re: I rewatched "Blackwater" last night.

what people have a hard time coming to grips with is that the 4th book flat out sucks and the 5th book is just ok at best. the epic storytelling got too epic.

the mereen pits assassination attempt on game of thrones was much better and more concise than DwD. the stuff with the faith militant is better in the show than in either book. the stuff with aegon in the books is just terrible and filler. the stuff with the greyjoys and euron was just pointless filler. the whole thing about the dornish prince traveling to mereen to forge an alliance with daeny was pointless filler. the stuff with fake sansa was just pointless filler. Brienne and pod was just nothing until lady stoneheart. worst chapters in all of the books. he just abandoned the larger story elements

and it's no coincidence this is where the largest divergences from the source material begins. scratch lady stoneheart, scratch fake sansa and sub for real sansa, scrap mance being alive and replace him with theon, scrap all the stuff about aegon being alive, completely rework Tyrion's journey to mereen, scrap Brienne and pod just wandering about aimlessly and have them on a mission to rescue sansa

I think they did the best with the material (and lack of material)

6 was a return to form because they were pretty much free from the source material but close enough to it to make logical jumps free from martin's compulsory habit of convoluting things. it brought a compelling end to otherwise boring storylines. cerseii takes the throne instead of trying (unsuccessfully) to maneuver behind the scenes, jon is king in the north, arya becomes a faceless man, daeny comes to westeros (fricking finally)

when or if martin ever resumes writing the series it will probably suck because it's too much to resolve. he has the characters stuck in place and without progressing them he just keeps adding useless filler on. feast for crows sucks...and season 5 is the most boring season so far as a result but satisfying nonetheless.