If I'm going to suspend disbelief enough to accept that Ellaria has enough Dornish support that she and her daughters by Oberyn would be considered legitimate Martells, then I can accept that her hands-on role in Doran's assassination wouldn't be enough to disqualify her.

I agree with your critique of both Thorne and Slynt. It was possible to have a grudging respect for Thorne. Slynt was slime (and he betrayed Ned!)

We'll just have to agree to disagree, then. To me, the Tormund comment was spot on perfect with the books and the show. I'm genuinely surprised that someone found it off.

He just couldn't figure out how to keep the plates spinning. I guess that he didn't think that Stannis, the White Walkers, etc. would just wait around for 5 years while Arya became a faceless girl, Sam became a maester, Dany became a competent ruler, etc.

I agree with you generally, but I don't think that your analogy fits. Ellaria and the Sand Snakes had a much closer relationship to the line of succession than John Wilkes Booth, who had none.

Besides, I am pretty sure that dick jokes are not modern inventions.

John Waters should have been cast to play the resurrected Jon Snow.

Agreed. Maybe they'll have some scene in which Ellaria says something explaining that they had the water garden guards on their side (though the show has demonstrated that the water garden security is terrible- Jamie, Bronn, and the Sand Snakes were all able to walk in without problems).

Yeah, in a Skinemax movie sort of way. And Stabby Snake is nice to look at too- especially in her jail cell seen with Bronn (and where in the hell is Bronn these days?)

I wouldn't go that far. He looked to me like he's between 12-14, no older than Ollie. If Rickon was supposed to be 6 or 7 in season 1, and a few years have passed in-story, then I thought he was reasonable. It helped that he still isn't that big or tall- as opposed to Isaac, who looks like he's now well over 6…

My guess is that Ellaria and the Sand Snakes took over Darkstar's thread. I bet a coup is planned for Dorne in the books as well, but that it will be Darkstar leading it.

Are they going to be able to fit Marwyn the Mage into the show? I doubt it, especially since there will probably only be 13-15 episodes after this season. The Sam in Oldtown thread was one of the few in AFFC / ADWD that I found to be potentially interesting, but I just don't think there will be much room in the show…

The timing of the various threads has been very troublesome. GRRM has had major problems reconciling the timing of his various plot lines. It caused him to scrap a planned 5 year gap after ASOS, it has lead to the messes in AFFC and ADWD, and it's probably why his ability to write the series slowed to a snail's pace…

I have no memory of Missandei from the book. When show Missandei was introduced, I thought she was another show creation like Ros. Am I the only one who cared about Missandei so little?

Ramsay is essentially a serial killer crossed with various traits of several evil / insane medieval kings. I think the show version is somewhat more nuanced and tolerable than the book version. Either way, I think that he's outlived his purpose.

I don't think that Tormund's dick joke was too modern but, even if it was, it was very true to the book. Book Tormund is a dick joke machine. TV Tormund is toned down from that, if anything. Regardless, I had a good laugh at it.

It will definitely not be in the books because there will be no more books. If the threat of the show passing him didn't give GRRM the inspiration necessary to finish even one book over the past 5 years, then I doubt that anything will.

And 90%+ of those comments were basically "We know that John's dead, but we know that Melisandre will revive him. Why the cliffhanger?" It was a twist that almost anyone paying attention would have caught. And, because 10% of the audience couldn't figure out the obvious, the "question" took the air out of…

I understood the scene to mean that as well.

Unfortunately, my bet is that the show ended with all of those cliffhangers so as to give George R.R. Martin the opportunity to finish the next book and reveal them first (especially John's revival). The show suffered for it.