I'm glad they had that stand off at least because goddamn Littlefinger sending Sansa to Ramsay made no fucking sense at all. Like shit man, one of my biggest gripes with the show is still how that made no sense and was only for added drama. The fact they actually addressed in universe how much of a gigantic fuckup that was from him is good. I mean, they had to. Show Littlefinger couldn't get off easy for that.

lol @ the ending of episode 6, that was such a gigantic cheap out. Dany not being able to control the dragons is a really big thing. Even if they have a damn good explanation next episode, that was still a really shitty thing to do. I mean the only reason she got stuck out there to begin with is that she can't really control Drogon - he'd let her ride him and she could kind of steer but he's still wild and out of control. If Drogon doesn't fuck everything up and kill a bunch of Dothraki and/or their horses I'm going to be pretty pissed. I'm guessing Dany is going back to Meereen with Drogon, but sending the Dothraki west to rendezvous later and sail to Westeros though? I really hate this. Dany had Dothraki ready to fight for her in season 1 ffs. Has she really failed at her liberation of Slaver's Bay just to come around in a circle?

Dragons have been established to be intelligent creatures. Drogon has no reason to cook the Dothraki seeing as he probably knows they're allies of Dany.

SPOILAS










I figured they're gonna run into some problems with the dragons at some point or another. I thought it was quite foreboding how Danaerys is talking about how special and important all the horsemen are before her, sitting on top of a shifty looking dragon she's previously been shown unable to control. I figure she could spend at least a proportion of the remainder of this series dealing with Drogon charring part of her army/dishevelled masses.

Also, they still haven't addressed what she's going to do with the cities she's taken on Essos (Meereen obviously being the main one), I mean her plan is to get rich and fuck off to join the affray in Westeros, but she's still obsessed with maintaining her control over this cluster-fuck city in Essos as well. I'm assuming she can't have both...perhaps she'll stick Varys in control of it or something? Maybe set it up as a client city-state.

Also, the fuck is going on with the Faith Militant and Margaery? Tommen is a weak lil shit and I can see him succumbing to the High Sparrow, but Margaery literally an episode or two ago talked about how she and her brother had to stay strong against the Faith Militant. So, who really knows, maybe she's outplanning everyone.

Also who the fuck is Benjen and why is he important?

Also who the fuck is Edmure and why is he important?

I’m pretty sure the whole ‘controlling dragons’ storyline was wrapped up at the end of season 5 – Daenerys couldn’t control them because she was afraid of them, but then she overcame that fear and Drogon flew her to safety when the fight in Mereen’s colosseum broke out. The real question is gonna be what about the two dragons still locked up – will she regain their loyalty or are they now Tyrion’s?

Benjen is Ned’s brother, he was in earlier seasons and was a crow but disappeared during an expedition beyond the wall when the rest of his men were killed. It seems that he was fatally wounded but was saved somehow by the weird bird children.

Edmure was the guy who got married at the Red Wedding instead of Robb.

A recurring thing with dragons is how they're a walking mass of destruction though. There were a scourge of the land. Even the tamed dragons the Targaryans used to conquer Westeros were dangerous, hence the Dragon Pit and their extinction. If we're supposed to buy that Dany now has perfect control over Drogon then that's bullshit.

And the Tyrion stuff with the dragons was bullshit too. It goes against everything we've been told about them. According to Dany when she's flying Drogon, when you want a dragon to steer left you whip to the left, because a dragon's first instinct is to attack. I'm sad we didn't get Frogman in the show, because his misadventures with the dragons was really great.

But hey maybe I'm applying too much book logic to the show.

Also is anyone else confused at how they took a legendary figure from the book - the Night's King - and applied a similar name to a completely different character for the Whitewalker leader dude? Kind of like they're doing with Coldhands? Martin explicitly confirmed that Coldhands wasn't Benjen in the book. Also the three-eyed crow in the show isn't the Targaryan bastard Brynden Rivers while it's pretty certain, if not confirmed, that it's him in the book.

I thought Coldhands wasn't in the show, or have I missed something?

I don't think Dany has perfect control of her dragons whatsoever, but as we've heard before, they're very smartsmart. That part with Tyrion freeing them I thought was really touching. They understand language to a certain degree.

And yeah, I think you have to stop applying book logic to the show. They're two different beasts and that's totally fine. If they adapted the book 100% it'd be boring as fuck.

My big problem is that I refer everything to the book without meaning to, and I actually forget what was and wasn't in the show. I'd have sworn Coldhands was in the show guiding Bran and co north but he wasn't. I forgot just how quickly Dany left Drogon after they left Meereen in the show, which is pretty big because in the book they made a point of saying she couldn't get him to take her home - it explicitly said she wasn't in control of him.

I'm still so fucking mad Roose Bolton was killed off. He is a much better villain than Ramsay, even if that isn't obvious in the show. Book Roose is everything a villain should be.

I prefer Ramsay.

One thing I love in the book is that we don't see the gory details with Ramsay, we just see the aftermath. We don't see Theon's slow torture, we don't see him abuse Jayne Poole, but we very much see the impact of those things. He's dark and creepy without it being shoved in our face in the same way.

Roose is a good balance to Ramsay. There's a clear conflict between how they want to do things, but Roose is still far more intimidating due to his power. Ramsay with power is a fire waiting to burn itself out.

Also I thought the letter was better in the book >:c

The letter was a massive focus in the book, and it wasn't even clear who wrote it. It's more of a plot device in the show, which is totally fine because it keeps the pacing balanced.

Which letter are you talking about?

The one Ramsay sends to Jon about several different things depending on if you're in the book or the show.

I don't think it was more of a focus in the book necessarily. It was part of the gigantic shit-hits-the-fan moment at the Wall after loads of build up, and it has potential to be more focal in the future, but we didn't get much time with it in aDwD :p

I do like the book theory that Ramsay didn't write the letter though. I kind of doubt they'd have that kind of complexity in the show at this point - the shoe fits so Ramsay will just wear it and it will work.

Hey by the way anyone remember Dorne?

My only memories of Dorne are of Bronn being amazing.

I miss Bronn :(

I'm trying my best to forget.

I remember the Viper was from Dorne. Man, that fight was amazing.

Episode 7 was also amazing, a tone of scenes that were really good, and I wasn't expecting the return of you-know-who, so that was a little squeal moment for me.

My favourite scene had to be Arya's, and my only gripe of the episode was not having a Sam scene. Really wanted to know what went on there.

Are we forgetting about the FUCKING HOUND?????????????

Uh, did you think I was talking about Voldemort when I said you-know-who?

The Hound is back. I'm so happy.

Who's the Hound?

THAT WAS HIM HOLY FUCKING SHIT

Where did Meli go?!

I'm having some trouble believing Arya survived that many stabs to the abdomen, including one seriously nasty twisting of the knife. She should have been dead right then and there. Let alone being able to swim ashore and wander around the city looking for help. Taking a little bit too many artistic freedoms there.

The thing is that stab wounds in the gut don’t tend to kill the victim that quickly – all the vital organs are in the ribcage, so the body can survive for long enough to suffer from slowly bleeding out or from infections caused by the intestines being pierced.

Which Arya definitely would do if this was real. Obviously, she won't though.

Remember how Robert Baratheon died? Yeah, Arya surviving this is going to take a lot of suspension of disbelief.

Or a really good doctor. Or magic.

They aren't going to ignore infection - I'd guess that's why they've clearly had her stabbed in that way and then fall into water.

Book stuff:

In the book we've already seen Victarion get saved from fatal infection by Moqorro, and now Victarion believes in the Lord of Light somewhat. Berric Dondarrion had a similar thing. I'm expecting book Jon to go the same way too, or to at least question his Old Gods. I don't know if the show making Arya lean towards the Red would be something we'll see in the book, or covering for other non-show characters.

So yeah books aside incoming Red magic.

Or incoming hidden metal plate on her chest and bags of pigs blood. Which was totally my first thought. And then someone else pointed out that the troupe of actors had done something similar, which just deepens my suspicion.

Oh damn that is good.