Month: June 2016

Stop me if you’ve heard this before: the 9th episode of a season of Game of Thrones was one of the best of said season. Crazy, right? For whatever reason, the second to last episode is when shit historically blows up. Boy, did shit ever blow up in “Battle of the Bastards”.

Winterflay No More

Throughout the first season of Game of Thrones, Winterfell was a place of warmth and comfort. It was not only the home of the Starks, but also the viewers. It was the one place that felt safe from all of the chaos in Westeros. Then, Theon Greyjoy had to go and ruin it. Since then it’s been burnt and taken hostage by the owners of the grossest similar around: The Boltons. The Flayed Man’s presence on the walls of the Starks’ home never felt right. It was a violation of what we cared about on Game of Thrones.

Ramsay’s violation of Sansa was just salt in the wound. Just how long can this piece of shit continue to win? We watched him turn Theon into a husk. He made feel for Theon! Theon was the worst before Ramsay was the worst! He repelled Yara and the Ironborn with little more than a crazy look. Stannis’ forces lost their morale due to Ramsay’s 20 good men. It had gotten to the point where Reddit was claiming that Ramsay had too much “plot armor” to be killed. Really, though, Ramsay needed to take on his mirror image in Jon Snow.

The “Bastard Bowl” didn’t disappoint. Game of Thrones has often skimmed the epic battles due to budgetary reasons. The Battle of the Blackwater, for instance, was a little fighting outside the gates of King’s Landing and some green explosions. Stannis’ defeat last season wasn’t even seen on camera. That said, the action and the budget have increased each season. Sure, we didn’t get the last Baratheon (besides ever floating Gendry) vs. Ramsay, but we did get the incredible “Hardhome”. Miguel Sapochnik did such a great job with that one that he was called back to show which Snow was better.

It is an incredible accomplishment for a television show to give us the scaled of the battle shown in “Battle of the Bastards”. From the gorgeous shot of Jon’s initial encounter with the Bolton army cavalry, you knew this was different. Horses colliding, guts spilling out, a mass of corpses so large it was used to trap all of Jon’s forces. WUN WUN. Holy shit, who knew that you could put Lord of the Rings scale fantasy on a weekly television show?

The tension is high throughout the encounter. Jon’s forces are drastically outnumbered. Ramsay’s ploy to piss off Jon by hunting his brother, Rickon, was gut wrenching. Poor kid, he got to come back for about two scenes of looking dirty and sad. As awful as that was, it didn’t hold a candle to Jon nearly suffocating below a mass of humanity. As Snow struggled to breathe under his own allies, I found myself running short of breath.

“Battle of the Bastards” is the anti-Red Wedding. It’s a rousing crowd pleaser of an episode that sees the remaining Starks (sorry, Rickon) triumph over that human pile of horse shit that was Ramsay Bolton. The Direwolf is once again draped over the walls of Winterfell and it feels oh so good.

What price did Sansa pay to see Ramsay’s own hellhounds devour him alive? Littlefinger is as close to the devil as Westeros has. I imagine there has to be a marriage pact in the cards, giving Sansa a cool hat trick. Is it to her sickly cousin, Robin? Gross. Is it Baelish himself? Grosser. Whatever it is, it’s not good. Dude cannot be trusted. He has a plan to climb that chaotic ladder. It increasingly seems like the whole thing may come down to Baelish and the North vs. Varys and the South.

And where does Jon Snow go from here? He has no intention of marching south and putting himself on the Iron Throne. He will certainly want to protect his half-sister and their family’s home. Does that involve uniting the North against the real threat beyond the Wall? He may have to do it without the red priestess, Melisandre. The Onion Knight found the Princess Shireen’s burnt stag. He may be mostly illiterate, but he can do simple math. Davos would have words with thee.

Dracarys is Valyrian for “Ya Burnt!”

Oh no, the Masters are here, whatever shall Tyrion, Grey Worm, and Missandei do? It turns out that they didn’t have to do jack shit. Daenerys Targaryen came back and absolutely wrecked the slavers with her fire-breathing friends. Even Grey Worm got to do something badass, with that double Master knife swipe. Is that the first time he’s ever done something particularly cool? Meereen scenes tend to lump together in my mind when there aren’t dragons involved.

Thankfully, even though the situation looked quite bad upon Dany arriving home, Tyrion wasn’t fed to Drogon. Hey, maybe a Targ is actually being reasonable! It would be the first time in fictional history. Adding to that reasonableness, she agrees to meet with two people from a very unreasonable area: the Iron Islands. Yara and Theon have beaten their mad Uncle Euron to Meereen and have offered their services to Dany. Yara is certainlya little more, um, willing, with the offers than her brother. He has some understandable issues. I kind of love Yara and Daenerys together, chumming it up over being ladies in charge. Frankly, the Meereen crew needs all the personality it can get. Now get your ass to King’s Landing.

Next Episode Predictions

• Walder Frey laughs so hard about the Blackfish’s death that he crumbles into a pile of dust.
• Littlefinger gets drunk and rubs his butt all over the Ned Stark portion of the Winterfell crypts.
• It turns out that the Sand Snakes went back to their home in space, far away from everything.
• Arya is named the new Lord Commander of the Night’s Watch.
• Sansa declares Jon a legitimate Stark. Jon responds with a simple, “Meh.”
• The Mountain finally takes off his helmet to reveal the head sewed on is none other than…Ros the prostitute!? WOW.
• Melisandre accidentally brings Ramsay back to life. Whoopsie daisy!

Book Stuff

• It looks like the show didn’t even want to deal with the Meereenese Knot and burned right through it. The Battle of Fire wasn’t even remotely a battle.
• Given where Stannis is at the beginning of The Winds of Winter and the legitimacy of “The Pink Letter”, the Bastard Bowl may not even remotely happen in the same way in the books. Hell, Theon and Asha are his prisoners and not remotely close to gaining the support of Daenerys Targaryen.
• I guess no one is getting Quentyn’d. Aw man.
• Another large deviation is Davos’ storyline. In the books, we were lead to believe he was dead for a couple chapters before finding out that he’s been recruited by Wyman “Fatty McBadass” Manderly to bring Rickon Stark back from the wilderness. I imagine things work out a bit better for Rickon in the book. They have to, right?

Kick this shit into high gear because we are headed into the sixth season’s stretch run!

Brother Hound (OR A History of Crotch Violence)

Last week, we found out that the Hound was alive and (relatively) well. He made a friend and quickly lost him. Such is life when you’re one of the toughest SOBs in Westeros. There is no peace for Sandor Clegane. What do you do when you’re The Hound and your new friend is murdered? You go murder the hell out of the murderers.

Oh, how those murderers got murdered. The Hound walks up without saying a word and starts swinging that axe. Guys getting chopped up as Clegane walks around like Westerosi Clint Eastwood. The Man With No Face. One guy even gets that vengeful axe to the uh, nether regions. My gawd!

Eventually, Clegane makes his way to the Brotherhood Without Banners proper, who have already taken their renegade member and placed him in a noose. Maybe The Hound can join up with them, roaming the countryside and defending the little guy. Or he can just march around and kill whoever he wants. It’s a tough call.

I would say that he could march down to King’s Landing and represent the Faith against his undead brother, but noooooooo. Tommen had to go and proclaim that trial by combat is off the books. No Cleganebowl. Christmas is off, kids. Sorry.

Arya Stark and the All-Dead Waif

Arya flunked out of assassin school. Don’t sweat it, kid, happens to the best of us. Of course, most schools don’t try to kill you when you when you flunk out.

Thus, we have reached the end of the road for Arya and her quest to be “No One”. She’s tried to move on to a world where she isn’t an honorable to a fault Stark and it just isn’t for her. Either Arya was going to get back home, or the Waif was going to add one more face to Faceless Men’s vast collection.

The Waif and Arya’s final bout was a thrilling, desperate race across Braavos, reminiscent of the end chase from The Matrix. Arya’s a lot like Neo. They both try to surpass their lives and become badasses with the help of mysterious older men. Neo can access any of type of weapon or fighting style in the blink of an eye. Arya knows how to catch cats and stab people with a thin sword. Neo’s name is an anagram for “One”. Arya’s name is an anagram for…uh…Yara? Raya? Wait, I have this. A Ray! Of hope or some shit. Nailed it.

This chase leads to Arya’s ultimate badass moment. The Waif thinks she has her cornered. This is the end of the line for her annoying rival. Oh, but what’s this, Arya led her back to her hidey hole where she keeps Needle? Whatever, this is little more than a desperate last stand. Then Arya shuts the lights off with one flick of her wrist. DAAAAAYYYYUMMMMM. So cool.

Good news, though, it turns out she passed Braavosi Badass Academy by killing the Waif (and posting her bloody face up in the House of Black and White). Mazel Tov! It turns out that Arya is through with trying to be no one. She is Arya Stark, and she’s going home to find her family and fix her home. The band is getting back together, you guys!

Siege the Day

Jaime Lannister is not ready for a two year siege. He’s got a sister to make sweet love to and…well, that’s all he’s got planned.

The Blackfish isn’t budging, so Jaime has to think outside the box. He’s got a couple of options. Brienne just happened to show up to ask Brynden Tully for help with Jon and Sansa’s forces up north. She could lure the Blackfish out. There’s also Edmure Tully, who has been sitting around, apparently getting shaved in a cell each day.

Technically, dumb old Edmure is the Lord of Riverrun at the moment. Who are the men on the walls to deny him entrance to his home? One threat of throwing Eddy Tully’s baby into a catapult later, he’s walking into Riverrun and betraying his Uncle. His father would be so proud.

It all works out really nicely for Jaime. He gets his victory and he doesn’t have to fight his best friend. Yeah, Bronn thinks Jaime and Brienne are playing “Hide the Maester” (wait, what?), but their relationship goes way deeper than the desires of Tumblr. They’ve been through so much shit. Jaime jumped into a scary bear pit! They’re just really good friends that exchange perhaps their last look as good friends as Brienne floats up the river, back to the rebellious forces she has sworn to fight for.

Varys Out!

Varys is leaving. Either he has finally had enough of Tyrion’s jokes about his lack of a penis, or his Eunuch sense is going crazy, because he got out just before the shit hit the fan. The Masters are here to ruin everyone’s good time. Of course Tyrion’s plan to negotiate with the slavers backfired on him. Why wouldn’t it? This is Game of Thrones and shit doesn’t get resolved in a neat and clean manner.

It’s a shame, too, because Tyrion finally got Grey Worm and Missandei to drink a little wine and try their hand at the ancient art of joking. It’s like getting your uptight friend to finally let loose when a car explodes in front of your house. And then your mom shows up on her dragon and is not happy.

Props to Danaerys on the entrance. Having your dragon drop you off on the roof is baller as all heck. Please don’t throw Tyrion over the balcony. He meant well!

Next Episode Predictions

• Arya magically makes it to Winterfell in time to see Jon and Ramsay locked in combat. She attempts to stab Ramsay with Needle, but the blade bounces off of him and runs through Jon’s heart. Ramsay then mounts the entire Stark family’s heads in his playroom and turns them into a drum set.
• Cersei escapes from King’s Landing on The Mountain’s back on a quest to kill as many things as possible.
• Davos runs away to the sea and finally fulfills his destiny, becoming Westeros’ Aquaman.
• Now that Edmure Tully is kind of free, he has to eat dinner with father-in-law, Walder. Tonight’s special? Chicken broth and a little stale bread. Edmure asks for Jaime’s catapult.

Book Stuff

• Beric Dondarrion is still alive and well, so it looks like Lady Stoneheart still isn’t in the cards. Here’s my shocked face.
• The Battle of Fire is considerably different in the show. In the book, the battle is well under way while Daenerys is off getting dysentery in the Dothraki Sea. With Dany and her largest dragon back just in time for the action, the odds are looking considerably up for Team Dragon Queen.
• Varys is leaving. Cersei might be on her way out of King’s Landing (or life in general). Qyburn has mentioned the Little Bird network a few times. I sure would not feel great if I’m Kevan Lannister right now. Dude got about 5 seconds of power in the books before he met those teeny, tiny Birds.

Intros are stupid, let’s get to it.

Riverrunaround

The Freys’ siege of Riverrun is just as bad as you’d anticipate it would be. They’re the McPoyle family of Westeros, what with their floppy hats and missing teeth. Jaime and Bronn arrive just in time to take things over from Liam and Ryan Frey before they accidentally drown in the moat or something.

Of course, then he has to deal with the Blackfish. The stubborn old bastard would sooner die than give the castle he was born in over to the fiends that organized his sister and nephew’s murders. Buckle up, Jaime, this might be a long siege.

Secret Garden

Margaery appeared to give in to the High Sparrow and the Faith Militant last week, without having to go for a nude stroll through filthy King’s Landing. The High Sparrow is still creepin’ though, asking why she hasn’t gotten busy making babies with her husband. Back off, man!

The High Sparrow is all about moving that agenda forward, basically telling Margaery to tell her grandmom, the Queen of Thorns, to get the hell out of King’s Landing. That’s one stubborn old lady, it would take a lot to get her to move. Secret Rose Note! That means…something. So the queen is up to some…thing…yes…

At least Lady Olenna takes one more opportunity to call Cersei an idiot before she bugs out of town. That’s what Ned Stark should have done. Shut up, dummy, I’m going home.

Stark-Aid

The reunited Stark kids have burning desire to retake their ancestral home. There’s one problem, the need an army made up of more than just Wildlings and Ser Davos’ finger pouch if they have any hope of retaking one of the toughest fortresses in the North.

As the Boltons control most of the major houses in the North at the moment, Jon and Sansa have to resort to rallying the smaller houses that are still loyal to the Stark family. There’s the Mormonts, home of the dead Lord Commander of the Night’s Watch (the one that stayed dead) and everyone’s favorite Greyscale havin’ Khaleesi yeller, Ser Jorah. Their tiny, fierce Lord Lyanna rightly points out that Jon is a rotten Snow and Sansa has married both Lannister and Bolton. Thankfully, Ser Davos is there to say, “Stop busting our balls, there’s a whole mess of ice zombies coming!”

A few stops on the old recruiting trip do not prove nearly as fruitful as Jonsa (Sanson?) would have liked. They need a lot more men if they’re going to take Winterfell. Sansa knows a really reliable, totally trustworthy guy who has an army and is willing to help! Light the Littlefinger signal! What is it, like, an outline of a weasel or something?

Personally, I still think Jon’s manbun is hurting the cause. You know what to do, Jonny Snow.

Ironporn

We got a little peek at what Theon and Yara are up to, mostly to reach this season’s boob quota. Yes, they made a stop in at a brothel. There are needs that the Ironborn that still have penises attached need to fulfill. Scratch that, maybe I should say “Ironborn that still have sex drives”. Yara likes the ladies! Look at all these surprised fa…ok it ain’t exactly a shocker.

Yara’s plan is to beat out Uncle Euron in pledging allegiance to the Dragon Queen down in Meereen. They do have the boats, although they lack the swagger and madness. Those are important factors when trying to entice a Targaryen. If only Theon could get back to his old, cocky self. If only he had said cock. Alas.

The Hound is Back in Toooooown

Oh yes, you’re damn right that when Sandor Clegane went down to Brienne of Tarth a couple seasons back that I knew the Hound would eventually be back. Area leaving the toughest SOB in Westeros for dead doesn’t mean that he’s really dead. And boom, here he is, splitting logs like he used to split skulls.

Clegane looks to have given up the murderous life and settled for helping out a tiny religious community the needs lots of firewood. Said community is led by Deadwood’s AL SWEARENGEN. WOW. Wait, no, he’s playing Septon Meribald Brother Ray, a religious man out to make a small, peaceful community. How sweet. There’s nary a cocksucker to be found.

TARNATION, there’s BANDITS roaming about too! I bet you were expecting Seven Samurai or something with the Hound and Septon. Nooooope. Everyone got jacked up while the Hound was out debranching a tree or some shit. His new buddy, Ray, got hanged. Come on Clegane!

The Hound will surely blame his old foes in the Brotherhood Without Banners, as the men who threatened the community mentioned the Lord of Light. Maybe he’ll take them out before moseying on down to King’s Landing to find his undead brother running around and finally have a chance to take out the number one person on his hit list. I wonder if he’s got Arya on there too. Hey, speaking of Arya…

Waifing

Arya made a bold decision in choosing to go against the Faceless Men’s orders to kill an innocent actress. You can take a Stark out of Winterfell, but you can’t take Winterfell out of a Stark. Wait, that’s not right. The point is, honor ultimately wins out in the Starks. It’s killed most of them, but it’s there, dammit.

Arya knows that her decision has painted a giant target on her back. She’s got to get the hell back to Westeros! She’s a clever girl, she knows that the war torn country an ocean away is safer than trying to hide from two assassins who could be literally anyone.

Except she forgot that “could be literally anyone” part and got done stabbed by the Waif! Stupid Arya let her guard down for a little old lady. Foolish! It’s as I always say, “Never trust the elderly. They smell weird and like bad candy.” Come on Arya, don’t you remember that your assassin buddies have an entire basement emporium of faces to wear?

Next Episode Predictions

• Sam accidentally throws Heartsbane into the sea. Whoopsie daisy!
• Arya is stabbed by the Waif in every conceivable disguise. Baby, 45-year-old man, Hodor. You name it, she Waifs it.
• The Blackfish plays around with the drawbridge on Riverrun until the chains snap.
• Brienne arrives at Riverrun only to find the gigantic Lannister army surrounding it. She turns around the tells Sansa that the Blackfish was nowhere to be found.
• Tyrion and Varys find out that Daenerys will be home any day now and scramble to clean up the epic mess they’ve made in the throne room.
• Sansa has to make 100 more snow Winterfells that Robin Arryn can destroy before he’ll agree to support her and Jon against the Boltons.

Book Stuff

• I guess we can safely say that gravedigger = Hound is CONFIRMED now.
• Can we so go ahead and confirm Cleganebowl??? How sweet would it be to see Cersei March her champion, The Mountain, up there, and have her son’s former dog and the Mountain’s one time brother win the day and sentence her to death? A Lannister always pays his debts, and Cersei owes the many-faced God a substantial one at this point.
• Soooooo, is Septon Meribald going to show up, or was Brother Ray him, or what the what?
• Quentyn doesn’t exist in show continuity, so there hasn’t been anyone that has shared his girly, sad fate. Theon and Yara are now headed to Meereen. Come on, who doesn’t want to see Theon utter a final, “Oh.” It doesn’t make sense, but since when has that mattered?

After last week’s episode made tears well up in my super manly eyes, I needed a regular old transition episode of Game of Thrones to level me out. That’s what episode 6 is for, transitions! Still, a lot of shit happened.

Oh and by the way, I recorded a podcast with my buddy John, discussing the first 5 episodes of this season. Listen to it! Or don’t!

All-New Three-Eyed Raven

After getting his Direwolf, mentor, and Hodor killed, Bran’s looking like a real shithead. He doesn’t care though, dude is stuck in the past. Poor Meera has to drag him through the ice and snow while he’s going all white eyed in the weirwood network. Help a lady out, Bran!

Thankfully, help appears in the form of a badass rider with a fire chain and scythe thing. Is it Ghost Rider? No, no, Ghost Rider is terrible. It’s Reddit’s favorite character, Benjen Stark! After theorizing that he’s Daario, Euron, Ser Pounce, and R’hllor, the correct answer turned out to be that he’s undead beyond the wall.

It shouldn’t be entirely surprising that Benjen came back in some form. His presence has lingered in the show’s memory, even leaving his fate very ambiguous. Using Benjen as bait to murder Jon Snow in season 5’s finale wasn’t merely a coincidence, it was a reminder. Benjen’s back, baby! And totally not Daario!

The Terrible Tarlys

As you might have guessed, Samwell Tarly’s father is a real asshole. He forced his oldest son to join the murderers and rapists that make up the Night’s Watch these days to ensure that Sam wouldn’t inherit jack shit. While Sam is a fat wuss, he deserves better than that!

So, Sam’s got some repressed anger towards his father, even though he’s the type of person to never let that out. Still, Sam has a solid plan to ensure a future for Gilly and her baby: tell the Tarly family that it’s his bastard that he made with her while she was whoring around in Mole’s Town! Classic.

Unfortunately, Sam and Gilly are not masters of deception. Sam can’t simply lie to his father and brother and tell them that he’s been hunting deer up beyond the Wall. Gilly can’t help but defend Sam against his dickhead father and blurts out that they traveled south towards the Wall, blowing the lid on her background as a Wildling. Still, Pa Tarly was going to let Gilly and little (huge baby) Sam stay at Horn Hill while saying a permanent, “GOOD DAY” to his eldest son after having a dinner straight out of Step Brothers (Sam is a combination of Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly while his bro is Adam Scott obviously).

Enough’s enough. While Sam won’t directly stand up to his permanently frowny faced father, he is willing to secretly rebel by stealing the house Valyrian sword, Heartsbane. Where is he going to take Gilly and the baby now? Is he still planning to become a Maester, or does he take that White Walker killing blade back North, where it’s needed most? There’s only one candidate to inherit Heartsbane, Sam. Dolorous Edd. Do it.

Faceless Meh

Arya has spent a decent amount of time learning how to be an assassin with the Faceless Men. She’s learned how to blend in, be everyone and no one. She’s learned how to kill in all different manners. Yet, she’s not quite there yet. She’s still got a heart. She still has a personality. That just can’t stand if you want to honor the many-faced god.

Ned Stark’s younger daughter just can’t pull the trigger on an innocent woman, even one who is portraying one of the top people on her hit list, Cersei Lannister. The play is such an interesting setup for Arya’s final test. It prominently features the death of her father. She leaves just before the death of her temporary semi-mentor Tywin. The actress playing her sister is the scheming ladder climber (the perfect companion for Petyr “chaos is a ladder” Baelish). It’s Arya’s “Ghost of Christmas Past”.

Arya’s rejection of the assassin’s life has painted a target on her head that her old pal, The Waif, just can’t wait to aim for. Arya’s worn her share of faces and names, ultimately, it’s the sword she got from her brother that doesn’t share her true name that she holds on to as she waits to look death in the eye.

Faith V Crown

The forces of the Faith and the Crown finally came to a…peaceful settlement? Queen Margaery helped herself by converting her young husband to the High Sparrow’s way of thinking. I’m sure the High Sparrow is disappointed though. You know he’s in it for the booooooobz and do not try to tell me otherwise.

The Crown-Faith treaty screws over the Tyrells, who look like a bunch of big dumb-dumbs with their entire army marching into the city for no reason, as well as Jaime Lannister, who is out as the head of the Kingsguard.

Somewhere in the great beyond, Tywin Lannister is very slightly smiling. Like, the corner of his mouth budged. Tywin wasn’t much for smiles. With his son out of the Kingsguard, he finally has an appropriate Lannister heir out in the world. I mean, yeah, Jaime kind of threw the new family sword in his dad’s face and all. What else is he going to do after he takes care of family business? He’s been banned from King’s Landing! It’s for the best, the place is kind of a cesspool.

Now, Jaime heads north to take Riverrun back from the Blackfish on behalf of those gross Freys. Hey, wait a second, Brienne is also headed to Riverrun? Wow, it’s almost as if these two are on a collision course or something. WOW.

Khal Drogon

And in classic Daenerys fashion, she finishes the episode off for seemingly no reason. Perhaps it’s just to serve as a remind that while the Lannisters break apart and the North fights, Dany is as committed to taking the Iron Throne as ever, this time with an even larger Dothraki army at her back.

And, oh yeah, a huge fucking dragon! Dany leaves for a minute and just manages to pop back up with Drogon. Maybe she found a dragon ocarina or something. I know she named her entire Khlasar her blood riders, but what if her blood riders are actually her dragons? Or she names a couple people dragon riders??? THINK ABOUT IT.

Next Episode Predictions

• Sam’s father catches up with him on the high seas. He swings onto Sam’s ship, pirate style, and repeatedly slaps him in the face while swinging back and forth on his rope.
• Arya and the Waif fight for a minute before realizing this is all silly and sorting out their issues over a cup of coffee.
• Arya finds a convenient ride home when Gendry just happens to pop up on shore in his tiny boat. He has not left it since season 2 and has forgotten how to walk.
• Jaime attempts to ease the tension with the Blackfish by starting off their conversation with a series of hand-related jokes. They do not go over well.
• Sansa reveals to Jon that she met with Littlefinger. Jon tells her that he has literally no idea who that is.
• Ser Jorah discovers the world’s first moisturizing cream, thus saving himself from Greyscale and making himself that much more pleasant to the ladies.
• The Sand Snakes wave at the camera from the background, subtly reminding the audience that they are, in fact, still a thing.

Book Stuff

• I love how show Randyll Tarly is just hanging around the old property, hunting stuff and mocking his son’s weight. Ehhhh, that whole Brienne journey around the countryside where he pops up isn’t that great anyway.
• Jaime’s storyline from A Feast for Crows is all coming together. Minus the whole hating Cersei and learning to be his own man thing. If anything, it seems as if Jaime is getting right back to being his old, cocky, two-handed self. You know, without actually having two hands again.
• Considering that this Jaime still madly loves his sister and is not the conflicted man of the book at this juncture, would Brienne still have as much of an issue if they came into conflict. “Oh yeah, hang that guy. What a dick!” (I love dickhead Jaime Lannister for the record)
• We got our first Brotherhood Without Banners mention in a while. That can’t be a crazy random happenstance. Who is leading the Brotherhood right now? It certainly seems like the show isn’t going to touch Lady Stoneheart, but you never know!
• Give me Frey pies or give me death.