The Good Parts:
- Arya's curiosity about what lies to the West of Westeros.
- Jaime and Brianne interaction.
- Jaime and Edmure interaction
- Bronn and Pod interaction
- Thoros and Sandor interaction.
- Arya chase scene.
- Dany coming in off the balcony.
- Fire Trebuchets. On Boats.
- Sandor taking the boots while the body is twitching
- Chicken reference.
- Varys returning to Westeros
The Why? Parts:
- Tyrion and Two Ex-Slaves Part 2. I can't wait for Part 3.
- Sandor pees standing up? I wouldn't have believed it if they hadn't shown us with that between-the-legs-from-behind shot.
- Best Kisser scene.
- All the Arya scenes between the candle scene in Episode 6 and the Jaqen scene in Episode 8. I would have more faith in Arya's skills if I hadn't seen all the stuff in-between.
The Irritating Parts:
- Trial by Combat is done after a run of about 10 thousand years. Because we must convict the King's mother of something and she has a giant abomination standing by her? How about we just ban giant abominations from Trials by Combat? How about the King just orders him to take off his helmet?
- Lem leads a rogue group of cold-blooded murderers who indiscriminately kill many people without taking food or weapons. They don't even retrieve their arrows.
- BwB has Lem and two guys noosed-up just as Sandor comes walking up. At first I thought this was a trap for the Hound. A half-second later I realized I was overthinking this show.
- Parkour with an injury that was 100% fatal between the Dawn of Humanity and World War 1.
- Mace has the only army in 100 miles and he stands beside the King as it is announced his son is getting a trial by religious zealots.
- If you are new and you speak, you might as well be wearing a red shirt. I'm looking at you, little Lady Mormont.
- Cersei chose violence on that one guy, then walked down to the Throne Room. What did the rest of the Faith Militant do? Seems like it would have been easier to get her to the Throne Room, and then have her ordered to go see the HS.
Episode 9:
I am trying to avoid any plot theory that my seven year old couldn't create, but I just don't see how "Vale saves Sansa" goes down so straightforward. The story is holding our hand while walking us down the path that the Vale knights will show up and save Sansa in E9. It seems too easy.
So many questions. Why was LF alone when he met with Sansa in E5? Why are the KotV waiting at Moat Cailin? What exactly is the KotV? Is that an army, or a group of knights? Why are they not laying siege to Winterfell right now? Wouldn't this be the first time ever that Moat Cailin was taken from the South? How'd they do that? How'd they do that without ravens flying to Winterfell? What did they do when LF returned to tell Royce and SweetRobin that Sansa refused? How are these Stark kids able to survive so many dumb life-threatening decisions?
The show is really selling the "saved by the Vale" plot. They even have an actual letter written by Sansa for the internet to decipher. They need a twist. My simple theory is that LF is being LF. The KotV aren't at Moat Cailin. They "entered the fray" by taking the Twins. LF is at Winterfell with Ramsay. We might see that prior to the battle, which reinforces that the Stark army is screwed. But, silly LF doesn't know that Ramsay is does not fool easily. I wouldn't be surprised if Ramsey's last major kill is LF. The preview suggests the battle doesn't go well for Starks (spears and shields advancing forward in a circle). But, I can guarantee if Arya lived through that hot mess, then Sansa and Jon live to see Season 7. I think the Stark army is saved by the late-arriving Northern Bannermen who Sansa offhandedly mentioned sending ravens to back in E5 or E6. Heck, good old backstabbing Howland Reed might show up. He could share Jon's origin story with the group. Little Bran sees it through the tree and verifies by time traveling.
Who am I kidding? Of course the Vale army shows up late and saves the day.