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."

I don't think it took away the impact -- if anything, I cared more about Robb and Cat because I had spent so much time with them. And I think if you watch most shows, you're trained to believe the protagonists will prevail. And for a non-book reader, for the most part, this was framed very much as a Stark story from S1, with the others woven in as time passed.

I agree Amy. A friend of mine stopped reading the books at 2 or 3 b/c he was so invested in the Stark story and felt he moved away from that. I didn't really understand what he meant until now of course.

I think that the show kept clearer strings to the remaining Starks than the book did until recently.

I think the way to look at it is to view Martin's protagonist as this world, rather than one character or family. It's the story of a land, and what happened when there was another battle for the throne.

It makes it easier to accept that anything can happen to anyone -- it's war, so everything's more or less fair game -- but you also get to see how one or two simple events can set in motion this huge, complex chain that affects even minor characters in enormous ways.

What hit me the most was the elimination of a subthread. That's why I though someone would survive, so we'd have that perspective lasting longer, at least until it crossed one of the other threads more clearly (as opposed to having the thread kill itself). I thought a Stark would carry this one through. Now it's in different hands, and I don't know if that will be its own thread, or is a background to others.

I thought a Stark would carry this one through.

In my fantasies, Dany is queen, Arya is Hand of the Queen, and Maergery is the head of the Small Council. Together they fight crime! rule the world!

Actually, S. said this last night, which I think might be accurate: Robb wanted the Iron Throne to avenge his father, Stannis wants the Iron Throne because he feels cheated, Tywin wants the Iron Throne in the family because he likes it that way, and Maergery wanted the Iron Throne at least peripherally because she's ambitious.

Dany wants the throne because she thinks it's her birthright, but she doesn't just want to rule Westeros. She wants to rule the world.