Juliajms

Way back when Khal Drogo died, I thought obviously Dany and Jon will marry and rule the seven kingdoms together. People may have died, but there will be a general restoration of the status quo I don't think that any more. Then I thought Dany is bringing in a lot of people who haven't lived under the system of the seven kingdoms. The wildings are coming, so maybe this is about a new world order. Jon will sacrifice himself and Dany will rule. Now a lot of those new people are either dead or staying in Mareen. Some of them will be canon fodder for the Night's King, so I don't think that anymore either. Now I think of Ramsey saying "If you think this has a happy ending, you haven't been paying attention".

I'd say Cersei started to lose her mind a bit when Joff died and Myrcella completed the process. When Cersei said Myrcella was pure and made her think maybe she wasn't an awful person (I'm paraphrasing) I figured the girl's would be a break of sorts for Cersei. Whatever she and Jaime said about keeping Tommen safe, I don't think Cersei ever believed it. I agree that Little Finger probably won't be able to break Sansa and Jon apart. If Sansa wanted to be The Lady of Winterfell, Jon offered it to her. She said he's a Stark to her and I believe her. What I don't understand is why various people think they can marry Sansa when she has a living husband. Makes me wonder if Tyrion will die by the end or if the marriage will be annulled. I can't see him holding her to it at this point, but Little Finger must know that Tyrion lives? Maybe there is so much chaos he thinks he can do whatever he wants. I wonder if Little Finger will get farther along in his plot to take the iron throne and marry Sansa in the book. That may be why GRRM has kept her in The Vale. I agree that the adaptation is really good, but this version of the world is by necessity smaller and more compact. I'm interested to see what GRRM comes up with, if he ever manages to finish. If he doesn't, I don't hold it against him as some do. I'm also sad really sad about Maegary and Loras. One hard thing about the show is that I've lived with some of these characters for a long time and they are being dispatched with little fanfare. At this point there are too many to name them all, but people like Osha and Rickon are the hardest for me. I would have at least had a 30 second scene of her and Rickon talking. Something to make their deaths feel more substantial. As it stands I feel like HBO has done a good job though. You can't make everyone happy.

The Mad King Aerys was Dany's father. Rhaegar was Dany's brother, by most accounts a reasonably good guy. She was just much younger than him. She was at Storm's End when Robert (and the Lanisters) took the Red Keep. She was taken across the narrow sea along with Visaery's to hide her from Robert. Rhaegar was in love with Ned's sister Lyanna. Robert was betrothed to her which started Robert's Rebellion. Rhaegar took her. There's a dispute in the fandom about whether it was a kidnapping/rape or consensual. My opinion is that it was consensual and Rhaegar took Lyanna as a second wife. Not sure this story makes a lot of sense if Jon is still a bastard and Dany is the only rightful heir, but we don't know. That's why we see Robert so determined to kill every single Targaryen. In the second episode he still tells Ned that he still wants to kill every Targaryen and it's 15 years later. That scene was to show us Ned was right to lie to everyone and not even risk telling Cat (debatable, of course). So to sum it up Dany is Jon's aunt. Elia is the Dornish woman married to Rhaegar. Her children were killed by The Mountain.

Yes, that was a good season finale. I was sorry to see Maegary and and Loras die, but glad to see Lady Orlena in Dorn. It's disconcerting the way people can move around the kingdom so fast, but with only 13 episodes left (probably) I get why they have to move the pieces around the board faster. Cersei's coronation was so dark and forbidding. Looks like the Seven Kingdom's as a mad queen on their hands. Arya killing Walder Frey made my night. Bran knows the truth about Jon now, so it'll be interesting to see how all of that plays out. I'm also interested to see Little Fingers next move. On a shallow note the actor who plays young Ned is cute.

What frustrates me most is how opposed some people are to giving immigrants more financial aid, but I don't see that changing in the near future. We can hope things change with the House and Senate, but I feel like HRC's agenda will be fought tooth and nail. Just to clarify, some of us came from slaves. Immigration implies choice which a lot of our ancestors never had. I hear you.

^ Well, I always pause when the right wingers are on any side I sympathize with, that's for damn sure. I would hate to see the EU as a whole break up, since I see it as a stabilizing force. Anything that weakens Germany and keeps it yoked to the whole of Europe is something I'm in favor of, but I see these sort of historical movements (including Trump *shudders*) as so much bigger than myself. What will be will be.

I hear you Carl. These really are complicated issues. I just balk at the idea that I must be racist or a hater if I think we have to slowly assimilate people to a western way of thinking or worse yet that it's wrong to want to assimilate immigrants. I do not want to let in huge numbers of people who don't agree that women and gay people deserve equal rights. I don't blame the Brits for being wary of that either. I also do want to let in the maximum amount of people that we can bring in and help financially, especially since the US has contributed to the instability in the middle east to say the least. Also, it's just a matter of self interest for the West (especially Europe) to let in as many people as we can without causing social instability. Our aging demographics demand it. The West has really done a poor job of educating people on that front, imo. We also don't go out of out way to help people assimilate in the US. Some of the stories of the Syrian immigrants we have let into the US are down right sad. Just dumped in the midwest with little aid and left to make the best of it in the slaughter houses. At the very least we should make English lessons free and easy to access. Not because I think we need to be an English only society, if I had my way we would follow the Canadian example and teach all children English and Spanish, but because English is useful in getting a better job.

I don't agree that wanting controlled immigration is xenophobia. Trump is Satan as far as I'm concerned, but if you ask people to take in too many people from another culture at once, conflict tends to arise. Look at your own country, which is probably the gold standard for immigration. You don't take on more than you can chew, but the people you let in are actually given the help they need to make a good life. In the US, people aren't given much help and the school system is how people tend to assimilate, which means the older generation tends to be lost. Economics drives our immigration policy (which is why elite republicans tend to favor amnesty), but it is far from ideal from the pov of of working class Americans or immigrants, imo.

Carl, I apologize for taking my prosecution of Theon too far and for getting overly passionate about a TV show.

Cersei didn't have those children murdered. Joffery did. He did not mock Bran. He tried to help Bran overcome denial, by mocking himself. The murder of Shae was anything, except cold blooded. It was clearly done in the heat of passion after she lied to help get him the death penalty and screwed his father. I'm starting to doubt you really watch this show. Sansa didn't even know that those forces were coming. She also didn't psychologically torture the people of Winterfell, kill little boys, hang there bodies up for days to scare people into submission or betray Robb. She didn't make the small folk watch while she hacked off a guy's head. She didn't open the door to Ramsey's rule by taking over Winterfell. So you're really reaching by trying to equate Sansa holding back a possibility of help to all of Theon's crimes. But sure, Tyrion is the bad guy here and it's Theon's self esteem and identity issues that we should be worried about. I'm going to have to leave the discussion there, because I just can't relate in any way to your thinking.

I'm pretty sure Tyrion was shaming him for killing the Stark boys. That's a little more than failure and weakness. At the risk of sounding like Stannis, the fact that Theon was tortured and saved Sansa does not change the fact that he did have two (other) little boys killed. He also made a poor job of hacking off an old man's head and got countless other men, woman and children slaughtered. Those kind of behaviors may result in feelings of worthlessness and suicidal ideation. I'm with Tyrion in not exactly falling over myself worrying about Theon's feelings. It also seemed pretty clear that Tyrion had no idea what Theon had been through. He thought he was still addressing the same cocky bastard he left behind at Winterfell. If all Theon gets is a little shaming going forward, he should probably count himself lucky. If I were Jon Snow, I wouldn't be feeling especially merciful towards him considering how many people just died brutally to get Winterfell back.

Let me be more direct. He really got his ass handed to him this time. Before that time he was murdered he was being set up as a pretty good leader. I'd say that leadership is at the very least questionable after the Battle of the Bastards. I'm not sure I would be lining up to follow him after what we just saw. Honestly, I can't criticize Jon for trying for Rickon. If he hadn't, I don't think viewers could see him as the shows hero. It would make him look small and maybe like he didn't try save Rickon because they are half brothers and Rickon is the (possible) heir. So ultimately, I came away from this episode seeing Jon as more hero than leader, which makes me wonder if he will outlive the show.

Little Finger showing up was a lot like Jon's resurrection. How anyone could be surprised be either is far beyond me. I agree that the matter of fact way the Stark banner replaced Bolton was just right. One thing I found interesting is that Jon wasn't made to seem like an infallible military commander in this episode. Actually, that's an argument against the Starks feeling nihilistic. If Jon didn't think anything mattered he wouldn't have ridden out to try to save his little brother against all possible odds. It was a terrible mistake that arguably got a lot of people killed, but he acted on pure emotion.

Also, I don't think we were supposed to find Little Fingers arrival surprising. First we saw Sansa write to him for help. Second, if anyone thought that Ramsey was going to win that battle, they haven't been paying attention. How else could Jon win if Little Finger didn't show up? On another board I saw people theorizing that Jon was actively protected by magic in this episode and I think that's right. The conversation between Jon and Red Woman set that up. I sort of rolled my eyes when none of the arrows hit him. The Lord of Light's protection at least explains that. I don't think there would have been happiness and hugging in that episode if Ned Stark himself walked out of the crypt. Rickon is dead and Jon just went through living hell and watched a lot of people he cared about die. His army was wiped out and there is another army in town. I'm not so sure Little Finger wasn't taking a lesson from the Late Lord Frey on that one. I bet Sansa and Jon aren't either. Plus who knows who they can trust in the North after this other than Little Lady Mormont.

^ I'm not surprised. There has been wall to wall Trump coverage. He's been given so much free media it's sickening.

1. This seems odd, why doesn't he just donate it to himself? 2. Yay!

I think the reason Rickon was given up was Jon letting the Wildings stay south of the wall. That was seen as a betrayal. I also hoped that at least one house would betray Ramsey mid battle. I think part of the reason that didn't happen was that any house betraying Ramsey would have gone for him. TPTB wanted to let Jon and Sansa kill him. I do wonder why Jon didn't ask The Red Woman to bring Rickon back, but maybe he thinks it's a fate worse than death. It worried me a little that Jon's army is mostly dead and Little Finger's is not. Hopefully, he won't screw Sansa over.

One thing I like about GoT is that it doesn't glorify battle. All of those poor men piled high like cattle at the slaughter. Awful. The camera work was really good, showing the confusion and horror surrounding Jon. Jon thought Rickon might survive, but Sansa understood there was never a chance. I was just glad Ramsey wasn't pulling that child's half flayed body behind him, which is what I was expecting. Ramsey was more diabolical than that though. He knew hope would draw Jon out. I was also glad they made him a little older. It's not fair, but watching that happen to a five year old would have been worse. All told he had a clean death, so that's something. Watching the giant (poor guy) knock down the door was pretty satisfying. I wondered if they could make Ramsey's death even a little satisfying. Revenge tends to feel empty to me, since it doesn't undo anything, but letting Sansa end him was as good as it was going to get. I'm glad she didn't lose sight of that goal for one single second. Having Little Finger around is unfortunate. I like the character, but I wish her were in the south, so he couldn't cause trouble for the Starks. I wonder if the Red Woman is so subdued because she's seen Ser Davos killing her in the flames? It's strange the way she's just given up even after being given the power of resurrection. Yara flirting with Dany was fun.

That's strange. If nothing else I'd expect him to want the attention.

Except for that part where she was stabbed in the stomach and there is no way in hell she would be able to run that long and that fast. Then she slides on her stomach and not only keeps running, but outruns the waif? The plot holes in this episode were big enough to drive a truck through. I'm just hoping the next one is better. I expect it will be, since usually the battle episodes are outstanding.

Skin- I agree with you. I think that the NRA has managed to get many people to believe that "Obama is coming for your guns", but he's never advocated banning guns. Just some common sense restrictions. At the very least a person should need some gun safety training, a background check and a license. Every year something like a hundred (I have to look up the statistic, but it's a lot) toddlers shoot someone because their parents don't follow basic gun safety laws. That's crazy. http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/toddlers-shot-victim-week-2015-article-1.2398377

Crazy talk. As if a bunch of civilians would have been a match for the Nazi war machine just because they had a few guns. Same thing with these Rambo wannabes who think civilians with guns would be a match for the American military. Somehow they manage to forget about the satellites, drones, tanks, missile launchers, bombs, supplies and organization our military would bring in that scenario. If the government ever does come calling (and yeah, I don't believe it will) we're screwed.

This is a pretty funny take on the last episode. https://thespeshblog.com/2016/06/14/game-of-thrones-s6e8-no-one/ I mostly agree, but don't read it, if you don't already have an idea of what Cersei is up to.

I'm very thankful that Trump has some conspiracy nut to him. If he weren't saying some of these off the wall things, but just focused in on people's fears, I think he'd be getting somewhere.