It would've been far worse had they followed the book .

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This season has been garbage sofar. I haven't read the books, but I love this series up until now.

Maybe I'm in the minority but I think this has been a solid season, as it was another solid episode last night.

I thought that this was definitely the worst episode of the series.

I will be willing to change my opinion if this all actually leads somewhere worthwhile, but I am not holding my breath.

Edited to add: Loved Lady Olenna's scenes those. She's the greatest.

If this is GRRM's story line, perhaps the show's writers should abandon it entirely and come up something interesting.

Up to this point:

-Jon Snow storyline has mostly been the same, but he does not go with Tormund as proof that the Night's Watch is serious about the peace agreement between them.

-King's Landing storyline mostly the same.

-Tyrion and Jorah are mostly the same except Jorah doesn't get greyscale, another character does (who won't appear in the show).

-Stannis storyline the same, headed to Winterfell to take it from the Boltons and unite the North.

-Arya storyline the same except Jaqen isn't her trainer/mentor at the House of Black & White, a new character is.

-Sansa storyline is different. She's still at the Vale in the books and Ramsay marries a fake Arya (Jeyne Pool, Sansa's childhood friend). The Boltons are unaware this girl isn't actually Arya.

-Dorne storyline almost entirely different. Bronn is just hanging out in King's Landing at this point and Jaime is in the Riverlands dealing with the last remaining enemies of the King. Instead, Cersei sends a member of the King's Guard to get Mycella back.

-Dany storyline mostly the same. Barristan hasn't been killed in the books.

-Brienne storyline a bit different. She's in the riverlands looking for Sansa. She hasn't run into Arya or Sansa like she has in the show.

-Also, and some other book readers may not care, but there's 2 portions of the books that the show is cutting out: The Greyjoys and

That was so tame in relation to what happen in the book. I think people are having issue with this season just veering off from the book. I'm going to hold judgment till after the season.

Umm...wasn't Dany pretty much raped by Drogo (basically in the same manner) in the very first episode of the series? Of course, we know in hindsight how the relationship developed & don't expect anything similar to happen between Sansa & Ramsey, but the acts were very similar (except they didn't have a witness forced to watch).

Glad to see that others found the Dorne stuff so far (and the curiously badly-staged fight this episode) to come across pretty flat. I guess that makes those who are disappointed "so-called fans" judging by past comments.

There's a lot going on around the Seven Kingdoms, but we only have four episodes left to start bringing about some bigger events. Then again, Books Four & Five have been defended as "bridge" books spanning the big events of the original trilogy and the upcoming endgame books, so maybe this season is supposed to serve that purpose. At least it's moving faster & is pretty well-done (aside from Dorne/Sand Snakes plot).

Could Jorah have Tyrion cut off his hand to stop the greyscale?

This is one area where I wish Joffery was still around - he would have flipped his lid if they were taking his 'queen' away, and thrown a tantrum.

Joffrey would have pulled an Amon Goeth (from Schindler's list) and had the high sparrow beheaded right then and there "on my authority". And then would have had the rest of the Faith Militant hunted down to a man. And then he'd send Cercei back to Casterly Rock, for good. At least that's my fan-fic fantasy.

I think this might be maybe the 2nd best season for me, mostly due how we have story lines merging (2-3 threads in one location) for the first few seasons, seems like there were 6-8 different storylines in different places.

Agreed. This season has been a real let-down.

I think the problems stem from a confluence of factors.

The source material, namely A Feast for Crows and A Dance with Dragons, is weaker this season. Martin's first three novels are really great, and then the saga sort of falls into a rut.

They've killed off a lot of compelling characters (Robb, Catelyn, Joffrey, Tywin, Oberyn) and haven't replaced them with anyone nearly as interesting. Doran Martell? All he does is sit around in a wheelchair and mope. Sand Snakes? They're kind of annoying. Aside from Obara, they don't quite feel like they come from this world. The other two, Tyene and Nymeria, look like they walked out of a SyFy original movie or something. And I don't buy Oberyn's ex, Ellaria, as a sneering villain leading these girls to take revenge for their slain father. It's just cheesey.

Another major problem is that there isn't anyone to root for or against. The viewer could identify with Robb Stark and his desire to take revenge against Joffrey. We could dig Oberyn wanting to take out the Mountain and Tywin. What do we have now? Stannis vs. the Boltons? Sure, the Boltons are shits, but Stannis isn't a terribly sympathetic or charismatic presence, so we don't connect with him going up against the Boltons even though we hate their fucking guts. While Dani's intentions are good, it's sort of hard to get behind her because she doesn't seem to have a clue about politics or leadership. She just hides behind her dragons and grows more arrogant. She can conquer, but she can't rebuild her conquests into her vision.

Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. I'm surprised that people got so bent out of shape by the Jaime/Cersei scene last season and again by the scene in this episode, but not much of a complaint about Dany/Drogo early in Season 1.

Although I didn't like seeing this happen to Sansa, but the scene between Ramsay and Sansa was not only tamer then those earlier rape-y scenes from the series, it also has somewhat of a symbolic side with how House Bolton essentially raped House Stark.

A series worst for sure. I'm tempted to say the same about the episode as a whole.

One interesting thing in this episode was finally getting a glimpse of Littlefinger's main scheme, which is to be named Warden of the North.

Previously, I wondered why he didn't just marry Sansa himself to advance his power in the North that way. But now it seems he wants to keep the Lannisters on his side, which marrying Sansa himself would've prevented.

I agree in that what has made this season great is the payoff of watching 4 seasons and now seeing characters interact with each other who had totally different storylines. It's really a testament to the show that they can have that many interesting characters without getting bogged down as they have consistently kept the same amount of storylines going. Usually I hate when shows have too many characters, but I think because there isn't one 'true' protagonist it gives them the freedom to go with whatever they want for a storyline each week.

Not to mention Ned & Khal Drogo. And the Hound is arguably one of the best characters in the entire saga, although his fate is yet to be determined.

I was wondering that, too. With Tywin gone, Tyrion on the run, Jaime on the outs with Cersei, and a weak Tommen on the throne, the Lannisters are the weakest they've been in a long time. Seems like Lord Baelish would do better sucking up to Stannis in order to gain power & could still have satisfied his lust for Caitlyn Stark by proxy through Sansa.

Seems to me that there was likely a gigantic book spoiler in this episode.

This has to bite Cersei in the ass sooner than later. She really seems to be playing a game that she's not smart enough to win.

Cersei used the nuclear option and it's not going to go well for her.

Best scene in last night's episode:

I miss Joffrey on the show. When people were so happy at his death last year, I thought people would eventually miss him because he is a character you just love to hate (and hats off to Jack Gleeson's great portrayal). It's where Ramsay is a poor substitute villain on the show because he's a character you just hate. There's no enjoyment of hating him, just total hate and wishing him a painful death that can't come soon enough. Once he's gone, I'll never miss him at all.

And I also miss the Hound on the show. He's such a great character: a killer but one with more decency than the knights on the show (and his hatred of knights seems to be based on this). I hope D & D being mostly freed up from GRRM next season bring the Hound back. (We never actually saw him die and he's very tough, so he may hopefully still be alive.)

Without the Hound, Arya's storyline has mostly been a drag on this season. I hope the whole House of Black and White stuff gets somewhere soon. However, on that topic, I did like the scene where Jaqen took Arya to that room with the faces on the walls and columns. And the music in this scene was fantastic.

The Greyjoys will be in Season 6. And all this complaining about "nothing happening"...

Go back and read all of the old dvdtalk threads during the airing of Season 2. It was the exact same complaints and groaning from week to week that year. "Too slow". "Little is happening". Of course people think of it a bit better in hindsight, overall. Though still one of the weaker seasons, it was getting trashed as it aired.

So, far it looks like she is. Im curious to see where this part of the story goes... and Littlefinger's master plan.

It's making sense why the show had that flashback to young Cersei getting a witch's prophecy of her future to start the season. Without that flashback, her behavior would seem too reckless this season. I think Cersei doesn't understand that she can't keep the prophecy from coming true. And for sins that the religious fanatics would persecute someone for, her own sins are far worse than anything Queen Margaery has ever done.