Agree with this. In the show Varys has been painted as a "good" version of Littlefinger in many ways, though the books have you wondering which one is most dangerous. (Book-Varys APPEARS to be truthful in his talk about Targaryens-Restoring-Peace, but there's still a lot of question marks there… for instance, his…

I was seriously wanting Tyrion to stop wallowing in his self-pity. He's escaped certain death. Plus, he killed Tywin. He should be dancing. At least we don't have to deal with "Where whores go".

I'd be fine if he killed off that insipid girl. She's nice and dumb enough to go. But I doubt the audience wants to view Bronn as a murderer of kind people, for all his swagger and talk.

Also, Show-Bronn is like Show-Tyrion: much nicer.

I like Bronn, but as soon as I saw him dragged into Jaime's story line I could just imagine the writers going into this season's writing: "Right. First up, let's work with what we DO know will work. People love Bronn, and they love Bronn working with another dude as a buddy-comedy. Maybe work that into Jaime's…

I don't know what colour Stannis's hair was before it went grey, but his complexion doesn't seem suited to black hair either.

True. We're meant to think Baratheon = black hair, ALWAYS, in the books.

Yeah, it reminded me of the Dothraki women hissing at Viserys as he wielded his blade around in Vaes Dothrak. Hissing people of Essos are creepy - hissing seems almost worse than slapping or personal insults.

Oh yeah…. Rickon. That little dude that wondered off with the interesting Wildling woman, the best part of Bran's story line.

I see Shireen as one of the few goodies to NOT come to harm. There's so much foreshadowing of imminent harm, I can't help but think she'll come out of this all OK. Hey, she beat greyscale, and you can't get it again as an adult (should that disease become a Westerosi threat).

When will a girl stop sweeping and cleaning and start doing assassin-stuff?

Yeah, I gathered from the trailer that Sansa in a bathtub in Ned and Catelyn's old room meant she was probably Lady of the North, or something. I hoped that wouldn't happen. First Joffrey, now Theon? There's never been a better case against marriage.

Urgh. Am I thinking of a particularly awful book scene? There's no way they'd imply that Ramsay would make Theon do…. THAT….. to Sansa, right??

Yeah. I'm particularly interested in Theon this season. I can see him playing the role of rescuer and rescue-ee.

Good point. Brienne seems to be hardening up in an angry-awesome way. Making her character bigger would be done wisely through Stonehearting her. Good thinking.

Don't be so down, Brienne. You're a fan AND critic favourite. A reviewer who has seen all four episodes (pre-leak) has you tipped for a Grammy. Several are saying Brienne is the head-turner character. So I'm pretty sure you've got an exciting role and character-developing arc ahead.

*Bono answering the phone in South Park* "Hello, hello….. yeah yeah yeah!!"

Hmm, strangely I don't take much to Sam. I don't think it's wrong at all to like him as a character; the most like-minded people will argue with contrary opinions over characters, and it's all subjective.

Oh wow! That really is fascinating… (Karene here, my disqus keeps screwing up hence the double account.) OK, so I'm really, really, really tempted to read the books now… you gave just the right amount of info without being too spoilery (though I'm not a major anti-spoiler person). The thing is, if I read the books,…

I know. If ever there was a time to cut to a puddle of urine building up around sneakers, it was this time.