Game of Thrones [SPOILERS]

[Chimpy]

Honestly, I didn't notice at the time but after thinking back on the episode during their little "behind the scenes" bit (which I am kinda annoyed about the adding to the HBOGo streams, I liked not having the "previously" and "next time" kind of things before) I realized it and felt it worth commenting about here.

[Khaldun]

I really hope Dany is out of Mereen well before the end of the season. An entire season there is going to be agonizingly slow.

[kaid]

hopefully they spend a lot of her time down there in dragon taming montages as she goes about retaming/retraining her children cause pouty bad ruler danny for a whole season would be kinda annoying. That said she needs to learn how not to lead to teach her how to do it right and thats pretty much what the whole thing in the south is practice for the challenge of leading the 7 kingdoms.

[HaemishM]

The events at the end of book 5 I assume are coming this season, but based on how fast they are moving along, I have no idea if they'll be end of season or middle. I'm not sure how I feel about Sansa's arc yet (though it does make a lot of sense). Jamie going to Dorne, though? If it brings Bronn back into the limelight, I'm down.

[Lantyssa]

Well, there's a lot of room for divergence from the books with Jaime going to Dorne, Brianne and Pod knowing about both Stark girls, and whatever is happening with Baelish and Sansa.

[Khaldun]

I'm thinking that the whole situation of the North is going to combine fifth book and whatever Martin had planned for the sixth--that's probably the Littlefinger/Sansa plotline, in part.

It is interesting that Brienne knows that both Arya and Sansa are alive--in the books, I don't think anyone in Westeros knows about Arya, for example. Could almost make for an interesting way to introduce  at a very different moment in the story, if they choose, giving her a very different motivation.

[Bunk]

I'm kind of surprised that we haven't seen  yet, but I'm really enjoying the fact that I can't even remember what is and isn't book consistent any more. Pretty big divergence with the character reveal at the end of this episode though.  I suspect one of the big season enders on this one will be
We'll see.

[Lantyssa]

I wish they would.  While things were implied, it'd be nice if he was skilled enough to have escaped.

[Rendakor]

I suspect one of the big season enders on this one will be We'll see.

If that's the big reveal, it means
I'll try to contain my excitement.

I feel like it was pretty obvious he was intended to survive. Martin doesn't kill people offscreen.

[Threash]

If we get only one season of Mereen you should consider yourself lucky.

[Tannhauser]

I really like some of the traveling match ups.  Hope to see a bit more of Essos and bits of it's land and culture.  Excited to see Dorne, the forgotten kingdom of the Seven.  Braavos has been nicely added while Pentos is still a garden and balcony.  The Mereen storyline is dragging, but I guess the point is to train Dany to rule.

I miss Ser Friendzone.

[MediumHigh]

I miss Ser Friendzone.

Trust me you won't

[eldaec]

Dorne was one thing I didn't see as divergence, there is no Arianne on TV and that was her scene with a different character.

Thought the wall was great again. Was worried the election wouldn't work without the back and forth but it covered everything it needed to, also liked the bit with Selenye, all good.

But Varys still doesn't sit right with me.

[Rendakor]

If we get only one season of Mereen you should consider yourself lucky.

She wasn't there last season? I haven't watched in a season or two; only started back up because we're passing the books.

[eldaec]

Nothing has gone past the books yet, the Wall has only just finished up Storm.

[Rendakor]

Maybe not in Episode 2...

[Khaldun]

Nothing has gone past the books yet, the Wall has only just finished up Storm.

Sansa and Littlefinger are past the books, unequivocally.

Jaime is...not so much past the books as doing something different than the books. Same for Varys and Tyrion.

[Merusk]

Seems like 80% of the Kings Landing crew is all off the book rails.  Only the Tyrells and Cersi's stories seem to matter there.

[Tannhauser]

First really good episode of the season. 

[Merusk]

It's not that big a divergence other than ...

I agree it was a great episode, though.

[K9]

First really good episode of the season.  

[MediumHigh]

[eldaec]

Given the unresolved Sansa prophecy, I wonder if this is a book divergence, or a way to short cut to the same place.

Prophecy I mean...
 

Also maybe...
 

[Khaldun]

[Samwise]

Littlefinger always has a plan several plans in motion.  It's possible that the writers have somehow forgotten that, but I'm going to give them more credit than that.

[Merusk]

He's trying to cozy up to Boltons, that the obvious one. The less obvious one I'm hoping is exactly what Khaldun and eldaec have outlined. The 3rd I believe involves Varys' plan somehow.

[Samwise]

Oh man, Littlefinger ending up on Team Dany (maybe trying to position himself as Warden of the North under Targaryen rule) would be amazeballs.  It would actually fit really well with the distance he's suddenly put between himself and the Lannisters.

My gut tells me he won't live long enough to see Dany on the throne... but I realize I don't have anything to back up my vague feeling that he's not as smart as he thinks he is and his hubris will be his undoing.  Have any of his devious schemes ever completely fallen through?  He might in fact be as smart as he thinks.

[schild]

Not enough Arya and Tyrion in this episode to make up for the other trash.

[MediumHigh]

Ayra disappearing from the plot would be the best divergence this series could take from the book. Tyrion is literally in filler island for the entirety of Dance so I don't miss him either.

[eldaec]

Regarding Khaldun's post

[Teleku]

Oh man, Littlefinger ending up on Team Dany (maybe trying to position himself as Warden of the North under Targaryen rule) would be amazeballs.  It would actually fit really well with the distance he's suddenly put between himself and the Lannisters.

My gut tells me he won't live long enough to see Dany on the throne... but I realize I don't have anything to back up my vague feeling that he's not as smart as he thinks he is and his hubris will be his undoing.  Have any of his devious schemes ever completely fallen through?  He might in fact be as smart as he thinks.

Think it's pretty straight forward what the setup is.
My opinion obviously, but thats my best guess so far.

Of course the big question in this is what will Stannis do, but Ive had no idea what the fuck Martin has been doing with him for awhile now.

[Samwise]

I don't see why Littlefinger would necessarily need to advertise that he's got Sansa.  He could have feigned unconditional support for the Boltons and just kept it a secret that he had Sansa tucked away in the Eyrie, then eventually married her himself and leveraged that political value in his own takeover attempt once the Boltons were ripe for a coup.  Playing a longer game seems smarter to me.

Given that the Boltons are still theoretically allied with the Lannisters, this actually puts Littlefinger in a bit of a potential spot, since the Lannisters aren't supposed to know that he stole Sansa away.  That information could easily make it way back to Cersei and might get him in some trouble.  Makes this move doubly dangerous and potentially dumb.

On the other hand, this certainly gets the plot moving.  

(edit) Yeah, Teleku's idea seems like the most likely path to success.  Hinges on a lot of "imponderables" but if Littlefinger's been doing a lot of offscreen maneuvering then maybe he's got more control over the situation than is obvious.

[Stewie]

[eldaec]

I don't see why Littlefinger would necessarily need to advertise that he's got Sansa.  He could have feigned unconditional support for the Boltons and just kept it a secret that he had Sansa tucked away in the Eyrie, then eventually married her himself and leveraged that political value in his own takeover attempt once the Boltons were ripe for a coup.  Playing a longer game seems smarter to me.

Given that the Boltons are still theoretically allied with the Lannisters, this actually puts Littlefinger in a bit of a potential spot, since the Lannisters aren't supposed to know that he stole Sansa away.  That information could easily make it way back to Cersei and might get him in some trouble.  Makes this move doubly dangerous and potentially dumb.

On the other hand, this certainly gets the plot moving.  

(edit) Yeah, Teleku's idea seems like the most likely path to success.  Hinges on a lot of "imponderables" but if Littlefinger's been doing a lot of offscreen maneuvering then maybe he's got more control over the situation than is obvious.

Aside from offscreen maneuvering, LF believes that if he shakes things up, he'll always come out on top simply because he is the better player, especially right now when the Vale is only one of the seven kingdoms entirely at peace. The obvious trope driven plot would be that he is ignoring the threat of an even better player sharing his carriage.

As for the threat of the Lannisters, Bolton no longer needs Lannister support if he has an actual Stark to pacify the North with. And LF doesn't believe Cersei is capable of holding the centre anyway.

[MediumHigh]

You guys assuming that poor littlefinger wont get killed by cersei the moment he arrives at kinglanding.