They established in an earlier episode that the R'hollor worship was spreading in Mereen.

I thought the same thing about Missandei.

Since we're making assumptions, I'm just assuming that Valory Queene is an idiot.

Yeah, no one cared when Sansa was raped. I don't think that there was a single comment on that topic. Strange.

Victarion and Euron are my favorite new characters (i.e. major characters added in books 4 and 5). Victarion is an oddly endearing psychopath- he's brutal, but almost too simple minded to be truly evil. Plus, I like the idea of crazy raiders who wear plate armor on boats because their religion looks highly upon…

She's redundant. She cheapens the Red Wedding and Jon Snow's resurrection. I hope she's written out for good.

Just like in the books, the Iron Islands storyline is better than the Dorne storyline. Dorne is even more pointless in the show, considering that the show has cut fAegon.

At least D&D care enough about the story to finish it.

The show Euron has a good bit of Victarion mixed in. Show Euron is much less mysterious and much more of a big oaf.

Poor Hodor- Bran ruined your entire life.

I bet that Gendry and the Blackfish have united the BwB and the Hill Tribes, combining them into an elite fighting force that they will use to conquer the Freys and the Boltons. They'll attack in episode 9.

The books have them as a force to be reckoned with even after the Blackwater. Some go live in the King's Wood, others go back to the Vale (and are described as being much more of a threat than they used to be due to their significantly improved equipment).

Overall, I would have found it more believable for Stannis to gather a force of maybe 200 or 300 men from the clans. I thought that him gathering thousands of soldiers from them to be a bit much.

Yes, Bran & Co. did stay with one of the clans in ASoS.

I don't remember there being any discussion about the strength of the clans in ASoS. There's no citation for that point on the Wiki. I do remember that Bran & Co. stayed with the clans during their trip northward in ASoS.

I know that there was an explanation given, but I still thought it was pretty weak. I think that he could have done a better job establishing them so that they didn't seem like such a deus ex machina.

Yes. It was disappointing- she should have had to complete a side quest to get it. I just pretend to she couldn't use it and relied on her summons instead.

I bet that Sam will learn Meteo in Oldtown.

I don't have access to my books right now, but I remember ADWD having a passage describing the various Northern clans as quasi-wildlings who were de facto independant from the Northern power structure (like the Hill Folk in the Vale), but Stannis was able to recruit them because he was the first king to show them…

One of the weaknesses of the books is that Martin has a tendency to make convenient, magical armies appear. For instance, Stannis is able to recruit a large Northern army that's independent of the main Northern houses simply by visiting a few villages. How convenient that the Starks (infinitely more charming than…