Final thoughts on Season 6.

[permaximum]

10 hours ago, Lautrec said:

He would be, as is she.

Robb was hardly THE main character after Ned's death. Dany, Jon and Tyrion have always been the main characters, they just shared it in S1 with Ned. Those 6 main characters may die, but if they do it'll be at the very end.

You shouldn't even speak about Robb and Margeary in the same sentence. Margeary is like a 4th tier character.

Then they shouldn't give us a false sense of danger when it comes to  Dany, Jon, Tyrion, Arya, Sansa and Bran. The story becomes very cheesy and very cliche just like other fairytale B-grade fantasy stories.

[JonSnowed]

On 6/29/2016 at 0:06 AM, permaximum said:

Margery can't be classified as a good character. Anyways, they are not main characters. The main characters I'm talking about Dany, Jon, Tyrion, Arya, Sansa and Bran.

But Jon and Dany are 100% there until close to the end, that's a given, Tyrion and Bran are very likely to be there or there abouts too.  It's possible that Sansa or possibly Arya die next season.

[JonSnowed]

IMDB ratings for the season:

S4 9.24/10
S6 9.06/10
S1 9.00/10
S3 8.95/10
S2 8.89/10
S5 8.75/10

[robasp2]

On 6/28/2016 at 4:31 PM, JonSnowed said:

I actually really like season 6 and it had four of the very best ever episodes (Home, The Door, BotB and Winds of Winter), at times it felt rushed or disjointed but I would rate it in my top three seasons.  Season 5 isn't too bad on re-watch but I thought this year was a huge improvement.

Yes..my favorite 3 episodes in this season too.

The rest (incliding episode10) was garbage/ extreme fan service.

[robasp2]

22 minutes ago, JonSnowed said:

IMDB ratings for the season:

S4 9.24/10
S6 9.06/10
S1 9.00/10
S3 8.95/10
S2 8.89/10
S5 8.75/10

Lol.. No one should trust IMDB.. some really good movies have got poor ratings and pathetic ones have high ratings.

Generally IMDB tells us "how popular" an episode/film was

[Arya_Stormborn]

This season had some of the best episodes ever and some of the worst episodes ever. The last two episodes, especially "Battle of the Bastards," were two of the best ever. "No One" was probably the worst episode ever.

[Maid So Fair]

I Felt like this season was 7(8?) episodes of filler followed by two episodes pure spectacle. It wasnt as offensive as S5, but the logic wasn't much better. TBH I think the show runners have lost interest circa mid s4 and the quality of the writing has been steadily deteriorating and it's the writing that let the season down. You get some very compelling visuals - casting, costumes, location design is very pretty and watchable and I love how it brings the series to life n a visuam medium as I'm not a very visual person and find it hard sometimes to imagine characters and locations when reading. Especially in the last two episodes you had some great cinematography. And the individual scenes, when viewed out of context have strong acting.

The problem is that none of it comes together because the writers play roulette with the character personalities and make a point of not bothering to build up dramatic tension because they seem to believe that if the characters act in unpredictable ways to when you get a sudden plot twist this makes their revelations more shocking. Unfortunately, the opposite is true and I no longer care tabou the fate of most characters. They sacrificed the entire Northern plot, including the characters of Sansa and Jon to get thier big spectacular Battle of Bastards. They brought back minor characters only to kill them off. They somehow managed the make Jon's resurrection so underwhelming no one seems to really mention it again. I have no idea who I'm supposed to root for in KL - the homophobic hypocrite High Grandpa? Cersei your next door arsonist? The manipulative fake liar Marg? Tommen the useless? It's very tonally deaf.

[RUSSELL BELL]

I find it surprising that for a lot of non-book readers and casual show watchers that Season 6 ranks very highly. But for me, it was mixed. Episode 1 was forgettable, episode 2-5 were very good and were on par with the quality of previous seasons for me. Episode 6-8, however were the poorest run of episodes in the show's history while episode 9-10 were the arguably the best ending to any season ever.  

It's very difficult to judge whether or not this season was great overall because it was so inconsistent. But, I'd say its probably somewhere in the middle of the bunch in comparing with previous seasons. 

In terms of storylines, I didn't really have any major complaints save for the poor portrayal of the faceless men and all they stand for and Arya's showdown with the waif. The kingsmoot was a disaster, but it was fairly inconsequential in the grand scheme of things. Same goes with Dorne. 

I liked a lot of it though, I liked Jon and Sansa's reunion at Castle Black, (most heartfelt and touching moment in all of the six seasons for me) I loved Cersei's takedown of the faith and pretty much everyone in King's Landing, I liked Dany burning the Dosh Khaleen, I surprisingly really enjoyed Sam's scenes, the battle of the bastards, the siege at Riverrun, Hodor's reveal and everything Bran pretty much. The finale was also easily one of the best episodes in the series' history that was superb from start to finish. 

Oh yeah, of course the best bit of the whole season. Brienne and Tormund were the real MVP's. I've liked the way that the show has tried to inject a little bit of humour, even if it was a bit hit and miss (Tyrion, Grey Worm and Missandei scenes were definitely a miss). 

Overall though, it was okay. Not the best season ever like the show runners claimed it will be. But definitely an improvement over season 5.  

[RattleSnake]

The season had quite a few amazing scenes, great visuals and music. I was entertained, I can't lie. I spend my Mondays watching the show at 4 AM.  However, some scenes were too long and/or repetitive, the dialogue was not that good and Dorne was horrible. Mereen was a borefest and cringeworthy specially because we got a large number of scenes with Tyrion and his buddies doing nothing. KL bored me as well up until the last episode. Cersei and Jamie's love angered me because his redemption arc disappeared into thin air.

What I liked: Hodor, Sandor and the BWB, old Melisandre, Bran's flashbacks, the battle of the bastards, the confirmation of R+L=J, Dany finally moving her ass out of Mereen, Cersei burning the sept, the fact that Margaery died (I have been saying for months that she will die and people thought I was crazy, it was about time for the Tyrells to suffer some losses), Jamie's look when he sees Cersei being crowned, Jon being KiTN, Benjen, there were some touching moments between Jon and Sansa, Tormund flirting with Brienne etc. The make-up (Sandor's scar, the children of the forest etc) looked better in my opinion. And so did the CGI. The outfits were nice as usual.

I liked that they brought many characters back, though most of them were killed. I am still pissed about the Blackfish. I wish Rickon would have had at least a line. We barely saw any direwolves. Arya's plot was not that good, but I liked the play. Dany seems to have such a thick plot armor that it covers her buddies as well. I'd like to see Missandei go. Euron was dreadful to watch. Was it that hard to slap an eye-patch over his eye?

My hopes for the next seasons is that they will trim down the filler. They really need to let go of the 90% filler, 10% important stuff formula. I am satisfied with shorter seasons as long as the episodes are done well. I'd rather see more action/fighting scenes than people sitting at tables and talking and that's because the dialogue hasn't been that good for the past 2 seasons. Bad pussy and bad cock jokes still haunt me. I'd like to see more outdoor scenes because their filming locations are beautiful places. 

 

 

[Count Balerion]

General (what is laughingly called) critique of GOT, season 6

For each segment, I have one score for Directing/Writing/Interpretation (DWI) and one for acting (basing score on comparison to my global rating last season):

Bran: Some cool revelations about Others/White Walkers. We got Benjen/Coldhands. The Tower of Joy slightly underwhelming, but still nice to get R+L=J essentially confirmed. Hodor bit pretty good, aside from "Hold the door" being a tad silly (but I wouldn't be surprised if it's in books).
DWI: 7.5
Acting: 8

Iron Islands: It existed and we got the Kingsmoot. Euron was impressive enough when killing Balon; rather underwhelming otherwise. Volantis scene kind of a waste. Dany scene the best part.
DWI: 6
Acting: 8

Riverlands: Again, it existed (and wasn't even that far from the books). I was sorry to lose the Blackfish, but don't have any big complaints, although it was a tad meuh compared to the big three (KL, North--which had other problems--, Dany). The best bits were Jaime dissing the Freys; and the New and Improved Hound, of whom I really hope we have more.
DWI: 7
Acting: 8

Dorne was mercifully short, and we get Olenna shutting up the Sand Snakes. It does seem unkind to Siddig to first neglect Doran and then place him in an incredibly mangled plot and then kill him off and then give his great line to Teleporting Varys.
DWI: 3
Acting: 6

Winterfell/Sansa/Jon/Wall:

Jon comes back! (See also: Bran.) Not unexpected; but still pretty cool. He doesn't do a lot and seems rather out of it. Perhaps we should cut him some slack for being dead, and perhaps he's just as out of it in the books, and this is just one of the (many) things that are more easily conveyed in a book. He also seemed curiously ineffectual in the battle, although he succeeded in not being killed by a column of armed warriors. He did have a couple of very good (and one less good) moments with Sansa.

Sansa's arrival at the wall was one of the most memorable moments in the season.  I particularly liked the silent moment of suspense before she and Jon hugged each other.  She had one of the weirdly meta moments on the show when she pointed out that if LF didn't know about Ramsay, he was an idiot, and if he did, he was her enemy.  It was a "terrible mistake".  Well, yes; but her point still stands.

For most of the season, the North continued its bout of amnesia from last season.  Even Lyanna Mormont, the least cowardly of the Northern lords, complains about "fighting other people's wars".  Hello!  We're talking about a chap whose idea of fun is hunting girls with dogs and then (in the books, at least) turning them into apparel.  We're talking about someone who murdered his father, stepmother, and brother, and who gets off on torture and mutilation.  No one is going to be safe until he's dead.  As for the other Northern lords, the only one I understand is Karstark.

The Vale: Sansa's not telling Jon was another bizarre omission; she did apologize, but, well, why not tell the leader that you've sent for aid. It's not raising false hopes if you're honest about not knowing whether the help will come or not.

The North did finally (if conveniently) remember in the last episode, when we got that great KING IN THE NORTH scene. But the delay still disappointed.

Direwolves: Where are they?

So what did I like? Some of the Jon/Sansa scenes, Davos, Wun Wun, Direwolf banner, winter, Lyanna Mormont.

DWI: 6. Incredibly, it seems I gave it 6 last season, too. It should have been 5.
Acting: 8.

King's Landing: This segment had some draggy moments, and I confess I'm more interested in the North and Daenerys; but the story was perhaps more coherent than last season (vastly more so than the North): Margaery trying to use the Faith Militant and Tommen to gain the upper hand over Cersei, not realizing the latter was going nutters. I guess what pushed Cersei over the edge might have been Olenna's (fully justified) refusal to ally with her against the Faith Militant. The end was pretty extreme.
DWI: 8
Acting: 8

Daenerys/Tyrion/Meereen: Meereen dragged for much of the season, with rather pointless scenes of Tyrion making bad jokes. Dany, Daario/Jorah, and the Dothraki was a bit better, with Dany's cheesy/epic (both, either) offing of the khals and her farewell to Jorah. She tamed the dragons rather fast (apparently in a few seconds). I loved almost everything about Meereen/Dany in the last two episodes.
DWI: 7.5/8, but the last two episodes were so good, I'll say 8.
Acting: Also 8.

Arya: It dragged a bit in the beginning, with a lot of whacking and no one. Braavos has a distinct flavour in the books; but in the show is rather colourless. Arya gets seriously wounded, but can roll down several stairs and do an Olympic obstacle course and then kill the Waif. I liked the plays and Lady Clare, and we had a couple of good scenes where she told the KM/Jaqen and Frey she's Arya. The Frey pies (apart from the gross-out factor) raise the question how Arya was able to kill and bake those chaps without anyone noticing.
DWI: 6
Acting: 8

Sam: Both the major Sam scenes (at home and in Oldtown) were decent enough, the first perhaps a little too long for that episode.
DWI: 7
Acting: 8

TOTAL: DWI 6.5 (I think the score I gave Dorne dragged it down)
Acting: 7.7.
Removing the lowest scored, which only lasted half an hour-ish:
DWI: 7
Acting: 8
TOTAL TOTAL: 7.5, which seems fair, although I enjoyed the last episode enough to want to raise the score to a nice 8. I actually think the last 1.5 episodes my be colouring my total reaction to the season and make it seem better than a lot of it really was.

[LatrineDiggerBrian]

On June 28, 2016 at 8:49 AM, mafro987daboss said:

1) S2

2) S3

3) S1

4) S4

5) S6

6) S5

I'm with you on S2, I don't understand why it doesn't get more love. I have it tied for #1 with S3. Maybe there aren't that many HUGE moments, but it's very dense with character moments and great stuff going on through all of the stories. It's also Tyrion's best season imo.

[mafro987daboss]

1 hour ago, LatrineDiggerBrian said:

I'm with you on S2, I don't understand why it doesn't get more love. I have it tied for #1 with S3. Maybe there aren't that many HUGE moments, but it's very dense with character moments and great stuff going on through all of the stories. It's also Tyrion's best season imo.

I absolutely hate Tyrion (book and show for different reasons) but in season 2 I thought he was hilarious, witty, portrayed masterfully by Dinklage (by far his most consistent season even above season 4 imo), and his dialogue was great. The relationships with Cersei, Bronn and Lancel were all amazing! I feel like his recent mediocrity is down to the fact that he has planks (Missandei, Grey Worm, DANY) to interact with now (I like Conleth Hill but his recent material has rendered him one-dimensional).

I also LOVED Dragonstone crew- their storyline in season 2 is what got me hooked on the show (favourite 3 characters book and show are Mel, Stannis and Davos).

Is it just me, or did everything feel more momentous back then? For example, the Fleabottom Riot (where Sansa was almost raped) left more of an impact on me than Daznaks Pit did!

[Ruhail]

9 minutes ago, mafro987daboss said:

I absolutely hate Tyrion (book and show for different reasons) but in season 2 I thought he was hilarious, witty, portrayed masterfully by Dinklage (by far his most consistent season even above season 4 imo), and his dialogue was great. The relationships with Cersei, Bronn and Lancel were all amazing! I feel like his recent mediocrity is down to the fact that he has planks (Missandei, Grey Worm, DANY) to interact with now (I like Conleth Hill but his recent material has rendered him one-dimensional).

I also LOVED Dragonstone crew- their storyline in season 2 is what got me hooked on the show (favourite 3 characters book and show are Mel, Stannis and Davos).

Is it just me, or did everything feel more momentous back then? For example, the Fleabottom Riot (where Sansa was almost raped) left more of an impact on me than Daznaks Pit did!

Yes

[LatrineDiggerBrian]

15 minutes ago, mafro987daboss said:

I absolutely hate Tyrion (book and show for different reasons) but in season 2 I thought he was hilarious, witty, portrayed masterfully by Dinklage (by far his most consistent season even above season 4 imo), and his dialogue was great. The relationships with Cersei, Bronn and Lancel were all amazing! I feel like his recent mediocrity is down to the fact that he has planks (Missandei, Grey Worm, DANY) to interact with now (I like Conleth Hill but his recent material has rendered him one-dimensional).

I also LOVED Dragonstone crew- their storyline in season 2 is what got me hooked on the show (favourite 3 characters book and show are Mel, Stannis and Davos).

Is it just me, or did everything feel more momentous back then? For example, the Fleabottom Riot (where Sansa was almost raped) left more of an impact on me than Daznaks Pit did!

Yeah I don't think there was a weak storyline or episode in S2.

I personally liked the scene in Daznaks Pit. I didn't know what to expect because I haven't read the books. It seemed pretty epic to me.

[mafro987daboss]

39 minutes ago, LatrineDiggerBrian said:

Yeah I don't think there was a weak storyline or episode in S2.

I personally liked the scene in Daznaks Pit. I didn't know what to expect because I haven't read the books. It seemed pretty epic to me.

I remember episode 2 and 10 getting bad reviews but nothing like 'Unbowed Unbent Unbroken' or 'No One' from the last two seasons.

[Rubicante]

On 6/28/2016 at 5:43 PM, Desert Fox said:

I would have had Elyaria and the Sand Snakes try to kill Doran, but Hotah kills them all. Cersei has the mountain kill Trystane for revenge for Mrycella. Then at then end Doran, Varys, and QoT join cersei. Basically the same as what happened but trade Doran for Ellaria. No extra screentime

 

I agree with you.  This would have been the most intelligent way to clean up the Dorne mess from Season 5.

The thing I do not understand is why D & D chose to kill off Doran and Hotah, considering how Doran is the one to deliver the "Fire and Blood" speech in the books. 

[LatrineDiggerBrian]

1 hour ago, mafro987daboss said:

I remember episode 2 and 10 getting bad reviews but nothing like 'Unbowed Unbent Unbroken' or 'No One' from the last two seasons.

I can't remember what went on in episode 2. Was that the one that ended with Yoren dying? I really enjoyed that scene and I'm guessing I probably liked the rest of the episode.

I loved the finale. I guess people who read the book didn't like Dany's storyline in Quarth? I honestly had no problem with it and thought the ending to the House of B & W was good too.

[Lerxst]

I felt season 6 just sold out seasons 3-5. I'm still wrapping my mind around what time frame allows people to travel so quickly back and forth without missing months of drama in between where they left from and are going to. Even season 1 made a huge ordeal about the trip form Kings Landing to Winterfell, but now everyone does that, or greater without blinking an eye or missing any key moments. No matter how you place each of these time lines, they make no sense when they cross back over one another. But aside from that...

Season 6 (and 5) seem to have forgotten some major points that we've known to be true throughout. Sam in the Night's Watch having a wife and kid, Jon being declared king despite being a bastard and so on.

Then I felt like things were wrapped up too nicely and loose ends tied too quickly in this season. You could feel them feeling rushed and just wanting to get on with it already. There's Benjin's return, Rickon shows up again and dies, as does that Wildling woman whose name I forgot, Ramsay's killed finally, Cersei just says "fuck it" to everyone and wipes out 90% of the Kings Landing plot lines, The Hound returns from being near dead, Winterfell is back in Stark hands, Dany has her hoard and is finally sailing to Westeros... They might as well have given us a bow to tie all the story lines shut with. Seasons 1-5 combined, didn't leave things as tidy as this one season has.

There was too much ex machina in this season that Game of Thrones simply does not have. Sure, I was grinning when each of the major events happened, but still, if this were like the original seasons, Jon would have died in a hopeless battle like Stannis did. Sansa would have gone into hiding some more. Dany would be doing nothing across the sea, like usual. Rickon would have been taken prisoner at the end of the season. Arya would have been killed, or simply left for Westeros without incident... yet. Hodor would still die. Cersei's plan would have backfired and she'd be on trial. And the season would have ended with the scene of Tommen jumping from the window.

 

[Ser Morbid]

Season 6 is slightly better than season 5, but still nowhere near quality of season 1-4.

Without book material they are just hitting key plot points ( which they do well), but they put no effort in logic, character motivations and general build up towards those plot points. 

Writing for this show is just plain bad, but it is countered by perfect visualisation of the show - Costumes are perfect,  music is fine, effects are amazing as well.

Some events are done just for pure shock value but makes no sense and I doubt they will play out like this in books.

What I personally cant ever forgive D&D is this atrocious redneck Euron two-eyes they made, hell I wouldn't mind his appearance, first time I saw him on the bridge with balon I was pleasantly surprised and was telling myself, holy sh** this euron will be awesome after all .... NOPE this Euron is the worst thing that happened to this show, even more than hand shakes . ergh I mean sand snakes. Kingsmoot was all like, I should be your Queen , I'am Daughter of Balon Greyjoy, I'am Tough ass Bit** so I will be your ruler. Rednecks were like, Yo girl , you ain't got no pissing rod , you ain't our queen, Theon greyjoy intervened and was like , yo guys she is ok and then they somehow forgot since season 2 that they are nto very fond of this guy and were like yes , he is right she is ok. After this serious shi* hits the fan and Redneck Greyjoy appears and is like. Hey guys you cannot listen to someone who dont have pissing rod, I got dick and I'am going to give it to dany making her give me dragons and whole westeros, pretty solid plan huh ? guys ? and IB's are all like YES THIS IS OUR KING.

 

for the sacrilege mentioned above I cannot forgive D&D or writers or whoever came up with kingsmoot.

Iron Borns are my favourite part of the books and I hate to see them being bend over and fuc*ed in the a** by this show.

 

PS.: episode 10 was fine, and Battle of bastards was good as well. I just had to stop paying attention to characters teleporting all over the world and keep myself drunk while watching to avoid noticing there is no logic in some actions.

[GRU]

I was disappointed they chose to use CGI dragons instead of real ones.