Ricochet is the best place on the internet to discuss the issues of the day, either through commenting on posts or writing your own for our active and dynamic community in a fully moderated environment. In addition, the Ricochet Audio Network offers over 50 original podcasts with new episodes released every day.
Game of Thrones, Season 6 Wrap-Up
Courtesy gameofthrones.wikia.com.
[Editors’ Note: Take heed, for this post is dark and full of spoilers.]
Okay, now that everybody who isn’t interested in the show has gone, where should we begin? Props or slops?
First, overall props to the writers of “The Winds of Winter,” one of the better season finales yet. A great number of payoffs were made last night. The revenge of House Stark upon the Freys, the revenge of Cersei upon, well, everybody, and the impending showdown between the Lannisters and, well … everybody that didn’t die at Baelor’s Sept.
Second, slops for Arya’s trip to Braavos to become one of the Faceless Men. Training in the House of Black and White under Jaqen H’Ghar involved absorbing a lot of stick-beatings at the hands of the Waif, washing up the dead and… not a ton of learning the assassin’s craft. While it’s true that Arya’s learning how to fight while blind saved her life, it’s also unfortunate that the only real detectable difference in Arya now is that her desire for revenge is enabled by the ability to change faces. To be fair, this will make you an effective assassin… but generally in high fantasy, using this sort of power has a cost to those who wield it. Thus far, we’ve seen no indication that Arya will pay a price for using or abusing such power (more on this theme later). However, the Titus Andronicus/”Scott Tenorman Must Die” moment we got to enjoy before Walder Frey’s assassination was a fitting bit of justice for one of GoT’s most despised characters.
Third, props for the visually (and viscerally) satisfying end to the High Sparrow and his flock at Baelor’s Sept. This is the scene from Angels and Demons that we didn’t really get to see: A WMD terrorist attack on a great cathedral. The irony of watching religious fanatics preventing the crowd from escaping as destruction wells up from under them was not wasted.
Fourth, King Tommen’s subsequent suicide was… unexpected. We sometimes hear stories (perhaps apocryphal) of people tossing themselves out of windows after a stock market crash. When some people have their faith shattered it has catastrophic consequences. Tommen watching the will of the Gods thwarted as the Sept imploded was his own burgeoning faith popping like a balloon.
Fifth — and hardly missing a beat — props for Cersei having herself crowned Queen. A colder, more sociopathic human being is difficult to imagine.
But, sixth, slops for… I can’t really think of anything to complain about here aside from how neatly all of the ends in King’s Landing were tied up. Cersei had all of her enemies in one spot at one time and wiped them out. Even as over-the-top as Game of Thrones can sometimes be, the bit with Septa Unella and Cersei’s revenge upon her was still disturbing.
Seventh, props to Daenerys for finally leaving Slaver’s Dragon’s Bay; better late than never, but this is long overdue. There was a lot of durdling around over on the other side of the world and discussion about how difficult it is to take a hammer and tongs to a culture and change it from the outside. We got the point. The British had this problem when they colonized India and had to stamp out the practice of widow-burning. In the end, either you enforce your cultural norms upon people and have to be willing to hang those who violate them or give up.
Eighth, slops to hyperloop traveling Varys. That guy gets around fast. The mess that was created at the beginning of this season with the assassination of Prince Doran was fastidiously squeegeed up by the burgeoning alliance between Highgarden, Dorne, and the Dragon Queen against the Lannisters.
Ninth, props and slops to Jon Snow. Or should we call him “Rhaegar, Jr.”? The long-awaited and much-anticipated revelation that Jon is actually the son of Lyanna Stark and deceased Targaryen heir was finally confirmed last night by the remainder of Bran’s vision of the Tower of Joy.
Jon was just acclaimed King in the North but, as it turns out Daenerys is Jon’s aunt. Fortunately, Daenerys seems open to the notion of federalism in the Seven Kingdoms, so hopefully she won’t go all Cersei on him and have her dragons roast the Northerners to a crisp.
The the real issue with Jon was … that there were no issues. The guy was stabbed to death, frozen into a popsicle, and then brought back to life a day or two later. What price was paid for that? Perhaps it was Melisandre who suffered, as you could see when she removed her necklace? The point is, we don’t know.
The notion of costs paid for violating the laws of nature doesn’t seem to have occurred to the writers of the show, even though it’s demonstrated in the novels that using unnatural means to accomplish your goals has similarly unnatural consequences. We can see this with Arya and Jon alike this season.
Even with these very minor problems, it’s hard to complain. Last night’s finale put all of the pieces in the position they need to be in for the final chapters, but the amount of story that is being compressed in here is probably too much. Like, how is Sam going to become a maester (presumably this takes years) in time to be of any use to Jon against the White Walkers?
We’ll find out. Just nine-and-a-half months to go.
Published in Entertainment
The books lead us to understand that there were many, many caches of greenfire stowed about the city. All were planted by the Mad King decades ago. His plan was to blow up Kings Landing if it was breached by an enemy and his throne was in danger of being lost. That is one of the reasons Jamie killed him, to prevent the king torching those off. Apparently, few remember where all the caches are. So the stuff was already there; Cersei just found the one under the cathedral using her junior minions.
Yes, time scale is a very big issue in this episode. It seems several months (at least) have passed without telling us viewers.
Someone mentioned Dany’s fleet is the ironborn fleet. I don’t think so. I think her fleet is made up of captured slaver ships from the previous episode (those that didn’t burn). We have yet to see Euron’s thousand ships… Perhaps Danys will meet them on the way to Westeros?
Indeed.
It’s GOT, it has to end in fire and bloodshed. Always.
Okay, in defense of the Arya Starke stuff, a few things:
Roll Call….. are there any participants on this thread who weren’t into Dungeon and Dragons? (I never played, but I am thinking most of y’all have)
Well, I haven’t participated in the thread yet but I’ve read all comments and do watch Game of Thrones religiously, besides having read the books. Never played D & D or any other video game.
Now binge watching Outlander which I somehow managed to miss.
Fred Cole item #5 — Arya and the Hound were in the Riverrun castle courtyard while the Red Wedding murders were committed. She witnessed Robb’s wolf being killed. She knows first-hand all about the Freys and Riverrun. Walder Frey’s assassination was not a spur of the moment opportunity.
Herbert — why yes. I do play D&D and have since 1980.
Small correction – the Red Wedding took place at the Twins.
Forgive me, that was some time ago.
All the more reason why he’d be at the top of the hit list.
Ah, correct. Nevertheless, she knew the Freys’ role in the murders and I am sure planned a side trip for some mayhem on the way to Winterfell.
Yes, but how do you know these barrels were prepared by the Mad King and not made at Cersei’s command (see for example, this scene where the maester says they have been making wildfire for Cersei)? And even if they were, how did Cersei find them?
Even if you’re right that the books say the Mad King hid wildfire all over the city, it’s not in the show (as far as I can recall – please correct me if I’m wrong). Jamie said that he killed the king because the King was threatening to blowup Kings Landing – there was (again, as far as I can recall) no discussion of what happened to that wildfire after the king was stabbed. It gets back to my point about bad writing – the thing that is used to blow up the Sept cannot appear out of the blue, it needs to at least be discussed beforehand. Consider this a corollary to Chekov’s maxim that if you introduce a gun in act one it must be fired by act three; if you fire a gun in act three it must be introduced by act two.
In addition to using some of the wildfire from the Mad King’s reign during the Battle of Blackwater, Tyrion commissioned additional wildfire to be made by the pyromancers. Presumably, most of this wildfire was simply there from its original burying, and everybody was afraid to touch it.
Remember, Arya witnessed the Red Wedding or, more correctly, it’s immediate aftermath when the Freys paraded around with Robb’s mutilated body.
Tyrion talked about it last week, for crying out loud. “Arys had caches of wildfire throughout Kings Landing: under the Red Keep, the *Sept of Baelor*, the markets, everywhere.” Two weeks ago, Qyburn said “those rumors you’ve had me look into; they’re more than just rumor.” Lady Olenna: “what are you going to do, kill everyone?” Cersei and Jamie have said she’ll burn down cities for her children.
This was foreshadowed in every single episode this season. Don’t blame bad writing for not paying attention.
Theon and Yara pledged the existing Iron fleet. Euron is building a new one because they stole it under his nose.
Oh, we even saw the explosion in a flash forward in one of Brann’s visions, along with Arys saying “burn them all!”
How big a signpost do you need? My only surprise was that Margery was caught in the explosion and that Tommen wasn’t.
The pyromancers and their wildfire production activities were introduced a couple seasons ago. Tyrion went and met them before the battle for Kings Landing. I think you can quibble about the lack of setup for how Cersie made all the arrangements to blow up the sept but the wildfire itself isn’t out of the blue.
I figured the causation was going to go the other way: Tommen dies, then Cersei kills everyone in revenge.
I think what actually happened was better.
Tommen’s suicide was one of the true genuine surprises (everything else was pretty predictable) and the best moment of the finale.
I was surprised by Margery’s death too. She just seemed too much like someone with (at least) one more card to play. She loved her brother and you know she had a plan to see the High Sparrow swing, and now we’ll never know what it was.
Blowing up the Sept was the logical response to not being able to rely on trial by combat. If you’re going to lose, and you can’t cheat, tipping over the board makes sense.
I also knew that she would in some way be responsible for Tommen’s death. The story of Cersei is that she’s not as smart as she thinks and never anticipates any consequences of her actions.
She likes to hold the whip, but never contemplates the backlash.
Also, props to the props department for Cersei’s bad-ass dress and epaulettes:
.
.
That costume is what female Romulan costumes should have been.
This season also illustrates the perils of incest: you and your sibling each have three kids. However, if they’re the same three kids…
Also, other than Gendry (who’s of course, a bastard), there are no Baratheons left alive on the show, yes?
^Amy for the win.
Okay, this is a major props that was just pointed out to me:
Part of the Azor Ahai prophecy is that he will be reborn “when the red star bleeds.” When Ned runs up into the Tower, he’s still holding Dawn*, still dripping with Dayne’s blood, and places it by the blood on Lyanna’s bed.
* Yes, one of Dayne’s swords was Dawn.
Can’t believe I missed that.
Amazing show and a fantastic season! I will wait with anticipation for the coming two last seasons. The character of Lyanna Mormont was great and her speech nailing the other Northern Lords was epic.
Nope. There is wayyyy more info in the show than the books about Bran. Most of the major surprises for me this season came from Bran. His powers, Hodor, Children of the Forest and White Walkers, etc.
I’ve been having some hilarious conversations with friends since Sunday. Many people have been asking me what Lyanna said as if I’m a professional lip reader. I’ve now started telling people that are obsessing over that one particular line that it’s either “His name is…AZOR AHAI” or “His name is …ffjdksms”.
She is my now my favorite character after that speech.