Season 2 was supposed to be "back to the lore" and taking fewer liberties, according to promotional stuff. And the thing is, you can kind of see it, if you squint and give them a lot of benefit of the doubt, because they hew a lot closer to the historical events of the books, and I think it would be a lot more recognizable to someone who was extremely familiar with the timelines and source material, who saw season 2 on its own.

It's just that their understanding of how to effect those stories, of the practical realities of how the events would happen, and the character development is so far off the rails, you have trouble realizing that's what they are doing.