Perhaps because it’s so fresh in my brain, but I have to say, so far Season 6 of Game of Thrones has had the strongest first half in the series. Not that I feel any other seasons had weak first five episodes, but normally they involve more build-up and character development than payoff. Not this year. As mentioned in my season premier review, this is the first time HBO has not had much in the way of books to go off of. They clearly used this opportunity to come out with swords blazing.
With every episode having crazy OMG moments normally saved for episodes 9 or 10, I’ll do my best to narrow down some of the more prominent ones.
***Very Big Spoilers Ahead!***
Dorne is super screwed
Yeah, I am well aware this is nobodies favorite plotline. Book readers feel it is far too much of a departure from the characters and happenings in A Song of Ice and Fire Dorne, while show-only viewers think its ridiculous with the Sand Snakes being very annoying characters. I can’t say I blame them, even if I sort of defended this plot last season. Whether you like it or not, though, what has happened will not change. Ellaria Sand, being the super bitch she is, slaughtered the awesome guy Doran Martell, Prince of Dorne, his pretty decent son, and established herself the ruler of Dorne. Really,Ellaria? You think you have any chance of ruling effectively? RIP Dorne.
Dany is Supreme Queen of Awesome
Once again, Daenerys Targaryen proves herself to be the true Dragon she is and with very little assistance from her retainers, gains a massive army in one swoop. Granted, she did so by burning every Khal and bloodrider alive, but hey, she is a Targaryen after all. Let’s just hope she doesn’t start taking after her late father, The Mad King, too much after this.
The Head Sparrow is an asshole
How can such an unrelenting jerk be such a nice guy? He continues to give no quarter to any of the royals, not even a very intimidating sword wielding Jamie. For the first time in the series, I am actually on Cersei’s side. More importantly, she is using her own humiliation, and promise of Margaery’s soon to be humiliation to cooperate with the Tyrells and hatch a plan to de-power the Sparrows. Unfortunately, this plan is so good that I am scared to see the horrible ways it can go wrong.
The Greyjoys are back in the game
I was wondering if the show was going to bring back the happenings of the Greyjoy family and the Iron Islands. They have been featured very prominitely in the last couple of books, after all. Theon reunites with his far more awesome sister Yara and tries to (metaphorically speaking) grow a pair by supporting her claim to the now empty throne of the Iron Islands. Unfortunately, she loses that claim to the late King Balon’s egotistical and axe crazy brother Euron. This guy thinks so highly of himself that he plans on wooing Daenerys Targaryen with a fleet of ships. Too bad Theon and Yara put a bit of a delay in his plans by stealing said ships and perhaps going to her themselves.
Jon revives, and we finally get a tiny glimmer of heartwarming
I actually hope it was a surprise to some people that Jon came back to life. After all, HBO worked so hard to keep it secret, (*cough* lying to our faces.) Nor is it that big of a surprise that he quit the Night’s Watch using the “I was dead” loophole. But the real surprise actually came when he was actually aloud to re-unite with Sansa. Two Starks actually getting to see each other without something horrible happening to one of them? Practically unheard of at this point in the story. Besides how sweet the reunion was, it serves to set up something we have all been waiting for a while to see: “Snowbowl 2016.” Because of Sansa, Jon has the fuel to march down to Winterfell and kick some serious ass. We can all hope that Ramsey’s death will be long and painful.
Hold. The. Door.
To all of the people who griped that Bran’s plotline was dull and unimportant. I hate to say, I told you so, but I have. For years I have insisted that Bran is probably one of the most important factors of the story. And last week’s jaw-dropping episode “The Door”, was just the beginning of the craziness we will see from this kid. Not only did we find out why Hodor was so Hodor-like (RIP Hodor), and that time-loops exist in the universe, but we even learned the freaking origin of the Whitewalkers. You know, the main threat to the world since the beginning of the story. The Children of the Forest better be really proud of what they did.
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With such a strong first half of the season, I am almost afraid to see what the next half will hold. Will any of the moments of joy we were so generously given this season be taken away by the crapsack world of the show? We can only plead with the Game of Thrones Gods (George R. R. Martin, and series creators David Benioff and D. B. Wiess) to be merciful. They just took Hodor from us. Please no more.
