97!

Reposting theory for page 97.

https://www.reddit.com/r/asoiaf/comments/4mt5t8/spoilers_everything_a_water_dancer_has_completed/

[Edited on June 7, 2016 at 4:40 PM. Reason : reposting theory link.]

6/7/2016 4:39:59 PM

I put my full weight behind any theory making Arya's plot have a twist.

Whether it's that Arya and the waif are the same person, or that Syria has been training her all along. Or whatever.

6/7/2016 7:06:31 PM

^^why? It wasn't the last post, people saw it and discussed it

6/7/2016 8:34:41 PM

It's IMPORTANT

6/7/2016 10:20:14 PM

Arya has been my favorite storyline - it's funny to me seeing how everyone seems to hate her and thinks it's so slow. I also liked Bran fwiw.

I like the theory above and could see that being the case. Stronger than the other theories I've read.

6/8/2016 9:13:43 AM

I think everyone liked Syrio, and we all want him to come back.

But if we're going for the theory that Syrio was a FM, then that could apply to anyone in the show. How bout...Ned's been hiding out in a cave waiting for the right time to come back. The man that was beheaded wasn't Ned, but a member of the FM. Extremely unrealistic, but similar to the Bran-time travel storyline, it could open up all sorts of possibilities.

And I like the new Sandor. Nice to see him sober and coherent.

6/8/2016 10:01:28 AM

Quote :

"But if we're going for the theory that Syrio was a FM, then that could apply to anyone in the show."

Doesn't the fact that there are Faceless Men mean that it applies to everyone in the show. At this point for all we know the order is extremely small, we have only seen 1.5 members.

6/8/2016 5:18:41 PM

I want the series to end with it turning out that the vast majority of the cast and extras are FM. Like they just have very poor communication.

6/8/2016 5:35:17 PM

who was Sansa writing to, Littlefinger or her cousin hopefully?

6/8/2016 7:45:41 PM

LF, she's not dumb enough to think sweet Robin actually controls the Vale

6/8/2016 7:58:43 PM

Who is Syrio?

6/8/2016 9:13:47 PM

arya's swordfighting teacher that died when they were attacked way back in season 1
he was from bravos

[Edited on June 8, 2016 at 9:33 PM. Reason : ]

6/8/2016 9:32:49 PM

Season finale to be titled "Winds of Winter". Your move, RR.

6/9/2016 1:04:38 PM

Martin said something about big news to share coming back from NYC where he presumably met with his editor/publisher.

It would make sense to use the last episode to announce it. If he annoucned in the middle of the season it would just detract from the show and might even sway a lot of book readers to wait until after they've read it to watch the show if the date was close enough.

Also, this adds evidence to the Arya/Jaquen theory

http://imgur.com/a/xvoXs

I can also see Jaquen being Syrio too. We never saw Syrio die and there's this little tidbit

http://imgur.com/gallery/4PTPZ/new

6/9/2016 1:46:31 PM

Last 2 episodes are directed by the director of season 5 episode 8, hardhome. This episode had one of the best shots ive ever seen on TV.



Reason being that the nights king looks so realistic in that view than any other.



[Edited on June 9, 2016 at 2:14 PM. Reason : ghjghj]

6/9/2016 2:09:00 PM

The quiet of that scene was great too. Only nit is that the living were way too close to the pier/shore to just take a moment to watch the show. The dead don't have arrows??

^^O dag. I was just today recounting that theory to a buddy but halfway through I stopped myself and said "wait nevermind how could he have aryas face??"

6/9/2016 4:57:56 PM

http://imgur.com/5wirEVI

oh snap? hype hype

6/10/2016 3:04:40 PM

What is Qyburn's rumor?

6/12/2016 9:50:10 PM

Weakest episode of the season so far imo

Arya just survives a bunch of stab wounds and can run around right after?

Blackfish built up and then unceremoniously killed off screen?

Dany just busting in at the right moment?

Meh. Some sloppy writing. Hope the last two episodes are awesome and we can end on a high note

6/12/2016 10:11:29 PM

Directors are such trolls.

Budget issues too.

The next two episodes are so expensive

[Edited on June 12, 2016 at 10:20 PM. Reason : Hh]

6/12/2016 10:19:23 PM

I wonder if the writers look at these fan theories after the fact and wish they would've gone in a different direction. I Silsbee been happier with any of the several Arya theories than the one they went with.

I agree, this episode was very weak. But, if history is an indicator, next week will be epic

6/12/2016 10:37:21 PM

Also how dumb will it be if the dragon didn't torch those boats??

6/12/2016 10:45:38 PM

So apparently the rumor Qyburn is taking about is that the Mad King kept a bunch of wild fire stored under the Sept of Baelor...

6/12/2016 10:50:22 PM

But I thought Tyrion had it all moved when they were preparing for the battle of Blackwater Bay?

6/12/2016 11:57:44 PM

The next week previews gave me a massive erection.

6/13/2016 1:19:46 AM

Quote :

"Weakest episode of the season so far imo Arya just survives a bunch of stab wounds and can run around right after? Blackfish built up and then unceremoniously killed off screen? "

completely agree. especially re: arya's wounds -- I mean, I know this series has dragons and zombies and shit but arya got stabbed at least 3 times deep in the gut and somehow makes it back to the actors troupe?

she was just hanging out in the boudoir, presumably dealing with a non trivial amount of her own guts trying to escape her body? i doubt any of these crusty old maesters know about sepsis, but apparently some hydrocodone syrup and a 3 day weekend of naps is a fucking panacea.

i can't quite put my finger on why it pissed me off so much, i guess partly because i was hoping for a pretty sweet payoff on how she could SURVIVE GETTING GUTSHOT(STABBED). instead, the waif is killed offscreen while jaqen doesn't seem to give a fuck if she's alive or dead, or if she stays or leaves.

All that said, the pacing of the show has picked up noticeably this season -- which combined with some of the sloppier plot points makes it pretty clear that Benioff/Weiss are ready for this to be over.

also,
fuck tommen
fuck the spineless Tully force that wasted our time at Riverrun
and fuck GRRM for rubbing some busted ass monkey's paw that only gave him 40% of a generational work of epic fantasy lit. it's pretty clear dude never had an idea what he was going to do in between the third book and whatever the last 250 pages will be.


[Edited on June 13, 2016 at 2:02 AM. Reason : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvTNyKIGXiI]

6/13/2016 1:59:25 AM

yeah, that's all fair.

It does seem like the quality of the plot/writing has noticeably diminished since they got away from the 3rd or 4th book. Martin's writing isn't that great, but the show runners have been playing fast and loose with the plot and are clearly just building towards a good end point for this season (presumably retaking the North and Dany handling the masters and boarding her boats to sail to Westeros.

Next season will probably be the last one and will be all battles for the better part followed by a Dany and Jon marriage to satisfy the fans.

6/13/2016 4:43:49 AM

Dany is going to have a different plan than use the Dragons. She's going to need the masters' boats. Can't just burn them all down.

And I must have missed something, where is Varys going?

I do like the new Sandor, but I'm not quite sure how he's going to fit in to the rest of the show running around with the BWB.

6/13/2016 7:17:57 AM

Quote :

" i was hoping for a pretty sweet payoff on how she could SURVIVE GETTING GUTSHOT(STABBED). instead, the waif is killed offscreen while jaqen doesn't seem to give a fuck if she's alive or dead, or if she stays or leaves. "

yeah the most bogus part was that Lady Crane just "happened to have some [multiple] boyfriends she 'put holes in' [stabbed] and 'would feel bad about' and patch them up" I can't even imagine that happening if that were true, let alone Arya surviving 5-6 stabs including a twisting one right in the gut.

I think Jaquen gave a fuck. He gives a sly kind of smirk when she says she's Arya of Winterfell like he was rooting for her all along but he's a faceless man so he can't exactly give her a high five.

Quote :

"and fuck GRRM for rubbing some busted ass monkey's paw that only gave him 40% of a generational work of epic fantasy lit. it's pretty clear dude never had an idea what he was going to do in between the third book and whatever the last 250 pages will be. "

to be fair I don't think in his wildest dreams did he imagine how immensely successful the show would be and how heavily scrutinized his books would be moving forward. He's trying to get it right but it's such a massive, detailed world. People get all pissy about talking about the book so I'll just leave it at I understand why the show deviated from certain arcs in the book (they'd be difficult to replicate on screen) but there are some things that if they weren't planning on following through, they should have left out entirely.

Quote :

"Dany is going to have a different plan than use the Dragons. She's going to need the masters' boats. Can't just burn them all down. And I must have missed something, where is Varys going?"

I agree. I was thinking maybe they Greyjoys would show up behind them and fuck shit up and take their ships. Or maybe they'll see the dragons come down and annihilate a couple ships and surrender the rest. Would be cool to see Dany go back and fuck the masters up for their betrayal before she heads back to Westeros though.

Isn't Varys going back into Kings Landing to see about procuring ships or getting control of his little birds again?

6/13/2016 9:26:36 AM

Predictions

We will not see Arya again this season, or if we do it will be briefly in episode 10. I would imagine the same goes for the hound.

Varys will show up at the end of the episode 10 to do what he did in the books.

Episode 9 could very well be nothing but the battle of the bastards. I dont think there is anything other than that in the preview.

Episode 10 will be Dany and Dragon fire setting up her return to Westeros? Does she become the conqueror? Is that what her curly hair signifies? Every time she comes out of fire she is more focused on her goals?

Episode 10 will also wrap up Cersei. The thing they found will be her weapon to lash out. Not sure what her end game is. Kings landing will probably end this season in chaos.

I dont know where Jamie goes from here. I guess back to Kings Landing? Runs into the brotherhood? Something should make him turn against Cersei.

Edit: Also this episode was the biggest let down of the season. You have faceless men who can be anything and there were no twists at all. Honestly all the stuff hinting Arya was a faceless man last episode was just a ruse by the directors. asshats

[Edited on June 13, 2016 at 9:35 AM. Reason : ads]

6/13/2016 9:30:55 AM

I'm pretty sure we still have at least one big death too. Hodor was such a beloved character so probably someone like Ramsay. That might be too predictable too so perhaps Jaime or Cersei.

I guess the Waif never had to go through a month of blindness as part of her training like Arya did? That's kind of odd...

Also, kinda disappointed in the Sparrows vs. The Mountain. I was hoping to see them all rush him and get completely torn to shreds.

[Edited on June 13, 2016 at 9:49 AM. Reason : ]

6/13/2016 9:47:19 AM

Infuriating.

What was the point of the Riverrun storyline? They've been building it up for half the season, but I can't see how it advanced anything at all. If they'd never brought up the Blackfish, Edmure, or Riverrun this season, we'd still be pretty much exactly where we are right now, except Brienne would still be with Sansa and Jaime with Cersei. And no way was it worth all that buildup just to move those two pieces around the board a little bit.

Speaking of "What's the point?" I'll put the same question to everything Tyrion has done this season. His plot has been uncharacteristically weak, and evidently none of his (poorly explained) plotting accomplished anything except giving him some lackluster screen time. And I think the joke scene was a good example of that: filling some space with Tyrion acting like Tyrion to no particular effect.

I know at this point it's flogging a dead horse, but the explanation for Arya's survival is weak. Or, OK, maybe I could have bought the Lady Crane shit as keeping her alive, but not healing her so quickly and thoroughly that she could run a fucking parkour course and fight the Waif to the death.

I'm suspicious of the supposed Snow/Bolton showdown next time, given that it would be such a major event and had effectively zero setup this episode.

---

On the positive side, there's the Hound. And at least the Cersei vs. Church tension got broken a little bit with the manual decapitation.

6/13/2016 11:41:15 AM

Yea and the Masters attacking really undercuts Tyrion's plot. Might have been interesting to see the conflict caused when Dani found out about his deal, but I guess the deal is off now, so why bother in the first place?

6/13/2016 12:24:30 PM

^^ it got Jaime out of KL, and I doubt he's getting back. Especially after bastardbowl, if the Starks regain the north the Lannister forces will have to go north with Jaime leading them

6/13/2016 12:31:35 PM

Riverrun's entire point is to start Jamie's redemptive arc. Its the same in the books but happened as soon as Brienne went looking for Sansa/Arya.

To start it, like in the books, Jamie had to be exposed to Brienne.

Now if Jamie goes straight back to Kings Landing I will be pissed. What I think would be interesting is with Jamie out in the field with his army acting on his own and everything goes to hell in Kings Landing. He then has to make the same decision as he does in the book about what to do with himself.

6/13/2016 1:05:41 PM

I was about to throw my remote through the TV during that Tyrion/Grey Worm telling jokes scene. Jesus christ the dialog has gone to shit since they ran out of source material.

6/13/2016 1:13:17 PM

^agree

I love Peter Dinklage but I can do without bullshit that doesn't further the plot. It's disrespectful to him and his character imo

6/13/2016 1:19:19 PM

Won't happen but wouldn't it be nuts if Ramsay is about to beat Jon & co. then suddenly Jaime comes in with his Lannister army and is like "Sorry about the Red Wedding yo. You can have the north."

6/13/2016 1:44:49 PM

He would have to borrow that teleporter from LF

6/13/2016 4:11:13 PM

Yara has one too

6/13/2016 4:22:30 PM

Quote :

"it got Jaime out of KL"

Quote :

"Riverrun's entire point is to start Jamie's redemptive arc. Its the same in the books but happened as soon as Brienne went looking for Sansa/Arya."

Getting Jaime out of Kings Landing and into the redemptive arc did not require all the buildup on Sansa and Brienne's end. Everything from Littlefinger's mention of it onwards.

And get out of here with the book talk -- not because I'm one of those pricks that thinks the books are taboo in this thread, but because Jamie's story has strayed pretty damn far from its path in the novels. Even after his quick conversation with Brienne (and if the whole point of her journey was for that conversation, I'm annoyed yet again) he hardly seemed primed for a journey to redemption.

6/13/2016 4:48:27 PM

1) Jamie can only be redeemed while separated from Cersei. Together they reinforce each others worst qualities.

2) Brienne is a purely noble character that brings Jamie's good side out. The opposite of Cersei. Ugly, warrior, noble, etc. Reminds him of what he can do and what good he has done in the past.

3) The whole thing with Sansa's orders was the get Brienne somewhere she could interact with Jamie. Its literally the only reason it happened. Assuming black fish actually died.

The reason everyone is irritated about Riverrun being pointless is that it wasn't about Riverrun, it was about Jamie.

Now having said that, I have no idea what they are going to do with Jamie, Brienne, Hound now that they are all in the same area. We might see them in episode 10. We need to touch on Jamie at least. I would really like to see him do something up North. Or at least do something to the Frey's.

6/13/2016 4:57:58 PM

I think the whole "tell me a joke" scene had a point. One of those three will die in the next couple of episodes, and this was just a scene to make it mean more.

6/13/2016 10:20:42 PM

Is the Blackfish actually dead? I feel like every time someone dies off screen there's a good chance they're not actually dead. Exception being Stannis

6/14/2016 8:48:26 AM

^^ Agreed

6/14/2016 8:51:17 AM

I didn't think the episode was horrible. I'm 50/50 on the Arya stuff bothering me. I wanted her to have been J'aqen in the past episode or have some other slightly-complicated-off-the-wall stuff play out...but I don't know if the producers/show could have pulled it off seamlessly. With that being said...she got stabbed five times in the middle of the gut and even had the knife twisted. I know she's a tough chick, but maybe they could have had the Waif just slash her or only get one good stab in the previous episode. They obviously wanted her to be nursed by the actress, but I think they went way overboard. With that being said, the chase scene and cutting of the candle in the dark was pretty bad ass.

The Cersei/Mountain/Tommen parts were great.

The Hound part was awesome.

Riverrun was meh and I definitely wanted to see the Blackfish go out in a blaze of glory (or not go out at all)...but I'm going to assume the Jaime/Brienne stuff will play out again in the future. I know we like to think that it wasn't necessary, but the casual show watcher probably forgot how close they were as it happened several seasons ago.


Really pumped about the Bastard Bowl this week. The Knights of the Vale have to show up to save the day, correct?

6/14/2016 9:43:47 AM

What I want to happen is

Knights of Vale show up
Umbers turn on Boltons
Manderlys turn on Boltons
Karstarks Surrender

For me it comes down to having men left to fight the others. If its a really even fight then who is left?

6/14/2016 10:19:02 AM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N76HMUwvFU8

This guy is a bit odd and tin foily, but entertaining?

6/15/2016 9:21:03 AM

the producers submitted the next episode (Bastard Bowl) for consideration for 5 Emmy Awards. shit is about to get real.

6/15/2016 10:07:08 AM

!!!!!!

Quote :

"Also how dumb will it be if the dragon didn't torch those boats??"

Pshew

6/19/2016 10:19:24 PM