darmody

Doesn't learn how to defend herself? She's killed more zombies than anyone living. She has killed scores of men. All because she's a dragonrider, not a swordswoman. I don't know about the combat training of queens-to-be in Westeros, but remember Danny was not the supposed heir apparent. Viserys was. He apparently was familiar with the fundamentals of carrying a sword. He had authority over Danny and I can see no reason why he'd have her train with a sword. There isn't much need for a queen to know how to fight. And it's not as though hiding behind Jorah is anything to be ashamed of. Unlike Joffrey hiding behind Cersei's skirt. If it weren't for the fact that no one else can fly Drogo, she shouldn't even be at Winterfell. There is no reason to put her in harm's way.

Failing to burn the Big Bad with fire counts as a try. I think technically you have to give Theon credit for a try, too.

Does Jon look like a zombie to you? He was brought back to life. He is not a pile of bones animated by ice magic.

Wasn't getting hammer-chested and his family slaughtered enough?

Given his feelings, had Jorah treated Dany as a person, Khal Drogo would've felt compelled to nude him up and drag him behind a horse. After Drogo went catatonic, there was that whole surviving a funeral pyre and hatching dragons thing, which you can understand might compel Jorah to put her on a pedestal. As for Tyrion, well, the show forgot to ever have them get to know eachother. It's a weird oversight. He shows up, a Lannister and all. Funny thing, Lannisters slaughtered large chunks of her family. Anyway, she receives him formally and doesn't take his head. Then she disappears back into Dothrakiland. She comes back, and is pissed about him screwing up her empire. They don't really have any scenes allowing them to bond as humans--he to her or her to he. Then she names him hand for no reason. Maybe because he's the only person with passing knowledge of Westeros around. They don't get any personal scenes together this year, either. It's all business. (Business which Tyrion royally screws up, by the way.) Until the fireside scene, which briefly features Tyrion teasing her on a "k-i-s-s-i-n-g" level and her talking about her taste in men. Then it immediately gets political. You can say Tyrion treats her like a queen, yes. But the truth is these characters don't have an actual relationship. It's an illusion. So I can't say that Tyrion doesn't treat Dany as a person, because the two haven't met. Tyrion is still in that box on that ship, I think. Or maybe he's in several pieces, one of which hangs prominently on a cock-merchant's cart.

Actually, her first thought upon hearing "Dany" was of her brother Viserys, who also wanted to sex her. Presumably, she was touched because deep down she sensed Jon is family, too, and Targryens have icky, icky incest in their blood.

Imagine there was no rebellion, and the Mountain didn't slaughter Rhaegar's annulled family. I like to think we would've heard this line at some point: Rhaenys Targaryen: "Hi, my name is Rhaenys. This is my brother Aegon, and this is my other brother Aegon."

How? Some conversations take place where they can reasonably expect to be overheard. Others happen in private. Do they assume Littlefinger is electronically surveilling them? Even if you say *maybe* someone is always listening even when it's not apparent, Arya, at least, was playacting in silence, when no one could see her. Why? Why even bother with the charade at all? They can have Littlefinger killed for selling Sansa to the Boltons (in exchange for nothing) or killing their aunt whenever they want. What, are they trying to draw out potential co-conspirators? Is this one giant, elaborate test of his true loyalties? Or is the show just wasting time so they can kill him in the finale.

Her fetus.

No. Jaime broke his vow, pure and simple. Jon fulfilled his.

I don't clearly remember Theon's ceremony, but I do remember Urine's. The ceremony was symbolic. Urine was temporarily unconscious and drowned in the sense that he stopped breathing. But he was not dead. I'm not sure why you bother bringing this up. Jon was dead in every sense. No more respiration, no circulation, no brain activity. The rest can't leave because they weren't dead; only he was. I don't know the Night's Watch's system for determining when one of its members is dead. Probably a Maester declares it. They didn't have one of those around at the time, but they didn't really need one. It was obvious. Many people witnessed him stone cold, including the current Lord Commander. If it had been a ruse, some kind of secret plot between Jon and the Red Witch, say, to use a secret potion or something to make it look like he was dead when he actually wasn't--after he was actually stabbed multiple times and thought to be dead by his attackers--clever them. It worked. But we know that's not the case. It's possible for human beings to come back from the dead, technically, considering legal death is brain death and brain death doesn't have to be permanent, though usually it is. So the Night's Watch vows aren't airtight. There's a loophole. Jon's death and resurrection weren't like that. That doesn't happen in reality. It was actual magic. Jon's still technically exploiting a loophole, but he's doing so honestly. He really did die and thus fulfilled his vow.

I wouldn't say there's no evidence. The above poster probably meant to say there's no definitive evidence. There are plenty of clues suggesting Targaryen parentage for Tyrion, which is why it's a favorite fan theory. Not that fans don't come up with the wildest theories on the flimsiest evidence. But not usually with ones this popular. Many of your examples can be explained away by the fact that--on the show at least--since poor Ned got dead, Dany, Jon, and Tyrion have been the main characters, and main characters need to be important and have something to do. That's debatable, I realize. Cersei has risen since Season Five to the ranks of main-main character, and in the same period Tyrion has fallen apart as a character. But he's still a show favorite, and they still give him things to do. Why not have him release the dragons? Our show's got dragons and a dwarf. High time dragons and a dwarf share a scene. Those Tywin bits can more easily be interpreted as him not wanting to think of a dwarf as his son. It's embarrassing. (To him.) You don't need to be a Targaryen to have a rapport with dragons, by the way. You just need dragon blood. As for the Jon Targaryen clues, they were way more heavy-handed than the Tyrion as Targaryen clues.

Sam is a sworn brother of the Night's Watch. Unless he comes back from the dead like Jon, he's not inheriting anything. Then again, I'm not sure the Night's Watch will exist in a couple of episodes. Or if it even exists now, after Jon sent Tormund to Eastwatch and he bragged that his Wildling bunch were the Night's Watch. In any case, Sam has a sister that can inherit.

Tyrion was not an orphan. He still had his father. Even if Tywin wasn't Tyrion's biological father, he was his presumptive and legal father.

They can't kill off the Hound because he has to meet Arya again and he has, has, has to fight his zombie brother. With all the fanservice in this show, no way they skip one of the fanserviest scenes possible. Jorah I don't see dying so soon after his cure and reunion with Dany. They can't make the Greyscale subplot that meaningless. Same goes for reintroducing Gendry as Robert Baratheon Part II. Mr. Undead Flaming Sword and Topknot are fair game. Unfortunately for Tormund-Brienne shippers, he may die, too.

You're thinking of it as one big war. Tyrion is referring specifically to the Carol-Dany war, presumably. Houses Frey and Bolton were uninvolved. Carol technically represents House Baratheon on the throne, I think. Tommen was a Baratheon and she's a Baratheon widow. (It can't continue beyond her, though. Her child with Larry would be a bastard, unless she marries Urine and pretends he's the father. But then a prince or princess would be a Greyjoy. Eww.) House Tully may have been restored by Dany taking Casterly Rock, if Edmure was being held captive there. If the Lannisters moved him, Riverrun can still be restored to him if he or his son are alive when the Lannisters lose. Tyrion was referring to the Tyrells, who are definitely toast. The Martells died in my opinion with Wheelchair Lord and his son from Menudo. Unless they had relatives outside their immediate family, but that's rarely the case on this show. The Indian chick and the Bad Pussy Brigade were pretenders.

They're connected because of the Night King's Secret, Unexplained Powers. But we also saw last season that the Night King touched Bran's arm while he was having a Tree Vision, which was Extra-Specially Meaningful, for some reason.

I'm a show-only person. After watching Season One and barely keeping up with the backstory, I educated myself online. Rhaegar kidnapping Ned's sister stuck in my mind as significant. The show has gone out of its way to repeat Rhaegar's name, especially in connection to Dany. But I don't think it sticks with casual viewers. Especially since we know Dany's other brother so well. It would've been nice if they gave us some flashbacks. Tonight's reference was for book readers. Show-only people will get it when Sam has his Ah-Ha! moment later. (Maybe not even then, considering some thought Jon was supposed to be Ned and Lyanna's incest baby last season.)

I don't know. I didn't make it up. You may have noticed the internet likes to come up with nicknames.

Bingo. They pulled the same trick with Sandra. They need her to be a power player, and the Smart Stark, complimenting Jon's dumb straight-forwardness. She is supposed to be capable of co-leading the North, and is a contender in Game of Thrones because...she learned from Carol? Even though they never showed her learning. She was in fact not much privy to the machinations of Cirsie. Nor of Littlefinger, Tyrion, Olestra, Marge, Tywin, or anyone at King's Landing, really. She was locked in a tower when Ramsey ruled Winterfell, yet for no reason the show pretended she was an expert on his personality. I guess Reek filled her in. The natural arc would be for her to learn from Littlefinger in the Vale and elsewhere. That didn't happen. We saw that she had improved when she convincingly lied to the Vale lords. I guess she learned how to lie from observing the liars around her, but we weren't actually shown her improving. To the show's credit, they didn't have her be a Machiavellian genius last season, when she went behind Jon's back and kept Littlefinger at bay. She came off as a rank amateur, and would've lost her head for treason if she weren't Sandra Stark. Remember the whole "Listen to me, Jon!" "Okay, what?" "Um, I dunno. Something." This season, suddenly she's got an opinion on everything and is an expert on armory and agronomy.

Jaime, brother-lover of Carol (/Cheryl/Cersei).

The Hound must put down his Zombie Brother, obviously. But that's next season. The audience needs him to have a scene with Arya, and I assume that will happen this season, which is the Season of Reunions. But you wouldn't bring him back just for that. The Brotherhood Without Banners will fight the White Walkers alongside the Northmen and Wildlings. I suppose they'll be the Lord of Light's representatives in the war, at least until Mel returns to Westeros. Probably we'll see the Flaming Sword again, and the Hound will have further "I'm scared of fire" scenes. He single-handedly makes the Brotherhood interesting. They haven't amounted to anything yet, and the show has enough dead ends with Dorne et al. Manbun and the Resurrected Firesword Guy are okay, but nowhere near Hound-level characters. With the Hound there, the show can kill Manbun or Firesword without turning the Brotherhood into a one-man band as far as the audience knows or cares. As we all know from watching the show death = development. Except when death = okay, we're done with you now.

Brienne herself must have superhuman powers. If this were reality, she'd never be one of the greatest knight-like people in the realm. She simply wouldn't have the strength for it. There's no way a woman with her body in real life could beat the Hound in a fist-fight, certainly. Have you seen the size of that guy? I had to suspend my disbelief and imagine she had magical strength, although the show never informed me of it. That was poor writing. With Arya, it's even worse. Because I can imagine Brienne was born to be a fighter like Dany was born to be unburnt. But I've watched six years or whatever of Arya's life, and up until this past episode she showed no evidence whatsoever of being a virtuosic sword duelist. And not just that, but able to beat perhaps the greatest swordsperson on the show with inferior equipment. Did she eat a magic potato on her way to Winterfell?

You are really stretching. Why? I guess Brienne taking on an entire band of Boltons doesn't count because horseback. Larry doesn't count because Larry was tired, and Loras doesn't count because...morningstar? You have to compare her to the guy who's known as the greatest swordsman ever, because why? Oh yeah, because Brienne is in the running, on the show at least, to have been presented as the greatest swordsperson ever. There are really on a handful of other candidates. The Sword of the Morning, obviously. But we only knew one of his opponents, Ned Stark, and "poor dead Ned" was losing to Larry before the Lannister spearman interfered. Brienne was beating Larry on that bridge, year in captivity or not. So we don't really know if Arthur Deyne could beat her. Odds are yes, but I don't know. There's Barristan Selmy, but we only saw him old. The Mountain and the Viper were awesome, and we don't know how Brienne would stack up against them. She beat the Hound. Jon Snow has been bested by lesser men. Arya's dancing master was impressive, but we don't know just how good he was. At worst, we've seen about 5 better duelists than Brienne, and it's arguable she's the best. We've only ever seen Arya duel one other person--not in the same conditions with the same weapons, but actually with better odds on her side than against Brienne--and she repeatedly got her but kicked until she put out the light.

Obviously she wouldn't want to hit Arya in the head with a sword. Same goes for Pod, for that matter. Because that's how sparring works.