I would expect some kind of twist with the NK's fate vs. memory ( "the North remembers" and Tormund mentioning 'the true North' make me ask: "which North remembers?" ), but with two episodes left, ain't nobody got time for that.
Shame too, since that "ice moving forward" intro was actually a neat way to update the map, as well the final pay-off for caring about 'The Wall' for seven seasons... If only they had somehow had more time, or sped things along earlier.
(yes, I am aware D&D's writing intuitions are not very good, and they definitely did not pitch Confederate by accident, is all I'm saying. It is what it is though. )
Also, no Stannis being brought back from the dead. :P
(yes, we talked about this already. )
Seriously though, one thing the books can massively improve on versus the show is the characters having to deal with their undead friends and so on within the wight horde, like Hodor, Stannis, Ned, or for that matter Jon Snow's very mother rising from the crypt or something. They showed it in ep 3 with Berric, Mormont, the Crow dude, and others, but those characters did not have scenes / appearances after getting ''blue eyed", sadly (I'm assuming they didn't have the actors on hand for other scenes, and even those blue eye shots may have been CG'd). That was kind of an oversight since Hardhome set that up, if you will. Having that leader lady in the horde would have at least made for "hey we remembered this is a thing" bit. Could have been a random Crow, for all I care.
I suppose the undead dragon was supposed to be 'that thing', but that doesn't count, since it's not human.
Oh well, at least it's not BSG... yeah, remember that show? And the actual release time table? You fockers calling this "the worst"... there is SO much worse out there. Like the entirety of LOST, yes.
(which I did not watch because it was bullshit from the get go. Great performances, but zero substance storywise. Only "the constant" is an exception)