she's locked in her room so she had to ask someone to do it for her. but boy did she ever pick the wrong person to help her out.

he said the opposite, actually: while generally everyone talks as soon as he starts, her heart gave out before she talked (and, presumably, after much torture). he seemed to kind of respect her for it, in his weird psychopathic way — "they make us stronger in the north".

Well to some extent you're right — it's of course too soon to know for sure, but that's the game we play when we comment on an episode before the next one airs.

No doubt it will be badass on his part. Go Theon! Poor guy could use some redemption.

or Ser Pounce! #bringbackserpounce

Not that my point is that we shouldn't be allowed to have our plunger-up-butts comedy moments. I'm just saying, sexual assault is already out there as a comedic device, essentially one step up from the kick-to-the-nads.

I loved how she could barely repress her smile during that inquest scene. She is so fabulous as Cersei.

You know, I actually had the pleasure — "pleasure" is probably the wrong word, but it was an excellent aesthetic experience — of photographing an autobiographical one-woman show about the time she was raped. It was at times tragic, and procedural, and liberating, and comical.

Who says that's his plan? That's just what he tells Cersei, who'll always do anything, no matter how stupid, so long as it stands half a chance at kicking someone she doesn't like (see: resurrecting the Faith Militant).

I think we actually agree here, even if we're coming at it from two different directions.

It's a problem there too, but in the books we are inside Theon's head the whole time at Winterfell. So necessarily, we are going to be seeing things from his point of view; everything that happens will be about what it does to Theon. How does Theon feel about the music choices at the wedding feast? What does Theon…

I dunno, I think Mamet would have a field day with King's Landing.

Yeah, and that's the point. They are handled in a multitude of ways, some of them better or more interesting than others, and many of them revolving on the characters to whom the torture/abuse/poverty directly happens.

Jaime's sword hand getting cut off was about kicking off HIS redemptive arc in the classic storytelling trope of taking away a character's biggest asset and forcing him to come to terms with it. It had nothing to do with Cersei, except insofar as she wasn't attracted to Jamie Goldhand — again, it was about Jamie, not…

yes, I've expressed a hope that this is the way the series is going. That would be properly satisfying. I do hope that Sansa eventually takes out LF, ideally by using his misplaced obsession with her mother against him.

you move a lot faster if you don't stop for a picnic or butcher's boy-hunt every mile and a half.

Of all things, I was watching Air Force One the other night on TV (it's still great!) and there's an applicable scene.

"it is a narrative plot used to improve Theon's character."

Well, nobody in that world is a Purely Good Person, except that one guy from season 1, and he got his fool head cut off. Whether you believe, as Sansa clearly does, that some people are evil beyond redemption is a choice you get to make as a reader/viewer, and perhaps one that you can re-evaluate weekly. After all,…

I agree with you that the scene wasn't needed, and for the reason you mention. I meant that there was a further indignity that the scene didn't even appear to be about Sansa's character arc, but rather about Theon's.