I understand that and it is a fair criticism.  The main issue a show deals with that books do not is logistics versus story telling.  In a book can have a character be gone for long stretches, but a show may have contracts and agents to keep on screen.  It also helps show only fans to be reminded.  Bran in the books is a bit of a lull as he travels with Cold Hands (a bad ass character lost for budget reasons I guess) so they shoe horn in a side narrative and give Jon something to do given change of timeline.

I adore the show, but I do get the criticisms. Trust me, in book circles it often gets torn apart. Howver, I know they must be under all sorts of pressure with size of cast, filming in multiple locations and all. Not sure anything on tv come close to the scale so I forgive some stumbles and changes.  It does make me wonder how season 5 will be given alterations thus far give effect that greater and greater divergence may be at play in characterization,time lines and whole events and characters.

In any event, thank you mate for posting in the thread, I worry so few on this site are bothered.

I love this season just as I loved the other three. I gave up to expect it to be like the books - I welcome to recognize similarities
What I really can't stand is the cast-change - the old Daario was *way* better in my opinion! The change of clegane from Season 1 to 2 was rather soft but new Daario is wrong to me. I liked the scene with the white walkers and the baby was cool last episode
Generally with the current speed the series will soon tell us more than the books told us until now...

Edit: And I hate they left out Strong Belwas!

Another logistical issue is casting.  I know they have changed several (Beric, Tommen, etc.) but Daario was biggest name to change actor thus far.

Yes, that White Walker scene had a massive insight into book 6 and certainly has many fans curious.  The waiting is the hardest part about following this series past decade.

My feelings tell me Martin is now using the wiki of ice and fire to get the book right I really hope he can finish his story before he passes away...

But there is still a lot to show in the series. The whole plot with the dragon horn is still missing...

Bump.

Wow, next episode it's going to be packed with loads of stuff. O.o

Liked the Eyrie and scenes with Lysa, Baelish and Sansa. Get a sense of Lysa's issues really well here.

Oberyn came across better in this episode as tactful and cunning as opposed to sniping.

Big point I did not get was Tywin saying the Lannisters were out or running out of gold. Wait. WHAT!? That is an odd change for the show, they definitely had gold and had massive loans out that need to be repaid.

Arya and Sandor as well as Pod and Brienne were fine adding a bit of levity.

Craster's Keep was clearly a bit of invented drama to give Jon and Bran bit to do before getting back to main line.

Another odd thing is how much smaller the world is in terms of travel on foot, horseback and news. It takes months to travel up or down Westeros. Hard for us modern people to appreciate show much larger the world use to be before industrialization.

Overall, fine episode, should be heading into bigger moments in coming weeks

Well, gold isn't exactly perishable goods so they aren't running out of gold, just not producing it anymore. It might serve as a plot hole fix, for otherwise it wouldn't be hard to conceive a deal with the Iron Bank via pledge, or whatever, where the future Lannister mining dividends were directly bonded to pay off the debts of the crown. Not to mention you aren't going to produce a finite good for centuries using the same technology,. so it fixes that one too...

Also, lots of fillers north of the wall but it doesn't seem this is going to retard Bran so much since the last episode of the season relates to his ADWD business...

Perhaps the best episode of the season. The trial scene was brilliant and really showed how acting and directing are as strong as the budget in this show. Simply brilliant all around for me.

Big surprise and pleasant treat was Braavos in its full glory much sooner than expected.

Seems to be Storm, Feast and Dance mixing a bit to give bigger push in Essos. Setting up many interesting variable for next season.

Overall very pleased with this effort, hope others were too.

Pretty good episode. Seems like Tysha is indeed going to be cut altogether after the Tyrion outburst.

I really liked this week's episode (especially in contrast of last week's boring episode). Peter Dinklage put up a fantastic performance. I was even actually surprised to see Shea appear at his trial because I was under the impression they made her go away because of how different the TV character turned out to be from in the book.