History YMMV / GameOfThronesS5E6UnbowedUnbentUnbroken

*** First, since the site is a major tourist attraction, they only had a handful of days to film at the location - so they couldn't do reshoots.

*** Third, they ultimately weren't even allowed to film ''in the palace'', just in the garden plaza...raising the question of how much they could even be said to be filming "in the Alcazar" anymore. ''As they planned it'', it would have been a tightly shot fight scene in the corridors of the palace - instead they were stuck using wide-shots in an open area, meaning they couldn't film it as well: either zooming out too far when the stunt doubles were filming, or zooming too far in on the actors who couldn't do the moves as well. On top of this, filming it ''at night'' would have let them use the stunt doubles more when they're not as easy to see, while a day-shoot made it painfully obvious when the actors were swapped in and out.

** It didn't exactly help that Benioff and Weiss responded with what has become a common pattern for them - avoid giving any response whatsoever to defend their decisions and hope the controversy just goes away. Well, they did say once they stopped giving interviews because they felt they'd only be misquoted and outright haters of the show would twist their words, but they didn't consider that this makes them seem aloof. The only actual "response" from the writing staff for months at a time was from Cogman and other crew members - ''avoiding'' discussion of merging the plotlines, and just focusing on defending that the wedding night scene itself was filmed tastefully. The ''actual'' defense put forward was often "well once Ramsay married Sansa it would be untrue to the situation for him to not mistreat her"....dodging the issue of that ''they'' are the ones who merged the plotlines in the first place. Cogman has been clearly uncomfortable about this in interviews and he often ends by indeed quickly acknowledging, "if you're questioning that Sansa and Jeyne were merged in the first place, that wasn't my idea, so I can't talk about it"...which is sort of a tacit admission that he didn't really address the fundamental question.

** In the Season 5 DVD commentary, Cogman explained that Benioff and Weiss didn't even want the show to go to Dorne until ''after'' Season 4 aired. They knew Oberyn and Ellaria would visit King's Landing, but didn't think they'd be able to fit Dorne in - due to their fear that it's an entirely new location which no previously established major characters could visit to bridge its introduction (except of course, the audience ''does'' already know Ellaria!). Anyway, ''after'' production on Season 4 ended, at the last minute Bryan Cogman suggested that they ''could'' fit Dorne back in if they sent Jaime there (instead of the Kingsguard POV character from the novels), which on paper seemed liked a good idea. The problem was that - as he directly admitted - Dorne was indeed quickly squeezed into Season 5 at the last minute, and they barely had any time to focus on writing it or ironing out those parts of the scripts. It feels half-finished because frankly it was. ''In addition'' to starting it so late, they also wanted to re-write the subplot to give Ellaria more to do, because they're fond of the actress - i.e. giving her Arianne's role from the books. This also necessitated further rewrites even as they didn't have time to insert the original material.

* BrokenBase: The changes to Sansa's story by [[AdaptationDistillation merging it with Jeyne Poole's]] have disappointed many fans of the books and the show. On some level, the scene itself has RapeDiscretionShot by the series standards, and is ''far'' tamer than [[RapeByProxy the corresponding scene in the books]]. On the other hand, many feel that it ruins the CharacterDevelopment promised at the end of Season 4 and once again victimizes her for shock value. Especially when the scene in question follows Sansa mocking and insulting Myranda and Theon (for understandable reasons), fans feel that it's almost shown as a BreakTheHaughty moment for underestimating Ramsay, and dislike the entire sequence as tasteless RapeAsDrama, especially since Sansa ''already'' underwent the same arc with Joffrey in Seasons 1-3 and had moved on to a different storyline in the corresponding books. It should be noted, for what it's worth, that Sophie Turner has spoken out in defense of the scene.

** Loras' trial requires a great deal of stupidity from many people: There's Loras being so open about his homosexuality in the first place, Loras again for ''continuing'' to see Olyvar after he had betrayed him once already, Loras ''again'' for failing to defend himself in any meaningful fashion (like, say, pointing out that the supposed-squire Olyvar ''would'' know where his birth mark on the thigh was, from removing his armor and watching Loras practice), Loras once more for not demanding a trial by combat when he's one of the best knights around and the High Sparrow could hardly refuse a demand to be tried by the gods, Cersei for not realizing how ridiculously short-sighted this all was, Tommen for doing nothing to stop it, and Olyvar for his betrayal and aiding the guys whom he ''knows'' hate homosexuals with a passion. If any one of these characters didn't act like an idiot, the plot would grind to a screeching halt.

*** Third, they ultimately weren't even allowed to film ''in the palace'', just in the garden plaza...raising the question of how much they could even be said to be filming "in the Alcazar" anymore. ''As they planned it'', it would have been a tightly shot fight scene in the corridors of the palace - instead they were stuck using wide-shots in an open area, meaning they couldn't film it as well: either zooming out too far when the stunt doubles were filming, or zooming too far in on the actors who could't do the moves as well. On top of this, filming it ''at night'' would have let them use the stunt doubles more when they're not as easy to see, while a day-shoot made it painfully obvious when the actors were swapped in and out.
*** They also later admitted that because the Sand Snake actresses live in different countries, they filmed their own fight moves separately, and only trained as a coordinated fight scene with multiple people for ''a few days'' before the scene was filmed.
*** In the commentary they paint all these setbacks as events beyond their control....ignoring the fact that they ''chose'' to film at this location despite the increasingly bizarre and demanding filming restrictions. At what point after being told "you can't actually film ''inside'' the castle and can't film at night" is it really worth filming there at all anymore?

** In the DVD commentary, they explain that basically everything which could go wrong for the fight scene did - though largely due to avoidable choices the production team made. They were so focused on filming at the Alcazar Palace, a friggin UNESCO World Heritage site which is very beautiful and authentically medieval, that they didn't consider the ''drastic'' filming limitations that would be imposed on them. First, they only had a handful of days to film at the location, so they couldn't do reshoots - the site is a major tourist attraction. Second, for some reason they weren't allowed to film the scene ''at night'' and had to film it during the day...and as many reviewers pointed out, it didn't make sense for both Jaime ''and'' the Sand Snakes to try to sneak into the castle ''during the day''. Third, they ultimately weren't even allowed to film ''in the palace'', just in the garden plaza...raising the question of how much they could even be said to be filming "in the Alcazar" anymore. ''As they planned it'', it would have been a tightly shot fight scene in the corridors of the palace - instead they were stuck using wide-shots in an open area, meaning they couldn't film it as well: either zooming out too far when the stunt doubles are filming, or zooming too far in on the actors who can't do them as well. On top of this, filming it ''at night'' would have let them use the stunt doubles more when they're not as easy to see. They also later admitted that because the Sand Snake actresses live in different countries, they filmed their own fight moves separately, and only trained as a coordinated fight scene with multiple people for ''a few days'' before the scene was filmed. In the commentary they paint this as events beyond their control....ignoring the fact that they ''chose'' to film at this location despite the increasingly bizarre and demanding filming restrictions - at what point after being told "you can't actually film inside the castle and can't film at night" does it really become worth filming there at all anymore?

*** Unlike the Dorne plot, though, this isn't bad writing as much as a concentration of known idiots being in the same room.

** Loras' trial requires a great deal of stupidity from many people: There's Loras being so open about his homosexuality in the first place, Loras again for ''continuing'' to see Olyvar after he had betrayed him once already, Loras once more for failing to defend himself in any meaningful fashion (like, say, pointing out that the supposed-squire Olyvar ''would'' know where his birth mark on the thigh was, from removing his armor and watching Loras practice), Loras for not demanding a trial by combat when he's one of the best knights around and the High Sparrow could hardly refuse a demand to be tried by the gods, Cersei for not realizing how ridiculously short-sighted this all was, Tommen for doing nothing to stop it, and Olyvar for his betrayal and aiding the guys whom he ''knows'' hate homosexuals with a passion. If any one of these characters didn't act like an idiot, the plot would grind to a screeching halt.

* VisualEffectsOfAwesome: Contrasting with all of the above, the Hall of Faces looks amazing, spooky and grand.

** Loras' trial requires a great deal of stupidity from many people: There's Loras being so open about his homosexuality in the first place, Loras again for ''continuing'' to see Olyvar after he had betrayed him once already, Loras once more for failing to defend himself in any meaningful fashion (like, say, pointing out that the supposed-squire Olyvar ''would'' know where his birth mark on the thigh was, from removing his armor and watching Loras practice), Cersei for not realizing how ridiculously short-sighted this all was, Tommen for doing nothing to stop it, and Olyvar for his betrayal and aiding the guys whom he ''knows'' hate homosexuals with a passion. If any one of these characters didn't act like an idiot, the plot would grind to a screeching halt.

* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: King Tommen's hesitance to have the Kingsguard stop the arrest of Margaery may not be [[ActualPacifist actual pacifism]]. The Kingsguard has few representatives in the room at the time, and more importantly, even the knights who are there are (according to Ser Barristan) barely worthy of the name. Armored as they are, they would likely be able to free Margaery, but fighting through the Sept of Baelor far enough that Tommen and his royal entourage can reach the safety of the Red Keep? Maybe Tommen is not so much weak as he is [[GenreSavvy wise]].

*** The Sand Snakes plot to kidnap Myrcella was similarly poorly executed, aiming to snatch her in plain daylight in front of Trystane, just like Jaime had 'planned' to do. What makes it worse is that they see Jaime and Bronn at work and ''' ''proceed as planned anyway'' '''. Rather than, you know, calling the guards to stop interlopers from attacking their Prince and kidnapping Myrcella, and using this hostile act as propaganda for their war as well as netting another valuable hostage. And they do all this underneath the gaze of Prince Doran himself. Even worse is the fact that Jaime and Bronn at least ''bothered'' with putting on disguises for their plan, while the Sand Snakes made no such attempt to conceal their identities -- no, covering their faces doesn't count -- and carried out their high profile kidnapping themselves... and indeed, after everyone's arrest the scene cuts right to Ellaria Sand, not having moved from where she'd briefed the Sand Snakes, being cornered by Dornish spearmen.

*** Jaime's stealth mission to "rescue" Myrcella amounts to marching into the water gardens ''in broad daylight,'' in front of the Young Prince of Dorne, and straight up telling Myrcella to leave. As Bronn {{Lampshades}} , he doesn't even have any idea how they will actually ''get out'' of Dorne afterwards. Then Bronn himself ruins everything by physically threatening Prince Doran's son and then straight-up knocking him out. Didn't you guys want to '''avoid''' starting a war, again? And then of course they didn't account for the possibility that [[StarCrossedLovers Myrcella and Trystane were in love with each other]] and would resist Jaime and Bronn...

* BrokenBase: The changes to Sansa's story by [[AdaptationDistillation merging it with Jeyne Poole's]] have disappointed many fans of the books and the show. On some level, the scene itself has RapeDiscretionShot by the series standards, and is ''far'' tamer than [[RapeByProxy the corresponding scene in the books]]. On the other hand some feel that it ruins the CharacterDevelopment promised at the end of Season 4 and once again victimizes her for shock value. Especially when the scene in question follows Sansa mocking and insulting Myranda and Theon (for understandable reasons), fans feel that its almost shown as a BreakTheHaughty moment for underestimating Ramsay and dislike the entire sequence as tasteless RapeAsDrama, especially since Sansa ''already'' underwent the same arc with Joffrey in Seasons 1-3 and had moved on to a different storyline in the corresponding books. It should be noted, for what it's worth, that Sophie Turner has spoken out in defense of the scene.

*** On the side of the Dornish army, the fact they allowed Jaime to get so close to the Prince completely unimpeded is ''incredibly'' sloppy. They were admittedly wearing Dornish uniforms, but apparently no one noticed the missing soldiers, or cared that two men who are clearly not from Dorne were approaching the crown prince.
*** Doran spends an earlier scene talking about how the Sand Snakes are going to try something against Myrcella, but apparently doesn't see fit to have anyone actually escorting her to keeping people from getting to her.
*** Jaime's stealth mission to "rescue" Myrcella amounts to marching into the water gardens ''in broad daylight,'' in front of the Young Prince of Dorne, and straight up telling Myrcella to leave. As Bronn {{Lampshades}} , he doesn't even have any idea how they will ''get out'' of Dorne afterwards. Then Bronn himself ruins everything by physically threatening Prince Doran's son and then straight-up knocking him out. Didn't you guys want to ''avoid'' starting a war, again? And then of course they didn't account for the possibility that [[StarCrossedLovers Myrcella and Trystane were in love with each other]] and would resist Jaime and Bronn...
*** The Sand Snakes plot to kidnap Myrcella was similarly poorly executed, aiming to snatch her in plain daylight in front of Trystane, just like Jaime had 'planned' to do. What makes it worse is that they see Jaime and Bronn and ''' ''proceed as planned anyway'' '''. Rather than, you know, calling the guards to stop interlopers from attacking their Prince and kidnapping Myrcella, and using this hostile act as propaganda for their war as well as netting another valuable hostage. And they do all this underneath the gaze of Prince Doran himself. Even worse is the fact that Jaime and Bronn at least ''bothered'' with putting on disguises for their plan, while the Sand Snakes made no such attempt to conceal their identities -- no, covering their faces doesn't count -- and carried out their high profile kidnapping themselves... and indeed, after everyone's arrest the scene cuts right to Ellaria Sand, not having moved from where she'd briefed the Sand Snakes, being cornered by Dornish spearmen.

** Loras' trial requires a great deal of stupidity from many people: There's Loras being so open about his homosexuality in the first place, Loras again for ''continuing'' to see Olyvar after he had betrayed him once already, Loras once more for failing to defend himself in any meaningful fashion (like, say, pointing out that the supposed-squire Olyvar ''would'' know where his birth mark on the thigh was, from removing his armor and watching Loras practice), Cersei for not realizing how ridiculously short-sighted this all was, Tommen for doing nothing to stop it, and Olyvar for his betrayal and aiding the guys whom he ''knows'' hate homosexuals with a passion. If any one of these characters didn't act like an idiot, the plot would grind to a screeching halt. Unlike the Dorne example, however, this seems intentional on the part of the writers, showing how chaotic politics has become in King's Landing.

*** The Sand Snake's plot to kidnap Myrcella was similarly poorly executed, aiming to snatch her in plain daylight in front of Trystane, just like Jaime had 'planned' to do. What makes it worse is that they see Jaime and Bronn and ''' ''proceed as planned anyway'' '''. Rather than, you know, calling the guards to stop interlopers from attacking their Prince and kidnapping Myrcella, and using this hostile act as propaganda for their war as well as netting another valuable hostage. And they do all this underneath the gaze of Prince Doran himself. Even worse is the fact that Jaime and Bronn at least ''bothered'' with putting on disguises for their plan, while the Sand Snakes made no such attempt to conceal their identities -- no, covering their faces doesn't count -- and carried out their high profile kidnapping themselves... and indeed, after everyone's arrest the scene cuts right to Ellaria Sand, not having moved from where she'd briefed the Sand Snakes, being cornered by Dornish spearmen.

* TheScrappy: The Sand Snakes cemented themselves as this, having already been widely disliked due to their LargeHam tendencies and poor writing, as well as the FightSceneFailure resulting in them coming across as {{Faux Action Girl}}s. What's makes it worse is the plot they're associated with: the complicated Queenmaker plot of the books admittedly needed some AdaptationDistillation, but the choice of [[{{Flanderization}} Flanderizing]] the Sand Snakes and derailing Ellaria Sand ''and'' the IdiotPlot of Jaime and Bronn has not pleased viewers. The ridiculous coincidence of both parties engaging their stupid plans ''at the exact same time'' is bizarre, and the choreography of their fight was extremely poor by the show's standards. In addition, the continued overacting of the Sand Snakes continues to draw criticism.
* VisualEffectsOfAwesome: The Hall of Faces looks amazing, spooky and grand.

** Loras' trial requires a great deal of stupidity from many people: There's Loras being so open about his homosexuality in the first place, Loras again for ''continuing'' to see Olyvar after he had betrayed him once already, Loras once more for failing to defend himself in any meaningful fashion (like, say, pointing out that the supposed-squire Olyvar ''would'' know where his birth mark on the thigh was, from removing his armor and watching Loras practice), Cersei for not realizing how ridiculously short-sighted this all was, Tommen for doing nothing to stop it, and Olyvar for his betrayal and aiding the guys whom he ''knows'' hate homosexuals with a passion. If any one of these characters didn't act like an idiot, the plot would grind to a screeching halt.

* BrokenBase: The changes to Sansa's story by [[AdaptationDistillation merging it with Jeyne Poole's]] have disappointed many fans of the books and the show. On some level, the scene itself has RapeDiscretionShot by the series standards, and is ''far'' tamer than [[RapeByProxy the corresponding scene in the books]]. On the other hand some feel that it ruins the CharacterDevelopment promised at the end of Season 4 and once again victimizes her for shock value. Especially when the scene in question follows Sansa mocking and insulting Myranda and Theon (for understandable reasons), fans feel that its almost shown as a BreakTheHaughty moment for underestimating Ramsay and dislike the entire sequence as tasteless RapeAsDrama, especially since Sansa ''already'' underwent the same arc with Joffrey in Seasons 1-3 and had moved on to a different storyline in the corresponding books.
** It should be noted, for what it's worth, that Sophie Turner has spoken out in defense of the scene.

** [[http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/04/27/game-of-thrones-interview-sansa-ramsay/?_r=2 Or not]].

* BrokenBase: The changes to Sansa's story by [[AdaptationDistillation merging it with Jeyne Poole's]] have disappointed many fans of the books and the show. On some level, the scene itself has RapeDiscretionShot by the series standards, and is ''far'' tamer than [[RapeByProxy the corresponding scene in the books]]. On the other hand some feel that it ruins the CharacterDevelopment promised at the end of Season 4 and once again victimizes her for shock value. Especially when the scene in question follows Sansa mocking and insulting Myranda and Theon (for understandable reasons), fans feel that its almost shown as a BreakTheHaughty moment for underestimating Ramsay and dislike the entire sequence as tasteless RapeAsDrama, especially since Sansa ''already'' underwent the same arc with Joffrey in Seasons 1-3 and had moved on to a different storyline in the corresponding books. It should be noted, for what it's worth, that Sophie Turner has spoken out in defense of the scene.

* BrokenBase: The changes to Sansa's story by [[AdaptationDistillation merging it with Jeyne Poole's]] have disappointed many fans of the books and the show. On some level, the scene itself has RapeDiscretionShot by the series standards, and is ''far'' tamer than [[RapeByProxy the corresponding scene in the books]]. On the other hand some feel that it ruins the CharacterDevelopment promised at the end of Season 4 and once again victimizes her for shock value. Especially when the scene in question follows Sansa mocking and insulting Myranda and Theon (for understandable reasons), fans feel that its almost shown as a BreakTheHaughty moment for underestimating Ramsay and dislike the entire sequence as tasteless RapeAsDrama, especially since Sansa ''already'' underwent the same arc with Joffrey in Seasons 1-3 and had moved on to a different storyline in the corresponding books.

*** The Sand Snake's plot to kidnap Myrcella was similarly poorly executed, aiming to snatch her in plain daylight in front of Trystane, just like Jaime had 'planned' to do. What makes it worse is that they see Jaime and Bronn and ''' ''proceed as planned anyway'' '''. Rather than, you know, calling the guards to stop interlopers from attacking their Prince and kidnapping Myrcella, and using this hostile act as propaganda for their war. And they do all this underneath the gaze of Prince Doran himself. Even worse is the fact that Jaime and Bronn at least ''bothered'' with putting on disguises for their plan, while the Sand Snakes made no such attempt to conceal their identities -- no, covering their faces doesn't count -- and carried out their high profile kidnapping themselves... and indeed, after everyone's arrest the scene cuts right to Ellaria Sand, not having moved from where she'd briefed the Sand Snakes, being cornered by Dornish spearmen.

*** Jaime's stealth mission to "''rescue''" Myrcella amounts to marching into the water gardens ''in broad daylight,'' in front of the Young Prince of Dorne, and straight up telling Myrcella to leave. As Bronn {{Lampshades}} , he doesn't even have any idea how they will ''get out'' of Dorne afterwards. Then Bronn himself ruins everything by physically threatening Prince Doran's son and then straight-up knocking him out. Didn't you guys want to ''avoid'' starting a war, again? And then of course they didn't account for the possibility that [[StarCrossedLovers Myrcella and Trystane were in love with each other]] and would resist Jaime and Bronn...

*** The Sand Snake's plot to kidnap Myrcella was similarly poorly executed, aiming to snatch her in plain daylight in front of Trystane, just like Jaime had 'planned' to do. What makes it worse is that they see Jaime and Bronn and ''' ''proceed as planned anyway'' '''. Rather than, you know, calling the guards to stop interlopers from attacking their Prince and kidnapping Myrcella, and using this hostile act as propaganda for their war[[note]]especially since Jaime would provide them with a ''second'' valuable hostage[[/note]]. And they do all this underneath the gaze of Prince Doran himself[[note]]and there's no indication that they took Doran's lack of immediately-present protection for Myrcella as a lack of resolve[[/note]]. Even worse is the fact that Jaime and Bronn at least ''bothered'' with putting on disguises for their plan[[note]]that at least look a while for Trystane to see through[[/note]], while the Sand Snakes made no such attempt to conceal their identities -- no, covering their faces doesn't count -- and carried out their high profile kidnapping themselves... and indeed, after everyone's arrest the scene cuts right to Ellaria Sand, not having moved from where she'd briefed the Sand Snakes, being cornered by Dornish spearmen.

* TheScrappy: The Sand Snakes cemented themselves as this, having already been widely disliked due to their LargeHam tendencies and poor writing, as well as the FightSceneFailure resulting in them coming across as {{Faux Action Girl}}s. What's makes it worse is the plot they're associated with: the complicated Queenmaker plot of the books admittedly needed some AdaptationDistillation, but the choice of [[{{Flanderization}} Flanderizing]] the Sand Snakes and derailing Ellaria Sand[[note]]even if she ''did'' take the role that Arianne Martell had, with no show counterpart to the books' Ellaria[[/note]] ''and'' the IdiotPlot of Jaime and Bronn has not pleased viewers. The ridiculous coincidence of both parties engaging their stupid plans ''at the exact same time'' is bizarre[[note]]even allowing that the Sand Snakes moved up their timetable due to finding out about Jaime and Bronn[[/note]], and the choreography of their fight was extremely poor by the show's standards. In addition, the continued overacting of the Sand Snakes continues to draw criticism.

* FightSceneFailure: Jaime and Bronn's fight with the Sand Snakes. Compared to Oberyn's graceful skill with the spear, Obara's twirling comes across as [[http://38.media.tumblr.com/7cb6d1daffa1ab2926c1a82549d079f4/tumblr_inline_nokmyqazDa1rku3fs_540.gif clumsy and slow]]. Nymeria's contribution to the fight seems to be whipping from a distance, which characters treat as an annoyance at most, and [[http://33.media.tumblr.com/0f1bc9fd68fa50d24996bb37d67a600d/tumblr_inline_nokmxtqcuG1rku3fs_540.gif Tyene just sort of flails her daggers]]. In the end, the Snakes didn't really put up any more of a fight than the mooks that Jaime and Bronn got their uniforms from.

** It seems like something in the air in Dorne makes characters act like complete idiots. The entire Dornish sequence required a lot of dumb actions from just about everyone involved in it, except for Trystane and Myrcella:
*** On the side of the Dornish army, the fact they allowed Jaime to get so close to the Prince completely unimpeded is ''incredibly'' sloppy. They were admittedly wearing Dornish uniforms, but apparently no one noticed the missing soldiers, or cared that two men who are clearly not from Dorne were approaching the Prince.
*** Doran spends an earlier scene talking about how the Sand Snakes are going to try something against Myrcella, but apparently doesn't see fit to have anyone actually escorting her to keeping people from getting to her.
*** Jaime's stealth mission to "rescue" Myrcella amounts to marching into the water gardens ''in broad daylight,'' in front of the Young Prince of Dorne, and straight up telling Myrcella to leave. As Bronn {{Lampshades}} , he doesn't even have any idea how they will ''get out'' of Dorne afterwards. Then Bronn himself ruins everything by physically threatening Prince Doran's son and then pushing him. Didn't you guys want to ''avoid'' starting a war, again?
*** The Sand Snake's plot to kidnap Myrcella was similarly poorly executed, aiming to snatch her in plain daylight in front of Trystane, just like Jaime planned. What makes it worse is that they see Jaime and Bronn and ''' ''proceed as planned anyway.'' ''' Rather than, you know, calling the guards to stop interlopers from attacking their Prince and kidnapping Myrcella, and using this hostile act as propaganda for their war (especially since Jaime would provide them with a ''second'' valuable hostage). And they do all this underneath the gaze of Prince Doran himself. Even worse is the fact that Jaime and Bronn at least ''bothered'' with putting on disguises for their plan, while the Sand Snakes made no such attempt to conceal their identities and carried out their high profile kidnapping themselves.
** Loras' trial requires a great deal of stupidity from many people. There's Loras being so open about his homosexuality in the first place, Loras again for ''continuing'' to see Olyvar after he had betrayed him once already, Loras once more for failing to defend himself in any meaningful fashion (like, say, pointing out that Olyvar was a squire so he would know where his birth mark on the thigh was, from removing his armor and watching Loras practice), Cersei for not realizing how ridiculously short-sighted this all was, Tommen for doing nothing to stop it, and Olyvar for his betrayal and aiding the guys whom he ''knows'' hate homosexuals with a passion. If any one of these characters didn't act like an idiot, the plot would grind to a screeching halt.
* InternetBackdraft: The final scene where Ramsay rapes Sansa as a crying Reek watches, caused a huge backlash from feminist groups and those who simply think it undermines Sansa's CharacterDevelopment and is merely gratuitous RapeAsDrama, in particular the fact that Sansa's development and tragedy are being sacrificed for Reek's own character development.
* TheScrappy: The Sand Snakes cement themselves as this. The Snakes themselves are widely disliked due to their LargeHam tendencies and poor writing, as well as the FightSceneFailure resulting in them coming across as {{Faux Action Girl}}s. What's makes it worse is the plot they're associated with: the complicated Queenmaker plot of the books admittedly needed some AdaptationDistillation, but the choice of [[{{Flanderization}} Flanderizing]] the Sand Snakes and derailing Ellaria Sand and the IdiotPlot of Jaime and Bronn has not pleased viewers. The ridiculous coincidence of both parties engaging their stupid plans ''at the exact same time'' is bizarre, and the choreography of their fight was extremely poor by the show's standards. In addition, the continued overacting of the Sand Snakes continues to draw criticism.

** Littlefinger's grand plan involving Sansa has many viewers confused. For a character who supposedly [[KnowledgeBroker knows everything]], he seemed completely ignorant of Ramsay's sadistic streak when handing Sansa over to the Boltons. He once committed regicide to get her away from one sadist...and now pushes her into the arms of another, far more intelligent and dangerous one. Moreover, why not leave Sansa at the Vale, wait for Stannis to crush the Boltons and ''then'' send him a message informing him of the whereabouts of the last remaining Stark? Stannis remembers how Ned supported his claim to the throne - chances are he'd give Winterfell back to Sansa and make her "Wardeness of the North" anyway. Instead, Littlefinger sends Sansa to what he knows (as he tells her in the crypts) will soon become a war zone[[note]]Littlefinger in the books actually did spent his whole time in the Eyrie, lounging around while joking with Sansa about how Cersei is sinking the kingdom quicker than he anticipated[[/note]].