Game of Thrones, Season 6 Wrap-Up

 

[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.

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  1. Valiuth Member
    Valiuth
    @Valiuth

    The big question now is does Jamie break with Cersei? I couldn’t quite decide if seeing his twin sister crowned Queen filled him with disgust and anger or iron determination to protect the only person left that he loves. I for one hope Jamie turns good. But, we shall see. I guess we have the Hound for redemption.

    My biggest complaint is that there is absolutely not sense of the passage of time. Building up the fleet and supplying it to attack Westeros is something that would take at least a year to do. Everybody just seems to be able to go wherever they want to in like a day or two. All the sense of scale is lost.

    Take the Army of the Vale coming up in the last episode. We know they were at mote Caelin which is several hundred miles south of Winterfel. A whole army marched up the Kings Road without Bolton noticing them? To arrive just in the nick of time to a battle they didn’t know was happening. Sansa Stark just managed to ride down and up in a single night to get them and bring them just in time?  None of the characters show any significant ageing other than the kids. I think they are showing us the various scenes out of chronological order, but it is hard to get a proper sense of the time line.

    • #1
  2. Jamie Lockett Member
    Jamie Lockett
    @JamieLockett

    So in a show that prides itself on giving us barely anything in terms of character and plot movement they decide to give us everything all at once. Extremely satisfying, but it felt very…unMartinesque.

    • #2
  3. Majestyk Member
    Majestyk
    @Majestyk

    Valiuth:The big question now is does Jamie break with Cersei? I couldn’t quite decide if seeing his twin sister crowned Queen filled him with disgust and anger or iron determination to protect the only person left that he loves. I for one hope Jamie turns good. But, we shall see. I guess we have the Hound for redemption.

    All of Jaime’s children are now dead – mostly due to Cersei’s scheming and malice.  She drove his brother out.  She’s made his life miserable and full of dishonor.  He has little reason left to love her and a lot of reason to want redemption.

    My biggest complaint is that there is absolutely not sense of the passage of time. Building up the fleet and supplying it to attack Westeros is something that would take at least a year to do. Everybody just seems to be able to go wherever they want to in like a day or two. All the sense of scale is lost.

    Dany commandeered the Masters’ fleet in addition to the Greyjoys’ ships.

    Take the Army of the Vale coming up in the last episode. We know they were at mote Caelin which is several hundred miles south of Winterfel. A whole army marched up the Kings Road without Bolton noticing them? To arrive just in the nick of time to a battle they didn’t know was happening.

    Some of this is problematic – but the Boltons had to hunker down at Winterfell in front of the advance of the Northerner’s army.  It’s not incredible to think that cavalry could get in to striking distance relatively quickly during a battle.

    Sansa Stark just managed to ride down and up in a single night to get them and bring them just in time?

    She sent a raven to Littlefinger.

    None of the characters show any significant ageing other than the kids. I think they are showing us the various scenes out of chronological order, but it is hard to get a proper sense of the time line.

    Tube-travel Varys is one of the biggest violations of normal time that we’ve seen.  Arya gets around pretty quick as well.

    • #3
  4. Majestyk Member
    Majestyk
    @Majestyk

    Jamie Lockett:So in a show that prides itself on giving us barely anything in terms of character and plot movement they decide to give us everything all at once. Extremely satisfying, but it felt very…unMartinesque.

    That’s probably why it was so satisfying.  The Durdling stopped and the payoffs had to start at some point.

    • #4
  5. Fred Cole Inactive
    Fred Cole
    @FredCole

    Majestyk: Slops – for the the real issue with Jon… that being that there are no issues. The guy was stabbed to death; basically frozen into a popsicle and then brought back to life. What price was paid for that?

    Well, now he’s kind of hump shouldered, quiet, brooding … Oh wait, I hear it now.

    • #5
  6. DocJay Inactive
    DocJay
    @DocJay

    Loved the episode.   Nice summary.

    • #6
  7. Tom Meyer, Ed. Member
    Tom Meyer, Ed.
    @tommeyer

    Majestyk: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.

    This bugged me immensely throughout the season. It’s like everyone sort of forgot it happened, though would occasionally mention it.

    Worst example: despite Tormund’s telling Jon that the Wildings viewed him post-resurrection as some kind of god, there was no indication of that otherwise.

    You’re right to have connected it to the similar problems with Arya’s plotline.

    • #7
  8. Tom Meyer, Ed. Member
    Tom Meyer, Ed.
    @tommeyer

    Slops for almost everything involving the Brotherhood Without Banners. You give us the Stoneheart tease all season and all for naught? What is the bloody point of these characters? Why did Lemoncloak go rouge? What’s the significance of Berric’s resurrections?

    • #8
  9. Tom Meyer, Ed. Member
    Tom Meyer, Ed.
    @tommeyer

    Props to Sophie Turner for giving us a solid performance this year as Sansa finally gets to show some volition. Slops for the needlessly messy writing surrounding Littlefinger.

    • #9
  10. Tom Meyer, Ed. Member
    Tom Meyer, Ed.
    @tommeyer

    Slops for an underwhelming Randyl Tarly, who should have had the vibe of a British Stephen Lang. Further slops for letting Sam just walk-off with Heartsbane.

    Props to Gilly being adorable.

    • #10
  11. Tom Meyer, Ed. Member
    Tom Meyer, Ed.
    @tommeyer

    Props to the vastly improved design for the Children of the Forest. Slops for not explaining them at all and not even making it clear whether the ones we saw were it for them.

    • #11
  12. Majestyk Member
    Majestyk
    @Majestyk

    Tom Meyer, Ed.:Slops for almost everything involving the Brotherhood Without Banners. You give us the Stoneheart tease all season and all for naught. What is the bloody point of these characters? Why did Lemoncloak go rouge? What’s the significance of Berric’s resurrections?

    I think what they’re shooting at is the idea that there is a big something out there that these priests can gain access to but that they don’t understand what it is or how to really control it.  They also don’t understand the nature of the fire that they’re playing with.

    Aside from that, I think people like The Hound and are interested in redemption – but there are certainly other people around in need of redeeming that deserved more screen time.

    • #12
  13. Tom Meyer, Ed. Member
    Tom Meyer, Ed.
    @tommeyer

    One prediction that I expected and was disappointed on: I thought Jon would execute Melisandre, which would transform Longclaw into Lightbringer.

    Oh well.

    • #13
  14. Tom Meyer, Ed. Member
    Tom Meyer, Ed.
    @tommeyer

    Majestyk:

    Aside from that, I think people like The Hound and are interested in redemption – but there are certainly other people around in need of redeeming that deserved more screen time.

    I wish they developed this a bit more. I’ve loved Rory McCann’s performance in this show and I want to see some good resolution for Sandor. This was a little underwhelming, though the Brotherhood seems interested in teaching him something about Justice vs. Revenge.

    • #14
  15. Majestyk Member
    Majestyk
    @Majestyk

    Tom Meyer, Ed.:One prediction that I expected and was disappointed on: I thought Jon would execute Melisandre, which would transform Longclaw into Lightbringer.

    Oh well.

    It seems like you had several long-shots that didn’t pan out. :)

    • #15
  16. Tom Meyer, Ed. Member
    Tom Meyer, Ed.
    @tommeyer

    Majestyk:

    It seems like you had several long-shots that didn’t pan out. :)

    Yes, though that one would have been awesome and made sense. :)

    The alternative theory I like is that Lightbringer will be made of obsidian.

    • #16
  17. Majestyk Member
    Majestyk
    @Majestyk

    Tom Meyer, Ed.:

    Majestyk:

    It seems like you had several long-shots that didn’t pan out. :)

    Yes, though that one would have been awesome and made sense. :)

    The alternative theory I like is that Lightbringer will be made of obsidian.

    Valyrian steel will do nicely.

    • #17
  18. Tom Meyer, Ed. Member
    Tom Meyer, Ed.
    @tommeyer

    Majestyk:

    Valyrian steel will do nicely.

    Has to be on fire.

    • #18
  19. Jamie Lockett Member
    Jamie Lockett
    @JamieLockett

    Why doesn’t Lyanna ask for Longclaw back?

    • #19
  20. Tom Meyer, Ed. Member
    Tom Meyer, Ed.
    @tommeyer

    Jamie Lockett:

    Why doesn’t Lyanna ask for Longclaw back?

    You know, I wondered about that.

    On the other hand, she’s young enough that she may never have seen it before.

    • #20
  21. Jamie Lockett Member
    Jamie Lockett
    @JamieLockett

    Tom Meyer, Ed.:

    Jamie Lockett:

    Why doesn’t Lyanna ask for Longclaw back?

    You know, I wondered about that.

    On the other hand, she’s young enough that she may never have seen it before.

    Her retainers and advisers would have. I find it hard to believe that if the Mormonts had a Valyrian Steel blade it would be pretty well known to the entire house.

    • #21
  22. Majestyk Member
    Majestyk
    @Majestyk

    Jamie Lockett:

    Tom Meyer, Ed.:

    Jamie Lockett:

    Why doesn’t Lyanna ask for Longclaw back?

    You know, I wondered about that.

    On the other hand, she’s young enough that she may never have seen it before.

    Her retainers and advisers would have. I find it hard to believe that if the Mormonts had a Valyrian Steel blade it would be pretty well known to the entire house.

    Word of Jeor Mormont’s fate seems to be somewhat slow in getting around.  Even so, the fate of the sword would be even less known than that of Mormont himself.

    Mormont does tell Jon that it is a Valyrian steel blade however when gifting it to him.

    • #22
  23. Tom Meyer, Ed. Member
    Tom Meyer, Ed.
    @tommeyer

    Majestyk:Word of Jeor Mormont’s fate seems to be somewhat slow in getting around. Even so, the fate of the sword would be even less known than that of Mormont himself.

    Either that, or that bit of dialogue was just a really sad commentary on the Citadel.

    • #23
  24. Tom Meyer, Ed. Member
    Tom Meyer, Ed.
    @tommeyer

    So, not appearing in this episode: Jorah, Brienne & Pod, the Hound and the Brotherhood… anyone else?

    • #24
  25. Majestyk Member
    Majestyk
    @Majestyk

    Tom Meyer, Ed.:

    Majestyk:Word of Jeor Mormont’s fate seems to be somewhat slow in getting around. Even so, the fate of the sword would be even less known than that of Mormont himself.

    Either that, or that bit of dialogue was just a really sad commentary on the Citadel.

    Something, something, bureaucrats…

    • #25
  26. Mike LaRoche Inactive
    Mike LaRoche
    @MikeLaRoche

    I’m interested in seeing how a potential John Snow-Sansa Stark rivalry plays out.

    • #26
  27. Fred Cole Inactive
    Fred Cole
    @FredCole

    Does anyone have a full list of characters who died when the church place exploded?

    • #27
  28. Jamie Lockett Member
    Jamie Lockett
    @JamieLockett

    Fred Cole:Does anyone have a full list of characters who died when the church place exploded?

    The Tyrells, Kevan Lannister, The High Sparrow, most of the small council, pretty much all the faith militant.

    • #28
  29. Majestyk Member
    Majestyk
    @Majestyk

    Fred Cole:Does anyone have a full list of characters who died when the church place exploded?

    Mace, Margaery and Loras Tyrell.

    The High Sparrow.

    Kevan and Lancel Lannister.  Various other flunkies – but no other named characters as near as I could tell.

    With Pycelle’s assassination, the entire Small Council was cleared out.

    • #29
  30. Tom Meyer, Ed. Member
    Tom Meyer, Ed.
    @tommeyer

    Majestyk:Mace, Margaery and Loras Tyrell.

    Margaery being dead really bums me out.

    Besides being … easy on the eyes, Natalie Dormer made a passably interesting character really interesting.

    • #30
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