This is probably a dumb question, but is there any particular reason outside of imperial vanity that anyone should care about controlling the North? Do they make sick furs, or something? A glance at a fan wiki tells me there’s productive farmland in the southern part, but otherwise it’s big, cold, and empty.
IIRC, the preview for next week had Jaime supervising wagonloads of gold (presumably taken from the Tyrells, and meant to pay off the Iron Bank). I’m not sure if they’d show that just to show it – presumably, they’ll be marching that big Lannister/Tarly army back to King’s Landing. That might be the perfect opportunity for Daenerys to set lots of her enemies on fire, and maybe take the gold.
I would hope not. It seems very predictable for Jon and Dany join forces, kick Cersei to the curb, and then unite to face the real enemy to the far North. And the show so far has delighted in subverting fantasy cliches. And what are Jon and Dany but walking cliches (relatively forgotten noble children rising in stature until they are the ones to save the world from evil forces?). I doubt it’ll be as simple (& dull, to be frank) as that.
That’d be fantastic - Dany would come to the defense of the Wall for the same reason that Stannis did - because they lost in trying to take King’s Landing and needed to do something else.
So’s Alaska.
Regardless of mineral and lumber harvesting, it’s nice for a country to control their entire landmass. If the North is subservient to the Crown, the Crown doesn’t have to worry about the North invading, undercutting them in trade deals, making alliances with city states in Essos, etc.
The north is as big as all the other kingdoms combined, you don’t wanna give up that much land.
I think it’s more likely that Cersei goes the way of the Mad King and tries to burn down King’s Landing. She thinks she’s a chip off the old Tywin, but she applies her scheming to petty short term gains. Tywin was just as ruthless and more clever, but he always worked for a long term goal. Cersei never plays the long game. This is no different. She’s putting down the rebellion and smiting her enemies, but all she’s doing is forcing Daenerys to bring out the big guns. Even if she won, AND the White Walkers were no longer a problem, she’s in charge of a realm severely drained of food and subjects with a harsh winter just getting started.
Best case for Cersei is that she’s able to take everyone else down with her and guarantee that no one survives what’s coming. She doesn’t know it yet, but she’ll get there, and I’d be surprised if she doesn’t try to burn it all down if she can’t be queen.
Also there’s that prophecy that she will be thrown down by someone younger and more beautiful. She thought it was Margaery, but I think it’s actually Daenerys.
If nothing else, Daenerys seems to think of it as rightfully hers, and also doesn’t want to deal with a sovereign nation on her Northern side. She was about to decide that the North was a hostile force when Jon first refused to bend the knee.
Of all the other people in Westeros she should be the most open to talk of magical weirdness, but I do think Jon was a little shortsighted in not bringing something other than just his word that there’s some bad juju going on. I did like his look to Davos when he started talking about Jon being stabbed in the heart.
From an emotional point, I mean Robb was Jon’s brother (as far as he knows) and he was brutally murdered not long ago so it seemed odd to me that he just lets it go without comment. Maybe it’s to show he’s got a cooler head these days, he does seem far more emotionally distant since he was brought back.
Like Stannis the dearly departed Mannis Dany doesn’t look at it as ‘wanting’ the North so much as believe that it already *is *hers by right. If they let go of one birthright, other people have the same idea and the whole of the Seven Kingdoms unravels. Their taxes and military strength would also be something the Iron Throne would want under its control.
It seems to me that sitting out in the snow is a bad place for Bran. I wonder if any part of the crypts are under the Weirwood so that he could at least be out of the wind.
Why is everyone discounting Varys as a spy? Especially after he told the Red Witch that once people like him taste power, they’re like lions after tasting manmeat. He actually said he’s like a lion. C’MON!
I disagree that what Cersei is doing now is short sighted. She was in a war with pretty much everyone, and she’s neutralized 3 of the kingdoms in a month. She might be putting out fires she lit last season, but I don’t see how she’s in a worse situation in the long term with respect to before getting Euron to destroy her enemies.
It’s not like the High Sparrow alliance where long term it meant she was imprisoned or burning the Sept of Baelor which long term means that her largest backer turned on her.
After re-watching, I remembered a nice little scene as Jon and Ser Davos are ushered into Dany’s presence. Missandei introduces Dany with the whole “Queen of the Andals, Mother of Dragons, Breaker of Chains, yada yada yada” bit that takes about 20 seconds.
There’s a pause, and then Jon looks at Ser Davos, who says, “This is Jon Snow.” There’s another pause, and he says, “He’s the King of the North.”
I liked that juxtaposition.
Imagine Dr Branhattan meeting Jon.
“Welcome back, brother!”
“Actually we’re not brothers.”
“What?!”
“It’s difficult to explain. You looked beautiful when you got stabbed to death.”
Davos has become one of my favorite characters since joining up with Jon Snow. He was good with Stannis, but spent too much time complaining about the Red Woman.
Another nice little moment this ep was Dany calling Tyrion on one of his “A wise man once said” lines.
I’m not so sure the show has decided that. Tyrion seemed to think so, but he was confused about a lot of what Jon said and did.
It still seems like fire is the only thing that kills wights. I think Jon’s current plan is to hold the wights at bay for as long as it takes to find and target the White Walkers with Valyrian steel and dragonglass, sort of an old-school vampire-slaying “head of the beast” deal.
It’s not like there’s any limit to the number of dead, as they can always just kill more people to increase the size of their army. Targeting wights is not a good strategy even if they were easy to kill, except to keep the WWs occupied and distracted until they can be killed outright.
I really hope that’s not the case, though I do think Tycho the Iron Banker (not Mycroft, as I keep wanting to call him) is ultimately working against Cersei. I suspect the Iron Bank just wants to get as much of her money as possible before taking her down. I could be wrong, but that’s my prediction.
On the other hand, I predicted the Umbers were secretly plotting against the Boltons when they showed up at Winterfell, but it turns out they really did join Ramsay for real, and got Osha and Rickon (and Shaggydog) killed. So I don’t have the best track record for seeing these plot twists.
Melisandre: Queen Daenerys, Mother of Dragons, The Unburnt, Breaker of Chains, Sir Loin of Beef, Baron of Munchausen, Milk of Magnesia.
Davos: Dis be Jon.
ETA: Davos: Kinga da norff.
Davos doesn’t get his due as being the greatest hype man of Westeros.
Something I missed from last week, Jon says that “We know that dragonglass can destroy both White Walkers and their army, we need to mine it and turn it into weapons.”
Given the line this week I’m pretty sure that we’re meant to believe wights are as vulnerable to dragonglass as the WW, as well as fire.
While agreeing with the clumsiness of Euron’s magical teleporting fleet as a plot mechanic, the books were even more awkward shoehorning the Iron Islands into the greater narrative. That the show hasn’t tried to spend multiple episodes/seasons on Euron is a blessing 
What books?
BTW, I was pleased that the archmaester didn’t expel Samwell for curing Jorah. He did tell Sam to copy a big pile of documents as punishment, but I wonder if the chore was also meant as a learning opportunity. Was there useful info in those scrolls? And is Samwell going to specialize as a healer? (Do maesters have specialties?)
Obsidian kills wights. It seems to me some people are looking for any tiny little thing to nitpick this show. Although I gotta agree with Euron’s teleporting battleships is stretching things quite a bit.
P.S. Goddamn, that battle was terrifying.