dieseldda

Hoping to see Barristan go out like Yoda in Return of the Jedi - just a long winded speech about staying strong, then right before he dies "There is another Targaryen...." or "The Dragon has three heads.." You might ask how the hell he'd know that, but screw it, it's the show!

Predictions for the next few episodes - Tyrion and Jorah will take the short cut through the smoking sea, get attacked by the stonemen of Valyria Stannis alluded to. Jon will get a reply back from Winterfell insulting him. In response, Jon will tell Stannis about the hill clans, possible bad blood between the Boltons and the Umbers. Team Stannis will make his way to Last Hearth, hear about Rickon. Davos gets sent to find him. Mel voluntarily heads back to the wall. Bronn will mention to Jaime that Cersei had been banging Lancel. Littlefinger and Olenna will scheme to have Cersei arrested. "Knowledge is power." Tommen will continue to be brilliantly framed on the screen as a 12 year old. Will send for Kevan as soon as Cersei gets taken. Without the calming presence of Barristan, Danaerys will do even more stupid shit. Sansa will eventually find out from Reek that her brothers aren't dead. The sand snakes will continue to look cartoonish, will capture Myrcella before Jaime gets there. Jaime and Bronn will find and confront the Sands, but Doran and friends show up before Jaime gets killed, has Ellaria and the snakes imprisoned. Wouldn't be surprised if most don't happen, but that's how I see things playing out, in the most general of terms.

I enjoyed the episode, but yeah, I didn't care much for the Sand snakes, but I didn't much care for them in the books either so... good work D&D? I understand the need to simplify stuff this season. Turning 1600 or so pages into one season has got to be tough. Brevity is the key. Which in turn makes the dialogue clunky. There was some great dialogue in this episode, including between Stannis and Shireen, LF's story to Sansa. I just didn't like the Sand snakes. I really enjoyed Tyrion and Jorah. I'm convinced, with all the grey scale talk and Stannis mentioning stonemen in Valyria, that Jorah will try to take the short cut through Valyria and into the smoking sea. They'll get attacked, Jorah will save Tyrion, and in turn get grey scale himself. I wouldn't mind it if they did this. Plus we'd be able to see Valyria (hopefully not too smoking that we can't see anything).

In regards to Sansa, I think what LF is doing makes sense, though it is a gamble. Here's what he knows.. 1) He knows there is no love for the Boltons in the north, making their hold of Winterfell tenuous as bests. 2) He knows the Lannisters, Bolton's biggest ally, is in rapid decline, leaving the Tyrells, his ally, top dog in King's Landing. 3) He believes the two Stark boys are dead. 4) He knows Stannis is at the wall with Sansa's half brother and will be marching south. So given this knowledge, there are two scenarios I think LF would anticipate that could play out in Winterfell, and they both revolve around Stannis. 1) Stannis takes Winterfell. Because Stannis knows that only a Stark can hold WF, he would leave Sansa as Lord and dispose of Ramsey, giving him the North. Sansa would then lie her teeth off as she did in the Vale, claiming Littlefinger and the Vale is with her, citing their inactivity in their wars of the south, and have his allegiance. 2) The Boltons beat Stannis. Less likely, but if the Boltons were to win the battle, they'd be severely weakened. The Vale could, afterwards, invade the North at full strength in surprise and dispose of the Boltons. We all know the lords of the Vale like the Starks after Ned's stewardship so they'd have no problem defending Sansa, and the Tyrells in Kings Landing wouldn't care, because they also highly regard Sansa and would prefer a Lannister ally tossed out, anyway. To help his cause, I believe it will be Littlefinger, not Jon, who sends in the spear wives to protect Sansa, wreak havoc on Wintefell. Ramsey will capture them, blame Jon, and send a letter threatening him furthering Jon's story arc. Does Littlefinger know what a vicious little twat Ramsey is? Probably not. It's a gamble. But no guts, no glory.

Not going to lie, I actually enjoy the Sansa in Winterfell stuff but mainly because so many people hate it. I find it amusing. I doubt Sansa will be abused like fake Arya, nor will Theon prep her for Ramsay's wedding consummation, but I do foresee people disappearing and the Boltons getting nervous. The people in the North will love her far more than they will ever love a Bolton, especially a bastard one. And it sure beats her tending to Robin at the Eyrie for an entire season. The idea of Littlefinger being ruined because of a misstep is inevitable. The man is a gambler, he's declared himself as such on the show many times. Eventually, one of his gambles for power will blow up in his face. He's going to do something stupid eventually. We haven't seen any sign of his undoing in the book yet; I'm sure it's coming and it'll be different (and awesome), but it's coming. I don't know how this is going to play out, but I think it's a bit early to declare his gamble a failure yet. They can still escape Winterfell at the end of the season and back south. Was anybody else wishing Jon would have told Stannis that his brothers are still alive? Yeah, he knows Bran is north of the wall, but hasn't a clue where Rickon could be, only that he's still south and very much in play. I want to see Skagos, god dammit! Qyburn is quickly becoming a favorite of mine. I really hope to see the Frankenmountain he's constructing by the end of the season,