Game of Thrones Season 6 Episode 1 just came out and some pretty crazy stuff happens so
let’s get into it.
We begin at the Wall with Jon dead in the snow.
Davos and Ghost and some loyal Night’s Watchmen are in conflict with Alliser Thorne, who seems
to be taking over the Watch after Jon’s death.
Edd goes to get the wildlings – who probably won’t be too happy when they hear what happened
to Jon.
Melisandre comes and says she foresaw Jon fighting at Winterfell, and, well, so have
we – that’s probably him there in the trailer.
There’s heaps of evidence in the books and the show that Jon will be back – “he always
comes back”.
The only questions are how and when and in what he’ll be like when he rises.
But in the meantime, conflict is brewing with Watchmen and wildlings and Davos.
In Winterfell, Ramsay is also mourning his dead in his own special way – “feed her
to the dogs”.
Ramsay’s dad Roose reminds him that Sansa is the Bolton’s best hope of controlling
the north, and also that if Walda has a son, that son would inherit Winterfell ahead of
the bastard Ramsay, so some people think that Ramsay might end up killing Walda and Roose
this season.
Meanwhile, Theon and Sansa are hunted by Boltons, Theon bravely risks his life to try to protect
her – which could hint at the beginning of redemption for him – but the Boltons
close in, but Brienne and Pod appear to save the day and carve up the Boltons.
Sansa finally accepts Brienne’s service and protection, which is a beautiful moment
for Brienne, mirroring her pledges to Renly and Catelyn.
Hopefully she’ll have better luck keeping Sansa alive.
In King’s Landing, Cersei is still reeling from her walk of shame, and she’s crushed
even further when she finds out her daughter Myrcella is dead.
She talks about the prophecy of Maggy the Frog, who said that Cersei’s kids would
die.
It’s interesting that the show hasn’t mentioned the other part of Maggy’s prophecy,
that Cersei will be killed by her valonqar, or little brother, which she thinks means
Tyrion, but some readers think means Jaime.
In any case Jaime says fuck prophecy, fuck everyone else, we will take everything back,
which will put him at odds with the Faith.
Here we see the High Sparrow and Septa Unella playing good cop bad cop with Margaery Tyrell,
who is still imprisoned along with her brother Loras.
Cersei is not exactly the biggest fan of the Tyrells, so it’ll be interesting to see
how much the Lannisters and Tyrells join forces to face the Faith.
Down in Dorne, Ellaria and Tyene suddenly kill Doran and Areo, and Obara and Nymeria
kill Trystane in King’s Landing, and this is pretty crazy.
Cause the motivation of the Sand Snakes is that they want to start a war against the
Lannisters because the Lannisters, or rather the Mountain, killed their father Oberyn,
and earlier, their aunt Elia.
Doran tries to prevent war and that seems to be why Ellaria kills him.
But isn’t it kinda crazy to kill Oberyn’s family so you can avenge Oberyn?
Further, Ellaria and the Sand Snakes are all bastards, with no rightful claim over Dorne
– will they even be able to take control?
Many book readers don’t like this change, but maybe the show’s just cutting to the
chase, getting to the point, which is probably that Dorne will war against the Lannisters,
and probably end up supporting the Targaryens – Daenerys in the show, but maybe Aegon
in the books.
Also it’s cool to see Obara and Nymeria in King’s Landing – might be they’ll
get in on the conflict, maybe they’ll kill Tommen, as Nym threatens in the books.
It might also make sense for them to go after Robert Strong, the reanimated Mountain, ‘cause
after all, he’s the guy who killed Oberyn and Elia.
Varys and Tyrion rock some sweet capes, talk about the rising political tension and the
threat of the Sons of the Harpy, and all this doom and gloom looks to put Tyrion in a good
mood.
He’s really starting to shake off his earlier depression, he’s getting back into the game,
so it’ll be great to watch what he and Varys can accomplish together.
They pass a red priest preaching about Daenerys being Azor Ahai, which is cool, and might
foreshadow the arrival of the priestess Kinvara sometime later.
It’s interesting that the priest wears the same hexagonal pattern we see on Melisandre
and Quaithe – maybe meaning this guy’s from Asshai.
Finally we see Dany’s fleet burning in Slaver’s Bay, and Tyrion’s all like, looks we won’t
be sailing to Westeros, but wouldn’t it be convenient if we knew some friendly Vikings
who could bring Dany some ships…
Meanwhile, Jorah and Daario search for Dany in the Dothraki Sea, they have a bit of banter
to stoke their rivalry, we see that Jorah’s greyscale is getting pretty gnarly, and Dany’s
on the road to Vaes Dothrak, the Dothraki city.
Dany suffers the whips and harassment of her captors, and keeps her cards close to her
chest, only revealing that she can speak Dothraki when she’s brought before Khal Moro.
For a moment things look like they might turn around, but then Dany finds out she’s expected
to join the dosh khaleen, the “widows of dead khals”, who live out their days in
Vaes Dothrak, which is probably not what Dany had in mind.
But in the books, Quaithe tells Dany that “To go forward [she] must go back”, so
this return to the Dothraki could be crucial in Dany’s arc moving forward.
She won’t want to hang around the Dothraki forever though, so wouldn’t it be convenient
if we knew a friendly dragon who could fly in to spirit her away…
In Braavos, Arya is still blind, and is begging on the streets.
You can briefly hear someone saying “after what happened to that Kingsguard”, which
is a reference to Arya’s murder of Meryn Trant last season, which is cool.
But anyway “the waif” turns up, and proceeds to beat the absolute shit out of Arya, which
is meant to train her to use all her senses, though in real life that kind of beating would
give you a fractured skull before Daredevil vision, but regardless this suffering will
probably make Arya stronger.
Even so, there might come a day when Arya’s had enough of the waif’s shit – so we
may soon see real conflict between the two.
One little thing in the books is that Arya gets around being blind by warging into a
cat – entering into its consciousness and seeing through its eyes, like Bran does with
Summer.
Hopefully they’ll include that in the show.
And then, back at the Wall, Melisandre reveals her true form as a very very old woman, which…
actually makes a lot of sense.
It’s hinted in the show and the books that Mel is older than she seems , that she’s
hiding her true appearance with a kind of magic called a glamour.
The glamour seems to work using this ruby at her neck, though she has been seen without
it before without looking old.
Maybe that’s a continuity error, maybe the magic works some other way, but the real point
here is that Melisandre’s nakedness shows where she’s at as a character right now.
Remember, when we first met her, she seemed so powerful, so beautiful, so certain . But
all of her hopes and beliefs were founded on Stannis Baratheon being Azor Ahai, the
chosen one of the Lord of Light, and now that he’s dead, she’s lost everything.
Her nakedness is a moment of honesty and vulnerability and humanity, from someone who’s now in
deep doubt over who she is and what she believes.
It’ll be amazing to see how she comes out of this, and what it might mean for Jon Snow.
So that is Episode 1 of Season 6 of Game of Thrones.
We’ve gotta a lotta characters brought low, beaten down, disempowered, disillusioned,
dead, but there’s also a strong sense of rising for revenge, with Sansa, and Dorne,
and the Lannisters.
We’ve got lots of women kicking ass, we’ve got religions playing a part, we got magic,
and politics, and everywhere tension is rising.
The stage is set, and for the most part, no one knows what’s coming next.
Thanks for watching.
If you’d like to see a breakdown like this for every episode of Season 6, please let
us know by liking, sharing, subscribing, and commenting what you want to see next.
You might like to check out our videos on Thoros of Myr, a red priest like Mel who also
has a crisis of faith, and on Jon’s resurrection, and on Arya’s character arc.
Thanks to all supporters on Patreon, including Christopher Brinser, Evan Windsor, Connor
Blanck, Yenyo Pal, Faye Harrison, Jessica O'Keefe, John Crain Welsby, Richard Thomas
Carlson, Colin VanOsten, Jennifer Grasso, and KEK7go.
Thanks again, see you next time.