Final thoughts on Season 6.

[Rhollo]

I was hoping that, with the show moving past the books I would be able to enjoy it more than S5 just because of the suspense of not knowing what is going to happen.

But I was disappointed, because most developments were quite shallow and predictable. And what wasn't predictable, was out of the realms of logic and suspension of disbelief.

I actually didn't see Arya killing Walder Frey coming, for example. But my reaction to it wasn't shock or surprise but bursting out in laughter, because the whole setup was ridicolous. Same with the kingslaying coup in Dorne.

With all it's flaws, S5 was somehow still more entertaining, this one just leaves me with a "meh". Maybe it is because I stopped projecting the books onto it, which added depth and filled in gaps. 

[protar]

Better than season five as it had less sandsnakes and less gross misogyny. But still fairly poor compared to the earlier seasons. The show is clearly relying on pleasing audience's with shocks so that they won't question and probe. For example Cersei blowing up the Sept is a shocking event and the scene was set up beautifully with great tension...but none of it makes any sense. Why does anyone accept Cersei as Queen when she just blew up the Great Sept? What happened to the now hostile Tyrell army stationed at the city? It's things like these which the show now overlooks. I don't think this is due to incompetence, I think at this point D+D just know that they don't have to worry about that sort of attention to detail. They know people will just buy it.

[Ser Morbid]

3 minutes ago, protar said:

Better than season five as it had less sandsnakes and less gross misogyny. But still fairly poor compared to the earlier seasons. The show is clearly relying on pleasing audience's with shocks so that they won't question and probe. For example Cersei blowing up the Sept is a shocking event and the scene was set up beautifully with great tension...but none of it makes any sense. Why does anyone accept Cersei as Queen when she just blew up the Great Sept? What happened to the now hostile Tyrell army stationed at the city? It's things like these which the show now overlooks. I don't think this is due to incompetence, I think at this point D+D just know that they don't have to worry about that sort of attention to detail. They know people will just buy it.

I can't agree more with this..

Cersei becoming queen after killing almost every higborn and religious leader in the city is just pure horse-shit. Master of whispers doing the coronation is just adding salt to the wound.

[Lord Freypie]

I'd blame conflicting agendas for the last two seasons :

 - D&D mostly interested in entering history by producing the biggest battles a tv show ever had, and to be able to fund them in killing as many old characters who had contracts to be renegociated and direwolves

 - GRRM likely wanting to surprise readers and probably not giving enough information to showmakers about how things are going happen in the books letting them  too many blanks to fill

 - HBO wanting a longer show than D&D originally planned, forcing them to reintroduce AFFC / ADWD elements they wanted out, far after their expiration date, as well as original filler

 - some scenarists clearly disregarding AFFC/ADWD material and doing all they can to ruin those new storylines (I suspect they picked their scenarists on IWC forum, it's the only explanation)

 - directors doing all they can to impress with original directing choices, like if they were each making a stand alone movie rather than a show, leading to very different ambiances from episode to episode, some overlong buildup scenes, lots of movie references, etc.. only rarely helping the global storytelling 

 - vocal public expressing love for "badass" characters and shock moments influencing showmakers into including more of these, and less subtile plotting and psychology as a result

 - vocal critics obsessed by feminist issues influencing showmakers to give women even more badass moments, as it seems it's the only way they know to "empower" them

 - actors hardly understanding their characters whose personnalities tend to be more and more driven by the strange plot resulting of all that instead of the contrary, and often looking lost

That said, after season 5 lowered a lot my expectations I've found this one rather entertaining, with some scenes I'd rank in the very best if there isn't one full episode I'd rate as high as season 1-3 bests.

[Kaguya]

Lady Stoneheart

[JagLover]

On 28/06/2016 at 0:01 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.

This mostly, but didn't rate Home as highly

As a season it felt a bit less than the sum of its parts due to pacing issues mainly. It seemed to grind to a halt in ep 7 & 8, before speeding up again.

However ep 2-4 were very good, ep 5 was one of the best ever and it ended very strongly.

An overall rating is hard as it included the stupidity of the Arya plot, but I would say my second favourite season after S4 and much better than S5 (my least favourite)

Let us not forget that seasons closer to the books also had issues with stupid plotlines. S2 combined both Dany "where are ma dragons" and The anachronistic Robb romance. 

Season ranking for me

S4, S6, S3, S1, S2, S5

 

 

 

 

 

[Wendel Shoemaker]

I want to say this season was better than 5, but it's hard to say. I was less angry, but I think that's due to me not caring anymore. I feel like overall more interesting things happened this season, with just as many leaps in logic.

I guess rating would be something like season 1 -> 3 -> 2 -> 4 -> 6 -> 5.

I encourage everyone to rewatch the series though. I thought season 4 was the best last year until I rewatched the entire series in prep for season 5.

[EwanStark]

It was better than season 5 but not on the same level as seasons 1-4. Some episodes were rather dull and very little happened. I must say though, the last 2 episodes were fantastic and definitely in my top 5 GOT episodes. Sometimes it felt like characters died that didn't need to, such as Summer, Doran and Rickon. Euron was a bit disappointing and they should have included Victarion. Many people are annoyed at there being only about 13 episodes left, but I am glad. Some shows run forever (cough walking dead)  and I don't mind that Game of Thrones is nearing the end and I am very excited for season 7!

[khal drogon]

Probably the worst season with season 5 only slightly behind. I liked few individual scenes but as a season it failed. Every story felt rushed, riddled with plotholes that broke my immersion and had some of the worst dialogue. The character inconsistencies made me lose interest in the characters I once loved. It was like reading a summary of a book jumping from one plot point to other without any buildup instead filled with pointless filler. It's sad because it has the best cinematography, best music, best acting, best costumes, overall the best production value of any show only to be brought down by poor writing and characterisation. 

[sj4iy]

Best season so far for me...everything just clicked and moved ahead at a breakneck speed and kept me excited throughout.

[lakin1013]

It is like the show has a personality disorder.  Season 6 has great characters, great source material, lovely music, and incredible filming.  But then it has inconsistent characterizations (Jaime for example), empty story lines (Arya for example) and time travel issues (Viserys for example).  

Would I prefer to read the books?  YES but there is NO book.  I cannot not watch.  Some of these characters have crawled into my heart and I have to know what happens to them, even if it is the vision (and I use the term loosely) of D&D and not GRRM.  

Will I watch season 7?  Yes.  

Note to add: Frequently I wonder about the 'behind the scenes' environment.  For all we know, GRRM promised D&D that the book/s would be finished.  They might feel betrayed at how this ended up.  They lobbied hard to be done with this show and I find that telling. For all we know, GRRM was completely surprised at the pace of the show outpacing his writing, and he feels betrayed that the show is finishing his work.  For all we know, all parties are unhappy.  

[sonsastronk]

Should have put Arya on hold for a season.

[Lady Knows Nothing]

I thought season six was one of the better seasons. It actually went somewhere. We saw Sansa and Jon reunite, take back Winterfell which I have been waiting for to happen. Sansa even gets to kill Ramsey. Also Daenerys is finally making her way to Westeros which is another thing I have been waiting to see for a long time. One thing I wanted to see was Gendry coming back. In the first three seasons, he was such a big deal being the only surviving bastard son of King Robert. I am hoping that he will coming back in the next season. I feel like his story is not complete yet.

[JonSnow4President]

This season managed to make me (a major Stark fanboy) feel nothing for this scene.  I cannot think of a more damning indictment.  

[Count Balerion]

I rewatched episode 10 last night and had a very odd experience watching the KING IN THE NORTH scene in particular. Lyanna's speech was very good, well-written by the show's current standards (even sirring in places), and delivered by the actress in ringing tones. Emotionally, one was quite carrried away. But at precisely the same time, one's reason balked. When Lyanna pointed out to each of the lords why he should have answered the call (parents murdered at the Red Wedding or flayed by Ramsay), it seemed the show was having one of its weird meta moments when a character points out something seriously wrong with the narrative (Sansa's point about LF handing her over to Ramsay being another example). I could maybe see one or two lords sitting it out despite the whole RW/flaying thing; but ALL of them? (Except Lyanna; but even she talked nonsense about fighting other people's wars.)

So when Lyanna did her "answer the call" peroration, half of me was pumped up, and the other half kept saying "Well, yes".

Spoiler

It's also a bit of a pity that, if they were going to have pro-Bolton lords, they didn't use Lady Dustinn.

 

[Desert Fox]

Go back and watch S2 and S3. There are an awful lot of boring episodes that barely move the plot forward. Both featured a lot of story lines that sorta stagnated all season until shit went down in Ep9. And then Eps 10 of S2 and S3 were just setting up the next season. S6 changed the formula a bit so that a lot of stuff happened early in the season, then there was a midseason lull before Eps 9-10 were crazy. Even S4 had a couple of slow stinker episodes in the middle of season.

S1 is probably the only one that is engaging the entire time and has a good climax. Though S4 is pretty damn close.

[boojam]

On 6/28/2016 at 4:21 AM, Channel4s-JonSnow said:

This season contained many fantastic moments (Hodor, BotB, Jon resurrection, Mad Cercei, Sandor) but also quite a few clunkers ( Euron, Sandsnakes, Sams family, any speech involving Dany). I

I liked the stuff with Sam's family , but Sam's story , like almost all the stories, suffer from the Blivit problem , too much Flash elaboration , it is the problem with the beast, too much story stuffed into too little time as a visual narrative.

I thought Emilia has her best season, all that Dothraki is her strong suit when speaking (as has been the case when she's doing Valyrian). She handled her 'Common Tongue' better too, tho she didn't have a dialog sequence like the one on one with Tyrion in season 5. Not sure why it sounded like the audio of turned down on some of her words in episode 9.

I am one of those who was more impressed with the dragon flying and action in E9 than BoB in episode 9 , tho I thought BoB was great.

[Stannis is the man....nis]

1 hour ago, Count Balerion said:

I rewatched episode 10 last night and had a very odd experience watching the KING IN THE NORTH scene in particular. Lyanna's speech was very good, well-written by the show's current standards (even sirring in places), and delivered by the actress in ringing tones. Emotionally, one was quite carrried away. But at precisely the same time, one's reason balked. When Lyanna pointed out to each of the lords why he should have answered the call (parents murdered at the Red Wedding or flayed by Ramsay), it seemed the show was having one of its weird meta moments when a character points out something seriously wrong with the narrative (Sansa's point about LF handing her over to Ramsay being another example). I could maybe see one or two lords sitting it out despite the whole RW/flaying thing; but ALL of them? (Except Lyanna; but even she talked nonsense about fighting other people's wars.)

So when Lyanna did her "answer the call" peroration, half of me was pumped up, and the other half kept saying "Well, yes".

  Reveal hidden contents

It's also a bit of a pity that, if they were going to have pro-Bolton lords, they didn't use Lady Dustinn.

 

^This. 6 was better then 5 but my god have they botched the North these past two years.

[Les Météores D]

The dialogues in early episodes were bad, really bad. I like the show a lot but that was off putting. No depth, repetitions and blandness compared to even season 5. Arya's plot was ok, loved the theater troupe and Lady Crane but, yeah, the stabbing in the belly was one of the most unrealistic sh!t they've ever done especially if you make a parallel with the death of characters like Hotah/Roose and a badly injured Lancel. 

Other than that (and minor nitpicking) it was quite good. BotB was amazing, although it lacked the complexity of Blackwater. tWoW was outstanding TV, very impressive direction and editing. My favorite transition was between Tommen's silent suicide and the Twins with Walder's voice-over "To house Lannister": chilling and the perfect example of cinematographic narration. 

 

[Ser Ronan Storm]

Despite quite a few problems I had with it, Season 6 restored my faith in the show and got me to recommit to finishing the series. I thought Season 5 was a massive abortion. Yes, I'm guilty of being a book purist, and the ridiculous alterations made Stannis and Sansa damn made me apoplectic. Not to mention that Dorne was so rotten it left a bad taste in every viewer's mouth.

Season 6 seemed to be D&D corrected the ship, in my opinion. They wavered a bit: I knew Ramsay had to die this season, and I feared that the writers would have him be as douchey as possible all the way up to the very end. I wasn't surprised. First he kills Roose, a far more complex and interesting character. Then he feeds a baby to the dogs. Then he slays Osha in a pointless scene. Finally, he takes out Rickon and Wun-Wun. Really, the best thing the showrunners did this season was give us a multi-episode break from Ramsay between Osha's death and the Battle of the Bastards. I just didn't need them to constantly give me reasons to hate the guy. Torturing Theon and raping Sansa were enough from me. I was no less invested in hating him before he did all of that other shit this season.

I do miss Margaery deeply. I wasn't too surprised by her death, but I was surprised at how sad it made me.

Arya getting accepted into the Faceless Academy, but immediately bailing...but then appearing again as a Faceless Man made no fucking sense. I hate her and her story so much.

And yet. The Theon-Sansa scenes broke my heart. The Sansa-Jon reunion broke my heart. Jaime seems back on track to becoming a decent human being again. I can finally get behind Dany since she seems to have added "Protector of Eunuchs" to her exhausting list of titles. The show gave me what I wanted from my favorite characters this season, and that made me love it again.