Joffrey over Tommen and Myrcella, and once Joffrey's dead she starts treating Tommen pretty terribly.

Balon's decision to side against the only other party in the War of Five Kings who is not committed to the territorial integrity of the Seven Kingdoms ranks as easily the most boneheaded political decision of the series, in my opinion.  It's even stupider in that he later approaches the Lannisters for an alliance, at…

Everyone who thinks he's so brilliant neglects the fact that his whole scheme was meant to get rid of Ned and win Catelyn back

Is that really much different from greyscale, a disease that actually does exist?

Cersei's a textbook case of somebody who has indeed run into genuine discrimination, but who basically makes that an excuse for all her problems.  Though I suppose one can wonder if she would never have become this bitter and stupid in a more equitable society.

The cousin was named Alanna, I believe, not Alayne (Littlefinger's mother's name; another level of creepy).

Comments about actors surnamed Dormer:

Whoops, wrong thread. Never mind.

@avclub-b7ee6f5f9aa5cd17ca1aea43ce848496:disqus , this is the same point where she dreams about having a little girl who looks like Arya.  She thinks Arya's dead.  An "unsatisfactory" sister is just sibling rivalry stuff.

She was so desperate to get away that she didn't care at all about that, as I recall.

Which is very hard to square with the actual events on the show.  There's no way Jon and co. have been wandering around in the North for a year.

That's basically what they've said (though they also said we will see Dontos again; I assume they need him to inspire a certain wild goose chase, at a minimum), but even then they've got everybody and their dog aware of his plans, and his initial plan being, apparently, to just steal her away on the same boat he's…

No, Bran's younger than Arya. The order is Robb > Sansa > Arya >
Bran > Rickon.

I don't know if was expressed quite in that way, but the sentiment was definitely there.  It's too bad they didn't include the bit where he remembers dreaming that Ned would marry him to Sansa and make a "proper son" out of him as a result.  It would fit this season's theme of everybody wanting to marry Sansa for…

Yeah, that's Tywin's biggest flaw.  And whereas today being a shitty father doesn't have any direct relation to one's business interests, one of the main points of dynasty building is to have proper heirs, and he doesn't have any to his liking.

I was going to make a joke about Sansa and Loras' version of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, but Sansa's so good-hearted and earnest (as well as sexually inexperienced) that I'm sure she'd never notice there was anything amiss.  Plus, she'd just be deliriously happy to get away from King's Landing.

No, he didn't.  The Kingsguard wasn't mentioned at all.