That didn't occur to me. But yeah, maybe? They're not exactly fleshing out the Sand Snakes to the extent that we can really know I guess.

Yeah, I agree we can't really use the novel as heavy reference material anymore. I'm excited at the prospect of seeing HR in the books but I really, really doubt he'll appear in the show.

Great link! Still no word on Balon though….

This is GoT. It actually sounds awesome!

The only combat scene I thought was well done was Jaime's when he used his gold hand to good effect. The Sand Snakes Water Garden fight was a mess. (And very convenient that all those characters happened to be in one of Dorne's most populous public pools with no one else around. Maybe there was a sign saying "Water…

Anyone else notice that when Stannis references the leeching scene with Gendry, he says leeching could be done as it had with Robb Stark and Joffrey - but he doesn't mention Balon Greyjoy, who was the third person named during that leeching ceremony? Is this total confirmation that the Greyjoys are gone for good?…

I was going to be pedantic and say "Odiana=Olenna and Kathryn=Catelyn" until I wondered if this was on purpose? Also, Odiana is kind of a kick-arse name. I'm not kidding, I think I have the name for my new pet fish.

Yeah. Considering she assisted Joffrey's murder, you'd think she might be more cautious. I didn't think of that.

I myself didn't see the Sansa as fArya coming directly…. until someone online dissected the first Season 5 trailer immediately after its release, pointing out Sansa was in a bathtub in a Winterfellian room where the background doorway, nightstand and candelabra were exact replicas of Ned and Catelyn's room. I think it…

I 100% agree, and was raving in the discussions here in earlier episodes that Margaery being openly catty to Cersei and laughing at Cersei with her handmaidens was just SO STUPID and VERY UN-TYRELL. With a brother whom she has only just accused of being too open with his homosexuality at risk, why would she do this?…

In the books they do, but in the show they haven't really portrayed them as having any real political or social power in Dorne. They also fail to indicate in the show how popular Oberyn was in Dorne. (In the books, a Dornish mob shouting at Doran: "The real prince is dead!")

Exactly. I also hate that we miss Jaime's growing realization as to what Cersei really is. His political maneuvering in the Riverlands made me think of that adage about how those who rule best are the ones who don't want to rule. In spite of what Jaime's aunt Gemma says to him in the books (Tyrion is Tywin's real…

Yep, big time. At first I was trying very hard (and mostly failing) to give the show the benefit of the doubt - "we'll see where this goes, I guess" - because there was enough info in the trailers to guess that Sansa would be married off to Ramsay (she's in the bathtub in what someone else pointed out at the time of…

Yes, the Riverlands stuff is especially true about the smallfolk, I didn't think of that. People are saying that the issue with seeing The High Septon's end goal of rescuing the smallfolk from luxury-livin' highborns is that we don't SEE the smallfolk - we see these highborns and their various dramas and struggles,…

Do you feel he regrets his sisterly-incest stuff? I feel like that hasn't come across… and I wish it would. The thing is the books show Cersei as cruel, selfish and insane with paranoia at this point; the show paints her much more sympathetically. Jaime has a lot more reason in the books to "wake up" to Cersei's nasty…

Yeah, agree with all of this, and you make a good point: they basically chose Brienne over Jaime. They could have had both, but they didn't go that way. What I liked about all the Riverlands stuff in the books was that 1. Jaime showed himself to be a capable political strategist and 2. He finally woke up to what…

I think Dorne will play a big part in the end, yeah. Of the show and of the books. The Targaryen alliance will be important for the books, while I think in both the show and books Myrcella and Trystane will rule Dorne once Doran dies (which sucks in a way, I like Doran) and declare war on King's Landing, aka Cersei. I…

Bah-dah-boom!

I still find Littlefinger's famed "intelligence" and motivation here confusing, to say the least. As the new Warden of the North, are we to believe he now intends to marry Sansa and off Ramsay? Does he really think he can amass an army and achieve this while Sansa and Ramsay are still married and both alive in…

Agree, especially about the Littlefinger stuff. It's so stupid that I have to wonder (repeatedly) if we're supposed to think he DELIBERATELY left Sansa there to suffer. I did think during this episode that Littlefinger is equally culpable for Sansa's rape as Ramsay is, almost. Even Hodor would have understood the…