Championship Chalk-Talk:

It’s been a long and arduous battle, has it not?  But it is far from over.

A look at the analytics tells us that almost HALF of you no longer have a champion left standing as Arya battles Tyrion. As of this writing, 10 AM EST, only 9 hours remain for voting and we are all staring down the barrel at the final episode of the TV series.  Arya has been killing everyone on the boards but don’t be too hasty in calling this one. It’s worth looking at how people originally filled out their champion bracket. Arya only received 37% of champ picks. Tyrion and Jon combined for 36% of all champ picks. Daenerys looked good at the outset but collapsed. And then there were the OTHER champ votes.

A cursory glance has Arya rolling right over Tee-dog in the final. But are her champ-voters all sticking with her in the round-by-round voting? Another big question is, who will the non-Arya voters fall behind? Just as Stannis and Renly’s Westerosi followers all had to throw their lots in with a new frontrunner once their own pick was slaughtered, so do all the bracketeers who chose anyone besides Arya and Tyrion.

But will ALL the non-Arya people rally to Tyrion? It doesn’t look like it.  Where do they go? The Hound received a chunk of champ votes. To whose banners will the Hound-voters rally?

For all my talk of how Arya is the HANDS-DOWN best G.O.T. character, I have noticed that she is a remarkably polarizing character. The ferocity of her defenders is fully matched by the zeal of her detractors. And, weirdly, the current plot of the show does not seem to be helping her on the bracket. It doesn’t seem to matter to voters that she is a major player with lots to do and lots of screen time on the last few Sunday nights. Non-Arya voters who don’t particularly care for Tyrion might shrug and go with Arya. Or they may not.

Like a lot of us I predicted this final two. In my case the final pair also coincides with my personal sense of who should be in the final, as opposed to just coldly predicting how people would vote.  But of course ole Connington is failing to score well in the standings, mainly because of my stubborn, Ned-Starkesque insistence on taking Ned Stark through to the final four. I am paying the price for that now. That price includes having to see my Lady Wife AND my younger sister floating above the Connington name on the leaderboard. Connington, sadly, is perched at the ignoble and unlucky #13 spot.

But the debate isn’t over just yet.  You can check back later for my recap and analysis and I’ll tell you why I was right about it all along.  

VOTE NOW IN THE FINAL ROUND! IT'S TIME TO DECIDE!