As for the relevance of Dorne being downplayed, it's only at this point that all of that would even begin to become viable story-fodder. They'll get to it.

They'll definitely include Oberyn, but think how little sense it would have made to cram him into this season. Much smarter to give him a big intro in next year's premiere.

Hey, The North — where did I leave my keys?

Yeah, I have a feeling the entire "effects of war on the smallfolk of Westeros" angle from AFFC is going to go the way of Magnar of Thenn and Tom Sevenstrings.

Right — the two come pretty close on top of one another. The "main" (second) battle isn't all that close to the end of the book.

You don't want her mix-ins.

"Mister Storm, would you describe Mr. Grimm's flatulence as 'thunderous'? And I would remind you, you're under oath."

This is the opposite of a Fuck Eulogy.

STEP ONE: Cut a hole in the box
STEP TWO: Put the Heir of the Iron Isles's junk in that box
STEP THREE: Make Balon Greyjoy open the box

"I think it seems safe that the Battle of Castle Black will be the ninth episode"

Way too early!

Thinking about the likely structure of next season, they could have him show up in the premiere and swan around for eight more episodes or so until… y'know.

Whither Coldhands?

I haven't watched any of this season, but I just watched this episode for shits and giggles (mostly because I wanted to see the past Doctors), and it was hilarious how much it seemed to have been devised to confound and repel any attempts to make heads or tails of what the hell was going on. I understood about 4% of…

I KNOW, RIGHT?!

@Scrawler2:disqus , your point is more reasonable. But @avclub-ff8ee1d5c84a9aede7a54344151622cd:disqus knows what I was getting at.

Thanks for the prop-up. I was gettin' lonely!

I'm gonna buy you a donut!

Oh, daddy.

Hmm, what was the through-line there? What do Parton and Simpson have in common that made this seem like a good idea? Hmm…