Into Darkness was the one that used international focus groups because ST09 didn't do well internationally and Paramount wanted to change that. International audiences wanted more action less "Trek" and when STID delivered that, domestic audiences didn't like it. Star Trek has very limited appeal internationally…

Because the potential box office for those is tiny. The potential box office for a built-in name brand is huge.They don't all score but they all have a better chance than something brand new and original. Don't blame the studios for that. Blame the audience. Familiar is what they want so they studios try to give to…

Champions are supposed to volunteer for the job. Champions that are chosen can refuse, unless it's a member of the Kingsguard defending a member of the royal family. The Mountain would've had every right to refuse if Tyrion had requested him. Given Clegane's loyalty to Tywin and Cersei, he certainly would've refused…

Yeah, I'm sure HBO will cancel it any day now especially since the season 6 premiere was the highest rated episode of GOT ever, with nearly a million more viewers than the season 5 premiere.

Exactly. Their magic works therefore the actual source of power is pretty academic.

He doesn't know that she killed Shireen. He likely assumes that they died at the hands of the Boltons because Stannis was on his way to try to take Winterfell.

Davos knows they're dead but he has no idea what specifically happened to Shireen. When Melisandre returned to Castle Black looking devastated, he knew that it meant Stannis was dead. He asked about the princess and she simply gave him a distraught look that clearly conveyed that she was gone too. She didn’t actually…

Exactly. At this point, expert vs newbie might not be necessary. But a watchers vs. hate-watchers comment thread would be a great idea.

Yeah, I just wanted to stay with Brienne, Sansa, and Pod.

Jaime couldn't have known how many were in on the plot back in Dorne. He could've been facing an entire army with no backup for all he knew. What would be the point of that? Myrcella was dead, turning back couldn't save her. Going back to Kings Landing, he has options on how to deal with it with the support of the…

Martin's never gonna finish anyway so it doesn't really matter. The show is going to end this story based on his outline and he's obviously fine with that or he'd be getting closer to finishing Winds of Winter but he isn't. He's "had pages" for how many years now?

Exactly. Book Dorne and show Dorne both sucked. Who cares that they sucked in different ways? They sucked and at least show Dorne is probably mostly over now.

Or maybe it just doesn't matter because the show knows that Dorne is a non-entity in Martin's endgame. And let's be honest, book Dorne sucked too, especially the Sand Snakes. It just sucked in a different way. At least the show pulled the plug on something that sucked. George almost never does that, he just digs…

If they kill the Sand Snakes and Ellaria, there's no war with the Lannisters because Doran and Tristan don't want one. Killing Doran and Tristan makes the war with the Lannisters possible. Granted, I don't care about a war between the Lannisters and Martells/Sands but that's the reason, I think.

Agreed. My biggest problem is that the darkness and "grittiness" is all affectation. It's all for show, it's not an inherent part of the story that needs to be there. Like BvS, there's nothing in the material itself to justify it and it just comes off as shallow, forced, and laughable.

I don't think it's not necessarily the violence or the nudity, it's that all the nudity is forced and has disturbingly violent overtones.

It doesn't matter what Moore says. All art is subject to interpretation once it out in the world. He might have, he might not have. At the end of the day, it doesn't really matter. He violated her in a heinous and sexual way thus he's an evil, indefensible piece of shit. So, "um..he didn't rape her though" is really…

Gender is irrelevant. It's technically sexual harassment against everyone he did it to.

I don't think he meant the look of the show but the painfully redundant theme, which Scorsese has recycled over and over and over.

No, they both deny it.