Alayne Stone

Are we allowed to make a parallel rant/rave thread other than positive nitpicking to talk about the show without haters piling on? I liked coming here because I could geek out about likes and dislikes with other nerds, but now you can't even have a quote thread without it getting slammed by off-the-wall show bashers. It's sad. (Cue obligatory comment about how the real sad thing is what D&D have done to the show. :()

Yaaaaaaaaaaaay, a good question! Edit: If that sounded snarky, I didn't mean it to. I've read a number of dumb, boring questions in this thread. This is an interesting one.

Metastupid? When humor tries make fun of stupid so hard that it turns out to be perfectly reasonable and plausible. Highest (or lowest) form of satire, even if it can't recognize itself.

Brilliant!

Yep, agreed. In hindsight, he could also still be recovering from his beat down. I don't think we've seen him at any of her public appearances since, right? It feels like a long recovery but could make sense given the severity.

Thanks. :D I agree with all of your additions. Tried to weigh being pithy with giving plausible explanations. I debated the answer to #1 and can't make up my mind. He sounded so appalled at the thought of calling it a dance!

To be honest, I don't know what posts you've made in the past - the thread grows too fast and wild for that. I saw what the OP wrote and it spoke to me. You're probably, though, not one of the people I was mentioning, since I was talking about the folks reminiscing about the past seasons and it sounds like you don't do that. I agree broadly that other hypothetical changes could have worked. In this case, though, I really, really hated Dorne in the books. Hated it. They were 'skim' chapters for me up there with the Iron Islands. But a lot of people love them. That the princess is there even makes it moderately relevant, so I'm happy that they at least gave me the Jaime/Bronn show to make up for having to go there. I could seriously watch the two of them forever. Tristan and Doran ended up being a surprise perk.

THIS. I love when folks compare the series to the good old days of season one and its excellent writing, when book one is coincidentally the best written. D&D have done a spectacular job of turning GRRM's meandering, worthless second act into meaningful drama. Edit: turned into a wildling and started cutting off my 'g's.

Breathtaking. The ambush at the arena was terrifying. My palms were sweating all through the Shireen situation (I'd been calling that he would do it, but I appreciated how much time they invested in the relationship rather than simply making her disposable - and they also gave us a few weeks to process it and get comfortable.) I hope Stannis flays some Boltons next week.

LOVED IT. I never liked Dorne in the books so nothing to ruin for me there. Cersei arming the Sparrows is such a beautiful WTF moment - in modern parlance, it's like arming ISIS. Bronn and Jaime are the best. You know nothing, Jon Snow. Can't wait to see Sansa unleash vengeance on the Boltons (I've never liked Petyr's truncations in the series, but however weak his schemes are written now, he still doesn't lose) - she's so self-possessed. Margaery and Tommen continue to entertain. Stannis the mannis.

God bless the internet. Just saw a picture of Jaime at Winterfell with Bran in the window next to a picture of Petyr and Lysa at the Moon Door. In addition to weddings, spying on other's l'amores also seems dangerous to one's gravity. I feel so dumb for not noticing before.

FINALLY. I knew Aiden had acting chops in there. Bravo.