ipsuel

It was a 1 for me. Most people I know didn't watch this year, so I wasn't going to, either. Then I heard about Hardhome and I had to see it. It was as amazing as everyone said. So, I went back and watched the season. But out of 10 hours, I feel like maybe 1-hour was excellent TV (Hardhome and many of the Stannis scenes). The rest was honestly just eh to me... nothing outstanding. Lots of plot holes, lots of head-scratchers and lots of silly, illogical, make-no-sense moments. I could complain all day, but put simply, I just don't enjoy the show like I used to. It just doesn't bring anything to my life like reading the books has. Imo, this was easily the worst season (even if it included the best 30-min bit, Hardhome) -- and I really do feel like this: When D&D need to troll fans (as in Benjen) and actors need to bold-face lie (as in Kit) it speaks volumes about the work itself.

Ugh. I really thought they were trying to be all cliffhanger-y til S6. Done.

Stannis isn't dead. No way... You can let me know how I right I am when we get behind-the-scenes pix of season 6 filming. You're welcome :)

Did they say that Stannis would burn her? Or just that she would burn? They're two vastly different things (And Stannis is nowhere near her early in WoW).

double post

Did they say that Stannis would burnher? Or just that she would burn? They're two vastly different things (And Stannis is nowhere near her early in WoW).

Except maybe D&D

I think the difference is proper storytelling -- GRRM will lead into it in some cool way... D&D won't.

:bowdown: ^Winner ~

Lol... well I wouldn't curse at him -- but I would critique it! Free speech and all ;-)

But I'm guessing that adaptation would NOT turn out so well if he threw in random giraffes, or had Adam sitting on a puppy's head, or floating baby hedgehogs -- or any other random things, that have nothing to do with anything AND that actually change the story. And guess what? If those changes were made? I'd critique them as crap, too.

Lol, Stannis is one of the ones I'm wondering about as well. I love him/Davos -- and I'm starting to get the feeling that he just doesn't play into the bigger picture the way I thought he would (from reading). I'm not sure I want to sully my reading, no matter how long the books take, for the TV show -- it's a strange place to be in. Omg, I hope you'll love it. I just started it, and it's great so far!

Amen. And may I add that, included in the self-destructive changes -- are random additional scenes/dialouges that simply don't work with the characters/storylines. What bothers me most is the audacity that they clearly really believe they're improving on his story. It's just a complete head-shaker to me. And it's kinda heartbreaking because I want to love every episode... ASoIaF is my go-to series; I've done more re-reads than I care to admit, so I WANT to love GoT. :-(

:agree: I don't critique just to be a b*tch. I critique because GoT is supposed to be an adaptation of a book series I happen to love. When they do something well, I shout it from the rooftops -- but when they screw up, I'm supposed to keep making excuses/allowances over and over and over again? I love some of the added things over the 4 seasons... but they are now going into fanfic of some sort. Back when we saw a convo of Robert/Cersei that wasn't in the books -- well, it made sense because neither was a POV and that convo COULD HAVE happened. Now we have CoF throwing wtf-grenades, silly skeletons attacking and Jojen dead. Not even remotely adapted from the books. Which is just silly and ARROGANT on their part. The show runners have to take the good with the bad, like the rest of us do in our jobs -- and hopefully learn/grow from it. It's part of life! Though tbh, I don't see it improving. It's had 4 years and I don't see a magical "respect GRRMs work" attitude starting now.

I never watched The Wire until now (started it last night DURING GoT -- which is very telling)... and sadly, I think you're right. It's gone so far away from/further into the books, that I think I'm just gonna stick to the books and maybe watch the rest of the series after all is said and done. I love the casting/actors -- but the writing/direction/story departures are just awful to me. On top of that, it's just too likely that spoilers for future books are being added to the show (Jojen, etc) -- and I'm learning just who I don't have to care about/pay attention to in the books cuz they didn't even make the show. I don't know -- I guess at the end of the day it's just not as good, and I think it's going downhill fast -- I feel it's starting to ruin the books for me.

I can't figure out how to honestly rate this episode, so I'm rating sections, then I'll average: Jon/Stannis (8) -- > I wanted Stannis to arrive last week, but I enjoyed Stannis/Davos/Jon/Mance. The show will never meet my expectations, but it was a nice few mins for me. Cersei/Pycelle/Qyburn (7) --> Eh, it was alright. Not terrible, not special. I'm giving it a C. Cersei/Tywin and Jaime/Cersei (4) --> I want to love these scenes (I adore LH, CD and NCW)... but this sucked for me. So out of character. Dany (7) --> Again, it was ok for me. Nothing special :-( Tormund/Jon/Ygritte's Send off (7) --> Nice but not special, too long. Bran/Jojen/Meera/Hodor/CotF (3) --> Wow. It made me giggle with the skeletons and fireballs... so cheesey looking!! I actually shook my head and turned on The Wire at this point on my tablet. Bloodraven (6) --> To be fair, no TV show can top what's in my head for him... still, HUGE letdown. Brienne/Pod, Arya/Sandor (9) --> Ridiculous, inorganic meet up of the four, and I hated the fight (B doesn't beat S in any realm) -- so I took a point off, but the ACTING fixed it all for me! Maisie Williams plays dead (emotionally) sooooo freaking well, and Rory McCann asking her to kill him was fantastic. Tyrion/Jaime & Tyrion/Shae (3) --> Ridiculous. Enough said. Tyrion/Tywin (7) --> Wasn't great but it was OK for me. Arya's closing scene (8) --> I liked the closer and again, Maisie Williams deserves an Emmy. If I've done my math correctly (it's early here, lol)... Overall rating: 6.27 And that is without taking points off for LS. (ETA: spelling)

This exactly. The battle is over.

It makes no sense to hold off Stannis... all it means is more stuff they gotta get into 70-75 mins next time... So now the finale will be even more overstretched than it may already need to be. I'm sure it will be fine, but it won't be great. My .02 is that D&D regularly butcher it. Not every episode but on a regular basis, they don't do all that well.. If you have to make excuses for D&D every week, something's not right. I'll still watch but it just ISN'T that great of a show -- and I sooo want it to be :(

My son just made this for me... Guess who has a new ringtone!?!? Rains of Castamere made all the better cuz it's my son playing it :) https://soundcloud.com/tehjanitor

Gave it a 9. Couldn't give it a 10 because it wasn't perfect for me (The Mountain, Biter and The Wall weren't great for me). But gheeez, did the other scenes make up for it! On re-watch I can't even say which scene was best cuz so many were so great. But Oberyn/Tyrion and Bronn/Tyrion come to mind. And I loved the Hound this ep... it was really great. Side note: For the first time since GoT started, a scene almost exactly mirrored what I saw in my mind while reading -- Sansa making her snow castle. It was literally just how I pictured it -- so that's cool :-)

Actually, my post that you replied to started off saying "As a book purist, even I don't mind the change from 'only Cat' to 'your sister' -- it just doesn't change anything for me." So, nope - sorry, can't accommodate you cuz I'm not pissed. What I said was that the reasons ppl are giving for the change are senseless. The TV viewers aren't 3-year-olds who can't be trusted to retain knowledge. It's silly, lol ETA: clarity

Re: The Wall.. that's exactly what I was thinking -- how will they have him completely flip? And why? And I second your thoughts on Grenn... ugh. And you know, I don't mind some of their created scenes -- some are awesome (!) but when you change excellent writing for something that is less-than... I don't get it, and don't respect it.

Like it!

As a book purist, even I don't mind the change from 'only Cat' to 'your sister' -- it just doesn't change anything for me. However, if people are saying that D&D did it for the unsullied, well, I think that's really not giving the tv viewers any credit for intelligence. They not only re-iterated how much Littlefinger loves 'Sansa's Mom' just a few scenes prior (and god knows we've heard it for 4 seasons straight now)... but come on -- they think TV viewers won't remember who Catelyn STARK was? They think they forgot the woman's name from the Red Wedding? Lol, that's laughable and insulting. No. Makes zero sense. If it were some secondary character, sure -- but not Catelyn Stark. I think they changed it just to change it -- cuz they can. That aside - I liked the episode, Oberyn, Jaime, Sansa and Tyrion mainly. Not tickled with the Wall stuff, but loved all the Tyrion-cell scenes.

They've never included it in the show. I re-watched s01e01 the other day, and he definitely does not include the Rhyonar reference (only the Andals and the First Men). Kinda sucks, I agree. It could've been a nice little way to explain Nymeria's name.