Both the books and show are awesome even if they don't align. It's actually unprecedented and cool as excrement what they are doing now. There have been things in the past I wanted to see on screen and didn't, but now that they are separate entities I can't imagine complaining.
I completely agree. Both are great but completely different vehicles to tell a story. There's no way possible to film a show exactly like the books. It would make for such an unwieldy story, unless they had a 20 episode season. There's no way that would happen, HBO would go broke.
Some of the choices we may not entirely like, Dorne, some of Sansa and Stannis. Without knowing the end game they have earned leeway as they have crafted an otherwise great show.
In the end it's all fantasy, plus GRRM approves of them and has admitted to much of what I have said. I guess there's no cure for being a queynte. Lol
I think where the show has really hit home runs is the casting. I think some of the choices are even better than could possibly be expected. For instance, Tyrion, Joffrey, Cersei, Sam, Varys, Ned Stark, Jon Snow, Dany, Viserys and the Hound are better than what I imagined. I missed at least a dozen those are the few that immediately came to mind.