LeggoMyEssos

First time poster, somewhat long time lurker. I've read the books & love 'em, as everyone here likely does. However, a reality check -- their job is to make the best TV show they can, not do a frame-by-frame Frank Miller recreation of the novels. There are two salient points that I have not seen anyone bring up and drive home in these recaps: 1) What makes the novels great is that no one is ever safe, and you don't know what's going to happen next. Why would you want to watch a TV show that is the exact opposite -- a totally predictable reenactment of the novels?! By consolidating characters, altering minor story arcs, and adding some non-novel twists it CAN recapture some of that GRMM unpredictability -- if you let it. I think many of you are too busy over-analyzing and being hyper-critical to the point where you'll never enjoy the TV show. 2) By extension of #1, you're also basing all of this critcism that the TV show must and will follow the books going forward. Overall, I believe they will -- but I for one hope they keep throwing in the surprises (kidnapped dragons! hot battlefield nurses!) now and forever. Regarding things missing in e208 -- before jumping off the nearest bridge (or wanting to push the writers off one), perhaps consider the following: * Jaqen is waiting a short distance outside the gates & meets Arya for the coin and final resolution. * We share Davos' surprise when the chain makes its appearance. * Robb Stark is a fan favorite, and needs screen time to both please the TV audience *and* make them emotionally invested in him, so that later events become that much more powerful. * As great as the Jon Snow/QH scenes were in the book, they only have 10 hours total to paint the story. The Snow/Ygritte story line is much more important over the long haul, so it was simply more important to establish Ygritte for her important arc in season 3 than it is/was to have a bromance-on-the-run chase through the wilderness. Bottom line - Season #1 followed the first book near-perfectly. And it was awesome. But we all knew Seasons #2+ were going to be breaking the chains from the source material and telling the best story possible within the constraints and reality of TV. That means streamlining characters, resequencing events, even fabricating new events to tell the story in a more concise and audience-friendly manner. To some, I guess this is "dumbing down" from the source material. To most (I hope), this is just basic reality. At the end of the day, it's all subjective - you either love it or you hate it (most likely somewhere in between). One person can argue a decision's terrible, and another can argue just as strongly why it isn't. But without knowing the end-game, none of us truly can say definitively. Writer decisions in episodes 1-8 that feel wrong now might make a lot more sense after viewing episodes 9 and 10 (or it might even take until the 3rd season, or later). Sorry for the long post -- nah, no I'm not. :-)