Guessing by his lack of comments that EZ hasn't watched the 1st episode yet and is avoiding this thread like the plague.
you would be right
FINALLY got around to it after the ufc. i hadn't watched S5 opener till last night.
i think my expectations were too high, heh. i know the opener is always gonna be a setup episode.. but i was a lil underwhelmed. prior to watching it, i watched s4 e10 and i teared up multiple times, haha. not a glimmer of watery eyes on s5 e1.
i thought for a moment that maybe burning mance was for "king's blood" (sacrificing aking etc, cause he was considered the king beyond the wall) -- but i guess that's not it. cause i think he WANTED mance to work for him... although maybe it was win-win, because effectively, mance volunteered to be burned alive (cause he could've stopped it) ... maybe that's something here?
and yea, stannis gonna be pissed. jon snow has grown into a pretty heroic character. he and jaime are the most heroic chars on the show, i guess? and tyrion? jon's kinda the all out selfless hero, tho (i don't think varys is as pure, because he does some vile things even though he has to (i.e. he did order dany's assassination in s1.. it was jorah who elected to stop it)
wonder who the guy is in the mask... although it could be just a nobody, just one of the sons of the harpies... i suspect it's someone important, tho. fucking disturbing scene, tho. they did it to me again. i was thinking how sweet of a moment it was. was just as soothing for us as it was for the unsullied. btw, i know i'm not alone in wondering at first if they had recast grey worm, haha. glad that's not the case.
my favorite part of the episode was the flashback. as a show watcher we wouldn't know what it was instantly, but as a person who delves into all things GoT, i knew instantly. CBG19's lannister video explains it. it's not really spoiler-y. just knew of this prophecy (and there's more to it, i'm pretty sure, we might revisit it). here's the vid (watch all her westeros family history videos if you haven't, they're amazing.)
it's right around 10:25.