Vee

Polling confirms Trump is losing the argument on terrorism.

I'm not convinced HBO won't get a bit more than the two short seasons planned. I'm honestly not sure they can wrap the whole story up in just 13 eps. But we'll see.

Nikolaj Coster-Waldau talks to the NYT about the future of the show. Isaac Hempstead Wright likens Bran's powers to the Xbox.

Dean-Charles Chapman on Tommen taking the plunge. And Bella Ramsey on Lyanna Mormont!

I still think someone unlikely will rule in the end - our big heroes will do the heavy lifting to stop the Night's King, but none of them will sit on the Iron Throne long. I think most of them will fade away, die in battle or go off somewhere. My bet is on someone like a well-managed and well-counseled King Gendry of all people, the humble commoner boy who is an acceptable and stable Baratheon face. Maybe with Sam Tarly as his Maester, or Tyrion or Bran as his Hand (shades of Brynden Rivers, the prior Three-Eyed Raven, who I believe was Hand to Aerys I). Maybe with Brienne as Lord Commander of the Kingsguard. Likely with Sansa as Queen or Wardeness of the North. I don't see Jon or Daenerys living through the winter. They will fight and die to save the realm, or one will simply leave it. Titans like that only last in legend, not in the everyday life. Or perhaps Daenerys (and Jon?) will have a child, and he or she will be shepherded to take the Throne someday from a Regent or Lord Protector among our cast.

Finn Jones on Loras' fate.

Natalie Dormer seems to indicate in her interviews that she is very much off the show. I don't think they'd pull a Jon Snow there.

They shot the sequence with the septa just right. By the time I realized what the Mountain might be doing to her they had mercifully obscured the frame with Cersei. Another nice note of symmetry I didn't notice: Lyanna Mormont, named for his mother, crowns Jon King in the North.

Natalie Dormer talks to EW and Harper's Bazaar. Lena Headey talks to EW.

I would've liked another scene or two with Rickon or Osha. I especially loved Osha from back in the day, but I could see their fate coming a mile away when Ramsay brought them back into the game. It was the way of drama, and I doubt either the show nor Martin will or would bother having Rickon stand as impediment to Jon as King in the North or Sansa as Queen of the North (which I suspect she will be when all is said and done, and the truth of Jon's lineage is revealed - and I think Bran will remove himself from the running one way or another). As for Margaery and Loras, it was brutal and sudden but it didn't demean their characters. Margaery was Margaery to the end, and I think she'd played the game out as far as she could. No one could have stopped Cersei, so their road ends here. I'm sad to see the Tyrell kids go but I figured they would one way or another. This is better than being tortured and humiliated by Cersei, which she might have found preferable.

So yeah, that was fantastic. They definitely cleared the decks - even lame-ass Daario got the Apollo Theater vaudeville hook! I will be sad if that's the end of my beloved Margaery, but sooner or later she was likely going to get taken off the board somehow. She stayed sharp to the end, though, either way. It's pretty unlikely but I'll still be praying for her to turn up in the ruins like most of the cast of Melrose Place did after Kimberly Shaw's bomb - a few cuts and scrapes and they're all good! I do wonder when and how Cersei decided to go this far and if she knew how far it would have to go. I wish we'd gotten more of that process. But the scenes with her and the Septa, her monologue was unbelievable, as was the mostly wordless opening sequence with careful, exquisite editing and framing - every shot like art, like graphic novel paneling. Miguel Sapochnik has shown his talent for directing epic action several times, but the tone and rhythms here were something else entirely and it continued apace through the entire episode, reinventing itself constantly with intimacy, with grandeur, with different levels of intensity. It was probably the most striking directorial effort I've seen on a show full of amazing episodes and incredible directors. He should win an Emmy, as should the costume folks for Cersei's incredible warrior queen armor - I foresaw a lot of twists coming, but not her coronation. The show has been so focused on the women's rise this year, and now we have the direct parallel of Daenerys and Cersei, but the real heart of the story thrust has been Sansa's journey. I defy anyone to look at the whole of this season from their reunion, or this episode and their wonderful scene on the ramparts(?) and tell me Jon and Sansa have no relationship. I loved the way they processed talking about their father. And I am glad Sansa is fully aware of just how dangerous Littlefinger is. I think he is overestimating how much play he can get out of trying to play Jon and Sansa off each other. She was happy for her brother. And while Sansa is the true power behind the re-taking of the North, the scene with the Northern Houses pledging themselves to Jon was incredibly powerful and well-earned. As was her realization at the weirwood tree about how far she's come from wanting to be anywhere but the North, and now it is hers. I'm not surprised they spared Melisandre. I know she told Arya she'd see her again. And thank God Arya is back in Westeros. They even managed to find a way to knit the damn Dorne plotline in well - once again the season is matriarchal, by having Varys intercede to unite the women of Dorne and the vengeful Olenna with Daenerys and the Targaryens. Also liked the callback to Daenerys' vision of the burnt-out Red Keep from Season 2 - that prophecy is fulfilled. This show has vastly leveled up this year, and I think it's the strongest and most cohesive since perhaps Season 3. Season 4 was great but had its bumps here and there, and Season 5, while it had several excellent storylines, showed real signs of lagging trying to run parallel to Martin's book releases. This year they've been off the leash and completely liberated, and characters, relationships and story have all become richer, deeper and more forceful. It's just excellent. And I pity any show that may have to air against it next year (looking at you, my beloved Twin Peaks - not that they'll care, it's such a different show and a singular vision). Cersei hates him (and everyone else), plus he was one of her many opponents to rule, one of few she was not able to nuke in the Sept. Qyburn is her loyal man and the new Grand Maester.

I'm only half through but this is incredible work, especially in terms of the direction and cutting. And Miguel Sapochnik (who directed this, last week and last year's "Hardhome") has a great career ahead of him if he doesn't squander it as fellow GOT man Alan Taylor has with messes like Thor 2 and Terminator: Genisys. Hopefully another of the show's own, Michelle MacLaren, will break the DC Comics curse and do well on Wonder Woman - I don't care about that film so much as her, as she's a towering TV talent with a long run who deserves to break out as Sapochnik does. I'll go into detail about just how rewarding I find Jon and Sansa's rise and bond, but I must say how satisfied I am with the choices that have panned out over time and how pointless I'd feel the book storyline would have been in its place later on. I can't imagine what purpose it would have served to have some alternate story track with Sansa relegated to the background hanging around in the Vale (as she did King's Landing for three seasons) while some poor C-tier girl we know next to nothing about gets raped by wild dogs. Sansa's had hardship but her storyline became and remained central and made her a stronger character through a variety of tragedies, not just the violation on her wedding night. You couldn't have done half the arc they've done with her if you hadn't interpolated the storylines and changed things up. That is the process - and the beauty - of adaptation.

Oh, I had no idea Spencer Treat Clark was his lover on the show. That's... oddly hot.

Ancient Republican dinosaur George Will flees the party over Trump.

To juxtapose Kyle MacLachlan's older comments re: FWWM upthread, here he is from a magazine interview last year:

Gemma Whelan talks Yara and Daenerys.

David Cameron or Neville Chamberlain: Who's worse? You decide!

The BBC (and ITV) are projecting that the UK will vote to leave the European Union. Very frightening stuff. However dangerous our situation across the pond may be sometimes, Trump can and will very likely be handled. This seems catastrophic for Britain.

Sad! And more hilarity.

Collider talks to Bryan Fuller.

Cementing their rep as FOX Lite, CNN hires Corey Lewandowski.

Rutina Wesley was an unbelievable revelation on Hannibal, and DuVernay is a singular voice. I can't wait for this.

They're still at it! Inspiring.