If Buffy/Angel was a book series and it got an "adaptation" like Game of Thrones...
Like so many in the fandom, I've found Game of Thrones season 5 to be terribly disappointing and just terrible overall, both as an adaptation of A Song of Ice and Fire, and in itself. I think that the former would be a legitimate complaint even if the latter were not true, because, you know, it's supposed to be an adaptation of the books and the
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When you read books 4 and 5, the references will be clearer.
But if you don't want the books spoiled (and trust me, there is a lot to spoil even though you've seen all 5 seasons, it's all very different!), don't read any further.
If you don't mind being spoiled, this blog has pretty great essays on the most butchered story arcs in season 5 and most OOC characters.
Buffy being made a damsel in distress in the climactic scene that's the culmination of her arc, is a reference to Dany (no, she is not Glory! Though I'm sure there are Dany-haters out there who'd think otherwise...) and Daznak's Pit, and the way it was portrayed in the show vs the book, where it's a moment of huge symbolic importance for her arc (as explained here), but also one of her bravest moments... Drogon (the symbol of her own dragon nature, her anger, that she has been suppressing in order to achieve peace in Meereen) is the one endangering everyone in the pit, and she steps forward and tames him. Whereas in the show, not only is all symbolic importance gone (unsurprisingly, since Dany has no arc in season 5, she just does random things in Meereen), but it's instead a story where she is attacked by Sons of the Harpy, saved by Jorah, then saved by Drogon, and then leaves everyone in trouble! Not exactly minor changes... Neither do Jorah and Daario embark on a trip to save her in the books, and when she encounters the Dothraki, it's also very different, and she does not seem in need of saving. Basically, they took a powerful and meaningful moment for her, and turned her into a situation where she's a damsel with men (and a dragon) trying to save her. And that's the female character that's supposed to be the most "empowered" on the show (although they are constantly making her two-dimensional, I'm sure they basically see her as "cool hot chick with dragons" and give her a lot of screentime just because they know the audience is into that).
Sansa's storyline in season 5... no need to explain.
Jaime hasn't resembled book Jaime at all since season 4. They've stripped him of all character development (and regressed it), complexity, humor, wit, personality, or brains. He's now just some guy who likes to screw his sister.And instead of his book arc, where he is in the Riverlands, dealing with the post-Red Wedding situation and encounters the Freys, Blackfish, Edmure Tully, the Brotherhood without Banners, among others (I'm sure that would have been boring to the audience, I mean, who still remembers the Red Wedding, right?), and is learning to use his brains to solve problems (because he can't fight with his left hand, even though he tries to learn), as well as questioning his life choices and his relationship with Cersei, he randomly goes to Dorne to abduct Myrcella (because that's a great plan for the most recognizable man in Westeros who has one hand!) and... well, I don't know what this whole storyline was even about and what purpose it served. And they even practically made him a sidekick to Bronn, who's a tertiary character.
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