jarl the climber

Wasn't Aegon the Unlikely married to a Blackwood?

Nobody in the TV show seems to care much about Stannis. LF seems to plan to use Stannis as an excuse to intervene in the North. After his defeat on the Blackwater nobody in Kings Landing mentioned him for two seasons. He is just this hopeless rebel on the periphery of the empire, like it was pointed out, the Iron Throne cares nothing for the North. I'd imagine that Ramsey would have people looking for him or his body but with his army defeated he has no value. Shireen would have had more value as a captive than he wouid.

It seems like the Boltons were expecting them, whether some or all of the sellswords went over to Bolton certainly seems possible. The sellswords had to go somewhere but with this show we might never get an answer about something secondary like this. They came from Essos and will need a ride home and there are ships at Eastwatch, so Stannis has fleet with sailors that has to be accounted for but probably they would split when they heard about Stannis.

My take is that the mutineers were not going to move against Jon as long as Stannis was alive. Jon and Stannis got along and Jon was given the authority by Stannis to deal with the Wildling problem as he saw fit and gave him the ships he needed. If Stannis had won at Winterfell and gained control of the North, the conspirators would have not moved against Jon. With Stannis likely dead and his army destroyed, Jon is a problem. We know the Boltons want him dead, they all ready tried sending an agent to kill him. So I think Westerosi politics played a role probably more important than the Wildling question.

I gave it a 9, my best score of the season The good. Myranda dying, her death was a pointless as her character, like Ramsey needs an extra reason to get pissed. Sansa and Reek taking off on him is enough. Still I'm glad she is dead. I was actually sad to see Myrcella go. The whole kiss with Ellaria sort of telegraphed things but it was a good scene. Doran is an idiot in the TV show and I can only think that the Snakes plan a coup against him. Stannis went downhill in the last show, so his defeat came as no great suprise, wish they had clearly showed Brienne killing him. I guess she killed him. The Cersei scene was OK. Its hard to believe that the mob did not rip her to pieces but it was good. That big nasty Septa woman really gets on my nerves. As far as Jon goes, where the hell was Ghost? Is he Sams wolf now? One thing I was confused about, did the sellswords Stannis hired go over to the Boltons?

It would seem like killing Dany would have been the key to the whole thing. Now it is possible they wanted her alive, they did attach some signifigance to her Valyrian blood in the books. We haven't heard that in the show so far but if they were trying to kill her it didn't make much sense, D&D seemed to imply that they meant to kill her. The most likely thing is that the weapons and masks were planted the day before, some crossbows might have produced better results.

I have to agree for the most part. Show Stannis had his moments but he failed to be a really dynamic character. The pit scene while having good visuals felt very contrived. It didn't seem realistic that the Harpies would have outnumbered Danys guards. Also why didn't they have better weapons? Then when Drogon shows up they suddenly have spears, left and right.

DP

Yes, Shireen has been shown as being precocious in the show but in the books, she is isolated, sheltered and held in little regard. Jon considers her to be nice but homely, Mel doesn't even seem to know that she exists, Val thinks she should be smothered for the common good, Maester Cressen saw her as a reminder of his failures. I agree that outside of a marriage, she has little value. If Stannis were to die and she tried to claim the Iron Throne, as a child Queen, its hard to see her as being anything else but a victim, who would be controlled by regents to her own doom, one way or another. TV Shireen has been painted a little more sympatheticly and has been used to humanise Stannis, she is supposed to be the one person in the world he truly loves. Killing her really removes the last vestiges of his humanity. I agree that it makes sense if you consider the backstory of AA and the sacrifice of his wife to forge Lightbringer. Does it make sense in the context of the TV show? I'm not sure, besides the shadow baby in season 2, what has Mel really done?

I'm curious, its been implied that Dany knowingly sacrificed her unborn child, in order to save her husband, Khal Drogo. The Magi did insinuate that Dany did know what the cost would be. How is Stannis any worse than her?

I'm curious, its been implied that Dany knowingly sacrificed her unborn child, in order to save her husband, Khal Drogo. The Magi did insinuate that Dany did know what the cost would be. How is Stannis any worse than her?

I gave it an eight out of 10. Outside of the plot holes most of it was good with the Sand Snake scene, while being an improvement for those characters, being the only thing that was really bad as others have noted. I like the guy playing the High Sparrow but he is much more radical in the TV show. He had bascily admitted that he wants to overthrow the whole system, which would be good until you consider the alternative. I'm not sure about LF or how he has anything to do with Lancel. Does LF have another young guy like Gendry stashed away somewhere?

It sort of reminded me of the scene in the Borgias, where the daughter, Lucretia, I think, is raped by her husband shortly after her wedding night. The scene was probably handled better in the Borgias.

A lot less if Loras is executed.

I gave it a 7 because it was watchable. This was the first time all season that I thought Tyrion was interestin, he and Jorah clicked a little this episode. I haven't really cared for the way they brought the Faith Militant into things and its undermining the Kings Landing storyline and whats going on there. Arya has been OK and in fairness its hard to translate the nuances of her training to a TV show. The whole Sansa storyline is difficult. From a narrative point of view keeping her relatively safe in the Vale is boring. Bringing her to WInterfell and involving her in everything going on there makes sense even though its a major deviation from the books and from any sort of common sense as you have pointed out.

I have one freind who watches, whio dose not read the books. I made the point to him about Lras being a good fighter but he thinks Loras is good because he has the best armor, weapons and horses, that he is good because he is privledged. That he is basicly sitting back and living this decadent lifestyle at court while Westeros is burning. His thinking is that the Lannisters are letting their troops run wild in the RIverlands in order to pay them and that if the Tyrells were as righteous as they pretend to be they would try to put a stop to it. So he basicly sees Loras as an empty suit of armor and this epsiode sort of confirmed this in his mind.

I gave it a 6. The Wall, Winterfell and Stannis were OK. I guess the honeymoon is over between Tommen and Marge. The whole High Sparrow storyline has been butchered and its moving too quick. The High Sparrow goes from being a nobody, to having an army and pissing off the King, the Tyrells and Littlefinger on the authority of a Queen who everyone seems to imply has no real power at this point. The sparrows are too extreme much more so than in the books where the High Sparrow does seem to have some sense of his limitations. Dorne is off to a bad start. Why did the Sand Snakes kill the guy who gave them the information? Why is Bronn waiting til now to voice reasonable objections? Why is Jaimie pissing off the only guy he brought with him? Did Bronn have bury the horse as well? Did Bronn even have a shovel? Mereen wasn't bad but if they killed Barristan, and it looked like they did I'll be mad.

I gave it an eight and it was probably the best episode of the season so far. Arya in Bravoos was meh, at least so far. Volantis was interesting, on a historical note the Romans did not mark there slaves or have them wear a specific sort of dress precisely because they did not want them to realise how numerous they were. Martin gets a lot of stuff wrong with slavery. Considering the uproar over the Jaimie scene I can't blame them for changing up the brothel scene with Tyrion. Jon, Dany and Tyrion seem to be the clear cut protaginists so far. Brienne and Pod were not annoying for a change. Tommen sort of reminded me of the kid from Animal House who had the sexy girl fly through his window and land on his bed when he was looking at porno magazines. Everything else seemed pretty good.

Quote isn't working for me but Kevan seemed to imply that Cersei was not the lawful Regent, it seemed like he would have supported Jaimie taking over on the basis of Jaimie being Tommens Uncle I suppose. In the books Cersei became Regent by default on the basis of being Joffreys Mother. Tywin as the Lord of Casterly Rock, Hand of the King was eventually able to push her aside despite her legal standing because he was the true source of her power in the capital. After Tywin died she became both Regent and the lawful ruler of the West at least in the books. If this is in dispute in the TV series and Kevan seemed to dispute it, which is further than he went in the books, where he simply refused to serve in her Council unless she layed her right to the Regency aside, then Cerseis authority would seem to be in deep trouble. She needs to have Casterly Rock backing her, in the TV show Tommen might be the rightful ruler of that as well, the inheritance rules are more sexist on the TV show, her rule would seem to rely entirely on Tommens consent.

I gave it an eight. I actually did not care for the Small Council scene. It would have been better for Cersei to have her discussion with Kevan privately. It didn;t really make sense in a lot of ways and now the Tyrells know that Cersei does not have the complete support of her House. Also how can Cersei rule if she is not Regent and does not have legal authority as Kevan implied? I suppose it worked well enough but not a great scene. I actually liked the Mereen scenes. Dany is sitting on a powder keg. She has the love of the freedmen but if she gives them what they want, it will mean civil war. The Masters have no reason to love her and many reasons to hate her but she has to get them to buy into what she is doing. The Mossander character had some potential, I'd rather have had the Shavepate but it was a shame to see him go so quickly. I'm not hot about the Breinne/Pod storyline but they have to start tieing things together to give the story better structure. Maybe they could have found a better way but it was needed. They covered things at the Wall well enough. I didn't like the Dorne scene that much but I felt they did a bad job establishing the Ellaria character last season, frankly they've done a bad job in establishing Dorne period. A non reader freind wonders why Dorne didn't rise up and back Renly or Stannis if they hate the Lannisters that much. Hopefully they can get the Dornish arc straightened out this season.

I gave it an eight. Some of the highlights. Loras being gay. I would forget if they didn't remind us of this everytime he has a scene. For the first time in the series a male character told a female to put her clothes back on. The male character was a eunech but still an interesting development. Also for the first time the gratuitous male nudity was greater than the female. Its a change, I think there still not quite getting it but there trying and maybe by season 7 they'll figure things out.

Jons story is inconsistent, at one point he states that he impressed a boat from Ibben and a trading ship from Pentos, a trading ship from Pentos could have signifigance, it could be spying on Stannis for Illryio. Later on he does seem to identify the other five ships as Lyseni. Yes Tycho did agree to lend the boats to the Watch in return for mounts and guides to get him to Stannis, so the three Bravosi ships were Tychos and none of them were reported as being lost. If I remember correctly two of the Watches ships had been sunk or run aground and three of the Lyseni ship had suffered a similar fate. I do know this. Tycho told us that when dispatching an envoy of his magnitude, the bank always sends three boats, a cog, a galley and a galleas. That these boats are chosen to complement and aid one another so that the envoy safely arrives at his destination, its standard practice for the bank.

My first thought on her was, what is Peter Pan doing in a GOT episode? The fire works reminded me of Monty Python, wheres the killer Rabbit and how many of these holy hand grenades does she have on her?

That whole sequence was so bad I found it endearing, they are going on a quest to the secret tree fort to meet a mysterious wizard guy, what did people expect realism? Some are actually complaining that they didn't keep in the zombie riding the giant Elk. I thought it being cheesy sort of suited the material.

I gave it a 9. They did a good job rapping up a number of storylines in a limited amount of time and generally did a good job at it. I liked the Brienne/Hound fight but the underlying premise made no sense, Arya is Robin Arryns first cousin, her being denied entry to the Vale did not add up. Some people will claim Tyrion was whitewashed again but in this case I'll disagree, the Tywin kill was cold blooded. Bloodraven looked like Pycelles brother and the COTF was a cross between Peter Pan and the wizard from Monty Python get over it. The skeleton wights were actually pretty cool. I wouldn't have minded Stoneheart but they didn't have the time to do it right just like the election at the Wall, so I'm fine with them waiting and trying to get it right.