Anyway, finished rewatching Season 5.... it was a bit of a mess. I understand the desire to streamline the storylines and start cutting down on the cast, but the execution left a lot to be desired.
Take Stannis for example, they could have had him go out like a hero, but he was not a character meant to reach the end so they were like "Ah, screw it, look, he's burning his daughter, he's an asshole, see? well, against all logic he goes forward to Winterfell and gets massacrated, the end, thank you Stephen Dillane, your checks will end with this season".
And I have to say that Jon really should think better on what to say and to whom. When he's at Hardhome, he answers "What happened to Mance?" with "I killed him". D'uh. Was "He was sentenced to death by stake, and I mercy killed him" so hard and difficult to say? he was about to get lynched until Tormund told how it went. Also in the last episode he's there talking with Sam saying "He raised his hands.... and at the same moment all the dead came back to life", speaking of Night's King. To Sam. Alone in his room. GEEZ HOW ABOUT YOU INFORM THE WHOLE DAMN NIGHT'S WATCH? I understand the hatred for the Wildlings can't be erased with a snap of the fingers but you'd thought that "every single person that is walking through our gates won't be a zombie that will kill you in your sleep way sooner than later" could be quite a good rationale, thanks also to the testimony of the survivors.
Speaking of Hardhome, it was the high water mark of the season. Absolutely awesome and memorable scene, nothing will take away the surprise of the first viewing when you totally don't see it coming and see it get bad and then worse and then way worse and then "we're all royally and icily fucked". It will remain one of the defining moments of the series.
At least this season highlighted once and for all Cersei's utter stupidity. Out of sheer pettiness and jealousy she went after Margaery and it backfired spectacularly. "I'm gonna give power to a bunch of fanatics who won't be intimated by wealth and power and family names, fanatics that I already know count among their ranks my cousin whom I fucked and instructed to make the king so drunk that he could easily die in a hunt", what could possibly go wrong.
Also the miriade of cliffhangers in the last episode was annoying. Game of Thrones always ended seasons with stuff left there but you always had a sense of partial closure, here it was all for the "Hey, come back next year to see if Theon and Sansa survived! and to see what happen to Daenerys! and to see what happens to blind Arya!", there was really no need also considering that the season already ended on a huge, dramatic cliffhanger, Jon's death.
And don't get me started on Dorne, which was reedemeable with just some very minor changes... (even though my alternate idea for it, to bring it back closer to the books giving Doran the same motivations of the book, would have left Myrcella and Doran alive so that was going against the trimming of the cast I guess)