Game of Thrones Season 6 Episode 6 is out, let’s have a look.
Beyond the Wall, Meera desperately tries to outrun the wights, dragging Bran along behind
her.
You gotta admire her loyalty – instead of dumping Bran and saving herself, she continues
to risk her life to protect him.
She must really believe what the “raven” claims – that Bran is important for the
war to come against the white walkers . Anyway while Meera does all the work, Bran is tripping
balls, having visions of the future and past.
He sees winter and weirwoods and ravens, which are associated with greensight – the magic
of his visions.
He sees Daenerys and her dragons, including one shot of a dragon flying over King’s
Landing.
He sees wights, and white walkers, and the Night King, and the Night King’s creation
by the children of the forest.
He sees that one time a white walker took a baby to the far north and the Night King
seemed to convert it into a walker.
He sees the fall that crippled him, and the deaths of his parents and his brother, he
sees what’s inside the Tower of Joy – we’ll have to wait til Episode 10 to see more.
And he sees Aerys Targaryen, the father of Daenerys and Viserys and Rhaegar.
Aerys ruled as the King of Westeros before Robert, but he “was mad and cruel” , he
loved to burn people alive , in fact one of the people he burned was Rickard Stark, the
father of Ned Stark, who we saw last episode.
Rickard’s death was one of the events that led houses Arryn, Stark and Tully to rally
behind Robert Baratheon and rebel against Aerys.
The climax of this war was when Robert Baratheon killed Aerys’ heir Prince Rhaegar at the
Battle of the Trident.
But Aerys himself didn’t die until the later Sack of King’s Landing, when Tywin Lannister
marched on the capital.
During this battle, Aerys was killed by his own Kingsguard, a young Jaime Lannister.
He murdered the king he was sworn to protect, then he sat on the Iron Throne, waiting “to
see who would come to claim the kingdom” . We learn in Season 3, in that amazing bath
scene, that the reason why Jaime killed Aerys is that Aerys had secretly placed caches of
wildlife all over King’s Landing – wildfire is that explosive green stuff Tyrion used
to blow up Stannis’ fleet – so Jaime learned that Aerys was planning to burn down King’s
Landing – Jaime saved the city by killing Aerys, but the thing is, those caches of wildfire
are still down there, a powder keg right under the capital just waiting for a spark – and
in Bran’s vision, he foresees them exploding.
Some readers believe that Cersei will try to light the wildfire, and that Jaime will
have to kill her to stop her – fulfilling the valonqar prophecy.
But this shot, of what’s probably Dany’s dragon Drogon over the city, suggests that
it might be dragonfire that sets off the wildfire.
However it happens, by the time Dany takes the capital, there might not be much of a
city left to rule...
Anyway after all these visions, Bran unplugs from the Matrix and finds the wights are right
behind em, it looks like they’re gonna die, but then they’re saved by a strange figure
in black…
Down in the Reach, Sam and Gilly head for Horn Hill, Sam’s family home, and this is
amazing for Gilly.
All she’s ever known before is Craster’s Keep and Castle Black, such bleak, cold places,
so the south is “a whole new world” for her.
Sam is very nervous – he’s bringing his girlfriend home to meet his parents, and while
his mother and sister are lovely, his father is an abusive asshole who threatened to kill
him for not being manly enough.
Also he has to lie about Gilly’s son and say it’s his, when it’s actually Craster’s,
and he has to hide the fact that Gilly is a wildling, so this homecoming is a stressful
one for Sam.
In King’s Landing, Tommen talks with the High Sparrow, and Tommen is surprisingly cool
with the idea of his wife Margaery being paraded naked through the city.
The Sparrow lets Tommen see Margaery, and Marge appears to have given in to the High
Sparrow’s brainwashing.
She says she once lied to make herself seem sweet and kind, but now she’s found her
faith – “the gods have a plan for us all”.
Has Marge really suddenly become a good little Christian?
In Episode 4 she seemed not at all convinced by the Sparrow.
But she did see her beloved brother Loras suffering, so maybe Margaery realised she
needed a change in strategy – maybe she figures if she plays along with the sparrows,
she could get into a position to strike.
Back at Horn Hill, Gilly and Sam have an awkward dinner with Sam’s family.
Sam mentions Gilly is a good hunter, and Randyll disapproves – he’s got strong ideas about
what women should and shouldn’t do – in the books he meets Brienne and calls her a
“freak of nature” and a curse upon her father , for wanting to fight and be a knight.
Randyll finds out Gilly is a wildling, so he calls her a savage and a wildling whore.
He goes on a rant about how Sam’s a piece of shit for not being a big tough warrior,
and while he allows Gilly and her baby to stay at Horn Hill, he kicks Sam out of his
home.
So Sam says farewell to Gilly, but then impulsively changes his mind and decides to bring Gilly
and young Sam with him, and on his way out, he takes Heartsbane, Randyll’s priceless
Valyrian steel greatsword, which…
seems a really bad idea.
Heartsbane is the Freudian pride of Randyll’s house, there is no doubt Randyll will come
for it.
And what’s Sam even planning to do with it?
Valyrian steel can apparently kill white walkers, but Sam’s not going back to the Wall until
he’s studied at the Citadel for a while.
And what about Gilly?
It’s very romantic to take her with him, but she was offered a place at Horn Hill,
the safest place she’s likely to get to stay, is it really fair on her or her infant
child to take her away from that?
Sam better have a plan here.
Over in Braavos, Arya sees that play again – with their version of the Purple Wedding,
with the pie, the wine, when Joffrey dies, and Tywin’s death by Tyrion.
Arya enjoys seeing Joffrey die – she’s wanted to kill him for a long time.
But Cersei, played by Lady Crane, gives a speech about her grief at her son’s death,
and Arya seems moved.
Maybe she wonders if killing really is the right thing to do.
She does poison Lady Crane’s rum anyway, but then she bumps into her on the way out,
and they chat, and they connect over their shared experience in acting.
Crane asks her name and Arya says Mercy.
So later, Mercy shows mercy, running back and stopping Crane from drinking the poison
at the last minute.
So here Arya makes her choice.
She refuses to give up her sense of what’s right, she refuses to give up who she is – she
goes and gets Needle from its hiding place, drawing it from stone like Excalibur, and
this represents her re-embracing her connection to her family.
In the books it says Needle is “Robb and Bran and Rickon, her mother and her father,
even Sansa”.
Needle is “Jon Snow’s smile” . She is returning to her identity as Arya Stark.
Which means she’s breaking from the Faceless Men.
The waif sees all this, and gets permission from Jaqen to kill Arya.
It’s interesting that the waif so obviously wants to kill Arya – just look at that bloody
smirk – when, as a Faceless Man, she’s meant to not care who she kills, she’s meant
to have no desires or personality, she’s meant to be no one.
So – is the waif breaking her own rules?
Maybe Arya will somehow exploit the waif’s humanity to defeat her – cause she’s gonna
need some advantage – we’ve seen that the waif is a better fighter than her.
But however it goes down this is a big moment – Arya’s finally leaving the Faceless
Men.
In King’s Landing, Jaime and the Tyrells come to confront the High Sparrow.
Mace Tyrell, with his magnificent hat, gives an unconvincing speech, then the High Sparrow
gives a great speech.
He presents King Tommen, who he won over with the help of Margaery, and announces that the
crown and the Faith have united as one – as represented by the Kingsguard wearing crowns
within stars as their new symbol – which is a bit like Stannis’ fiery stag – the
political symbol swallowed by the religious one.
So, in one brilliant move, the Sparrow has merged his power with the power of the Throne,
he’s taken all authority away from his opponents, by showing that the King is on his side, not
theirs, and he’s made a great show of this in front of all the city, to win over the
common people.
This is masterful political theatre.
This humble priest has made himself the most powerful man in the city, and look at his
smile – he knows exactly what he’s doing.
Afterwards, Tommen removes Jaime from the Kingsguard, which is a big deal.
The Kingsguard is meant to be a lifelong position – Jaime’s just the second person ever
to be kicked out, after Barristan.
The guard has been Jaime’s life since he was fifteen , so now he’ll really have to
re-examine who is and what’s he’s doing with himself.
Then Tommen tells Jaime that he’s being sent to the riverlands, to help Walder Frey.
Walder Frey is the Lord of the Twins, and the host of the Red Wedding that killed Robb
and Catelyn in Season 3.
Here we see him complaining because he lost Riverrun to Tullys, and he commands his men
to take the castle back.
Walder seems mostly motivated by pride – he says he hated serving under the Tullys, says
everybody’s laughing at him, and he refuses to die until their laughter chokes.
There are lots of characters like this in Game of Thrones.
Men who so need to feel important and respected and powerful that they rant at the people
around them, shit all over their sons, and wage whole fucking wars.
The dumb pride of powerful men has caused terrible damage in Westeros, and in the real
world.
We see “Black” Walder Frey, who cut Catelyn’s throat, and “Lame” Lothar Frey, who stabbed
Robb’s wife Talisa – we and can probably expect these guys to meet a violent end one
way or another.
We also see Edmure.
Edmure is Catelyn’s brother and the head of House Tully.
The Red Wedding was his wedding and he’s been imprisoned by the Freys ever since.
So the Freys want Riverrun, which is currently held by Brynden “Blackfish”, apparently
with the support of the Mallisters, and the Blackwoods, and the brotherhood without banners.
Riverrun’s set up for a long siege, so Jaime’s gonna try to break the siege by convincing
the Blackfish to give up the castle.
We also know Brienne’s on her way to try to recruit the Tullys, so it’ll be interesting
to see how Jaime and Brienne interact.
We also get a scene between Jaime and Cersei – at first Jaime wants to try to take on
the High Sparrow himself, but Cersei acts as a voice of reason, telling Jaime how much
of a bad idea that would be.
Cersei seems to have become more subdued this season, she’s still really angry and hateful
but she’s less obvious about it, which honestly probably only makes her more dangerous.
Cersei mentions her upcoming trial by combat, and she’s confident that her champion Robert
Strong will succeed – but who will fight against him as the champion of the Faith?
Well – ain’t sayin he’s a grave digger, but he ain’t gonna be Lancel.
This fight will be huge.
Back beyond the Wall, the mysterious figure who saved Bran and Meera reveals himself to
be long lost Uncle Benjen – and he’s looking worse for wear.
He says he was stabbed in the gut by a white walker and left to die, but then the children
of the forest stabbed his heart with a blade of dragonglass which apparently has turned
him into some kind of zombie.
It’s not clear how exactly that all works, but the point seems to be that he’s now
become a lot like the book character Coldhands, a kind of friendly walking corpse.
Cause like Coldhands, Benjen now has black hands, which in Coldhands’ case indicates
he’s dead – his blood has congealed in his extremities because his heart has ceased
to beat . Also like Coldhands, this new Benjen seems connected to the three-eyed raven and
the children of the forest, he seems to have been serving them these last few years.
But what exactly was he doing, and what else does he know, and why did he join the Watch
in the first place?
Hopefully we’ll get answers soon.
Anyway Benjen says Bran has now in some sense become the three-eyed raven, he’s like an
avatar of the old gods, with all the powers and the knowledge of the greenseers within
him.
We still don’t quite know what this means or how it’ll work, but we do know he has
great power – and that he’ll have to learn to use it fast if he’s to stand against
the walkers.
On the way to Meereen, Daenerys chats with Daario.
Apparently Dany needs a thousand ships to carry her army to Westeros, and, well, who
do we know with a thousand ships?
“Build me a thousand ships”.
Daario also says that Dany’s not a ruler, she’s a conqueror – and he’s totally
right – Dany isn’t much good at sitting on a throne and being a politician and making
difficult decisions.
What she’s great at is sacking cities, leading armies, riding dragons, burning shit, and
as if to illustrate the point, she flies in on Drogon, who is fucking huge now, and makes
a speech from dragonback about how she’ll take over Westeros with her Dothraki behind
her.
Which, y’know, sounds nice in a speech.
But we’ve seen what Dothraki conquest looks like – it’s ugly.
Homes are burned and pillaged.
People are raped and killed.
Is this the kind of conquest that Daenerys will lead?
She’s got three big dragons now, will she use them to “burn them all”, just like
her father, the Mad King?
We’ll have to wait and see.
So a lot happened this week – Benjen’s a zombie, Arya left the Faceless Men, Dany
speaks from dragonback, the Sparrow makes plays in the capital, Sam stands up to his
dad, the Siege of Riverrun is set-up, and Bran binge-watches the last few seasons of
Thrones over weirwood-net.
We’ve got themes of family, with Sam, and Bran, and Benjen, and even Arya connecting
with her past.
And we see some great political theatre with Daenerys and the High Sparrow using symbols
of power to give themselves authority.
So while there weren’t as many murders or tits this episode, we’ve got some solid
exploration of identity and power.
Thanks for watching.
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