J_Crews

You do get that reckless fire-breathing animals are a bad idea on a wooden ship with canvas sails, right? *MANY* captains turned her down in the book.

It truly is. The purists I can, at least, sympathize with, however. It's the borderline inarticulate, short-sighted complainers I sometimes don't know whether to laugh at or choke lifeless, though.

I've always had a bit of an issue with this line of thinking. True, learning the boys were "dead" served as a catalyst in the books, but can anyone really doubt that--if faced with the same situation--book Cat would have done the same thing? If Jaime dies, her girls die. Robb's lords might not value the girl's lives enough to free the Kingslayer, but you had better believe their mother does. In the book, Karstark was away with Robb when she freed Jaime, not left behind to get drunk and stew about how pretty Jaime's head would look on a spike. She has to get him away from there and now. Makes perfect sense, if you think of it that way.

No. That'll happen when he and Brienne are recaptured in episode 10. I'm betting that, being perfectly-suited as a cliffhanger, it's the last thing that happens in his Season 2 character arc. Not sure who'll do the cutting, though, since Vargo Hoat is AWOL. Maybe just some random Bolton man during the fight to re-capture them.

Would've been better, but it worked for me this way as well. Bran and Rickon, notwithstanding, she fears (and rightly so) for what will happen to her girls if the Karstarks kill Jaime.

Me too, so switching to Eeee-grit isn't a big adjustment for me. I have a dear friend who insists on calling Tyrion "Tyrone," though, which makes me cringe.

Can't remember for sure what you're talking about, but I think the issue you're referring to was that, even though they're guests in Qarth, they were busy trying to figure out the best way to steal $h*t from their hosts.

He'd need a pretty pronounced lisp too, but I get what you're saying. :)

Har!

I just read an interview with the actress. She's dead as dead gets.

Dead weight, as in she does nothing that has any bearing on the narrative whatsoever, even after 5 books. She's window-dressing and her salary gobbles show budget-money better spent on other things, imo.

Agreed. Irri is/was dead weight. I hope Doreah wasn't the culprit, as some are suggesting, however... she's so adorable, I'd like to keep her for a while longer.

That was how he died in the book as well; ripped apart by the mob.

The botched beheading happened in the books too, I think, just not with Ser Rodrik obviously. Also, it wasn't shown, IIRC. I seem to remember Theon inwardly raging about beheading somebody and it taking more than one stroke and making him look bad.

Naked Tonks ftw!!!

In the show or in the book? I remember Grenn and Ed, but not Pip. I could be wrong, though.

Yeah, he and Quaithe were both creepy, but him especially.

Pretty sure Pip wasn't on the ranging. He was left at the Wall, I believe. Jon and Sam were the only stewards mentioned, I think (was Dolorous Ed a steward back then?); Jon for obvious reasons and Sam to look after the ravens.

They can easily skip the whole Reek/Ramsey deception, but still have Ramsey show up with his Dreadfort men and turn on Ser Rodrik. It can just look like he was coming under the cover of joining the force Ser Rodrik was gathering, then betrayed him. Ramsey having the idea of substituting the miller's boys for Bran and Rickon can easily be portrayed as having been Theon's idea alone --- he was the one who had been sleeping with the miller's randy ho of a wife for years anyway. Keep Ramsay in his scary-ass flayed man armor without revealing his face, then cast him later.

Plus, they would never be able to guarantee they'd get the same actor back either, meaning he'd have to be re-cast and that would cause even more confusion.

They'll have to talk about it eventually, if it means what most of us think it means, but you're right: it may be that talking about such now would just confuse people needlessly. It may just get introduced way down the line somewhere.

Yep. Bran having the greendreams sealed it for me as well. Jojen is officially out now, ASAIC. Meera, maybe, but why bother with Osha there to hunt for them, etc.? The only sticky thing is how then will Bran hear the story of the Knight of the Laughing Tree? I imagine Maester Luwin may tell that story, perhaps, at some point soon. He's a long-time Stark family adviser; likely, going back to the rule of Ned's father Lord Rickard. It would be only a minor, very believably change to have it that he was present with them at Harrenhal during the tourney of the false spring or that Ned confided certain family secrets to him later.

He had all of his knights and freeriders with him, in addition to the vanguard. Basically, all of his mounted men. What was left back at Bitterbridge was his 60,000+ foot, the bulk of his army.

And add to that the, literally, thousands of lesser titles below the crown that passed from father to heir uneventfully with all vassals simply renewing their fealty oaths during that same 1000+ years, and it only strengthens the point.

I don't want to get into this debate all over again, because it's been done to death. Suffice to say, it was implied they were sleeping together in ACoK, but it was out-and-out stated as fact later. Just off the top of my head: Davos talks about Mel sharing his tent at night, to which Stannis says "She gives me comfort;" Mel tries to seduce Davos to make more shadowbabies, offering him great pleasure in return for his seed, because she dares not to drain Stannis anymore, for fear it'll kill him; and, Mel remarks in her own POV in ADwD that her bed has seen little use since Stannis marched away, leaving her behind at Castle Black. It doesn't get much more obvious than that without, literally, having a POV character barge into the room while they're in bed together nude.