Think of Barristan's death, the Cersei/Jamie rape, Bronn's 'poisoned' scene, etc- it's for shock value. Sadly, story seems to have fallen out of priority in favour of as most social media hype as possible. I agree.

The story move was careless, I agree, and makes very little sense. However- to suggest GRRM suggested this is to venture into territory we don't know. GRRM from what we know "shocked them" in revealing his plan here. My guess is that he confirmed Shireen will burn, but I predict Melisandre will burn her at the Wall…

I have to say, as I don't think it's said enough, I'm very grateful to you, A.V Club, for consistently providing two sets of reviews which are 95% of the time very well written and thought out as well as doing their best to reflect the sentiment of what a book reader may feel when watching these episodes.

I think we'll have to agree to disagree. In my opinion the only groundwork that they've established thus far essentially contradicts what Stannis just did- though that's a sound summary of Stannis/Dany in the books, I still don't think Stannis would ever consent to kill Shireen.

Fair enough. I'll edit to "innocent kin," that was my mistake.

I had similar thoughts- I don't like those thoughts, to be honest, but I can see them going that way. The way they framed her with the hood in the trailer was very reminiscent of Stoneheart's description.

Yeah, I had a bit of an issue with that, but I did just let it slide because of the Drogon scene afterwards. By 'show's direction' I didn't mean it literally so much as where they're taking various storylines. I watched it in HD and loved it. I wasn't expecting something I'd see in a movie and was more than content…

A traitor brother who basically spat on his honour; and even then he offered Renly a place on the Council, and to be heir. Renly made himself Stannis' enemy. Stannis had the right of that claim. And, as has been pointed out below, Renly was literally willing to throw away thousands of lives for that claim he knew was…

Precisely. And what did Shireen do that was at all similar to that to make her equitable to Stannis' assassination- or, more accurately, not even HIS assassination- of Renly? Nothing.

You know that Renly was distinctly different to this. A traitor brother who basically spat on his honour; and even then he offered Renly a place on the Council, and to be heir. Renly made himself Stannis' enemy. Stannis had the right of that claim.

Forget the reasoning with leeches, Stannis as they've written him, simplified 'bad guy' as he's occasionally been, for the past four seasons would never have burned his daughter. True, he's desperate for the throne, but killing innocent kin? It's not something Stannis, who prizes honour and duty- that includes duty to…

That being said- any issues I've had with this season or the show's direction were just about dissolved in that final scene. Utter brilliance. Sure, she could have burned and used a whip, but the little changes are negligible. It was absolutely magical to watch that scene I've been waiting for since I started watching…

I had qualms with Stannis burning Shireen (of course- as did 90% of people here). It completely went against his character. Indeed, if his decision was omitted and they burned her, regardless of whether its in the books, I would have been fine with it. But they betrayed and blackwashed the very essence of his…

"A solid adaption."

Please, rather than nitpicking, read my original comment. I didn't say it was completely different, but Sansa's story is not, as I said in my original comment and what we were discussing, a close adaption of any sort to her book story.

I'm very glad we got our "Feast for Crows" explicit mention prior to "A Dance with Dragons" next week. Plus Wun Wun!

Fair enough, and I agree, I'm not going to just resign to allowing them to do whatever. Regardless of what happens in the show being a separate entity to the book, questionable writing choices- Dorne, Sansa, etc- I'll definitely call out on.

Sure, they have the potential to be even more interesting than in the books (they've still been great there) but it's a matter of actually getting their story going in the show before we can even come close to hoping for that potential haha.

It's not like he can rattle off all their names and account for every family, but a major house like Martell with an army as big as Dorne's who are probably the frontrunners for logical allies shouldn't have slipped super smart Tyrion's mind.

Tommen's been an on/off depiction. I really like his portrayal on whole but the decision to have him be fickle rather than a smart ruler- which, even if primarily due to his counsel, he is, especially compared to his predecessors- was a bit strange.