Game of Thrones [SPOILERS]

[calapine]

Oh look, it's Captain Darling !

What?

Lord Glover was played by Tim McInnerny, mostly famous for playing Captain Darling in Blackadder Goes Forth.

Thanks very much! :)

[Setanta]

Sexy Jesus wearing an Arya mask IMO. Buying her passage and setting it up to test the Waif. The Waif is using a mask that Arya touches in an earlier episode (the old woman).

Dead JH wore an Arya mask just before she was blinded so it's possible.

[Teleku]

I like that theory much better than the weird fight club theory.  Granted, it's still a stretch, but would be neat.  At the very least though, I think your right that the waifs actions in this are going to come back to haunt her.

[eldaec]

Maybe I'm giving them too much credit, but even the TV writers would have realised they needed at least a partial reveal in this episode to avoid mask shenanigans seeming cheap.

I could imagine the Kindly Man saving her because reasons. But my money is on "she survived and will recover fully in 30 minutes because television".

[Slayerik]

On Arya, I don't think it is a misdirect, the fight club theory is fun but I don't buy it.

I don't think it was even really Arya. Her demeanor was 180 degrees from what is was last appearance and what it should be if you think you're being hunted by a worldwide network of face-shifting super assassins in their hometown. Where did she get the fuckton of silver from that she's tossing around in public, and where was her sword?

Not that this aspect matters a lot, but those wounds were fatal. Not fast killing, but intentionally painful and fatal. That's not Arya unless they plan on her dying off or they just don't give a shit about believability.

I think it's more likely that this part was a test for the Waif and that the Faceless Men took Arya in for that purpose, never expected her to stay and become one of them, and give no fucks about her betrayal. The Waif on the other hand seems to still have a lot of personal ego for a Faceless Man and to test her they needed a believable setup, and that's what Arya's whole roll was. The waif was told specifically not to let her suffer, which she did on purpose with quite a bit of enjoyment, plus she seemed pretty pleased that she was given permission to kill Arya when she should have just nodded and treated it like any other task she was asked to do.

Dig it.

[Khaldun]

Yeah, I like the "This is actually a test for the Waif, and she just failed" theory. Or the "Arya is using stagecraft to fake out the Waif" theory. Both are better than the Fight Club theory which is super-convoluted--that kind of thing takes exclusive attention across an entire film to set up satisfyingly.

[HaemishM]

Let's face it... the whole Arya storyline is super-convoluted and likely makes no sense because there isn't a clear story arc for that character to take which also keeps her relevant to the main storyline of Westeros being besieged by goddamn hordes of pissed off undead.

[Threash]

I like the "It's not Arya, it's Jaquen because he was the third name she gave him" theory.

[Mac]

My theory is that I skip the Arya scenes now because they are boring and nonsensical.

[Khaldun]

Arya is one of several places where I think Martin wrote himself into a conventional fantasy trope and then got all convoluted because he didn't want to admit it to himself. I wish they'd just go ahead and say, "Yeah, ok, she's a vengeance-driven assassin girl. Fine. Yeah, she's the teenage equivalent of the Bride. Fine. On with the murder and stabbiness, then."

[Amarr HM]

I quite like the Arya storyline and I think Bob's theory might have nailed it.

[K9]

Let's face it... the whole Arya storyline is super-convoluted and likely makes no sense because there isn't a clear story arc for that character to take which also keeps her relevant to the main storyline of Westeros being besieged by goddamn hordes of pissed off undead.

It works better in the books for sure, but yeah the whole revenge plot feels pretty out of sync now that the entire rest of the narrative has moved on.

[Khaldun]

Another small irritation for me was this: why is Bronn still working with the Lannisters? Are they paying him anything at all? He knows they're kind of broke--he was working with Tyrion when Tyrion discovered how deep in debt the crown was and how much the Lannisters were in the hole with them. I assume he's been getting some gold, but he's been promised much more for some really high-risk gigs. He doesn't get off on power, particularly, so being promised command over Lannister forces and all that is hardly much of an incentive. He's not an idiot and he has good sources of information, so he must know that not only are the Lannisters not all that rich any more, they're also on the knife's edge of serious disaster in King's Landing. I could see that maybe there's not much of anyone else out there who's buying, I guess--the Boltons and the Greyjoys would seem a really bad idea, Littlefinger probably pays well but that must feel somewhat like being a henchman for the Joker in terms of the risk of getting whacked at the end of the job, Dorne is not a good place for him to go, and I don't know that anyone in the Reach has any need for him. But still. You'd almost think he'd ask Jamie to pay up as much as he can and hop on a boat for Pentos or Braavos where the money's good and the gig is a bit safer. Or even see if he can sign up with Tyrion again, who looks at this point almost like a better patron than Jamie and Kevan. Or just go sit it out in an inn unless Jamie greases his palms right now right this second.

Or maybe if the siege doesn't go all that well, he'll get a note to the Blackfish and offer his services...

[Merusk]

Bronn's stuck because his payments are tied to the crown. He's the dumbest sell-sword ever, he went for lands and title over gold and jewels. He's got obligations he can't walk from now. His latest bribe appears to be, "bigger lands, better title."

So in short, Bronn's just a foul-mouthed lesser lord now.

[angry.bob]

And even with all of that stuff about the Lannisters taken into account, it's probably still the best gig he's had in his life other than when Tyrion was Hand.

As far as him or Sansa contacting Tyrion for work/help, does anyone in Westeros even know where he is or if he's even alive?

[Amarr HM]

Bronn is desperate for a bit of land and a wife, probably sick of being a sell sword and sees this as his last opportunity.

[Khaldun]

Qyburn doesn't quite have Varys' contacts, but news from Essos does seem to be trickling back generally. I would think by this point that Tyrion's presence in Mereen might have been rumored, since he's been seen in public there numerous times. Cersei is a bit distracted so she might not be all that interested in hearing it at the moment.

[eldaec]

Book Cersei is absolutely obsessed with that question. TV Cersei is a paragon of restraint and strategic thinking by comparison.

[Speedy Cerviche]

Bronn is desperate for a bit of land and a wife, probably sick of being a sell sword and sees this as his last opportunity.

It's the great dream of every two-bit sellsword or hedge knight. In the book (and occasionally on the show) Davos spends a lot of time dwelling on how he had it and lost it but maybe it wasn't that great anyway because it's just another sort of bondage while younger Bronn still desires it and probably will have some rough ending over it.

[Samwise]

Book Cersei is absolutely obsessed with that question. TV Cersei is a paragon of restraint and strategic thinking by comparison.

Man, it's been so long I'd forgotten about that, but yeah, isn't book Cersei offering such a large bounty on Tyrion that people are just murdering random dwarves and sending her their corpses hoping to get rich?

[IainC]

Book Cersei is absolutely obsessed with that question. TV Cersei is a paragon of restraint and strategic thinking by comparison.

Man, it's been so long I'd forgotten about that, but yeah, isn't book Cersei offering such a large bounty on Tyrion that people are just murdering random dwarves and sending her their corpses hoping to get rich?

Yes. On the way to Meereen, Tyrion meets up with half of the dwarf duo who performed the comedy joust at Joffrey's wedding. The other half of the duo is dead because someone figured that it might be Tyrion and fancied a go on the dwarf lottery.

[K9]

So a friend of mine thinks that Yara is going to end up as the show's version of Quentyn, which actually has some merit. She'll try and seduce Dany, and then to prove her love to her she'll d something stupid with the dragons.

[MrHat]

So a friend of mine thinks that Yara is going to end up as the show's version of Quentyn, which actually has some merit. She'll try and seduce Dany, and then to prove her love to her she'll d something stupid with the dragons.

I think maybe not the prove her love part, but I think she'll put forth Theon as a suitor and do something stupid with the dragons ala Quentyn.  Theon can't make heirs, and Dany can't make human ones either I think.

This season feels like it's moving so fast that it's painful to watch how much time they spend on Arya even though I love Arya.  Everything else has so much progression towards something.

[eldaec]

I've been surprised just how much more Dance and Feast there has been this season.

Iron Islands and Riverlands have been 100% feast, Arya only reached the end of dance when she went to see the play, and only her last scene was definitely beyond the Winds preview chapter. Only the post Hodor bit has been new to Bran. Sandor this week was all Feast material.

Mereen, Vaes Dothrak, and the North are definitely beyond book readers - but Mereen and the North are hugely reinterpreted. In KL the clearing out of all the players bar Cersei Margery and the Sparrow had already happened at the end of Dance, admittedly Tommen getting religion is new.

So someone becoming Quentyn wouldn't be big shock, also not impossible we'll get a version of Lord Manderly, and Sam still hasn't reached the citadel and met the people he meets there.

[Shannow]

First off who gives a fuck why Bronn is there. More Bronn is always a good thing.

Ep 9 is titled 'Battle of the Barstards'.  Woot

[Amarr HM]

First off who gives a fuck why Bronn is there. More Bronn is always a good thing.

This, but I still can't believe that's Jerome a la Robson & Jerome.

[Threash]

I've been surprised just how much more Dance and Feast there has been this season.

They are obviously going back and using more book material to a) stretch the series as much as possible and b) because the shit they write themselves like the Dorne plot is total ass. I bet we get lady stoneheart also, and that's from book three when we should be on book six.

[HaemishM]

The Dorne plot WAS from the books, only the book version had more characters from Westeros who ultimately didn't matter one fuck. It was also just as bad.

[MediumHigh]

The Dorne plot WAS from the books, only the book version had more characters from Westeros who ultimately didn't matter one fuck. It was also just as bad.

The Dorne plot was not from the books. Like at all. Not a single scene.

[HaemishM]

The Sand Snakes trying to overthrow the Dornish king and kill Myrcella was very much from the books.

[eldaec]

If by kill Myrcella, you mean crown her queen of Westeros then yes.

If by overthrow Doran, you mean head to KL on his orders to infiltrate the sparrows and small council, then sure.

It was Darkstar who wanted Myrcella dead for reasons that have not been revealed. There are certainly parallels in the the snakes being part of a faction wanting war, but there are no bad pussies.

[MediumHigh]

The Sand Snakes trying to overthrow the Dornish king and kill Myrcella was very much from the books.

Haha no.

[Teleku]

While what they did with Dorne was still awkward, I didn't think it was too bad by itself (I imagine its better if you don't have book bias to help you rage against it, heh).  But in the end, using only a few episodes of material (there really wasn't that much Dorne stuff last season, and almost none this season), they managed to cleanly swipe away probably over 500 pages of material.  All of the golden company stuff, all of the endless retarded Dorne plots from the books (Sand Snakes/Darkstar and Prince Extra Crispy), all condensed down into one final result:  There is a large army in the south now marching north.  Dorne and the Sand Snakes are now the stand in for the Golden Company and Prince Deus Ex.  That's only a little bit of airtime to get to the same place that hundreds of pages of shitty material took to get (ok, I sort of like the Golden Company stuff, but its just needless extra plot lines at this point).

So in that regard, I'm fine with it.  Plus hypno tits makes up for a lot, imo.   

[MrHat]

I've been surprised just how much more Dance and Feast there has been this season.

They are obviously going back and using more book material to a) stretch the series as much as possible and b) because the shit they write themselves like the Dorne plot is total ass. I bet we get lady stoneheart also, and that's from book three when we should be on book six.

I'm fine with them reaching back for interesting plot lines.

So, the whole no travel time to get from one end of a continent to another with no dragons was starting to bother me as in the books, as much as it's annoying as fuck sometimes, there is a sense of distance.  My wife, a non-book reader, made a good observation that she never assumed the different stories were synced up perfectly and it looked like when someone arrives somewhere it's because that plotline was taking place during one of the plots we had already seen. It sort of made sense if you don't think about it too hard.

[Setanta]

So I'm just wondering, if they can bring Jon, both Cleganes and Thoros back.... then who is this standing behind the Waif in the just released photos for next episode?

Spoiler alert if true