They're obviously popular among the subset of book readers who have spent years discussing the series with other book readers on various internet forums. I do not think that readers outside of that demographic have nearly the same attachment to those specific phrases that the die-hard internet fans seem to have…

I don't get it. What's "suspicious" about his popularity? He's an extremely good-looking young man with a backstory that makes him the ultimate woobie. He's struggling to overcome a lifetime of vicious brainwashing to seek intimacy with another human being — who as it happens is also extremely good-looking and…

Yes, the two are completely related. Why, if only they'd cut all those scenes with Grey Worm and Missandei, there would be time for Barristan to…

Hizdahr is basically the Sansa Stark of Meereen. His father was unjustly killed by a cruel and illegitimate ruler, and now he's being forced to marry her.

I rather enjoyed that, though, because "But those ragged urban insurgents could NEVER have defeated our much better-trained soldiery, whom we sent out to police the streets! That is UNPOSSIBLE!" is a refrain people have been singing for as long as there have been occupied cities. And yet, the same refrain just keeps…

The only Stannis line I remember is "If only all the lords of the seven kingdoms had only one neck," and the reason I remember that one so distinctly is because it is lifted straight from Suetonius. (Caligula is the charmer who supposedly said it, BTW — odd, because for the most part, Stannis seems far more inspired…

And if things actually *don't* happen the way KeithZG expects? You'll hear certain people going on endlessly about how the plot is now "stupid" and "illogical" and "makes no sense." Because that's just the way some bookwalkers do.

You keep using that word: 'famous.'
I do not think it means what you think it means.

I loved Dinner With the Boltons too. It was like Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, except, you know, with people who like to *literally* flay other people alive.

The storyline in ADWD was so over the top awful that after a while, I stopped being able to take it seriously at all. I think it may have been the bestiality bit that finally tipped it over the line so that I could do nothing but shake my head and laugh at it. really did read as if it had been written by an adolescent…

Indeed, I would far prefer it if every minor character surrounding Dany was a personality-less cipher with no agency or interests of their own. That would be much better!

He even remembers to close his mouth every now and then this season!

That's a fair answer. Thanks.

Sooooo the "homophobia angle" is exploitative and offensive, but the "misogyny angle" of the books is not?

I was utterly baffled by the construction of that scene. As a writer, why would you frame a scene as a 'decision point' if all of your characters have clearly already made up their minds and are all in agreement? Why? There's no conflict there and no interest, and also no way to establish the characters as…

Heh. "So tell us, Cindy: how do you REALLY feel about Stannis?"

I always read it as "sorry THAT I'm not sorry." Like Tommen and his lack of guilt over Joffrey's death.

Dildos are pretty ancient, actually. They turn up with some regularity in archaeological digs. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it's one of the first things that everyone thinks to make as soon as they have a bit of free time after having mastered crafting wood or clay or ivory or leather.

[edited to remove some references to books and add warnings for others]

Well, I entertained myself by reading the fevered speculations of the people who hadn't seen them. I particularly enjoyed taking note of the people who kept saying things like "(thing that happened) will never happen! If the show does (thing the show did), then I'm never watching it again!"