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Ranking the seasons


Dragon in the North

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4 > 1 > 3 > 2 > 5

I'm surprised to see so many people put 2 near the best. Only the KL scenes and the several Ayra and Twyin scenes are any good. The war of the five kings is poorly explained. Armies just keep moving around without knowing where they are going. Qarth was awful. The wall plot was slow and lacked payoff.

I actually didn't care for the Arya/Tywin scenes and the plot at the wall was always kinda meh to me. However, as you said, KL was excellent during that season and I think to many show watchers (like I still used to be back then) KL was the "centre of the events" due to the "Game of Thrones"

I didn't find the War of the Five Kings very confusing in Season 2, Rob was heading south, Stannis was sailing for King's Landing, that was it. Quarth actually struck me as quite cool, but that was when I still thought Danerys would be in Westeros by Season3/4. Even now I'd happily go back to Quarth if it meant we're leaving Meereen.

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Season 2 definitely had some major failings in several storylines (Daenerys, Jon, Robb/Talisa), but the central plot in King's Landing was the best the show's ever done, and the payoff in Blackwater was brilliant. They made a very good choice in anchoring the whole season around that battle, and as such it is definitely one of the best seasons as a whole.


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3 > 1 >> 2 >>>>>>>> 4 >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> 5

As television, standing on its own, season five makes barely any sense. Events transpired without reason or consequence. Characters made bizarre decisions solely to force the plot in certain directions. Motivations and deep character introspections were secondary to "shocking twists", sex and violence. And in some areas, the dialogue, direction, acting, plotting - basic ingredients of a show - have reached diabolical levels. The Dorne story would look exceptionally poor on a CW teen drama. Though some stuff has been done well - I enjoyed pretty much all of Jon's story, Cersei's Walk I think captured the emotion of the book - the missteps and character assassinations have become too numerous. I have decided to no longer follow the show. I will avoid spoilers best I can, and wait it out until Winds of Winter is released. I have far more trust in Martin to deliver logical and interesting stories.

The same for me. The script was lazy, really awful. They didn't gave depth to the characters actions and motivations. One example was Cersei decision in replace the High Septon for the High Sparrow. In the book, the High Septon was a Tyrion choice and he knew about the affair Cersei had with Lancel so she did not trst in him and plotted to have him killed. In the series she just said she replaced him without any explanation. The reasons she gave to allow the Faith Militant in the show was terrible as well.

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4


3


1


2


.


.


5




The first four are fairly close run things for me. 2 is dragged down by "where are ma dragons" and a rather poor Robb storyline but is otherwise good stuff with the spectacular Blackwater episode. For the rest just a few fractions of 1 around about the 9 mark separating them.



Season 5 however....



I am no book purist loudly proclaiming that the show has got worse season after season after the "faithfulness" of the first season. But season 5 got it wrong in so many ways.



Ignore the nonsense the book purists will tell you that the issue was that they tried to do too much in one season. Saying instead it should have had two (or even three). The story as a whole, each individual element, needs to move at the same pace. Mereen dragged when allocated to one a bit seasons can you imagine how dire it would have been with the pit towards the end of next season?



Once you cut out all the side characters (who appear completely unnecessary for the main plot) it was very possible to deliver a good S5 that went through most of AFFC/ADWD. The problem was writing and execution.



I think everyone is already well aware of how dire virtually all of the Dornish scenes were. But in too many other areas poor decisions were made and plots weren't given that extra few minutes needed to do them justice. As a very good example why make the wall all about Olly, when in fact they stuck to the book plot of having Jon killed by his men?.



Aside from Hardhome nothing else this season had either the proper pacing or structure. Individually good scenes lost amongst flat or downright awful scenes elsewhere. I hope they recognise now it is all over how relatively poor S5 was and try to desperately improve the quality of the writing for the future.


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1 >>> every other season.



Besides the first, the rest have been such a mixed bag in terms of quality and adaptation choices that I can only say I prefer some scenes over others, but not the whole package.


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