Exactly. It's like the scene with Arya's laugh was there to tell us how to watch the rest of the show.

Great point. Dany basically turned Jorah into a Game player in one move, which seems almost guaranteed to come back to bite her in the ass.

I wouldn't put it past GRRM to just end it on straight out nihilism. Everybody dies, nothing matters, take these lessons to heart, children. There are a lot of flashing arrows pointing in that direction so far: vahlar morghulis, winter is coming, if you think this has a happy ending, etc.

The arc of the GoT universe is really, really long, but perhaps it bends towards justice, like, three seasons from now?

But we can't assume the worst has already happened to her, right? What if there's more to come, especially now that she's thrown in with Littlefinger? She might even go past Team Lannister and into Mad King Targaryen territory. That would be a crazy character arc.

I hope it was this, and that this leads directly to her thinking, "Well, what the fuck? Might as well use this fancy coin now."

I agree that Jon Snow seems to have a protective plot bubble around him. But this show has expanded my expectation of major characters getting killing off that I wouldn't really be all that surprised if Jon died — maybe even soon, like defending Castle Black. Especially with the consistent checkins on Ygritte this…

Yeah, assuming many more of these characters will die following this pattern — the one flaw that does them in — it's interesting to imagine what it might be for each of them.

Just like her sister.

In an interview somewhere (it might have been the show with Dean Pelton), the showrunners said they spent a long time trimming Ned's execution down to the final edit; that it was originally shot with a lot more gore.

I see what you mean. And no, I wouldn't be happy if it started to seem like the writers were fucking with our expectations just for the sake of fucking with them.

"I started wondering if Oberyn would find out who gave the order, turn and throw the spear into Tywin's chest."

Like a sword needs a whetstone.

Imagine if we'd had to learn who all these people are and keep track of them by only their beards.

All the reaction shots during this scene were amazing — Cersei's blanch when she thinks she's going to lose, Tywin looking like a stone, Jaime grinning away, Tyrion going up then down so fast it looked like his face was going to fall off.

Agreed. I've taken to reading reviews elsewhere *cough Grantland cough* and coming here for the comments.

So great. I love the stuff they put in this show that only pays off on rewatch.

Yeah — wasn't that what Tywin sent Papa Tyrell to fetch pen and paper for, to send a letter to Mereen? (I need to rewatch that small council scene.)

Yeah, or maybe right after he stopped the wine merchant from poisoning her. He certainly had his chances to fix it; the fact that he didn't means he created his own downfall, similar to Oberyn.

I was the opposite — expecting her to have him killed the second he admitted it.