smokeythebear said:

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2) I've said it before and I'll say it again. The WWs aren't going to attack on day 1 of "Winter". They are attacking as the heaviest part of Winter sets in. This is why it "takes so long" for them to march south. They aren't in any rush because they are still waiting for the weather to get worse.

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"And I promise you, friend, the true enemy won't wait out the storm. The enemy brings the storm."

As evidenced in Hardhome, the WW bring the bad weather, they don't wait for it.

It's taking them a long time because they were very far north and are marching to Eastwatch-by-the-Sea. The wights are slow unless they're in attack mode anyways. When they walked by Sam in an earlier season they were walking like what they are, zombies.

Zombie Jon Snow said:

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combat wombat said:

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BTW, Sansa of seemed unnerved rather than impressed with Arya's fighting ability.

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well she's gotta be a little freaked out.

her lil sis comes back all serious like with a death list (sansa thought she s kidding before)....and then a special dagger Bran gives to her, not sansa.....the she bests one of the greatest sword persons around in a little hand to hand combat...and now she realizes oh crap she was serious...and might be CRA CRA and try to kill a bunch of people.

they also weren't the closest of siblings actually....sweet reunion but Arya thought Sansa was a prima donna and Sansa thought arya was a foolish tomboy.

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Sansa might wonder if she's ever been on Arya's list. She did kind of kick start Arya's troubles both with the whole wolf thing AND telling Cersi about their father's plan to get them out.

AggieChemist said:

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Agnzona said:

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With that big group of players Jon could then give a great speech about forming a representative republic, local rule and self determination for the masses. Then after a moment of awkward silence they all start laughing.

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I told you, we're an anarcho-syndicalist commune. We take it in turns to be a sort of executive officer for the week... but all the decisions of that officer have to be ratified at a special bi-weekly meeting by a simple majority in the case of purely internal affairs but by a two thirds majority in the case of...

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Look. If I went round claiming I was a duke because some moistened bink had lobbed a scimitar at me, they'd put me away.

Come on, now. It's taking them so long for plot purposes. Pure and simple.

And this

Question:

In the last scene where Tyrion is watching the action what exactly does he say and who is he talking to? Doesn't he say something like "Hurry up"? Is he talking to Dany or Jaime?

Also this may seem obvious but when he says, "Don't do it you idiot" I assume he is talking to Jaime? Is this what everyone else got out of it?

Aren't Jon Snow and Dany related?


I don't like Dany. It would be great if a dragon fell during battle with the WW and then was turned into a WW and kills Dany.

I'd like for Arya to sit on the throne at the end.

Brick Tamland said:

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smokeythebear said:

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2) I've said it before and I'll say it again. The WWs aren't going to attack on day 1 of "Winter". They are attacking as the heaviest part of Winter sets in. This is why it "takes so long" for them to march south. They aren't in any rush because they are still waiting for the weather to get worse.

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"And I promise you, friend, the true enemy won't wait out the storm. The enemy brings the storm."

As evidenced in Hardhome, the WW bring the bad weather, they don't wait for it.

It's taking them a long time because they were very far north and are marching to Eastwatch-by-the-Sea. The wights are slow unless they're in attack mode anyways. When they walked by Sam in an earlier season they were walking like what they are, zombies.

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Yea, I mean, you can call it whatever you want, but there's a difference between Euron's ships teleporting to the other side of the continent and the WW army taking 6 full seasons to make it from the "fist of the first men" to the wall.

We've seen them marching before (when Sam first saw them) and we've seen them sitting still (when Bran saw them). But they aren't LITERALLY bringing the winter themselves. There are seasons that come and go in the show outside of the presence of white walkers. Yes, they bring more cold with them wherever they go (we saw them walk through and extinguish fire), but Winter JUST started, so it makes sense, if for no other reason than to stall the plot, that they are slowly making their way further south as more and more of the land gets cold enough for them to operate at full strength.

It isn't a "timelines are just different" thing. It is a "they are still waiting for the right time to attack the wall" thing. Hardhome to the wall isn't nearly as far as Highgarden from King's Landing. One has taken 3 seasons? The other took two episodes for a round trip?

Y'all need to suspend your belief that the white walker army is just slowly marching constantly this whole time. When the thick of winter hits, I bet they travel very quickly wherever they want to go.

So I'm assuming the show intentionally had Dany eviserate that entire supply line of food, something just minutes ago she was pissed about not having enough of, to highlight how Dany is showing some signs of becoming just another bloodthirsty, power-hungry ruler, right?

He said "Flee you fool" then he said basically the same thing with the f word thrown in for good measure.

He was talking to himself basically.

smokeythebear said:

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Brick Tamland said:

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smokeythebear said:

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2) I've said it before and I'll say it again. The WWs aren't going to attack on day 1 of "Winter". They are attacking as the heaviest part of Winter sets in. This is why it "takes so long" for them to march south. They aren't in any rush because they are still waiting for the weather to get worse.

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"And I promise you, friend, the true enemy won't wait out the storm. The enemy brings the storm."

As evidenced in Hardhome, the WW bring the bad weather, they don't wait for it.

It's taking them a long time because they were very far north and are marching to Eastwatch-by-the-Sea. The wights are slow unless they're in attack mode anyways. When they walked by Sam in an earlier season they were walking like what they are, zombies.

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Yea, I mean, you can call it whatever you want, but there's a difference between Euron's ships teleporting to the other side of the continent and the WW army taking 6 full seasons to make it from the "fist of the first men" to the wall.

We've seen them marching before (when Sam first saw them) and we've seen them sitting still (when Bran saw them). But they aren't LITERALLY bringing the winter themselves. There are seasons that come and go in the show outside of the presence of white walkers. Yes, they bring more cold with them wherever they go (we saw them walk through and extinguish fire), but Winter JUST started, so it makes sense, if for no other reason than to stall the plot, that they are slowly making their way further south as more and more of the land gets cold enough for them to operate at full strength.

It isn't a "timelines are just different" thing. It is a "they are still waiting for the right time to attack the wall" thing. Hardhome to the wall isn't nearly as far as Highgarden from King's Landing. One has taken 3 seasons? The other took two episodes for a round trip?

Y'all need to suspend your belief that the white walker army is just slowly marching constantly this whole time. When the thick of winter hits, I bet they travel very quickly wherever they want to go.

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One of the quirks of the world is the seasons are very long. In the beginning it had been summer for over 10 years, fall would be expected to last > 1 year, and winter often lasts up to 10 years as well. That is why they are all so paranoid about winter because it is LONG and dangerous.

I'm sure they explained this in the shows but I cannot recall exactly when they did so.

My predictions-

• Sam somehow learns of R+L=J at the Citadel plus the meaning behind the dagger
• Arya offs LF-remember the maester is going through all the scrolls looking for info
• Dany loses a dragon but don't think it will be Drogon
• Night King destroys the wall-has to get the army of the dead through somehow
• Jamie is captured but set free to broker a surrender to Cersei
• Cersei does what Cersei does-says whatever she needs to for the greater good of Cersei
• Jon and Dany join the mile high club on top of Drogon (I know, but it could happen)

Hickory High said:

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So I'm assuming the show intentionally had Dany eviserate that entire supply line of food, something just minutes ago she was pissed about not having enough of, to highlight how Dany is showing some signs of becoming just another bloodthirsty, power-hungry ruler, right?

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I don't think she had a clue what she had Drogon destroy. (That's what happens when you don't do a proper recon.) I think she just chose to destroy the rear area because the Dothraki were mixing into the front lines of the Lannister army.

Trident 88 said:

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Hickory High said:

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So I'm assuming the show intentionally had Dany eviserate that entire supply line of food, something just minutes ago she was pissed about not having enough of, to highlight how Dany is showing some signs of becoming just another bloodthirsty, power-hungry ruler, right?

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I don't think she had a clue what she had Drogon destroy. (That's what happens when you don't do a proper recon.) I think she just chose to destroy the rear area because the Dothraki were mixing into the front lines of the Lannister army.

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Unless Drogon is more sentiment that I think he (she?) is, that's some crazy precision and a strangely specific target cfor it to be merely chance.

You may be right though. Wouldn't be the first time military strategy in this show has made me raise an eyebrow.

Urban Ag said:

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Ragoo said:

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only beef i had with the last episode. you give me a epic battle with many big player characters and not one shocking death? GRRM would have had tyrion killed standing there watching just because.

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What epic battles in the books or series have big players deaths? I can't think of any offhand.

Robert - hunting accident/murder
Ned - executed
Mormont - murdered
Rickon - essentially executed
Rob - murdered
Cat - murdered
Roose - murdered
Ramsay - executed
Pycelle - murdered
Joffrey - murdered
Tommen - suicide
Olena - execution/suicide
Oberyn - trial by combat
Lysa - murdered
High Sparrow, Kevin, Mace, Margery, Lancel, Loras - blown up
Stannis - executed
and so on.......................

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WUN WUN!!!!!!!! at the BotB.


And HODOR!!!!!!! ok not a huge battle per se but still it was in the action.



Mostly though yes you are correct - major characters (with more than one word or grunts for dialogue) die in planned out solo attacks or executions...not in battles.

Clarke95 said:

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The dothraki leaping to their feet on their horses' backs was so badass. I can't believe the Lannisters didn't run when they saw that (or the dragon coming at them)

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This reminded me of the horsemanship of the Comanches described in 'Empire Of The Summer Moon', which if you haven't read, you should.

The Braavosi Connection

When Arya had her exhibition with Brienne, Sansa and Baelish looked on. When Brienne asked her who taught her this way of fighting she said "no one." Then Baelish bowed. It is likely he recognized the fighting style from Braavos.

In s3 when Tyrion was made master of coin and he went over the books he explained to Bronn that LF was not some magician with finance but rather he often borrowed it from the Iron Bank of Braavos. Often=relationship, relationship=time+familiarity. Bronn intrigued by usery and finance asks "what happens if I don't pay you back?" And there is an exchange of looks and Tyrion says that's why he doesn't lend money. The extended look was to imply force.

The iron bank of braavos must have a real force behind them or else they cannot reclaim monies lent. Two or three times now the bank rep was called a gambler and he says they aren't gambles, implying they always win. What could this mean?

Well what else do we know about Braavos? Other than a port and curly haired swordsmen....Valar morgulis. The temple of the many faced god (death).

Every man of braavos respects a coin. This temple is the seat of power where the iron bank increases their wealth and the faceless men are the violence to enforce it. The faceless men aren't just vengeful girls, they are assassins. They kill people for small fortunes (the traveling theater folks); the higher the profile of the target, the more expensive the hit.

The iron bank recoups their losses in flesh as a sacrifice to the God of Death, no gamble necessary.

Back to Baelish. Being from the fingers, his family rules the easternmost reach of the Vale, closest geography to Braavos in all westeros. Baelish's hair is curly, this isn't by accident. In s3ish when Cercie gets her guards to pull a knife on him (discussion of power), she talks about him choosing his own sigil, meaning he hides his families sigil. Care to guess? the Titan of braavos' head.

All too coincidental?

So next episode is the "episode 9" of this season and the previews showed Eastwatch by the Sea.
How many of the Wildlings die next week?
Does Tormund go down fighting? Or do they execute some sort of Dunkirk evacuation and live to fight another day?

Shouldn't next weeks episode line up with 8? Either way looks like things will stay moving at a face pace with great battles!

Independent George said:

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Shouldn't next weeks episode line up with 8? Either way looks like things will stay moving at a face pace with great battles!

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8.

there are 3 more

ep 5 = 8
ep 6 = 9
ep 7 = 10