Yes, in the show, we just hear the voice of the actor portraying the part of the "disguise". But in the book, it can simply be the Faceless Man disguising their own voice. In other words, it's not canon from the books that a Faceless Man could fool a dead person's friends and loved ones wearing their faces (it's never…

We've had no previous acknowledgement that wearing a dead person's face turns the wearer into an exact replica of that person (i.e. body, voice, mannerisms, etc) - to the extent that one could fool a room full of relatives of the dead person.

Rote reply. See below.

Completely agree. And I don't necessarily mind the idea of changing the likely book's version of the Red Wedding retribution from L. Stoneheart to Arya instead - I just don't think it was handled well enough.

Faciem ex machina indeed.

Well, the skin mask was always a difficult thing to accept - but in terms of the novels, IIRC, it's the ONLY power the Faceless Men have. As I mentioned in a comment below, the writers seem to just keep stacking new "powers" on to gloss over plot machinations (e.g. Arya's ability to heal insanely quickly after 2 or 3…

Yeah, I know that - I just didn't like the adaptation change (while liking many others).

"…since the show never really established any limitations or guidelines about the magic of the Faceless Men in the first place."

I get that - although I'm not so sure about the "vast majority" part - I've read (and heard) about a lot of push-back from people involving Arya's storyline over the last couple of seasons (e.g. her ability to heal surprisingly quickly after 2 or 3 knife plunges in her gut last season).

Fair enough - I deleted my comment. But I still don't see how my ego affects my suspension of disbelief; I love most of GoT, but some stuff just doesn't work for me - including much of Arya's storyline the last couple of seasons (especially the Waifinator from last year).

I know it was a call back; that doesn't make the laborious act of her butchering two men and cooking pies with them for a 10 second "got ya" any less ludicrous - it just makes it a call back to something from the book.

Lion heads on the hilts of their swords.

So, I guess Arya is now going to single-handedly wipe out the Lannisters and their army? What a silly cold open.

No, I think 'In Treatment' suffered much less from the plotting and dialogue problems that plague 'The Affair'. But it makes sense - aside from the two creators (Levi & Treem) and one writer (Anya Epstein), the writing staffs of the two shows are entirely different.

Got it - that makes more sense… although the appearance of the White Walkers (in both the books and the show) was the actual opening chapter. But I take your point.

Yes, the Martell/Sandsnakes (and Hotah!) conclusion was bad - it felt like an attempt to erase the mess from S5 as quickly as possible. And I hadn't thought much about Frey's demise, but now that you mention it, it was a bit wonky (and rather quick and anticlimactic, given the amount of time devoted to his betrayal at…

The devastation of the Shire in LOTR was one of the most important points Tolkien was trying to make with his novels (drawing a parallel - i.e. even though the citizens of England went abroad to fight the evil of the Axis in WWII, the country itself was forever despoiled and changed by the process). Ironically, the…

I agree with all of your points, although I's still say that S5 was worse than S6 in terms of bad choices. Even though there were a lot of weak moments in S6, the only thing I really hated was Arya and the Waifinator arc. So at least, for me, there is a glimmer of hope that they've gotten a bit better at being…

But if you're really going to try to pin down one event as the linchpin that started the War of the Five Kings, I'd say it has to be Littlefinger and Lysa's murder of Jon Arryn. Without that, Jamie never goes to Winterfell (and attacks Bran and starts that chain), Ned never goes to King's Landing, and it's possible…

True, but I can't really blame B&W. Unlike the author, they don't want to spend more than a decade of their lives on the project - which seems totally understandable to me.