Game of Thrones is not only a fantastic show—it’s a feast for the eyes. From the costumes to the sets to the CGI, every episode has gorgeous moments and amazing acting beats that are well worth freezing in time and considering. Today’s Best Vista Award goes to the the steps of the Girona Cathedral in Spain, which is a stop open to all tourists who might find themselves visiting the great city of Girona, which is standing in this year for King’s Landing, among other places. The Spanish Tourism Board would once again like to thank Game of Thrones for this screencap.
Let’s get to the other impressive sights from “Blood of My Blood.” For those expecting screencaps of Bran’s visions from the first two minutes of the episode, we collected those in a separate screencap post yesterday, since the visions were so full of interesting stuff. Therefore, today we pick up after Bran awakens and tells Meera the bad news: “They’ve found us.”
Meera has such an expressive face. I’m glad they’re giving Ellie Kendrick more to do this season.
Coldhand’s fire thurible is very useful in this situation. Observe:
Useful in many situations, particularly those that involve the undead.
Dude, take a look at this expensive-ass carriage. Sam is *loaded.*
LOADED.
L.O.A.D.E.D.
The High Sparrow keeps meeting Tommen in the expansive Sept of Baelor. When working over kings, use your space to impress.
When I saw this shot, I couldn’t help but think of Richard III, and how he stages a scene so that when his lackeys bring the ministers to insist he must become king, they find him piously reading the bible in dressed down rags.
Margaery also has that look on her face, the one she had all throughout Seasons 4 and 5 when she was working over Tommen.
But it was this shot when I realized that the Faith readied her for this meeting. Look how nicely her hair is brushed. Look how well-scrubbed she is. They readied her for this, or allowed her to ready herself.
This year, myself (be kind), FanSided editor Josh Hill, and FanSided VP of Content Patrick Allen have been filming episodes of WiC Live, the site’s Game of Thrones recap show, every week following new installments of GoT. We’ve embraced the “live” part of WiC Live, and broadcast in real time on Facebook Live. Our new episode, all about “Blood of My Blood,” records today at 12:00 noon CST. Hop on over to WiC’s Facebook page to watch it.
Generally, we record the show on Mondays at noon, but we took yesterday off for Memorial Day. But now, our pasty selves are back to discuss Margaery’s self-styled prison break, Arya’s moral conundrum, Bran’s flashback to the Mad King, and Daenerys Targaryen Inspirational Foreign-Language Speech #46. Was the episode treading water? Did it break new ground? Where is it all going? How badly do we want Mace Tyrell’s feathered hat? All this and more will be discussed. (Note: that last bit may not be discussed.)
Head over to the WiC Facebook page to see it all happen at 12:00 noon.
Last we saw of him, Ser Davos had put him in a boat headed for King's Landing.
This was in order to save his life from Melisandre, who was ready to burn the bastard as a sacrifice to the Lord of the Light (she ended up burning bb Shireen instead).
HBO
We've been wondering ever since where the hell he is.
This one wasn’t quite as stressful as last week’s Twitter post, thank R’hllor. My old heart wouldn’t’a been able to take it.
This one was still fun though. No one got BANNED (#BANNED), but some of you suckers came close.
The hashtags are, as always, #GoTs6 (WHICH I CHECK FIRST, HINT HINT), #GameOfThrones, #DemThrones, and #ThronesYall, as well as the episode-specific #BloodOfMyBlood.
At the conclusion of every Game of Thrones episode, the production airs and then releases a spate of videos detailing the behind-the-scenes work that went into making it. These videos explore the thought process that went into the creation of particular scenes, and highlight what the writers and directors see as the key moments of the episode.
This week’s “Inside The Episode” for “Blood of My Blood” interestingly describes Bran’s visions as him “absorbing the history of the world.” Benioff and Weiss also discuss the major return of Benjen Stark (which they actually call “Coldhands,”) as well as Arya’s choice and Dany’s dramatic speech.
I was really surprised at what the “Inside the Episode” doesn’t discuss: King’s Landing and Margaery’s huge play that basically undercuts the power of everyone in the Red Keep currently. Lucky for us, the first actor deep dive does that, with Nikolaj Coster-Waldau and Jonathan Pryce.
But, again, very frustratingly, Natalie Dormer isn’t included in this discussion. everyone has complained that Margaery’s motivations are unclear, but it strikes me that this is the first time in the show Margaery has been inscrutable–which is how she is in all the books, always. Perhaps that why the producers don’t discuss it in the main segment, and she’s not interviewed or this one–so that they can keep those motivations under wraps for a little while longer.
Our second actor deep dive is with John Bradley and Hannah Murray on what was, surprisingly, perhaps one of the best scenes they’ve had all season: Sam’s homecoming.
And finally, the clip that the show posted for the week is that of Dany’s flight in on dragon back, so that we can all marvel once again at the size of Drogon.
I don’t think I could cope with this. Contains spoilers!
Daenerys' speech at the end of Season 6, Episode 6 of Game of Thrones was completely epic.
In addition to teasing that she will finally head to Westeros - something fans have been waiting for for six seasons - it was also a nice callback to the speech Drogo made back in Season 1. Plus, what with the giant dragon she was riding and all, it was pretty bad-ass.
But there was also something about it that was a little... unsettling.
It's not the first time Dany has delivered a rousing speech, but hearing her echo Drogo's words - even without the rapey bits - when you bear in mind that her "enemies" are not just the dickbags we hate like the Boltons or Freys, but also those we know and love, like the Starks, makes you wonder if her heading to Westeros would be such a good thing after all.
Sure, a lot of people hope she meets Jon Snow and they're like *heart eyes emoji* and team up to beat the White Walkers together and get married and rule Westeros and live happily ever after.
But, um... doesn't that sound very un-Game of Thrones to you?
Doesn't it seem much more likely, in a series that makes you root for a guy who pushed a child out of a window, that the seemingly good protagonist actually ends up a villain?
We are now at the middle of the current season (already!), and it is time to look at the ratings so far, which in turn means you are going to see another shiny graph. Here it is (you can click to enlarge):
As you will remember, the season started out strong, close to the record from last season finale, which lies just above the 8 million mark (8.11 to be precise). After two episodes in the range of 7.3, the initial vierwership returned to the premiere levels at 7.9 million with episodes 604 and 605.
Comparing the run of Game of Thrones against other successful HBO shows reveals the show’s remarkable popularity. It surpassed The Sopranos as the most watched show in HBO’s history last year (unfortunately we lack reliable and consistend week-to-week numbers from that era). You can observe that True Blood, the next most popular show, was reaching over 3 million fewer viewers at the same stage of its run, i.e. by its sixth season.
While we wait for the latest numbers on episode 606, which aired on Sunday during the Memorial Day weekend, we can also look at the drops in initial viewership that Game of Thrones experienced when airing on the holiday Sunday. That happened three times in the past (episodes 107, 209, and 507) and the average drop was one of 10 % compared to the average of the two preceding episodes. Last year, the drop was particularly severe with one whole million fewer pairs of eyes, or 17 %. This year, an average drop would bring the viewership to just above 7 million, and a drop of the same size as last year to 6.5 million. These two benchmarks should give us some perspective when assessing this years Memorial Day weekend numbers.
What are your predictions for the future? Let us know in the comments, as always.
Burn them all! Family was the center of last night’s Game of Thrones with more than a few new and familiar faces brought into the fold. With yet another major revelation for the series, let’s jump right into the reviews of season 6’s “Blood of My Blood.”
Here at The Wall, Sue (Sullied) cheers for the courageous Sam and Gilly, the reveal of Benjen Stark, and the return of Edmure Tully. Oz, (Unsullied) returning from the land of no wi-fi, is back just in time for the first Bryan Cogman-penned episode of season 6! He reviews the Tarly dinner, Arya, and of course, Benjen Stark.
Since this episode contained moments from the book series and the past, some authors are noted as Sullied or Unsullied. Be sure to still exercise caution when reading some reviews for book spoilers.
Myles McNutt, A.V. Club (Sullied) – McNutt tackles Margaery’s new state of mind and her divergence from the book series as she becomes a larger player in the Game of Thrones.
Alyssa Rosenberg, The Washington Post (Sullied) – Slightly underwhelmed by Benjen’s return, (after Hodor’s shocking ending last week) Rosenberg reviews the family elements throughout “Blood of My Blood.”
Sean T. Collins, Rolling Stone – Collins revels in the intimate character conversations through the episode which he found “exciting.”
Rob Bricken, io9 – Taking a step back from the last episode, Bricken is disappointed the plots aren’t advanced very far and even baffled by the character choices made by Margaery and Arya.
Neil Miller, Film School Rejects (Sullied) – Miller mirrors the audience with Bran saying “we’re getting a frantic download of information” as Season 6 has proven itself absolutely full of revelations.
David Crow, Den of Geek – Underwhelmed by some of the progressions and pacing of the episode, Crow still applauds writer Bryan Cogman for his work on “Blood of My Blood.”
Laura Hudson, Wired – With the heavy flashbacks this episode, Hudson reflects on the characters preparing for the great battle of ice and fire as well as the families and swords in “Blood of My Blood.”
Alan Sepinwall, Hitfix – In the spirit of the players in Braavos, Sepinwall examines who is being true and who is simply playing the part.
Brandon Norwalk, A.V. Club (Unsullied) – Norwalk faults “Blood of My Blood” for having a loose grip on its characters but was still thrilled with Bran’s visions and the return of Needle.
Jen Chaney, Vulture – Chaney praises director Jack Bender and calls the episode “narratively sure-footed and beautifully realized.”
David Rosenblatt, Squinty Over Analyzes Things – Analyzing the plot/character developments and revelations of the episode, Rosenblatt takes a different approach to Margaery, comments on No One Arya’s decision, and the standoff in King’s Landing.
Michal Schick, Hypable – Our newest addition to the round-ups, welcome Michal Schick! She rejoices for our characters and the “thread of ownership sewn through the episode.”
Stay tuned for Bex’s recap round-up later this week which features the best handpicked Game of Thrones video reviews for “Blood of My Blood.”
Even off the high of “The Door,” most critics still enjoyed the episode. What do you think of this week’s reviews? Let us know below!
With “Blood of My Blood” now having aired all the way around the world, and hopefully all of us having had a chance to see it this holiday weekend, it’s time to dive into the trailer that debuted at the end of it. Let’s watch it together and break it all down.
Here, as a reminder, is HBO’s synopsis for “The Broken Man,” the upcoming episode. It’s pretty short.
The High Sparrow eyes another target. Jaime confronts a hero. Arya makes a plan. The North is reminded.
I’m sorry, I can’t see “The North Is Reminded” without picturing the North’s phone going off with the ten-minute alarm, and the North hitting “snooze.”
Let’s see who used technology to set a reminder, and who tied a piece of string around their finger.
The third part of Game of Thrones‘ docuseries The Game Revealed is now available online. Each chapter of the docuseries covers two episodes apiece of Game of Thrones season 6, with insights from the cast and crew and behind the scenes footage from the show.
In the latest edition, The Game Revealed focuses on notable scenes including Bran’s vision, the Cave Attack/the Door, the Braavosi theater, and Meera and Bran’s rescue in this week’s episode.
SPOILERS below the cut!
The video contains interviews with a host of people including Isaac Hempstead Wright, Ellie Kendrick, Kristian Nairn, Emilia Clarke, Kae Alexander, director Jack Bender, showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, production designer Deborah Riley and more. We also hear from returning cast member Joseph Mawle, who made a big impression in his long-awaited return to the role of Benjen Stark.
The Game Revealed provides a lot of detail and some juicy soundbites from the people behind the show.
Of Bran’s visions from episode 6, David Benioff says, “Even though some of those images flash by in just a fraction of a second, each of them was very carefully chosen.” So we’re not overthinking things in analyzing these to bits!
“Today is about saving Bran, essentially- saving the prophet,” Joseph Mawle says in his interview from the set. The video shows some of the making of Benjen’s heroic rescue of Bran and Meera. Mawle says, “Nothing is gonna get between that kid and me ’cause I’m one bad motherfucker.” Hempstead Wright also chimes in about Benjen’s return and speaks of a mystical connection between Bran and Benjen now, due to their natures.
Jack Bender weighs in on Daenerys and Drogon’s sky-high moment from the end of “Blood of My Blood,” explaining his choices on how to present the scene, and he says, “At the end of the scene you should be somewhat roused by her…and a little horrified.” With a rather interesting choice of words, the director says, “She’s not Hitler at Nuremberg but she’s got the power.”
A Song of Ice and Fire author George R.R. Martin recently made a rare public appearance at Balitcon, an annual science fiction and fantasy convention. He received a good turnout, and according to Redditor Werthead, revealed an interesting tidbit about Brienne of Tarth: that she’s related to the legendary (and legendarily large) Ser Duncan the Tall, a hedge knight turned Lord Commander of the Night’s Watch.
Ser Duncan lived decades before the events of the series proper, and was a contemporary of Maester Aemon. He was the companion to Aegon V Targaryen before an unlikely series of events put the young king on the Iron Throne. Humble and steadfast (and huge), Duncan shares more than a few similarities with Brienne, and the idea that they’re related has been suggested by fans before. Still, it’s nice to have it confirmed.
The show hasn’t spent too much time talking about Ser Duncan (Joffrey mentions him briefly while flipping through the White Book in Season 4), but Martin has written a series of novellas about him. The ones written so far are collected in a book called A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms.
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms GRRM
Martin also read a new chapter from The Winds of Winter, something he hasn’t done in a while. I’ll pause so those who want to read SPOILERS might exit. Are we good? Good.
The chapter is written from the perspective of Aeron “Damphair” Greyjoy, another one of Balon’s brothers. Aeron became a priest of the Drowned God and, if HBO’s subtitles can be believed, has turned up briefly on the show, although his role is much reduced. On the show, he might just be some Drowned Priest named Aeron.
Aeron is a prisoner aboard Euron’s ship, the Silence. In A Feast for Crows, Aeron tries to rally support against Euron. It seems that the new king of the Iron Islands isn’t letting that slide.
Euron did indeed make contact with Pyat Pree, the warlock who tried to kill Daenerys toward the end of A Clash of Kings.
Damphair has two visions brought on by drinking shade of the evening, the hallucinogenic wine favored by the warlocks of Qarth. Expect “lots of imagery.”
Euron is taking the Silence out reaving, and at the end of the chapter, ties Aeron to the prow of the ship as he sails against the Redwynes, a powerful family from the Arbor—Lady Olenna was a Redwyne before she married into the Tyrell family.
When might The Winds of Winter come out so we can read this chapter for ourselves? For that, the con provided no answers. According to The Baltimore Sun, fans avoided that touchy question entirely.
In last night’s episode of Game of Thrones, we saw the return of several characters, and Arya reach a turning point in her stay in Braavos. It was full of revelations that had show-watchers and book-readers alike wide-eyed. Let’s dissect the episode a bit more with today’s batch of new interviews, giving us a closer look at “Blood of My Blood” and all that title implies.
Episode 606 Spoilers ahead!
Episode writer Bryan Cogman discusses Benjen Stark’s surprising return with Entertainment Weekly.
The show is so sprawling and there are so many threads, but – at it’s heart – it’s largely about this good family that was torn apart. So seeing some of them connect again (Jon and Sansa; Benjen and Bran) was very satisfying to write and to shoot. And it was great to have [actor] Joe Mawle back with us – it must have been a trip for him to step back into the character after so long – but he’s also decidedly not the Benjen of season 1. So that was fun to explore.
Cogman also discusses Sam’s big scene with his estranged family in Horn Hill.
That was a lot of fun because Sam might not have a lot of screen time this season, but he’s got this big meaty chunk trying to pass off Little Sam as his own bastard son. And as much as Sam has gone through, I love exploring those family dynamics. His mother and sister and brother are all fundamentally decent people but his father is just a cold hearted bastard when it comes to his distant son. There’s a painful part of the scene where his father just unloads on him and tells him every hateful thing he ever thought about him and Sam can’t defend himself. We found that fascinating – Sam has killed a man, he’s killed a White Walker, he’s emerged as such a great hero, but he still can’t stand up do his dad.
The play scene in Braavos displayed a lot of self-awareness about how Game of Thrones is perceived and it seems like the writer had fun with that. Cogman tells EW:
I come from theater and being able to comment on the show and the reactions to the show through the players were so much fun. The show is often accused of being gratuitous in all kinds of way – the violence and the bigness of the characters. It’s a huge operatic story. We’re able to lovingly spoof ourselves but also play with ideas about how audiences view the show, good and bad, and how a perspective of a story changes.
EW also checks in with Tobias Menzies who has been AWOL from Game of Thrones since the Red Wedding in season 3. Menzies says it was a “nice surprise” to hear from the show and admits, “I’m not sure [the producers] knew themselves” whether or not Edmure Tully would ever return.
I think they’ve sort of found their way and chose what bits of the book they are doing. They just got in contact a little bit before we shot to see whether I was available, whether they could fit me in. It was a question of fitting in amongst my other commitments. But I’m a big fan of the show and was keen to make it work if I could.
Teasing his upcoming storyline, Menzies says, “[Edmure] becomes a pawn in a large political fight. He ends up having to make a very difficult decision over whether to betray his family.”
Maisie Williams talks to MakingGameofThrones this week about Arya’s change of heart in “Blood of My Blood.”
She sees how Bianca reacts to Lady Crane’s talent. Arya’s seen a lot of backstabbing and snakey-ness, and now it’s happening right in front of her, and she has the power to do something about it. Lady Crane is such a warm soul, which Arya hasn’t come across in a really long time. When Arya sees someone so selfish like Bianca, it’s something that really doesn’t sit well with her. I think that’s the moment when she thinks: I’m not going to do this. I’m going to take it upon myself to put things right.
As for the risk Arya is putting herself in by making that decision, Williams says:
I think Arya’s almost forgotten about the House of Black and White in that moment. She gets involved with people very easily. She gets so drawn into personalities. That’s just something that’s in her blood. You know, the Starks trust far too many people. Jaqen makes it very clear that, if she messes up, that’s it. I think Arya never lets herself dwell on anything, so she doesn’t take it as seriously as she should.
David Benioff and D.B. Weiss look back at “Blood of My Blood” in the new edition of Inside the Episode, including the mysterious return of Benjen Stark, how Bran is now the Three-Eyed Raven, the play and Arya’s decision to leave, and Daenerys’ final scene, a mirror to Khal Drogo’s season 1 Dothraki speech.
John Bradley and Hannah Murray discuss Sam and Gilly’s visit to Horn Hill, how Randyll compares to dealing with Craster and White Walkers, and Sam’s mindset in dealing with his father.
Taking a look at the sept confrontation, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau discusses dealing with a fanatic like the High Sparrow, and Jonathan Pryce shares his insight into the crafty sparrow.
Bran’s vision last night in the new episode of Game of Thrones was jam-packed with imagery, with the history of the world flowing through the boy’s mind thanks to a quick upload from the late Three-Eyed Raven. A lot of the images are of things we’ve seen on the show, but there are new gems buried in the mad crush of info and we’re going to take a look at the more intriguing bits today, and the significance of the staggering vision.
YouTube user Mayes T has helpfully uploaded a slowed-down version of Bran’s visions if you’d like to rewatch at a less frenetic pace.
We’ve screencapped key moments from Bran’s visions to take a deeper look. It was an overwhelming amount of information unloaded onto viewers, as well as Bran. Now that we’ve had a little time to mull it over, what do we have here? To sum it up: the war between ice and fire, the weapons of mass destruction on both sides and the major players Bran needs to keep his eyes on.
The vision shows us the containers of wildfire that we know are kept beneath King’s Landing. Wildfire was used to devastating effect in “Blackwater”:
The visions are heavy on the dragon imagery, showing us the dragon and a shadow over King’s Landing, something we saw in a previous vision:
Woven throughout the visions is the fall of the Mad King Aerys, obsessed with wildfire and slain by Jaime Lannister during Robert’s Rebellion. First we see a shot of David Rintoul as the Mad King, who also happens to be Daenerys’ father. (Worth mentioning since she and her dragon were the big finale last night.)
Since the role of the Mad King was played by Liam Burke in a cut season 1 scene, we can assume this is newly shot and not the show hauling the old cut scene from their trunks:
We get a glimpse of the cold moving over the North, seen in another vision:
Scattered throughout are familiar reused shots of:
-the Night’s King and wight-Karsi at Hardhome
-Bran falling all over again from the tower at Winterfell
-Catelyn dying at the Red Wedding
-the birth of Dany’s dragons
-the White Walker collecting Craster’s baby, and the baby being changed by the Night’s King
-Ned Stark’s execution
The story of Bran’s own family seems to be tied into the vision’s tale of ice and fire, perhaps due to Bran’s role, or perhaps due to someone else’s, like say Jon Snow.
We see the pyromancers’ jars of wildfire once again, and there will be more of this. The emphasis on wildfire is almost threatening.
There is more of the Mad King…
The second flood of images for Bran uses a lot of the same imagery of the dragons and the White Walkers- the focus here is clearly the true war. We see the ravens that Sam and Gilly saw when they encountered the White Walker, and catch another glimpse of the dangerous cache of wildfire being handled by pyromancers.
Aerys is now shouting “Burn them all!” from the Iron Throne.
Next we see the wildfire ignited in the storage where we saw them being kept- however I don’t recall this happening before. If it had, the Red Keep and all of King’s Landing would be a smoking ruin, with that much wildfire. Is this the future?
Then more of the same recurring glimpse of the pyromancers at work, handling the substance:
Young Jaime arrives to stop the Mad King from destroying the city:
While we see young Ned Stark back at the Tower of Joy wanting to see his sister…
With an immediate cut to this bloody hand, hovering over a blood-soaked shape. We can see another hand lying alongside the body, if that’s what it is.
We compared young Ned’s gloves and armwear to what we saw in “Oathbreaker” and it certainly seem very possible that this hand and wrist belongs to Ned, and the blood may be his sister’s. My best guess is that we’re getting a glimpse of the resolution of the Tower of Joy here, with Lyanna in her bed of blood. Book readers understand the enormity of that sequence, what it implies and at this rate, a lot of the show-only fans have worked it out. We know that Robert Aramayo is set to be in the season finale, so hopefully we’ll finally get this resolved in episode 10.
After that intriguing bit, we see a mix of familiar sights- Robb at the Red Wedding, the Children creating the first White Walker, Jon’s White Walker duel at Hardhome, the key recurring images of Dany and the dragons and the White Walkers- while also getting a look at Jaime’s murder of the Mad King, how he earned his nickname Kingslayer.
The ignited wildfire we saw before expands- this is like a bomb going off. It’s what the Mad King was threatening to do, it’s why Jaime killed him- so this never happened. Only it may still.
Essentially, the images of the vision convey a condensed version of the war between ice and fire throughout history, the Three-Eyed Raven’s last attempt to help Bran understand what he was up against and what he needed to do.
My predictions, based on the vision: the mystery of Jon Snow’s parentage will be revealed in the season finale, and there is going to be a wildfire explosion in King’s Landing. The dragons will be, as people have long guessed, a major part in bringing down the White Walkers someday, the main weapon. The reminder of Dany’s father’s madness in an episode finishing with a declaration of her ambitions makes me think that we will see Daenerys take a similar turn in the end, with a wish to “Burn them all.” She’ll probably save Westeros first, though! And Bran will be there to see it all.
Head over to the WiC Facebook page to see it all happen at 12:00 noon.
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