Game of Thrones: 6.06 - Blood of My Blood

[Ste-Pe]

An old foe returns; Gilly meets Sam's family; Arya faces a difficult choice; Jaime faces off against the High Sparrow.

 

[Ste-Pe]

I wasn't quite as spellbound with this episode as with others, perhaps because there wasn't enough 'North' in it, but pretty decent nonetheless

A little disappointed that Arya didn't go through with the assassination, I liked the idea of her as a cold blooded killer. I wonder who on her list she will go after first

Great to see Benjen turn up and Samwell's father was every much the repellent character I'd expect him to be

The scene with Dany on drogo seemed a little pointless to me, she'd already won the dothraki over - felt more like a filler scene

 

[svalbard]

I really hope there is a spin off series based on the travelling troop of actors.

After the excitement and reveals of the previous episodes it was nice to slow it down a bit. Loving Jonathan Pryce as The High Sparrow. Does he believe the rubbish he spouts or is he a true believer/fanatic?

Not too sure I agreed with the portrayal of Randyll Tarley compared to the book character, although it was a powerful scene when he belittles poor Sam and it was nice to see Sam's mother stand up for him.

Tommen is a fool. Cersei has given us a psychopath and a village idiot. Doesn't say much for the Lannister genes.

 

[REBerg]

Great to see Benjen turn up and Samwell's father was every much the repellent character I'd expect him to be

Not too sure I agreed with the portrayal of Randyll Tarley compared to the book character, although it was a powerful scene when he belittles poor Sam and it was nice to see Sam's mother stand up for hi

Is Randyll Tarly the reincarnation of Tywin Lannister? With the exception of Ned Stark, I haven't seen an abundance of fatherly love in any of these lords. Might Samwell be forced to follow the patricidal examples of Tyrion Lannister and Ramsay Bolton to resolve his family issues?

Loving Jonathan Pryce as The High Sparrow. Does he believe the rubbish he spouts or is he a true believer/fanatic?

He's got that fanatic glitter in his eyes.

Tommen is a fool. Cersei has given us a psychopath and a village idiot. Doesn't say much for the Lannister genes.

Brother-sister recessive genes at work. Despite coming up a little short, Tyrion seems to be at the top of Lannister intellectual ladder.

 

[Koopa]

Only thing I was truly interested in, in this episode was Arya and her decision to face the faceless waif in the dark.

The rest, not so much. The blackfish winning back riverrun just so Jaime has a genuine reason to leave KL was whilst necessary maybe kinda stupid too. In the books at least, the blackfish didn't lose riverrun in the first place. Making the Tully's lose riverrun twice is just poor writing imo. Sometimes certain changes work in the tv adaptation, sometimes they just don't.

 

[Ed Ryder]

Randyll Tarly did at least offer to take Gilly and baby in, rather than just throw them out on the street. Okay it's not much, but something!

 

[WaylanderToo]

After the excitement and reveals of the previous episodes it was nice to slow it down a bit. Loving Jonathan Pryce as The High Sparrow. Does he believe the rubbish he spouts or is he a true believer/fanatic?

Tommen is a fool. Cersei has given us a psychopath and a village idiot. Doesn't say much for the Lannister genes.

tommen is young, think of how dumb people are at that age (how dumb we were!!!!), I was a little more surprised by Margaery but possible Stockholm? I suspect that the HS is a combination of true believer/fanatic and ruthlessly ambitious that his version of the faith is adhered to.

 

[Dan Jones]

Decent episode. Highly convenient that the Tarly's family heirloom happens to be a Valyrian steel sword, but there you go - was this known in the books? I can't remember.

Good to see the dastardly old Walter Frey back in action. I do wonder if he's due a bit of a comeuppance for the Red Wedding? Sansa won't have forgotten, and neither will Arya, who surely will be giving the Waif some needle and hot-footing it back to Westeros before long.

And I guess we have another riddle from the books answered;

Spoiler: SPOILER

Coldhands = Benjen.

And with Bloodraven dead, I inferred that Bran is now the Three-Eyed Crow.

 

[Ed Ryder]

Margaery has always changed her views and behaviour for the situation required, so I'd expect this to be an act too.

 

[REBerg]

Margaery has always changed her views and behaviour for the situation required, so I'd expect this to be an act too.

Yes. Her pious pose perked up very quickly when the cavalry came riding in. The High Sparrow is quite good at staying one step ahead of the opposition.

 

[The Imp]

Margaery has always changed her views and behaviour for the situation required, so I'd expect this to be an act too.

Margaery is ALWAYS scheming, lying and manipulating. I think once Loras is safe all hell will break loose.

And I think Dorne is coming. They Sand Snakes have been conveniently absent almost all season. They didn't seize power so that they could rest on their laurels in Dorne. They will at least TRY to avenge Oberyn.

 

[Ste-Pe]

Margery must be playing the long game to get control of the throne. She now influences the king AND the sparrows, and her family's army is inside kings landing with the Lannister forces about to leave for riverrun.

Perhaps she was behind getting Jamie out of kings landing too, only leaving cersei in her way now. I wouldn't be surprised if the trial by combat doesn't go as straight forward as cersei is planning

 

[REBerg]

Randyll Tarly did at least offer to take Gilly and baby in, rather than just throw them out on the street. Okay it's not much, but something!

Samwell let his heart get the better of his brain when he decided to take Gilly and Sam Jr. with him. He might have kept them out of harm's way while he accomplished whatever he has planned (assuming he knows). Some pretty fancy digs, there, for the Tarly family.
The biggest danger, if they had stayed, would have been Randyll discovering that the baby is not Sam's. He seems like the type who might check into the legitimacy of that claim.

 

[Judderman]

I've just caught up with the season over the weekend. The quality is certainly up and down. Not up with the best seasons though not bad of course. It doesn't really raise my hopes that the Winds of Winter novel will be better than Feast of Crows or Dance of Dragons but there are definitely some highlights. I have found a lot of the conversation scenes very dull this season. I wonder if that is because they don't have all the conversations from the novel to copy from, or they are too abbreviated, or maybe they will be dull there too. For instance there is very little wit shown from Tyrion.

The scenes in the north and beyond the wall are generally very good. Another Wolf bites the dust. What is Bran going to do next? Dany and Meereen storylines are as usual somewhat mundane interspersed with grand scenes. They love to show dragons at the end of an episode. Sam and Iron Island's scenes are superfluous and disruptive to the story flow but the Iron Islanders do have useful coincidence of planning to build 1000 boats. Dany is the one character who has a lot of convenient happenings go her way a lot. Perhaps the Priestess of the Lord of Light will be a problem.

The development with Marg and Tommen and the Sparrows was a great twist. Why Marg didn't persuade Tommen to let the soldiers take over was not 100% clear but she must think she can help manipulate Tommen to get rid of all the Lannisters and at some point have the Tyrrels take over.

 

[Judderman]

Oh yes, the Hold the Door explanation in episode 5 was brilliant for Hodor. It also shows that Bran travelling into the past can affect the present.
I was surprised that Jon Snow doesn't seem to be too affected by his death. I mean he is dour but not showing any crazy effects.
I would have thought the children of the Forest would have some control over the Whitewalkers but clearly not.

 

[Gnrevolution]

I thought this was a very interesting episode, lots of revealing information (or not in the case of KL). Points to note:

• KL is devolving into a pit of vipers (even more so than it used to be). Tommen stands with the HS and CL, Margaery with HS (assumed at this point) and Tommen and the Tyrell's, Cersei seems a little out on her own. But there was a conversation between Cersei and Tommen a couple of episodes back when Tommen revealed something about the High Sparrow to Cersei. I get the feeling there's something else going on in the schemes, part of me even thinks that Cersei was behind the whole thing with Jaime. Either it gets him out of the kingsguard and the various elements that introduces (away from trouble in the event of trial by combat, allows him to take control of Lannisport, might allow something more to their relationship) or it was payback for not returning Myrcella safe. Things are going to get ugly in KL before the season is out, that much I think we all agree!
• Benjen Stark pretty much told Bran he is the three-eyed raven, my understanding (mixed with the flashbacks) is that he is going to have all the information required to bring everyone together to fight the White Walkers. Flashbacks were pretty easy to interpret on one level, it simply told him what to beat the White Walkers with, between Dragons, Valyrian Steel, Wildfire and some good old fashion legwork (sorry, couldn't help it), he could be the one to unite the seven kingdoms? But there may be another level to the flashbacks (eg. time travelling to Aerys etc.). Get the feeling that Banjen may not live long though, just enough to get Bran out of trouble, probably sacrificing himself on the way.
• Arya storyline is fading badly for me, why go through all that to decide nah, not interested, and we have to assume she gets out alive. One thing I hope though is she gets back to Westeros and finds Nymeria...
• Dany storyline finally seems to be going somewhere, although the Drogon show and tell seemed a bit pointless, they were all bought in at this point weren't they? And is there a telepathic link between them and Euron?
• Loved the snippet of Sam and Gilly, his reversal into his old self at the dinner table was excruciating to watch but very well done, not sure where Sam goes from here though...

 

[Judderman]

For some of the storylines it seems the journey may be more important than the payoff or how it entwines with the final conclusions. For Arya presumably killing the other waif will either help prepare her for assassinating some of her list in King's Landing. Or the leader of the temple of the many faced god will say she is ready to be one of them after she kills the other waif and then anyway she will be sent to kill folks in Kings Landing or the north.

 

[Dan Jones]

Re: Arya, Jaqen H'ghar seems to be a pretty knowing dude. I'm not sure he's not sending the waif to kill Arya as the "real" final part of Arya's training, and if she beats the Waif, she will be truly ready to become a Faceless Man. Having said that, the Waif seems to be reasonably high up within the Faceless Men, so presumably Jaqen wouldn't view her as expendable either. The trailer did show Arya jumping from a window somewhere in Braavos, which implies some sort of chase sequence. Maybe the FM will come after her?

If Arya simply kills the waif and buggers off back to Westeros with Needle, it will leave a bit of a sour taste; 14 or so episodes dedicated to her becoming slightly better at wielding a quarterstaff? They could just have whacked some Survivor over the soundtrack and put together a Training Montage!

Edit: of course, the internet has beaten me to it.

 

[Judderman]

It could be Jaqen wants Arya to be a replacement for the waif. Hopefully for Arya he wont turn against her himself..

 

[svalbard]

Maybe Arya is the Waif's test? Afterall the Waif is failing to control her own emotions. I think this is the final test for both Arya and the Waif and Jaqen's plans should become clearer in the next few episodes.