Revue of Game of Thrones S06 E10 (Season Finale)
Before we begin, let us have a minute of silence to mourn… till April next year we shall not have any Game of Thrones.
To be fair, we had a good season. Some felt that it was a slow season, but no one will deny that it climaxed in a grand manner. To douse the fears of those who thought nothing could trump the Battle of the Bastards, we were given a tenth episode which eclipsed it in the swiftness and poignancy and utter importance of the events that occurred.
“The Winds of Winter”. I wonder what other names the producers may have considered… “The Revenge of the Queen”?, The Return of the Queen”?, “The King of the North”? Admittedly, none would effectively capture the fact that the long awaited winter has finally arrived.
First, a trial that went up in flames! Cersei is quite a character, and immediately we lose Ramsay she steps in as our lead villain. Talk about the destruction of your enemies in one fell swoop! Aided by Qyburn and his little band of shrikes (yeah, I called them that), she strikes deep into the heart of her enemies (goodbye Grand Maester Pycelle, we shall not miss you) and brings an entire religious movement to a fiery end. I must admit that I am saddened at Margaery's death though. I truly liked her and she was impressing with her schemes. Sadly she underestimated Cersei.
And so Tommen takes a dive, broken by the loss of his beloved wife and the promoters of his faith. I cannot claim to be particularly saddened at his death. I had always vacillated between feelings of pity and contempt for him, and the greatest significance of his death is that Cersei’s fear of losing all her incestuous spawn has finally come true. Now totally bereft of any feelings of love, and finally sitting on the Iron Throne as of right, she can focus entirely on tyranny.
No! Wait! Cersei cannot focus on tyranny! She will soon have a war on her hands, because Queen Daenerys and her fleet of ships and dragons are bearing down on Westeros, together with her new hand Tyrion and instrumental aide Varys who has brought in Dorne and the mourning Tyrells as allies. Daeny is a truly formidable enemy and the calm way she dumped Daario Naharis reminds us that she is quite capable of taking hard decisions when the occasion calls for it. We can almost pity Queen Cersei as she luxuriates in her evil accomplishments, unaware of the coming battles and short of wise counsel.
I believe we should go North now, to the acknowledgement of the King of the North. Yes Jon Snow is declared King of the North, a role which he reluctantly accepted due to Sansa’s refusal to step into her brother’s shoes. Much to Littlefinger’s dismay she ceded leadership to Jon while also rejecting his advances. The high point was however not the loud cries of “King of the North”, but the rousing speech of Lyanna Mormont, the true heroine of the story. Jon obviously could not have rallied the northern Lords the way she did. My admiration for her knows no bounds!
Sansa though, deserves some commendation for the way she has developed as a character. Apologizing to Jon on one hand, she mends fences with him. She then puts Lord Baelish in his place (this might have some repercussions though, as Little Finger is usually up to no good), and refuses to give in to the lure of becoming Queen of the North as she realizes that Jon is better suited to battling the Whitewalkers than she is.
Speaking of Jon, his inability to decisively deal with the Davos/Mellisandre face-off does give cause for concern, especially after his mishandling of the battle of the bastards. Now as Bran also reveals that he is only maternally a half-Stark, we can only wonder if this will get out, and what the reaction of the Northern Lords would be if it did. Thankfully, we only confirm that Ned is not his father, and are still left with a semblance of doubt that Rhaegar Targaryen is. A little suspense never hurt anyone, right?
I had said when reviewing Episode 6 that I would not speak about Walder Frey until he would get what has been coming to him, and he gets served his just desserts (literally) by “a girl” who has returned to ticking off the names on her list (Oh yes, Cersei beware). We welcome Arya back to Westeros joyfully as she shows faceless chops in slicing up the Freys. We can only guess as to where she is headed next. Kings Landing maybe? I feel she would prefer to conclude with her list before returning to Winterfell, and can only guess that she would arrive there only after the battle with the Night King would have commenced.
Oh yes. Sam and Gilly reach the end of their journey, and Sam is finally confronted with the library he has been dreaming of. More importantly about the Citadel, a white raven is sent out, signaling the dawn (or should I say dusk) of winter. Winter is finally here!
Finally, let us have a bit of sympathy for Jamie, who returns to find his last offspring dead and a changed sister on the throne. He looked quite forlorn as Cersei was being crowned, probably realizing that he has not only lost Tommen, but also the sister he loved.
On an aside, Episode 10 was definitely the triumph of the girls – Cersei, Daeny, Arya, Sansa, Lyanna Mormont and even Lady Olenna Tyrell and her alliance with Dorne. We have seen this trend developing all season, haven’t we?...
And so folks, we come to the end of our season. Winter has come, and we have to wait till April to continue this weekly activity.I shall indeed miss you. So long…
Revue Contribution by Noel Orji
The Maveriq
