Worst of the worst

[nevermore]

okay okay, i sort of understand now, you are saying he doesn't make any female characters who fit the role of feminine and strong which is fair but maybe untrue. Jaime's aunt had great impact and seemed strong (telling Tywin that Tyrion is his heir, ballsy) and people have mentioned Margery and Arriane. they haven't got as much screen time but i think that is going to change.

[{ Emilia }]

The problem with Margaery and Arrianne is that neither one is effective at the game.

They're both pretty young and they "failed" compared to people who've been playing the game for ages. I think Arianne will still learn a lot from her dad Doran Martell. You can't really fault her for not being up to his standards because right now I think nobody in the Seven Kingdoms manages to outsmart Doran. And Margaery did a pretty good job fighting the Queen of Intrigues. I don't think you can consider Margaery ineffective.

[Alexia]

I think Arianne will still learn a lot from her dad Doran Martell. You can't really fault her for not being up to his standards because right now I think nobody in the Seven Kingdoms manages to outsmart Doran.

I don't know - he seems like one of the least effective players out there. He said that he wanted to marry Arianne to Viserys for an invasion and not only withheld that info from her (which helped her turn against him) but left Viserys out there as the Beggar King with no support of any kind from Dorne. He also was upset that his daughter, the heir to his lordship, was a gossip but rather than moving quickly to cut off that character flaw he simply cut her out of the loop. Poor parenting AND poor lordship, that. Then, he left his daughter and heir in charge of throwing parties while his brother was placed in charge of actual rule - and is surprised that she thinks he plans to cut her out of the line of succession.

IMO, Doran is a bad ruler, a bad parent, a bad ally, and a massively overrated character. Arianne has potential but she is untrained.

[Nukelavee]

If Margaery get's out -I think we'll see a chance at an interesting character, in terms of this aspect of things.

If Arianne can just learn to be more realistic in her thinking... ie, mature, she could be very effective.

I just meant that, to date, they haven't been effective. With Arianne,sure, I agree, she got outplayed by more experienced people... Personally,I myself will not START my plotting with aiming to make a "king".

Don't sell her father short - He's pretty smart, and being overly cautious has saved being trapped in a nasty civil war or two.

Actually - Arianne and Tyrion - Similar minds? Discuss.

[Rune Targaryen]

I'm fine with Joffrey being the responsible for the knive, but I thing Littlefinger's gamble when saying it was Tyrion's was too much. A very bad move that worked out only due to the randomness of Cat meeting Tyrion on his way north. I also think it would have been beter if this particular mystery had been resolved by the endo of book one or the beginning of the second. There was no need to make it last until the end of the third.

I'm also annoyed by the constant exageration on the sclae measures. The Wall and the High Tower of Oldtown would lose their purpose being that high (a lighthouse is supposed to mark where the coast is, no functioning as an extra moon in the sky). Talking about ruling lines going several thousands of years before is unneded.

I agree with most what you have said, the knife being joffrey, to me, take away the sense that someone was planning that the Starks and the Lannister was being manipulated to fight leaving a third party free to move around, and it fells like "Ohhh I forget about that, let me see... it was Joffrey."

And the size of the Wall ,to me, was also something not thought through, you would barely see the enemy 700 feet bellow, and the effectiveness of a arrow would much inferior, besides the fact that if Sam had go up a stair of that length 3 times he would be slim as a runner, I think half that height would still feel like fantasy and would be more credible.

But I do like the stagnation of technology for thousands of years, on earth it would be impossible but westeros is not Earth.

But don't get me wrong, I love ASOIAF and regard it as the best literature ever made, no exaggerations.

[iamthedave]

Margaery showed the signs of being amazing at the game.

Cersei played so unspeakably dirty that nobody could have survived without sinking to her level and having a hefty network of contacts to get a hint of what she was up to. Bear in mind that at that point the Lannisters had absolute control of the court.

Margaery falls for Cersei's game because it is STUPID. At that stage betrayal of the Tyrell's is so inane, so ridiculous, that nobody sane would even consider it. Little did they realize who they were dealing with! Cersei's brilliant scheme has resulted in giving the high septon a chance to sieze power if he likes.

I mean... can you imagine how Lord Tywin would have responded if he was in the room with Cersei when she laid out this scheme of hers?

I don't think we can blame Margaery on this one. I prefer to consider the fantastic job she did in grooming Tommen to be a king, a job she was so much better at than Cersei it went beyond amusing into hysterically funny (and was one of the things Jaime kept calling her on, and pointing out it was good for Tommen).

[TyrionTargaryen]

1) The timeline is the biggest annoyance. 8000 years ago? Think back to 1300 AD and see what they know about 8000 years ago. Unless they have Astinus of Palanthas there somewhere...

2) The unsullied... they are just lame and the fact that people raise armies for sale (especially elite rank upon rank) just doesn't make sense. If they make season 3 I think those scenes in the slave cities are going to translate poorly.

3) Brienne and her search for Sansa and how she asks random people if they have seen her sister and the VERY general description of her.

4) Jon Snow not accepting the Lord of Winterfell title from Stannis.

5) Catelyn.

6) The fact that we have yet to have a scene at Casterly Rock.

7) Just give us the damn map of Essos!

Hmmmm I am not too picky hahaha but hey, that is the worst of the worst IMHO

:D

[nevermore]

1) The timeline is the biggest annoyance. 8000 years ago? Think back to 1300 AD and see what they know about 8000 years ago. Unless they have Astinus of Palanthas there somewhere...

2) The unsullied... they are just lame and the fact that people raise armies for sale (especially elite rank upon rank) just doesn't make sense. If they make season 3 I think those scenes in the slave cities are going to translate poorly.

3) Brienne and her search for Sansa and how she asks random people if they have seen her sister and the VERY general description of her.

4) Jon Snow not accepting the Lord of Winterfell title from Stannis.

5) Catelyn.

6) The fact that we have yet to have a scene at Casterly Rock.

7) Just give us the damn map of Essos!

Hmmmm I am not too picky hahaha but hey, that is the worst of the worst IMHO

:D

i think we have yet to see white harbor or Highgarden i think (atleast in my memories)what about Assai too. not really annoyance for me, if it doesn't move the story forward it can stay in background.

[Whatever]

4) Jon Snow not accepting the Lord of Winterfell title from Stannis.

come on, accepting winterfell from stannis would have been a political (and also a real) suicide

[AutomatedTeller]

The long, static history of Westeros is a fairly normal trope in swords and sorcery fantasy, starting with Lord of the Rings. that doesn't bother me all that much.

The time between books is annoying.

I don't really understand weather patterns, though. How do 5 or 10 year winters work, anyway? How do people eat? I assume they put aside a lot of food -but how do they keep fruits/veggies good that long, to keep from getting scurvy? How do animals survive? Some species will have generations that only live in summer and some that only live in winter (like rabbits or squirrels)

How does the Eyrie work? People abandon this "impregnable" castle for years at a time? It seems to me that if you just invent skis, you can take over the vale in short order.

Why aren't the Others over in Essos, as well? Why are they only an issue for Westeros?

Where is the equator? I think that the Wall is up near the arctic circle, and that Kings Landing somewhere between the equivalent of the southern US and the tropics, but I'm not sure.

I have a hard time with understanding the passage of time, myself. It's all very vague.

I wish I had an idea why Rickon exists as a character.

[Nukelavee]

Actually, the geography bothers me a bit, too.

If Westeros is the size of S America...well, North America is valid for the following (just gonna say Dorne is Mexico and the NWT is the Arctic) then...going north thru the wastes lead to ...Russia (Essos).

So, yeah, why aren't the Other's an issue there?

[Talleyrand]

2) The unsullied... they are just lame and the fact that people raise armies for sale (especially elite rank upon rank) just doesn't make sense.

How? People did it in real life.The Mameluks were slave armies sold to sultans in the middle ages and they beat the Crusaders and the Mongols. Though they did stage a coup and take over Egypt

[Bronn is God]

I wish I had an idea why Rickon exists as a character.

To give Stark fans hope.

[MyDogIsNamedDanerys]

Actually, the geography bothers me a bit, too.

If Westeros is the size of S America...well, North America is valid for the following (just gonna say Dorne is Mexico and the NWT is the Arctic) then...going north thru the wastes lead to ...Russia (Essos).

So, yeah, why aren't the Other's an issue there?

So actually, the new map shows that the northern coasts of Essos are a lot further south than The North in Westeros. More in line with The Vale. So given that it makes sense that The Others are only a problem for Westeros (so far anyway).

You can see the map as part of a new viewer's guide to the show:

http://viewers-guide.hbo.com/game-of-thrones/

[Sijjvra]

Least favorite:

UnCat - seems cheap, forced and pretty stupid. All of the undead stuff does, really.

Dany - Her chapters bore me, her Mary-Sue factor is through the roof, and I hope Euron does steal her dragons.

Jon - Never rooted for him. Seems too "flawless" of a character who always, always does the right thing. Boring.

The fantasy aspect - the more I think on it, the more I roll my eyes a bit at the dragons, white walkers, zombies, etc... I enjoy the series a lot, but these are not the reasons why I enjoy the series. They seemed tacked on "extras" that don't really add much to the "real" story taking place with all the political intrigue, IMHO.

Favorite things:

Getting a Jaime POV - his character is damned interesting and more complex than I thought it would be, and I like how he's not entirely evil but definitely not entirely good, either.

Brienne - Some people think she's boring, I like the fact she's one of the very few truly honorable people in the book, even if she is a bit niave'. Also nice to see an ugly female character. I get sick of all the female characters looking like sexpot super models.

Death of "main" characters - cuz good guys don't always survive to the end. Why even bother reading a book or series if you KNOW the good guys are going to win? How is that fun? The fun is wondering IF they will win or not.

Attention to gritty "realistic" detail - I'm so sick of fantasy series where all the characters (except the evil ones, who are always ugly/deformed/dirty) are beautiful and clean and have all their teeth and never have lice, bad hygiene, never swear, always win, etc.

[Carldog]

Sijjvra:

Totally agree with the un-dead zombie thing. I was burnt out on the walking dead years ago, and when I found out Martin induced these "things" in the story it was a bit of a let down. However, the undead have played into the story well and have not been over used as of yet... I hope it never comes to that point.

[flyingwind66]

1) waiting 5 plus years for new books

2) the fact that so many characters are so far apart geographically (I know this wouldn't make much sense otherwise, but it's still a bother for me)

3) brienne's quest... no really, why did she need her own povs? was this just to show what happened to oathkeeper?

I probably have more but I can't think of any right now