The Game of Thrones season 6 finale was mostly incredible. There were big revelations. There was an awesome green explosion. There was lots of character development. And there was some of the best acting and music the series has ever known. After two viewings, I’m still trying to digest it all. Naturally, I’d love to hear your thoughts on this year’s finale. For my part, here are 11 observations to get things started.
[Raise your spoiler shields, please!]
1) The Music Was Brilliant: The first sequence of the Game of Thrones season 6 finale felt different from any other scene in the series, simply because of the music. Game of Thrones music is normally string-heavy, but this composition featured piano and cello. The score helped make the sequence feel unique and more powerful.
2) Pycelle’s Death Will Haunt Senior Citizens: I’m pretty sure most people over 65 have this nightmare — a gang of children pummeling you and stabbing you to death. Or maybe this is what makes Santa Claus wake up in a cold sweat in the North Pole.
3) Tommen Would’ve Been a Great Pro-Wrestler: What did you think of Tommen Lannister’s Game of Thrones season 6 finale exit? Some are saying that he fell out of the castle. Others are saying that he dove out of the castle (in which case, he lost points for not sticking the landing). I’m saying that he went for a swanton bomb. His “suicide dive” totally reminded me of Jeff Hardy’s swanton.
4) Cersei Has Gone Full Sith: Cersei Lannister borrowed one of Maleficent’s gowns and fully embraced the dark side in the Game of Thrones season 6 finale. Her one redeeming quality (aside from her cheekbones) was how much she loved her children. With all of her kids pushing up daisies she probably thought, “F*ck it. I’m going to rule everything!!!” In previous seasons, her plans were never as clever as she thought they were. At the end of this season, she was completely victorious.
5) Ned Stark’s Character is Still Being Developed: My heart melted during the Tower of Joy scene, where it was finally revealed that Jon Snow is not Ned Stark’s bastard and is really Lyanna Stark’s son. As fantastic as that reveal was, it really made me think about what an honorable man Ned was. He honored his sister’s last request, keeping an enormous secret from his wife and best friend. He (lightly) sullied his own name and let the world think that he disrespected his wife, all for Lyanna and her son.
Go back and watch the scenes from season 1 where someone bring’s up Jon’s parentage to Ned; you could tell the topic made him uncomfortable and those scenes feel even heavier with the official reveal.
6) Liam Cunningham, Actor: The scene with Davos Seaworth dressing down Melisandre was short, but boy was it heavy. Cunningham did the most with his time. You could feel Davos’ anger, anguish, and sorrow coming through. While it was “only” my second-favorite scene in the Game of Thrones season 6 finale, it was definitely the most skillfully acted one.
7) Samwell Tarly Has an Orgasm in the Library: Sam walking into the Citadel library reminded me of the scene in Beauty in the Beast where Belle sees Beast’s library…but taken to the next level. I’m certain Sam had a walking wet dream upon seeing the thousands of books at his disposal. Hopefully he does some research on white walkers and doesn’t get lost in trashy romance novels written by lonely maesters.
8) Lord Wyman Manderly Should’ve Been Fatter: Yes, the showrunners got a large man to play Manderly, but he wasn’t large enough. In the books, he’s derided as “Lord Too Fat to Sit a Horse.” Television Manderly could easily ride on a (sturdy) horse. This was my biggest disappointment with the Game of Thrones season 6 finale.
9) Lyanna Mormont Should Rule Westeros: With a thrashing speech, the 10-year old ruler of Bear Island united the squabbling northerners and got Jon Snow declared as the new KingInDaNorf King in the North. This was my favorite Game of Thrones season 6 finale scene on several levels. First, Lady Mormont owns and should be ruling Westeros. Secondly, Jon Snow’s KingInDaNorf King in the North moment mirrored Robb Stark’s nicely. Lastly, I loved the bit of uncertainty thrown in at the end when Sansa stops smiling as she exchanges looks with Littlefinger. Was Sansa happy to throw a wrench into his plans? Or does she want power of her own? I’m curious to see what games, if any, she’ll play next season. She shouldn’t get too ambitious though, because Lyanna Mormont will annihilate her with a glance.
10) Jaime’s Having Bad Flashbacks: The Kingslayer’s return to King’s Landing must’ve been quite a shock. (Let’s assume someone clued him into recent events on the way to the throne room.) He comes home to find that the last of his children died and his sisterlover went all Mad King Aerys. Remember, he’s ridiculed as the Kingslayer, but few people in Westeros know about Aerys’ vile wildfire plans. With his children gone and his sisterlover doing the exact thing he committed regicide for, this is a huge turning point for Jaime Lannister. I’m looking forward to his redemption angle next season. In fact, it wouldn’t surprise me if he ended becoming a Queenslayer as well. That would arguably fit into Maggy the Frog’s prophecy for Cersei.
11) Team Targaryen is Ready to Rock Westeros: Daenerys and Varys are fantastic recruiters. Just look at that fleet at the end of the show. You’ve got the Unsullied, Dothraki, and three dragons flying under the Targaryen banner. They’re joined by boats and troops from House Tyrell, House Martell, and House Greyjoy. While Cersei Lannister is sitting pretty in King’s Landing at the end of the Game of Thrones season 6 finale, a formidable force is coming for her from the east. I can’t wait for next season’s battles!
VERY strong season finale. I will agree that the beginning of the episode was done very well with the piano and cello music. I will admit that I initially thought the Mountain was going to throw Tommen out of the window instead of just detaining him. I’m more than certain that Tommen knew why he was being detained.
Cersei’s revenge on the Septa was very twisted. The confessions plus inviting Ser Gregor in to have his way with her was something the Mad Queen would do.
Cersei looked amazing in her new Sith Lannister gear. I was kind of surprised the shoulders were silver instead of gold. Oh well. Jaime looked absolutely terrified at the end. I don’t think Cersei will be a very sane ruler. Valonqar coming right up.
Olenna Tyrell is naturally the last Tyrell standing. That had to be fan service having her dress down the sand snakes (hiss with me sisters!).
The Arya reveal at The Twins felt a little jolting. I get it, she’s just going to appear since she’s a faceless man/assassin. But really she’s a cold blooded murderer now. Spooky.
So questions stemming from this episode for me are:
1. Where will Melisandre go from here? Is her part of the story done? Will we see her nude again? Who knows.
2. Is Sansa now jealous of her “bastard” brother Jon Snow? It seemed like she was very much talking to Baelish from the standpoint that she owned Winterfell now and would be Queen of the North. Now that it seems the North wants Jon I think she is considering Littlefinger. Which makes me wonder if Littlefinger put the Northerners up to it or he just knew that would happen. Congrats Littlefinger
3. Did Bran hear the whispers from Lyanna Stark? Hopefully early next season we will learn if Rhaegar and Lyanna actually had a thing for one another or were even secretly married. But it would seem that Jon is in fact a Targaryen.
4. Finally….now there are 4 beings/creatures heading to or in Westeros that can kill The Mountain. I wonder which it will be? Dragon or Hound? (I love The Mountain and wish to see more violence.)
1) I think Mel rides south to get killed by Arya.
2) Yeah, I think Sansa is going to make a power play with Baelish. It wouldn’t surprise me if she died.
3) I’m pretty sure that “promise me” was in the flashback, aurally.
4) It would be funnier if Tyrion did it.
Why would Arya kill Mel? I don’t recall them having conflict.
Agreed. Sansa dies playing the game of thrones.
Regarding Bran…did he hear Lyanna say “Rhaegar/Marriage/etc”
Melisandre is on Arya’s list as “The Red Woman.” She’s mad that she bought Gendry and presumably did bad things to him. (Edit: This is TV only.)
I don’t recall Bran hearing that.
I noticed something that may or may not have been a continuity error or just a jump in the timeline that was less clear. But, I pointed it out to the Mrs. and she was intrigued too. I’m not so good with all the names, so bare with me.
The eunuch guy was in Dorne and seemed like he had been there a while since the Dornish ladies called him in to that particular discussion. Then, shortly after, we see him on the boat with Daenaryus at the very end.
Now, I went back to the map in the opening to see a relative location of Dorne to Mereen. Where they are both to the east, they looked far enough apart for it to still be a far journey.
Is it possible that there is and always was 2 of the Spider guy? All things considered, it would make sense for his character. He gets around quite a bit and if he were really twins, that would explain it.
But, like I said, I could be reading too much into something small.
He left for Dorne a few episodes ago. The shot at the end certainly takes place a good deal of time after that conversation since there are Martell and Tyrell ships in the fleet.
He left for Dorne a few episodes ago. The shot at the end certainly takes place a good deal of time after that conversation since there are Martell and Tyrell ships in the fleet.