Yeah, that would've really worked if it were Ramsay who got it since that potentially dramatic moment of doubt at who got stabbed wasn't really so much so for most of us.

Yeah, me thinks he's still kicking. I assume we are going to see him meet Arya or Ser Robert again.

Nor am I. However, my doubt is mostly based on the fact that other important deaths have been pretty explicit (to say the least) yet this seemed only implied by comparison. I can't really see how he'd be necessary vis-a-vis Jon and the Boltons at this point so I've come to think it's likely that he is dead and I just…

I was having a hard time reconciling the "but you will fly" which I just assumed meant he would warg into a dragon with the three-headed dragon prophecy which I still assume means Dany/Jon/Tyrion will be dragon riders against the Walkers in the end. I think there might be a point where he wargs into Drogon in order to…

Look what just not marrying one to someone caused him to do and risk in the grand scheme of things.

No, I can help.

In another thread, someone suggested to me a very interesting potential plot purpose for him to have died: assassin Arya is ordered by the Many-Faced God to kill Jon for cheating death.

Ooooh. Good one.

Uh, no. He's a power-hungry charlatan fronting a group of hypocritical religious fundamentalists in undermining a central authority and violating the civil liberties of women and homosexuals. I'd say he's much closer to Ted Cruz.

I think it does. I was just offering that as I have read it a fair amount. It's just hard to pinpoint exactly why it was required unless he is "changed" in some material way. We knew resurrection was possible, we assumed some inevitable conflict between Jon and the White Walkers. Maybe it was a way to deal with…

There is some suggestion that GRRM might have seen it as a way around the issue of Jon's oath to The Night's Watch, which he theoretically would have bound by until "death." It's not implausible that GRRM needed an out to correct a technical "mistake" in the plot like this that he made earlier. There are all sorts of…

The Benjen and Rickon Show

I guess I just haven't fundamentally viewed this world in such a manner. Meaning, I haven't assumed the actual existence of all of the Gods to potentially engage in some conflict via this world. The show has hinted that distinctions characters make between The Lord of Light, Many-Faced God, Drowned God, etc. are not…

Cool. I don't have access to BBCA but I will keep an eye out for it.

Sort of. As someone else said here today, the magic in The Known World just sort of happens. There isn't too much spectacle. Obviously, when the White Walkers or dragons are involved in the plot, it is more obvious. I don't think it's fundamentally changed what this world or show is about as much as the story lines…

What do you really expect? It's like if we don't get an Oscar-worthy script, acting, directing, and CGI 10 times a year then it sucks (I say Oscar because there is nothing on TV like this from a production standpoint—seriously, go back and try to watch Rome or The Tudors now; Vikings is admirable but still quaint by…

I don't mean this to sound snarky, but…it didn't. The show literally started with a fatal encounter with reanimated corpses and a magical murdering snow man with glowing eyes. We had dragons by episode 10. All of the fighting for the throne then takes place whilst we know "winter is coming."

For me, I think it's just the slow pace in the "same" place (even though it's not literally, it's all still somewhere over there in Essos) and the somewhat repetitive story compared to the rest of the show. It doesn't help that the acting and script reinforces this. I mean, how many people's eyes were rolling back…

I still want to know what the "but you'll fly" ends up meaning for Bran. I was pretty sure I understood it at the time, but I don't know how that jives with the three-headed dragon prophecy. If he just wargs into a raven for some tactical reason I'll be disappointed.

I think this *could* end up being a situation where the stories diverge…On the show, Tyrion becomes one of the dragon riders but "not" a Targaryen because we just don't have the screen time or expository tools to explicitly clarify it yet, based on the material we have, GRRM intended him to be and then gets to play it…