Game of Thrones: Season 6- Episode One Review

By: ScarletteIt's that special time of the year again: Game of Thrones is BACK.We're recapping episode one of Season 6 and throwing our thoughts out, because for the first time, all we can do is speculate about this season! The original source material, A Song of Ice and Fire, is out! There's no more! G. Martin is infamously known as a slow writer, even slower these past couple of years because he's been busy promoting the show...instead of writing the books. That's a different topic for another time. What makes season six of Game of Thrones so interesting is that nobody knows what's going to happen. Even though Season five did a pretty good job of throwing well knowing book readers for a spin, it still followed the path of the books pretty well--so a good portion of the audience wasn't going in blind, and had some idea what to expect.Season six? No clue. None. It's a little scary, but it's also very exciting---even AS a book reader, I'm finding this season exciting because of the lack of knowledge and predictability Below is nothing but spoilers for the first episode of season 6--if you haven seen it and you're trying to avoid spoilers ,it's time to leave! Otherwise, come sit by the hearth with me, we have things to discuss. Does anybody else agree that this first epsiode of the season is really just a WRECKING BALL. Anything, anybody, who was considered a power house or in charge is....no longer in charge. I almost feel like the entire stage has been reset, turned upside down, and no ruling character is actually doing that"ruling a kingdom," thing. Seriously, nobody is sitting on a thrown, nobody is calling any shots, everybody with their ulterior motives has come to an amazing stand still. The ending of season five was an explosion of all the power struggles that were occuring in Westeros and the first episode of season 6 is the aftermath, and the after math is a ton of confusion and uncertainty.The first episode does a great job of systematically going through each set of characters, and what's happened to them after the season five fall out.Fortunately, the writers of this particular episode threw us a bone and what was considered one of the biggest cliff hangers of GOT series, we got a...some what...conclusion to. Is Jon Snow actually dead?! Well, yes. Yes, he is. Confirmed: Jon Snow is dead, dead, dead, dead. But we're still left with the lingering question of: But is he coming BACK? At least we all feel a little better about the fact that Snow is dead, because still have an entire season to hold onto the hope of a reincarnation or something.  *Ahem* BE USEFUL FOR ONCE, MELISANDRE. ----oooh, and Im not surprised at all about her saggy body parts. Not at all. Part of me is hoping she crawled into that bed to die in her original form, but the other part of me is like: no, dont die, it's no time for self pity! We need you to bring back Jon!The power struggle happening in Castle Black is real--and right now, its the one place where the story is moving, and forcing the character to act instead of think. We have a room full of Jon Snow supports about ready to die to the new Commander, and one of them is off to tell the Wildlings that their biggest ally is dead. And if Jon is dead, the Wildlings dont have to worry about the White Walkers for much longer, because the Crows will kill them first. It'll be interesting to see if the Wildling will answer the call and avenge Jon.Our attention is shifted just a little south of the wall towards Winterfell.Sansa and Theon--it still isnt confirmed if Theon has become Theon or if he's still referring to himself as Reek- survived the fall from the season 5 finale. They're on the run from the hounds and House Bolton. Sansa is still pretty useless--still a plot device for Theon is become a better, stronger, man. Forget her own personal character growth, it's not happening in this episode. What does happen is the duo get caught! Surprised, no. But who comes to the rescue?! LADY BRIENNE. Freaking, finally.Okay, as  book reader, Lady Brienne's story is one of the more frustrating ones to read because she's consstantly looking for the Stark gilrs but ALWAYS manages to miss them. The GOT episode fulfills this frustration by cutting Brienne a break and and allows her to fulfill he sworn duty. FINALLY.Brienne rides in like the bad-ass she is, saves Sansa and Theon, and swears her ever lasting loyalty to Sansa like she promised Lady Catelyn. Thank the Old Gods and the New Gods, she's fulfilled her very frsutrating quest.I can't wait to see how this plays out--because one: finally, somebody actually accomplished something they neeeded to do in the GOT series, and secondly: Sansa can learn from Brienne on how to be a better bad-ass. It was extrememtly irritating for me to see Sansa try and step up her game at the end of season 4, to only revert back--if not worse--to the same person she was trying to avoid becoming in season 5. Here's hoping with another strong female character around, one that isnt trying to smash her down every second, that Sansa grows a stronger back bone.Back in King's Landing: The only person who seems to be holding onto their ruling title is Tomen, but we all know he's just a figure head. The puppet masters who are pulling HIS strings are also in a state of confusion--if they can even figure out who the King's Landing's puppet master IS. The Lannister's are in an emotional state--they're middle child, Marcella, is dead. Say what you want about Cersie and Jamie, but they have lost ALOT of children, they're allowed some time to mourn, be confused, and recollect themselves. Thankfully, there was no rape scene on a corpse, so Jamie gets kudo points for being less of an ass-hat and more of a human being. We all knew with Tywin dead that King's Landings was heading for shit storm, especially when Cersie was at the helm trying to take control. We saw how that went in season 5--Cersie had a little bit of power, was doing okay, let it get out of control and it came back and bit her in the butt. Hard. Will she want to step up now, and try and take control as the puppet master? Because if Cersie backs down, there are PLENTY of other people not only in King's Landing, but in the other realms, waiting to demolish not only House Lannister we the power seat of Westeros. Jamie seems to be stepping up his initiative in the power struggle, fueled by the loss of a child he feels he could have prevented. Swearing to take back what's theirs and more, House Lannister is still on the brink of destruction and is well aware of it.Time to go waaaaay south, to Dorn. Honestly: I was not expecting this.I was kinda thinking Dorne would sit quietly for a little bit, as they had the Lannister fingers pointing at them for killing a little lion. That being said, the GOT universe houses some of the strongest and weakest cast of female characters...and after watching this first episode of the new season, you DONT want to mess with the ladies of Dorne. They, literally, just over threw the entire ruling house- the Martells- of Dorne. The- known- Martells are dead. Father and heir, dead. Killed by cold blooded Sand Snakes, looking to avenge their beloved Oberyn Martell. I am very excited to see what happen in Dorn because we know nothing about its political landscape, if there are other houses looking to take over, or what. We only know a bunch of bastard children just murdered the royal family and they are hell bent on revenge.And finally-- we cross the Narrow Sea and visit good ol' Meereen. Which is a state of shambles now that the Sons of the Harpy managed to murder alot of people at the fighting pits and Daenerys was like "screw this, Im flying away on my dragon. PEACE."Meereen is in chaos. It's freed people have no idea who to trust. Their chain breaker, just allowed the slave fighting pits to be opened, and is no longer openly punishing masters. Their mother, as seen in the episode, is now considered a master. Ouch. The arcs happening in Meereen are my favorite because we seen Dany go through major character changes---some of them good, some of them worse---and right now she's at this point in her character development where something major is about to happen and it can go in either direction for her. But what I love is if you've been paying attention to some of the tid bits happening in pervious seasons, you'll see that Melisandre isnt the only follower of the Lord of Light in red. There has been several followers in red, preaching about another savior in far away realm doing amazing things...Melisandre obviously bet on the wrong horse, deciding to roll with Stannis--but other followers in red have been preaching about Daenerys, and that fact is mad obvious in the first episode of season 6. It's not longer an obscure reference--nope, the Lord of Light FAVORS Daenery's. I mean, why wouldnt He? He loves fire, and Dany is the Mother of Dragons and isnt burnt by fire, etc, etc, it makes total sense.Once we know how Meereen is fairing, we pan over to it's ruler. Dany was last scene royally screwed and surrounded by a horde of Dothraki riders. Well, the obviously took her hostage and brought her to their Khal. And side note: Major props to Dany who manages to keep her mouth shut even though she knew what those vulgar men were saying. If someone was talking trash about me, in a language they assume I dont know, I'd be talking smack right back. But she's always managed to keep her mouth shut when it came to understanding languages, it always proved useful for her. Dany finds herself in this interesting situation...As usual, someone is trying to rape her and make her theirs----this happens, ALOT...---but Dany is like "NOPE. SHOW SOME RESPECT." and they actually do. It's actually just a little mind boggling exactly how much respect is being shown to her by the new Khal once they find out who she is. And it's kind of refreshing for someone, besides the internet, to poke fun at Dany and her ridiculously long name and titles. The Khal could, and really does not, care of Dany and her accomplishments. It's when she mentions her husband was Khal Drogo do her captures back the hell off. Its seriously like, "oh shoot, you were married to Drogo and you're his widow. Im really sorry."Its obviously taboo was any Dothraki to sleep with Khal's widow, and they treat her instantly better. Along with letting her know that once widowed, you lead a very meaningless life at the Khal Widow Sanctuary, where you do nothing but mourn your lost husband. Naturally, Dany's captors plan on dropping her off there to live the rest of her natural life. Right, like Dany will be okay with that. The verdict for the first episode of season 6: YES. YES. YES. WELCOME BACK GAME OF THRONES. That was an excellent episode! We are absolutely hyped for the rest of the season! Great way to bring us back!Hopefully next week we'll see Arya!