Jojen?!! Man, HBO, WTF indeed! Who's going to, um... mope... in the caves for a while... Okay, I got nothing.
Other than a deplorable lack of Lady Stoneheart, I was quite happy with this finale. Stannis had a far smaller charge than Theoden, but no less epic. That one wildling who decided to rush Stannis... did anyone else get the image of the Historian from Monty Python and the Holy Grail at that moment?
I'm quite pleased with how Tyrion's arc wrapped up, and the changes in Brienne/Pod and Arya/Sandor arcs were fine. Honestly, in the five or six chapters of Brienne and Pod in book four, the only thing of any consequences that happened was them finding out Arya was still alive, and Hot Pie did that for them in a great little scene. For crap's sake would it have been so much to ask for five more minutes to wrap them up with the greatest mind-blowing moment of their arc? (Yeah, I know Merret Frey got it in the book, but they did get there themselves eventually). Okay, I'll shut up about it now.
Dany.. eh, who cares. The Mereen story is quite boring anyway, and I read it all just wishing she'd stop dithering and get on with what she's supposed to be doing. I always felt she was only there because Martin realized he needed to delay her arrival to the Seven Kingdoms so it wouldn't interfere with the rest of whatever he's doing. If she'd kept up a proper pace, she'd have arrived just about right after Tommen and Margaery's wedding. Would hav emade book four much less of a drag, at least.
