Tangentially related, do people not like Lady Thor? I think the mystery stretched unnecessarily, but I've enjoyed it. If I have a hangup, it's that Thor is a name and not a title.

That's normal enough, I think. I don't know when I started registering most of the characters otherwise. Hell, I'm Asian myself and growing up in the US I probably mostly registered them as white.

Hmm, I've found them mostly homogeneous, if not white, obviously. Though I do think consuming foreign material in any form probably leads to more diversity, and comfort with, diverse views.

I very much agree that it's only a "kinda" level—I was searching around for a bit. I do think anime is freer with people being attracted to anyone even if they don't always consummate—that may actually be a point in its favor, that attraction can change (I'm thinking about Gurren Laggan here), and character design…

A weird thing to fixate on, but the Joseph Mazzoli quote: “I was heavily influenced by anime, and I guess by the life I lead. As a result, the characters I created, the characters I envisioned, just happened to be diverse.”

This ones feels the most nakedly marketing driven, especially after killing Rhodey, but they've been building the characters pretty well that while Sam is not going to be Captain America forever (that costume alone), Miles and Kamala feel very much like their own characters now. Which is to say, they're not all going…

Augh, I kinda hated the second issue. I really liked the first and the latest was decent. I appreciate what he's doing, but I think the lack of transitions and number of threadlines is a clunky right now. The Shuri line feels like the one that could've waited a bit.

It could be both, but I imagine it's mostly that the cards get old. I mean, people's tastes can change of course, but it's not much of a "game"—the rhythm gets set pretty quickly, particularly with the same group of people.

Yes—the first one is just home invasion with a villain trying to channel Heath Ledger, and dumb dumb kids. I mean, I kinda enjoyed it, but none of these bits are essential.

Yeah, they didn't accidentally become bestsellers or jedi mind trick their way there either.

No.

Oh, I'm not entirely satisfied with it either, but I think that's the strongest read. Sansa's not particularly trusting of anyone, including Jon, though he's closest to her now. (The next episode seems to have some hashing out.) I think you can read her as being hesitant to reaching out to Littlefinger and unsure if…

Little nothing, kid was nearly as tall as Ramsay! Zigzagging wouldn't have worked anyway, the plot wants what the plot wants. And speed is more important. Really, Ramsay should've missed at that range, a group of archers works, one not quite as much. Ah well.

If there's one thing to be said about fighting in Westeros—no one uses scouts. At all. It's kind of dumb, really.

Well, he's a torturer too, but he's not dumb. I thought his successful raid with the snow ninjas was unconvincing, but going by this battle, he read Jon. He's got the best chance in the army v army fight, so he draws them out. Jon's challenge via duel marks him as a nobly Stark type—not a surprise—so he sends Rickon…

And then Ramsay would've have known about the knights, and made a different plan. I think the take is that Sansa figured Ramsay to be better at war than Jon, and he would have used them up somehow.

Oh, I think she didn't tell him on purpose. She knows they all underestimate Ramsay and won't listen to her even if they mean to (like Jon). Jon's straightforward, if he knew the knights were coming they'd have waited, and then they'd have a fight where Ramsay knew to account for the knights. As it is, Jon fell for…

It's not just the smirk—Sansa deliberately withheld the fact that she had called on the vale. She warned John about not doing what Ramsay wanted, but also decided (probably rightly) that Ramsay wouldn't have a counter to something he didn't know about.

I never got over the first person view myself, and instead of feeling in control, I felt like I was in a weird driving game. I tend to dislike first person melee as well.

I dunno, I think her decision-making hasn't always been the best—witness the handling of the list. And is there any real evidence that she was right about the younger actress? I kind of liked the line about her face being scarred, I had half a hope the show might play with the fact that Arya was wrong, or that the…