The Good

Everything at the center of the Lannister universe continued to be fascinating. Outside of, “Well, I’ve gotten THIS far,” the Lannisters are the most compelling reasons why I continue to stay engaged in this show. It’s the closest to a conventional soap opera, but a very GOOD soap opera. Of course, now that Cersei has literally blown up that entire universe, what happens beyond that? Once again, we had all kinds of complex storylines end with, “And then, they died.” Marjorie was, IMO, the most underappreciated female characters in the GOT universe, in a universe increasingly focused on GIRL POWER (a 10 year old lordess*? Really??), and now we’ll never know what kind of schemes she had in mind.  *I don’t care if that’s not a real word.  I’m sticking with it.

In spite of the Starks not getting much time together on screen throughout the series, the bonds between them seem very real. Unfortunately, the Starks only seem compelling when things are going wrong, with the possible exception of Arya. Now that she has magical powers and a thirst for blood, it’ll be interesting how that weaves into the rest of the show.

I’m glad The Hound isn’t dead. His redemption story is hopefully one that will be rewarded.

The completion of the Hodor storyline was, surprisingly and somewhat unfortunately (given what a minor plot that was), the most satisfying ending to any storyline so far. It was heartbreaking, heartwarming, as well as a true surprise.

The Bad

Even if we get a sufficient explanation as to why Jon Snow was brought back from the dead- and so far, we haven’t- his ability to escape the battle which, by all rights, he and his ragtag forces should have been destroyed by the sadistically brilliant (or brilliantly sadistic) Ramsey Bolton, is close to Daenerys-like “Super Mario Brothers star” levels. (ie. “Oh my! How’s she going to get out of this one? Oh…right. The dragons, and the ability to walk out of fires unharmed. Naked, but unharmed.”)  I also wasn’t crazy about Sansa being held captive by another sadist.
Unsure

There’s so much more, but I’m tired. Watching and recapping nearly a decade of episodes in a month has turned into a job. So now, I get to find out what happens when Daenerys finally approaches Westeros. Within a few days, I’ll know why everyone was so mad about this past Sunday’s (3rd to the last overall) episode.

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