Has Jon heard that Bran and Rickon are dead? I can't remember who knows what.

So now Bran is the Lord of Winterfell (although the Bolton's have actual possession of it, I think), but everyone thinks he's dead so it goes to Sansa and therefore Tyrion.

Tywin is pretty good at this stuff.

Has Jon heard that Bran and Rickon are dead? I can't remember who knows what.

I think so? He definitely knew Theon had burned Winterfell down, but I'm not sure how much of the rest of that story got up to the Wall.

I often find it hard to remember that 4 out of the 5 Stark kids are still alive because the deaths of Robb, Ned, and Catelyn loom so large.

[link] People's twitter reactions last night

Erin,

Man. I am not sure what your profession is but you have provided me really clear information in a short period of time. You are fantastic.

People's twitter reactions last night

If they were thinking this has a happy ending, they weren't paying attention.

It's kind of charming that everyone assumes HBO itself is to blame. They don't actually write the shows, folks.

I feel oddly emotionally distanced from everything. Only Arya makes me sad these days. And, hey, she's got a lot of sad going, but mostly I am prepped for irritation if a possibly interesting storyline gets cut off, and no one interesting to me died last night, so I'm callous all over.

Frankly, I'm surprised that, in three years, nobody ever noticed there were a couple of characters the book readers rather studiously avoided discussing

I think the whole "studiously avoiding getting spoilt" is more important. I certainly don't rip speculation apart, and tend to skim it from book readers. Too much room for involuntary disclosure.

Early on, some of you, perhaps notably Jessica, after Ned perished made a comment that people should not get too attached to characters. That was the elixir to help me deal. At this point, I just want bad shit to happen to certain characters. I am not hoping for happy.

I wonder - did spending so much time with Robb this season take away the impact of his death? In the books, it was much less obvious how badly the war was going for him, so I remember being absolutely shocked that he would be taken out like that. Onscreen, it felt inevitable (beyond just knowing it was coming) because we saw firsthand how the position of power he had at the beginning of the season had been gradually eroded.

It's kind of interesting to try to categorize Tweeters' reactions into "Shocked, but it made them like the show even more," "Claim they're leaving the show, but will probably keep watching, or can be lured back to the show shortly," and "That person's probably never watching again, period."