Well, yeah, I suppose so. "Syrio isn't Jaqen," in the book sense, means more "Syrio isn't the dude who Arya meets up with while traveling with Yoren, who then eventually turns up in Oldtown murdering Pate and taking on his face." Arya's Braavos mentor in the books does not have Jaqen's face at all.

Oh yeah, definitely a big theory. It just doesn't hold together. My favorite crazy theory is "Euron is Daario," though. Because it's batshit insane. "Syrio is Jaqen" doesn't work when you look closely, but it would make sense thematically and kind of seems plausible at first glance. "Euron is Daario" is amazingly…

I'm not sure what the hell is going to happen with Riverrun. The way is still clear for Jaime's "convince *Edmure* to surrender, then release him back in to Riverrun" scenario from the books, but apparently we're getting something involving Brienne to happen instead.

Maybe? I mean, I won't be at all surprised if Sandor ends up fighting his brother. But his trajectory at the moment does not seem to be headed towards King's Landing at all.

We meet Jaqen as a prisoner of Yoren and the Night's Watch, not a prisoner of the Kingsguard.

"Plot armor" is obnoxious because "plot armor" is basically just "how stories work," and it somehow turns that into a pejorative.

I don't think there's any real suspense about whether Arya will survive. It's *how* she will survive, which seems perfectly suspenseful to me. I'm not sure how you can watch, well, any action movie ever if that's your criterion.

Those people are, at least, offering me goods and services. People whining about "plot armor" aren't doing anything for me. Just whining about how annoyed they are that main characters don't die randomly for no good story reason.

Beginning of her first chapter in ADWD, I believe.

Because she's a crazy animated corpse who hates everyone? I agree that it doesn't particularly fit with anything we know about Catelyn (or, for that matter, LSH in the books) but is your position that Beric Dondarrion and Thoros are the ones masterminding this? "Crazy vengeful corpse lady" seems like the most likely…

Oh, for Christ's sake. Where on earth else is the Brotherhood story going? What possible reason is there to doubt it at this point?

They had that whole weird rape roleplay thing.

Because they're intolerant religious fanatics?

Robett Glover! Sort of!!

No, Qarl the Maid, I assume.

Even in Westeros she's not going to be killed by a tertiary character in a storyline that has nothing to do with anything else in the story.

So where is Sandor headed now? It's kind of interesting that everyone has predicted that he's going to be the Faith's champion against his brother, because this episode gave no real sign of that. To the extent that the Hound has a mission now, it has nothing to do with Cersei or his brother - it's to get revenge on…

Yeah, that was really fucking weak. Especially since now Arya has to get revenge while gut-stabbed, which is straining even my credulity, and I'm usually willing to accept whatever they dish out.

Oh, come now. We know who.

They're going after the Faith of the Seven, presumably. Leading up to a Lady Stoneheart reveal?