^I think your reasoning is somewhat unfounded when it comes to Arya. We know very little about how this whole "no one" thing works. She obviously hasn't passed the test – otherwise they wouldn't have sent her to kill the actress. Perhaps not being affected by the water was a sign that she was making progress. But anyway, we don't know very much about how the water works either... maybe it's not that simple. Same with Benjen – let's not pretend that we know everything.
On Dany: I'm bored of her arc. There's almost no payoff whenever she does anything grandiose. It's almost as if everything falls in her lap exactly when she needs it to. It's frustrating. And her speech at the end of the episode was incredibly lackluster compared to Lord Tyrell's speech earlier in the episode. It fell flat. But it did drive the point home that she's riding a fucking dragon. That's incredible. She finally tamed Drogon. That's the big takeaway everyone needs to keep in mind. On Tommen and Margaery: It's obvious Tommen believes in what the High Sparrow has been telling him. He's an incredibly naive boy, and he's good-hearted and good-natured, which is the exact opposite of the Lannister line he comes from, and that's how the High Sparrow was able to get to him so easily. The High Sparrow manipulated Tommen. Margaery, on the other hand, wasn't manipulated. Ser Loras asked her to make it stop, and when she left Loras's cell, she was reformed and changed. How can anyone watching the show think she's legitimately on board with what the High Sparrow is saying? It makes zero sense. She's playing a game with the High Sparrow now, and Tommen has become one of her pawns, and I think the ending is going to be amazing. On Arya: Jaqen knew Arya would show the actress mercy, because that's part of the creed of the Faceless Men: mercy. On the other hand, the Waif has been holding a grudge against Arya the entire time she's been at the House of Black and White, and Jaqen knows that the Waif will never get over her grudge, and that's why he's sent her to kill Arya: because he knows Arya's going to kill her. It'll fulfill Jaqen's promise to Arya that a new face would be added to the Hall "one way or another."
https://soundcloud.com/samcolemanactor/hold-the-door-sam-coleman Sam Coleman, the actor who played young Hodor wrote and performed this. Legitimately good!
THE HOUND is back Good to know Well, it doesnt look pretty good for Jon and Sansa This could be very hard. Poor Arya, hope she survives it and get this bitch onto her list. But i dont really know how she could help herself or who could help here Man i also hope that Theon finally "come back to live". It sad to see him like a halfdead man. ANd Mager is just playing a game as i thought. This is getting interesting.
I heard that this wasn't going to happen on the show. It'd be cool, but it is probably not happening.
I can't be arsed to use invisitags. People are well aware that they should avoid a show thread if they haven't seen the latest episode. I'm not going to undermine their intelligence. This was a really refreshing episode. We saw Sandor Clegane again (god I'm glad, he's one of my favourite characters and Rory McCann nails him) and the Brotherhood without Banners made somewhat of a comeback; the show took us to Bear Island for the first time, where we met Lyanna Mormont; we also met Robett Glover (both were great performances), and then we saw Riverrun and the Blackfish (and Bronn too!) for the first time in a while. Phew! What a ride. Also I loved the drawn rose and the Olenna–Cersei standoff. Arya has quite the cliffhanger now, wonder how that gets resolved. I am very happy with this season. EDIT: Whoever edited my post, not even having made a case for their intervention, only using the trollface smiley, misused their position. And as far as I know, by not using invisitags, I'm following the spoiler policy, or the closest thing we have to it, which was agreed on. Sorry for being what you likely perceive as an overly-serious pain in the ass, but I really don't find this appropriate.
I've watched the episode again. Here are some of my thoughts. I'm going to format it the same way I formatted the last post. Spoilers, obviously. On Arya: OK, I'm going to start off with Arya because her final scenes have been bothering the fuck out of me, so bear with me on this one, as it may get a bit tinfoil-y. It's my belief that the Arya that we see stabbed by the Waif isn't the real Arya. "Arya's" actions throughout that entire scene make no sense. Consider: Arya was in a darkened alley (we'll assume) as though she were hiding from someone, and had retrieved Needle. "Arya" was seen walking in broad daylight around dozens of people and didn't have Needle. Arya said she didn't need a cabin when she first set sail across the Narrow Sea and was penniless. "Arya" had two sacks of coin and demanded a cabin. Arya's left-handed. "Arya" performed her actions (tossing and grabbing the coin bag) with her right hand. Last, but not least, "Arya" was walking like a rich person. Refer back to earlier in the season, when Varys points out to Tyrion that he walks like a rich person, and that the people of Mereen can't relate to him because of that. I think that was deliberate. "Arya" was walking like a rich person. Arya doesn't walk like that. Going back to the previous episode, in which Jaqen seemingly gives the Waif permission to assassinate Arya, a bit of the dialogue jumped out at me like a snake in a bathtub (some old man said that to me today, so I'm going to start using it for everything from now on). The Waif approaches Jaqen and she tells him, "It's as I thought" (emphasis mine). She's supposed to be No One, right? Like all the Faceless Men? Jaqen immediately responds with, "Shame. A girl had many gifts." I think he's referring to the Waif with this comment. Then she responds with, "You promised me." Strike two. Jaqen tells her not to let Arya suffer. In the next episode, the Waif ambushes "Arya" and stabs her in the stomach, twisting the knife. It was pretty fucking clear that the Waif wanted Arya to suffer, despite what Jaqen had told her. "Arya" pushed the Waif away and cast herself into the water to get away from the Waif, with the Waif convinced she'd gotten rid of Arya for good. Here's where my crazy theory comes into play. I think "Arya" was Jaqen in disguise, and everything Jaqen-Arya was doing on the docks was to try to draw the Waif out, which worked, as Jaqen-Arya was ambushed by the Waif. Now, you might think to yourself, why wouldn't Jaqen then take Arya's face off and reveal himself? He needs to keep up the ruse, as he has no way of knowing whether or not the Waif is still watching. If she is, and she sees "Arya" walking around suffering, then the Waif will be even more pleased with herself. I think Jaqen has done this to prove that the Waif hated Arya. In the books, the Waif comes from a well-to-do Westerosi house, but the Waif's mother poisoned her in order for her little sister to be the sole inheritor of their house. The Waif survived, and her father sold her to the House of Black and White. The Waif, seeing Arya as someone who had a life that she herself could've had, immediately hated Arya from the word go. I think this is also true in the show, whether or not the Waif ever expresses these things. So Jaqen has done all this to prove the Waif isn't ready to be a Faceless Man (despite all her "gifts") and will kill her after he has himself healed in whatever way. It's hard to say whether or not any of this is true, which is why I think it's very tinfoil-y, but the way "Arya" conducted herself on the docks was so incredibly unlike how she'd been conducting herself up to that point that I was taken aback. That, and she didn't have Needle. She's going to expect to be attacked by a Faceless Man (if not the Waif herself), so why would she be walking around in broad daylight on crowded docks and not have her sword with her? Jaqen doesn't know about the sword. It's also been proven the Faceless Men (or at least Jaqen) don't need to have the physical face of whomever they're pretending to be. tl;dr – The "Arya" we see stabbed is actually Jaqen in disguise as a ruse to prove the Waif isn't Faceless Man material. He'll heal himself, send Arya after the Waif (or kill her himself) and Arya's training will come to a close. Then she'll sail for Westeros. Whether or not she'll be a true Faceless Man, well, we'll have to wait and see. But I think Jaqen has known all along that Arya would never truly be able to become No One. On the Riverlands: Wow. Where to begin? The Siege of Riverrun has been a masterwork so far. I love everything about it because of its accuracy (insofar as the show can be accurate) to the books. Jaime and Bronn are fantastic together, the Blackfish is incredible, and I can't wait to see how it turns out. Now, as for Sandor Clegane, notice that the Septon (I don't know if he's named in the show, but apparently he's listed as "Brother Ray" even though he's clearly supposed to be a stand-in for Septon Meribald) never calls him the Hound. As in the books, the Hound is dead, and Sandor Clegane lives on. The three riders who approach Sandor's group are very obviously from the Brotherhood Without Banners, considering that the BWB was mentioned by the Blackfish (I believe). On top of this, the actor who portrayed the rider in the yellow cloak confirmed that he was playing the Lemoncloak – a member of the BWB. It's my opinion that the three riders approached the group with the intent of stealing their food and whatnot but Lemoncloak noticed Sandor, the Hound, in their midst. He reported back to the leader of the BWB – Lady Stoneheart – who told them to slaughter the group to draw Sandor out of hiding. Why? Well, I guess we'll find out, and one way or another we'll learn who the BWB's leader is. I seriously hope it's Lady Stoneheart, who'll provide a strong contrast to Jon's own resurrection. That being said, whether or not Lady Stoneheart appears – someone mentioned they heard she wasn't going to be on the show, but they also paraded for months that Jon was well and truly dead, and I think waiting this long to bring back Lady Stoneheart and specifically waiting to bring her back until after Jon's resurrection would be fantastic – I don't think Sandor's going to fight the Mountain, so there won't be a Cleganebowl. I mean, I really, really hope there is, but Sandor's in the Riverlands and Cersei's trial will start very soon. No one knows Sandor's alive (all the people who did are dead, aside from the BWB) and there's no reason for the Faith to call on him as their champion. But the writers brought back Sandor for a reason, so I'll hold out hope for anything at this point. The Hype will remain real, for both Lady Stoneheart and Cleganebowl. Edit: Something else I remembered. The actor playing the Lemoncloak has been teasing Lady Stoneheart as the leader of the BWB the past couple days. The Hype is real. On Dorne: LOL. Can we talk about how Dorne hasn't been seen since the first episode? That's some seriously funny shit. But I've got a feeling we'll see them in one of the last two episodes doing some crazy-ass shit that won't make any sense, causing Show Dorne to be even more different from Book Dorne. I'm holding out hope that it's good, though, as the Dorne storyline in the books is amazing and I hope the writers kind of resurrect Show Dorne. On the North: I don't know where to begin here, either. It's bothering me that Jon's resurrection has been glossed over to this point. It's also bothering me that no one is questioning how the Lord Commander of the Night's Watch came to be so far south of the wall. But whatever. I've got a feeling we're going to see Jon's makeshift army being their attack on Winterfell and when their hope seems gone, the Knights of the Vale and their army are going to come riding up the Kingsroad to deliver the final, decisive blow to the Bolton army, allowing Jon and Sansa to retake their home. I think Jon's going to take Ramsay prisoner so he can exact sweet Northern justice on him by taking his head himself, but Ramsay will end up being eaten by his own hounds (and perhaps Ghost as well). I think that'd be amazing. Edit: Also, Lady Mormont is a goddamn balls-to-the-wall bad ass. That little actress was incredible. On the Land Beyond the Wall: All this hype over Sandor and no one's talking about Benjen returning. I like how they've seemed to combine Benjen and Coldhands into one character, which is hilarious, because GRRM has refuted time and again that Coldhands is Benjen. The Children of the Forest even note that Coldhands is incredibly old, ruling Benjen out as Coldhands, but the rumor and theory persists. Anyway, it'll be interesting to see where this goes. Benjen reuniting with Bran was amazing, but I can't help but feel bad for Meera. What's her place in all this? What will become of her? As far as we know, she's the only, well, normal person north of the wall. She's a greenseer (presumably), but she's nowhere near as talented at greenseeing as Jojen was. Regardless, Leaf told her she'd be incredibly important to Bran going forward, so time will tell. I love Meera and I hope she survives. On Dany: I literally don't care.
Well we know for sure that something's fishy about the Arya storyline, so it might be a solution (not the first place where I've seen this theory).
It's easy to think of such things when you're constantly browsing r/asoiaf and r/gameofthrones and seeing all the other crazy theories that people throw around. I'll admit part of my theory comes from another I found on reddit, but I'd thought of the basis of it first. I'm far from the only one who thinks something's odd about the whole thing, though, nor am I the only one with a similar (if not the exact same) theory. All I know's that these last three episodes are going to be insane.