With Sam being disappointed that history books don't have poetic enough titles, perhaps he writes "A Song of Fire & Ice"?

Except of course that GRRM has given them an outline of major events and the ending, and many of these events might actually happen in the books very close to what we see. The books are more nuanced and deep in a way but also insanely complicated. So complicated in fact that GRRM is not really able to reconcile and coordinate all the parts.

Plus as a book reader, we added depth to the first seasons which were not there on the screen since we know all the details. We do not have that advantage any longer.

So... it's giant Deus ex Machina eagles to the rescue, then? Lol.

Why are you guys being so hard on Theon? He has PTSD from torture and abuse. His response to the stress and mutilations going on around him is not unrealistic.

And the capper of the cut from that scene to the breaking of the meat pie crust was just sickening!

Because he betrayed his adopted family and murdered a couple of kids just to set an example?

Theon remains a piece of shit, as he has always been.

Fair enough. But this wasn't "normal" Theon asshole behavior. This was PTSD rearing it's head.

Theon is like this series' Gollum. If he doesn't have some major redemption moment in the endgame, his arc will feel pretty pointless.

Considering he wasn't killed off this episode, I have to agree. End game will probably be doing something to help Jon/Dany and ending up ruling his home kingdom.

TV writes are (although don't have to) considering how viewers like/dislike the characters. Martin didn't give a single fuck about who he killed or kept alive based on reader's preferences.

Theon also helped Sansa escape.

There are a lot of cruel awful people on this show, but if there is one that seems to have paid the price for their past misdeeds and then some (short of dying), it's Theon.

That was exactly what I was expecting Sam to say.

Don't know why he would say that yet, seeing as he has no knowledge of any "Fire" in his story so far.

Might just be me, but the way the Ramsay/Theon stuff dragged on in the show kind of hurt his otherwise redemption and punishment for his past misdeeds. I got so tired of that stuff that it was hard to cheer for any good deeds done afterwards.

And maybe it's just something inherent in me after watching other strong characters in the show, as understandable as his freeze ups and reactions have been, part of me also still thinks "Damn it Theon, stop being a bitch!"

It's always been his character though. Once a bitch, always a bitch. He's never been heroic; no reason to start now.

True, probably another reason why viewers are so hard on him since he keeps wimping out despite multiple chances for his big hero moment.

Still, I really hope he gets some sort of redemption like was mentioned before.

He did help Sansa, though. That is shaping up to be a big move in "the game."

Yeah. Easy to forget but that push off the wall changed up a lot for the story.

She's kinda right, but...going from point A to B is boring as fuck TV. Also, things need to have an ending, and since there's no way Martin finishes himself in his lifetime, I'll take this one.

That's the truth. I was still a teenager when I read the 3rd book and started waiting for Dance. Now I'm knocking on 40's door and have to resort to HBO finishing up the story for us. Take what we can get.

It is crazy to think that it is very likely that GRRM would have 1 book released during the entire run of the TV series. Dance with Dragon was released in July 2011, right after the first season.

And to add to that, the one book he released was (according to him) basically finished already since it and Dance were written side by side.

Yes, that's true about TV vs books, but I'd also say we're at an unprecedented level of creator-fan interaction right now. Obviously certain people pay more attention to it (whether mandated or not) than others.

In LOTR wasn't like 17 or so years between when Ghandalf left Frodo to research the Ring and the start of the Fellowship? In the films it more like a few weeks...

So the way I see this all playing out is that Theon will do something heroic at some point where his death will have meaning and all of these moments will wind up counting for something.

On to some speculation..

Daenerys has had some good victories but I think this recent loss is just going to be the first of many. I think Grey Worm gets it next episode during the siege of Casterly Rock (They didn't have the scene between him and Missandei for nothing) meanwhile she'll probably get Ellaria's head delivered in a box. I think Missandei and Olenna are going to put a lot of pressure on her to act immediately (they want revenge) - and she will regardless of the pleadings of Jon who's basically going to tell her that she's fighting the wrong war and they really need to focus on other things (dragonglass). I think her actions will help Cersei rally the other houses to her cause and we're in for a heck of a season..

As usual... could be wrong about all of it but this last episode when just about as predicted although I did expect Littlefinger to die this episode. I think he's toast next week.

Littlefinger reminds me of Paul Reiser's Alien character "Burke", in that he'll probably out politic and outmaneuver everyone in the series only to die at the hands of the white walkers, something that doesn't even seem to be on his radar.