Fox of House McCloud

Yes, she only has a few pages in the books, but she's introduced much earlier than she possibly could be in the show (ASoS vs. 6x09+). She's had an impact in the book, even if we haven't directly seen her much. I feel like if she gets introduced in the series, she's just going to get really crammed into a couple episodes to catch up, then get sidelined while they try to space out their usage of her. On a side note, I also see the writers of the show completely messing up her character. It's not Catelyn. LSH is really different, but I think they'd just give on another Jon, an important character who just comes back practically the same. They might not do it, but that's what I'm worried about.

Not to mention it just really seems to late to introduce her and still make her meaningful.

Good overall episode. But Arya's plot is SO RIDICULOUS. Uggggghhhh -She gets slashed across the chest, and stabbed multiple times by the Waif (blade goes in all the way up to the hilt). She rolls off the bridge into the water, wanders around Braavos for a while until she comes across Lady Crane, who bandages her wound. SERIOUSLY? She would die from those wounds. There is no fix for that kind of wound, let alone a quick fix you can do with some soup and tight cloth. -After what could really only be a day (how long is the Waif going to waste tracking her down for her face?) she's already able to parkour all over Braavos, defeat the Waif in single combat and sneak into the House of Black & White. Ridiculous. -On top of all of this, the Waif falls prey to every bad villain cliche in the book... choose an unnecessarily bad way of killing the target, allow them to escape without pursuit, move as slow as humanly possible to let the stumbling target somehow always say well ahead of them, until finally falling prey to their trap. There is absolutely no defense for any of this. Terrible writing and plot armor that has no place in a series like this.

D&D figured out a way to get those classic shocks without actually killing the character! The kind of revolutionary changes that GRRM has yet to start using. I'll be honest, at this point, I'm half expecting that she'll just happen to come across Syrio, who's actually alive and he'll nurse her back to health. It makes no sense but that hasn't really stopped the show before.

Wish I could convince myself Arya is in danger, but it's not gonna happen. If she was dead, she'd already be dead. Not stumbling around Braavos. Good thing this is one of the rare FM failures! Good thing the waif didn't go for her heart or throat! Or pursue her at all!

A bit late, but I was only able to watch the episode today... -The walker scene where Benjen saves Meera and Bran was a little sketchy (especially in regards to why 7 or 8 walkers seemed to be so much farther ahead of the rest of the pack), but I understand what they're going for so it's fine. Was kind of hoping it would be Coldhands instead, but I wasn't holding my breath. -Gilly's baby finally grew up . No matter how you spin it, though, hasn't Sam broken his vows by fathering a child? Why does no one care about this? I can see his sister/mother not caring because they're so happy to have their "grandson", but considering how much Randyll was trying to humiliate Sam, you'd think he would mention it. -I'm not really sure what to make of Margaery's speech. Tommen is still as easily manipulated as always, and I would really just like to see him die so we can move on. Might be I just don't like the actor, I suppose. -What an awkward dinner. Dickon seemed cool. In fact, everyone besides Randyll was pretty cool. I get that Randyll hates Sam, but did he really have to go so far out of his way to rant about him? I wasn't too surprised that Gilly stood up to him, but I was surprised that Sam didn't say anything. As a whole, I liked this sequence (and I was really interested to see how Gilly would do at Horn Hill)... and then Sam came back and just said "Screw it, this is dumb, you're supposed to be with me Gilly, let's just run off (and not to the Citadel, I presume. The Citadel not being a good place for her is the whole reason she goes to Horn Hill). Oh, and on the way out the door, to really piss off my angry dad and his big army, let's steal Heartsbane". SERIOUSLY? Ruined the scene for me. At this rate Sam is probably just going to go straight back to Castle Black, and the only purpose of all this was to bring another Valyrian Steel sword to the Wall. -I liked this play better than the previous one - it was nice to see Arya recognize (and late acknowledge) one of Cersei's best traits - her love for her children. But then Arya just decided to throw away all of the time she had spent at the House of B&W, as well as her goals, so she could save someone who she thought was nice after seeing her for a couple days. It's good that she's going to (presumably) actually be doing something now, but I'm disappointed by how lazy it all seems. :/ -Is Mace just supposed to look as ridiculous as possible at all times? The 'standoff' between Jaime/Mace and the High Sparrow was ridiculous. And what is the alignment of the Crown and Faith supposed to mean? Are they not already aligned? Was Cersei not aligning them by allowing the faith militant to return and all that last season? It just seems like a cop out way to make the sparrows look one step ahead again, and to keep this terrible drama going. (And for the record, I don't think the High Sparrow has all the wild ambitions he's accused of... he struck me as one of the few genuine characters so far). -Dismissal of Jaime actually makes sense. He probably ought to be executed for that, but w/ever. I guess D&D just really felt like they need to fill out his Riverrun storyline, so time to ship him off! I really hate how he and Cersei are now super close again, though. And how he just openly yells about his bastard son on the throne. As if they need to add fuel to those rumors. -If everyone is a bloodrider, is anyone really a bloodrider? Really hoping Dany becomes a cross of Aegon I and Aerys II when she makes it to Westeros... she's really bugging me lately.