Sunday night’s episode, The Broken Man, was criticized by The Telegraph as Game of Thrones “at its most cautious and meandering.”
But I don’t think this is a bad thing. A mid-season lull means only one thing: Throne’s is prepping itself for full-scale battle action and thrilling finale shockers.
First off, The Hound is back *cheers*! Some fans called it a while back with the theory that if you don’t see a character die on screen then they haven’t actually died. It turns out our favourite Clegane was rescued from the brink of death by a peace-loving preacher (Ian McShane) and now spends his days chopping wood with a group of hippies.
How lovely. Call me New Age, but I really liked this set-up and for a second it seemed as though the troubled former knight might consider turning from hate and become enlightened or something. His respite was not to last, of course. They all get murdered by the Brotherhood Without Banners by end of the episode and The Hound is once again off on his travels, wood-chopping ax in hand.
Ian McShane did dismiss the show as “tits and dragons” earlier this year, so that’s probably why they only let him survive one episode. Lesson: Do not diss Game of Thrones.
Another favourite returned as Bronn travels with Jaime to try and reclaim the Riverlands. It’s great to see Jaime back on form (and in armor) and their bromance flourishing once more, although they failed to take back Riverrun from the Blackfish…it looks like the Riverlands will play a big part in the final episodes.
Margaery, as predicted in last week’s review, proved herself to be the ultimate scheming Queen when she slipped a note to her grandmother Lady Tyrell on which a rose was drawn (House Tyrell’s sigil). She may be sneaky, but she’s taking control and showing herself as a real game player. There was also an awkward sex conversation with the High Sparrow which we don’t need to talk about because it was just cringe-worthy.
Meanhile, Jon Snow and Sansa are trying to recruit Houses to their cause and it’s not going awfully well. However, it did introduce us to an awesome new character and general badass in the form of 10 year old Lyanna Mormont.
After giving Jon and Sansa a verbal bashing, the young head of House Mormont stood up to the mark and put forward the men of Bear Island to fight alongside the Starks…all 63 of them. Awkard. Still, she’s awesome and brings a new angle to the story.
Fans also finally got to see the lesbian action that was hinted at in the pre-season trailers. Yara Greyjoy loves the ladies, and seemingly one prostitute in particular, which gave us the expected amount of Game of Thrones nakedness (although it doesn’t make up for Margaery’s cancelled Walk of Shame.)
She also gave her brother Theon a brilliant pep talk and basically told him if he was completely mentally broken he should give up, but if not he should stop sniveling and help her find Daenery’s to forge an alliance with the Dragon Queen. Their sibling relationship is actually becoming quite endearing, but thankfully not in a Jaime-Cersei way.
But the big story at the moment centers around Arya Stark. After leaving her training, she is set to travel back to Westeros before being stabbed in the stomach and chucked off a bridge by The Waif disguised as a creepy old woman.
Fans have theorized that The Waif could in fact be the other side of Arya’s personality, the one that wants to kill what’s left of her identity.
Think about it, they have been constantly fighting against each other and The Waif has been trying to break Arya down from the beginning. We don’t know much about her and no one really expects Arya to die after being stabbed, so it’s much more likely that she is reborn as ‘no one’. Plus, the next episode’s title “No One” is pretty telling. It’s all very Fight Club-esque, and it’s exciting.
What’s your theory?Â
Watch the next episode of Season 6, No One, on Sunday 12 June at 9pm on HBO. #thronewatch