Shorter Danaerys Targaryen: Me and THIS army, assholes.

Quick takes: DIRTY UNCLE BENJEN! I knew it I knew it I knew it! The wight who comes to their rescue is called Coldhands in the books, and he takes Bran and Meera and Jojen to the Raven as well as apparently bringing them back. It’s never confirmed that he’s Benjen in the books so I had only my sex fantasies theories to go by til now. Get back to Castle Black, Benny, because holy shit are they screwing some stuff up there.

TEAM BLACKFISH.

Walder Frey. Shudder. I’d almost convinced myself he no longer existed. I’d almost forgotten that world, the one that we occupied pre-Red Wedding, where guest right made sense and we were still living in basically a society, and here here is, chewing with his mouth open, reminding me that that world existed and he destroyed it.

Can we take Randyll Tarly and Balon Greyjoy and probably the Late Lord Frey too, and send them all to the combination MRA/Promise Keepers retreat of their dreams? It’s no wonder these kingdoms are screwed up. Just look at the parenting.

Glad the Brotherhood storyline isn’t dead. Gendry is I think the only TV!Baratheon left (unless Meera is one, but the smart money is that she’s yet another seekrit Targaryen) and I have President Roslin-level feelings about Beric Dondarrion and Thoros of Myr, so I’d love to see that go in the show where it went in the books.

Not enough Sansa or Missandei in this ep but just the right amount of Littlefinger and Tyrion.

Arya Stark wanted to be no one.

The first time they beheaded her father in front of her, she turned away, turned her face into the statue of Baelor so she wouldn’t have to see. She hid from the world as it burned down around her, and she accepted Yoren’s lie about who she was, and she ran.

The second time? The second time they did it, in a clown’s makeup and props, with terrible rhymes and bad music? She looked straight at it and she never flinched once. She opened her mouth, and she swallowed the horror whole, and no one was more surprised than she was when she lived through it.

She wanted to be no one. Family gone, friends gone, home burned, allies banished, Arya Stark wanted to put on another face entirely. Become no one, seep into a room like smoke, dole out justice or vengeance.

The Starks are all wargs, all skinchangers, who become something else when they choose. As everyone is, all the time, if you push us far enough. We all have a hall of faces, and after a while, you can forget which one you’re wearing, or why you put it on. You can forget how to take it off.

What’s your name? A girl has no name.

She said it so many times she almost believed it.

What’s your name?

“Mercy.”

She put her own face back on, and her hand closed around her swordhilt.

IF THEY KILL HER AFTER ALL THIS I WILL HUNT DOWN MARTIN MYSELF AND MAKE HIM EXPLAIN IT TO NEEDLE.

A.