Yup, I was thinking the same thing in regards to Stannis. Why not show him die, unless there is something else that is going to be in play. I am still kind of lost on the whole Arya scene does she just go blind? That's all and does that mean the other girl died? So who is who in that scenario lol
Everyone is nobody, they have no individual identity whatsoever. There is no Jaqen, no blonde girl, they're just faces that they use, and there is supposed to be no Arya. You can't become faceless until you are truly ready to cease existing as an individual, which Arya certainly isn't. There really seems to be no way this ends well for Arya in the long run, but I think her fate won't come until close to the end.
Overall, this was a complete letdown of a season. This season was just not good. That being said, there were a few awesome scenes this season. The youngest Stark... Spoiler murdering that pedophile was probably my favorite scene in the whole series so far. The scene where Reek tossed the girl off the castle wall was also awesome. I had to re-watch that scene. The rest of this season was pretty damned boring and pointless. Why must we waste so much time on dead end storylines?! Spoiler I cannot believe that they killed off so many characters in the last few episodes but they kept the dragon lady around. Very disappointing. I care about exactly one storyline at this point. This religious crap that is going on is about as interesting as watching the Walking Dead...
I can't answer the first part due to book spoilers, but as to the second part, they are no one …there is an idea of a faceless man, some kind of abstraction, but there is no real him, only an entity, something illusory, and though he can hide his cold gaze and you can shake his hand and feel flesh gripping yours and maybe you can even sense your lifestyles are probably comparable: He simply is not there.
Heh, I just ripped off the end of American Psycho, I don't really know how much it even relates to the actual Faceless Men, I just thought it would be funny. I'm now picturing Jaqen H'ghar pulling off a facial mask and running down the hall chasing people with a chainsaw.
They seem to try to rush through several storylines during a season finale but they are unable to get to all of them. Wouldn't it be best if HBO/ B & W made the season finale an hour and a half or two hours whereby they could get to all the characters they had involved in the season? I guess they have their reasons.
People don't seem to get it, but the faceless men are just another sect of religious zealots. They die as individuals for all intents and purposes, and merely exist for the purpose of killing who they are told to kill. It's really not a desirable life in any way.
I could see Cersei getting entangled in a war with the church and creating a civil war between the faithful and those who resent the church's abuses. Between that and the struggle with the Tyrells and Dorne and Boltons etc, that should make for maximal chaos as the white walkers show up. Or, it could be that the white walkers are about to just blow the Night's Watch away and they didn't want to have Zombie Jon as a character. By also removing Sam they've taken out all the sympathetic characters at the wall. That would be really lame. Besides, I think we've already heard this one with other off-screen deaths like the Hound. He's still dead so far as I've seen.
My speculation (based off nothing) on Jon Snow... Spoiler I think he'll be out all of next season, but he will be back. I think this also gives him a chance to leave the Wall and finally get back to Winterfell. The Night's Watch will be destroyed by the White Walkers and Jon will live. Sam will come back at some point with wisdom on how to win the war. I think Snow's end game is to marry Dany. Again, this is baseless, pulled out of my ass speculation so don't get mad.
So they made a big deal about Kit Harrington cutting his hair as confirmation that Jon Snow isn't coming back, but the dude only trimmed his hair an inch. So yeah, he's coming back. Because hair.
I think Jon Snow will fulfill his destiny as king of the White Walkers. Makes perfect sense. His last name is Snow. He always says "Winter is coming." He is of royal blood. His emotionless blank facial expressions are perfect.
I'm sure they are being pressured to confess as well. Remember that Cersei still faces a trial, just as the other 2 do.
They didn't show him die. He was left for dead. We didn't see Ned die but we saw the reaction, his body and his head afterward.