I don’t think Arya shortened her list. I think she was lying. The game is about lying convincingly, and the montage showed that she has learned how to do it, or is getting close.

Well I can give you some background intel if you wish. Rhaegar was always more of a reader than a fighter (and every character that remembers him recalls how kind and gentle he was). At some point in his studies he read several prophesies, one that the ‘Prince who was promised’ to save Westeros would come from his…

Did anyone notice that when Jon Snow walked out to meet the wildlings and the rest of the night’s watch after being resurrected, that the theme music was playing from the show’s intro? My wife and I think this is the first time this has happened. If so, it could be telling as to how important Jon really is.

Sigh. Last night a friend pointed out something to me- have you ever heard of a “shaggy-dog story”? Google describes it thusly:

“If you see their character nude, it is body double and CGI like Cerci had her walk of shame.”

I disagree that Jon Snow swings his sword specifically because he’s angry at Olly. He’s angry at all the obligations being put on him, forcing him into making choices like that.

I said this in another post, but here’s what’s going to happen in Dorne: There will be a power vacuum created by killing the royal family, and the people will not accept Elleria and the Snakes as any kind of rulers. This power vacuum will eventually be filled by Daenerys, who will find Dorne (historically loyal to the…

Going off Dany’s comments about breaking the wheel and the importance of the Iron Bank world wide. It would not surprise me if the series ends with an entirely different type of government ruling it.

Assorted Musings:

Philip K. Dick stories are heavy on stretching the boundaries of what is real—it’s basically his mission statement. The Axis invading and occupying the USA isn’t even remotely the most ridiculously implausible thing that happens in the backstory of The Man in the High Castle: that would probably be damming and…

Nice delusion you parrot there... not at all supported by facts of course. Some of the biggest expansions of government’s size and power have taken place under the rule of “The Right” in this country (Reagan and Bush, most notably). Under Obama, the physical size of the government has actually shrunk at the Federal…

You know what breaks down? Your entire still, boorish, pedantic, pointless argument in the face of one fact: This is an ALTERNATE REALITY. It’s FICTION. Your assumptions do not apply.

The feeling I got from the book was that the reality was wrong; as if it was taken up like a mass hallucination which was starting to lift. IOW, that Japan and Germany were in control of the US only because the people of the US thought they lost and the Japanese and Germans thought they won, but there is evidence that…

Eh, who cares? It’s good TV and that’s harder to get than a Nazi victory.

I loved it.

miniarchism, right wing anarchism, right libertarianism- none of these are classical definitions of a left wing polity. One of the greatest missapropriations of the word anarchism is to suppose it means absence of rule. It never did. I’m not an anarchist but even so I can see where the difference between botom up…

Germany’s technological advances by say- the period of the spanish civil war where they lent the fascist francoists a lufftwaffe- is beyond dispute. For the first period of the second world war their highly advanced u-boats were sinking 100’s of tons of shippingin the atlantic daily. You might want to try Shirer’s…

untrue. At the time of its first forays into annexing the sudetenland etc Germany was in fact far in advance of american and wider european manufacturing and technological capability. Thats why they scared the living crap out of half of the world. Thats why at the end of the war Von Braun and others were nabbed under…

You’re really overthinking. It’s one of those things you gotta accept to enjoy the work of fiction. I hope you didn’t hate Terminator 1 or 2 because time travel exists in that universe...

I too was a bit skeptical, but Dick is no idiot. The book outlines how this could come about...FDR is assassinated almost immediately after taking office, all the way back in 1933. His VP assumes office and is totally ineffectual...the Great Depression continues and never goes away. The USA remains weak, and, most…