The X-Men being in their own cinematic universe doesn't bug me at all. The Fantastic Four and all ancillary characters being split off from a universe that was essentially created around them is a different matter.

I'm not going to read the experts review, because my whole point was that book readers claimed it was confusing for non-book readers, and I assume there's plenty of that in the comments there. Having just spent however fucking long it takes to load up all the comments on the newbies review, and then looking through…

Where's the Detective Chimp ongoing the comics reading world has been craving?

There really aren't any spoilers anymore, to be honest.

The basic rules of competent narrative?

I mean, that's not really a defense. I mean, we can't fit in all this stuff that actually matters because, you know, there's two chapters of Davos wandering around not doing anything, and 12 chapters of Tyrion wandering around not doing anything, and a bunch of chapters where Dany kind of does the same thing over and…

There were certainly some pacing issues.

Showing that he actually loves her makes him tragic, not detestable, I think. I certainly don't think everything this season was handled very well, but my basic feeling about Stannis is that, even if there were various things in the plotline that might have theoretically served to make Stannis less sympathetic in the…

There's a pretty well worn set of rules. For instance, after an election, she invites the leader of the party with the most seats in the House of Commons to try to form a government. She then appoints that person prime minister if they can form a government with majority support in the House of Commons.

You see, here's the thing. You say this, but I don't remember actual show watchers saying this at the time. I mean, I'm sure you can find an example or two, but this is a supposed problem book readers were much more vocal about than show watchers.

Winterfell was undefended because Martin decided to make Rodrik Cassel act like a moron for no reason.

I'd go with "no," in that this is not an idea which has been introduced in the show even slightly.

If the Democrats control the Senate and choose James as VP, and the Republicans have enough states to deadlock the House, but not to elect O'Brian president, then it's basically a choice between on the one hand, continuing the deadlock and letting James be president until at least the midterms, when you hope you can…

Well, Ramsay doesn't even see what he's doing as raping her. He's consummating his marriage. Of course he would do that. But, yeah, they totally did nothing with northern politics, which made the whole Winterfell plotline very, very flat.

a) Well, yes, a person who's not quite so desperate might very well feel that way. But that's the point of desperation - it makes you do things you might realize, in a calmer frame of mind, are deeply unwise.

Well, that's no different from the Senate.

Yes, but that's all the food they have. How long will it last? They don't have the resources, I assume to cure the horsemeat, so they basically have to eat all of it within a few days, and after that they're all going to die.

I certainly have no interest in defending every pacing decision the show has made this season. But I'm willing to accept, broadly, that the show is not going to be able to paint as full a picture of the background elements as the books can.

I don't really care about ex cathedra statements from authors. He may think Stannis is a righteous man. We don't have to agree.

Yeah, sure, fair enough. Thinking a bit more, I'd say the second and third books are pretty comparable, though neither ends as strongly as the first one, which not only has dragons, but manages to end every character's story in a place that promises something interesting and different for the next book. The fourth and…