Game of Thrones

[Dr. Insomniac]

So what makes Stannis think that the North or anyone will support a Kinslayer?

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

It's worth mentioning that in the books, Stannis actually leaves his wife and Shireen back at Castle Black (Shireen's sacrifice hasn't happened in the books yet), so if this scene happens there, I don't expect that Stannis will be the one to decide on it since he's stuck with his men in the snow, leagues away from The Wall.

At any rate, I was impressed with how they managed to pull off such a big scene like Daznak's Pit with a TV budget (even for an expensive show like this). This season finale is going to be intense, and I'm still really curious to see if they are indeed going to pull off the most infamous scene from ADWD or leave it out. If they do it, I think that it could turn out to be a pretty great scene.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Can't believe how many people didn't see that coming, I mean come on! It's called dramatic irony! What's really ridiculous is seeing some say they're ditching the show. So, the rapes didn't make you leave, but a child being burned to death is your limit? Well, okay then.

I'm not exactly sure, but are you insinuating that burning a child to death is not that bad compared to rape? Both are horrible things, but being burned to death is not only excrutiatingly painful, but you're also dead by the end of it. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that's the worse of these two.

Personally, though, I find that so many people are incredibly narrow-minded in their complaints about either of those scenes. I agreed that the Jaime/Cersei rape scene was terrible because it wasn't suppoosed to be a rape scene in the first placed and was completely out of character for Jaime. That Sansa scene was a completely different situation, though. It wasn't a rape scene trying to be passed off as sexy or for mere shock value. It's showing how dire her situation is, as well as how cruel a medieval-style society could be towards women. The fact that people can't separate that from the Jaime/Cersei scene in terms of context is absurd.

As for Shirreen, yes, what happened to her was horrible. So was babies being killed backin season 2, Robb Stark, his pregnant wife, and mother being brutally murdered in season 3, and countless other atrocities that have happened in this series so far. How exactly do people seem to be forgetting all of that stuff by this point in the series?

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

So what makes Stannis think that the North or anyone will support a Kinslayer?

Going just by show logic since the circumstances are different, here: He's banking on the hopes that they hate the Boltons more for not only betraying the Starks, but also being responsible for the death of several Northern Lords, just like how Robert's Rebellion started back when Aerys Targeryan executed the Lords of several great houses at once. So Stannis seems to assume that the Northern Lords, whether they hate Stannis or not, will consider him the lesser of two evils compared to the House that literally betrayed the North.

That, of course, isn't to say that he's right or that his logic is sound. In fact, as we've seen in the past, his logic has failed him before. When he had Renly assassinated, the Tyrells allied themselves with the Lannisters over him, even though he expected them to default to his side. Stannis isn't exactly the best at understanding how other people will think and react to his decisions, but that logic is probably what's going through his head, I imagine.

[Dr. Insomniac]

Daenerys Moonchild Targaryen

[Dr. Insomniac]

So how exactly will the Night's Watch handle thousands of Wildlings (including a giant and Tormund) now that the only thing close to an ambassador between both of them is disposed?

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

They pulled off the "For The Watch" scene! And....they still left it off as a cliffhanger.....

Now, the circumstances for how this happens in the books versus the show are completely different. The book does the "Pink Letter" which I won't talk about for potential spoiler reasons. As for the show, we'll have to wait and see how they handle the wildlings, but keep in mind that most of them are women and children who can't fight, so if worse came to worse, the Night's Watch would have an advantage. At any rate, this whole stabbing scene, unlike the Red Wedding, seems more spontaneous than properly planned out. Additionally, while it goes against this series's usual standards, the fact that Mellisandre made it back to The Wall and we have seen firsthand that the power of the Red God (or at least Red Magic) can resurrect people, is not a  mere coincidence in my eyes. They also clearly did this scene last for a reason. I think that if you put two-and-two together, Jon Snow may not have seen his final days just yet.

Anyways, it looks like they went against expectations and did the "Holy Shit!" events in the season finale rather than the penultimate episode. Personally I loved it.

[Peanutbutter]

I actually liked this season overall. Too bad a number of people are dumping on it because of Arya and Sansa not doing enough "cool stuff". Nevermind the situations they're both in. I'm positive that everything was building towards a lot of bigger payoffs especially since next season will outrun the books.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

This season still has a very high rating on RT, so clearly the people turned off by this season are in the minority. In fact, several (most) TV critics that I follow still love this show, and were happy with the season minus a few notable complaints.

There were some story-line changes that made little sense, but that could be said of every season so far, and it's hardly unique to this one. Other than that, a majority of the heat that this season got had less to do with story and characters and more to do with its controversial scenes involving women. As for that, people can be baffling at times. I mean, nobody raised hell when Dany literally got raped on her wedding night in the very first episode (and most people even claimed to like Drogo as a character), but they say that the show is going too far when Ramsay Bolton (a known terrible person), rapes Sansa just because they know her better now. So, in other words, people are willing to turn a blind eye to the depiction of rape when it happens to people that they don't care about, but it's only right to say that it's going too far when it happens to someone that you're familiar with? That in itself is pretty despicable double-standards, IMO.

Really, I only find myself agreeing that Dorne felt like an incredibly pointless story-line this season. Other than that, the majority of everything else was up to the standards that we have come to expect from this show.

I did get a bit annoyed at Sansa not being able to help herself, though. As for Arya, I actually quite liked the "Karate Kid" for assassins type training that she went through, and I was invested the whole way through that story-line, myself.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

The show has been confirmed to at least be getting 8 seasons: http://www.ew.com/article/2015/07/30/game-thrones-eight-seasons

I know that D&D always said since the beginning that they wanted to end this show at season 7 or 8, which makes sense given where the story is at right now. Having it end with the eighth season seems like just enough time to wrap up the story without it feeling too rushed. However, HBO executives want this show to run for much longer due to its massive world-wide success, and I sincerely hope that they don't end up forcing that on the showrunners, because I'd absolutely hate to see a great show get dragged out way past its prime just for some extra profit.

I'm for the spin-off idea, myself. After this show ends with season 8, do some spin-off mini-series' or movies exploring the rich history of this Universe, like The Dance of the Dragons, The Tales of Dunk and Egg, or Robert's Rebellion, for example. That way you can at least leave the main story-line alone.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Somehow this qualifies as news, but I find it amusing all the same. http://m.bleacherreport.com/articles/2540152-teammates-dropping-game-of-thrones-spoilers-is-tearing-the-nfl-camps-apart

Television that was once meant for nerds has now affected television that's meant for jocks....or at least just the millions of Americans who watch sports. Oh, the irony.

[Daikun]

I hope this gets a live broadcast.

[Daikun]

The show may finish before the books.

[Foggle]

I think that's a given at this point.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

That's been highly suspected by fans for years. Martin takes an average of about five years between book releases. Going by that logic, we might get TWOW by late next year, but even then it would take at least another five years for the final novel to come out. The show will have to wrap up long before then.