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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
For anyone interested, I just got off the line with Toby and James for a #ThronesCast. Should be fun.
Sadly, I forgot to mention the Valonqar Prophecy, though that’s not actually in the show as I recall.
My impression is that Dany’s fleet is a combination of the Iron Fleet and the slaver ships that she took in the bay. It appeared that the dragons were careful to burn only one or two of the slaver ships.
You can also see Martell and Tyrell ships.
In the show, Maggy the witch tells Cersei about marrying Robert, all her children dying, and another queen taking everything from her. No mention of little brother. But it doesn’t matter really.
We’ll never know what it was, but this is how things happen on GoT, and in life.
Ned had all kinds of plans, formulated through a bunch of research and activity. It was all going to be awesome. . . then he was dead.
Rob had all kinds of plans, laid out through all kinds of battles and weddings and impregnation. It was all going to be awesome . . . then he was dead.
Oberyn had all kinds of plans, laid out through many years of waiting for his opportunity to get a shot at Tywin, finally. It was all going to be awesome . . . then he was dead.
Tywin had all kinds of plans, then he was dead. Jaime had lots of plans, then he lost his hand and everything changed for him.
Before the show started Rhaegar Targaryen had lots of plans too, etc.
It kinda bothers me that I have to google these character names.
I think I’m starting to see a pattern. :)
Read a book, Fred.
Would that I had the time.