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

[Abacus]

Practical, to stop them being nicked. Books are waaay more valuable in a medieval society.

There are some medieval chained libraries still in existance.

Bing! Correct. NL has it in one. Books were a precious rarity at one point.

[FireNexus]

The more I think about Arya's execution of Walder Frey, the more it annoys me. It's a cool-looking scene, but it really feels like the show putting a "wouldn't it be cool?" scene first that doesn't work quite as well when you look at it deeper. "Arya making it over super-fast" doesn't bother me quite so much, because there's an implication that the storylines are not happening simultaneously in the TV series (and definitely not in the books). But did she murder an innocent maid to steal her face and infiltrate, even despite balking at murdering Lady Crane earlier on? Did she commandeer a kitchen in order to bake Frey Pie?

I got the impression she took it with her when she left the house of black and white.

[Guardsman Bass]

Nice of the Faceless Men to not only let her leave with their secrets, but also take a few souvenirs when she left.

[Ziggy Stardust]

Nice of the Faceless Men to not only let her leave with their secrets, but also take a few souvenirs when she left.

I mean, the show SEEMS to be implying that whatever Arya is doing now is exactly what the Faceless Men wanted her to do, anyway. What exactly that entails is unclear. The show has been rather frustratingly silent on exposition regarding the Faceless Men.

[Lord Revan]

Nice of the Faceless Men to not only let her leave with their secrets, but also take a few souvenirs when she left.

I mean, the show SEEMS to be implying that whatever Arya is doing now is exactly what the Faceless Men wanted her to do, anyway. What exactly that entails is unclear. The show has been rather frustratingly silent on exposition regarding the Faceless Men.

The thing with the Faceless Men is that you also don't want to know too much of them either since good chunk of what makes them intresting is the mystery of them.

[Sinewmire]

I mean, the show SEEMS to be implying that whatever Arya is doing now is exactly what the Faceless Men wanted her to do, anyway. What exactly that entails is unclear. The show has been rather frustratingly silent on exposition regarding the Faceless Men.

I got the impression they wanted her to A) abandon her identity and B) kill people for money at the behest of their temple.

They've failed at both. I get the impression that they quite like her though. As for the face... I think she took one, and replaced it with the Waif's face.

[FaxModem1]

Personally, I'm starting to think there is only one Faceless man, and the whole place is running on clever tricks and illusions to make them seem like a bigger deal than they are.

[Napoleon the Clown]

The more I think about Arya's execution of Walder Frey, the more it annoys me. It's a cool-looking scene, but it really feels like the show putting a "wouldn't it be cool?" scene first that doesn't work quite as well when you look at it deeper. "Arya making it over super-fast" doesn't bother me quite so much, because there's an implication that the storylines are not happening simultaneously in the TV series (and definitely not in the books). But did she murder an innocent maid to steal her face and infiltrate, even despite balking at murdering Lady Crane earlier on? Did she commandeer a kitchen in order to bake Frey Pie?

Oh well. Another one of Those Things where they're checking off boxes.

Walder Frey commented that Disguised Arya wasn't one of their serving girls. Also, Arya never learned the technique to properly preparing a face to be used as a disguise. She almost definitely made off with one or more faces when she left Braavos, and it was commented by a writer that whatever trace of individuality is left in JJ was happy to see Arya kill the Waif and get the fuck out of there.

We don't know what game the Faceless Men are playing when it comes to Arya. It could be that at this point they figure letting her get revenge on people will sever the ties that have been holding her back all this time. At which point she can truly become "no one." At this point she's definitely not the Arya Stark that left Winterfell lord knows how long ago. This is running heavily into speculation territory, but way back JJ said that she wasn't ready to become no one, but perhaps she was ready to become "someone." It's entirely possible (though unlikely) that this is an alternative means of that.

If they really had wanted Arya dead when she refused to kill Lady Crane they probably would have sent someone other than the Waif after her. The Waif is relatively green, hot-headed, and obviously wanted to make Arya suffer.

Way I see it, there are two options: Either the Faceless Men are playing a long game with regards to Arya, or the writers don't give a damn about what the FM should logically do about someone stealing from them and shit.

[Lord Revan]

Personally, I'm starting to think there is only one Faceless man, and the whole place is running on clever tricks and illusions to make them seem like a bigger deal than they are.

there's certainly some level of tricks and illusions involved to make them seem more intimidating regardless of the exact number of people involved.

[Simon_Jester]

That's some pretty disastrous losses.

Not to mention other effects on the North due to the War of the Five Kings (or whatever it's being called now); the North got invaded and invading armies would have killed and pillaged their way across the North after Robb got ganked (along with most of his force) at the Red Wedding.

Really? I don't recall any significant invasion forces going north of Moat Cailin. The only invaders were the Ironborn, who certainly pillaged a number of settlements along the western coast but didn't do much else.

Spoiler I'm a bit confused though, wasn't wildfire suppose to be something you essentially cannot extinguish no matter what and it will consume everything in its path with that amount surely king's landing at very least should be smoking ruin with most likely a decent amount of surrounding country side having been burnt as well?

It's like some kind of super-napalm- it burns for longer than anything ought to be able to burn, and is impossible or nearly so to extinguish... but it doesn't burn forever. It eventually burns itself out. Witness Tyrion's use of the stuff to defeat Stannis' fleet.

I think Victarion may serve a purpose in that he is potentially antagonistic to Dany, is working at the behest of a magic-user who may bear Dany some ill will, and has a magical tool that could enslave her dragons.

Whereas Asha is very clearly on Dany's side and is not a threat to her.

I suspect the dusky woman which Euron gave Victarion (remember, Euron's gifts are poison) is actually Euron in disguise. This is why the dusky woman always hisses when she sees Moqorro, as red priests are shown to be able to work a glamor to disguise a person(Rattleshirt/Mance). Euron's using Victarion to sneak himself to Slaver's Bay, while everyone thinks he's back on Pyke. When the moment's perfect, he'll drop the glamor and reveal himself to Victarion and the Iron Fleet (breaking Victarion's mind in the process, when he realizes he's been confiding in, and having sex with, his brother for the last six or so months).

His brother whom he hates... okay yeah, that would certainly be a great 'horrible plot twist' moment.

Then again, Euron would have to spend the rest of his life among the Ironborn with "spent six months as a woman sleeping with his/her own brother" on his reputation... which is almost certainly not something Euron would be willing to do.

[Lord Revan]

Spoiler I'm a bit confused though, wasn't wildfire suppose to be something you essentially cannot extinguish no matter what and it will consume everything in its path with that amount surely king's landing at very least should be smoking ruin with most likely a decent amount of surrounding country side having been burnt as well?

It's like some kind of super-napalm- it burns for longer than anything ought to be able to burn, and is impossible or nearly so to extinguish... but it doesn't burn forever. It eventually burns itself out. Witness Tyrion's use of the stuff to defeat Stannis' fleet.

Well the thing what's mostly bothering me is that while the fleet was in water so there wasn't really anything besides the ships and wildfire to burn there so it would burn itself out rather quickly. However King's Landing is a city a lot of things to burn so such a large flame burst should have ignited the nearby houses (IIRC King's landing houses have wooden frames for everything but the Red Keep and sept of Balor, basically looked like a massive firebomb but acted like HE bomb

[MKSheppard]

Nice of the Faceless Men to not only let her leave with their secrets, but also take a few souvenirs when she left.

As I said earlier in a spoilered comment - Jaquen LET her leave, and let her take the masks with her.

Because he knows that a girl wants revenge, and that the only thing keeping a girl from being no one is revenge.

[MKSheppard]

Personally, I'm starting to think there is only one Faceless man, and the whole place is running on clever tricks and illusions to make them seem like a bigger deal than they are.

Can't be just one. If it was then they wouldn't have the reputation they have.

I think there's one permanently at the temple at all times, and a few others roving throughout Westeros at the same time (2 or 3).

Because otherwise, it'd be:

"Sorry, I'm in Westeros now, killing someone. Tell the client in Dorne that they need to wait two months for me to catch a boat back, kthx."

[MKSheppard]

Lyanna Mormont is the new Stannis meme

[Alferd Packer]

Lady Mormont, along with shipping the hell out of Brienne and Tormund, was the best surprise of this entire season. Jon should name her Hand of the King next year.

[Simon_Jester]

Well the thing what's mostly bothering me is that while the fleet was in water so there wasn't really anything besides the ships and wildfire to burn there so it would burn itself out rather quickly. However King's Landing is a city a lot of things to burn so such a large flame burst should have ignited the nearby houses (IIRC King's landing houses have wooden frames for everything but the Red Keep and sept of Balor, basically looked like a massive firebomb but acted like HE bomb

Yes, but a fire started among wooden buildings and spreading from there would be like any other fire- not magical and inextinguishable. It would be like any other random urban fire, and while such a fire would have the potential to burn down much of the city, it would also have the potential to cause 'merely' localized destruction around the sept of Baelor.

[MKSheppard]

Best comment so far on what's coming:

Her Unsullied Army and Dothraki Horde are both warm weather forces; but winter has come to Westeros. Daenerys has it all.................except for a winter capable army.

The Unsullied are really the only disciplined forces she has capable of really truly fighting. And there's not that many of them.

MOSCOW 1941-1942 / STALINGRAD 1942-43 AGAIN

[SCRawl]

Especially when I saw the Dothraki working shirtless on deck, I was thinking very much along Shep's lines. But she also has the Tyrells and the Dornish with her, and while they aren't exactly built for winter weather either, as long as they stay south of the Neck I think the weather shouldn't be as big a factor as it was for the WW2-era German army. It still looks to be pretty temperate in King's Landing, for example.

[FireNexus]

Does it seem pretty clear to anyone else that the fast travel in the past few episodes is about suddenly accelerating and possibly fragmenting the timeline? Anya's time among the Faceless Men, Jon's time in the North after Arya got dropped at Winterfell and pretty much everything that happened in Dorne don't all need to be quite in sync to work. It might just be lazy storytelling, but maybe there is some logic to it all that will become apparent?

[Lord Revan]

Well the thing what's mostly bothering me is that while the fleet was in water so there wasn't really anything besides the ships and wildfire to burn there so it would burn itself out rather quickly. However King's Landing is a city a lot of things to burn so such a large flame burst should have ignited the nearby houses (IIRC King's landing houses have wooden frames for everything but the Red Keep and sept of Balor, basically looked like a massive firebomb but acted like HE bomb

Yes, but a fire started among wooden buildings and spreading from there would be like any other fire- not magical and inextinguishable. It would be like any other random urban fire, and while such a fire would have the potential to burn down much of the city, it would also have the potential to cause 'merely' localized destruction around the sept of Baelor.

Potential sure but likehood not so much, fires much smaller then the wildfire cache igniting generally caused blazes that would burn down signifigant portions of towns/cities before modern firefighting methods were invented. Urban fires during the middle ages (which Game of Thrones more or less is technology wise) were a really "bad thing".

There's 2 ways I can see that they could have fixed that 1)have the sept collapse into itself instead of exploding in a big green fire pillar or 2) have there be random fires at kings landing when Jamie arrives so it seems that there wasn't an invisible forcefield just outside the sept that kept the damage from spreading.

[Ralin]

Then again, Euron would have to spend the rest of his life among the Ironborn with "spent six months as a woman sleeping with his/her own brother" on his reputation... which is almost certainly not something Euron would be willing to do.

I don't think Euron plans to spend the rest of his life among the Ironborn. Or indeed for there to be any Ironborn once he's done using them.

[The Vortex Empire]

Then again, Euron would have to spend the rest of his life among the Ironborn with "spent six months as a woman sleeping with his/her own brother" on his reputation... which is almost certainly not something Euron would be willing to do.

I don't think Euron plans to spend the rest of his life among the Ironborn. Or indeed for there to be any Ironborn once he's done using them.

After reading the new chapter Martin released from TWOW, I'm pretty sure Euron intends to ascend to Godhood.

[Simon_Jester]

Hm. I will confess I have not read that chapter, so you may well know things of which I am ignorant about the subject.

[Takes time to read that chapter]

Okay, I knew Euron was an evil lunatic, but perhaps had not quite grasped that he was that evil or that loony. That being said, I wouldn't count too much on the visions Aeron had under hallucinogens; they may well be symbolically accurate but I can't count on them to be literally accurate. Although I can easily believe that he doesn't plan to live among the Ironborn now that I've read that.

Even so, it's strongly implied that Euron sexually abused some of his brothers in that chapter... and I can't imagine the same Euron who did that disguising himself as Victarion's concubine, so I still think it'd be out of character.

[Ralin]

Are we going full on book discussion here? Guess I'll let a moderator tell me if I should stop.

Even so, it's strongly implied that Euron sexually abused some of his brothers in that chapter... and I can't imagine the same Euron who did that disguising himself as Victarion's concubine, so I still think it'd be out of character.

It was already implied by all the references to "the rusty creak of an iron-hinged door" or whatever the exact wording was when Aeron thinks about his brother, but this chapter pretty much confirmed it, yes.

[Thanas]

Yeah, no book discussion in here please.