Wait, the Bolton plotline in the books, or in the show? Because I think consolidating Sansa into the Bolton plotline in the show actually makes more sense than the fArya weirdness in the books.

Heh. That does not give me any more confidence in Doran’s scheming abilities.

“We’re sorry, but Dorne’s not available at the moment. Please leave a message and we’ll show you a few minutes way later in the season.”

I’ve lost faith in the show runners between this, the Stannis and the Sansa storyline last year. They need to stick with the script because i don’t think they’re capable of making it better.

So why did she spare Jamie?

I wonder if some of this is kind of a unreliable narrator-kind of problem. I mean, practically everyone who thinks Doran is this long-term vision and strategy guy is because Doran constantly reminds everyone that he’s a long-term vision and strategy guy, and since he’s a sole ruler, no one’s really allowed to question…

I wasn’t counting Littlefinger as while he’s playing a long game of some sort it’s not at all clear as to what it is. Come to think of it, plenty of speculation that the same could probably can be said for the Maesters, so that’d make 4.

I think the funniest part of this is that Jaime heading to Dorne to retrieve Myrcella in the wake of Joffrey’s death actually (at least to me) makes more sense than Doran’s plan in the books. In the wake of the King being poisoned, it’d make sense to circle the ranks.

I can see what you’re saying, though I have to agree with Milquetoast that it felt tacked on - not quite as much as FAegon, but not part of the original plan, either.

Yeah, that’s another thing that doesn’t really make sense about Dorne, which is why my theory is that the showrunners have realized they’re not going to use Dorne, and just wanted to get it out of the way.

I dunno, winding up to Trystane’s big “oh” was kind of silly, too.

The saving grace of Dorne in the books is that it has one of only two characters in the entire series with a long game.

Absolutely. Show:Doran had already made it clear that she had played her last “Get out of jail free” card, and that was for simply plotting - actually carrying her plot out would’ve been an automatic death sentence, particularly since she had his son killed, too.

Here’s my take on why Doran is dead, and Dorne suddenly seems kind of a hot mess (or, rather, always has). I think they started bringing in the Dorne storyline when it seemed like there was a possibility that the show would extend out a couple of seasons. It would’ve been a decent way to continue the story while GRRM…

I might be in the minority, but I’ve always thought Donnie Darko was grossly overrated. I don’t think it’s bad, necessarily, but I’ve never really understood the love for it. Even watching it when it came out (and I was younger), I always thought it was way too impressed with itself, even if I think the opening scene…

I have seen exactly one Director’s Cut that changed the music and had it work. Francis Ford Coppola’s re-released version of The Outsiders did an excellent job stripping out most of the maudlin, terrible score and replacing it with period rock and roll, which fits into the film much better than what he was going for…

Shut it down and go home, everyone. This is the only comment that matters.

Like you, Charlie Jane, I’m not really sure where they’re going with the Dorne thing. They don’t have an army big enough to take over Westeros, so what, exactly, are they going to do? What’s the plan here?

I’m someone that hated Dorne in the books and just wished everyone involved would die, but, yeah, the show hasn’t done that story any favors. I’m kind of hoping that last night was just the quick, dumb, messy ending to it all and we never hear of them again.

Maybe they can work on overhauling everything else that’s wrong with iOS (from a UI standpoint), too.