Anarchosaurus Rex

Between the anticlimactic Battle of Ice to the James Bond-style poison lipstick, this episode was a disaster.

This is an imposter of an adaptation.

You finally, really did it... YOU MANIACS! YOU BLEW IT UP! DAMN YOU! GODDAMN YOU ALL TO HELL!

I don't understand how anyone is ranking this above a 5. The books aside, the show is bad on its own. The characters make no sense, the writing is poor, and the plots are sluggish.

My mistake, then. For some reason I thought it happened quickly and quietly in SoS. Never mind!

Something I realized last night: Tommen and Margarey never married. Of course, in the book they marry quickly and quietly after Joffrey's death, but they did not do that on the show. So, what will happen in upcoming seasons? Tywin brokered the alliance, but we know that Cersei is adamantly against it. She sees the Tyrells as threats to her personal power, and schemes to ruin Margaery and alienate the Tyrells. Now that Cersei's in charge, it's possible that marriage will be canceled. Given her paranoia, it makes sense for Cersei to cancel the marriage. If she's going to plot against the Tyrells, then why allow her son to marry Margaery in the first place? Nip it in the bud. Now, they might have the marriage go through anyway (which would make no sense, but that's par for the course with D&D), but if they don't, how would that affect events in King's Landing?

Well, whose fault is it that they did not address events in the Riverlands all season long? They had plenty of time to do so, but chose instead to embark on pointless tangents like Asha's abortive rescue, Bran's abortive capture, and Grey Worm and Missandei's romance, or even bizarre ramblings like the beetle soliloquy. So it's their own damn fault. Besides, how much in the way of "set up" was really needed? Not much. Part of its impact is that you don't see it coming.

Don't jinx it. Hear hear. The fact that they submitted this episode for an Emmy shows how oblivious they are to their own shortcomings.

Oh, I'm not saying he won't be. I'm sure they're quite capable of doing that. I'm just saying it would show how totally out of touch they are with the source material.

GRRM was so resistant to adaptations, but they won him over. He trusted them. And now look at it. Poor guy. Also, at the same time, they started the show a year or two too soon. Let's be real. It's overtaking the books, and may well even conclude before the books. They got greedy and jumped the gun.

Jaime in Dorne would be ridiculous. Again, it would betray their total lack of understanding/appreciation for the characters. First of all, Jaime would never go to Dorne because Myrcella is presumed safe there. Yes, Oberyn had it in for the Lannisters, but he was known for being out for blood ever since Robert's Rebellion. After the sacking of King's Landing and the murder of the royal family, Oberyn tried to raise Dorne in rebellion. Jon Arryn, newly appointed Hand of the King, had to travel to Dorne to settle him down. House Martell is considered loyal, and Prince Doran is considered senile. That's part of what makes the Martell plot to overthrow the Lannisters so perfect - no one suspects them! Doran himself said that he and Oberyn worked as a team: Oberyn drew attention to himself with his antics and distracted everyone else from the real mastermind, Doran. Second of all, Jaime in Dorne (and hopefully by this point, on the outs with Cersei) spells sex with Arianne (or a Sand Snake if they stupidly decide to merge her). That's not right for him, either. He may be disaffected with Cersei, but he's been faithful to her all his life. He's not going to go jump in the sack with some sexy stranger. Last, but not least, Jaime would NEVER GIVE UP. He would save his daughter or die trying. Having him slink away in defeat would be completely out of character. It goes without saying that putting Jaime in Dorne would jeopardize events in the Riverlands. We would gain nothing from adding him to Dorne, but potentially lose another part of the story. I want to see Jaime and Blackfish in smack-off outside of Riverrun. I want to hear reports about Nymeria's wolfpack terrorizing Freys. I want to see Jaime outwitting his enemies. At best, the Dorne sojourn would be another "Asha rescue" or "Bran capture," i.e. some pointless filler material that ultimately amounts to nothing and just leaves people wondering wtf was the point.

It doesn't get much more Orwellian than for D&D to say that their changes - the stupid, time-consuming, and ultimately confusing "Romeo and Juliet" cliche between Tyrion and Shae, for instance - are in accord with the real spirit of the story, or whatever. So what does that make the books, then? Chopped liver? Are they not the real story or something?

I criticize from a place of love - because I love the story so much, love the cast they've put together, and love the amount of time/money they've invested in traveling all around world and building beautiful sets. I want the writing to be worthy of all that. What really gets my blood up is that so many of the self-destructive changes they've made have been by choice, not necessity. They whine and complain about their limited CGI budget, but then they splurge on some "Pirates of the Caribbean" skeleton fight, complete with "Peter Pan"/Leaf chucking "Super Mario" fireballs around? Okay. They do a great job setting Jaime on his redemption arc prior to King's Landing, and then abruptly reverse course. One minute he's pining over his empty entry in the White Book, charging Brienne with saving Sansa, and lip-quivering when Brienne says "Ser Jaime" and "Oathkeeper," and then the next he's shoving the White Book off the table, hoisting up a bloodthirsty Cersei (fresh off comparing his beloved brother to a tumor to be excised), and banging her brains out. Okay. I could go on, but it's all been said before.

Yeah, that's what I meant. We agree. In any undertaking, criticism - i.e. being held accountable - is essential to maintaining and improving quality. D&D and GoT are not above feedback. We're not being "purists." This season was a definite step backwards. Most of the storylines either lagged or even regressed. Again, fantastic acting, sets, and costumes, but serious deficiencies with putting together an intelligible plot and consistent characterization.

Whatever one's opinion of Lady Stoneheart, she's better than so much of the material that they either chose to include or just made up. Would you rather have a vengeful revenant hanging the hated Freys in the name of the Starks, or Tyrion and Shae bickering for the billionth time?

Forget The Sopranos or The Wire...Game of Thrones is sinking to True Blood levels of writing quality, plot intelligibility, and characterization.

Yes, exactly. The amount of "10, loved it, get a life nerds, it's an adaptation there will be changes lol" annoys the crap out of me. Yes, it's an adaptation. Yes, there will be changes. None of that makes it immune from criticism. We're way past "purism" at this point. The show is losing its grip on the story and especially its characters.

My favorite thing is when people rage at "nerds" for "nerd raging." "WHY CAN'T YOU JUST GIVE EVERY EPISODE A 10?! GET A LIFE, NERDS!"

Lady Stoneheart did not require "lead up or explanatory scenes." What would those be?

:cheers: "Hey, look, Jaime's at Riverrun! Happy?" "No, why is he there? Is he there because Cersei sent him away in anger after he refused to be the Hand of the King? Is he there because he decided to put doing the right thing over pleasing her? Or is he there for some other contrived reason, in spite of none of those developments occurring?"

Yeah, everyone's in the proper physical location - sort of - but that's not the point. I'm talking about their characterization, their development. I'd be fine with Jaime going off gallivanting in Dorne rather than the Riverlands so long as they kept his character development the same.

A lot of show groupies scoff at criticism of the show. "Oh, yeah, sure. You'll be watching next year either way, ha ha. *pats self on the back*" I would never stop watching the show for quality reasons. As godawful as the direction D&D are taking GoT is, it's still the definitive adaptation of one of my favorite stories of all time. It's a major part of pop culture. It's in the zeitgeist. I simply have to know what's going on, even if it makes me want to claw at my face like Lady Stoneheart at times. I would, however, stop watching for spoiler reasons. There's just no way I'm going to let these doofuses spoil the epic conclusion for me. Who knows how they'd botch it? No, just no. If GRRM doesn't come out with WoW before Season 5, then he's failed. Even if he does, he's still running out of time.

I don't think the episode was a "1" by any means. That's ridiculous. The acting, costumes, and sets have always been superb on this show. For the show to be a "1," I'd have to see actors struggling to deliver lines, watches left on characters' wrists, and cheap props for a set. Just as dumb as voting "1," however, is voting "10." Sorry, but I don't see how anyone could honestly rate this as "100% - perfect," unless they're just asininely trying to counter asinine "1's." For any fan, seeing HBO mangle the events at King's Landing alone (Jaime's regression rather than progression, Cersei's whitewashing, a rushed rescue of Tyrion, the removal of Tysha and the revelation of that betrayal, Tywin's final confrontation with Tyrion being weaselly and weak instead of proud and defiant) should take it out of "perfect" eligibility.

Actually, I'm glad you brought that up. How she acts in the fight with Biter and Rorge is a desperate act of self-defense against these creeps who are literally eating her face off. It's Brienne pushed to her absolute brink. This was just a cheap, dirty, Mike Tysonesque move in a fight that she started.