What is your version of Season 5?

[Channel4s-JonSnow]

I know season 5 comes in for a lot of flack around here, maybe rightly so. But in my opinion the writers had an almost impossible task ahead of them for this season, and I'm sure they've known that for a while.

Books 4 and 5 are considered the weaker books by a lot of people, but mostly they are possibly the least cinematic or easily adaptable of the lot, being far more sprawling and slow paced than those that came before.

So when I read people complaining about changes to the books or against this season I'm always interested in how they would write this season.

So I thought it would be interesting to hear peoples versions of season 5, as adaptations of the books.

What storylines would you cover?

What would you cut out?

Would you combine both books or just do Feast.

How would you keep the stories interesting enough for non readers / casual audiences?

[Richard Writhen]

It ended up working out, but I feel like they should have done a 12 season model. Book one = season one, book two = season two. Great.

Then they should have split each book in half, each half a season for books 3-7. If they were to just try to stick to the source material they

would easily be able to get 10 hours out of half of each thousand page book.

[zammey12]

I would cut Dorne and all of Brienne's scenes. Have Jaime in the Riverlands. Put more of the Spotlight on Theon in Winterfell than Ramsay/Sansa. Change Margaery and Loras' whole trial. Keep Barry alive. Shorten the amount of time spent on the wall and with Tyrion/Jorah. I would tweak some more things, but those are the big changes I would make.

[Channel4s-JonSnow]

I would cut Dorne and all of Brienne's scenes. Have Jaime in the Riverlands. Put more of the Spotlight on Theon in Winterfell than Ramsay/Sansa. Change Margaery and Loras' whole trial. Keep Barry alive. Shorten the amount of time spent on the wall and with Tyrion/Jorah. I would tweak some more things, but those are the big changes I would make.

Interesting, why would you have Jamie in the Riverlands however? How does it move the plot forward?

[Channel4s-JonSnow]

It ended up working out, but I feel like they should have done a 12 season model. Book one = season one, book two = season two. Great.

Then they should have split each book in half, each half a season for books 3-7. If they were to just try to stick to the source material they

would easily be able to get 10 hours out of half of each thousand page book.

While I think longer seasons are a good idea, I think the problem this season faced was that there were no climaxes or interesting events till the last 2 and a half episodes.. everything is set up. Thats an issue with the books, where Feast and Dragons are mostly all set up with no climax, or with a bunch of very disappointing climaxes. Each season really has to build up to something, and doing half a book would probably make early episodes even duller than they are at the moment.

[Ser Pounce FTW]

I would have had Sansa's storyline be a mix of the GNC theory, her book storyline from the released chapter and Jeyne. It wouldn't be realistic to have her be an amazing force but she should have been more of a force than was given her and had more to do. Making her just Jeyne v2.0 was boring and unnecessary.

I would have had the SandSnakes be more strategic by setting up their season 6 storylines now. I am assuming there is more weighty things to come in book & season 6. I also would have toned down Ellaria a bit and had Bronn and Jaime storylines be more meaningful. I thought that LF and Oleanna felt as though they were suddenly cut off so perhaps a final scene?

That's it. The rest was ok. Oh! Not sure why we had so many cliffhangers. Jon was enough, imo. The rest should have been more definitive.

[zammey12]

Interesting, why would you have Jamie in the Riverlands however? How does it move the plot forward?

It is just character development for Jamie. I would've just found that more entertaining than Dorne. They could've just talked about what was going down there in KL.

[Channel4s-JonSnow]

It is just character development for Jamie. I would've just found that more entertaining than Dorne. They could've just talked about what was going down there in KL.

I have to disagree. Not saying that Dorne was any good, but at the very least it illustrated the connection to Myrcella, and her revelation that she knew he was her father was at least half a decent scene. Him being in Dorne I think on paper was a good choice, in practice it didn't come out so well. Him being in the Riverlands was one of the least effective parts of the books, incredibly frustrating to read the first time.

[zammey12]

I have to disagree. Not saying that Dorne was any good, but at the very least it illustrated the connection to Myrcella, and her revelation that she knew he was her father was at least half a decent scene. Him being in Dorne I think on paper was a good choice, in practice it didn't come out so well. Him being in the Riverlands was one of the least effective parts of the books, incredibly frustrating to read the first time.

I thought the Myrcella scene was really bad and I actually really liked Jaime's AFFC chapters, so it would work for me, sadly not for you, though.

[Stannis is the man....nis]

Warning long response:

1. GW is killed b the SOH over Selmy (can't see how GW is more important plus the stupid love story done), Varys doesn't show up in Meeren, KL stays the same, as well as Aryas plot

2. Dorne is still mostly the same boring stuff but in the end Myrcella doesn't die but the SS are snuck out of jail and onto the ship, Doran is revealed to be working Ellaria because he wants the SS to kill Myrcella and Tommen back in KL so Trystane can get the IT so Dorne is still the weakest but something big was revealed at the end

3. Stannis leaves Mel, Shireen, and Selyse back at the wall wnating to protect his wife and child and Mel becuase if god forbid the WW attack the Wall while he's gone SOuth her magic would be better use their

4. Wyman is introduced to the WF plot and LF plan with Sansa is for her to stir up the Northern lord with Wyman as the living metaphor for the other lords who hate the Boltens

5. The candle plotline is kept and Sansa does get raped but then in episode 7 there is a wedding feast for Ramsey and Sansa and Wyman comes in with these three meat pies for the Boltens abut before Sansa takes a bite Wyman says to Roose he tough their would be more guests and Roose mentioned Frey's 3 missing sons then Sansa sees red run down Ramsey motuh and puts together what happened.

6. After the feast Theon reveals Bran/Rickon living to Sansa, and the Roose/Ramsey bond scene in but a little longer were Roose reveal that of Umber and Karstark have joined Stannis and add Ramsey "20 good men" line

7.Scene in Stannis camp were Arnolf Karstrak is established and in Mors place Greatjon makes a surprise return

8.Episode 8 over 9 opens with Stannis camp attacked with Stannis tent is burned and we see Davos running toward the cap yelling "Stannis" we see no aftermath scene so the damage done is left a mystery also during 8 is the Sansa escape/Theon killing Myranda scene, before Hardhome scene we have Thorne gets a PL from Ramsey saying he killed Stannis (which he think he did), wants his wife back, knows Jon has her, threatens to attack over the rumor Jon will let Wildlings into the North, Throne is like "dammit Jon look what you got us into"

9.Episode 9, Sansa and Theon get caught by Greatjon, Brienne and Pod see the candle lit in the tower but is revealed to be a trap by Ramsey, Jon returns to the Wall and Shireen is burned by Mel and Selyse outside CB to bring back Stannis, Jon throws Mel into prison, Thorne shows him the PL, Jon then says he will take Wildilings go fight the Boltens, Sansa and Theon are taken to Stannis camp where it is revealed he is alive

10. Episode 10, opens with Jon sending Sam away then Throne come up to him and says"LC you have to come see this" were he shows Seyse hung herself, Ramsey gives Brienne the Mance treatment with Pod turned into a coat, Stannis reveals to Sansa Karstrak helped Ramsey get into his camp and that his siege equipment/horse where destroyed in the process so he can't lay siege to WF, Sansa gives a big speech about not standing on the sidelines anymore and then says she will get the Boltens to come out of WF where Stannis numbers work for him

11. Davos dressed as peasant sneaks Sansa back into WF and tells Wyman what is going on, Sansa tells Wyman/Davos she has an idea, Wyman the sounds the horns and tells Ramsey that Stannis lives and his wife is with the Baratheon forces, Ramsey then goes to the wall a see Sansa rushing back to the Baratheon lines, enraged Ramsey tells the men to mount their horse and charge out so Sansa can't escape again, Wyman follows Ramsey out with the calvary and Roose stays back in WF

12. "Sansa" gets to Stannis were it is is revealed to be a girl dressed up as Sansa, Ramsey, and Wyman with the men charge out at Stannis, we get the badass shot of Stannis drawing his sword, but right before the battle Wyman tells his men to hold, he then draws his sword and yells "The enemy fly's the flayed banner,THE NORTH REMEMBERS", the Boltens are then encircled by Wyman and Stannis and crushed in minutes

13. Roose sees what happens and tells the remaining men to ready for a siege but a soldier behind him stabes and Roose falls over into the courtyard, when he comes to he sees Davos has led a mutiny with the remaining men and the solider who stabbed him removes their helmet to reveal it was Sansa who finishes off Roose, Ramsey then gets wood scene in the woods were he fights two Baratheon men and gets his leg cut, Theon then confronts Ramsey bleeding against a tree and yells "NOT REEK THEON" before he cuts Ramsey head off, cuts to Stannis with Greatjon and Wyman finishing off the Boltens Stannis is then told what happens in WF Greatjon and Wyman celebrate "the North is ours again!" Stannis then turns to Wyman and Greatjon saying "No! The North is mine" theme plays

14. Jon is leaving when Olly who tells him Ghost is locked up for attacking weird, Jon then enters the courtyard where he is surrounded by Throne and NW who stabbed him Caesar style "For The Watch" with all but Throne crying, during the stabbing it cuts to Ghost going crazy in his cage, Olly doesn't stab Jon but sadly on looks, end on the same shot of Jon bleeding in the snow

[LatrineDiggerBrian]

It is just character development for Jamie. I would've just found that more entertaining than Dorne. They could've just talked about what was going down there in KL.

There is nothing going on in the Riverlands in the show though. What would he do? In the books he negotiates a surrender at Riverrun I believe? How does that fit in with anything going on in the show?

[Marcus Agrippa]

My biggest critism is that book four and 5 should have started in season 4 episode 5. They really messed up the timing by having ASOS go all the way to episode 10. The pacing was too quick, the lack of intelligentable writing, (the norht and dorne were horrible) and Littlefingers over all incompentence... not something I was for. these books needed at least 15 hours. They got 10 instead.

[RGBeyondAsshai]

imo

They should have stayed true to Cersei's original story. The entire flashback, her increasing paranoia and bad decision making due to fear of Tyrion. No marriage for Tommen yet so she could have her moment to rule and start to really muck it up. High Sparrow going after Marg not Loras (Loras should have requested Kingsguard duty since Tywin was dead and Cersei didn't have to marry him) She should have been the one worried about Lannister power, not Jaime--because until the funeral Jaime NEVER CARED so that would have made more sense. Instead of a snake in a box, she should have had a raven about Myrcella rendering Dorne unnecessary and freeing up screen time for more important things.

Jaime should have continued his arc in Riverlands, come upon Blackfish and worked to keep his promise and be a better person in real world while training with Bronn (since Payne is gone)

Brienne should have been allowed at least half of her actual adventures...it would have been so much better than her grumpy stare. (PS-even without LSH-there was A LOT happening in the Riverlands-way more than Dorne)

If Sansa had to go to Winterfell she should have been allowed out of her room to get the chance to mess with everyone's head and she should have known about the tunnels Maester Luwin told Theon about back when he took Winterfell. You know, since she built it in the snow perfectly from memory and she was raised there. Also some Northern Lords should have at least been at the wedding as witnesses.

Jon should have been allowed to make more decisions than giving a ginger latrine digging duty and Slynt's beheading. Like deciding to send Sam for NW info instead of it being Sam's idea. Deciding to go to Hardhome instead of it being Tormund's idea. Fighting to let the Wildlings in instead of Alliser doing it after a silly staring contest, thus giving more of a reason for FTW.

Ghost should have been more important and around Jon more often.

Stannis should have been--even in failure--given more than one HORRIBLE day that turned into a farce. Also, more suffering pre-daughter burning probably would have been more in keeping with his character.

Dany...no that's too hard. But the Unsullied shouldn't suck so badly and THE Barristan Selmy shouldn't have gone out in an alley like that.

It's basically about honoring the characters and keeping them consistent with how far they've come on the show.

[zammey12]

There is nothing going on in the Riverlands in the show though. What would he do? In the books he negotiates a surrender at Riverrun I believe? How does that fit in with anything going on in the show?

I'd have it so all that stuff happens. I'd make Riverrun do what it does and Jaime would go there. The whole Dorne thing just felt wrong to me.

[Eurybia]

The North: I would combine Sansa's storyline with the GNC, as someone said above. Add a couple Northern lords, delay the marriage to Ramsay and news of it getting to KL, and add Brienne as Sansa's sworn shield, instead of the ridiculous candle staring. Theon's story from the books could play out, with Sansa standing in for Barbrey Dustin. No one's loyalty would be assured. Frey pies! Have a battle happen between Bolton and Stannis, without knowing the conclusion.

Dorne: Send Jaime there as an ambassador, so that the things he learned about himself in the Riverlands would still show up. His mission could secretly be to get Myrcella out, but he would run into the Snakes/Ellaria plot. He and Doran could foil it, and Doran would consent to send Myrcella home as a gesture of goodwill to the Crown. After the ship sails, he reveals to an angry Trystane that his heart's desire is vengeance, justice... Fire & Blood.

Mereen: Have Dany NOT go back and forth on her policies. Honestly, I think the biggest trouble with that storyline was her flip-flopping. Have Hizdar lobby for the marriage.

The Wall: Have Jon actually arrive from Eastwatch and not through the gates. Build up tension without that faceoff. Have Jon on the way to a meeting of the Watch to announce the WW threat when he gets the Pink Letter, which is a shock to the viewers as well, because we were waiting most of the episode to know who won that battle i mentioned above. Knowing he has let the Wildlings beyond the wall and seeing his desperation to save Sansa, the Watch members Caesar him.

I am, for the record, trying to work within the decisions they made, like sending Jaime to Dorne and Sansa to Winterfell. I would never have cut Arianne or the Riverlands because I love those storylines.

[Toth]

I have not much time and since were are not D&D, we are not allowed to write fanfiction here. Otherwise I would tell you which scene I would include in every episode. So I have to try to make it as short as possible. And yes, this is what I call short...

Braavos

I would like to keep the the basic premise of Arya's arc. Jaqen becomes the Kindly Man, which was actually a very nice decision. I would pour more focus on Arya feeling safe and sheltered in the House of Black and White. A few scenes with Arya eating together with the other acolyths and more scenes with her learning Bravosi with the Waif would be nice. And I really liked their lying game, this was really fun. I would have waited until the second half of the season to start with with the really creepy stuff. The final murder of Trant (and Trant himself) wouldn't have needed to be so awful. I would have liked if she just stabs him under the belly, and he bleeds awfully and says: "Get help, please. Run to get help!" and she replies: "The first sword of Braavos did not run." Not the best dialogue, but it would get the idea across that it was season 1 Arya here doing the work!

Dorne

No Sandsnakes, no Trystane. Only Doran, Arianne and a couple of extras (Hotah included). At first we get a small scene of Arianne confronting Doran with Oberyn's death and Ellaria being there to link the story with the last season. Doran will dismiss her without even considering revenge. We get the introduction scene of Arianne having sex with Arys and telling him about her plans to overthrow Doran's decision. We see Arys bringing Myrcella into the desert where they try to do the queenmaker plot. They will get attacked by Hotah and his guards, Arys and even some of her nameless companions get killed while a nameless Darkstar-extra wounds Myrcella and gets killed by Hotah for his trouble. We see a few scenes with Arianne getting mad locked up in her chamber, talking to the silent servants bringing her food or changing her sheets. Her grief and guilt about the friends and the man she used and got killed should be really tangible. When she goes to hunger strike, she get to confront Doran and we get the fire and blood speech - cut to Meereen.

Meereen

I would have included that Slaver's Bay is rallying its troops to set up a more tense atmosphere and set up a siege in the next season. A few shots of Dany walking down the battlements together with Daario and Barristan would have been enough to get a sense of dread. The dragons will not show up at all if not for a few shots of them getting mad inside their cage of molten stone, Dany pretty much forgot them. Quentyn arrives in the city and offers Dany himself and Dorne. She thinks about his offer, but has to much to do to really give him any kind of answer. We see her getting petitioned by the wise masters to respect their traditions. They deny being the harpy but imply that marrying one of them could help building bridges from their rule to hers. We see shots of her being distressed about the decision, but then we see a shot of Unsullied getting slaughtered in the streets by the Harpy. And we get a scene of Missandei breaking up in tears because one of her brothers was among the victims (or why not Grey Worm? Heh.). Dany promises her to do everything to stop the violence. So she agrees to marry Hizdahr. We see a few shots of their marriage (especially him driving her to open the pits, but also him being distressed about Drogon roaming the countryside). And we see Quentyn being enraged for being ignored. At the end we will get the pit scene including Hizdahr trying to poison her and Hizdahr demanding Drogon to be killed when he flew into the arena during Tyrion's and Jorah's fight down there.

Pentos

Tyrion is a wreck and everything about it should make that clear. We see Illyrio and Varys plotting stuff while he drowns himself in wine and contemplates suicide. It needs some very good book dialogue to keep him on track, but even then only barely. He is given to some random ship captain who travels with him on the Rhoyne. We see more scenes of him emptying wine barrels and retching it all up back again, swearing bloody vengeance upon Cersei (it would be better with the name of Tysha in his head and him feeling confused whether to love Jaime or hate him, but I have to work with season 4's decision to let him forget he ever married, sadly). When he excuses himself to a brothel in Whatwasthiscityagain, where he retches up on the sight of a corpse of a slave girl he meets Jorah. Jorah then captures him and brings him to Meereen. We could have the fight against stone men and Jorah contracting greyscale if it really has to become a plot point, but then Jorah should finally stop touching people wherever he goes. When coming close to Meereen they get caught by Slavers and forced into the fighting pits where they witness Dany's flight after nearly getting killed in gladiatorial fights themselves.

Vale

It should be said that Sansa was only introduced to a small portion of Lords in the Vale last season. She still has to disguise as Alayne Stone during her stay due to Cersei being out for her head. We get Mya Stone as a talky and amiable ally of a rather cold Sansa, but she should really struggle to keep her disguise open during it all. A few scenes of playful banter and her sighing after being alone should be enough. There is also a lot going on in the Vale. She meets Harry the Heir and Baelish asks her to make him hers. And we see her successfully bewitching the boy. We also get shots of her sweettalking Robyn when he has his jerkish moments, helping him getting over the death of his mother and becoming a sociable human being. Then Sansa watches how the health of littly Robyn declines, checks his medication and realizes Baelish is poisoning him. She struggles to safe him but then realizes, that this plan also is in her own interest. With Robyn gone, Baelish loses his position as regent and Harry will become Lord of the Vale... the same Harry who mistrusts Baelish but is under her own control... The season should then end with the death of Robyn and Sansa's marriage to Harry, where she enters the sept with her red hair and the colours of her house. Everyone will gasp and it will be awesome.

Riverlands

Jaime will get estranged from Cersei and make an abridged tour like in the books. We get a few shots of him training with Bronn, we get a few shots of him doing justice to rapists and plunderers and mentioning to Bronn how good it feels. Over the course of the season he also regrows his beard, telling a wondering Bronn that he is doing it mostly to spite Cersei. At Harrenhal we meet some idiot who makes fun of the wench in the bear pit and gets punched into his face. "Her name is Brienne!". We get quite similar scenes to the ones in the books when they reach Riverrun. He treats over several episodes with the Blackfish and Edmyn Tully and we see him repeating his vow to Cat to never take up arms against Starks and Tullys when he is alone. He is bothered by asshole Freys who demand from him to attack (while mentioning that quite a few of them were killed by outlaws). He is in a pinch and decides to bluff out Edmyn by playing the Kingslayer card. He also gets a letter from Cersei demanding his help in a trial by combat, but he throws it into a fire. At the end of the season he meets Brienne.

Brienne and Pod themselves just kinda follow the traces of Sandor and Arya (yes, I have to pretend her fight with Sandor never happened. It might be a plot hole, but the series already has enough of those). We see her finding a remote chapel where she meets a strange gravedigger and possibly a very, very sympathetic Septon Merribald who tells her about the grave situation in the Riverlands and that he goes to Kings Landing in hope to petition to the king. Soon thereafter we see her meeting Gendry who now runs with several other orphans the inn where Arya and Sandor killed the men of Lorch. She decides to stick around with them and helps defending it from raiders. At least until Thoros and men of the BwB show up and capture her. She his brought before Lady Stoneheart. What a tweeeest! Hearing that Jaime Lannister has lifted the siege and threatened Edmyn, she orders Brienne to go fetch him to bring justice. With Podrick’s life in danger, she has to obey. “Sword!”

Wall

The devil is in the details, but cutting Hardholme and Olly Nods I should give enough screentime and budget for other stuff. After all the battles of the previous season, I would concentrate only on Jon and how he takes decisions, featuring many shots of him struggling between options. Sam's ploy to use the distrust between Thorne and the two commanders of the other two castles gets expanded to make Jon's election more awesome. Especially if Stannis offers him Winterfell shortly before and we see Jon struggling with his memory of Robb. Mance Rayder’s death can be the same for all I care.

There are also numerous details I would set right: After his election, we see a few uncomfortable shots of Jon trying to eat with his friends and they making jokes about their situation until they remind themselves he is the Lord Commander and fall silent. Thereafter he gets the scene in which Aemon tells Jon to kill the boy. He decides to make a more detached approach of commandship, estranging himself from his friends in the process. Then Aemon dies one episode later and Jon sends Sam away to Oldtown so he is able to train as a Maester and search their library for more clues about fighting the Others. He takes Gilly with him, but not because he got it going with her, but because Stannis wants to get rid of the child after he hears it is a product of incest (“This is not King’s Landing!”). We then get a scene of Stannis trying to wriggle out some land and castles from Jon stating how Dragonstone and the keeps of his bannermen got under Lannister-siege. Jon relents after he hears of ‘Arya’ going to marry Ramsay and helps Stannis making contact with several gruff looking bearded guys who represent the Mountain Clans. While Stannis is busy treating with them Jon goes beyond the wall with the people from Mole’s Town who want to join the NW (yes, even Olly for Christ’s sake). They find a group of half frozen and starved Wildlings in the Godswood (maybe including Wun Wun if got a few spare pennies for CGI left) and Jon decides to bring them south of the Wall out of pity. One informs him the broken remnants of Mance’ host are still out there. Jon then frees Tormund with the order to gather as many survivors as he can to be led down to the wall. It causes an outrage by Thorne and Slynt. He decides to order Slynt away to one of the castles which should get reopened. He disobeyes his order and Jon is forced to hang him, but stopping while he is dragged off with the words “No, this not right... Edd, fetch me a block.” So we have his iconic Stark-ness right there.

Stannis then marches South with his gathered forces to free ‘Arya’, leaving Selyse, Shireen and Melisandre at the Wall. I also would have liked to feature one or two scenes of Shireen bonding with Wun Wun because it is the cutest thing ever. Tormund returns and Jon then lets the amassed CGI-Wildling-refugees through the Wall in one giant procession, featuring many dark looks from Thorne and the Watch, not Olly. Tormund then says there is a second group at Hardholme and Jon sends Pyke there with his ships (since Pyke was featured during the election, he doesn’t come out of nowhere). It will be a disaster, he will get that dark letter and we hear the voice of Pyke reading it to dreading music while Jon stares at it. “Dead things in the woods, dead things in the water.” Nobody returns and Thorne blames the Wildlings, they must have slaughtered the NW-men according to him. Many agree and they blame Jon for sending them to their deaths. I wouldn’t like to include the pink letter since Ramsay will not be bothered by Mance. Instead we could say that Stannis took a large amount of ravens from Castle Black with him and after the battle of Winterfell all of them return at once, making it look like Stannis was defeated in the heavy snows. Jon decides to march south to rescue Arya himself. In the confusion of N-watchmen running to get armed, he gets approached by Thorne and several lackeys. Stabbitystabstab. “For the Watch!” - “Ghost...” And this will conclude the final episode.

Davos

He gets send to Manderly early on when Stannis is seen talking about getting support of the Northerners. We get one scene in a poorly lit Merman’s Court with some smug extras wearing Frey colours telling the daring tale of the Red Wedding being self-defense and a little girl being the only one calling Wyman (played by Ian McNeice) out, when he says to side with the Bolton’s and demands Davos to be seized. An episode later we see Stannis receiving a rotten hand with missing fingerjoints. He laments the death of his friend in front of Jon, but carries on. Two episodes later we find Davos in a cell, being brought before Manderly and we get “The North Remembers” and Davos’ quest to retrieve Rickon.

Winterfell

Theon is the protagonist of this arc, fuck Ramsay. I would cut the Northern Lords to extras with the exception of Manderly and make it turn out exactly the same with Jeyne Poole being introduced as some nice present of the Lannisters. A girl of Ned’s retinue who was seized back when he was betrayed in season 1. She approaches Theon when they are alone and bids him to help. He is distressed, Theon knows her. He is switching back and forth between Reek and Theon. I would also include the ghost of Winterfell, but combine it with the Frey Pies, so Freys go missing and Manderly presents his pie. Featuring a long drawn shot of him eating it with delight while a very crept out Roose watches. Ramsay could just shrug and eat one himself. I would also include Theon hearing the voice of Bran in the godswood and him freeing Jeyne Poole (“you must remember your name!”) and both jumping over the wall when everyone is busy with preparing to attack Stannis. The battle of the ice would be the high-point of episode 9. Of course I would have liked to ask GRRM before how exactly it turns out, but without this knowledge I would shoot it as the Boltons attacking the army of Stannis, at first looking victorious, but then breaking into the ice of the lake Stannis prepared as a trap (In a camp scene the episode before some Queen’s Men demand a sacrifice before the storm. “I will have no burnings”, he tells them. “Pray harder.” Later he orders “Put holes into the ice and cover it with snow. Maybe some work will warm you up.”). The Bolton’s are not completely defeated thereafter, but lost a large number of their troops and had to fall back to Winterfell. Then Manderly openly turns on them, driving them into the hands of Stannis’ approaching troops.

King’s Landing

The show has one opportunity which the showrunners really should use this season: Fleshing out Margaery. Since they’ve already shown her Marg Boleyn side we should now see her wanting to become a ‘good’ queen by turning little Tommen into a good king. With kittens, not sex. After Cersei was being busy in the first episode mourning Tywin, lashing out at Jaime for having failed her and doing extremely petty remarks towards what a man he became until she sends him away into the Riverlands, the focus should be on Marg and Loras trying to turn Tommen into a good king with trips to the people and fencing lessons. There has to be a scene in which Tommen defies his mother and she is utterly furious and declares angrily that she won’t let that scheming bitch get away with limiting her control over him. Meanwhile there should be one scene with rugged bandits bringing Cersei the corpse of a dwarf (Septon Merrybald from Brienne’s plot to make it more heart-wrenching) so it is shown that she still is out for Tyrion’s head and doesn’t care how many people have to die for it. She also orders the death of the High Septon after Qyburn tells her he was on the payroll of Tyrion. The introduction of the High Sparrow could be Baelor’s Sept getting stormed by ragged peasants who demand from the Most Devout there that he should get elected and he presents a cart of bones from holy men killed on the road, telling them that it is his duty to make the streets safer. Cersei treats with him and lets him reinstate the Faith Militant to give up the debts from the crown (with Casterly Rock being broke, this plot point makes even more sense!). We should also include Cersei sleeping with some Kingsguard (Kettleback) as both the murderer of the High Septon and the one who shall confess to have slept with Marg. They arrest Marg, but torture Kettleback and get the truth. When Cersei visits Marg in her cell and they get into a verbal sparring, the Faith arrests her. There is a trial where suddenly Lancel shows up as a Faith Militant and confesses to have slept with Cersei. Walk of shame and the threat of trial by combat comes, which causes Cersei to write to Jaime, but gets no reply and has to rely on UnGregor and the open Kingsguard place through Arys getting killed in Dorne. It ends with the walk of shame though.

That’s it, I think. Did I miss anyone?
Now to the direct comparison with the actual season and how I spend HBO’s money...

Cut Locations:

- Most of Dorne except Water Gardens, one random desert scene and Arianne’s room she is confined in.

- Hardholme

- King’s Landing brothels (nobody needs those)

- King’s Landing streets with Faith Taliban smashing things

New Locations:

- White Harbour Court (a rearranged old set suffices, maybe the Twins?)

- The Eyrie (which already exists)

- Tiny Sept in the Riverlands

Cut Characters:

- all Sandsnakes

- Ellaria Sand with the sole exception of episode 1 (but you could even cut that if you trust Arianne and Doran to be engaging enough on their own)

- Karsi and all Wildlings from Hardholme

- Olyvar

- Myranda

- Trystane Martell

- Myrcella Baratheon (non-speaking-role only)

- Ghost (only jumping at Jon’s side during the election, but no Gilly-rescue bullshit)

New Characters:

- Arianne Martell, Quentyn Martell

- Wyman Manderly (supporting character)

- Bran (only voice)

- Jeyne Poole

- Cotter Pyke and Denys Mallister (slightly expanded)

- Lady Stoneheart (pretty expensive for one scene, but think about the twist!)

- (Septon Merribald), (Wun Wun), both can be cut, really. I’m not picky. Brienne could meet the High Sparrow instead of Merribald

- Mya Stone, Harry the Heir (supporting characters)

- Osmund Kettleback, Arys Oakheart (supporting characters)

- laughing children in the Water Gardens (I’m not entirely sure whether they excluded them because they were not allowed at the location or whether they didn’t want to make Doran look like Dornish Michael Jackson. If it is the latter, a few remarks about how Arianne was playing down there and he and Oberyn as well would help set the appropriate mood.)

Cut ‘twists’:

- Barristan getting owned in some stinking back alley

- no Sansa rape

- no Myrcella parting-kiss of doom

New twists:

- Lady Stoneheart

- Frey Pies and Boltons getting owned

- Sansa’s wedding

- Grey Worm getting owned in some stinking back alley

Yes I know. The way this is phrased Dorne is still in there while Young Griff is not. Without Griff it is entirely possible to just scrap Dorne altogether like RGBeyondAsshai above proposed. My current plan would be to let Quentyn getting incinerated early in season 6, so when his nameless extra-companions return and tell Arianne, Dorne will get antagonistic to Dany and fill on their own whatever role Young Griff would have in the next Dance of Dragons GRRM promised us. See... this is it. And while you are reading, you might think you’ve just read a summery of what happened in the books. And it is! I was just sticking as closely as humanly possible to them, only cutting what I didn’t need. And I was still able to fill a season and never used more ressourses than they did.

[marsyao]

I know season 5 comes in for a lot of flack around here, maybe rightly so. But in my opinion the writers had an almost impossible task ahead of them for this season, and I'm sure they've known that for a while.

Books 4 and 5 are considered the weaker books by a lot of people, but mostly they are possibly the least cinematic or easily adaptable of the lot, being far more sprawling and slow paced than those that came before.

So when I read people complaining about changes to the books or against this season I'm always interested in how they would write this season.

So I thought it would be interesting to hear peoples versions of season 5, as adaptations of the books.

What storylines would you cover?

What would you cut out?

Would you combine both books or just do Feast.

How would you keep the stories interesting enough for non readers / casual audiences?

Do I have to listen to this kind of broken record again ? How many times I have to repeat a very simple fact that the reason season 5 sucks has nothing to do with the book 4 &5 since seaso 5 did not actually any plots in the book 4 and book5, and the common place betwee season 5 and book 4 & 5 are not more than some characters and locations share same name?

[Channel4s-JonSnow]

Do I have to listen to this kind of broken record again ? How many times I have to repeat a very simple fact that the reason season 5 sucks has nothing to do with the book 4 &5 since seaso 5 did not actually any plots in the book 4 and book5, and the common place betwee season 5 and book 4 & 5 are not more than some characters and locations share same name?

If you have a better version of this season then please feel free to detail it here

[marsyao]

If you have a better version of this season then please feel free to detail it here

Closely follow the book as they did in season 1-3, a competent showrunner could produce at least 2 seasons from book 4&5 for sure! And if you follow the book and it still fails, then you can blame the book.

[Channel4s-JonSnow]

Closely follow the book as they did in season 1-3, a competent showrunner could produce at least 2 seasons from book 4&5 for sure! And if you follow the book and it still fails, then you can blame the book.

If you can't come up with a proper solution please don't comment. Saying 'stay close to the book' isn't a good answer, as the book as its laid out is full of numerous problems that would in my opinion lose viewers in droves.