jeffklm

Mother Merciless is a more kickass name than Lady Stoneheart. Me likey.

I may be wrong, but I think he called himself a "natural son" of Roose Bolton. Roose was the one calling him his bastard. Might need a rewatch to confirm.

Isn't that what I said? Michelle Fairley has a starring contract up to S3, not a special guest contract. They therefore do need to credit her in the opening credits.

8/10. Lack of Lady Stoneheart was a huge letdown. Also, not a lot of scenes worthy of a season finale. They probably did not reveal Stoneheart this season due to Michelle Fairley's contract. If she did appear, Michelle's name will have to appear in the opening credits, which will give it away somewhat. I still anticipate them to reveal Stoneheart at some point. Probably in S4E1, end scene. Michelle Fairley can be credited as a Special Guest Star or something, so her name would not appear in the opening credits.

A 9.5 from me too. Took off .25 each for reasons above.

5/10. I've already posted most of my problems with this episode in the nitpicking thread. On a second thought, 4/10. It was that bad.

In the show Ramsay knows that Bran and Rickon are alive. Do you think this will play into the story somehow? Perhaps he will send a hunting scout to look for them, and that's when Bran's party decides they should split and have Bran/Jojen/Meera/Hodor and Osha/Rickon go their separate ways. Speaking of which I hope we get to see Osha/Rickon's journey to Skagos in the show. Ros's death was horrifying. I'm glad that as book readers we can still be shocked. And it reinforces Joffrey's sadistic persona. He was presented as more of a love-sick and awestruck puppy in the first half of the season so it was a welcome change (or reversion) of character. In seasons 1 and 2 we had constant reminders of this in the form of Ned's beheading, baby slaughter, whore torturing, Sansa's beating & stripping, and Flea Bottom riot. I for one am satisfied that they are showing the Theon/Ramsay scenes chronologically rather than in flashbacks. And like other people have pointed out, the scenes help establish Ramsay's character and Theon's ultimate demise. I've seen a lot of complaints about not showing things that happen in flashback in this forum, but isn't this way much better? The show doesn't have the luxury of internal monologues and spelled-out clockwork of characters' thoughts. Speaking of flashbacks, I know it's a bit off topic, but I would love to see a spin-off/prequel that chronicles the events of Robert's Rebellion. There are enough materials that could easily cover 2 or 3 seasons worth of episodes. Maybe they can do it a la Spartacus, inserting it while GoT is on hiatus while waiting for A Dream of Spring?

What I get from that is not that Arya will kill these people, is that she will become these people i.e. foreshadowing her becoming a Faceless (Wo)Man

OH MY GOD ROS! Who saw THAT coming??

My heart bled for Sansa when she prayed to the weirwood stump. We know that among the Stark children, she's the most devout to The Seven and with the most desire of adopting the culture of the South. But now she yearns for the North and her family, and perhaps the closest she'll ever feel like she's back in Winterfell is in front of a heart tree. That, and the Winterfell snowcastle later in The Eyrie.