Yep. I can see the pragmatic reasons or many of the other changes, even those that pretty much flopped. I get why they invented pointless side-quests for Jon and Yara this season (because they had to stretch out Jon's storyline to save the battle for the penultimate episode; because they didn't want to cast the…

Word. I don't mind most of the other deviations (eg. introducing new characters always as late as possible; trying to keep the already established characters together more, by coming up with new combinations not found in the books). But they do have a tendency to stick to the most obvious beats in terms of psychology…

Yeah, that's what I meant. Came across wrong. I think Martin planned for Tyrion's arc to be more of a rollercoaster, with a dramatic fall from grace and subsequent redemption; the big damn hero thing is the endpoint of a pretty rocky road. D & D are definitely the ones to blame for flattening the whole affair.

Thanks.

I have many feelings about this…

Yeah, whitewashing Tyrion was exactly not what that scene needed.

I don't know if I'm allowed to talk about deviations from the book here, so BOOK SPOILERS or something, but…

Brienne's chapters are the highlight of Feast for me (reads like something straight out of Grimmelshausen; I love what Martin is doing here in terms of themes), but I get why that's a minority opinion. Once she loses Jaime she doesn't have a lot of interaction with characters readers care about and in terms of plot…

Yeah, I read that as a confirmation as well. He's obviously served his plot function at this point, which makes Jojen Paste pretty plausible in the books.

Really? I don't find it hard at all.

Don't you know, Tyrion must look good under all possible circumstances. All other characters around him must always act in the way that makes him come across best. D&D probably know that Martin has set him up to be the big damn hero of the piece and can't bear the thought of leaving even the slightest shade of…

Benioff and Weiss never fail to disappoint with regard to female characters who are not Arya. Could that storyline have been mishandled any more?

Sansa is also still in her formative years when that shit goes down. She's experiencing a lot of harshness and adversity at a very early age and is growing stronger with each chapter.

I think Sansa might have more champions in certain corners of the fandom plainly because she needs them more. People are likely to get more defensive of things that are more frequently attacked. Brienne is a comparatively minor character (and much as I love her, a bit one note at times). Arya the plucky tomboy who…

But it's not necessarily a disadvantage either. Because the loveless characters are often just as doomed. Virtue has to be its own reward.

That's probably a factor, yes. But mostly I just can't see Martin rewarding Varys' hybris in the matter.

I agree that R+L=J might not turn out all _that_ plot relevant (Lord, I hope so at least), but generally Martin has a pretty good track record of paying off forshadowing. Lots of the plot twists are really well set up if you do a re-read. So his writing does reward that kind of analysis in places.

Sorry. There were so many spoilers in the original article that I got careless. I've edited it out so that others won't see it.

But Sansa isn't particularly vain. She cares about appearances, because it would be stupid not to at a court. Apart from that, I almost think Brienne thinks more about her looks than her. (Understandably so; since they're a greater problem for her.) And I just don't see any refusal to abandon a romanticized view of…

And you keep ignoring the fact that it's perfectly possible to root for both. In what world does rooting for Sansa automatically translate to demonizing Arya, Brienne, Sam and Co.? Why do you insist that I have to choose?