Yeah, if the show is getting bad... I just stop watching.

They don't actually.


That's basically it. And bitching about it on the interwebs is always a fun endeavor.

I'm pretty sure I've spent a few hours this year arguing on this thread alone.

Maybe dial that back some? You have way more to offer the world, Imran, then your value as an Internet arguer. ;)

Put me in the camp that disagrees here. Books 1-3 are certainly a much more cohesive narrative as a whole, but I don't see any big drop off in quality, and in fact I think 1 is the weakest book. I think most of the feeling 4&5 are worse stems from frustration at the wait between books. The last couple hundred pages of Book 5 were as thrilling and jam-packed as even Book 3.

I liked 1 a lot. 2 dragged more for me. 3 was excellent.

IMO, 4 was an absolute slog. It was terrible. That was true regardless of how long it took to get to us.

5 was much better than 4, although it was also very bloated with some story lines that just seemed to drag (Quentyn Martell, Tyrion down the river and eventually to Penny--even Tyrion couldn't save that one, the Ironborn). Even so, I feel like 5 gets a bad rap. It's probably on par with 2 for me at least.

:D

The funny thing is I have heard plenty of folks with the complete opposite reaction. They loved 4 and hated 5 - with the exception of the end of 5 where the storylines came together again. I wouldn't say its 50-50, but maybe 60-40 in the preference of 5 over 4.

From a quick search around, the 4th has been quite definitely marked to be the weakest of the series while the 5th regarded as more of a "return to form". Of course, some of the gripe seems to be that key characters are missing due to the chosen format. And overall, the added complexity/page count while not moving the big picture along seems to be a criticism for 4/5.

In any case, while i agree that the show is a bit more "sensationalist" than i would like, fact of the matter is that 10 hours per season is an insanely low number to be much more subtle imo. This isn´t the Hobbit (talk about a book that is getting abused for sensationalism)

I was always the odd kid lol

5 pisses me off. Set up a major intersection between 2 characters only for it to not happen.

That much is true. Storm of Swords ended with Tyrion wisked away from King's Landing after his Trial by Combat, Jon Snow elected Lord Commander of the Night's Watch, and Dany decided to stay and rule Meereen and then Feast for Crows doesn't include any of their stories (aside from Jon ordering Sam to go to Oldtown to learn how to be a maester).

Of course both Tyrion's and Dany's story arcs turn out of to be very, very, very slow moving.

The other thing I always found interesting about criticism about Book 4 is that it almost runs 50/50 as to which new area (Iron Islands and Dorne) a person likes better than the other - and invariably for a lot of those people the 'other' new area is a horrible storyline ;). There are people who love Dorne and hate the Iron Islands and there are others who love the Iron Islands and hate Dorne. Sometimes its strange to be someone who enjoys both (both areas are so vastly different in terms of culture and organization than the rest of Westeros).

I'm more in this camp too. I liked book 1, but not enough that I would have kept on with the series had I not heard from most people that books 2 and 3 were much better. And I liked books 4 and 5 more than book 1. By then, I was well immersed in the world and was more than happy to read through more character-building (in addition to new characters) and exposition than what was in the previous books.

I hatewatched How I Met Your Mother for probably the last 3 years of its run, maybe 4. I loved the chracters too much to stop and once or twice a year it would show glimpses of its former brilliance (or even competancy), but I *had* to see it through.

With GoT, this season was the weakest overall I thought, but I still thorughly enjoyed it. Book 4 was a miserable read for me and 5 was only a little better, FWIW.

As someone who's read the first four books each at least 4 times and the 5th one once, I can pretty much confidently say they do.

And it's not like I'm alone in this. It is known.

The show has its issues. It's not perfect by any means. It definitely does rely a bit much on the sensational, there is an excessive amount of unnecessary nudity, definitely an excessive amount of rape (though there is plenty in the books too), etc. But the books, 4 & 5, in particular, are also not perfect.

This is easily my favorite series of books, if not books period, ever! And even I can see it.

Then again, I do understand this is the internet, and, sadly, people often loathe to be reasonable on the internet.

You know nothing, HB! :p

I'm glad that folks have come out after my post affirming that they as well think that Books 4 & 5 have gotten a bum rap. So it's not just me.

The first book was the roughest for me, possibly because it was my first experience with a world with that many named and/or POV characters. I loved Clash and Storm. I'm alone among my local friends, I think, in liking Crows, but it's definitely the weakest of the five IMO.

This could be good

'Game of Thrones' casts Ian McShane in season 6 mystery role | EW.com

Could he be a certain crannogman we've all been waiting for?

Most interesting part to me was the link at the bottom of the page that said the HBO Dir of Programming said that GOT would be going "at least" 8 seasons.

Howland Reed is the High Sparrow/High Septon

This is a pretty excellent theory.

It makes for a good read, but I find it hard to believe no one would recognize him, even if he has been hiding in a swamp for a decade or two.

I agree with that. I love the idea, but I can't imagine it coming to fruition.

First time I have heard that one and I love it!

Game of Thrones gets theatrical; plus massive spoilers for season six! | Watchers on the Wall | A Game of Thrones Community for Breaking News, Casting, and Commentary

The key point:

Maybe that should be spoiler tagged...

edit: I've already read most of the filming rumors, but some might not be so happy to see them.

Holy selling your own cliche, Batman ...

Are your bodies prepared?

Re-watched most of season 5 yesterday, and was surprised how many things I'd forgotten - mostly the stuff that was different to the books. Jon Snow's 'death' was a lot less ambiguous than I remembered, in particular.

I never enjoyed the whole plot involving the Sparrows in the books, but it feels even more sudden/abrupt in the show. If I were Cersei I'd be marching my Frankenstein-kingsguardsmen right back to see the High Sparrow.

It's back. Which means I get to say this.

...Well then.

That was a highly disappointing season opener for me. Especially the Dorne part.

Just annoyed me that in reality, it was like a 40 minute episode. 10 minutes of 'previously on', and ended early as well.

This.

Other than the Dorne stuff the whole episode was just non-essential set-up for future storylines.

Feels good that it's back.

I thought it was fantastic. The very ending was a WTF, but the rest of it let us know that in no uncertain terms there is going to be lots of dead bodies this season. We got some war mongers on all sides that are about to unleash hell.

Greatly enjoyed the first episode. Thought it was a great setup for the rest of the season.

I likes it. I've always felt Dorne sucked in the books so I don't care about their plotline

Can't...unsee...

It is what it is. The setups are fine by me. I am hyped for the rest of the season, as I feel this is going to be a crazy ride all the way up to Episode 10.

I enjoyed the episode. Glad to have the best show on TV back again.

Dorne had a LOT of filler in the books that went nowhere, but at least Book Doran was shown playing the long game. Show Doran is a complete waste of Dr Bashir.

Enjoyed the episode but agree ... the last part was a little too much.

She was HOT!

Agreed. It was almost like check-off for each other.

Dorne was silly - spend all last season building up Doran Martell, and ultimately have him die for no reason. At least Ned Stark's death was the catalyst for the game of thrones. This is just... Dorne immediately declares war on the realm.

Of course the interesting thing is in the books, Dorne is like 180 degrees different, with Doran impressively playing the long game - and likely to survive far, far longer (and esp not be killed by the sand snakes).

Did we ever establish if the show is for sure finishing after 7 seasons?

Because if it is, there are definitely a bunch of longer-playing plot points they needed to start killing off.