Juliajms

Yes. That's why I go out of my way not to listen to them when they do. In this case it's making me think mean things like "he's more pretty than talented anyway". As to Meera, yes, I also really felt bad for her in that last episode. Watching her struggle to pull that damn sled when she had to be out of her mind with fear. Plus the loss of poor Jojen. I'm glad she didn't go out that way. 2 other crazy fan theories, not sure they count as spoilers since we don't really know.

Q- Yes. Sansa sent Brienne south to Riverrun to ask The Blackfish for his army to take back Winterfell. I'm guessing he won't have enough men to help her. He's still busy fighting off the Frey forces. Now Jaime is on his way to help Walder Frey get Riverrun back. Just typing that sentence makes me sick. Remember Tywin gave it to Walder for his help with the Red Wedding. Of course no one in the river lands wants to be ruled be that SOB. I figure Brienne will tell Jaime everything that's happened and he'll go with his army to help Sansa. Maybe that's too perfect an outcome, but a girl can hope.

^ I agree he's been sucked back in, but I'm hoping seeing Brianne again will bring him over to the Stark cause. He has an army and Sansa needs one, so the pieces might fit. Maybe Jamie feels his oath to her is fulfilled, but I hope not, once he hears what Ramsey has done. Sansa is a Lannister after all, I don't think anyone in King's Landing even knew that Ramsey tried to marry her (that marriage was never valid I figure, since Tyrion is alive) or what he's up to in the north. Plus maybe the situation with the White Walkers will come into play. Not that I want to see Cersei left at the mercy of the High Sparrow. I should probably want to see her suffer, but I don't. I want to see her come out on top of this particular battle, but I don't think Jamie can even help her that much now that Tommen has bought in to the zealotry. She needs someone like Little Finger around who can bring down The High Sparrow in a way he doesn't see coming. So maybe this should have been obvious, but I'm not clear, is Benjen Coldhands or are they two different people?

I sort of wonder if Jamie is going to end up going north with Brienne. No way I believe he's going to take down The Blackfish on behalf of Walder Frey. That would be a complete regression of his character. Tarly threatened to kill his own son, so little Sam never would have been safe there. What a creepy guy. I feel bad for Sam's mother.

I'd say the book Sansa is fairly complex. Sansa is complex because she challenges the idea of what being a "strong woman" is about. She undergoes horror after horror, and she survives, but she never survives in the way that some need to see in order to feel validated (which is Arya and her "badass" scenes). You've lost me. Passive survival is pretty much the traditional view of a strong woman not a challenge to it. Book Sansa is a passive little girl who doesn't come across as especially clever. I don't blame her, I'm not sure I was especially proactive and clever at 11 either. If you find that version of the character complex, I think we have different ideas of what that word means, but hey, I can agree to disagree as we usually do.

How can Sansa be a complex character if D&D don't do complex? They are the ones writing her material. The Sansa of the books is a lot less complex I promise you. For starters, she's 11 years old.

Sansa was never going to get the kind of story that Dany does because Dany is the co hero of this whole story. I don't see that Cersei's story is better or that she's reinvented herself, but I will agree that they are the same level of character. If they are leads at all they are second tier to Jon and Dany. I remember who Sansa was before all this happened. Not a woman at all, but a naive little girl. If she had been born a hundred years earlier she would have grown up more gently with time instead of trauma being the catalyst. Accepting Jon is part of Sansa growing up. Looking down on him because he wasn't her whole brother was petty and immature. It's not the same as if Jon and Arya had reunited, but I find it touching in it's own way. I don't agree at all that Sansa isn't attached to anyone or anything anymore, building Winterfell in the snow was proof of that. She's been longing for her home and family, including Jon this whole time. She's risking falling back into Ramsey's hands to reclaim it.

Damn. I was hoping Shireen would meet a different fate in the books, although when Davos helps Robert's bastard (can't remember his name in the books) escape it makes sense that Shireen ends up screwed.

I guess we have to hope that Coldhands is around and will help Bran get to the wall.

This person explains it better than I can. Time loop! https://www.yahoo.com/tv/game-thrones-exactly-happened-hodor-time-loop-061313659.html It does make me wonder if Bran can visit the future and then come back and help change any mistakes that are made in trying to defeat the white walkers. IDK, I do like the series 12 Monkeys, but I hope there isn't too much time travel in GoT.

Because Hodor has been mentally incapacitated since we know him. Nothing has changed. Time travel talk gets so confusing, but the way I see it the change Bran made happened in the past at the moment he made it happen. Any change he makes will be something that makes the present what it is, but doesn't actually change the present as we know it. So yes, he can influence the past to make this present what it already is as opposed to what it would have been if he had not changed it. Lord, I feel like I'm talking about Star Trek or 12 Monkeys. I watched again. I'd like the show runners to spell it all out for us, but I don't think Bran was controlling Hodor when he held the door. As YRBB pointed out Bran warged into Hordor in the past, so he saw how important it was for him to hold the door. In the present his eyes went white for just a second and then they went back to his own color.

Another small difference is in the book Hodor's real name is Walder. I'm pretty sure he's a Frey, although I'm not sure it was spelled out. I think even on the show he's meant to be a Frey, since we've seen so many variations of Walder among that house. I've always liked that this show doesn't really subscribe to the idea that a person has to be bad just because someone in their family is awful. Another example is Podrick being a Payne. As for the Lord of Light, I think it is going somewhere, although I can't guess where. It's hard to see that entity on the side of right and justice, but I think maybe it's true. He does have a few similarities with the Old Testament Christian God. I suspect all the Gods are real. We've seen the power of the old gods, The Lord of Light, and the Winter King. I think we've even seen the power of the Seven, considering kinslayers don't tend to fare too well. The scene with Rob killing the Karstark comes to mind with the pouring rain and being cursed. Anyway, I want to believe in The Seven because that means Walder Frey the senior and Ramsey are thoroughly f*cked. That leads me to the fan theory (obviously stop reading if you don't like these, but speculation, not spoilers) that Tyrion is a Targaryan. I'm starting to believe it. Partially because he killed Tywin and also because the dragons didn't eat him. Plus we know Aerys had access to Joanna. She must have been in King's Landing, since Tywin was Hand. Also a few of Tywin's lines made me think he knows. "Because I could not prove that you are not mine" said to Tyrion. Also the way he derisively said "my children" that one time. I almost wonder if they are all Aerys and that's why Tywin had Elia's children killed so brutally. Plus the incest between Cersei and Jamie and the idea that every time a Targaryan is born the gods flip a coin to see if they are good or mad. Could anything be more true of Jamie, Cersei, Tyrion, Joffery, Myrcella and Tommen? Oh, and maybe Jamie's children are dying like flies because he killed his father and king?

I do think GRRM probably told the writers how Hodor got that name, so that much is probably going to stay true in the books. I'd say in the books and the show Hodor is/will be crucial to saving all of humanity. Overall, I'm guessing the show and the books will not resemble each other much starting with this season. For one thing GRRM is notorious for changing his mind. He releases chapters before the book and they've been known to change significantly just in the years it takes to write that one book. So even if he's told the writers certain things, I have no reason to think he won't change his mind before any of the remaining books go to print. Also, there are a lot of ways the show has deviated from the books already, Sansa's story is completely different. There are a ton of major characters and storylines that aren't happening on the show. Understandably, imo. I barely got to feel bad about Summer before it became clear that poor Hodor was done for. Did we see for sure that Hodor's eyes were white when he was holding the door? If Bran had control it doesn't seem like Meera would have been screaming hold the door. I'll have to watch again to see, I was too in the moment to even think about it. At first I thought it mattered that Bran can change the past, but now I wonder. Notice he did change the past, but not the present. I do believe Ned heard him at the Tower of Joy, but I don't believe he can go back and tell the Starks not to leave Winterfell and that the change will ripple through time. I sort of wish it would work out that way though. I hope Sansa doesn't regret sending Little Finger away or not telling Jon the truth, although could it ever be a mistake to turn that SOB away? Poor Jorah, I felt bad for him. We know the cure is out there, so I hope he finds it in time.

Here's some good news about HRC's campaign advantage. http://www.politico.com/story/2016/05/trumps-campaign-dwarfed-by-clintons-223438#ixzz49I79jAFJ

I'm kind of dreading tonight's episode. I don't think the confrontation with the High Sparrow is going to go well. He's too cagey to be taken out easily.

I'd say part of the reason Sanders is holding on is ego. Plus he wants to keep getting attention for his "revolution". Some people just don't know when to call it a day. As for Trump preying on the poor and uneducated, that may be partly true, but there are a whole lot of rich and well educated people falling into line as we speak.

I hope you're right Vee. I'm already sad that so many people are supporting Trump. How is this election not a landslide? I guess it's still early days and maybe when he get closer HRC will have more of a lead than I suspect.

I do think it could happen. I'm a little worried that Bernie Sanders will run a 3rd party campaign. I used to think he would never screw the country over like that, but now I wonder. Isn't HRC's lead in the polls in the single digits at this point? I truly don't get it. Who are these woman who want to vote for him. Ugh!

I agree with some of what you say Carl, but not your take on Ramsey. I don't know how anyone can see him as the slightest bit sexy. He's been framed as the Hannibal Lecter of Westeros almost from the start. At least tonight they made clear that he doesn't eat his victims. I think we've talked a lot about the show being dated. I won't disagree, but the U.S. has changed a lot since the first book was written and in some ways it's just a fantasy period piece. Because of the staggering world wide popularity of the show, it's a little sadder to me that aspects of it aren't more progressive. Some of the visuals are particularly unfortunate, like Dany being lifted up by all of those former slaves. There are little things they could have done all along to make these issues less glaring, but they didn't. On another front, I'd forgotten about the connection between Brianne and Ser Davos. That's an interesting little thread.

Sure. As I mentioned in my own post, I certainly understand it. But it just continues the usual line of behavior for him and it rubs me the wrong way. It has for a long time now. I hope they prove us wrong about this, too. But, yes, I am glad we didn't get to see any of Loras or Margaery's torment. OK, but that's picking and choosing. There are plenty of people in the story who have acted as dishonorable cowards. At the top of the list is Tywin, Roose and Ramsey Bolton and Walder Fray. The whole Red Wedding was an act of cowardice by every single person involved. Ramsey tortures people who are helpless and weaker. Just because he isn't crying doesn't mean he's anything other than a cowardly little bint. Jaime totally gave up after his hand was cut off. Sure, I don't blame him either, but he did. Loras faced The Mountain . Then he didn't run when Stannis was coming until his sister begged him. I don't think there is any reason to think he isn't going to find his feet again just like Jamie and Theon have. Of course he could also be brutally murdered. Arya's story is boring me right now. She may not be blind, but she is still in training and it is a delaying tactic. I'll agree it's necessary to the story, but it's just not interesting to me. And nope, I don't have a lick of sympathy for Jon right now. That letter from Ramsey should have had him doing a little more than reluctantly nodding his head. Sansa has been brutalized by one man after the next, raped and tortured by Ramsey and she still had more fight in her. Azore Azai reborn needs to get his ass in gear.

I don't think I've ever felt like I know where this show is going, except in the case of Jon being brought back. I hoped that the north was already with Jon, but the second I saw Osha brought to Ramsey I knew she was dead. My only surprise there was that he gave her a quick clean death. As far as the pace goes, I feel it is way too fast and that the story has become way too big for 10 hours seasons. We jump from event to event with so little time for character moments. It's not something I'm going to dwell on though because I knew it was inevitable from the start. I agree it's a shame that Loras has been so broken, but he's not really the only gay man (Red Viper) on the show and he's not the only one who isn't brave. Hell, I thought Jon Snow was acting pretty weak this episode. I felt like giving him a good slap. If you think about it the list of cowards on this show is a mile long. Not that I count Jon in that, but he could have been a little more ready to go take Ramsey down. At least Loras has good reason to give up. I'm glad we didn't have to see it (and I can only imagine the backlash if we had), but we can imagine the psychological and physical torture these religious nuts put him through.

A lot of my hopes where dashed this episode. That was a great moment between Jon and Sansa though. I'll say more later.

Whatever his reasons it's really weird that he's lying about it in 2016 when we all know that he's lying. If he had just told the truth it would have just been an odd little blip in the daily wall to wall Trump coverage. Instead the media is now grilling his spokes people and they look like idiots for sticking to the lie and saying things like "I don't care how many voice experts you have it wasn't him". Right.

I don't remember that at all. Jon left the Starks in the second or third episode (chasing after his missing uncle..who is still missing?). You have me thinking about the season one cast and how much now the show has changed. I don't remember it either. Here is the quote. The link I'm posting continues some theories, but not real spoilers. http://www.tvguide.com/news/game-of-thrones-theory-shaggydog-grand-northern-conspiracy/

I was reading an article that said before the Red Wedding Rob named Jon his heir. I totally missed that. I've only watched that episode once. In the books (I know, I know) Rob legitimizes Jon, but did that actually happen on the show? I can't believe I missed it, but I just don't have the heart to watch again. The casting director(s) for this show are pretty great. Young Ned Stark really hit the mark.