Critics Reacting to S5E6

Not for me he didn't. Never liked him. Never will. Not in the books. Not in the show. You could say I'm a MMD apologist of sorts.

Well it's true, no one's seeing a 'happy ending' love story for Ramsay and Sansa here, whereas it became clear immediately the story for Drogo and Dany was meant to be a love story - about as much as we can hope for in Martin's twisted world! 

Ramsay has done some awful stuff and is definitely an arch-villain so it heightens the shock value of pairing him with Sansa, who we've been rooting for now for awhile and she's being show-cased a whole lot more now with this totally different plot line. I can see how these points factor in to the sensitivities. 

I keep chewing on this and have decided my number one upset, personally, is that I feel Sansa's suffered enough and really wanted her to finally pull ahead a little bit since like Sati's pointed out many times, we don't even get gratuitous Stoneheart revenge to satisfy even a little of our need to see someone else (Freys, etc) suffer in retaliation. 

I never expected (or wanted) a "Darth Sansa" BAMF story arc. I'm not unrealistic or into the superhero stories. I just wanted her to finally get into a position of advantage instead of always disadvantage and being manipulated.

I knew the minute Littlefinger sat there at that table in King's Landing with Cersei and spilled his entire plan (to which he lied straight to Cersei's smug face about) that Sansa was doomed. It hurt. I've seen a lot of hate starting to roll out for Littlefinger so I'm happy people are finally 'getting it' about him. The whole "Uncle Littlefinger just wants to diddle Catelyn junior" crap was annoying. People really don't dig very deep for the true motivator in his whole game, do they? I guess the chaos is a ladder speech didn't make sense to some.

They don't miss it so much as mis-attribute it (sorry Stannis that was not proper grammar) in my view. 

I grew weary of the 'pedofinger' references because it lessened the brilliance of what Littlefinger really was/is in the game. I think some people just prefer to be juvenile and obsess about sexual stuff all the time rather than try to see the bigger picture. That was my point about that - and how it relates to Sansa. Yes everyone's pointed out Littlefinger's true motivations repeatedly, even Littlefinger himself but many fans don't seem to get that even when knocked over the head. I've seen tons of posts where they ask: "Why would LF take Sansa there and give her to that monster when he wants her for himself?!" uh... no. Missing the entire point. 

Littlefinger wants to be Warden of the North. Period.

Haven't read it (saw the moview though, meh). The book better be absolutely fantastic to forgive Wolverine Origins though.

Haven't read any of Weiss' books either actually.

I remember some negative response to the Dothraki wedding as being over-the-top and racist.  

I would say that Drogo never seemed to think "how can I make Dany miserable today?" and he didn't get off on her pain.  It was more that Drogo completely lacked empathy for Dany and was indifferent to her pain.  But he wasn't intentionally cruel, so once Dany figured out the rules of her marriage she did ok. I imagine that Roose and Walda have much the same dynamic, actually, except without the cross-cultural confusions.  Stannis and Selyse seem to be somewhere similar too - Stannis isn't exactly indifferent to Selyse's pain, but he is so stern and they're both so emotionally stunted that it ends up in similar territory.  

Viserys also did a lot of PR work for Drogo by being so evil that he made Drogo look reasonable.  

This.  And once both of them settled into their marriage, Drogo respected her and demanded she be respected.  I really do not think Drogo being more handsome than Ramsey had anything to do with how they are perceived.  Ramsey is straight up sadistic and evil and is presented to be that way.  Drogo was not.

Ffs are they serious?

"Is that a rapist in your pants or are you just blind to the big picture" - themarysue

I wanted to quote this because Sati touched on two points that I keep coming back to:

1. "The logistics behind the Sansa/Ramsey marriage make no sense...SO FAR."  I dislike the Sansa (I almost called her Santa!) in Winterfell storyline because I cannot wrap my head around the logistics behind it to have it make sense so far.  I get having a character that people know and care about rather than introducing a new one...but again having Sansa marry the son of the man who betrayed and killed her brother/mother, currently lives in her childhood home and is hated by the North makes no sense to me.  I am glad that show had Cersei remind Littlefinger and the viewers that she wants Sansa dead, I thought they'd forget that.   But maybe by episode 10 when I understand what they are trying to accomplish with this, I might feel differently about the storyline.
2. The outrage over this is happening because sexual violence is used way too often on the show without good reason in sight.  I think the outrage is culmination of events that have happened over the years on the show.  Sansa being raped was the tipping point. Critics of the outrage have every right to post where was the outcry when all of these violent (sexual or otherwise) events happened on the show?  And they are correct to ask that question.   And will these critics look hypocritical when they are not calling out other television shows for the use of sexual violence (whether or not it happens in the source material of the show, say like Outlander)?

I acknowledge that we don't know how this is going to play out for Sansa.  And they could handle the aftermath of this wonderfully, just because they really have not done so in the past, doesn't mean they can't now.  I do think the people who thought Darth Sansa/Queen of the North/Uber Power Player from Out of Nowhere was something they conjured in their heads.  I do think Sansa's story is realizing she's a pawn and that's all is she is and was to the Lannisters, Littlefinger and anyone else at this point in the story.  Now does she buck the system by refusing to play and go her own way?  Or does she play the game?  I think that's the crossroads for the character.