I'm not sure how Littlefinger could find Gendry and even if he did I'm not sure how useful he'd be. By this point most of the people that knew Robert well enough to confirm his bastard are dead. Sweet Robin is basically a promise that the Vale won't be enemies but not much else. Not like Olenna has someone to marry him to now that Marg is the queen and definitely been bedded.
That said, shorter seasons sound great to me. The books are already guaranteed to have more material than the show and the fewer episodes, the fewer chances there are to spoil things.
The first half of season 5 was slow but I thought the second half was great. Season 6 looks like it'll be amazing. Not really a fan of the whole Dorne storyline though, but hopefully it will tie in well with the rest of the story.
It looks like it. It's Targ Kingsguard so probably Dayne. He's fighting ned and a bunch of stark men solo and kicking their asses. Looks like the same scene
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This is easily my most anticipated part of next season. Ned is my favorite character, so having him back for a bit is great. I wish we could have an entire episode dedicated to him.
[SPOILER - highlight to read]: They kill Doran Martell and Areo Hotah and take over Dorne.
The showrunners have always been incompetent (it was just harder to notice early on when they could just piggyback on the fat ****'s writing), but if this is true this is looking to be the worst season yet.