Frey family reunion

Staying with the books, there is a way that Jace's genes could have been introduced into the Stark family line through the Mountain clans, and specifically through Arya Flint. Arra Norrey and Sara Snow apparently both grew up in Winterfell. Presumably both being close to Cregan, they may have been fairly close to each other as well. So it seems quite possible that Arra Norrey may have arranged a marriage alliance with someone in the Mountain clans through her family, to help out her friend Sara who may have been left with Jace's child. The child (or children if twins) grows up in the Mountain clans and one of his/her descendants being Arya Flint, who is then married into House Stark.

Every sperm is sacred.

No, it's not a flower. The flower that you cited is Agapanthus. The particular shade/variety of the Agapanthus you cited is labelled Lapis Lazuli. Lapis Lazuli is a mineral with a striking blue color. It's often used as a descriptor of other things. Kind of like calling something ruby red. So Lord Florent has a very ornamental breastplate. In much the same way that Rhaegar used rubies to adorn the dragon on his breastplate, Lord Florent uses Lapis Lazuli to adorn the ring of flowers on his. Which gives us a clue that the flowers on the Florent sigil are a blue circle of flowers. Which is an apparent call back to the blue roses on the crown that Rhaegar gives Lyanna.

Lapis Lazuli is a mineral. It's considered a deep blue in color. Presumably, Lord Florent used the Lapis Lazuli minerals to adorn his breastplate. Thus I think the real image is a red gold fox sticking his nose through a circle of blue flowers.

You're right if the assassin knew the value of the blade. I'm not sure he would have known however. The blade on first appearances was fairly plain. You would have to recognize both dragonbone and valyrian steel to understand how valuable it was. If the catspaw had never seen either then he would have no reason to consider the blade valuable. If the catspaw knew the true value of the blade, then he would know that it made the bag of silver he was paid pale in comparison. So if the silver was what motivated him, he probably didn't realize how valuable the blade was.

Eh, I think it's ridiculous to assume that Joffrey would go out of his way and sacrifice his valyrian dagger to help put Bran out of his misery. The only part of Bran's misery that Joffrey cared about is the fact that it caused the direwolves to howl at night interrupting his sleep. And by the time the catspaw visited Bran, Joffrey had already left Winterfell. And since when did Joffrey care about trying to please his father? And what a ridiculous way to try to please him, especially since you can't even admit that you were the cause of it. If we're going that route, I'd put Tommen as a likelier suspect than Joffrey. He actually seemed to care about pleasing his parents. And as screwed up as it is, would probably be the more likelier of the two to go out of his way to put Bran out of his misery if he was convinced from his father's drunken statements that Bran would be better off. I don't see Littelfinger's involvement here, other than after the fact trying to use the situation to his advantage. Since this had to be a plan that only occurrs after everyone arrived in Winterfell, his absence from the scene makes it unlikely that he could have arranged the plot. I still like Mance as a suspect. For all we know, the catspaw was instructed to leave the dagger behind. It's unlikely that he would have known the value of the blade or been familiar with valyrian steel. And this blade is such overkill for the job, the only real reason to use it is to try to point the finger at a particular party.

Yea, I agree. I guess that they're trying to keep Daemon semi-sympathetic with the audience to prevent him from becoming a one dimensional villain of the story. But in trying to straddle the line, they instead just played up to an ugly stereotype of the bitchy woman had it coming.

Is homosexuality considered a sin in Westeros? I haven't seen it specifically defined as such. The takeaway I have is that Westeros really doesn't have a concept of a sexual identity. At least not in the books. I think there seems to be fairly nonchalant view of a person's sexual preferences (at least for the nobility). I'm not sure anyone seems to really care that much as long as it doesn't get in the way of performing your duty to your House. Now the commonfolk may have different issues. We're not given much to go on there.

I gave it an 8. The show continues to treat GRRM's material seriously. I've also been impressed with the actors involved. Especially the guy playing King Viserys. Rhaenerya's potrayal has been pretty interesting as well. They're also doing a good job of fleshing out the world as well. I enjoyed the trip to High Tide as well. I still have issues with the half-assed way GOT presented Casterly Rock and Highgarden. Like everyone else, I thought Joffrey's murder at the wedding an odd decision. I suppose they kind of want to have a call back to the other Joffrey's death in the Purple Wedding. I guess they also didn't want to revisit a tourney so soon after the first episode. Either way, it's a bit messy. Presumably, the queen will get some witnesses to testify on behalf of Criston Cole (probably with the help of Larys, who seems interested in cozing up to the Queen).

The ending was a bit confusing. My take was that Cole saw Joffrey as a potential threat to Rhaenyra via his black mail attempt so he decided to kill him and then end his own life. Of course if he wanted to keep Rhaenyra's secret, maybe he shouldn't have confessed to Alicent so quickly.

You say “jumped ahead” I say “went completely off the rails”. Regardless I really don’t see the books going in that direction. The show is treating TPTWP prophecy as being some deeply held Targaryen secret. But according to the books it seems that Aemon just assumes that Melisandre is aware of the prophecy and has no trouble talking about it in front of “outsiders”.

My pet theory is that the valyrian dagger with the dragonbone hilt is GRRM's take on the Greek tale of Cadmus sowing the dragon's teeth to make his army. Think of the dagger as the dragon's tooth. In the Cadmus tale, Cadmus slays a dragon and then plants the dragon's teeth in the ground and up springs a large number of armed persons. Cadmus then throws a jewel or stone in the midst of this mass of people, who then fight over it. The survivors become Cadmus' army. Thus "sowing the dragon's teeth" has become a phrase to mean sowing discord. In the books, Littlefinger uses the Valyrian dagger for his own purpose to sow discord between the Starks and Lannisters presumably for his own benefit. Thus even though he doesn't have an army of his own, he coopts the armies of the Starks and Lannisters by pitting them against each other. My suspicion is that the assassination attempt on Bran might have been a similar ploy by another "Baelish" character. We learn that Mance travelled to Winterfell with a bag of silver, where he joins up with the King's procession. We also later learn through Val, of the wildlings fairly harsh beliefs of dealing with children afflicted with grey scale. The basic thought is that putting them out of their misery is considered a mercy. So perhaps Mance decided that putting Bran out of his misery would be a "mercy". And he did it in a way that he thought would pit the Stag vs the Direwolf, and in so doing would turn Ned's attention away from him and towards the South. Perhaps Mance overheard Robert's drunken rant on Bran being better of dead, or perhaps that idea just came from his own time with the Wildlings. Either way, my guess is Mance broke into the King's weelhouse and took the most valuable dagger in the King's collection, assuming it would easily be traced to Robert. Mance just failed to realize that Robert only used a hunting knife gifted to him from Jon Arryn. Mance gives the Valyrian dagger to the catspaw along with a bag of silver and convinces him that killing Bran would be a mercy. My assumption is that the Mance believed that whether or not the catspaw is successful, the use of the valyrian blade would cast suspicion on the Baratheons and turn Stark vs the Crown, which would then prevent the Starks from hindering his plans on bringing his wildling horde south of the Wall.

I kind of doubt that George is going to integrate it in the books. GRRM seems to make it clear that the books and the shows have seperate "canon". He did make a point, however, of saying that the different HBO shows should have the same cannon, which probably explains why they are doubling down on the valyrian dagger in HOTD. It's kind of an easy cheat to get into the prophecy and lore without getting bogged down in details of the book.

The show is actually taking GRRM's material seriously. As opposed to the "abomination" which devolved into Jon Dany shipping fan fiction, and endless Podrick Payne dick jokes.

I'm a bit surprised how lukewarm a lot of these reviews are. I really enjoyed last night's episode. I'm giving it a 9 out of 10. It was almost a 10 from me, but I had to deduct a point from some of the subpar cgi that distracted from the dragon scenes and the boar scene. The show is taking GRRM's world a lot more seriously than the original show did and even without fan favorite characters like Tyrion and Arya, I'm still becoming invested in the characters the show has given us.