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

[TheFeniX]

Robb Stark seems to do the honorable thing without regard for consequences... and to not think ahead about what honor will require him to do.

From Here. Scroll down to "In the books" in case you don't know the difference between the Book and Show. This will contain spoilers, but I don't know if anyone cares at this point.

That's why I never liked the Show explanation of him marrying random battlefield nurse girl. His father is dead, his brothers murdered, his sisters hostages, his "brother" a betrayer, his home burned and conquered. He has an army to lead, thousands depend on him for their lives. His entire family legacy is at stake.

And he's like "I've be prepared my whole life to marry for position, not love, to make sacrifices for my people and I will..... Holy shit that is a nice piece of ass: later bitches!" It was so dumb. I hated that portrayal so much and couldn't believe that's how Martin wrote him... until my wife explained what happened in the books. He was played for a chump. In the Show, he played himself for a chump and fucking ruined the character (for me).

Ned would probably have done more to keep Karstark's loyalty, and if all else failed simply sent him away to some place he wouldn't have access to key noble prisoners that he might want to take revenge on.

We honestly don't know that. We can assume Ned would take to more measured decisions, but Karstark disobeyed orders and murdered "valuable" prisoners of war. Children at that, this opening up retribution on his own sisters, which likely only did not happen because they were "lesser Lannisters" and Arya (if they had her) and Sansa were too damned valuable to murder.

[Simon_Jester]

Robb Stark seems to do the honorable thing without regard for consequences... and to not think ahead about what honor will require him to do.

From Here. Scroll down to "In the books" in case you don't know the difference between the Book and Show. This will contain spoilers, but I don't know if anyone cares at this point.

That's why I never liked the Show explanation of him marrying random battlefield nurse girl. His father is dead, his brothers murdered, his sisters hostages, his "brother" a betrayer, his home burned and conquered. He has an army to lead, thousands depend on him for their lives. His entire family legacy is at stake.

And he's like "I've be prepared my whole life to marry for position, not love, to make sacrifices for my people and I will..... Holy shit that is a nice piece of ass: later bitches!" It was so dumb. I hated that portrayal so much and couldn't believe that's how Martin wrote him... until my wife explained what happened in the books. He was played for a chump. In the Show, he played himself for a chump and fucking ruined the character (for me).

It's not that I don't know what happened. I guess what I'm getting at is... Robb feels like he has to marry the Distracting Girl, whether the girl in question is Talisa or Jeyne. He can't settle for, say, carrying on an affair with her (hardly unprecedented in aristocracies, and something I suspect Walder Frey could have stomached).

Whether Distracting Girl is being dragged in front of Robb's nose to tempt him into breaking his promises to the Freys or not is sort of beside the point for this purpose. Robb still has the same character defect, which is failure to restrain himself from ending up in situations where he will feel compelled to take a stupid action.

Ned seems to have had the same problem but to a lesser degree.

Ned would probably have done more to keep Karstark's loyalty, and if all else failed simply sent him away to some place he wouldn't have access to key noble prisoners that he might want to take revenge on.

We honestly don't know that. We can assume Ned would take to more measured decisions, but Karstark disobeyed orders and murdered "valuable" prisoners of war. Children at that, this opening up retribution on his own sisters, which likely only did not happen because they were "lesser Lannisters" and Arya (if they had her) and Sansa were too damned valuable to murder.

What I'm saying is, Ned would have had a much better chance of seeing this coming and somehow finding a way to avoid it before Karstark went completely off the rails and actually killed the Lannister prisoners. He might have tried and failed, but I think he would have tried. This is simply because we see, inside Ned's head in the books, that he is a character who reflects and thinks and tries to foresee what will happen as a result of his actions.

Robb doesn't seem to do that very much, though admittedly we only ever really see him through the lens of other people in the books, and in the show it's hard to know what people are really thinking except by their actions.

[The Vortex Empire]

In the novel, Victarion Greyjoy leads his fleet across the western ocean to Essos and does not sail around Westeros. I'm not clear on whether Asha did the same. I imagine so, though. Remember, Dany's traveled pretty far to the east herself just getting to the area around Meereen, and there's that whole "to go west you must go east" prophecy around her. Going around the world the long way would be very much her style.

What? No he doesn't, he sails south to the Shield Islands, along the Dornish coast, east to the Stepstones, the Isle of Cedars, and to Meereen. Nobody has ever returned from the West and nobody knows what's on the other side.

[Simon_Jester]

[blinks]

Maybe I'm misremembering, then. Excuse me.

[Vympel]

So I've been thinking about the missteps of the Season in evaluation Season 6 as a whole.

- Dorne: it seems like an age ago now, but who can forget that Episode 1 was marred by two scenes so patently absurd, so entirely opposed to pretty much all story telling logic and reason, so entirely offensive to the talented actor who was shuffled off, that GOT fans will be howling about the awfulness of GOT's Dorne plot from now until the end of time. Worse, the murder of Princess Myrcella has had no consequence at all - Cersei is not planning war on Dorne, and Jaime has done nothing.

- Arya: Arya's Faceless Men tangent came to a somewhat unsatisfying conclusion. While everyone knew that Arya would never be an FM, given that she hid Needle rather than tossing it in the sea, the execution was lacking. Great build-up in the mid-game is wasted in Arya's odd and oblivious behavior prior to the encounter with the Waif, her incredibly-survivable stabbing, and Lady Crane's implausible surgical skills. Further, Jaquen just lets her go for reasons that are unclear. His comment that she is finally "no one" doesn't make sense, either.

- Re-introducing characters just to quickly kill them off: Blackfish, Osha and Rickon, anyone? Related:

- The North Doesn't Remember Shit: Apart from Lyanna Mormont, we see virtually nothing of the Northern houses rallying to the Stark cause. Sure, the Hornwoods and the Mazins did, but we didn't see it, and no one else bothered.

Further, the character assassination of House Umber remains hard to bear - was this created simply to piss fans off? Greatjon Umber was one of the show's most memorable characters, they even take care to remind us of the Umber's famous loyalty to the Starks, Smalljon refuses to swear an oath, Shaggydog's head is too small - but no, all the theorising about the Smalljon pulling a con on Ramsay is for naught - he's just a raving imbecile and a monster who'll give over an innocent young boy to the bastard son of the murderer of his rightful King - who killed who knows how many Umber men at the Twins - for totally spurious reasons that make no fucking sense at all, whether on a political or sentimental basis.

- Jaime's Arrested Development: Jaime spun his wheels for the majority of this season - doing nothing but being Cersei's shadow. Only at Riverrun was there a hint of Season 3 / early Season 4 Jaime. Unlikely that he'll do anything significant in Episode 10.

- Ramsay: ugh. So much has been said about him being a one-note, hyper competent villain who we hate rather than love to hate, I think I don't need to add much more. Shit simply falls into his lap all season, and almost everything he does works until it doesn't. Refer also to "the North Doesn't Remember Shit".

This is intended to be a somewhat evolving post which I'll add to in subsequent iterations, based on other's thoughts / contributions / things I've forgotten.

[Guardsman Bass]

Daenerys is not going around the world. When she has the prophecy, at least some of it has already been fulfilled - she's traveled far into the east in order to "go west" already (as in going east as part of her journey before that convinces her to head west).

It's not that I don't know what happened. I guess what I'm getting at is... Robb feels like he has to marry the Distracting Girl, whether the girl in question is Talisa or Jeyne. He can't settle for, say, carrying on an affair with her (hardly unprecedented in aristocracies, and something I suspect Walder Frey could have stomached).

I think it made more sense in the books, where Jeyne was the daughter of a noble but now much weakened old Westerlands family. He felt like he'd besmirched her honor, which would be more potent of a thing for him than if he just hooked up with a random nobody.

Honestly, Walder Frey probably could have stomached Robb breaking the marriage pact in order to marry someone more powerful, as long as he was then mollified over it. The pact was extorted from Robb anyways when Walder Frey refused the summons of his liege lord, and Frey's somewhat shrewd politically - he'd understand. I think it more pissed him off that Robb broke the pact for a daughter who brought nothing to their alliance and was sworn to their enemy on top of it.

So I've been thinking about the missteps of the Season in evaluation Season 6 as a whole.

The showrunners seem to care more about spectacle and "results" versus themes, character development, and plot consistency. That showed up a lot this season, where you can almost the checklist that the show-runners were checking off as the show progressed - "Okay, so we've got to have Jon and Sansa take Winterfell, Jon comes back to life, Cersei does stuff in King's Landing, the Dornish go into rebellion so they can side with Daenerys later on, and so on". And so you end up with all kinds of stuff being tossed aside for spectacle purposes and because they don't really care as much how they get there as long as they get there.

- Ramsay: ugh. So much has been said about him being a one-note, hyper competent villain who we hate rather than love to hate, I think I don't need to add much more. Shit simply falls into his lap all season, and almost everything he does works until it doesn't. Refer also to "the North Doesn't Remember Shit".

They put all of his awfulness in the wrong part of the season, too. Ramsay's awfulness should have come as part of the build-up to the "Battle of the Bastards", so that when it finally happens we're relieved and thrilled to see him go down. Instead they had all his awfulness in the first couple episodes, at which point he drops off the face of the show until the battle episode.

As for the whole "North Remembers", they did at least include the scenes with Lyanna Mormont. But I guess they went with the other stuff so they could make the stakes seem even higher, Jon and Sansa's win even more unlikely . . . even thought we all know there's no chance that Ramsay is going to win the battle, and that the Vale forces are going to show up "Riders of Rohan" style once they've telegraphed that they're heading north.

[Kingmaker]

Something that's been increasingly bothering me: "The North Remembers" isn't just a badass slogan, it's a thematic vindication of Ned Stark over Tywin Lannister and Roose Bolton. Tywin and Roose are ruthless and unprincipled, but we see in ADWD and AFFC that whatever short-term results that brings, it bites them in the ass in the long run. Tywin rules through threats, and, the moment he's gone, everything he's worked for basically turns to shit. Roose gets to be Lord Paramount of the North, but he's perpetually paranoid, rightfully doubting the loyalty of his subjects.

Meanwhile, Dead Ned has people willing to fight and die in his family's name despite House Stark being apparently reduced to a twelve-year old girl and a bastard monk. Even in the Riverlands, Stark loyalists hang on for a long time despite their cause being totally dead. Sort of tell you who had their followers' confidence and who didn't.

In the show, we get none of that. If anything, we get a repudiation of those themes. All but a few Stark bannermen desert them, so they're forced to rely on wildlings motivated by self-preservation and another unprincipled schemer to reclaim what's theirs.

Walder Frey probably could have stomached Robb breaking the marriage pact in order to marry someone more powerful

I don't know. Walder Frey is both a disloyal, opportunistic shitbag and incredibly prickly. He might understand, but he also wouldn't give a shit. He's been stewing over perceived insults for decades and has a history of not following through on his commitments when they don't benefit him. Factor in the pretty strong evidence that Roose was planning to betray Robb as soon as the opportunity presented itself, and I think, marriage or not, the only way Walder Frey stays loyal to Robb is if Robb is very clearly the only safe choice. So I suppose in a sense, yes, he could stomach it, because the best way to keep Walder Frey loyal is to make sure you're the winning bet.

[wautd]

Nah, it's all good. Especially the Rickon scene - come on, no way he's making it out of this alive (they'd have to keep paying his actor). You knew he was going to get killed by an arrow at the last second.

.

Actually I was afraid that Ramsay would release the hounds. The arrow was "humane"

[Vympel]

Something that's been increasingly bothering me: "The North Remembers" isn't just a badass slogan, it's a thematic vindication of Ned Stark over Tywin Lannister and Roose Bolton. Tywin and Roose are ruthless and unprincipled, but we see in ADWD and AFFC that whatever short-term results that brings, it bites them in the ass in the long run. Tywin rules through threats, and, the moment he's gone, everything he's worked for basically turns to shit. Roose gets to be Lord Paramount of the North, but he's perpetually paranoid, rightfully doubting the loyalty of his subjects.

Meanwhile, Dead Ned has people willing to fight and die in his family's name despite House Stark being apparently reduced to a twelve-year old girl and a bastard monk. Even in the Riverlands, Stark loyalists hang on for a long time despite their cause being totally dead. Sort of tell you who had their followers' confidence and who didn't.

In the show, we get none of that. If anything, we get a repudiation of those themes. All but a few Stark bannermen desert them, so they're forced to rely on wildlings motivated by self-preservation and another unprincipled schemer to reclaim what's theirs.

Very true. Agreed (there was Lord Cerwyn last season who told Ramsay that "the Warden of the North would always be a Stark, and he would be damned if he was going to lick a traitor's boot" but of course Ramsay killed him).

The bizarre thing is that Lord Manderly has been cast this season and is (was??) supposed to have a dramatic speech where he suddenly changes allegiance - but what purpose would that serve in Episode 10? He'd basically be the Late Lord Frey of the North, committing to neither side until the battle was done.

[LaCroix]

They should call this show the "Game of what's a fucking shield?"

Honestly. Even though we have two instances of seeing people TRAINED to properly use shields, whenever we see someone in a fight who actually carries one, he just carries it around to show a sign.
Or drop them for no reason.

Hey Jon, we're going into a battle with someone who has a lot more archers than we, has cavalry and stuff. We're practically unarmored. Any idea?
What? Something stupid like a man portable wooden wall strapped to their arms? Nah...
Hey Jon, Wun-Wun is a pretty big lumbering target for archers, shouldn't we like, take a door and attach a handle to it so he doesn't look like a porcupine?
You mean like a huge shield? And maybe a small tree as a club? Nah, don't be a wuss - I have plot armor and a magic sword, I'm good.

I was almost rooting for the Boltons to fucking slaughter them all just for being the first ones with actual infantry tactics beyond "Leeroy Jenkins"...

Also, all medieval armor is made of papermache. Obviously, in most of Westeros, armor is worn to look sharp on the battlefield, not for protective reasons. The Lannisters only win a lot because theirs is the most shiny.

[Elfdart]

That's why I never liked the Show explanation of him marrying random battlefield nurse girl. His father is dead, his brothers murdered, his sisters hostages, his "brother" a betrayer, his home burned and conquered. He has an army to lead, thousands depend on him for their lives. His entire family legacy is at stake.

And he's like "I've be prepared my whole life to marry for position, not love, to make sacrifices for my people and I will..... Holy shit that is a nice piece of ass: later bitches!" It was so dumb. I hated that portrayal so much and couldn't believe that's how Martin wrote him... until my wife explained what happened in the books. He was played for a chump. In the Show, he played himself for a chump and fucking ruined the character (for me).

I can see how he went for her -and in part it's because his family is scattered and his father is dead. He's a young man and this beautiful thing walks into his life:



She even looks stunning with other people's blood smeared on her face.


If Robb's being smitten seems farfetched, keep in mind that in real life, Edward IV ended up causing the male line of the House of York to be killed off by marrying Elizabeth Woodville against the wishes of his advisors and tearing up an arranged marriage with the daughter of the king of France:

Ned would probably have done more to keep Karstark's loyalty, and if all else failed simply sent him away to some place he wouldn't have access to key noble prisoners that he might want to take revenge on.

We honestly don't know that. We can assume Ned would take to more measured decisions, but Karstark disobeyed orders and murdered "valuable" prisoners of war. Children at that, this opening up retribution on his own sisters, which likely only did not happen because they were "lesser Lannisters" and Arya (if they had her) and Sansa were too damned valuable to murder.

Ned was Team Stannis, so this King of the North bullshit (Karstark was right: Robb is The King Who Lost The North) wouldn't even be up for discussion.

[Ziggy Stardust]

Meh, I don't get a lot of the complaining about the Northern lords not rallying behind Jon Snow (though I do agree that the Umbers should have been better handled). But I think the show (particularly Davos, in one scene) explained this pretty well. I mean, Jon Snow is a bastard and Sansa is legally a Bolton at this point, and they have no army besides a rag-tag group of Wildlings. Not only do the Northern lords have a well-known hatred for Wildlings, but besides that Davos (and others) make it pretty clear that they are afraid of the Boltons, and don't see the benefit in risking getting flayed alive to back what for all intents and purposes is a doomed attempt at a coup. I'm sure more Northern lords would have rallied to the Stark banner if they knew that the Vale would come with their army and that victory was actually within grasp, but without that knowledge Snow's plan seems like it is doomed from the start, so why risk yourself for that, considering how much blood these lords already shed for Robb, and given that Jon isn't even a real Stark anyway? More scenes of them meeting with Northern lords would have just ground the pace of the season down, and I feel like they justified what was going on pretty well in what scenes they did show.

Yeah, yeah, the North remembers, but a major theme of the show is how fragile the old ways, old traditions, and old loyalties really are. (That said, I DO wish they had given the Umbers more of a logical reason for helping the Boltons out than they did, but I think the non-intervention of the other houses is far from inexplicable)

[Kingmaker]

I was almost rooting for the Boltons to fucking slaughter them all just for being the first ones with actual infantry tactics

Even that was pretty silly. "Send in the cavalry head on, and have the pikemen circle around to trap them."

"Sire, wouldn't it make more sense to have pikemen engage their front while the cavalry flank them?"

"If we do that, they'll never get mixed up in a chaotic melee and I won't have an excuse to shoot my own men in the back."

"Ah, yes. Very good, my lord. I'll tell the pikemen to get moving. It will take them some time to get out to the middle of the field."

[TheFeniX]

I can see how he went for her -and in part it's because his family is scattered and his father is dead. He's a young man and this beautiful thing walks into his life:

Yea, she's stupidly hot. The scene where she was naked on the bed, ass-up, gave me a half-stock. However, banging her, at least for me, wouldn't mean breaking a political agreement that gave me "loyalty," access to The Twin, and (later) Frey soldiers I desperately needed. And he didn't even just bang her in a moment of weakness. He was smitten, courted her, fell in love, and married her because of that. Also, the out-of-this-world ass.

Robb snubbing Frey like that was suicidal and he dishonored himself and Frey in doing so. Rob never came off as that callous, especially considering his father.

If Robb's being smitten seems farfetched, keep in mind that in real life, Edward IV ended up causing the male line of the House of York to be killed off by marrying Elizabeth Woodville against the wishes of his advisors and tearing up an arranged marriage with the daughter of the king of France:

Was he in as precarious a position as Robb was, political and military-wise? I don't know. It just didn't fit with Rob for me. As a moment of weakness, sure. But as an actual court-ship? No.

Ned was Team Stannis, so this King of the North bullshit (Karstark was right: Robb is The King Who Lost The North) wouldn't even be up for discussion.

No argument here.

[Elfdart]

I'm not sure I agree with your interpretation.

Killing Jaime wouldn't necessarily have done Robb much good- Sansa would be dead to relatively little purpose.

Let's rewind the tape to before Jamie gets turned loose: Jamie is dead; Sansa is almost certainly dead. Karstark doesn't kill the kids, isn't beheaded and his men don't desert. That means Robb doesn't have to go groveling to Frey for more troops. In other words, no Red Wedding. Robb's dithering with regards to Jamie -neither killing nor releasing him- is what brought him down.

Now, Robb keeping his word to marry a Frey would have done more good, and might well have averted the whole disaster even if Jaime escaped.

This was a blunder, but if he had killed Jamie or swapped him for Sansa it wouldn't have mattered, especially if his plan to take Casterly Rock had worked. Even if that failed, he would have been able to go back north and deal with Theon and GRS himself.

Jon wasn't stupid; Ramsay hit his berserk button by killing his kid brother in front of him. Jon's a good guy and Ramsay knew the buttons to push

You're right. Going berserk when you're in charge of a couple of thousand men isn't stupid.

It's fucking retarded.

[Simon_Jester]

Hardly unprecedented, though. Army commanders making rash decisions isn't new, and Jon is something-teen years old.

I'm not sure I agree with your interpretation.

Killing Jaime wouldn't necessarily have done Robb much good- Sansa would be dead to relatively little purpose.

Let's rewind the tape to before Jamie gets turned loose: Jamie is dead; Sansa is almost certainly dead. Karstark doesn't kill the kids, isn't beheaded and his men don't desert. That means Robb doesn't have to go groveling to Frey for more troops. In other words, no Red Wedding. Robb's dithering with regards to Jamie -neither killing nor releasing him- is what brought him down.

Robb doesn't know Karstark will kill the prisoners or that his men will desert. He does know that killing Jaime is a death sentence for his sister, and that Jaime is, in point of fact, a valuable hostage.

Sure, with perfect hindsight we can pretend to know that matters would have unfolded more favorably for Robb if he'd just decided to let his own sister* die and killed a prisoner who had major political value as basically the only form of meaningful leverage the Starks would ever be able to exert over Tywin Lannister.

But I don't think we can reasonably say that this was certain enough to call Robb an idiot for not knowingly pursuing a dishonorable course of action that would have signed his sister's death warrant in exchange for uncertain benefits.
_____

*Note that as far as Robb knows, Sansa may be his only living relative aside from his mother, if Theon's already taken Winterfell.

Now, Robb keeping his word to marry a Frey would have done more good, and might well have averted the whole disaster even if Jaime escaped.

This was a blunder, but if he had killed Jamie or swapped him for Sansa it wouldn't have mattered, especially if his plan to take Casterly Rock had worked. Even if that failed, he would have been able to go back north and deal with Theon and GRS himself.

This is debateable anyway.

The Lannisters would have had reason to conspire to bring him down whether Jaime was alive or dead, and whether Sansa was in or out of their hands. If he leaves a resentful Walder Frey behind him, betrayal is likely the next time he ever has reason to cross the river at the Twins.

[ArmorPierce]

*Note that as far as Robb knows, Sansa may be his only living relative aside from his mother, if Theon's already taken Winterfell.

And his brother Jon Snow, who he apparently in the books had named him his heir.

[Simon_Jester]

[blinks]

Sorry, I'd honestly not thought about Jon.

Still, the point I was making remains. If you're an adolescent who's lost his father, his two kid brothers, and possibly one of his sisters, such that so far as you know only half your immediate family is still alive... You really are not going to be strongly inclined to write off one of your remaining relatives, especially in exchange for vague and nebulous possibility of advantage.

[Vympel]

And he's like "I've be prepared my whole life to marry for position, not love, to make sacrifices for my people and I will..... Holy shit that is a nice piece of ass: later bitches!" It was so dumb. I hated that portrayal so much and couldn't believe that's how Martin wrote him... until my wife explained what happened in the books. He was played for a chump. In the Show, he played himself for a chump and fucking ruined the character (for me).

The book's version is hardly much different from the show. I'm not sure how your wife explained it, but in the book Robb is as responsible for his decision as he is in the show. He's hardly excused because someone decided to put a girl in front of him as opposed to her falling out of the sky on the battlefield.

There's a bit more of a degree of understanding for Robb in the book because he knew (wrongly) that Bran and Rickon had been killed by Theon.

[TheFeniX]

The book's version is hardly much different from the show. I'm not sure how your wife explained it, but in the book Robb is as responsible for his decision as he is in the show. He's hardly excused because someone decided to put a girl in front of him as opposed to her falling out of the sky on the battlefield.

My wife's description matches up from what I've read in the wiki. Jeyne comforts Robb when he gets news of his brother's murder and Theon's betrayal and they end up in the sack. They had feelings for each other before-hand, but there's a large difference (at least to me) between comfort sex and getting all mushy and blowing off your commitments because some girl makes you feel all tingly in your boy parts.

Book Robb may have had feelings for Jeyne, but his decision to sleep with her was out of grief and he married her out of guilt/honor. Show Robb was just a walking erection the second he met Talisa and portrayed an otherwise competent young man as someone who couldn't control his boner. So, I can buy Robb having a stumble that snowballs and dealing with the consequences of that. But I don't see him slow-walking into deep waters when it's being explained to him how stupid he's being.

I will grant that at least Show Robb slept with Talisa before they married (not that it's a good thing for him) due to (IIRC) the bullshit with Jamie being released and him dealing with betrayal from his mother. So, the same general theme is there, but forgetting your honor because you're a momma's boy? I wont deny it's a pure argument of taste on my part, but they should have stuck with the book explanation. The death of Robb's brothers makes a much more sympathetic catalyst.

[Elfdart]

Predictions:

1) Fearing a guilty verdict, Cersei turns The Mountain loose and kills not only the Sparrows, but Tommen, Kevin, Lancel and everyone else he can get his mailed hands on.

2) Jamie is killed trying to reach King's Landing -maybe by the Brothers, maybe by Sparrows, maybe by the few remaining Blackfish retainers. At this point, the Lannister male line is effectively dead, like the Plantagenets after Bosworth.

3) Danerys finally loads up the ships for the trip to Dorne.

4) Sansa puts the Pimp in the friend zone, then kills him.

5) Arya was in the cathedral for a while before Jaquen showed up. She stole several faces and is going to use them to finish off Cersei, Melissandre and others on her list. But first she also boards a ship for Westeros.

6) Davos confronts the Red Witch, who flees Winterfell.

7) The Hound, Obi-Wan and Thoros attack the Freys, freeing Riverrun POWs to go north to fight.

8 ) Bran, Meera and Benjen make it to the Wall, but the undead breach the gates in hot pursuit.

9) Gendry finally stops rowing.

10) The Wildlings discover the use of helmets, armor and shields and actually USE THEM! Giving them an advantage over the wights.

11) Sam uncovers a secret weapon in the Wizard School -one that can be used against the wights- and convinces his dad to quit being an asshole and to lead men to go north to defend the Wall.

12) Euron, making use of GRS' skeleton powers, pulls an entire fleet of ships right out of his ass in record time and moves to intercept Danerys' ships at sea. En route, he lays waste to the home of the Great Santini, leaving him with nothing better to do than to lead men to fight in the North.

13) Gargamel and Cersei incite the Westeros version of the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre, only with extra helpings of green napalm.

14) Pussy Northern Lords start rallying to Sansa and Jon, now that GRS is dead.

15) Brienne and Pod make it back to Winterfell just in time to kill Littlefinger.

[JLTucker]

A fantastic episode to end the best season of the series.

All of the deaths were satisfying to me except for Margery's. It's interesting to note the similarity between Cersei's use of the wildfire and the Aerys targaryn's threats to use it before Jaime killed him. I am hoping for a Queenslayer soon. Cersei never loved her kids, in my opinion. She only wanted power and she finally has it and at a terrible cost.

[The Vortex Empire]

Yeah I'm done with this show, The Winds of Winter and A Dream of Spring cannot come fast enough.

[JLTucker]

I forgot to mention a downside to this season: showing the passage of time has not been great. Varys got back to Mereen with ease and Arya to Westeros. I am glad things are speeding up, but there's not much on screen to show that a lot of time has elapsed. It's like with the American adaptation of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, we're supposed to just accept that things happened over the course of months.

[Darth Yan]

Except that the books are probably going to be long and drawn out. I cited that vox article because it cuts the unnecessary fat (Doran's arc, Arianne's Arc, Fake Aegon's Arc, and Victarion's arc were fucking pointless). AFFC and ADWD were needlessly bloated and poorly written, with actions that could have taken one chapter taking 5, no real action occurring other than "characters go someplace, have a think, and leave."

In that regards the show is inifinitely superior. It gets things wrongs but in some ways that's largely george's fault, introducing pointless characters rather than focusing on the endgame. The series could be wrapped up in SIX books if he really wanted it and hadn't needlessly made Fake Aegon