I was willing to believe that until Summer died, but now my hope for Shaggy is dead.

I think Book-Jaime thinks he's being like Tywin by threatening Edmure's child, but he's clearly doing it prevent the needless deaths of thousands. When you add in his side trip to make peace between the Blackwoods and the Brackens in ADwD, it seems that Jaime is genuinely concerned with trying to bring a more just…

That may be the case, but I don't think every piece needs to be tied to the endgame to be important. Stoneheart is Martin's avatar of Vengeance, to contrast with Beric as Justice—all in reference to Ned's speech in AGOT where he picks Beric over Loras to bring the Mountain to justice. The story of the Riverlands is…

You're not wrong, but Stoneheart seems to be almost the only reason remaining to have played out the Riverrun narrative. What did that add up to? Jaime being smart in bringing a quick, bloodless end to the siege, sure, but he's still hung up on Cersei. He got a nice moment with Brienne, but was that really the…

Mycah begs to differ.

Why wouldn't they? It's rough, and course and get's everywhere…

To me the Arya plot line feels like Benioff and Weiss stalling for time so that Martin can show them where the story is supposed to go. I enjoy Arya's plot in Feast/Dance—had the two books been a single book as originally intended, I think her time in Braavos would have seemed more compact. Still, Arya's book- story…

You're dead on about the second book, I can't argue with a single criticism, but there are still elements from the first book that pretty much assure I'll read book 3 if Rothfuss ever decides to write it. I find the magic system interesting and I'm hooked by the Chandrian mythology/mystery, and also the evil…

That's unfortunate. I enjoyed The Passage for the most part, but I've had The Twelve sitting on my Nook for a couple years, and I've been unable to bring myself to attempt it.

I enjoyed The Name of the Wind quite a lot, and to be honest, I found book 2 entertaining enough to keep me interested in the series, but it is a huge mess. I would direct you to this hilariously scathing but actually pretty fair review: http://www.pornokitsch.com/…

Memory, Sorrow and Thorn is among my favorites. GRRM has talked about being a fan, and its influence is very clear on ASoIF (I reread it recently, and it's striking how many ideas Martin borrows from the book—the Hand of the King, the Dragonbone Chair compared to the Iron Throne, the murky connection between present…

No, the mess the show made of Dorne was strange. The show could have returned to the Riverlands last season instead of wasting time on that debacle—even if just to set up events, maybe focusing a little on the Brotherhood and a little on Blackfish and on the Freys, so bringing them back this season wouldn't feel…

True, but she didn't really outline how the Ironborn would "live in the world"—their entire economy involves stealing shit from the landlubbers. I'm sure the other lords of Westeros would be content to let them call themselves a kingdom if it meant they stayed on their shitty little islands. I didn't really hear her…

Only the ones in the islands…which should take about zero seconds after he issued the command, since the relatively small islands had already been denuded of trees for making ships in the past.

If I recall correctly, in the books it's stated that his real name is Walder, and everyone kind of assumes he's just mispronouncing it, but there is some a hint of mystery as to why that becomes his only word—although I think we're meant to assume that it's on the surface simply a manifestation of a mental disability.

So, I kind of get why you think Hodor's name seems like a punchline, on paper it does sound kind of silly (although I can't really elaborate on why it sounds kind of silly—the fact that the words got contracted?) but I didn't find it that bad in the context of the show. There were a lot of flaws with the way that…

"I wonder if that may be what Martin was gunning for when outlining Hodor's demise." Maybe, but while it seems from commentary that we can confirm that the Hodor name thing was Martin's idea, it probably will play out significantly differently in the books (just like I'm fairly certain that Daenerys' leading the…

It does seem like the show pretty much wants us to ignore the geography and political situation in the Riverlands. Was Baelish ever even named as Lord of Harenhall and Lord Paramount of the Trident in the show? The presence of the Freys and their goals seems to have been conveniently ignored as well—at the very…

I enjoyed Tyrion's brief time with the Griffs; it was mostly Penny that made Tyrion's journey a slog. As much as people disliked Tyrion's depression during that time, his mood at least was true to the preceding events. Show-Tyrion got over killing his dad and Shae really quickly.

"Arya", not "Sansa".