Game of Thrones notes: Season 5 episode 5

I thought I'd start in on some Game of Thrones impressions. Are you addicted to George R.R. Martin's "song of Ice and Fire" epic-in-progress? What do you think of the television changes?

So, we finally get the deviations from the books we have been warned about. So far we have the young Rhagar storyline seemingly skipped over,  Ser Jorah Mormont getting Jon Connington's greyscale, and Sansa Stark getting Jeyne Poole's wedding. It seems like the writers are trying to hold on to some of the original story arcs while keeping the list of new characters down. That doesn't bother me much. You have to do what you have to do for TV, and I have my books. I just hope that we get to see Victorion "The Kracken" Greyjoy.

In episode five, Lord Commander Jon Snow's plan to bring the Freefolk south of the wall is revealed. His Grace, Stannis Baratheon, the first of his name and king of proper grammar, sallies forth to either victory or doom beneath the walls of Winterfell, this time with wife, daughter, and Melesandre in tow. I don't like this. My theory of how Jon could get out of the mess that he finds himself in at the end of "A Dance With Dragons" requires Melesandre's presence at Castle Black. I'll get to that when it comes to it, as well as what I think about what happens with Stannis.

Speaking of Winterfell; Sansa Stark, Lady of the Vale and Petyr "Littlefinger" Baelish's pupil, seethes during the Bolton dysfunctional family dinner (the family that flays together...). If you want to know how Ramsay got so screwed up in the head, look at his family situation (oh, man). You know Sansa is planning something, and Lady Brienne may yet prove less hapless than she has been thus far. I wouldn't want to be a Bolton.

I guess that Brienne won't be meeting Zombie Katlyn on the show.

Arya is putzing around in Braavos learning how to be a faceless man, and I don't know if there will be anyone left on her hit list when she gets back to Westros, they seem to be killing themselves off quite nicely.

On Slaver's Bay, Ser Barriston Selmy dies in an alley fight rushing to the rescue of Greyworm and his Unsulied. Really? Even GRRM has been keeping Bariston the Bold alive in the books. He's GRRM's only perfect knight. GRRM has no romantic notions of knighthood. Most of his knights are oafs, corrupt, suffer from really bad luck with women, love their sisters a little too much, or are simply brave fighters but jerks. Ser Barriston was the best of them.

Speaking of knights; Lady Brienne keeps saying that she's not a knight. She has a horse, armor, a sword with a name, a squire, and a quest. She's a knight.

Finally I'm starting to worry about Daenerys. She really showed her her Targaryen pyromaniacal tendencies turning that Meereenese elder into char-broiled dragon barbecue.