Game of Thrones Season 6 [Discussion of most-recently aired episodes]

[LadyTevar]

Re: reverse-grip on the off-hand sword:
There is a defensive position called "cruxiform", where a sword is held point-down in the off-hand as a parrying weapon. Using small movements of the hand, the sword can be tilted left to right to block blows and create openings for the main sword to exploit.
That was not what Ser Arthur was doing, however. As the man said, holding the blade horizonally and using it for slashing cuts was just plain stupid.

The backstab was perfect, and perfectly historical. This wasn't a Honour Duel, two men fighting by a code. This was the last men standing after a dirty melee where the only objective was "kill the enemy". You'll note that Ser Arthur wasn't giving Ned time to retrieve his blade, he was also going the kill. His own fault for not being more aware of his surroundings.

[Elfdart]

I guess Brienne isn't used to men undressing her with their eyes. Either Redbeard has serious wood for Brienne of Tarth or he's part Thenn and wants to eat her in a different, more cannibalistic way.



I'm betting on the barbarian being smitten.

[Elfdart]

Was burning Shireen on the table when Davos was actually around? I can't remember as I was almost asleep during the later parts of Stannis' whipping sessions. Maybe he doesn't actually want to know because that might crush him and there's other bigger things going on right now. He could be in denial.

Probably not, because I'd like to think that with Davos around, Stannis' forces might not have been deployed in such a moronic manner, where horses and supplies can be stolen/wiped out by one sadistic fucktard and twenty henchmen. No clusterfuck, no crazed attempt to appease the Red God with his own daughter being burned. On the other hand, Jon Snow would be totally dead with no 9th level cleric around to jump-start him after getting stabbed. Shireen died for Jon Snow's sin -the sin of being a mopey dumbfuck.

[Agent Fisher]

Oh god, Tormund's reaction to Brienne had me dying! Seriously, the Ship that no one knew we all wanted.

[Elfdart]

Is I've pointed out before, every time they put together a cute couple, one or both will die in gruesome fashion (I was pleasantly surprised when Bronn convinced the prettiest Sand Snake to not only give him anti-venom, but to show him her tits -luckily for him, he got out of Dorne before their budding May/December romance could lead to their demise). Maybe Thormund and Brienne will last...

Oh who the fuck am I kidding? They'll both get flayed by Gordon Ramsay Bolton ("It's RAAAAAWWW!") because the writers for this show don't think they've really shown that he's a Very Bad Guy yet.

[Elfdart]

Oh god, Tormund's reaction to Brienne had me dying! Seriously, the Ship that no one knew we all wanted.

When Jorah tried to pull an Indiana Jones and failed, I busted out laughing.

[Pelranius]

Oh god, Tormund's reaction to Brienne had me dying! Seriously, the Ship that no one knew we all wanted.

I'm still hung on Jaime and Brienne.

[wautd]

Lord Royce continues to be a highlight, and I hope he takes the opportunity to fuck Littlefinger over at some ).

Man, I like that guy. His whole aura just demands respects and authority.

If only he could give that little shit he's taking care of some much needed spanking

[Ralin]

Man, it's going to be great when Tormund and Pod meet up and compare penises.

[Pelranius]

Lord Royce continues to be a highlight, and I hope he takes the opportunity to fuck Littlefinger over at some ).

Man, I like that guy. His whole aura just demands respects and authority.

If only he could give that little shit he's taking care of some much needed spanking

So will nobody in the Vale is willing to straight up kill Littlefinger for fear of angering Robin (or Robert, IIRC his show given name change), what's to stop someone (Vale or otherwise) from sending in an assassin to do so? If Littlefinger treats the other Vale lords the way he treats Lord Royce, he's probably wearing out his welcome pretty fast.

[Guardsman Bass]

Wow, some serious revelations on this one - a big one handed almost casually, and a smaller one that came about dramatically.

1. Things are getting underway in the North, and finally they didn't feel the need to stick some Ramsey-related act of cruelty in there to remind us that he's bad. We got that loud and clear. Sansa's plan is pretty solid, and it's cool that we're going to have the Blackfish coming back into play.

2. Holy shit on the Others/White Walkers. I wonder if that's going to be the case in the books as well (where the Others are described somewhat differently), but a creation of the Children gone awry? . . . I'm not sure how I feel about that. It almost makes them seem smaller, being a magical weapon gone rogue rather than a terrifying, almost alien force set in hostility to all living things.

3. That Hodor revelation was brilliant, though. "Hold the door!", with Bran somehow possessing him in the past to warp his mind into following the command to his death in the present. Creepy and tragic - poor Hodor/Willis. I could definitely see his death following those lines in the book, although perhaps at a different location.

4. The Daenerys stuff amped up the sadness, but felt almost weirdly inserted because it's so brief - we see them, we see Jorah confess, and then he leaves, everyone's sad and it's all done in like 3 minutes.

5. I love that Arya's segment included an awful recreation of what happened in King's Landing. Still feels almost like she's gained little and been changed little out of all this, except to become a better fighter. The actress who played Sansa in the in-universe play was hot, too - I wonder if her breasts being exposed was the show's joke on its own penchant to insert nudity wherever.

[Elfdart]

Once again, Sansa is fucking stupid. She should have chopped the Pimp right then and there. Oh, and sending Brienne off on a mission -let me guess, she'll be found by Gordon Ramsay Snow and flayed because the producers aren't sure they've shown quite enough that he's a bad guy- was fucking stupid.

Arya's thread is finally showing signs of life. The use of the play to get her caught up on what was going on with her sister was brilliant.

Once again Danerys' thread is boring, though the part where Sir Friend Zone is sent away to get well was touching.

Yara's hijacking of the fleet was awesome!

Hodor, Summer and the little green dryads -all gone. Shit.

The preview for next week looks pretty ominous.

[Guardsman Bass]

According to the show-runners, Martin confirmed what happened to Hodor directly, and they described it as the "most shocking revelation". Makes me wonder how different the creation of the Others/White Walkers will be in the books (I suspect that "Children created them" will be there, but how they did it will be very different).

[Executor32]

This is my life now.

[Ralin]

Hodor, Summer and the little green dryads -all gone. Shit.

Don't worry. I'm sure they'll be back as wights.

[Vympel]

This episode was amazing, and easily earns the title as this season's Hardhome, so far. Everyone knocked it out of the park, as far as I'm concerned.

- Sansa tells Littlefinger to get fucked, but notice how he plants seeds of mistrust between her and Jon by pointing out he's her half brother, and that his army is not hers. This presumably leads to her hiding Littlefinger as the source of her information.
- I liked Sansa saying the Umbers could go hang.
- Her sewing the Stark cloak for Jon and her own Stark clothing for herself ("I like the wolf part!" lol) was cute.
- Blackfish mention!
- The revelation about the Children creating the White Walkers was a great twist.
- Holy shit, we saw Lord Rickard Stark!
- Hodor / Hold the Door was brilliant. I kind of saw it coming given the emphasis on Hodor in that particular greendream, but it worked really well.
- Poor Summer. Went out defending his master, but it clearly wasn't a waste. Those wights would've been running down the corridor after Bran & Co if they hadn't all rounded to stab Summer to death.
- Kingsmoot: I had hoped Euron would be a bit more of a badass pirate motherfucker in this scene, but that's easily cancelled out by Yara's impassioned performance and Theon stepping up to the plate. I especially liked Yara making off with a good portion of the Ironborn fleet - it would've been lame as shit if she had just run off with one ship. Hopefully she makes for Dany before Euron does.
- Arya: wow, her scene at the play was powerful. The look of disgust as she's watching the obscene parody of how the Wot5Ks started was great.
- Jorah's tearful goodbye: he's unlikely to find a cure, right? But I hope he does.
- Varys and Kinvara. Yeesh.

[Knife]

Agree with Vympel.

On Jorrah, not sure what's left for him. He is kind of the fifth wheel now. He can be the noble sacrifice at some point in the future, throwing himself in front of some danger for Danny and die. He can wander to stumble across some other portion of the plot to contribute. Or just end his story line and the reader/watcher just never know's what happens to him.

No sure which one I would prefer.

[Guardsman Bass]

Jorah might be the way that Tyrion learns about Daenerys heading west with an army, although it would be a fine end for his story if he simply wandered off into the sunset. That said, given how prescient Kinvara is with magic, Tyrion might not need Jorah to know that.

The main problem I have with Euron's speech (aside from it being less dramatic, especially without the dragon horn) is that if he's willing to straight up admit that he murdered his brother, then why did he bother with the secrecy of pushing him off the bridge? Kinslaying and Kingslaying just aren't what they used to be in Westeros.

Holy shit, we saw Lord Rickard Stark!

Yep. No Brandon Stark, though.

[Knife]

Well the only place I could imagine Kin/Kingslaying being, perhaps not normal, acceptable would be the iron isles.

[TheFeniX]

Poor Hodor. Not only does Bran leave you to your death, he retroactively mind-fucks you as a teenager in the process. The implications of this kind of power are pretty staggering, but it seems like if Bran was going to do something else timey-whimey with it, we'd have already seen the results. Though, the paradox created is pretty weird.

Well the only place I could imagine Kin/Kingslaying being, perhaps not normal, acceptable would be the iron isles.

You'd think if Balon was so universally reviled or commanded so little respect that no one would kill/arrest Euron on the spot AND he was able to get into "throw king over bridge" distance with no one knowing about it: someone else would have offed Balon a while back and have a moot well before Euron showed up to the party.

When the moot was originally going to start, the only viable Greyjoy was a woman. So, no other players with a claim were planning on making a move? No one who just missed their shot at being King spoke up? Theon was an actual heir and they treated him like shit for not being raised on the Iron Islands. He had to be baptized and then prove himself before anyone gave a damn about him and his men still tossed him to the wolves when things went South.

Euron shows up and it's all: "yea, let's follow this outsider who murdered the king and who's been everywhere but here while his brothers fought and died. He gives fancy speeches."

If they had such little respect for names/titles, why is Euron their go-to guy? Keep what you kill?

[Crown]

Great episode, but the Brienne and Sansa scene just stole it for me;

Brienne: I don't feel comfortable leaving you here alone.
Sansa: With Jon?
Brienne: Not him, he seems trustworthy. A bit brooding perhaps, which is understandable...

[Simon_Jester]

When the moot was originally going to start, the only viable Greyjoy was a woman. So, no other players with a claim were planning on making a move? No one who just missed their shot at being King spoke up? Theon was an actual heir and they treated him like shit for not being raised on the Iron Islands. He had to be baptized and then prove himself before anyone gave a damn about him and his men still tossed him to the wolves when things went South.

Euron shows up and it's all: "yea, let's follow this outsider who murdered the king and who's been everywhere but here while his brothers fought and died. He gives fancy speeches."

If they had such little respect for names/titles, why is Euron their go-to guy? Keep what you kill?

In the books, Euron proved that all his raiding and reaving and piracy had allowed him to achieve glory and earn huge piles of loot. If Euron has a reputation who brings his followers wealth and power, people might well follow him over other candidates, including others with a more legitimate hereditary (claim to the) throne.

[General Zod]

If they had such little respect for names/titles, why is Euron their go-to guy? Keep what you kill?

Maybe that's what they meant by the iron price.

[TheFeniX]

In the books, Euron proved that all his raiding and reaving and piracy had allowed him to achieve glory and earn huge piles of loot. If Euron has a reputation who brings his followers wealth and power, people might well follow him over other candidates, including others with a more legitimate hereditary (claim to the) throne.

That makes... a bit more sense. But pirating isn't the same as leading armies. My problem is that Euron gets his support by planning to hitch his wagon to the Dragon Queen. Didn't Balon bitch Theon out for proposing this way back WRT Rob Stark? Something to the effect that they'll take the crown, not have it given to him? So.... a Targaryn woman from a family that conquered Westeros and (maybe indirectly, can't recall if it was even mentioned) turned the Greyjoys (and by extension Ironborn) into a joke beholden to the Starks.... we're going to give her ships and she's going to make Euron King in the North or something? Not very Ironborn. Maybe he plans to negotiate a marriage? Um, don't Ironborn just take what they want?

How is that plan from the guy who committed regicide and kinslaying somehow get more "hooras" than one where they build ships and take Westeros on their own? Eurons plan is actually less idiotic, but the Ironborn seemed to be morons, so they should be going with Yara.

Either way, his first act as king (beside not dieing as from what little I know of salt water drowning, he would be pretty fucked up from the whole ordeal) is to order the murder of more of his kin. It's telling how strong the stupid is with all of them considering Theon and Yara had no choice but to flee and somehow got enough loyalist to flee with a bunch of ships. I mean, they'd have been better served showing up with those men to kill Euron at his sweet sixteen, because obviously killing kings is just the latest fad in high society, but you can't have everything. That anyone was surprised at the theft was hilarious.

At least the Ironborn plot is interesting to watch, unlike Dorne. It makes just about as little sense, but at least I have a semblance of emotion. I feel for Yara even though she's scum, but then I wonder why she would want to lead a bunch of morons who turn on her the instant another Greyjoy shows up.

[Napoleon the Clown]

The Iron Islands seem to be populated with a bunch of crazy fucks that strongly agree with the idea of the strongest, most badass individuals being in authority. If any group gives no shits about kin slaying it'd be them.

Fantastic acting out of Sam Coleman, the kid who played Young Wylis. Conleth Hill (Varys) put in a damn good performance, too. His... distaste for magic was really showing during his initial interactions, but it was replaced with horror the more the Red Priestess said about his past. He may have had his doubts about the talents of the Lord of the Light, but at this point he definitely knows the worshipers have magical abilities. I can't see him being at all happy about getting involved with this, going forward.

Yara being able to rally enough people to make off with that many ships indicates that she's got a great deal of support. With that many she probably could have just killed Y'arrr-on Greyjoy, but maybe she didn't want to throw their lives away. With the headstart she has, she can go to whoever she damn well pleases and have plenty of defenses ready and waiting.

My wife said she knew there was a reason she didn't like the Brann plot in the books. Another character has been added to her list of fictional deaths she'll never get over. Hodor was just so damned nice!