Game of thrones: the good, the bad, and the downright ugly.

GOOD	BAD
An interesting and expansive world	You don’t need almost 2 MILLION FREAKING words (and counting) to create a new world. And, even if you feel like you have to write all of them, leave only the essential for the story and make the rest of it an appendix, or something. You’ll make more money that way. Ask Tolkien.
Dragons!	Who take forever to grow the hell up.
Compelling and relatable characters.	The fact that there are so MANY of them you can’t even remember all of their names and Houses, much less pick a favorite.
Jaime Lannister	Jaime Lannister
The sense that bad things can happen to good characters. (In other words, there’s no way for you to guess what’s coming)	The sense that ONLY bad things happen to good characters. (In other words, some happiness would be nice, kthanx)
Moral complexity. Not everything is black and white. People can change.	Some payoff for all this moral complexity would be good. You know, one of those characters that does a good thing, for a change, actually ACHIEVING SOMETHING.
Great villains.	Despicable characters. Honestly. Either they’re rotten to the core or they’re all too noble, in a way that makes them seem idiots. Is it too much to ask for a character, you know, in the middle?
There’s never a dull moment.	But, is anything actually happening? Some characters seem to be going in circles, never getting anywhere (For example, Bran. And Arya)
Willingness to break old story-telling tropes.	KILLING EVERY DAMN CHARACTER TO DO IT.

And the downright ugly: The fact that you (Yes, I’m looking at YOU George R.R Martin) make me fall in love with characters and then SLAUGHTER THEM like it’s nothing, like they were just a new toy you got and now you’re sick of, and then I get over it, suck it up, keep reading, and then you DO IT AGAIN, AND AGAIN, AND AGAIN.

::deep breaths::