Rickon's just a boy, he's the most connected to his Direwolf like the Starks of the past. His death will be gratuitous and stupid, because it will reinforce what we already know-Ramsay is a Mary Sue and evil

Quentyn's role is a part of the larger Dorne conspiracy, so yes its still important. He failed, which means Arianne and Doran will have to change up their plan

I understand that, the economical plotting still has to make sense and it still has to fit together cohesively. Pulling Sansa into the Winterfell plot to be brutalized and raped and to drop all the previous characterization is not a good job at adapting her storyline. Making Loras the oldest male member of the Tyrells…

He does. He. Does.
Get it yet????

Jeyne's rape and abuse didn't derail her storyline completely like it did Sansa's, and it was more of a noble effort on Theon's part to try rescuing her because she wasn't a noble, she was just a girl being abused.

And anything but the creators words are just baseless speculation. Martin specifically talked about them in a list of five characters he thinks the show should have adapted

Martin has said as much, he and Willas are in the best position to deal with Euron down the line

Nice reference, but more like an informed prediction

This means absolutely nothing. Are you saying the author is lying about his own work?

To an endgame that makes sense and isn't paper thin trite? Yes, I trust Martin well enough after his work so far

Literally anything is better than Ellaria Sand murdering an innocent girl and the last Martells for revenge against the Lannisters for killing Martells

Except the world-building IS a part of the narrative. Even characters like Willas and Garlan Tyrell will have a part in the larger story as Martin has continually expressed

Why does that matter whether or not they sit on the iron throne? What matters is who they CHOOSE to sit on the Iron Throne.
Of course their choices probably won't be the final outcomes, but the point is they still engineered really complex and interesting schemes, scant few of which are on the show

In the books Mereen is so much more complex and Dany's decision-making and compromising are interesting. Tyrion has none of that here, he's just lecturing Missandei and Grey Worm on how to rule "properly"
And no, Sansa taking Jeyne's place as a rape victim of Ramsay is not good "consolidation"

Complaining about a shitty adaptation seems a good way to pass the time until Book 6

Both of them have some of the most complex and interesting machinations in the books, why are they inferior to other characters? Littlfinger started the whole conflict and Varys helped along the previous conflicts when he played Rhaegar and Arys against each other

His choice in the show seems like an asspull, not a long game, he's been run out of Westeros without even doing the cool things he does in the books before he left.
D&D just want him to play buddy cop with Tyrion

I heard a great quote from someone on another site -"They’re literally retreading the ADWD Winterfell plot and the Meereen plot with their preferred protagonists"-

How is Varys' motivation unclear when he says specifically that he wants to put Aegon on the Throne?

Not if the rumor of him getting killed in front of Jon are true, which it probably is because this show is always that gratuitous and stupid