They were from the Battle of Blackwater Bay.

Robots. You’re leaving out loveable, and terrifying, robots. And death.

The showrunners have proven adept at emotionally meaningful (B of the B, Hold the door, Cersei and the Sept) spectacle, even if the dots no longer connect on the setup. And some of the dots will be provided by GRRM.

Cersei is one of my favorite characters, an alcoholic depressive who lashes out to ridiculous macabre effect, and this is her literally taking the crown as one of the show’s best acted and written roles. It’s incredibly cathartic to root for her villainy. As promised to Olenna, she comes back as fire to burn all the…

Ramsay’s most interesting quality was his need for love and acceptance from his dad, who should have used this, coldly and cynically, to win their little war against each other. Roose like Tywin had a wonderful voice and cool calculated qualities that might have spurred the writers to make the political machinations…

Youtube suggests it to me a lot, and it’s an easy, breezy way to digest current topics of the day, and less unsavory than other suggestions. I go in for discussion/guilty pleasure, and then end up hate-watching for Megan McCain, who has taken over Hasselbeck’s role as the heel. She interrupts, makes everything about…

This sequence doesn’t work for me except in the dark crossfade from Shireen burning to applause in the gladiator pit (and maybe Jorah’s javelin throw). In the books as you say it’s a way to cut the Meereenese knot, to throw away the complexities of an Iraq metaphor the story can’t handle. Should have done it earlier…

THEORY/SPECULATION/SPOILERS?: There’s been some nerd theory focus on the theta shape that I think you see in the first episode’s first scene (the overhead shot arrangement of the bodies), and connecting that to the Night King’s neck broach, and then from there somehow the broach signifies Bran is trapped inside the…

This was Con of Thrones, a Game of Thrones convention which last year was in Texas, this year in Tennessee. They also had/have the actors playing Gendry, Syrio, Ramsay, Jamie, Sam, Shireen, Myrcella I, Young Hodor, the weapons designer, the sound designer, among many others. Lot of GoT podcasters/youtubers as well.

There is ambiguity in how Shae comes into the series in the Lannister tents and how she leaves with the ship, both connected with Bronn: his shadiness when asked about where he found her and where he left her implies he was paid off both times. It may not be used as a plot point later but it could be. I think GRRM or…

Nerd confessional: I went to a convention where Sibel Kikelli, who played Shae, was last year. She talked about how even she was still thinking about Shae’s turn.

Although steely show Shae is better than book Shae, who is a stereotypical vapid golddigger, book Shae’s turn makes more sense. Tyrion is in denial that she’s just into him for money, and she turns on him for her own safety and more cash. But Book’s characterization is so grating, repetitive and thin he seems like a…

Herein the show does not disconfirm the “Tyrion is really a Targaryen lovechild (because the Mad King had a thing for his mom)“ theory by having Tywin say “You are no son of mine” passionately after he gets shot.

That is a good point: the 360 shot is impressive but it really isn’t necessary. But I doubt they could stretch their Ghost budget further. I think half of his appearance is like a POV shot?

Even in Westeros, if she stops setting people on fire, her humanitarian impulses might return. Her lead-up to the “break the wheel” quote:

It might be. But I always wanted that scene, and I think it happens in the books. Slynt hates Jon and sees it as a way of executing him. He goes out as a hero regardless.

Good point. If not a revolutionary, she’s a reformist in that she cares about the common people as a stated goal.

I think you’re right that the show will probably punish Daenerys in the upcoming season for wanting to “break the wheel” of the (current) monarchy too eagerly, too greedily, and reward Jon for being more conservative, cloudy and less outspoken in changing the feudal system. Which is fucked up from a modern…

And even though it’s pretty much universally accepted as the show’s decline, it is somewhat interesting for the characters to behave more and more like traditional action heroes now. It’s alienating because the complexity of the characterization and plot seems gone (and the criticism of chivalry you mention, of institu…

The first scene in the next episode deepens this episode, and could have been in it. Jon meets Mance, and Mance lays out a very compelling case for letting the Wildlings through, and how the heroism in the preceding episode was all in defense of the shitty guiding principle of ostracizing the Wildlings. Mance and Jon…