Daenerys has "honour," but she is the biggest villain, in the producers' eyes. Tyrion is the biggest hero, but he has no "honour." Jon has "honour" (well, had, until he put his throne above his professed goal of fighting the White Walkers,) and he is even a pretty admirable character but the show doesn't really like…

The only reason Jon's parentage matters is because it makes him the rightful king. And the show clearly says Jon deserves to be king, and Jon is vying for a throne. The story contradicts you, yet you stand by it? Are you being honest with yourself about what you like, or are you just making up excuses that sound like…

In Game of Thrones, Benioff and Weiss imagined that the freeing of the slaves was a monstrous act of revolution. The freed slaves in one city promptly lapsed into tyranny and slavery was restored because they were too helpless to defend their freedom against filthy demagogues. In another incident, an ex-slave begs to…

Not to be mean, but the Starks are the autocracy in the North, and there's no jaundiced view of them. In fact, the autocrats who really earn the show's hate and contempt (as in getting killed off) are pretty much limited to the ones who are unacceptable sexually, or are weaklings. Contempt for weakness is not a…

Not to be mean, but don't you realize that House Stark is an autocracy in the North? Martin and the producers do not have a jaundiced view of autocracy as such. It's not an accident that most of the autocrats the show hates or despises are marked as sexually intolerable. And Martin and the producers also have an…

Man, if there's on thing about sucks about America, it's the way they force you to read discussion boards that don't censor negative posts.

It's Game of Thrones that takes itself so very seriously. They are downright solemn about it all. They really do imagine they are more than a tits and gore soap, camping it up with dragons. They promise, but break their promise.

Respectfully, the principle you're talking about is surprising people with thematically relevant, character appropriate, plot logical developments that are all the more satisfying precisely because they are superior to the expected. None of the trivial borrowings from the books do this.

When Chilton reappeared after being shot in the face, I thought it was supposed to be a kind of German Expressionist symbolic figure. That the show was openly non-realistic. I was shocked to discover he was really supposed to be alive.

If there's any theme to Game of Thrones, it's only vicious fools play the game of thrones. So what is the plot all about? Playing the game of thrones. The gigantic reveal it's been hinging on is the revelation Jon is the rightful king. Except that doesn't really matters, that's just more game of thrones. In its own…

There's no dramatic value to "screwing with our expectations." Having Hannibal starting to open Will's skull to fry his brains like book Hannibal did to Clarice's enemy didn't screw with any expectations in any sensible way, for example. It's just there.

I don't know about this. When discussing Fuller's gender bending, people notice that Bloom and Freddy were invaginated, but for some reason, the transformation of Will Graham into Clarice Starling is overlooked. I suppose it's because he's the Starling of Hannibal, not Silence of the Lambs. Hannibal ends with Clarice…

All good points, but…character porn? How about straight up broadcast network standards non-penis homoerotic porn, with murder instead of fucking?

When Jaime saved King's Landing from blowing up, he did more than Ned Stark ever did.

It's amazing how accurate this really is!

As the dialogue says, Ghost is sitting and waiting for Jon to return (unlike the Northern lords.)
Another meta moment/internet shout out/fan joke!

He looks like a murderer to me. I deeply resent the show being so faithless to its thematic pretensions when they whitewash the little villain. Tyrion never has done anything as beneficial to humanity as Jaime. Jaime sacrificing honor to love is terrible, but at least he is capable of love. Sorry, not screwing Sansa…

Jim Broadbent clearly says that he didn't tell Sam. And no one else in the Citadel besides that snooty clerk ever speaks to Sam. (No, farts don't count.) If that seems ridiculous, I can only say, bad writing. Except of course people love GoT, it's really cool, so it must be good.

Which was the most inexplicable (stupidest?) action in the episode?

Even if somehow you were correct, getting Gendry out of King's Landing would be accomplished by saying, "That murdering bitch is gonna light this burg up!" Getting Gendry on hand to where he can be promoted to pretender to the Iron Throne, is something else.