I just watched For Your Eyes Only this weekend and realized that both Julian Glover and Charles Dance were in it.

Here, I just found this quote from Renly on Wiki of Ice & Fire (on Robert's page):

That's a really cute, sweet take on a bloody rebellion, that featured a conqueror and his allies sacking a city and murdering whichever children of the ruling bloodline they could get their hands on. You imply that they deposed Aerys, and then took their time deliberating about who should rule.

it was his decision to lead an army south to Winterfell that finally caused the mutiny. They stabbed him to death because he broke one of the principal vows of the Watch, not to take any part in the wars of the Seven Kingdoms, and placed his personal wants above the needs and duties of the Night's Watch.

…looking at the list of bad decisions Jon made to put the Night's Watch at risk I truly do understand the mutineers.

Having Jon at Hardhome was a great decision by the show and a great way to demonstrate the stakes to the audience. The problem is that this makes the mutineers look even dumber.

I really missed the way it happened in the book though. The pink letter, Jon's awesome speech on how he is going to save his sister, the wildling support and THEN the stabbing.

can anyone remember Jon ever making that argument to the dissenters on the Watch?

I'm pretty sure Mel will have resurrected him before the end credits of next season's premiere.

this insistence from Weiss that he's dead – that's bull, right?

I thought it was pretty empowering grrrrrrlll stuff.

It's hard to question the legitimacy of whatever great council was convened…

the traditional three-act narrative structure, the second act is the one in which the protagonist(s) reach their lowest point physically and/or emotionally.

narratively speaking Sam has a role to play in Oldtown, mostly he'll probably be discovering some sort of information that helps the fight against the Others.

If you think of it as part five of a 7-part story arc (which you should), this season should absolutely havebeen the darkest and lowest point of the series.

Here's your list of POV characters from Dance:
http://awoiaf.westeros.org/…

I'll avoid my thoughts on plotting (except that…
I tend to think he's just trying to tell an honest story in the world as he sees it

a great council of lords can legally determine right of succession, though, and a great council decided to put Robert on the throne

I don't think the series undermines the legitimacy of those laws. It has yet to propose anything else. Everyone gets hung up on how much monarchy sucks, and it really does, but when that's what you've got, orderly transition is of paramount importance.

because he "knew" that Joffrey