that definitely would not have been a better joke — i remember being explicitly glad that they *didn't* do that since it seemed like they were going to

They also could have done it without doing any material damage, and just sci-fi'd it up. If the bolt had just been flat and *stuck* to the wall, then flashed a couple lights and gone "beep", nobody would question it.

Indeed — and each of those things feels like a micro-example of the whole show's problem: "We had this great idea, and knew where we wanted it to go, but we were super-limited in what we could do pre-Winter Soldier."

Heh I don't care, and I still loved the scene — I just couldn't help thinking that was funny, since those tiles are about as strong as toilet paper. Also I was playing Arkham Asylum today, so maybe my mind was already on the improbability of grappling hooks.

Also, hey, the Berserker Staff (from back when this show was still impossibly bland) has returned!

Cybertek's greatest invention: a plaster ceiling tile that can hold the weight of two full-grown adults on a grappling hook zipline.

indeed - one of my favourite shots in tonight's episode was the split second of Sansa's face after Robyn threw the bird out the moon door. She saw Joffrey in that moment and realized she still wasn't safe.

yeah it's still not great — but also not *quite* as artificial as i initially thought

Yeah it's quite possible that Lysa's madness is still more shrewd than it seems on the surface, and it may turn out that she has a plan of her own in motion. After all, I highly doubt marrying Sansa to Robyn was Littlefinger's idea…

I've always been unsure as to whether Robert's death was really *that* calculated. If so, it was a pretty poor assassination scheme — get a lifelong drinker and hunter drunk while hunting, and hope he gets killed?

Among this show's many messages: loyalty is rarely rewarded and frequently punished.

This is why the plan really should have been "Send your eagle up over the wall. Look for a war-camp of 100,000 men that wasn't there yesterday."

Ultimately I think the Jaqen/Dragon/other more crazy notions are fun but unlikely — though perhaps that's just because I think that for all their coolness, they'd actually be kind of disappointing since Syrio is an interesting enough character already and those other things are all valuable *separate* parts of the…

Upon re-watching the Lysa/Baelish scene today, I actually don't think it was as bad a case of clumsy exposition as I did last night… If you watch the way the scene plays out, I think it's actually a good demonstration of the nature of their relationship. On some level (likely subconscious) Lysa knows that Littlefinger…

Apparently neither her nor the hound even know that Joffrey is dead yet — so I think they aren't really in the loop as to what the kingdom is talking about.

another thing I thought was significant: Margaery more or less calls Cersei her sister, at which point the scene abruptly goes cold and, soon after, ends. Well, the last time Margaery said that, Cersei threatened to murder her if she ever said it again…

The main reason I doubt it is the way they had Jaquen slightly roll his eyes at dancing masters while also paying some begrudging respect… I mean, I suppose that could have been intended as misdirection, but it felt much more like it was just meant to add some more colour and mystery to the growing lore of Braavos

If we imagine that the pilot was the pilot, every episode between that and Winter Soldier is condensed as the classic bumbling "second episode" of a series, and the third episode is End Of The Beginning, then this is a really competent first season.

That was Billy West in Futurama, and he'd have been top of the guest stars list if he was in Rick & Morty. I'm still trying to figure out Bird Person — can't find it anywhere online. At first I thought maybe Phil Hendrie who does Principal Vagina (for comparison, he's also the INTELLIGENCE computer in Team America),…

Yup. Just re-watched and now feel stupid for even doubting it — it's obviously him. I must have been tired.