User blog comment:QueenBuffy/Season 5 returns!/@comment-5014364-20150412204911

I really look forward to characters interacting that weren't before: as Martin said, the books start out with all of the important characters at the Winterfell feast (well, as many as could logically be in that place at once): the Starks, Lannisters, and King Robert (obviously like, Margaery, Tywin, and Stannis aren't there, but that wouldn't have made in-universe sense). After that everyone splits up...but now we're reaching the point where storylines that were separate since the beginning are starting to intersect with each other, i.e. Team Stannis going to the Wall and interacting with the Night's Watch - and, if you think about it, also Jon Snow was beyond the Wall or dealing with the Wildlings since the Season 2 premiere, but now the Watch really has to address that the Boltons took over the North, are letting it rot, and Stannis wants to fight them - even though Stannis and his army are currently camped at the Wall, but the Night's Watch is supposed to be politically neutral. So all of that is overlapping.

I really hope they point out how Stannis is related to Maester Aemon, and that Samwell and Shireen are second cousins on their mothers' sides (they're from House Florent).

On the other hand, we will soon have drastic cuts and changes...some of which even I acknowledge were probably be going to cut in a long-running show, though I would prefer them (Young Griff is more of a "would be nice to have").

I view the Sansa storyline with trepidation: yes, it is actually condensing her book 4 plotline and her unpublished book 6 outline, so it isn't necessarily "making stuff up" but "how do we know this isn't a fairly good condensation of what happens in book 6?"

Also good that we're going to see both Dorne and more of the Free Cities this season.

This should be a really strong Lena Headey season, the most since Season 1 - if all goes well. Cersei kind of took the back seat in power - even in the novels - once Tywin showed up for book/season 3 onwards - making you almost forget just how much she was driving the political intrigues at court in book 1/Season 1. So, a return to the forefront for Cersei, now that she's the new head of House Lannister, and basically Ruling Queen in all but name now that Tywin and Tyrion are gone.

I look forward to the debt crisis storyline, it was built up long in advance in the novels (since book/Season 1) and I appreciate that the TV writers themselves have openly stated that they kept it in because it's a major part of what makes Martin's Westeros so gritty and realistic (I mean, where do you think armies come from? The sky? They need to pay for things).

So long as we don't get another fiasco like cutting out Tysha...

Also looking forward to seeing Lollys Stokeworth and the steady rise of Bronn from wandering sellsword to the Iron Throne itself.

Also they said they'd give Loras more to do, we shall see - same in the books, Loras didn't do much in book 3, then returned to the forefront in book 4, so he simply didn't have much to do in Seasons 3 and 4 (through no fault of the scriptwriters).

Also, now that Joffrey's dead, I really hope they finally explain the point that Cersei barely knows Tommen and Myrcella, her other children, and she basically ignored them their entire lives....kind of a forced perspective for the audience too: compare how much Catelyn interacted with her small children like Bran or Arya with just how little (i.e. never) that Cersei ever had meaningful conversations with Myrcella and Tommen. It's passing down the Mark of Cain: she hated her father for playing favorites with his children and ignoring her for Jaime...and then she in turn focused on her own firstborn son, to the exclusion of her younger son and daughter. Oh, the irony.

Also Jon Snow's storyline was a bit padded last year - I don't blame them. In the novels the Battle of Castle Black happens right after Jon escapes from Ygritte's group; due to breaking up book 3 across two seasons as they did, they basically had to just "pad out" Jon Snow's storyline until the Battle of Castle Black (though that episode alone, focusing on the entire Night's Watch storyline, made up for that - I mean I don't see it in terms of episode count but in total screentime, and that was 50 minutes all spent on Jon's storyline (or nearby ones) instead of 5-10 minutes spread out in each episode.

But now, once Stannis arrives, obviously, Jon will get a lot more heavy acting scenes to do and such, really driving the plot again, not just wandering around in the forests beyond the Wall but with very substantive scenes, interacting with many other characters.

Lock and load.