Spoiler

Dorne has been so fucked in the TV show they should've just brought out Aegon to salvage it. Make Doran into the Jon Connington figure and go from there.

 

Fucking squeee!!!! I am officially pumped for the next episode of GOT. I think think this season will be even better than the others so far.

 

The end of S6E1 made me physically cringe. Creepiness factor was off the chart. Really well done.

Even from just one episode, I can see where things could be considerably different this season due to not having to keep in line with the progression of GRRM's writing:

1) The pacing is going to be much improved. This episode, we were bouncing between plot points cleanly and in segments of fairly satisfying length.

2) The dialogue and dark humor isn't going to have quite as much impact as in previous seasons. The Tyrion/Varys exchange, the Khal Barbo/dothraki goons exchange, the dothraki goon / dothraki goon exchange, the Roose/Ramsay exchange, the Sparrow/Margery exchange; they were all pretty flat.

3) More backstabbing. Literally. This ep is a serious contender for the 'Most Posterior Stabbing' award, right up there with Red Wedding.

 

A strong opening of the new season, but it would be much better if Dorne was never part of this show. There were only two good things about it and both are dead now. Additionally, why I'm pretty understanding when they handwave some things, having Ellaria and Oberyn's bastards kill Doran and his heir and take the power is just too much. Nobody who means anything in Dorne would follow their lead as I'm sure will happen now. The Sand Snakes continue to be the worst characters on the show.

The rest I liked, even if there wasn't anything outstanding in this episode. The last scene was nice though and gave a new info to few theories.

 

Dear god, that last part in S06E01 made me want to retch. Myrcella being dead was expected (Season 5 Finale), but still she was one character I was really worried about this episode. Some more of that Waif vs. Arya drama.

 

The ridiculousness of the entire Dorne segment basically made me stop watching halfway through last season. After watching the new episode, I see they're at least being consistent.

 

How to avenge Oberyn Sand Sneks style:
1. Murder innocent girl who had absolutely nothing to do with his death
2. Slay Oberyn´s kin (brother (Prince of Dorne) and nephew (Heir to Dorne)) and extinguish House of Martell
3. ????????????
4. PROFIT

Do you think that Tywin is finally grinning and laughing in the Seven Hells at this implosion of Dorne ? I hope that Ellaria with absolutely NO claim will not become leader of Dorne.

 

If there is a scene were she tries to claim Dorne's throne and some random lord says, "not gonna happen", and then executes her, I'm willing to finally shut up about how much I dislike what they did with it.

 

Good season opener, though I'm pretty much with everyone else on Dorne. Ellaria went full retard in season 5 and she's only sinking deeper. I suppose she's going to crown herself Ellaria of House Sand? Or just claim the Martell name. "You're not our prince." Who's the we in that? My daughters and the four guards who let their Prince be murdered?

What I want to know most is how much of that was Martin and how much was the show diverging from the book.

So what kind of witch is Melly? Cuz her bleh form looked centuries old.

The Sansa segment was kinda meh, but that's mostly because I'm meh on Brienne. Besides that and Dorne I liked everything.

Now have to a week, well fuck.

 

I would say everything was a divergence since the books have a totally different storyline with Doran's master plan, Arianne as his heir and the whole thing with Aegon. None that apparently matters to the endgame since it could be completely cut out from the show though its take on it may hint that there will be no House Martell once GRRM is finished with them.

 

So is Aegon something that definitely isn't happening? Because we're kind of getting short of characters. :/

I agree I'm hating what they did with Dorne and I was hoping they'd turn it around and have Trystan turn out to be a secret badass but no, his face erupts. I have a feeling they wanted that to be a shock but failed miserably. Pretty sure everyone saw that coming a mile away.

 

Is it just me or is Doran's "master plan" kind of shit

I expect him to die in TWOW as well, but likely at Darkstar's hands. I can't say I fully like how all the non-Doran Dorne factions have been combined into the Sands, but I'm more than okay with it.

 

Best moment of the episode was Sansa accepting Brienne's service. Such a crucial turning point for the character, a real culmination of seasons of progress towards this point. Badass Sansa confirmed.

Melisandre's reveal was curious. I wasn't quite sure if she takes her magic choker off every night and this is just her routine (and therefore the big reveal is just her age) or if her taking it off symbolises something more significant - a loss of faith. I'm leaning towards the latter, not just because trailer moments hint in that direction, but also because it makes narrative sense for her to have a crisis of faith just as Davos needs her to be strong.

On that front, I am left wondering if it will be Melisandre at all who is responsible for Jon's (surely inevitable) resurrection. There is, after all, another power in the world capable of raising the dead...

I also enjoyed Daenerys' scenes. I think she's going to get the chance to show new range this season and will hopefully come out of it with a bit more complexity.

All round the episode was great. My least favourite scene was the Jaime and Cersei scene, just because it felt like it was covering some familiar ground. It was good to see Cersei tell Jaime about the prophecy, but I would also have liked to hear Jaime mention the fact that Myrcella embraced him as her father before she died.

 

It is.

Doran's whole plan so far has been to marry off his children to Targaryens and wait for chaos to happen so Dorne could put them on the throne. He may have had more, but waiting 17 years to extract revenge is a little stupid because anything can happen in those years.

My prediction in the books is that Doran will come up with a modified plan that is brilliant, but ends up getting murdered by someone he trusts before it is fully implemented. Afterall, this is the Game of Thrones. People can't scheme without getting betrayed and killed. Plus, people are already getting fed up with him and this is before news comes back that his plan of "Fire and Blood" has already failed (again) and his son is dead.

I honestly didn't mind the Dorne plot at all. It makes sense with how the TV direction is going.

Aegon doesn't exist in the show, so the Dornish book plot really falls apart. They needed to kill Myrcella due to Cersei's prophecy, so Season's 5 plot came about. The creators decided to focus on characters related to Oberyn Martell instead of the just-as-equality-stupid Arianne Martell's plot.

This helps redeem Jamie while covering plot lines and including Dorne into the mix. With Myrcella dying, war with Dorne will be declared. It makes logical sense that the Sand Snakes would kill Doran and his heir or else they would be the ones dying. They are totally Oberyn's children-- crazy, rash and filled with rage.

I have a feeling we will see Dorne being the ones to take over the Stormlands instead of Aegon. This fits in perfectly for Daenerys when she comes over.

Don't worry about that. I've heard that the Iron Island characters will be making an appearance with the Kings Moot. We will also be seeing a ton of Winterfell and Riverland characters in the future as well. The next two episodes will probably start introducing new characters and plot lines.

 

I don't think it's the choker.



Either D&D fucked up massively by forgetting there was a scene with her still in her youthful form without a choker, or that glass vial that looked like it had some sort of elixir in it (they had the camera focused on it for a few seconds) is the real impetus of the form shift.

 

I've been convinced for a while now that the "Song of Ice and Fire" is talking about two people with Dany being Fire and Jon being Ice. Dany was born in those flames that hatched her dragons and that Jon will be brought back by some kind of Other magic making him reborn in ice, and that the prophecy about the Prince Who Was Promised is actually talking about both a Prince and Princess because, iirc, Aemon says the original prophecy was written in Valyrian which lacks gendered words. So, if the word for Prince/Princess is gender neutral the prophecy could technically be using the word to mean both (which I think falls in line with Martin's use of misleading prophecy).

 

There was a post on Reddit about how in s4 she had it off but looked the same, so not sure if thats a plot hole or like you said just a loss of faith.

Agree about the Sansa scene.

Wildlings coming to fight for Jons honor, Jon gets revived, becomes a badass. Well, thats how Id predict it will go.

 

A good start or season 6 but I agree Dorne shouldn't have been in the episode it totally killed the vibe of the episode.

 

The Dorne was poorly handled by the writers and the Sand Snakes are absolute cringe material. I just don't understand where they're going with that plot line.

 

I think they're trying to make us care about them before their inevitable gruesome deaths at the hands of Clegane.