Spilt Pea Soup

Excellent episode. The sort of slow, but powerful writing that has given the show such a wide audience. Ian McShane and Lady Mormont were the highlights, of course. I think it's irrefutable now that the main reason Season 5 was off was because D&D were treading water giving Martin time to get his act together. Now given the green light, they have displayed they are more than capable (than Martin even) of steering the ship to port and bringing the fans a satisfying, timely conclusion. I'd say odds for Martin finishing the series after the show so satisfyingly wraps up the major plot threads to be somewhere around 15%. This Season has been the best since Season 3 and may even surpass it before its conclusion.

Littlefinger and Lady Arryn plotted Jon Arryns death, not Cersei, right?

It is quite possible there is some double-crossing and The North Remembers going on behind the scenes. Roose laid the groundwork for this with his "mad dog" comment. Too early to referee this plot turn, isn't it? As Robert Jordan might have said, WAFO.

Loved it. Wun Wun smashing, Hodor talking, hot Jon erecting....just a fantastic episode that gave fans exactly what they want, and need. Gives me a lot of hope for rest of series and Winds of Winter.

I'm sure it's been mentioned but Wolf Hall has a few familiar Game of Thrones faces.   Thomas Brodie-Sangster Jonathan Pryce Mark Gatiss Harry Lloyd   And I swear another.     SUCH a good show.  

Definitely have the cult thing going for us around here.

Yeah. You're right.

What list? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_books Original language First published Approximate sales Don Quixote (Don Quixote) Miguel de Cervantes Spanish 1605 315 million[citation needed] A Tale Of Two Cities Charles Dickens English 1859 200 million[5] The Lord of the Rings (published as a series) J. R. R. Tolkien English 19541955 150 million[6] The Hobbit J. R. R. Tolkien English 1937 140.6 million[7] Le Petit Prince (The Little Prince) Antoine de Saint-Exupéry French[Note 1] 1943 140 million[8][9] Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone J. K. Rowling English 1997 107 million[10] And Then There Were None Agatha Christie English 1939 100 million[10] 紅樓夢/红楼梦 (Dream of the Red Chamber) Cao Xueqin Chinese 1754[11]1791 100 million[12] She: A History of Adventure H. Rider Haggard English 1887 100 million[13] Has Harry Potter, the hobbit, lord of the rings, agatha Christi on it. Hardly academic classics, but definitely well loved books no doubt. I maintain that popular books do not usually translate to academically acclaimed books. There are exceptions (twain and Hemingway are great exceptions). But it hardly a controversial opinion. If you think college literature courses are studying popular best sellers, you are just wrong. Now that's not to say there aren't any, but by and large the Venn Diagram of classics and popular best sellers doesn't overlap. (Of course, some books become popular after they are no longer contemporary and only then enjoy higher book sales, eg, Melville).

It was me. I can say confidently I wasn't making fun of someone's mental illness because I had no idea there even was mental illness. I used a common idiom in a heated discussion. Things like "that's insane". "You're crazy". "That's crazy talk" Etc can be construed as an attacking on someone's mental illness but that isn't the point.

I used to scoff at Stannis druthers, but they've made a strong case. We may see the one true King return next season.

Here is a really great article on the subject: http://www.academia.edu/4032721/Seriously_Popular_Rethinking_19th-Century_American_Literature_through_the_Teaching_of_Popular_Fiction To quote: Anyway, it's an interesting read. In fact, the opposite of what you assert has been true for the somewhat brief history of the novel (only since 19th Century really), but what is popular for contemporaries is not what is lauded by scholars and academics and readers later as "classics".

Hallam, are you sure of this? There was a rich vein of popular literature in 19th Century and nearly all of it is forgotten. The classics are not. Same goes for early 20th Century. Hell, even the mid-20th Century popular novels are forgotten. I just don't think this holds up. I too love the Beatles more than the Opera, but they inhabit a strange place all of their own, and in any case, music is consumed over and over and over again, in a much different fashion than books are.

I think it's fair to say the bias exists against "sword and sorcery" -- elves, magic, wizards, dragons, and the like. Great list of authors! I'll have to check out the ones I haven't heard of. (And "The Road" is certainly sfnal.)

Maybe Dorne will get a catty bisexual vampire next season. That would be an improvement.

God help us if it ever gets to True Blood level awful. In all fairness, the Sookie Stackhouse Chronicles are nowhere near as good as ASOIAF. not even in the same league.