Jon: We begin to see now just how lonely Jon is. He sends the last of his friends away to other towers, his troops don't really trust him all the way, either for being a warg or being too close to Stannis, or too young, and doom appears to be at his door in the form of wildings and zombies. Plus, he believes the bulk of his family to be dead. Other than duty, there just doesn't appear to be a whole lot going for him there. Still, I kind of wonder how things would have gone if he's married Val, taken a few thousand wildings with him south of the wall, and reclaimed the north as a Stark. Lord knows there's a reckoning that needs to happen there with the Boltons.
Dany: Her frustration is certainly getting the best of her. I like that Barristan is teaching her about the Starks and the Lannisters. It's pretty clear that she simply has no idea how things really went down in Robert's war. If she thinks the Lannisters and the Starks are the same, she really doesn't get it. The Lannisters stayed out of it until the last minute, and only hopped in at the end to sneak into the city and murder innocent women and children. The Starks got into it from the beginning because Aerys burned half their family alive, and Rhaegar kidnapped one as well, plus Aerys wanted to kill Ned as well. The Starks were as justified as it gets. She needs to understand that before she arrives. It's disappointing and sad to see the state of her dragons as well. Drogon has run away, and the two that are left are chained in a pit. The two that are left would seem to be under her sway still, but something has to give. She has to figure out how to train them and bend them to her will, otherwise they are just a random disaster waiting to happen, and she loses a great deal of her power.
Reek: At first I was wondering why we were getting a chapter from Ramsay's point of view, but when I realized it's Theon, I perked up a little bit. He's been tortured to the point of basically having his entire identity erased. If Theon is the lens we have to use to view what's happening in the north, then so be it. What would be interesting, actually, is if Theon somehow came across Osha and Rickon while he was out and about. He's one of only two or three people that know Rickon is still alive, or knows what Osha looks like. Jaime did terrible things, but on some level, once they really got into his character, you realized there was so much more going on, that some of it was simply youth and bravado, and then tried to redeem himself, and while I don't forgive what he did, I feel like as a character, he's earned some mercy from me as a viewer. Theon did really terrible things, though what he did was considerably worse than throwing Bran out a window. And he's not at all apologetic for it. His treachery was that much worse, too, since he was raised at Winterfell. If he's searching for redemption, saving Rickon is a place to find it, but, I think he deserves much of what the Boltons are doing to him.
Bran: Finally! After a couple books of reading about him doing absolutely nothing, we get something pretty big. Part of me was somehow hoping that Bran would be able to walk again, but, this is a pretty huge step he's taking with the three-eyed crow. I think it's interesting that there's some sort of whole nest of Children of the Forest. I think we had to know that we'd meet them eventually. The three-eyed crow, whatever it is, it's interesting that the weirwood appears to be grown directly into him. That makes me wonder if he feeds off it somehow, so he can be wherever he wants without needing to come back to his body to feed like Bran keeps forgetting to. It would seem that Bran has some special destiny. I'm looking forward to hearing more about the Children of the Forest, and Coldhands. Part of me wonders if the reason he won't show Bran his face is because he thinks Bran will recognize him!
Tyrion: Not much here except that Griff Jr. and Quentyn Martell would make interesting friends. I'm also a little worried about why Griff is making Tyrion transcribe all his dragon lore before they arrive. Seems to me like that's the perfect thing to do if you wan the information but don't want to keep the guy who knows it around. Is he planning something?
Davos: Just what does Wyman have planned for the ships and men he's gathering? Ramsay Bolton suggested they were going to war, and I think they mentioned the Iron Born. Is that who the Manderly's are planning on going after as well? There appears to still be some pretty interesting stuff happening in the north.
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