Good point about the "returning" characters… I'm pretty sure that the Hound will return… not sure he ever really died per se and also not positive that he will get to fight the Mountain… Can't wait to find out though.

I think Cersie would kick Lancel's A$$

If they chose Tommen It would be interesting… but I suspect it would be a threat to ensure trial by trial… as opposed to a fight that would actually occur. I could see the Mountain Zombie killing Tommen inadvertently at some point though.

Hey… What if the Faith chooses Loras as their Champion in Cersie's trial by Combat. This would change the stakes across the board init? Loras would be broken and ruined at this point… perhaps unable to put up a fight even… at the same time… he has shown a willingness to do anything to make it stop and may just…

almost as bad as the "everyone stay here for just a sec while I run around this corner by myself to retrieve my giant flying dragon that is resting out of site from all of you" set up that preceded it.

I think you may be taking "paid the price" too literally. However… I agree a real world person with bad intentions being somehow able to contract the faceless men to further her career in spite of being awful changes everything.

There is NO Jaquen… there's an actor that they like and so he plays the role for familiarity sake… (Ours and Arya's)

I think the point is that you're not "supposed" to want anything. In life both sides think they are right… even the wrong side… that's reflected here… everybody can pick a side (not mandatory here though I guess) but there's got to be a case made and no side is invincible or necessarily right.

Right… and the closer you can get to equal shades of grey without the audience making that leap to "I give up" the better. What makes it deep or subversive is that several characters exist is several shades of grey… and allegiances and alliances cause even the deepest greys to fade or intensify…

Maybe Arya is the tool and the actual test is for the Waif… I have suspected all along that there is more training going on than we are led to believe… and that the Waif is no more "ready" than Arya… She's is simply presented as such, partially because she was there first … perhaps she should have been focusing more…

I can see it playing out that the voices in his head were related to Bran and his abilities and the same form of "Bleeing" that went down with Hodor… But Ser Bariston Selmy (RIP) seemed to make it clear that the mad king sought to dish out the justice he thought his (living) enemies deserved…

Regarding the temporary alliance between Margery and the Sparrow…

Good point… Margery doesn't need the Sparrow for long, but she sees that his power comes exclusively from the support of commoners, who already like her well enough and will find themselves in a vacuum when the HS dies. When S*** hits the fan and the HS comes up dead, all that same support will find its way to Margery…

I enjoyed most of Lost… but I'm very inclined to agree with you here… not comparable… and hopefully won't become comparable… bad analogy…

The sparrow has shown her the easiest way to consolidate power in the current political climate is to act like it's the last thing you want… while slowly stepping into the shoes (pun intended) of controller…. she gooooood.

Exactly… and the fact that the "play itself" is gutter entertainment IMO just adds to the brilliance of the writing

The play adds context in many ways:

I think all the Robb stuff was just to rehash the betrayal of the Stark family in general… Blackfish… Lannister v Stark… Boltons… Frey… all story lines converge or originate with Robb Stark and the Red wedding… we took a lot of time away from these arcs and how they connect is all.

HAHA… I had rabbit (not Rabbit Juice though) for the first time last week. It actually taste like pork but less salty to me… looked like chicken.

Helpful… thanks.