Game Of Thrones Season 6 Discussion (Spoilers)

[FPAlpha]

I really liked the episode.. it was not as jam packed as the previous one but the plot is moving forward and you need these episodes to get to the big WTF episodes that are surely coming.

"My watch has ended!" I (and many others) called it Mofo's!! Technically he's also not breaking his vow since he did die but now he's free to be even more badass.. could he break the mold and actually be one of the good guys who survives and does the right thing? I feared he'd crack and let them live when he hesitated but in the context of this world he did the only right thing.. actions have consequences and they paid for their failure (well, Jon's side didn't exactly play fair by resurrecting him).
It's also nice to see Thorne remaining true to his bastard self and Olli also standing firm in his hatred.. i can fully understand him but he's still a kid and not privy to the bigger picture but then again his action was the most personal and understandable.

It was nice to see some GoT history too by way of Bran's flashback.. i was nearly ready for one of the big theories to be confirmed right now but that dud of Three Eyed Raven spoiled it again for everybody. Still a very cool fight albeit still not that realistic even for a famed swordsman like Dayne to hold off 4 experienced fighters at the same time, that looked a little ridiculous.

I wonder where Arya's story will ultimately lead to.. is Jaquen training her up to take out the last remaining people on her list (and they all fully deserve to die) or is he "just" turning her into a Faceless Man (Woman?) like himself, devoid of any emotion, ego or goals? If so then it seems to be somewhat anticlimactic.

Funniest scene though was the small council giving a not so small middle finger to Cersei and Jaime who came in all smug and superior and ended up looking like fools (another one of Cersei's ill conceived attempts at powerplay).

Things are also brewing in the East.. Dany seems to head towards a dark fate but help is on the way by way of two guys.. who i wonder how they want to infilitrate the Dothraki city but then again there are still the Jokers in the back by way of huge flying, scaly, firebreathing and very loyal (maybe even pissed off) "offspring" of Dany (if that happens at all, the trailers seemed to suggest it).

Series is progressing but the fun now is no one knows where to.. good times

 

[Klaus]

The infiltration of the camp to rescue Dani will probably be discovered, but they'll be saved by the timely appearance of Drogon as we saw in the trailer... Since all the Khalesars are gathered here, I think the result might be that the dragons convince the Dothraki to ALL follow her, and she heads towards the West with a much bigger army than before.

 

[FPAlpha]

My theory too but we'll see soon enough.

 

[Icemizer]

A shot of a much larger Drogon perched atop the two bronze horses would be very nice to see.

 

[Chekov's Phaser]

We don't know what effect Melissandre's magic had on Jon. I had thought for some time that Jon's resurrection might take on some aspects of the books' Lady Stoneheart B-story, where she became an exceptionally ruthless destroyer of all things Frey, post Red Wedding - an almost zombie-esque killing machine with a singular motivation of revenge. A pre-death Jon may have given Ollie reprieve; a post-death Jon may be considerably more cold-hearted and cruel. I was personally surprised that he actually hesitated before swinging Longclaw to cut the rope release. That probably would have made him appear even less human than the writers intended.

In-universe, it could be explained that Jon wasn't dead long enough to loose most of his humanity like Kat did, but I can't imagine that there wouldn't be some negative side effects of such magical intervention with the natural process of death. Even Beric Dondarrion himself began to regret the constant resurrections from Thoros and the toll it took on his mind and body, when he said "Fire consumes. It consumes, and when it is done there is nothing left. Nothing".

My first thoughts as well. Jon isn't going to be resurrected without any sort of consequences. That's just not how things work in this world. Others have been resurrected, but there is always a toll to pay. When Jon killed Ollie, I also thought that pre-resurrection Jon might have shown mercy, but this is a different Jon Snow.

 

[Ethros]

Shaggy Dog! Nooooo!!!

I'd heard an old charatcer might return in this episode, I wondered maybe Benjen Stark or someone, but I was glad to see it was Osha and Rickon, and also glad that it's the same actor and they didn't recast like the Lannister kids

 

[Roshi]

When the Freys mounted Grey Wind's head on Robb's body, the direwolf's head was huge, proportionally speaking. Shaggy Dog's? Not so much...

 

[ITL]

Yeah, there's been a bit of internets chatter about that. People are speculating that at some point the real Shaggydog will make himself known in a bitey way, all according to plan and what not. Not sure myself, but we'll see.

 

[Seven of Five]

Another good episode. I loved the Rickon surprise, and also Jon saying that he was done with the Night Watch. Can he actually walk away from the impending war and his friends? At least he may bump into Sansa or Rickon on his travels.

 

[Klaus]

Yeah, that head's not big enough, Ramsey's being played...

 

[Nerys Myk]

Yeah, that head's not big enough, Ramsey's being played...

You'd think he'd be an expert on canines.

 

[Captaindemotion]

Not as 'wow' an episode as the first two but we were spoiled with them, in fairness.

The biggies for me were the Tower of Joy battle, with some great sword fighting and Ned emerging perhaps less honourably than we (or certainly Bran) imagined and Jon's watch ending. Where will he go from here? Will the wildlings follow him? Is Edd officially the new Lord commander?

And not forgetting the return of Osha and Rickon (yay for not re-casting). I said last week that there mention of the Umbers and Manderlays was likely to be significant but didn't expect to see either clan quite so soon.

I quite liked the new Lord Umber until he revealed his gift, so I'm hoping that this is a bluff.

Spoiler: Spoiler for the books, up to volume 3

The Umbers were extremely loyal to the Starks in the books, but their role was much reduced from S2 on of the TV show, possibly due to lack of availability for Clive Mantle, who played Greatjon Umber. His sons were Robb's bodyguards and battled valiantly to save him at the Red Wedding. IIRC, they didn't die but were prisoners after the War of the Five Kings. So this would be a big change compared to the books.

If a bluff, it's a very dangerous one, to put a child in the hands of Ramsay but I also thought that Shaggy Dog looked a bit smaller than Ghost or Grey Wolf. Could this be a Baelish ruse?

 

[Reverend]

Could be misremembering but I'm pretty sure Shaggy Dog was always shown to be a little on the small side; compared to the others that is of course.

Not sure if it was intentional or a weird creature effects goof, but did anyone else notice that Shaggy Dogs eye were initially open, but then closed when the head was placed on the table? Either way: creepy.

Nice to see Osha back. I was always a little disappointed how she and Rickon just vanished from the plot, even in the books.

Bit of a surprise that Jon just walked away from the Night's Watch, but glad that he did. Should have seen it coming though, given the wording of the watchman's oath. "Night gathers, and now my watch begins. It shall not end until my death" Oath fulfilled.

He's basically been off in an almost entirely isolated story since season one so maybe now he'll get to interact with some other characters. I suspect that 1) he'll totally miss Sansa & co on the road south and they'll reach Castle Black to find him gone. 2) He's going to go pay Ramsay a little visit. Possibly Theon too.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

W

In-universe, it could be explained that Jon wasn't dead long enough to loose most of his humanity like Kat did, but I can't imagine that there wouldn't be some negative side effects of such magical intervention with the natural process of death. Even Beric Dondarrion himself began to regret the constant resurrections from Thoros and the toll it took on his mind and body, when he said "Fire consumes. It consumes, and when it is done there is nothing left. Nothing".

When his wolf did not respond negatively in any way, did not growl or back up but rather acted as though Jon had merely awoken from a sleep I figured they were just popping him back into the story and he was the same guy, not the hideous soluless reanimations we saw in the books.

 

[137th Gebirg]

Yes, they're definitely toning down the extreme after-effects of resurrection in the series. I think, overall, the show runners go out of their way to not focus as heavily on the magical aspects of this world that the books did. They'll be forced to throttle it up a bit, though, as the natural magical energies of this world are going to likely become more integral to the plot as they grow in strength from the presence of the dragons.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

The faceless man probably knows that when Arya got rid of her clothes she hid away her sword. He specifically never asked her that question, maybe because he wants to train her as one and then bring back Arya, and he knows handing her the sword would have that result. That would be interesting if he were the one rebelling against being 'Noone'.

Jon still seems like Jon, he clearly expressed sympathy toward the people he was executing even know he had to do so, but he may have lost some small piece of his soul.

My take on the wolf's reaction is that it was a little confused. Like, it was Jon, but still something seemed a bit off. I don't remember Ghost following him when he left.

I'm wondering if there was some decision made early on in the show's development that after season one the Starks would never successfully connect, at least until the end. They always seem to just barely miss connection. Arya gets to Robb just a little too late, Bran almost connects with Jon and is convinced not to. I wonder though if Sansa finds out that Rickon is held by Ramsay and begs Brienne to help him.

 

[The Lensman]

My first thoughts as well. Jon isn't going to be resurrected without any sort of consequences. That's just not how things work in this world. Others have been resurrected, but there is always a toll to pay. When Jon killed Ollie, I also thought that pre-resurrection Jon might have shown mercy, but this is a different Jon Snow.

He seemed no different to me, other than dealing with not being dead anymore. Remember, he publicly beheaded Janos Slynt for refusing to follow orders. Here he executes four traitors who murdered their Lord Commander. Any other action, in either case, invites more of the same.

Also, it's refreshing to see something other than the now tired "good guys get killed because they're stupid, trusting and give second chances" thing. See Doran Martell and Ned Stark. It's why I like Varys, because he seems to be one of the few good guys who knows how to survive. I like Tyrion, but he's alive because the writers and fans like him.....he's the Darrell of Game Of Thrones.

Speaking of Tyrion, his scenes so far this season have sucked. The whole dragon scene just felt, I dunno, "Mary Sue" like, though that's not exactly the term I'm looking for. If he turns out to be a Targaryen himself, then fine, otherwise the scene just felt like "the favorite guy, who's an unknown to the Mereen crew can do this thing that the rest of them never would".

Also, the "punch me in the face" line, felt hackneyed, out of character and too "t.v. show-ish" to me. The same with Melisandre just cutting some of Jon Snow's hair and saying some mumbo jumbo. Up till now, magic use has been something hard to do. Something that's given regular folk some pause before using it, because it usually comes with a high cost. This just seemed too easy.

All in all, aside from the duller than dirt Tyrion scenes (He doesn't have to be in every episode just because he's the fan favorite), I liked this episode much better than last weeks.

 

[Chekov's Phaser]

He seemed no different to me, other than dealing with not being dead anymore. Remember, he publicly beheaded Janos Slynt for refusing to follow orders. Here he executes four traitors who murdered their Lord Commander. Any other action, in either case, invites more of the same.

While I agree that Jon was no stranger to executing his own men if need be (Ned taught him well), I think pre-resurrection Jon might have spared Ollie. I mean sure he killed Janos Slynt, and I could see him doing the same to Thorne and the others, pre or post resurrection. But killing Ollie seems much more cold (pardon the pun) no matter what Ollie did to him.

 

[Evil Twin]

It's also nice to see Thorne remaining true to his bastard self and Olli also standing firm in his hatred.. i can fully understand him but he's still a kid and not privy to the bigger picture but then again his action was the most personal and understandable.

It's too bad Jon didn't know in advance what a clusterfuck Hardhome would turn out to be. Seems like his murder could've been avoided if he brought Thorne along with him. Thorne would've change his tune about Wildlings south of the Wall if he saw firsthand how much of a threat the White Walkers really are.

 

[Venardhi]

While I agree that Jon was no stranger to executing his own men if need be (Ned taught him well), I think pre-resurrection Jon might have spared Ollie. I mean sure he killed Janos Slynt, and I could see him doing the same to Thorne and the others, pre or post resurrection. But killing Ollie seems much more cold (pardon the pun) no matter what Ollie did to him.

Ollie literally killed him. In cold blood. Killed him. With a knife to the heart.

I'm a pretty forgiving dude, but that isn't the sort of thing you let slide.