TaylorStSox

I understand why they didn't do it, but I wish they would have made the Targaryens look more otherworldly. Give them the purple eyes. They're not Westerosi.

Yeah, strong leaders like Tommen Lannister?

My biggest gripes with the show: -Dany's lack of character development -Kit Harrington's acting - the Iron Born. They should have introduced Aerin Greyjoy. He's a good display of their culture. Cold, heartless, devout to the Drowned God, fearless. Asha was also butchered Dorne - what in the actual fuck? In fairness, GRRM is in the process of butchering them too Loras - book Loras: bad ass knight who happens to be gay. Show Loras: just gay Bran/Greenseer/Three Eyed Raven - there's so much that felt like it was missing. All the Starks can warg. They should have shown more of it White Harbour/The Crag - the 2 houses most loyal to the Starks were pretty much omitted. Howland Reed should have been a character. He's instrumental to the plot. Otherwise, I'm pretty satisfied. There's a lot of things I would have changed, but it was an overall enjoyable experience.

They really should have taken a few more episodes to develop the Jon/Dany relationship, Dany's developing Messiah complex and Dany's loneliness and dependence on Jorah and Missandei. The books do a good job showing how lonely Dany is. It also suffered from most of the main characters being bad actors and the secondary characters being excellent actors. Kit Harrington and Emilia Clarke have no range. It's never clear what either are trying to emote. They could have done a lot more to show that Dany wasn't necessarily evil, she was deluded into thinking she was saving people. The last episode was super hokey. You could tell everyone involved was in "just get it over with already" mode. The fan service send offs were bad. Nevertheless, I'm glad I got to see a conclusion. On to The Wheel of Time.

I'm just happy I got to see any ending. As a book reader, it's the only chance I'll have to see a conclusion. The books aren't great. They're very good. Maybe 1 out of the 5 is great. 2 are very good and 2 are total trash. I've never seen all of Breaking Bad or The Sopranos and I haven't turned my TV on in years. Where it ranks in the pantheon of TV history doesn't interest me.

Same. I kind of relieved it's over.

Not one bit.

I never thought a series of books and a show would have as big of an impact in my life as A Song of Ice and Fire. The hours and hours I've spent reading, watching and discussing it. It's the end of an era. When I started the books, I couldn't put them down. It's the only television show that was must see for me. It's been a ride.

Neither Palka nor Alonso are part of the team's future. They're at about the top of the "who gives a shit" list.

White Sox fans have always had a strange fascination with big white dues that hit homers and suck at baseball. I blame Bridgeport.

Palka love is one of the stranger White Sox fan memes.

Man, Rutherford just looks like a baseball player to me, if that makes sense. I thought the same thing about Ryan Sweeney though. ?

It's really just a vocal few, but they've run off a lot of good posters. This site kind of sucks now. We've sucked for over a decade, but this site was never this bad.

It sucks from a value perspective, but I personally never really considered him part of the rebuild. We were never going to extend him, but I hoped he'd retain trade value.

In poker, we talk a lot about "game theory optimal" vs "exploitative" play. Optimal (GTO) play involves playing a mathematical strategy that will win over time and overcome variance. Exploitative play is about reading the opponent and basing play off the ability to exploit weaker players and situations. In the end, both theories work depending on the situation. Over time, bunting is probably statistically stupid. However, there are situations where it's the optimal play. Defining those situations is up to a good coaching staff. There's no right or wrong.

Here are a couple posts from the ASOIAF message boards that might make help explain Dany's turn. They're probably easier for book readers to follow.

Remember when the sorcerers called Dany "The Mother of Death" and what we thought was snow falling on the Iron Throne was actually ashes in her vision? The more I think about all the foreshadowing, the more it makes sense. The show-runners didn't do a good enough job foreshadowing her turn. It's pretty obvious in the books though. She was never going to be a typical princess and these aren't comic book characters. Jon and Davos are probably the only 2 righteous characters in the whole saga. Everyone else was flawed and showed a lot of cognitive dissonance. Maybe Sansa is an exception, but Sansa was a poorly written, one dimensional character throughout most of the books too.

She was like his drug. People are weird and cognitive dissonance exists.

The books end with Jon's death.

You think it was bad. I think it was good. Cool.

She killed a lot people when her advisors told her to show mercy. She's crucified the slavers after they surrendered. Selmy sensed her turning. I think people are in denial because they liked her.

I think if you go back and watch the last episode in Winterfell, Dany's turn makes a lot of sense. You can see her lose all meaning. Missandei put her over the edge, especially Missandei's final words being, "burn them all." This is also the same girl who's burned and crucified everyone in her path. Maybe it was justified, but it was who she is.

She realizes there's more to life than revenge. Everything she's done since season 1 was about revenge. Everything Dany's done is about gaining the throne. It was no coincidence they altered course at the same time. Dany no longer wanted the throne. She wanted to burn everyone, just like her father.

The person has to be dead.

Arya's not done. I guarantee she slits Dany's throat. Also, Arya is the main character of the entire series, not Jon or Dany.