The Northern storyline was just butchered this season. In the books Stannis has more Northmen than Southerners in his army for example and as bad as the conditions are, Asha comments on the confidence Stannis' soldiers have in him. Heck, in the Theon Book 6 chapter, Stannis is confident rather than desperate; he's…

I'm upset we never got to see on the screen what was their best scene together in the books:
- 'I am no fit man to be a King's Hand'
- 'There is no man fitter.'
- ' I am lowborn. An unjumped smuggled. Your lords will never obey me.'
- 'Then we will make new lords.'

At this point, it's obvious that the ASOIAF saga is in the end all about a magical boy (Jon) and a magical girl (Dany) whose super magic-incest-dragon blood marks them out as saviors of the world. All the intricate plotting, maneuvering, back-stabbing, and alliance making is secondary to the powers of destiny and…

The battle with the Boltons - and to be fair the Iron Throne itself- is far from Stannis's endgame. Burning Shireen as a Hail Mary play when the White Walkers burst through the Wall for example would make a lot more sense character-wise. Stannis is a tough nut and as Asha tells us in Book 5, his fighting men( if not…

One of the key themes running through the books, but not explored nearly as much on the show, is legitimacy and what it takes to be a good ruler. One of the interesting things about the War of the 5 kings for example is how almost all the kings had a different justification of why they should rule: Stannis and Joffrey…

The North is very large, but it is also a complete mess at the moment. It is depopulated and fought over by about 3 or 4 different factions. Littlefinger can always play the Sansa card whenever, and judging by where the chess pieces are at the end of book 5, Rickon or Jon are the Starks that could rally the north. I…

Burning Shireen works thematically and is consistent with Stannis ONLY if we accept that he is well past caring about the Iron Throne and his only goal is saving Westeros from the White Walkers. But because the show omitted scenes like where he tells Davos "about the enemy he was born to fight" the "cart before the…

What's doubly disapponting is that the Northern storyline was the best part of Book 5: Frey pies, "The North Remembers," Davos at the Merman's court (Stannis offers you justice. Justice for your murdered king! Justice for your princes! For your sons!), "Ned's girl," Mance and the spearwives, "mayhap he would have…

Stannis's army IS marching into enemy territory as a horrible winter sets in…

Except Ceasar was the best thing thst could have happened to Rome at that point in its history: The republic had already failed and functioned in name only as strong men (Gracchi, Sulla, Marius etc) exploited their popularity to fan social strife (the Social Wars) and caused a more or less half century of bloody Civil…

Once again, it's confirmed that the show runners have decided that bad things should always happen to Sansa and that Stannis should always do terrible things. Even if neither would ever happen in the books. For one - Sansa- it makes no sense for Littlefinger to marry her to pscyho Ramsey when she already has a claim…

I said it before, but I guess I'll repeat it because I'm so confident about it (though I'll sound stupid when it doesn't come to pass): Ramsey's ploy is to use the troops his father gives him to kill Roose rather than Stannis. His succession - as Sansa intelligently enough pointed out - is far from assured with a…

Maybe not Arctic cold, but I'm sure that the winters in the South lead at least to worse crop yields. Historically speaking, bad crops were more dangerous to just about any pre-modern society than wars. Especially a society (like Westeros) that is just reeling from several years of Civil War where you imagine that a…

The Blackwater was more ambitious at least insofar as before it, we didn't have the expectation that the show could pull off staging as big an event like that as well as it did. That and episode 9, season 1 when Ned bites it were probably the show's biggest 'mission statement' episodes. I'd argue that, as awful as it…

If my GoT history is right, the dragons came to Westeros with the Targs from Valyria, so they probably weren't used in the battle against the White Walkers. At least in neither the show nor the books do we get any clues that there were any pre-Targ dragons on Westeros. I think Valyrian swords existed pre-Targ conquest…

He is the heir to Casterly Rock. Which is some pretty grade-A real estate. She could do MUCH worse.

It was probably because of the Kid Walker with basically no upper body skin whose rip cage was sticking out. He reminded me of those photos of WW2 concentration camp prisoners that hadn't eaten in weeks, which I personally find terrifying and super uncomfortable viewing despite being desensitized to 99 percent of…

I'm calling Ramsey taking his "20 good men" and using them against good old pops Roose, to make sure that whichever little brother his rotund new 'mother' spits out don't pose a threat to him. And then taking the whole Bolton army and marching out to meet Stannis in the open to somehow legitimate his claim to the…

Renly had no legitimate claim to the throne, even if he knew about the twin-cest, he didn't care for it to legitimate his claim. He was a spoiled rich boy playing king. Had he supported Stannis, he would've been next in line, displacing Shireen as Stannis's heir (This is the deal Stannis offers Renly in the books and…

I'll say that Brienne was a great companion to Jaime, but to be honest, it seems the show can get away with pairing just about anyone with him and making it look good.