Game of Thrones begins....

[Admiral Yi]

Murder-hobo?

[Valmy]

Murder-hobo?

An itinerant murderer.

[crazy canuck]

The part of the prophesy I don't understand at all is "And when your tears have drowned you".  At what point will that be?  I think it is a reference to the Iron Born motto and the practice of drowning and then reviving as part of the baptism ceremony.  But otherwise, I am not sure how that works  - how will she be killed after she has drowned by tears - especially since she is not the teary type.

[viper37]

Hold on a sec.

"Valonquar" is a Valyrian word.  Why use it?  Perhaps to signify that it is the little brother of a Valyrian?
The most prominent Valyrian family in Westeros is the Targaryens.
The head of the Targaryen family is Jon Snow.
Snow has no living biological brothers but he has adopted siblings he regards as brothers:
+ Rickon is dead
+ Bran is "changed"

In the shows Jon Snow is the one that gives Arya her sword and encourages her "boyish" pursuits.  Their realtionship is akin to that of an older and younger brother.

Arya is THE Valonquar, the younger brother of the Valyrian.

Or . . . maybe Bran/Night King finishes her off . . .

and Arya speaks some words of valyrian, I think.

I'm still betting on a shapeshifted Arya.

[viper37]

Making a teen girl into a murder-hobo is apparently "cool" and "empowering",

it's been like that since the Slayer's times

[viper37]

The part of the prophesy I don't understand at all is "And when your tears have drowned you".  At what point will that be?  I think it is a reference to the Iron Born motto and the practice of drowning and then reviving as part of the baptism ceremony.  But otherwise, I am not sure how that works  - how will she be killed after she has drowned by tears - especially since she is not the teary type.

Hmm, maybe her Iron Born lover will betray her and seek an alliance with Daenerys?  And the tears would be metaphoric: she drowns in her tears because she is betrayed by her fighters and that seals her fate, to be defeated by her opponents.

[miozozny]

...the valonqar shall wrap his hands about your pale white throat and choke the life from you.

People really think that this could possibly describe Arya?  She doesn't have "his hands" and she doesn't kill by choking people.  Poison and stabbing/cutting are the elements of her MO.

Isn't Valyrian to be gender-neutral? So maybe Sansa will get her chance!

That said; I think it will be Jaime. To me it seems to better fill his narrative. Killing the mad queen that is about to burn King's Landing and finally becoming a hero in the official history.
He does, to me, seem to be one the most likely characters to get back south as well. At least one of the Lannister brothers has to survive to make the Bronn scenes worth it at least. And I don't see where Tyrion's story is going after Winterfell. A 'I talked to Bran and found a way to beat the NK and die while doing it'-scenario seems appropriate right now.

And a comment on the lives/dies S8E3-predictions; I think Varys' story is not yet finished. So I think he will survive. 

[Habbaku]

Add in the fact that Jaime would go down as a Kingslayer and a Queenslayer, and I'm sold.

[The Brain]

Watched the latest episodes. Man the writing isn't exactly stellar. I'm just hoping that the season won't include anything as stupid as the big "what-the-fuck-am-I-watching" incidents from season 7.

[viper37]

A study on the chances of survival for the main characters
https://injepijournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s40621-018-0174-7

[grumbler]

A study on the chances of survival for the main characters
https://injepijournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s40621-018-0174-7

Nice.

Given the societal structure outlined above, it should come as no surprise that violence prevention is presently not a priority in Game of Thrones.

Now that I think about it, this should have been more obvious to me before reading this study.

[viper37]

Given the societal structure outlined above, it should come as no surprise that violence prevention is presently not a priority in Game of Thrones.

Now that I think about it, this should have been more obvious to me before reading this study.

lol

[Josquius]

Ibe

[Yeah, I don't think it's evident in the least that he doesn't enjoy writing. He might not enjoy the struggle of writer's block, but who the fuck does? He seems to very much love and care for the world he's created, judging by the other works he's done within it and the constant attention he pays to it.

I agree the real problem is the opposite of disinterest or laziness. The tail (the background of the world he imagined to support the narrative) is wagging the dog of writing the novels. He's become so entranced by his own world building that its taken over the original project of writing well plotted novels.  It's been increasingly apparent since the 4th book when he started to overly multiply narratives and side plots.

To be fair the books have been that way since the 1st one. Its pretty clear with stuff like the jaunt to the Vale that the plot in large part serves as an excuse to show Westeros.

I think he's suffering over things as the longer the wait the higher the expectations get and he's being so concerned about perfection he's not producing anything.

[KRonn]

Hold on a sec.

"Valonquar" is a Valyrian word.  Why use it?  Perhaps to signify that it is the little brother of a Valyrian?
The most prominent Valyrian family in Westeros is the Targaryens.
The head of the Targaryen family is Jon Snow.
Snow has no living biological brothers but he has adopted siblings he regards as brothers:
+ Rickon is dead
+ Bran is "changed"

In the shows Jon Snow is the one that gives Arya her sword and encourages her "boyish" pursuits.  Their realtionship is akin to that of an older and younger brother.

Arya is THE Valonquar, the younger brother of the Valyrian.

Or . . . maybe Bran/Night King finishes her off . . .

and Arya speaks some words of valyrian, I think.

I'm still betting on a shapeshifted Arya.

Arya learned some nasty skills with that group she was in, as seen by how she played old man Frey and killed off many of them. Some of the books and show concepts are a bit supernatural, white walkers, Bran and the one eyed raven, so Arya having some skills isn't so out of place. I like it, her being so small and seemingly relatively harmless but few know what's behind the façade. I think Sansa knows.

[grumbler]

Not as big a butcher's bill as I expected.  But I was surprised they offed the NK with three episodes to go.

Now Arya got her big moment, though, it just reinforces my conviction that she won't off Cersei, too.

Some great moments in that episode.  The Dothraki lights going out bit was the best.