RE: the anti-dragon ballista: Qyburn, to quote another HBO property, is bringing piss to a shit fight.

She undoubtedly will. That telegraphed plot point came across loud and clear.

I'm already a little tired of D&D doling out these "and that's. . .one to grow on" moments for Arya over these first two episodes, first with the soldiers, then with her direwolf.

All hail, Sam the Flayer.

Cutter's Way w/ Jeff Bridges. Heard is amazing in this.

Can't remember which, but season 4 or 5 opens with Cersei flashing back to the hag's prophecy about how she's going to die/lose power.

Plus, The Wall hasn't been properly garrisoned in centuries. I believe Jon said only three out of nineteen forts are currently occupied. Gotta think large stretches of the defenses are in pretty shabby condition.

1. Unfortunately, I think it was just a scene contrived to demonstrate that Arya isn't a complete sociopath and is still capable of experiencing empathy as with Lady Crane last season.

There seemed to plenty left over after she fed it to Walder last season.

The Broken Man, S6E7.

Euron looks like he just bopped over to Kings Landing on his way back from auditioning for Turbonegro.

Everyone acts like GRRM should be able to churn these books out in his sleep, but I honestly don't think 6+ years is unreasonably long to draft a meticulously plotted 1200+ page novel told from a dozen different perspectives and cross-checked against several different timelines.

Considering he also introduced a plodding Targaryen imposter subplot that, frankly, the showrunners were wise to nix, I'd say GRRM has thrown at least one too many obstacles in Dany's path to the Iron Throne.

I think Sansa's pretty clear-eyed about Littlefinger's machinations and she's going to play him like a mariachi band until the moment he outlives his usefulness, which may be coming sooner than he thinks.

In the books, Dragonbinder incinerates the lungs of the poor bastard who blows it. Apparently that's a feature, not a flaw.

If killing hundreds or thousands of people by the precise method that provoked him to assassinate the Mad King just for plotting doesn't get Jaime to "it's time to dispatch the lunatic," nothing will.

Tyrion will be thrilled to learn that Ed Sheeran has ridden Hands of Gold to #1 while he's been vacationing in Essos.

My money's on Jaime, too, for the reasons you state. I think he's been pointed in this direction since Storm of Swords/S3.

Sending heads back to Dorne or Highgarden seems like a very Big C type of thing to do.

This is why I think The Hound is a sexy outlier pick for offing Cersei if Clegane Bowl goes down. He's a valonqar/little brother, too.