SeanF

There’s a tendency among Dany’s critics to see Aegon as a boy wonder who’ll be brutally put down by his cruel aunt. Whereas, to me, everything points to Aegon and his followers taking savage revenge on Tommen and Margaery, and anyone associated with the outgoing regime.

Well, any form of diplomacy went out the window. It makes no sense to me that neither she nor Jon had a negotiating position at Dragonstone. And, the failure to make anything of Cersei's wildfire plot is just inexplicable. Sansa can be explained by the latter's hatred for her. Her one effort to bond resulted in failure. But, why did Sansa so hate her, with the Dead closing in? That only makes sense if Sansa somehow knew that the Dead would be monster of the week.

I’d be terrified to attempt Kim’s and Jimmy’s scams. and yes, that episode packed a punch.

From a purely selfish POV (and I write this as a solicitor) I’d want to go for a quicker settlement, in order to get my fees. Two more years means two more years’ overheads being paid out. Lawyers are more often than not criticised for being too eager to settle.

My impression is that public opinion in the UK, Scandinavia, the Baltics, Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, Czechia, Moldova is firmly supportive of Ukraine; in Italy and Germany, more mixed.

Kim's desire for revenge on Howard struck me as quite disproportionate.

I'm afraid, if the cap fits, wear it.

A Ukrainian victory is an entirely legitimate objective for democratic governments to pursue.

Or maybe she's reached the point of complete callousness and self-justification.

The Russian army is the second best army in Ukraine.

I wonder why it never occurred to them, given their emphasis on The Great Patriotic War, that today’s Ukrainians would show the same fighting spirit as their grandparents did.

It's very much an outlook that denies agency and sovereignty to Ukrainians. And, when reading his comments about the assassination of Heydrich, one that transfers blame, from those who commit aggression, to those who resist it.

As @Zorralsays, “one never gets to the final floor of awful.” Martin’s depiction of chattel slavery as utterly evil is far more moral than Ding & Dong’s attempts to come up with “good slavers.” The very system of chattel slavery turns masters into devils.

“Uncrown. The Lord of Emperors awaits you now” always moves me.

The Freys aren't the sharpest tools in the drawer. A really intelligent man would never have carried out something like the Red Wedding. All that Walder Frey did was to make his family hated, while gaining nothing that he could not have gained by more honourable means. Walder could easily have broken off his alliance with Robb Stark, once Robb married Jeyne Westerling, and would have been welcomed back into the fold by Kings Landing. Just as importantly, his conduct would have been considered entirely reasonable by most of his peers, other than the most fierce Stark and Tully partisans. Robb put himself in the wrong, by breaking his promise to Walder Frey. But the latter forfeited the moral high ground by violating the most solemn taboos, by murdering wedding guests. As a result, his family is utterly despised, and without allies, save allies of convenience who will have no qualms about discarding them.