Jamie comments that they are about to cross Blackwater Rush, and that's what they are next to. This river empties into Blackwater Bay at Kings Landing. It's supposed to be very, very deep. (First book, it's stated as deep and swift, and the currents are wicked and treacherous).

Why it's deep right near the shore is a good question though.

This just blew my mind:


Dany says she’ll support him in his fight if he bends the knee, imploring him to do it for his people. She asks, “Isn’t their survival more important than your pride?”
In that moment, Jon finally realizes something.

Redditor xIdkTbhx notes that the Dany line is the exact same thing Jon said to Mance Rayder (Ciarán Hinds) when trying to convince him to bend the knee for Stannis Baratheon (Stephen Dillane) in Season 5.
The Redditor points out that “Jon’s face immediately changes” when he realizes this.

In response to the line from Season 5, Mance said, “Fuck my pride. This isn’t about that.” The decision not to kneel led to Mance’s death, and now Jon understands why.

It’s not about pride. In the words of Davos (Liam Cunningham), Jon Snow is a “damn bastard.” Pride isn’t remotely what our dude is thinking about. This is about representing his northern people, not betraying their trust, and standing up (not kneeling) for what he believes in.
It’s not an easy decision either way.
Redditor xIdkTbhx explains:

Seeing Jon realize that the position he is in, is just like the position Mance was in, exhibits the development of Jon’s character so well.

In fact, Jon seems to be taking more than a few notes from the Mance Rayder playbook. Snow got the Wildlings and the North to fight together, he’s close to getting Dany’s support as well, and he’s doing it all by following Mance’s example: just keeping it real about everyone’s imminent demise.

https://www.yahoo.com/...nally-023346528.html

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If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went. - Will Rogers

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Lucky he wasn't facing the Dodgers.

Using the dragon to make a breach in the line was smart, since it's pretty hard for cavalry to get through a well-marshalled spear line (at least it is in any of the more credible historical fiction books I've read...). Setting fire to the supply wagons just seemed plain stupid to me, given that earlier in the episode she herself had made the point that she had the biggest army to feed and Cersei had just taken all the Tyrell food supplies. Maybe she needed to set fire to the front of the line to cause the rest of the wagons to back up, but after that point she should have been killing troops and trying to capture as many wagons intact as possible, both for supplies and loot to keep her troops happy.

If Jaime ends up a prisoner are we going to see a prisoner exchange for Yara?

So what do you suppose transpired before they came out of the cave after that scene ? Part of me thought he did say F it and just bent the knee. Between doing that and facing the white walkers without Dany's help what difference would it make. Plus the whole thing with the hieroglyphs and everyone coming together for one cause.

OTOH I guess she could have given in after seeing the drawings.

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"I think I've cracked the code. double letters are cheaters except for perfect squares (a, d, i, p and y). So Leddy isn't a cheater... "

I don't think he bent the knee. I think they decided to agree to disagree for the time being. Then they came out of the cave and she learned of the troubles and turned to Snow for guidance.

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If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went. - Will Rogers

Emery's Third Coast Triathlon | Tri Wisconsin Triathlon Team | Push Endurance | GLWR

On a bit of a tangent, I particularly enjoyed the grammar correction from Ser Davos. Very subtle, almost missed it, wonder if it was scripted or ad libbed.

Jon: "How many people do we have in the North to fight? 10,000? Less?"

Ser Davos: "Fewer"

It's a callback to Stannis correcting Davos with the same line a few seasons earlier, something the show is pretty clever about.

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"You can never win or lose if you don't run the race." - Richard Butler

I think he bent ...her over the rocks for some hot Auntie/nephew action.

http://imgur.com/a/nJow8

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ishi no ue ni san nen | Perseverance will win in the end. | Blog | @nebmot | Strava | Instagram |

Davos did suggest something along those lines !

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"I think I've cracked the code. double letters are cheaters except for perfect squares (a, d, i, p and y). So Leddy isn't a cheater... "

Could even have been Dickon (not Rickon ;-) who knocked Jaime off his horse and into Blackwater Rush.

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"Politics is just show business for ugly people."

Baelish is boned to the Nth degree. Couldn't have happened to a nicer scumbag. ;-)

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"Politics is just show business for ugly people."

Agreed. Awesome explication, and he cleared up a few things as well. Let's see next week how his prognostications play out. :-)

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"Politics is just show business for ugly people."

That video explication that Mr. JSA posted implied that this is the season with 8 episodes. The fellow on the video said that "we are officially halfway through this season" with Episode 4. I could have sworn there with six shows this year and eight next. But who cares? There's more GoT to go than I thought. :-)

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"Politics is just show business for ugly people."

He's mentioned a bit in the first book, with Samwell's arrival at Castle Black and his father's disowning (as well as threatened murder) of him if he didn't take the black and join the Night's Watch. Dickon, Rickon...that's been a running joke the last couple of episodes. First it was Jaime with Randyll Tarly, when he first meets Dickon and asks "You're Rickon?" Then Bronn has some sport with his name.

Dickon seems a good egg, though. I hope he made it through all that dragonfire. I'd hate to see his calcined bones in the next episode. LOL!

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"Politics is just show business for ugly people."

Hahahahahahahahahaha! Best rejoinder of the Episode 4 thread portion so far! :-)

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"Politics is just show business for ugly people."

That's my point about Dany not being an able tactician and definitely not a strategist. But having an entire firebreathing air force can overcome battlefield tactical foul ups as well as allow her to dictate strategy even when she doesn't know what that should be at that time. She listened to Tyrion, and when what he was saying wasn't jibing with what she was seeing she turned to Jon Snow, who she knows has controlled armies and developed strategy before. And his counsel was wise and timely.

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"Politics is just show business for ugly people."

I was waiting for one of us filthy animals to make exactly that comment. Thanks for delivering, sir. ;-)

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"Politics is just show business for ugly people."

I guess the other factor is that burning wagons makes for great TV, and in a show where fleets can go round whole continents in the blink of an eye then magicking up some more grain isn't going to give the writers too many sleepless nights...

With so few episodes left there's one storyline I feel won't be resolved. Given that there are so few true armies left in Westeros, it's fairly easy to see how the iron throne & night king storylines can resolve themselves in so few episodes.

The one I fear won't be resolved in time will be Sam. No way he becomes a maester in 8 (or however many are left) episodes.

It's funny, because grain is also discussed in the Winterfell/Sansa storyline at the moment (including last week's episode). Sansa is really focused on grain stores, perhaps in a more realistic manner than is treated in the King's Landing/Jaime/Lannister loot train storyline.

You're right: I don't think the writers will crack too much of a sweat over some grain stores going up in a flash of dragonfire. ;-)

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"Politics is just show business for ugly people."

There's something coming up in next week's episode, because the preview showed Jon Snow telling everyone that Brandon/Three-Eyed Raven had seen the Night King's army approaching Eastwatch-by-the-Sea, the castle and port at the eastern end of the Wall. Didn't Jon and Tormund of the Wildlings agree that Tormund's people would go to Eastwatch and guard it against the army of the dead? They're in deep shiite if that's case. ;-)

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"Politics is just show business for ugly people."

I think it's the matter of control. At Mereen there were no other forces in the water, the dragons had free reign to burn at their will with no risk of friendly fire. The Blackwater was different.

Great episode though. Shame the gold got through to KL though. That would have been an interesting set up for the rest of the war: both sides only having the forces in the field to command with no prospect of mercenaries to bolster them (or better yet, Euron goes and gets the golden company, then they arrive to find that Cersei can't actually pay them).

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