Fair enough. But you don't find Arya's actions inconsistent over the last three episodes? Or that the denouement to her Braavos storyline was just kind of anticlimactic?

Sort of weird that the dragon doesn't stick around to fight though, no? Why would he leave? (Other than to force the narrative to require the Ironborn's aid.)

It's true there's a lot grimacing going on to show us she's not unfazed. My problem is more with how she even got herself shivved to begin with. That both she and the Waif are incompetent as vying killer assassins in the scene from last week is sort of ridiculous, given all the build up around the brilliance of the…

Agreed.

Good point. Jamie would've said something so it shouldn't have to be rumor or news to Cersei, I just think it's inconsistent expositional writing in this case.

You should've written the episode. Good idea but we shouldn't have to fill in a gap like that pondering after the fact, it needs to be in the show somewhere. All what you're suggesting would have required would have been an exchange between Crane and Arya to that effect. "I think it worked. Still nicked me pretty good…

If she was being stupid, it's infuriatingly out of character, not to mention undermining the very danger of the situation as we understood in the preceding episode. But if it was part of her plan, what was the plan? Lure the Waif to her darkroom. Okay. But get stabbed in the stomach first? And get Lady Crane killed by…

Right, makes sense.

I meant the next child Cersei does have. She's not menopausal. Though I guess the child would have to be already born before Tommen dies?

Yes. Both those aspects, plus Arya just strolling around smugly in broad daylight last episode, make her story feel mishandled to me. Like, when a character breaks character, does something that makes no sense for them to do, things start to come apart. This show has been close to genius in its handling of character…

I was hoping he'd name it Turtle Soup or Goat Shit.

Okay, but the disconnect, in my opinion, between what we're supposed to infer and the actual dramatic execution really rankles. It's the difference between showing and telling, between good writing/acting/directing and flaccid exposition.

The pyromancers run out of matches.

Mord: "NO GOLD!"

No I just hoped that she'd become a faceless assassin, do that for a little bit, so that when she inevitably rejected that life to go back to being Arya, she'd have made more of a journey, maybe ending up as a kind of solo hybrid no one / someone shadowy assassin, with a few faces to use, some smoke bombs or poisons…

Ok I see your point.

Cersei's next child. Unless Tommen got Marge pregnant before dying.

Could they not physically fly out of that chamber even though they're unshackled?

Just. Ugh. We're supplying schemes or motivations that are way beyond obvious and also way beyond what the writers have in mind. You could literally say of any character at any point that any motivation is on the table.

If so, that's weak. He told her she's no one before she announced that she was properly Arya Stark. You mean he anticipated that's what she was going to say? So all this time, becoming no one meant to not become no one but become herself. Tautological in the extreme.