He started by saying that he liked Sansa? Or did I misread that, I now see it's slightly ambiguous.

Exactly. The statement didn't make much sense.

While I appreciate your passion, go fuck yourself, Arya is a badass, and is going to own some peeps. But yes, Dany's plot sucks. Wait til you see what GRRM does to begin the wrap up of Mereen, you'll find even the author agrees with you!

Yeah, what was with the whole "Oh no violence against women!" bit? More men die on this show than women. And he killed the woman that betrayed him, whatever her reasons. She basically sentenced him to death with her lies, after he tried to save her life. She was a well-meaning idiot in the grand tradition of this show…

That would work over time, but the reforms would need to be structured, and in a medieval society you would always have people at the bottom who live in virtual slavery. Earth movers hadn't been invented yet, and ditches still need to be dug for cheap. In Europe the first free-holding citizens were merchants. The…

Room and board is pretty standard for a slave. Everyone feeds and clothes their slaves, if you don't let them work for themselves, how else will they get them?

I don't even object to the Second Tier label. Well I do, but then you have to start labeling what is top tier, and the whole thing reminds me too much of the Joe Flacco: "Is he a top tier QB?" endless debate to be entertaining.

SHAME! SHAME ON ME! I don't like the fucking show. For such an exploration about the 60's it sure spends an awful lot of time on one guys nihilism and mommy issues.

It's like ever since the Red Wedding book readers have been like, "Fuck it, Let's give everything away." And they were so good about it beforehand

It's always embarrassing when you try to be a dick and make a mistake in the process. I harped on Mad Men not out of any dislike of the show (which I have watched extensively) but because of how completely aware of it's prestige status it is. And that it gets the same level of coverage as Game of Thrones without it's…

So what is top-tier prestige drama? Breaking Bad and the Wire? Because if you look at the Sopranos again a lot of the characters are one-dimensional, and the plot is incredibly predictable. If you look at Mad Men there's a complete disregard for black people, and the half the show is one long, "Look people were messed…

Your general point about magic is taken, but warging would have nothing to do with it, and he has no blood of the first men in his veins. And when would he have had the opportunity to go to the Faceless Men, give up his identity, train for a year or so, then be told the secret of the death masks? He was a young man…

It's the same at Slate now too. They always used to have a prominent feminine perspective through the XX blog, but now it's like every article is questioning whether something is sexist, or generally bigoted. It's like reading the PC Police Newsletter.

The Mance Rayder theory is so weak.

The second was really hurt by the untold stories. The Dwarf Kingdom bit just drops you into it. It's also clearly a second act of a larger story. Conflicts arise and aren't well really resolved. It's not til the third book that things start reaching satisfying conclusions.

I loved these books growing up, and I definitely agree on the uncomfortable obsession part. I read them so many times when I was 8 that I eventually had to stop myself. Not out of lack of enjoyment, but I was actually starting to believe the magic religion was real, and as an 8 year old I was still like, "Woah, slow…

Damnit, you're smarter than me. I should have said that.

Good point, I guess I did mean to just say "Open". "Cold Open" just sounds so much better though.

Sad doesn't do it justice. It's soul crushing. But any media can't be soul crushing without first first drawing you in completely. But yeah that's a pretty good description.

God a whole week of Todd VanDerWerff shitting on the show because of minor changes from the books, can't wait! I swear it's like my brother's writing for AV Club.