I still can't believe they removed one of the most slam dunk lines in the series, though.

"I'll have no songs about how bravely you died, Kingmaker. Tens o' thousands are dead on your account." - Ser Pate of Longleaf

Come to think of it, do they ever call him the Kingmaker in the show?

 

I think they especially ruined it by having Cole literally defeat 14(yes I counted) enemy soldiers by himself when surprised and inititally unarmed, before he noticed they were outnumbered. And instead of being killed by random men at arms ,he's also killed by Black Ally(who the show for some reason refused to properly introduce) instead.

Kinda, Lord Darklyn calls him that a single time in season 2 when Cole exectued him, it wasn't used outside of that episode.

 

I enjoyed Rhaenyra's spiral into tyranny and delusion. The rant to the small folk about how she is the prince who was promised was unhinged, and her ordering Addam to kill the High Septon and convincing him that it's ok because valyrians are superhuman and can kill people who worship lesser gods was a disturbing scene. How she treats Helaena, and how she reacts to the suicide were also quite chilling, but I loved it. Mysaria being uncerimoniously dismissed was an abrupt change too, but I think it showed us how troubled Rhaenyra was by the news of Aegon's survival.

The deviations from book canon at Tumbleton were a bit odd, but I enjoyed it all well enough in context. I wish that we had seen more Aegon/Aemond interaction, and I do think that the season overall suffered from not having 10 episodes, though not as badly as season 2 did.

I don't know if I needed that scene to be repeated verbatim as clearly the historians were putting words in Pate's mouth. The whole thing is very ironic anyway, as while songs may not be sung about how he died, any person in Westeros who's read a book about the Dance or learned about it from their maester probably knows who he was, how good of a fighter he was, and how he died.

Personally, I enjoyed the scene well enough, but I do wish they had made Criston into more of a politician and schemer than we see in the show.