Monday, May 2, 2016

Game of Thrones season six -- #JonSnowLives

game of thrones

That sustained high-pitched shrieking you heard around 10:59 eastern last night was the Twi-hard set squealing in ecstasy that their new fantasy character is still alive.

Yes, Jon Snow was resurrected last night on Game of Thrones by the red witch Melisandre. If you read any of my ruminations on the Fire and Ice series of novels the television show is based upon and also my posts about the series itself, you know I've wondered about whether Melisandre was left behind at Castle Black by Stannis for exactly that purpose, from a literary standpoint.

Though again it bears repeating, and Melisandre herself said as much in last night's show -- she doesn't have the skills to resurrect the dead. So . . . ?

The resurrection itself was fairly boring -- washing the body, cutting his hair and mumbling an incantation over and over. No energy, no ominous effects, nothing . . . sort of meh. Also, I noticed the red jewel on Melisandre's necklace was conspicuously dark. Normally it glows as a sign she is filled with power from the god of light. An oversight? Or perhaps a sign of something else?

And what of Snow now? Will he be changed by the experience? For good or bad? If he is viewed as an immortal of sorts, his standing with the men of the Night's Watch and the wildlings he brought through the gate may increase exponentially. Might he take Robb Stark's place as the favorite to win the Iron Throne?

After killing his father (patricide/regicide seems pretty rampant in the Seven Kingdoms these days, just sayin') Ramsey Bolton is considering sending an army to Castle Black to kill Snow (who he doesn't know was/is already dead and then risen), he might face a mighty army of wildlings and Night's Watch men who will fight like demons for their new Lord Commander.

Theon takes leave of Sansa and her protector Brienne and says he will return to the Iron Islands. When he gets there he's going to find his father had been killed by his uncle. They didn't name him in the episode, so I looked up the appendix in the back of one of the books. Perhaps this is Victarion?! I don't remember anything about a crazy brother to Balon, but there's about a million characters going and I'm lucky I can remember anything.

Arya's time as a blind beggar girl seems to be over as the faceless man brings her back to the House of Black and White. In the novels, she spends a year as a blind girl, which as I mentioned previously, is when she learns of her ability to act as a warg -- seeing and hearing through a sparrow within the building. Not sure if they'll go down this road in the tv show, perhaps one warg is enough for the show.

We got to see Bran being tutored by the three-eyed raven played by Max von Sydow (yay!) who takes Bran back in time to see his father and family when they were children. The actor playing Bran is getting pretty big, I'm wondering how much longer they can have Hodor carrying him around. I wouldn't be surprised if Bran suddenly recovers the use of his legs. They brought Jon Snow back from the dead, for pete's sake, why not let Bran walk again?

Oh yeah, and Tyrion can interact with the dragons without getting eaten. *sigh*

A word about the writing here, their's not mine. I noticed a pronounced drop off in the quality of dialog so far this season. Though they weren't keeping to a literal translation of the books to screen in seasons past, it seemed that the showrunners were keeping with or inspired by Martin's prose when crafting dialog for the tv show. Several times in last night's episode I kept waiting to hear the characters say something and it never came.

You're reading my blog, I'm no master wordsmith, and I know it. But these guys can do better than what we've had so far. Tyrion doesn't need to constantly say c*ck like this is a dirty middle school play or something. When Bran complained about having to leave his reverie, the raven tells him that "It is beautiful under the sea, but stay too long and you will drown." Bran protests by saying that he wasn't drowning. And there was no reply from the raven. Why not continue the water metaphor and say something about how endlessly swimming in the pool of the past would prevent him from exploring the oceans of the future? Or possibilities? Or something? You know?

Anyway, as of now, I'm sticking with my prediction from last week -- I'm seeing Sansa on the Iron Throne with Bran at one side controlling the dragons and Arya at the other as her master assassin. Perhaps Jon Snow as the General of her Army (can't have a bastard on the throne after all) and Tyrion as her Hand (usually referred to as Hand of the King, but since she's a Queen . . . well, you get where I'm going with this). Remember, Sansa and Tyrion were wed briefly and he actually treated her decently. I don't see Daenerys returning to Westeros, I'm imagining her ruling the lands across the ocean with the Dothraki and the Unsullied as her warrior armies.

But that's just my opinion.

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