The Boltons: These guys suffer from Stannisitis. They are, theoretically, terribly important and important to all sorts of plots. We’re constantly told what a bad guy Roose is, but on screen I only ever see some generic dude dressed in fur cheap rs gold and armor. On the flip side, we see what a horrible psychopath Ramsey is so frequently that I’d be just fine if the show never went there again. It’s like they’re all there to just keep the gore quotient up, and if someone needs to do that, I’d much prefer it be the White Walkers or the Wildlings.
The Tyrells: This lot is theoretically the foil for the Lannisters, but there isn’t a whit of the latter’s charm or the audience’s connection to them. They mostly now serve as a way to give Cersei something to do now that all of the plots anyone cares about have largely fled King’s Landing, and that’s just a bad reason to exist. I’d much rather Cersei went up against someone who seems even close to a credible threat.
Ser Loras, aka “The Knight of The Flowers,” had some interesting moments early on, but he hasn’t really done anything since. These guys were already a bit of deus ex machina when they arrived to cut short the battle of Blackwater Bay, and with the notable exception of the now absent Olenna, they’ve never really evolved past the role of plot device. They’d fade into the background without too much trouble, I expect.
The Night’s Watch: That’s right, every last one of them, save Jon Snow and Sam. Castle Black has stood for (some large number of generations), and wouldn’t it just be jarring for all the people of Westeros to see it fall? The White Walkers and the Winter have been hovering over the rest of the plots like a fog since the very first scene of this show, but it just doesn’t do to keep this plot entirely cloistered in the frozen north, never once interacting with the rest of the show. Mr. Benioff, tear down that wall.
Someone Over In Daenarys Land: This stuff is just a mess. Let’s hope Tyrion can sort things out. It’s too bad that streamlining these stories would inevitably involve losing some the only characters that aren’t white as the driven snow, but I blame the show for making all of its people of color so flat and extraneous.
And a special mention goes to anyone who’s already dead I’m looking at you, www.rsfarmer.com The Mountain. The show seems to have wisely excised Lady Stoneheart, but it would do well to keep all of its other characters either dead or alive.
