That's true. I think they go into this at some point in the books. If you contract the disease as a child, it can be cured, though the physical scars remain. So Shireen no longer has the disease, she just has the marks that it left her.

No touching!

But the regular sword he picked up shattered just like anybody else's would have. So maybe it's gotta be the combo of valyrian steel and azor ahai-ishness?

I don't know if the whole "I'm leading the NIght's Watch to WInterfell!" thing is necessary in the show. Olly looks pretty stabby just because of the wildlings. I have a feeling they won't muck it up with more reasons.

I don't know, but one more scene with Tyene like last week's and they'll be calling ME the Lord O' Bones.

Or maybe Westerosi miles are shorter?

As Stannis said - Dragonstone has lots of it.

I think he's a crappy character, but he is a great foil for Roose because they're basically opposites (except for the fact that they both think flaying is a-OK!).

I prefer "come at me, crow"

Maybe. I've never read any fantasy novels until ASOIAF, so I thought I'd be into others, but so far, not so good. I think ASOIAF is appealing because it's basically medieval England, but there's dragons and shit too. Feels more realistic than most of the other ones I've come across.

Loras?

I thought it was cool, but I agree that in the book it sounded more like a hallway with faces just randomly hanging everywhere rather than the word's most expensive mask store.

I just don't buy (4). Are the Knights of the Vale really going to march north in the middle of winter? Just seems dumb, and they don't seem inclined to listen to LIttlefinger or Sweetrobin.

I tried. It was confusing and horrible.

Howland Reed for sure knows about Jon Snow, but I doubt he would have any knowledge of Tyrion.

True. Maybe he'll warg a dragon.

Yeah, that's the tricky part.

What I mean is that Jon could've given anybody in the Watch that order, but he gave it to a guy who betrayed his father. I think it served two purposes for Jon. You disagree, and that's great.

Yeah, GRRM never explicitly states it. But in both the show and book, Snow gives an order he knows Slynt will decline. It serves a dual purpose, in my opinion. Revenge for his father and consolidating command of the watch.

I agree. It's just convenient that Slynt also happened to be one of the people who betrayed his father and threw him to the ground right before Ilyn Payne did what he does.