Tastes like Frey

I learned long ago to drop any hope of seeing Ghost properly portrayed

That transition from baby Jon's face to him in Winterfell's great hall, oh my god. And when they referred to him as "The White Wolf" I thought I was going to have an asthma attack for the first time in over 10 years. Where's the damn 11 option!?

I think if you look at Dany's Mereen arc in he show versus the book, it's largely the same, with just a little of the fat trimmed. My point was that if you look at say Robb in aCoK & aSoS versus season 2 Robb, asking myself why they changed what they did is really mind-boggling stuff, because Robb and Catelyn's story was pretty much perfect in the books. My point being why change things there and keep so many things similar with Dany in Mereen in the show when that in the books that's as far as George has gotten from perfect. In regards to people writing essays that "understand what he did in Mereen" I could honestly do that myself in 6 words. He wrote himself into a corner. Ta-da

Honestly I just remember watching the moment where Jon looks up and sees the four Others on their horses and thinking that this episode would go down as one of my favourites regardless of what happened after. But you're absolutely right, our attatcment to its chatacters and the emotions their able to evoke through the treatment of these characters, whether it's over the course of seasons or a single episode is the crux of the show's strengths.

Those with genuine criticisms do unfortunately tend to be over-shadowed by those who blindly hate the show, at least in my experience. I'm right there with you in some regards, even thinking of the show's general treatment of the Direwolves gets me riled up. I truly wish they had omitted them from the show, instead of a lazy, half-assed attempt that results in both the literal and metaphorical butchering of them. But I think the reason why the show is generally more favoured by the Unsullied, and why we book readers have such a bad reputation as elitists amongst them, is that we tend to get bogged down by the books in regards to the show. I know personally seeing the show as more of an interpretation than an adaptation has helped my enjoyment immensely, and as you said some things simply don't translate from medium to medium. Although yes, I have absolutely no idea why Dany's Mereen arc was one they chose to faithfully adapt. The Gods know they could have made some welcome changes there...

I agree. But I think some of that loss of magic might be partly due to the growth in size and scale of the show, it does seem to lack the inter-personal moments of past seasons, such as the dialogue between Arya and Tywin when she was his cupbearer in Harrenhal. D&D still have their moments every now and then, such as choosing to show us Hardhome instead of us hearing of it by letter via Cotter Pyke.

It is definitely difficult to argue with the dialogue's decrease in quality since season 4. However, as this season is almost entirely off-book, and season 5 had to be a much less direct adaptation of aFfC/aDwD, I don't think it's entirely fair to judge D&D on the merits of GRRM's writing, as one of George's greatest strengths as a writer is his brilliantly woven dialogue. A drop in quality for dialogue comes with the territory of surpassing the books, and really was unavoidable. I do however disagree with the show being more predictable now than it was before. There were things this season both predictable and unpredictable, just as there were serveral seasons ago. Yes, very few us here were surprised by the arrival of the Knighs of the Vale, but you would be hard-pressed to find anyone not very surprised at the reveal of the origins of Hodor's name. In the same way that Ned's death came a shock to a lot of people, but I would be extremely surprised if someone watched the show and did not foresee the hatching of the dragon eggs. I also think it's worth mentioning that George's books are not without plot holes or "plot gifts" (truly deteste that term - along with "plot armour"). Apologies for the rant. I find myself oddly protective of the show, never could understand why others weren't able to separate the show and the books and enjoy the show for what it is - aSoIaFLite, I just find a watered down version of aSoIaF to be a lot better than many shows on Tv nowadays. /rant

Oh, no it did not seem that way, don't worry. ☺️

Yes, but I was asking about the episodes in particular, which you say you ranked 9 or 10.

Would you indulge me and give a few examples of episodes you ranked highly in the first three seasons?

I think it is a fair assumption to make that you would have not given this episode more than 1, regardless of its content. It seems strange that you would frequent a GoT sub-forum so frequently if you so clearly hate the show?

Do you by chance see the irony in saying this episode is made for fanboys/fangirls, when it's abundantly clear you had already decided what score you would give this episode before you ever saw it? I think you're in the wrong sub-forum my friend.

8/10. Made for brilliant watching, loses points in my book for devoting the best part of 10 minutes to the mummers version of the last half of season 1 and for neglecting Summer then giving her an unfulfilling death.

I'm from The Mourne Mountains too and I had absolutely no idea this place was the inspiration for Narnia. You really do learn something new every day I guess.

Not sure if it's been mentioned yet but Jason Momoa is going to be playing Aquaman in the upcoming DC movie.