The only problem is, the more "dany" she gets, the more impressed people seem to think she is, even Martin! Varys' little speech to Kevan at the end of DWD about Tommen's flaws as a ruler could apply perfectly to Daenerys as well, yet Martin seems to think we should be symapthetic to her dreams of destroying the Seven Kingdoms having a few nobles with the temerity to resist being murdered by her father. Everything she touches turns to shit, and when people try to tell her "but this is what you want to do in Westeros" she gets the lesson completely backwards and tries to change human nature so she can someday have her cake and eat it too.

Yeah, but as seems to be a real problem in the adaptation, they go for the most short-term solutions. Bolton had very little to do, aside from look creepy, in Book 1, so he's gone. The male Tullys don't appear in book 1, so they're all written out on the show, except that might be an issue when they run into those storylines down the road, and people start wondering "What's the big deal with this Riverrun place?" As with Roose Bolton, they got Arya to Harrenhal, and now without him there to service her arc (in Season 1, the force Robb sent west to engage Tywin got wiped out, rather than losing a battle and retreating intact), they had to combine his role in the east with Tywin's in order to service all the character arcs. I guess it works if they are going to show Robb's western campaign, where they can do other things to show his issues with Robb, and as we saw in Tywin's appearance, we are given more opportunities to grasp that he's smart and observant. This is one of those changes to service the TV needs that works, as opposed to the Dr. Jeyne/spoiled Dany stuff. Much of Tywin's genius is established through his long-term accomplishments and other things that don't lend themselves to exposition in a motion picture. By having Arya present at his councils and doing things like having him see through her disguise and rein in the Mountain's terrorism in favor of practicality, we get a better picture of him as an efficient, intelligent and pragmatic adversary.

I thought the same, felling ab bit underwhelmed by the presentation of Harrenhal, having the book descriptions and Naismith's impressive painting to go on, but my brother, who has not read the books was raving about how cool it came across.

He thought that was a reference to the Faceless men.

I think they are going to combine those scenes as well. Ser Courtney Penrose is probably out of the show, and we are going to see the shadow child strike down Renly in Storm's End, forcing Catelyn and Brienne to flee and Stannis to rise in power. None too soon either, for as abrupt and fast as the story seems to be getting its pieces into position, you have to remember how much of CoK in Tyrion & Sansa's story was nervous anticipation of Stannis' approach to the capital and preparation for the siege. With the major battle coming in episode 9, that leaves only four episodes to cover what in the books included
- Renly's death
- the defection of the storm lords and the siege of Storm's End
- the death of Ser Courtney
- the construction of the chain (in anticipation of Stannis' naval assault, which would not have been an issue if Renly had remained the main enemy)
- the riots in the city
- Sansa's intrigues with Ser Dontos
- the introduction of the pyromancers
- the factionalism among Stannis' men
- Tyrion's preparations such as hiding Tommen, and the mutual blackmail with Cersei
- The groundwork being laid for the alliance with the Tyrells (I simply cannot imagine they are going to have that be the same degree surprise it was in the books without utterly confusing the audience, so there is going to have to be SOME preparation, even if not made clear, so that viewers will be able to go "Aha!" when Loras and "Renly's ghost" come charging in to save the day.

Also, they are going to need to devote time to the reactions to some of these things and how they motivate what the Starks, etc, are doing, and there is also Theon's rather extensive storyline, with seizing Winterfell, the introduction of the Reeds, Bran & Rickon's "escape", the siege of Winterfell, the introduction of Ramsay/Reek and the fall of Winterfell, which has to come in time for Catelyn to hear the word and grow desperate enough to release Jaime.
All in all, there is a LOT to get in before or during episode 9, so the truncating of the shadow-child arc, and the combining of the Mountain and Lorch in Arya's flight & capture, the combining of Tywin & Roose as master of Harrenhal all these things seem to be necessary to speed stuff along.