Ser Gareth

He is an awful character in the books. He was very poor in the TV show too, but in the books he is just a pointless terrible cardboard cut out villain.

The endings for the major characters left (POVs from the first book) will be the same. Bran "the Builder" will be installed as King and rebuild Westeros but I don't think book Bran is going to become some all seeing and all powerful robot of a character. Sansa will become Queen of the North, but the way she'll achieve it will be far more machiavellian. She'll engineer the situation so that she can obtain power and I think the show has white washed her following the criticism of amalgamating her story with Jeyne Pooles. Arya will leave Westeros to seek new adventures. It does fit with her personality and I think she'll be disillusioned about the whole thing. Jon, not sure there is a need for a 1000th Lord Commander and the show didn't make it clear whether he was deserting the Night's Watch or merely escorting the Wildlings back North of the wall. But I think he'll end up back there at the end of the books. I don't think Ghost will be alive at this stage though. Tyrion, will end up Hand. Dany, will be killed by Jon after she's gone tonto. I'd have been interested in seeing what sent her over the edge though as I don't think it'll be Missendei being beheaded (although that would be very powerful giving how much younger she is in the books). And a special mention for...... Cersei / Jaime - Will die together, but I still think Jaime will kill her. Cersei will take the Iron Throne early in TWOW and will hold it until Dany comes to "cast her down".

The valonqar prophecy doesn't exist in the show. They did have the "until there comes another, younger and more beautiful, to cast you down and take all that you hold dear," line though. But that prophecy has never made sense. "All" that Cersei holds dear would include Joffrey.

He is a minor character. As GRRM has said before, the story is about the "children". Primarily the Targ children, the Stark children and the Lannister children. That's who to care about because that's who the story is about.

Yes, because she is one of the original cast members. And only Missendei will ever know what she meant by that. Whether she meant kill everyone or whether it was a throwback to when she was freed.

She was awful in the show. I didn't think much of her in the books, but they ruined her in the show.

You're going to have to remove that rating I'm afraid, because the Ballista weren't Euron's idea!

It really hasn't. And she isn't going to be 100% insane. It's when the "Dragon is woken" that she has those moments and they've been getting more and more frequent throughout the show. The main thing is historically we've seen them rage against unknowns or people we don't care about. For the first time we are seeing how her temper and harsh judgements affect characters we know and/or care about.

Best episode of the season so far. A few nods to show only things and a lot of book predictions from years ago clearly coming to fruition. 21 years after I first read AGOT, closure is on its way!

Remove the words "that bullshit" and you're spot on!

It's been coming for a long time in the show. They've telegraphed it. It's hardly a flip of a switch.....

If you had never read the books, you'd be saying something different. They were consistent with the characters because we all knew the characters due to countless re-reads and it being far easier to demonstrate thoughts in a book than a show.

Sadly they've ripped that straight out of the books, which have also become extremely lazy in surprises. Both author and show runners have been living off that Eddard moment for years.

Saying goodbye to Gilly doesn't cost thousands of pounds in production. They really screwed up the Direwolves in the show, especially Ghost. I doubt Ghost will be alive in the books by this stage so they should have killed him off earlier.

Well until the end of the series we won't know for sure. Maybe the Others threat isn't done yet or maybe the second coming of the age of heroes isn't even related to the long night.....

Two fully grown Dragons. No army in Westeros can stand against that.

We don't know is the answer. Clearly in the show, no. And I'd guess if GRRM's intention was for Arya to kill the Great Other (or first Other) whilst there were Dragons flying around, then it may well be that dragon fire can't kill an Other.

I gave the episode a 7. I am generally happy with the show because I first started reading the books in 1998 and I am generally happy because I'll finally get the answers to the main plot points of the story, even if they are going to be inferior than what the author would have done. That said given the lack of quality in AFFC and ADWD, and the preview chapters we've seen from TWOW? Maybe the author wouldn't do that much of a better job anyway.

You being unhappy with the TV series? I'd never have guessed.

He told them whilst they were making Series 6. At least that's what they said at the time anyway.

Valyrian steel.

It's amazing how strong denial can be on this forum!

I'm not claiming anything. D&D didn't know the entire story when AGOT first started. The idea was to use the book material as inspiration for the entire show. When it was clear the source material was going to dry up they sat down and had a series of meetings with GRRM where they went through all the major character arcs and outstanding plot points. GRRM has confirmed this too by stating he thinks the main characters will end up in the same place in the books and show but that some minor character arcs will be different (e.g. Beric is already long dead in the books).

GRRM has said he won't change the endings for the major characters. But I lost faith in taking GRRM at his word years ago. If the ending isn't well received, he'll actively try and change it. Which will delay him further and be another reason why we'll never get the books.

They didn't know the ending 3 years ago. When it became apparent that GRRM wasn't going to finish the books, that the show was relying on for source material, they sat down with GRRM for a few days and went through what GRRM had planned for the ending.