Maybe Bran kills hr one way or another. Or Arya in some disguise.
I’m not too concerned with the mechanics of face changing one way or the other, but I think it’s pretty certain that Arya did complete her training. The Faceless Man sends the Waif to kill Arya, but Arya passes the test by killing her first. When Faceless sees this, he says, “Finally, a girl is no one.” That would seem to indicate her training is complete.
Now, maybe Faceless will show up again to teach her a painful new lesson, because at this point she’s basically as unstoppable as the Terminator and he’s one of the few people who can be the monkey in the wrench to her plans.
Yeah, she doesn’t behave like a Faceless Man … Girl at all, and No One (with the face of a man called Jaqen H’ghar) could have expected her to do so. Yet, he let her go to Westeros; with (some of) the skill of the Faceless Men but not their commitment. And we still don’t know why.
Not as long as the Lannisters can be supplied from the Reach - which is the reason why Jamie considers the Tyrell lands a priority.
Yet, you’re right: the economy of Westeros is magical in its own right.
Yeah, it’s just like the teleporting Knights of the Vale. At times, the show runners create of problem with plausibility without necessity.
Euron could as well have said: “Gather a thousand ships!”, or “We’ll attack them with a thousand ships!”, and we would not have been equally skeptical about the number.
No need to guess. 
You know what the difference is between this thread and the Citadel?
The Citadel has books in it.
Yeah, why is this Valonqar mentioned time and again as part of a prophecy … ? Maggy the Frog didn’t talk about any such person to Cersei. I wonder where this comes from … ?
Ok, so can I bring up what I often refer to as “Game of Thrones moments of incredulity” for the episode.
So. Bran turns up at the wall standing in front of the Night Watch, led by what could be called Jon’s best friend, Edd.
So, the current King of the North might want to know that the real supposed King of the North, his step brother (so it seems) is not dead, and safe at Castle Black. Perhaps like Season one “BIG NEWS”.
Send a raven?
Nothing.
I say moments of incredulity, because it becomes yet another “we’re just going to ignore all logical and sensible stuff to extend the plot”. Like how Bran spent about two seasons trying to get to Castle Black, and then decided “Oh we’ll just not do that now, and Jon probably doesn’t really want to know his step brother, and heir to the throne is still alive” and go through the secret way…
Do we know the rules well enough to know if Bran is still the heir to the throne after Jon has been elected?
If no one after Robb had been chosen, Bran would be the heir for sure. But now?
Is Jon’s accession null and void and Bran king, unless he renounces the throne? And if he does so, is Jon’s election in force again or does there need to be another vote? Or is Bran able to name Jon his heir and then abdicate to let him take over? What if he chooses Sansa instead? She was ignored by the assembly although she had been the rightful heir to the Stark name, household and offices and savior of the allied forces - and not Jon.
And who is Jon’s heir if Bran refused the responsibility? Sansa? Or can Bran choose to change his mind?
As starter episodes, this wasn’t bad. The inevitable overview of the board, but some of the pieces were at least moving.
The main thing we got is the big plot McGuffin: Jon, in the North, needs the dragonglass held by Dany in the South. (I suspect the big season ending battle will be the Night’s Army on the wrong (south) side of the wall vs a small force equipped with dragonglass, holding them back at great cost.) Regardless, how Jon gets his hand on the dragonglass, and how Dany is led to see the importance of it, will be the critical plot strand for the song of ice and fire.
We also saw some of the minor plot points: Arya is heading to confront Cersei at KL, Euron is going to disrupt Dany’s plans (and probably capture, not kill, Tyrion - think of the confrontation scene!), Jon is trying to get the North and the Wildlings to unite effectively, Jamie is planning on taking out the Tyrells, Littlefinger is looking to stir up some shit. Cersei hasn’t forgotten Jon in the North, but can’t deal with him directly at this point. Broadly, we can guess what sort of thing will be happening this season.
Character-wise, we’ve got Jon and Sansa butting heads. They could work together effectively - Jon supplying clear purpose and inspiration for followers, Sansa offering realpolitik and a big-picture view. Or they could get in each other’s way. I suspect the latter followed by the former. Arya has learned a little compassion for the common man, but retains her focus on revenge. (Why isn’t she heading North? She must have picked up some rumours in her weeks at the Twins about Jon, Sansa and the Battle of Bastards.) The Hound is on a journey of redemption, facing up his past as a callous killer. This is good. Jamie is plagued by ideas of honour (the exchange where Cersei had to remind him that betraying allies when the time comes is how the game of thrones is played was nicely done) while Cersei has stripped away all extraneous concerns to focus purely on power at any cost.
I liked Sam’s montage. It reminded me of Better Call Saul. Taking the time to establish the true meaning of montonous drudgery is worth it because it gives the character real accomplishment when they either achieve their goal through that drudgery or circumvent it, as Sam did. With a quasi-ally in his new tutor, the question is whether Sam can push the Citadel into doing something useful.
Incidentally, I thought that speech about the world not ending at various crisis points was a load of bullshit. If the world didn’t end, it was because people got off their arse and did something about it. That might be winning a battle, or it might be actually reading the books you so proudly claim to be the world’s memory and actually using the information in them. Keeping them locked up and unread when you believe your acolyte’s tale of an undead army is complacent traditionalism run riot.
That leaves missing characters. Lots of internet humour about Gendry, but where is Melissandre?
Not the point I was trying to make…
I’m sure there are issues about who wants to be the heir, who’s eligible, and who would produce an heir because crippled. Whoever wants to debate that, then go ahead. Usually results in about five pages of arguments as the last time (Dorne, Danerys versus Jon Snow)…
Just that a long thought dead vitally important relative of (in effect) their leaders has appeared.
But the usual thing in the show is for them not to mention it, raise their eyebrows and forget about it.
Like Arya and the hound arriving at the Eyrie and… Nothing happens. Nobody tells littlefinger about this useful pawn in the shape of arya, and interesting ally/bounty in the shape of the Hound.
We don’t know that they didn’t send a raven to Winterfell. I suspect they did and we’ll see Sansa and Jon get the news next episode.
With Bran south of the wall and, presumably, headed to Winterfell, how long before Jon is informed of his true parentage, and what does that do to the alliance in the North? I suppose it will depend on how much and how vocally Bran and Sansa support him; yes, he’s half Targaryen, but he is also a Stark (albeit not Ned’s son as assumed).
I don’t see Bran making a claim to the throne in the North - he’s the Three-eyed Raven now, so he’s got a different (and arguably more important) path to follow. He’s also not physically up to being a King (at least in the eyes of everyone else), and there should be serious doubts about his ability to produce an heir.
If Danaerys is informed that she has a nephew as King of the North, would she (or perhaps, more importantly, Tyrion) view that as a threat, or as an opportunity to bring the North under her reign without too much bloodshed and destruction? We’ve seen Tyrion guiding Danny to be a little less aggressive in her dealings with other power bases, and Tyrion seemed to have some affection for (or at least feel a little kinship with) Jon, so he might advise Danny to treat with him rather than conquer. It would relieve the pressure on Danny from that direction while simultaneously upping the threat on Cersei. Maybe Dragonglass becomes the key; Danny supplies Jon with all the Dragonglass he needs for the war in the North in exchange for his fealty (or at least a truce) while she focuses on King’s Landing and the South.
I can see a final state where Danny sits on the Iron Throne as Queen of the Andals and First Men, etc., etc. with Jon as King in the North (perhaps a client king?) and the as-yet-unkown third Targaryen as King or Queen of Essos. Something of a triumvirate with Danny as the superior, since she’s full-blooded Targaryen.
I like Peter Sagal’s suggestion on the Nerdette Recaps; Baelish does sit on the Iron Throne, but just for 5 seconds or so before a dragon incinerates him. 
Otherwise, I don’t see him gaining the throne. I think too many people have seen him play his game to allow that to happen. Lord Royce is just itching for an opportunity to get rid of him, Sansa doesn’t trust him (and, I suspect, wants a little vengeance for getting married off to Ramsay), Tyrion knows at least some of what he’s up to (right?) and Varys plays the game much, much better than Littlefinger could ever hope to.
Same thing for both armadas. Are we to assume that both navies have been spending the past year delaying their invasions while they adorn their sails and ship hulls with dragon and squid livery?
I think we have to assume the Jaqen H’ghar she trained with in Braavos is the same she met at Harrenhal. Otherwise why use the same actor? Maybe he just likes Arya? Arya did save his life. Plus she has a murderous (but not indiscriminately so) rage about her.
Besides, training with the Faceless Men seems purely voluntary. She only got in trouble because she kept accepting assassination missions and then going off plan.
Isn’t the Red Woman on Arya’s hit list?
I got a good laugh out of the below article in the National Review, “Every Red-Blooded American Should Root for Littlefinger to Claim the Iron Throne.”
I have no idea whether it’s a parody of a certain right-wing mindset or if it’s serious, but I enjoyed it. And the author does make some good points about aristocravy vs meritocracy. My favorite bit:
Dany’s moral claim to rule has always been on pretty shaky ground. Yeah, it was good to free the slaves in Essos, but in Westeros she’s coming in unwanted and saying “serve me or I’ll have my dragons murder you.” Even worse if she forces the North to come back into the fold after they try to institute an inchoate form of democracy.
Can we discuss the depiction of Euron Greyjoy for a moment? I feel as though Johnny Dep’s loose-jointed Jack Sparrow has somehow become the default for physical movement when playing a pirate.
Now granted, both characters have suffered from oxygen deprivation - Sparrow lived several weeks on a desert Isle on nothing but rum,and Euron was purposefully drowned by his fanatical Uncle - but this is not the rolling gait I see in sailors who are coming ashore after a long time aboard.
This Euron was somewhere between Dep’s Sparrow and Sting’s Feyd-Rauth Harkonnen. Now THAT was distracting.
She is the legitimate heir to the Targaryen line, and the incumbents of the throne since have all been various shades of dreadful. In any case, its about power not morals.
I guess my problem is that I wouldn’t be surprised if they just don’t send a raven or mention it at all You aint seen me…
They weren’t handing the keys to the Dreadfort out while discussing the Karstarks and the Umbers, were they?