Post by Leo of Red Keep on Jul 15, 2017 7:39:08 GMT
The books were a story for thinkers. When the show passed them, it became one for feelers. It no longer needs to make sense, it's enough if there are reunions, murders, revenge, battles and "shocking twists".
Season 6 was for the trash can and this will apply for the next two.
The nonsensical Dorne revenge plot was one of those ("let's avenge Oberyn by going against his principles and killing his family").
Then Tyrion got to be in Daenerys' inner circle just by asking nicely and you knew the whole thing was pure fan pleasing. The "break the wheel" conversation was cringe-worthy, we were a long way from "power resides where people believe it resides". The story was dumbing down.
Stannis was made to die in an unrealistic, nonsensical way: no king escapes a lost battle alone, ask the fool who lost his horse in a car park; no army follows a commander into avoidable suicide. Brienne was given her revenge: no one noticed her tall, unknown stature anymore than they saw the king escape, stupid Bolton soldiers…
We had long scenes of turning Meryn Trant into a pedophile just so people would shriek in delight at Arya grossly butchering him.
Finally, Jon Snow was murdered out of the blue after he'd done the damage by people who must have known what he had seen in Hardhome (they don't know in the books, Jon wasn't even there and it happens when he decides to go fight the Boltons in Winterfell, so the mutiny makes a whole lot more sense).
All this to show that the 2nd third of Season 5 (or half to take Dorne in) yields to shocking effect and fan satisfaction at the cost of the tight plot logic which made earlier seasons worth analysing and discussing. This evolution intensified in Season 6 where barely anything made sense from a purely logical point of view. Only King's Landing was kept halfway plausible, the rest being now just a fantasy show for dumb teenagers.