Defense: Season 3 should have stopped where it did

See this post for the opposing view, yes this reply is late, and yes there will be SPLOILERS!



Let us examine every charge in the Prosecution's case and defeat it point-by-point.

To wit, it's left non-book-readers horrified at the results of the Red Wedding, forcing them to wait a year (or y'know, read a book) to be happy with the story again. 

As if this is somehow different from Ned Stark's beheading. The primary difference between this and that is that after Ned lost his head, we got Da KingInDaNorf, and there simply is no pro-Stark equivalent to be found later in the third book. The downfalls that the Lannisters suffer are really more anti-Lannister than pro-Stark.

If the novel had been finished, the shock of the Red Wedding would have been blunted by the tremendous downfalls that the Lannisters suffer in the final 300 pages of the novel. The anger that the show-only fans have expressed at the show would be mollified somewhat by the reveal of Stoneheart. The consequences of Dany's "white savior" actions would come back to haunt her.

In the words of Ramsay Snow, "if you think this has a happy ending, you haven't been paying attention."  The Lannister downfall creates more problems than it solves (and I don't just mean A Feast For Crows, although I suspect I'll have to do one of these prosecution/defense thingies when it comes to critiquing that book).

There would be no need to reintroduce characters like Beric Dondarrion and Ygritte only to immediately kill them off. 

Because reintroducing characters is such a problem. See Balon and Yara at the end of this season. Besides, reintroducing Ygritte will make the audience think she's sticking around. (I peg her, not Joffrey, as the Episode 2 death that GRRM is writing, by the way.)

There would be no need for Stannis to take an entire season to get to the Wall. 

Mayhaps he'll run into Yara.

They wouldn't have to stretch out 300 pages of plot across an entire season; to put that in perspective, that's a pace of 30 pages per episode, whereas the first season was roughly 90 and the second season roughly 100.

Actually, depending on how this season plays out, the Kingsmoot, the Moat Cailin scene, Dorne, and misadventures in Meereeeeeeeeen are all on the table. None of those happen in Storm. 

You see, the first three novels follow the three-act structure almost perfectly. The first novel sets the stage.  The second furthers the action and sees the Lannisters win a game-changing victory at the Blackwater. Finally, the third novel contains all the consequences of all the choices the characters made in the first two (not counting the Jon and Daenerys arcs) coming to a head. From the Red Wedding on, A Storm of Swords is just an avalanche of consequences.  Splitting it up, it seems less relentless and less powerful.

This matters more in print (as the medium existed in the late 90s) than it does in TV as it exists today - that is to say, in a medium that can be stored in one place and viewed as one continuous story. Furthermore, there was, as the Prosecution alludes to, never a plan to make the "original trilogy" actually follow the three-act structure. Robb was (probably) supposed to be dead by the end of the second book, but the tale grew in the telling. Furthermore, the "avalanche" of payoffs that concludes Storm of Swords moves at so fast a pace as to make Feast and Dance look tepid, when really they both move at about the pace of Game. So splitting it up provides greater continuity of pacing.

By the way, none of the Margaery scenes should have been cut. Kick anyone who says otherwise.