I LOATHE the inconsistency of them showing "Winterfell" in the North, Mereen, Vaes Dothrak, Qarth, Braavos, and all the other cities that they are showing. What about Dorne? Nope. Just Dorne. No city name. They don't call the place "Sunspear" but "The Water Gardens" which I'm fine with. They got a precious location and wanted to capitalize on it, that's cool. Just don't call "The Water Gardens" fucking "Dorne" on the map. When you name the city/keep everywhere else. I mean, call it' "The Water Gardens" and show the word "Dorne" on that part of the map. Like how they show "The North" and then have the mechanical Winterfell come up nearby showing that it's located in The North but not just called "The North". Wouldn't that drive you crazy if they showed Winterfell, as just "The North"?
Why the fuck they did that nonsense, I can only imagine. My guess is they started pandering to the stupid people who watch. The ones who bitch because they can't remember all the names and locations. When, if they are able to keep up with what's going on this far. They can, by fuck, remember that "The Water Gardens" are in "Dorne"! Especially when the characters in the scene all share the same coloring, which happens to matches all of the other fucking people who are Dornish. It's really not that fucking hard to establish where they are. Not to mention every fucking Dornish character mentions Dorne at least once per scene.
It's just a dumb little thing, I know that. It's petty and dumb to even care, I'm not trying to say I'm somehow in the right for being irritated by it. I just feel that, to me, it speaks to a bigger issue the show has been having.
I have to ask myself, "Why not call it by either "Sunspear" or "The Water Gardnes"? I came up with a few answers. None of them really flattering to the show runners. First, it's just them being lazy. I can understand that. They have basically devoted 7 days a week to this show since before they shot the first pilot. That's a ton of investment and it has to take its toll. You can see them slowly losing faith in humanity with each passing year. If that were the reason, I wouldn't be okay with it, but I could at least understand it. Second, as I say, it's them pandering to the lowest common denominator. They have had dumb or casual viewers complain about not being able to keep up. Those people could have a legitmate reason, like they have a learning disability or are trying to watch the show with English as their second language. Things like that. Okay, that's rough but you don't cut down the distance of a marathon to make sure the slowest people can finish in first place. You keep doing what the show has always done, introduce the characters and say, "It is what it is, keep up." They can always rewatch it on HBO Go, or the DVDs. They can come here and ask who everyone was. You don't pander to those people. Because if you do, you only make things worse. It's your job as a creator to do what you think best serves the story and fuck, literally, everything else. Which brings me to the third reason.
They have completely disregarding the level of quality that they originally created the show with. Before the opening season they talked about how they wanted to get everything they could right. Even tiny details that would be "blink and you miss it" moments. For instance, they mention Eddard's sword "Ice" in a little featurette that was talking about creating the show and what all went into it. To paraphrase, "It's something that will barely be on screen but we wanted to make sure the fans who saw it would be happy with it." It's been a while since I saw that BTS teaser for the first season but that's the gist of what he says. They don't do that anymore. I don't feel like. I'll still watch the show but will continue to be disappointed with things like "Dorne". It undermines the quality of storytelling for frivolous or asinine reasons. That's all I'm trying to say.
TLDR: I don't like that they call it "Dorne", on the opening map, instead of "Sunspear/The Water Gardens".