Spoiler Alert: They spoiled everything.
Seriously though, I'm about to get real spoiler-heavy in this post, so if you're not caught up on Game of Thrones, you might want to run for the safety of the Red Keep. But let's be honest, no where, and no one, is safe.
Have a seat. No, not there. That thing is a death trap. Let's go sit high in the Eyrie where maybe, just MAYBE, we'll be safe. I've got some things to tell you about the most recent season of HBO's Game of Thrones, and I want to be able to get through it without being stabbed by, I don't know, literally anyone.
First of all, just let me say this - I can appreciate the difficulties faced when transcribing a book (especially a series as wordy as this one) into a television show, or a movie. Certain things have to be changed, mainly because it's hard to cinematically show things like inner monologues and the point of view switching between multiple characters so often, without the viewer getting confused. I get that there are things that are going to be different, because they're more visually pleasing (casting, for instance). What I cannot get behind is making character act completely, well, OUT OF CHARACTER, or making a character move out of the security of this safe and lovely Eyrie (in which I am pretending we sit) just to put her into a completely unneccesary and frankly nauseating situation WHICH NEVER HAPPENED IN THE BOOK.
Sigh. Look, Sansa doesn't deserve what the show's writers are putting her through. It's sickening, actually, to realize that it's THEM that put her through that, because when we last see Sansa in the books, she's still in the Eyrie. She doesn't go to Winterfell, she doesn't ever even meet Ramsey Bolton, let alone marry him, and she definitely never had to endure... that. As the scene played, I found myself fighting the urge to simultaneously turn off the tv and vomit. It makes no sense, it didn't further the story at all, and there was no redemption. Just horrible things happening to this poor girl, that didn't even need to happen.
And then there's Stannis. Oh, Stannis. I liked him. Sure, he was stubborn, but at least he stuck to his principles. What he wasn't, however, was a religious fanatic. That was his wife, not him. He never, EVER, would have burned his only daughter to melt some freakin' snow. That was also excrutiating to watch. Just... no. Lady Shireen of the House Baratheon, you deserved so much better.
No discussion on this last one: Jon Snow lives or I don't watch anymore.
