What's for sure is… they found a very concrete manner to shut that down for us fans for a while… I mean they spent a lot of capital to burn that bridge for a while! Who knows, they may have even found out a way to hold out the R+L=J "surprise" till next season if they want! But I don't think they will. Now, HBO >…

How so? I would love to hear parallels between these two shows.

Gandalf's whole story arc, especially his fight with the Balrog, is only dramatic because we don't know his true nature at that time.

Better! For someone who is an immortal demigod who could survey a limitless plunge into the abyss and not even care, only worrying about who could kill him once he landed… heroism is not heroism. Hodor was a true hero, who gave his life for a chance to do good.

True but, pretty cool to think GrrM had this in mind all along. (I mean who the hell even knows if he's even influencing GoT any more? But I guess this'll be the same in the books, right?)

Sad to see you go.

Possibly, yes. But he didn't want to do it before because then he couldn't serve his queen… even though he was pretty useless at that. And now he doesn't want to do it because … amputees are way more depressing than dead people.

OK, maybe… I just took it at it's simplest, meaning someone whom you could not trust like family.

Marry her half-brother? I didn't get that at all, am I alone in that?
It was a tragedy for Hodor, but what a great way to make that weird, fascinating character relevant and heroic. All of us reading this are, very likely, far less than Hodor.
Bran had better earn it, "Saving Private Ryan" style.

If you were REALLY mad, then you can stay.

You all are monsters joking about this episode. (The last part, anyway.) This was the most emotionally wrenching 20 minutes I've ever seen on TV. Anyone who did not openly weep, get out of the GoT/ASoIaF community, you don't belong.

Thanks for the great review - and especially (for me) the opinion that "White Christmas" refers to the blocked people that Matthew sees … like much literary criticism, obvious once it's said, but nothing I realized before.