Game of Thrones begins....

[Zoupa]

Nah, I remember that. I believe it was at a book signing event by GRRM.

He's dead, folks.

[Jaron]

No, that isn't true.

He said something like Syrio was disarmed in an impossible situation against a member of the kingsguard. What do you think happened?

and people interpret this as Syrio is dead while in truth he is alive.

[Admiral Yi]

Also, the scriptwriters don't give a shit what RRRR wrote, why should they give a shit what he says?

[Habbaku]

You want to put some money down on it?

[Admiral Yi]

You want to put some money down on it?

I'll put a buck down at 100/1.

[The Larch]

You watch the nerds every week, don't you?

Nope, only the clips they put up in youtube.  Then again there's tons and tons of material about the whole thing out there, and I've been following it for years.

[viper37]

Nah, I remember that. I believe it was at a book signing event by GRRM.

He's dead, folks.

Like Jon Snow dead?

[The Minsky Moment]

You want to put some money down on it?

I'll put a buck down at 100/1.

Suckers bet.
I just looked at your pending wagers.  You would've made a good hedge fund manager.

[Sophie Scholl]

It's entirely possible the Hound returns next episode, however.  I would say even likely. The title episode is almost certainly a reference to Septon Meribald from the books, and I think the Hound will be hanging with him if we see them.

GET HYPE

I would imagine that he's got to be re-introduced soon.  I'm presuming The Hound will be the Faith's fighter in Cercei's trial by combat, giving him a chance to get finally fight and possibly kill his brother.

[The Larch]

It's entirely possible the Hound returns next episode, however.  I would say even likely. The title episode is almost certainly a reference to Septon Meribald from the books, and I think the Hound will be hanging with him if we see them.

GET HYPE

I would imagine that he's got to be re-introduced soon.  I'm presuming The Hound will be the Faith's fighter in Cercei's trial by combat, giving him a chance to get finally fight and possibly kill his brother.

Next episode is named "The Broken Man", I'd say that it's a sign about the reintroduction of The Hound.

[Zanza]

Broken Man can refer to half the cast...

[Habbaku]

"Ser? My lady?" said Podrick. "Is a broken man an outlaw?"

"More or less," Brienne answered.

Septon Meribald disagreed. "More less than more. There are many sorts of outlaws, just as there are many sorts of birds. A sandpiper and a sea eagle both have wings, but they are not the same. The singers love to sing of good men forced to go outside the law to fight some wicked lord, but most outlaws are more like this ravening Hound than they are the lightning lord. They are evil men, driven by greed, soured by malice, despising the gods and caring only for themselves. Broken men are more deserving of our pity, though they may be just as dangerous. Almost all are common-born, simple folk who had never been more than a mile from the house where they were born until the day some lord came round to take them off to war. Poorly shod and poorly clad, they march away beneath his banners, ofttimes with no better arms than a sickle or a sharpened hoe, or a maul they made themselves by lashing a stone to a stick with strips of hide. Brothers march with brothers, sons with fathers, friends with friends. They've heard the songs and stories, so they go off with eager hearts, dreaming of the wonders they will see, of the wealth and glory they will win. War seems a fine adventure, the greatest most of them will ever know.

"Then they get a taste of battle.

"For some, that one taste is enough to break them. Others go on for years, until they lose count of all the battles they have fought in, but even a man who has survived a hundred fights can break in his hundred-and-first. Brothers watch their brothers die, fathers lose their sons, friends see their friends trying to hold their entrails in after they've been gutted by an axe.

"They see the lord who led them there cut down, and some other lord shouts that they are his now. They take a wound, and when that's still half-healed they take another. There is never enough to eat, their shoes fall to pieces from the marching, their clothes are torn and rotting, and half of them are shitting in their breeches from drinking bad water.

"If they want new boots or a warmer cloak or maybe a rusted iron halfhelm, they need to take them from a corpse, and before long they are stealing from the living too, from the smallfolk whose lands they're fighting in, men very like the men they used to be. They slaughter their sheep and steal their chickens, and from there it's just a short step to carrying off their daughters too. And one day they look around and realize all their friends and kin are gone, that they are fighting beside strangers beneath a banner that they hardly recognize. They don't know where they are or how to get back home and the lord they're fighting for does not know their names, yet here he comes, shouting for them to form up, to make a line with their spears and scythes and sharpened hoes, to stand their ground. And the knights come down on them, faceless men clad all in steel, and the iron thunder of their charge seems to fill the world...

"And the man breaks.

"He turns and runs, or crawls off afterward over the corpses of the slain, or steals away in the black of night, and he finds someplace to hide. All thought of home is gone by then, and kings and lords and gods mean less to him than a haunch of spoiled meat that will let him live another day, or a skin of bad wine that might drown his fear for a few hours. The broken man lives from day to day, from meal to meal, more beast than man. Lady Brienne is not wrong. In times like these, the traveler must beware of broken men, and fear them...but he should pity them as well."

When Meribald was finished a profound silence fell upon their little band. Brienne could hear the wind rustling through a clump of pussywillows, and farther off the faint cry of a loon. She could hear Dog panting softly as he loped along beside the septon and his donkey, tongue lolling from his mouth. The quiet stretched and stretched, until finally she said, "How old were you when they marched you off to war?"

"Why, no older than your boy," Meribald replied. "Too young for such, in truth, but my brothers were all going, and I would not be left behind. Willam said I could be his squire, though Will was no knight, only a potboy armed with a kitchen knife he'd stolen from the inn. He died upon the Stepstones, and never struck a blow. It was fever did for him, and for my brother Robin. Owen died from a mace that split his head apart, and his friend Jon Pox was hanged for rape."

"The War of the Ninepenny Kings?" asked Hyle Hunt.

"So they called it, though I never saw a king, nor earned a penny. It was a war, though. That it was."

[crazy canuck]

Yes, I'm sure Syrio got himself thrown into a cart and just knew someone would save him from certain death inside of it, solely so he could watch over Arya, who he knew would be coming along any moment now.

What is the plausible theory for how a Faceless Man was captured like a common criminal?

[Habbaku]

Syrio flipped ahead in the books and figured out where Arya was going to be.

[Berkut]

I like the argument that goes "If you can't imagine a plausible scenario by which a faceless man ends up in jail ()and why is that even hard to do?), then it is reasonable to assume that he is there on purpose, and just randomly counting on Arya showing up even though there is no reason for him to think she would ever run into him there...and would in fact be dead if she did not, and likely dead even if she did..."