I wasn't surprised by the magical appearance of mounted knights onto a battlefield where the defenders were hopelessly outnumbered and outmaneuvered.
#1 Battle of Blackwater Bay - Lannister and Tully forces arrive to attack the left flank of the attackers to save the day!
#2 Battle Beyond the Wall - Stannis' forces arrive to attack the left flank of the attackers to save the day!
#3 Battle of Winterfell - Vale forces arrive to attack the left of the enemy to save the day!
Damn, the tactical lesson is to always have some pikemen to defend your left against sudden horse charges.
A few other observations:
Bran isn't going to show up to Winterfell and start spouting Targarian propaganda if he knows what's good for him. Wargs are one step up from witches south of The Wall.
Jamie is going to stab Cercie, but only in the HBO way.
Lady Mormont steals the show whenever she's on screen. Great child actor and script writing.
Davos. Sigh. Just put a sword through the Red Witch's heart and be done with it. We're all counting on you.
Tormund gets the Rick Grimes seal of approval for biting out the neck of the Umber.
Ramsey - how did they keep the dogs in their open pens until he woke up from his beating?
Arya is the sociopathic killer we all love to cheer for. Of all the GoT characters, she's the one that is truly scary in the whole murdering career path. Hell, the Hound might not think anything of killing a child under orders, but he doesn't like it. The Mountain, pre-zombie, would be a good challenge in that department, but he wasn't very smart or clever, so Arya gets the edge over him.
Anything in Dorne that doesn't show a lot of Tyene Sand ("The most beautiful woman in the world," according to Bron) is wasted film, IMHO.
During the Winterfell battle, at one point I had a flashback of another movie. "Why won't anyone fight me?" he shouted as swordsmen dashed about him. And then a shot of The Kurgan.
Tyrion is once again Hand of the King. Does he get to bridge the time spent as Hand for retirement purposes, or does he have to roll one over into the other, being careful not to incur a tax penalty?
The receptionist at the Citadel isn't really a dick. The guy needs a huge magnifying loop to read normal sized font on a manuscript two feet from his bent head. He couldn't see well enough to grab the scroll from Sam. Or maybe that's why he's a dick - his vision is so poor they made him mind the front desk as he's unsuited for anything else.
[edit]
The Night Witch could enter the Three Eyed Raven's cave because he marked Bran during a Warg event. If Bran goes south of The Wall, doesn't that negate the magical blah-blah that keeps the undead north of it?
