It seems blindingly self-evident that that’s what happened.

USWNT provides graphics for American teams to use for shows of support in order to push their brand.

They could have just reshuffled the episode order and done better.
E1 and E2 remain, E4 becomes the third episode, last night’s episode goes E4, Battle of Winterfell goes E5 to hype the night king train and give the not at all screwed up conclusion lacking any depth to that story line that has been hyped for 9 goddamn…

Yeah, that “even playing field” goes beyond that. They spent a lot of time last week hyping up the idea that the northern alliance was shorthanded and probably fucked. Then they killed the dragon. It seemed like they were set up to be the underdogs here and instead it was something else.

“JuSt TuRn YoUr BrAiN ofF Bro!”
t. brainlet

This is leaps and bounds more compelling than what we got last night and what’s coming in the next 3 episodes.

The best thing about this wonderful article is how many people in the comments clearly only read the headline or the first para or two and completely missed the larger point. 

I don’t think I’ve ever agreed with a comment more. Almost precisely when it exited the books, the show has repeatedly betrayed the plausibility of the rules of its own world and the established motivations of its characters. It is mostly hokum masking itself as high drama that does little other than pay service to…

Burneko’s point is that sloppy writing and rushed storytelling have ruined our ability to judge the characters.

She was right.

This is all correct. David Weiss and D.B. Benioff did a fantastic job for 5 seasons or so in adapting GRRM’s well-plotted novels. They found almost without exception a great cast, hired some fantastic directors, and the writing on a micro level (each episode taken as a stand alone) was good.

Subverting expectations is well and good when it leads to interesting results. For instance, seeming to do away with plot armor, leading to a “no one is safe” first few seasons? Great subversion!

Tell that to Game of Thrones, which spent its first 7.2 seasons telling us that the characters who believed and acted as though “the stakes at play are the Iron Throne” were deluded fools who were missing the one true war that was staring them in the face—and then spent one episode completely flipping that and…

I felt the entire post was a humble-brag. “I would NEVER use unemployment, yet I can spend weeks sulking on my couch.” “I traveled to 49 of 50 states,” “I won an Emmy and *Bob Costas* thought I was great.” “I’m so humbled to learn how to say lo siento when I made a mistake,” “The greatest career accomplishment was…

I’m sure there are plenty of you who are old enough to remember the old days before official instant replay and all these byzantine rules. For those of you who aren’t, the only difference was that we spent even more time bitching about blown calls while the Anointed Football Knowers in the sports press debated about…

I know this is completely against how things work today, but one could just stay quiet. There’s no law that you need to send out a tweet, or a post, or anything. Express your grief to others close. Keep it personal. It’s not hard.

From a life-long Warriors fan, this is *still* all so bizarre. This organization was the worst kind of goat rodeo for a better part of 20+ years - a complete laughing stock, an example of how not to run an organization, and a place that our players ran from - and that free agents dare not join. Think about that. It’s…

At least in my end of the universe, “price” is a specific number, while “price point” is a general-but-reasonably-precise range. If I’m manufacturing a new model of car, I know what price point I’m aiming for ($22-24,000 for the base model) even if I haven’t determined the MSRP.

And this thoughtless, vile cruelty is a big part of his brand and why a large portion of this nation likes him.