Unsullied Recap, Game of Thrones Season 5 Episode 10: Mother’s Mercy

107 Comments

1. How could you leave out the quote?

   “My Valyrian is a bit nostril”.

   Reminds me of the ever present chance of using the wrong tone in Mandarin Chinese and saying “This is my horse” while introducing your mother…

2. Hodor?

3. Arya Havin’ a Larf,

   Most definitely should have been included.

4. You and I are in the same boat now, Oz. We are all Unsullied.

5. Arya went all o ren ishii

6. Congratulations, Unsullied! You and the book-readers are on the same footing now. We are all Unsullied from this point forward.

7. You forgot the quote “You’re the bravest man without balls I’ve ever met”

8. Gene,
   
   No we’re not.

   Let’s get that straight. We have book knowledge that never made it on the air. Also there’s plenty of stuff the show hasn’t covered yet, for example the Iron Islands storyline that will begin next season. Book readers still need to tread lightly in these Unsullied posts and not make predictions. Thanks!

9. kdenn1020,

   Another winner…

   See, I DO need you guys.

10. Seriously entertaining interview with Ian Beattie. Seems like an ace guy. Also kinda puts to rest the whole Syrio Forel theories, as if last night didn’t do that already. http://www.vulture.com/2015/06/game-of-thrones-ian-beattie-on-that-horrific-death-scene.html

11. Solid finale. was kind of bummed about the Battle of Winterfell being such a non-event… but after getting Hardhome and the Pit, I’m not going to cry about it.

    Dorne was struggling so hard to redeem itself these last few episodes, but in the end, yep, it’s still dumb… they might as well have just killed Myrcella off-screen and not bothered to re-cast the actress. Waste of time and talent telling a total non-story. As far as the (alleged) climax of that storyline goes, you could see the poison thing coming from a mile away as soon as Ellaria leaned in for her way-too-long lesbipedo kiss.

    the Kit Harrington “oh, I’m definitely dead” media campaign that seemed to be all over my facebook within 2 hours of the episode ending is trying a little too hard, in my opinion. but we’ll all be arguing about this for the next 8 months, so i’ll leave it at that for now.

12. Ravyn:
    Seriously entertaining interview with Ian Beattie. Seems like an ace guy. Also kinda puts to rest the whole Syrio Forel theories, as if last night didn’t do that already. http://www.vulture.com/2015/06/game-of-thrones-ian-beattie-on-that-horrific-death-scene.html

    Ian Beattie always comes across as a nice guy, funny how nice guys make such good arseholes in drama!

    I wasn’t really expecting Arya to go full on pyscho, thought it would be a more cold and calculated dispatch. A girl needs Anger Management Classes.

13. Do we still need to be separating “sullied” and “unsullied” posts? Everyone is unsullied now.

14. RosanaZugey,

    Please see my post above. YES.

15. RosanaZugey,

    Seven Hells… I hope so. I may be out of a job.

16. I’m a book reader but haven’t finish them all – still on Feast for Crows – everything tends to blend together and I’m sure if I read it, or if I seen it…! I can’t cope with it…

    Top moments:

    – Seeing Melissandre totally clueless and faithless!
    – Arya’s penitence for messing with what she doesn’t know
    – Reek’s balls growing back a bit
    – Tyrion and Varys “plotting” to rule Mereen

    Down moments:

    – Realizing Drogon is not so badass and his mother can’t control him
    – Briennes revenge was not that big a deal… sad even
    – Jaime’s 10 second father’s day…saaaad…
    – Lord Commander… I can’t even bring myself to discuss this…

    I do hope that next season we’ll see Snow again… It can’t just end like that! Even the Night’s King will be like “where’s the dude that I thought would be a worthy oponent?”
    Wether is Melissandre spell, or burning Jon Snow and he is revive by the fire (R+L=J), I’m ok with all of the possibilities!!! Just don’t let this happen, Martin, common!!!!

    (P.S – glad I found the whatchesonthewall.com !! better late than never)

17. RosanaZugey,

    As everyone has to keep pointing out over and over again: The Sullied and Unsullied may finally both be located in the same port, but we are still most certainly not in the same boat.

18. We have book knowledge that never made it on the air.

    Exactly, it never made it on the air. And given the direction that the show has taken, it doesn’t appear that these events ever will appear. Yes, it looks like there will be some form of Iron Islands storyline next season, but I don’t see how D&D could possibly run it the way it has been run in the books. In fact, I’d be shocked if they do somehow tie them back together.

    There isn’t any interesting element from the books right now where I could say “get ready, _____ is about to happen”, and that’s the whole point.

19. Not sure if this has already been mentioned by someone else, but this season’s ending marked also another important occassion – there are no more “Sullied”. Everybody is Unsullied now, as there is no more books material that have not already been covered on the show.

20. I think it was an interesting choice by the producers to give as the KL storyline only from Cerseis POV once she was imprisoned (similar to the books, where every chapter is a POV chapter).

    We don’t know what happened in the mean time to Tommen, to the small council with Kevan Lannister now in place and – most of all – to the also imprisoned Tyrells.

21. Marcin,

    Wrong!

    Iron Islands?!
    ADWD Epilog?!
    etc.

22. Marcin:
    Not sure if this has already been mentioned by someone else, but this season’s ending marked also another important occassion – there are no more “Sullied”. Everybody is Unsullied now, as there is no more books material that have not already been covered on the show.

    Not strictly true, Cersei’s story for example hasn’t quite caught up and then there are the sample chapters from The Winds of Winter. There are still spoilers AND when The Winds of Winter is published….(we live in hope ).

23. Amazing episode, though that shit hurts award could also be given to meryn f. trant. Being stabbed in the eye, that scene was brutal but he did deserve it. Oz, what do think happened to arya? and is Jaquen a ghost or something? there was definitely some black magic thing involved over there, like warlocks. Also, did anybody notice the look pycelle had when cersei walked in naked, he enjoyed what he saw, the perverted man.

24. I assume showing Stannis’ death would have been cinematically unaesthetic. The way he was sitting there, Brienne probably hit the tree when aiming for his throat and got Oathkeeper stuck, either between a dead Stannis and the tree or an eyerolling Stannis and the tree.

25. My favourite quote was “Long may they sneer” between Sam and Jon :(((((

    Also it’s taken me till now to understand it but I think what happened in the House of Black and White and the no one with 100 faces who died is that Arya was poisoned by the face because she wasn’t ready and therefore she was tripping balls until she lost her sight

26. Holy cliff hangers! Every single plot left hanging …. wtf.

    We don’t even Know if the people we think are dead Are!

    I’m really confused about the Sansa / Theon scene. Was it an escape or suicide pact?? That was a really high jump for it to be an escape! They just showed Myranda die from a seemingly shorter distance.

    Props to Lena Headey, I hate Cersei and I was still feeling for her and hating everyone in the crowd.

    I agree with those who are saying the Kit Harrington articles saying Jon is definitely dead are too convenient. I’m not buying it. But that might be wishful thinking.

27. Gene,

    No, no “get ready, this is about to happen” but there is a metric ton of backstory and foreshadowing that you have access to that an actual Unsullied doesn’t. You also know what actually happened in the books vs the show, which is often a big indicator of what may or may not eventually come to pass, regardless of whether D&D change plot points along the way. We know what characters exist or don’t exist in the books. We can spot where plotlines have been condensed, and where a piece of relatively innocuous information from the books has been included and may therefore be important vs something that D&D just through in themselves and will very likely not mean anything beyond whatever role it played in the scene it was in.

    Having book knowledge informs a lot of aspects of speculating beyond just knowing that the Red Wedding is coming up, and Unsullied viewers often draw very different conclusions from the same information on screen as a result, which means that there is most definitely a material difference even if you can no longer go around crowing about this or that character getting killed.

28. Mormont:
    My favourite quote was “Long may they sneer” between Sam and Jon :(((((

    Also it’s taken me till now to understand it but I think what happened in the House of Black and White and the no one with 100 faces who died is that Arya was poisoned by the face because she wasn’t ready and therefore she was tripping balls until she lost her sight

    The poison could have had hallucinogenic effects, something like belladonna and the dialogue played its part in giving these odd visions. It looked quite surreal.

29. Btw I think the finale was great but some scenes were a little rushed. Myrcella’s death, Arya’s assassination, the slaughter of Winterfell. However Meereen, King’s Landing and The Wall were perfect.

    So many cliffhangers and little resolution means in the greater picture Season 5 was a build up season.

30. Delta1212,

    Are book-readers better informed? Sure. I’ll grant that the perspectives could still be very different. However, both sides are still only speculating at this point, both with regards to the books and the show.

31. lol every time a staff member posts “HEY IT’S NOT TRUE THAT THERE’S NO SUCH THING AS SULLIED AND UNSULLIED, BECAUSE X, Y, AND Z. THANKS!” within five posts you’ll get another person saying “HEY EVERYBODY, I JUST REALIZED SOMETHING AMAZING: THERE’S NO SUCH THING AS SULLIED AND UNSULLIED ANYMORE!!!”

    if this is trolling, you people are artists.

    … but if this is a genuine attempt at discussion, the correct way to do it is to read other people’s thoughts before spraying your own thoughts all over the place willy-nilly.

32. Seems to me that if Mel resurrects Jon, he can’t and won’t stay at the Wall; he would be a free agent. Death released him from his vows to the Night’s Watch. So, he could help take back Winterfell, if he got support from Northern lords. He would still want to fight the White Walkers, but I don’t know how he could unless he assembles an army as Lord of Winterfell. And being a bastard, how could he become Lord of Winterfell?

    Would he be a convert to the Lord of Light, like Beric Dondarrion? I’m very suspicious of the Lord of Light’s motives, so that would be very worrisome. He could end up being an agent for the Dark Side.

    I read a theory that the Lord of Light is actually the guy under the weirwood tree with Bran. If so, Bran could become an agent for the Dark Side, too.

33. Gene,

    Yes, but since the distinction between Sullied and Unsullied has always been that the Sullied are better informed, the change in the relationship is one of degree rather than kind, which has been true of every season as the Unsullied slowly gained more and more information while the Sullied were left with basically the same info they’d always had.

    I’m sure there are a lot of Unsullied that will be a lot more relaxed about spoilers now simply because they only ever cared about the really big ones, and those aren’t in play any longer, as you say. But I know quite a few, especially online, who want to view the show with no book knowledge intruding on their experience whatsoever, and the speculations of someone who is informed by the books can be very telling to anyone who is paying attention.

    There’s no really good reason to go out of one’s way to spoil that experience for someone who wants to have it just because other people might not care.

34. I’d like to thank the book reader who just posted a bunch of book spoilers for proving the point that we still need separate posts and there is still a distinction between book readers and Unsullied.
    
    Book readers, keep quiet, and keep your comments to a bare minimum in this post.

35. RosanaZugey,

    This is the Unsullied recap, and your post is spoilerific.

36. Gene: Are book-readers better informed? Perhaps. I’ll grant that the perspectives could still be very different. However, both sides are still only speculating at this point, both with regards to the books and the show.

    Speculation informed from reading 5000 pages of material with inner monologues and flashbacks and dreams is quite different from speculation informed from 50 hours of television. Even if the material book-readers are aware of doesn’t come into play in the show, which it will, it would be injecting angles and ideas and theories that don’t flow naturally out of watching the show itself, without all our dirty, spoiled, Sullied thoughts!

37. Gah… you people. 😛

    I’m not suggesting that we should all start openly discussing the finer details of GRRM’s writings. This is a website about the show, and from this point forward, nobody knows what’s going to happen on the show. For all we know, Davos could sail to Essos, steal Drogon, fly to King’s Landing, and burn the whole place down. IT COULD HAPPEN!

38. Gene,

    Yeah. The perspective differs. There is also loads of details/backstory stuff which hasn’t made it to the TV.

39. Allie,
    My personal take was that Sansa and Theon were hoping the snow would break their fall. Although the thaw had set in big time the ground in the place they jumped was still covered, as we see when they look over the top. It’s a looooong way down but I think Roose said the snow is about 6ft deep (or something similar) when talking about how attacking forces would be trapped in it a couple of episodes back. You can’t really tell from looking straight down as the camera did, but if the wind has blown the snow against the wall it could possibly be much deeper and not massively compacted, which would provide a landing soft enough to survive without serious injury. When the alternative is angry Ramsay, anything’s worth a try! I thought they were silently agreeing to a get out of here or die trying, rather than stick around for the consequences, pact.

    Oz: loved your head to head with the floor line. Someone in another thread said Myranda could still be alive as she fortunately broke the fall with her face. Both comments have made me giggle a lot 🙂 I always smile at your writing in general btw, thanks for all your efforts! 😀

    Didn’t notice it while watching (through my fingers), but the lighting in that shot of Arya and MFT’s scene is amazing. There’s so much attention to background detail in the show it’s possible to forget how good it all is. You can really see where a big chunk of the budget goes and it’s not the in-your-face obvious things. Or on your face if you’re Myranda, soooo sorry to see you go lady – not! 😉

40. Busmans,

    Those things cannot possibly happen on the show (because of the altered stories in the show). That was the crux of the argument. But, I understand. No more mentioning it.

41. I like what you said about Jon not being who we think Jon is. Will be interesting to see if there a conclusion to that.

    I want him to come back to life as much as the next man, but doesn’t it feel a little cheap? Shouldn’t death be the ultimate end?

    Oz, any desire to pick up one or two of the books during the off-season to get you through the long winter?

42. Allie,
    P.S. There is always a miniscule chance they landed on Ramsay I suppose. He is killed while inadvertently saving them from injury, talk about karma. (I am joking by the way but it’s nice to have a dream, however unlikely!)

43. RosanaZugey,

    Things can happen under altered circumstances. It’s happened before- the show maneuvers stories around. And that is why it’s inappropriate for a book reader to comment much in these posts. Stop posting book spoilers. You made our point for us. There are many chapters and plot points still left unfilmed which I won’t get into.

    Book readers, return to your designated posts if you want to get really speculative. Thanks!

44. While rewatching the episode earlier, I had an idea for Season 6.

    The High Sparrow said, that Cersei will have a Trial. So what if, the High Sparrow asks Jaime during that trial, if he’s the Father of Joffrey, Myrcella and Tommen. After what happened on the ship, I feel like, Jaime doesnt want to go back to “Uncle Jaime”. Will he doom them all?

    Of course, the circumstances in Kings Landing might change that, as soon as Jaime finds out. If he finds out.

    On another topic: I feel like the poison was the same, used on Bronn earlier this season. Meaning, when Myrcella told her dad that she knew of him, her heart must have been racing. Poor thing. 🙁

45. Eh, last recaps are always nostalgic… great job as always, Oz!
    I can’t wait to read your next “Looking Forward”!

    I just wanted to say that I was sad Dany told Drogon that Meereen was her home… not after the wheel speech and the “This is not my home”, Daenerys, what the hell?

46. Gene,

    The books inform your speculation though. I can think of numerous instances of that with Jon’s situation alone. Let the unsullied have their space us book readers have numerous places to go. All these worlds are yours, except Europa. Attempt no landings there.

47. A-Train,

    You bet… I’ve had the desire since Ned’s head rolled. But I swore to remain spoiler free and away from the books until the conclusion of the show.

    However there is an open slot in my TV viewing allotment, so if you have any suggestions…

48. Delta1212,

    Oh god, perfect analogy is perfect. I do a CTRL F for “book” so I know which comments to skip, tbh. But thanks for saying this, you and the Management. <3

49. Oz, great recap. As always. I will miss this
    I hope you do some looking forward posts.

    Im going to start with the scene that got to me the most. Jon Snow – First, I knew Olly was little snake. Ugh. I hate him. ANd I really didn’t think Thorne would be in on this. To be honest. I mean he cant be dead… that would be so lame. Not only have we gotten to know him as a character and a hero over the last five years, including the latest valaryian steal revelation, the R+L=J must mean something, along with the fact that Lady Mel has been drawn to him since she met him. That couple with the Lord of Light powers seen on berric dondarion.. there HAS TO BE SOMETHING…. some foreshadowing also should mean something, like when Aemon said “Kill the boy and let the man be born” or the infamous jon always comes back.
    If he doesn’t come back (as Kit harington also) I would be very disappointed that this was all for nothing. It would really affect my love for the show. I would still love it, but way less.

    The rest of the eepisode was pretty effing crazy!
    Arya’s assassination of MFT was awesome!!!!!!!!! I love the “My name is Arya Stark…” bit I got shivers! I hope her blinding is not permanent.
    Sansa is awesome, and I am happy she got out (for now)
    Cant wait to see where this goes, and really hoping to see Bran and Rickon… I hope that doesn’t mean no Jon though

    The Jamie Myrcella scene was quite sad. I wonder what Trystane will do – since he loves her. Would he avenge her against his own family?
    Although, I am kinda happy cause Cersei will feel some more pain — her children are dropping like flaws all because of her behavior. I felt bad for her during the WOS and probably because Lena was so good at it. Her looking at the castle as motivation to see her son gave me shivers. But then I remembered I hated her. I was hoping to see what happens with the Tyrells as well, and Tommen. It pisses me off that she has Frankenstein to protect her and my Jon dies. UGH!!!!!!!!!!!! STOP DOING THAT

    Stannis, is he dead? I don’t know, and don’t care. I just want Jon alive. Although I did feel bad for stannis for a bit there.

    Cant wait to see what happens across the narrow seas – Happy to have seen Varys. Seeing Dothrakis brought me back to season 1, and I wonder how that will play out. Will she convince them to be behind her? I wonder.

    Over all this season has been epic. Loved it. It comes in second to season 4. But that would change drastically if Jon “Kit Harington” Snow does not return.

50. The waiting will be tortuous! says many of you till we know Jon’s fate. Well folks we the Sullied have waited more than 6+ freaking years and still do not know.. LMAO. So when people get on book readers who get on George to write and write some more well now you can appreciate a little bit our angst.

51. Allie:
    I’m really confused about the Sansa / Theon scene. Was it an escape or suicide pact?? That was a really high jump for it to be an escape! They just showed Myranda die from a seemingly shorter distance.

    Sansa and Theon jumped into a pile of snow while Myranda fell on a stone floor. I took Sansa and Theon jumping to be a very, very desperate last ditch measure since there was no other way out, they could live or die but at least they’re out of Winterfell type of thing.

52. Lulu’s Mum:
    Allie,
    P.S. There is always a miniscule chance they landed on Ramsay I suppose. He is killed while inadvertently saving them from injury, talk about karma. (I am joking by the way but it’s nice to have a dream, however unlikely!)

    All points are true. I agree, it was more of an escape or die trying pact. And LMAO to them landing on Ramsey.

53. Now I am left wondering whether Dany got herself a new army or is taken hostage..

    I didn’t really like this episode. 8 and 9 were great, but, as Oz writes, this one had too much ambiguity – I don’t want to have to read an interview with an actor to find out whether this or that character died (i.e. Stannis, Sansa and Theon).

    It was sad to (presumably) see Stannis die. I never particularly rooted for him, but he was a solid character in his own way (and I don’t particularly care much for Brienne) – and he didn’t manage to finish his job with the Boltons.

    Sadly, I was largely spoiled in advance on Jon’s fate by rather talentlessly happening on some book reader talk on Twitter after the Hardhome episode. So that sucks. For my own (and other unsullied’s) sake, I hope the next book is not published before next season starts. 😉

54. Deesensfan,

    My first comment right after Myrcella died/started bleeding was ‘wait, didn’t Ellaria just basically kill Trystanne too?’ as in if he’s off to KL he’s basically dead or captive to keep Dorne in line. Was he on the boat?

55. For my own (and other unsullied’s) sake, I hope the next book is not published before next season starts.

    I hope so too. The rage over D&D spoiling the Shireen sacrifice was very interesting, for reasons that are starting to become clear in this comment thread.

56. harma dogememe,

    She’s probably gonna overthrow Doran next season, so it hasn’t paid off yet.

57. JawRah Mormont: I feel like the poison was the same, used on Bronn earlier this season.

    I feel it worked too quickly to be the same.

58. Just want to say Game of Thrones continues to keep people guessing. I just hope it really leads to an outcome we all can all accept, and not just killing people to shock the audience.

    If Martin is smart, he is gonna want to get the next book out before season 6 begins. The lines for that book are gonna be like they were when Harry Potter books were released.

    Overall I enjoy the season and look forward to the next. I just hope Mr Snow finds he’s way back to living, or my wife my bail on the show. at least Tyrion went from a box to running a small kingdom, at least one of our favorite characters is doing good.

59. To all those sullied who keep saying we are all unsullied now, how do you explain what the poster The Wolves of Winter wrote at 11:58 am about who Jon Snow might actually be? That isn’t something we know about and I don’t want to know about it.

60. Amazing how intolerant of ambiguity people can be. IMO, this is one of the show’s best finales.

    And Jon Snow’s death isn’t pure “shock value.” Who he is, all the decisions he has made, and who the people of the Night’s Watch are, came into conflict. He took some great risks, and they were worth taking, even if it led to his death. But there was nothing out of the blue or false about his death. It flowed from his character, his actions, and the story. He thought and acted big, he thought and acted justly, and he forgot to assuage the prejudices of his angry peers around him. He forgot, in effect, to govern his flock. He died for it. But that does not diminish his legacy. He is a hero for the ages.

61. ckbythebay,

    Well I have not read the books and that is something I got from the Histories and Lore videos and the GoT wiki. As I wanted to know more about R’hllor.

62. hexonx,
    Not a poison expert by any stretch of the imagination, but perhaps it’s one that can be diluted? So the dose used on Bronn could have been lower, and so slower acting, than the one Ellaria and Myrcella ingested. Or two closely related poisons? I was rubbish at chemistry but do remember that some things with only slightly different makeups can have similar effects, such as causing major nose bleeds, but dramatically different potency: just feeling really wobbly and needing a lie down vs drop dead on the spot. Although Bronn felt really ill, as he took the antidote we don’t know if what he took would definitely have killed him or was just a scare tactic?

63. I see that my post got deleted. Apologies, I thought it was common knowledge.

64. Lulu’s Mum: Didn’t notice it while watching (through my fingers), but the lighting in that shot of Arya and MFT’s scene is amazing. There’s so much attention to background detail in the show it’s possible to forget how good it all is.

    I’m always struck by this when I rewatch episodes, or when I read the reviews the day after the show and see just how much like oil paintings many of the stills and publicity photos are. When I’m watching the first time around, I’m usually too caught up in the action to notice just how gorgeously detailed the set design is. It really is startlingly good, isn’t it?

65. My opinion is that the difference between book readers and non-readers is minimal now. Actually, the non-readers should be able to make better, non-tainted predictions. That should be the case, anyhow, if D&D did their job well. We’ll see if they did. I miss Byron and Dinos reviews in that regard, they could always spot what didn’t make sense (wich until last season was very minimal).

    Also, as someone else said, it all kind of blurs toguether…I didn’t re-read the books since ADWD came out (It’s even worse in The Walking Dead for me lol)

    I hope the 6th book comes out before next season, but if that is not the case…when the last season starts we would still be different? How about right before the finale? And after? A bit silly really but o well

    I think what will happen is the unsullied will start reading the sullied reviews/posts, wich soon will just be normal posts, in wich sulllied will use less and less spoiler coding and unsullied will become more and more (some willingly, some unwillingly) sullied… And this will happen, specially in normal media, really soon.

    I think OZ will remain the Last of the Unsullied 😉

    PS: What did the new Myrcella actress bring that the old one couldn’t??

66. The Wolves of Winter:
    ckbythebay,

    Well I have not read the books and that is something I got from the Histories and Lore videos and the GoT wiki. As I wanted to know more about R’hllor.

    That’s another point…there’s tons of info there, only for show-watchers. Maybe do a third distintion then, readers, watchers, and watcher+wikireaders 😉

67. afartherroom,
    If people ask why I like it, that’s what I always say. Apart from the engrossing story, it’s a really lavish visual treat, much more like a film. I am envious of those who’ve been able to see episodes on cinema screens as it must look spectacular, whereas most tv shows would just look the same, only larger, and the lack of attention to ‘minor’ detail would become more apparent. Although I can’t think of any death scene I’d like to see in any more detail thanks, smaller is definitely better there! 🙁

68. Just wanna say, now that i am (for the most part) unsullied too, i have a whole new respect for you guys, i have no idea how you’ve managed to do it for this long, I’m already struggling, how you have lived with this fear, always looking over your shoulders, and dealing with crushing self doubt with regard to your favourites is beyond me, i salute you all and very much look forward to speculating wildly and inaccurately with you in the off season 🙂 🙂

69. Is it just me, or should the award for the most stupid move in the game of thrones be awarded to Ellaria Sand and those “b*tches in heat”, that call themselves the Sand Snakes? I was so excited to see Dorne this season and Doran especially. Alexander Siddig did awesome job with such a small screen time, I even kinda liked Trystane. But those vengeful harpies just ruined it all. Poisoning Myrcella would make sense like 2 seasons ago, but not now, when the Lannisters have to worry only about beating the sh*t out of Dorne for murdering their princess. Such a ridiculous move.

    I really worry about Doran now and I hope, that Areo remembers how to use that axe of his and cuts the heads of the snakes.

70. John:
    I think it was an interesting choice by the producers to give as the KL storyline only from Cerseis POV once she was imprisoned (similar to the books, where every chapter is a POV chapter).

    We don’t know what happened in the mean time to Tommen, to the small council with Kevan Lannister now in place and – most of all – to the also imprisoned Tyrells.

    I know. Loras has been underutilized and after his imprisonment I expected to see at least one scene with him at least. Well I guess he didnt threw away his script because of his own demise but because of Jon and Stannis’ maybe?

    High points for me:

    – Loved the interaction between Danny’s “friends”. Like someone mentioned in a review I read for the previous episode: these are all good people, these are all people that we care about and watching them together and planning on their own and interacting with each other for the first time was a very welcome change for me.
    – Danny’s interactions with Drogon. What made Danny’s arc so strong in season one was her great character development throughout the whole season. Something that, sadly, changed completely after that. She is still a loveable character and the one I’m rooting for the most (and I ship her and Jorah so badly ;3) I just feel that she needs more time away from being the solemn queen she is and more time just being a human being so I loved her talking and bonding to Drogon. Not to mention that the cgi here was very convincing and her last interaction with the khalasat was very well done as well.
    – Brienne finally avenging Renly. Renly was one that I was really rooting for in season 2. By then I hadn’t read the books and didn’t know his fate but he was certainly one of those few people in this show that could be considered a good human being and a suited candidate for the throne. Brienne is a likable and tragic figure that finally got her moment and I’m sure with her skills and that valuable sword she’s got she’ll be very important at the end.
    – I liked Sam and Gilly leaving although I was saddened at the thought of Jon loosing his last friend. For the watch was well executed, if streamlined, but otherwise good. Would have liked it even more if Ser Allister didn’t have any part on it since having him involved lessens the impact of the whole thing just a tad.
    – Sansa in Winterfell wasn’t really satisfying because at the end nothing was achieved from that storyline other than her saving Theon (yes, she saved him by making him remember who he is and giving him a reason to stand up for something again).
    – I feel sad for Stannis and even more for Selyse, after she demonstrated she really loved her daughter and tried to save her. Stannis was a very tragic character and his last moments were very sad to watch. I never thought he would be the King of Westeros. I did think he was going to be a villain after taking the iron throne and in my mind he was going to be the main obstacle once Dany made it to the continent.

    Any ways, pretty strong finale. I liked it and can’t wait to see what’s in the future for the surviving characters as now no one really knows what’s going to happen. Color me excited about that as well.

71. Echoesinawell,

    I don’t remember seeing him get ON the boat… and we didn’t see him on the boat did we.

72. Deesensfan,

    “Will she convince them to be behind her? I wonder.”
    Very poor choice of words…

73. ArgonathofBraavos,

    NO THANK YOU
    I am not down with that

    *denial*

74. I like reading Unsullied posts because it’s like a whole new perspective. I think even if there’s not much book material left we should keep separate post as we book readers have more information that’s not in the show.
    I respect you Unsullied a lot, how have you manage to get through so many seasons without knowing what’s going to happen? I’m much more desperate to know what’s next now than 3 years ago when I read Dance!!!!
    Even if I knew what was coming, Jon’s death was portrayed in such a hopelss way (in the books you have like at least a little hope that he’s coming back).
    I feel in the show he’s going to stay death, they try to portray the show in a much more “realistic” way, and every major character that’s died, has stayed death for good

75. Deesensfan,

    And this is at the core of the story. People clinging to life, like the White Walkers. Valuing survival over everything. Over honor. Over principle. Jon Snow died, yes. But he died for acting justly. So he lived, and he died, well. Arya, on the other hand, may be on a path of survival. But will she live well? Probably not, is my guess. And that’s more tragic than Jon’s martyrdom.

    People need to stop seeing death as the greatest failure. Judge these characters by what they do. Not whether or not they survive doing it.

    Ned’s legacy lives on.

76. Oh, also I forgot to point out that I don’t blame Olly at all. He is young and he has all the reasons to hate the wildlings and feel betrayed by Jon. I don’t get all the hate for the kid when in real life many (if not all) of us would not want anything to do with the murderes of our families or the people that support them.

77. Grumpy Krubo,

    But that’s the point. They are vengeful harpies who care not for the consequences of their actions. They want vengeance, and will accept war as a result. Yes, there were missteps in this storyline. But just because characters are stupid, it doesn’t follow that the writers are stupid. The world is full of stupid people that ruin everything, and upset the careful strategies of cooler heads. Why should Westeros be any different?

78. Grumpy Krubo,

    Common, Doran is not a savage to murder his own relatives. There si no proof that they are responsible anyway (Snakes are not actually, it was all Ellaria), though it is not that hard to figure it out….
    And it was a very good move to start the war. That is what they wanted, the war and the revenge, not to sit on the Iron Throne. Not everyone is obsessed with “playing the game”.

79. ArgonathofBraavos,

    You are absolutely right.Even though I didn’t aim at the writers, I am pretty damn sure they do, what they can with the time and story they have left. It’s just that this sh*p escalated rather too quickly and Ellaria goes from one extreme to another…which suddenly makes sense. Just seems strange, that she would honor Oberyn’s memory by the only thing, he was actually strongly against.

    Maybe it’s just that I’m so irritated by the stupid people in real life, that I just want more sense in fiction 😀

80. We haven’t seen Bran all season… hopefully he’s been in training and opening scene of s6 could be Bran working some serious 3 eyed raven-styly in the weirwood trees children of the forest magic (with a warged ghost thrown in) to save / bring back to life Jon Snuuuuw. Would be a kind of trippy, cool, surreal opening and then the director snaps from fuzzy dream-scape to reality and Melisandre brings him back. “The night is dark and full of terrors, Lord Commander…” BOOM. Welcome to s6

    Bring on s6. I really, thoroughly enjoyed s5, in spite of its flaws. Hopefully GRRM will finish his book / will have shared a manuscript with D&D in advance of s6 as otherwise there is no way it can’t lose its way if the books are entirely different in terms of storyline to the show.

81. GaiusB,

    Well, than he can at least deal with Ellaria. And as for the proof, Myrcella was poisoned with the Long Farewell, which Tyene used on Bronn just couple of days ago and the goodbye kiss from Ellaria was little too obvious. For me it would be enough.

    Yeah, they started a war (probably), but it would be quite usefull to start a war you can win…

82. First things first: My hat (and head maybe too) goes down for Lena Headey’s performance. She elevated this episode to greatness, despite other storylines’ setbacks.

    Now I’ll try to compile a whole reponse to the episode and to what’s been written before me.

83. I guess I was somewhat surprised that the spear injuries would have such a dramatic effect on a dragon.

    They didn’t have such a dramatic effect. Those injuries were by no means the main reason for Drogon refusing to fly Dany back to Meereen… at least – not immediately. He (it?) just didn’t feel like it – grumpy or something, I guess…

84. I’m going by the likely Wilding philosophy for that cliffhanger ending: If you didn’t burn it, it’s not dead. I’m not too worried about Jon since Melisandre and presumably Davos are there. She’s shown interest in him, so she’ll probably help him. Now, if this happened to Sam, I would be more inclined to think he’s dead. Maybe Davos will stay with Jon and be a father figure/advisor to him.

    I also found it amusing that Melisandre just rode up and walked into Castle Black like she lived there.
    “Can’t talk right now. I’m going to my room.” – Melisandre to Jon and Davos.
    Um, where did she think she was going? Melisandre will remain on my sh*t list no matter what she does. She is fully responsible for the demise of entire legitimate Baratheon line. No more Baratheons, y’all (yes, I know Gendry is out rowing somewhere, but he’s not “official.”)

    Overall to me the season was OK. For the new cast members, they were all really underutilized, for example: Keisha Castle-Hughes and Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje. What did they get, like 3-5 lines in the entire season? Jonathan Pryce was probably the only new actor that got to sink his teeth in and chew up the scenery.

85. Lulu’s Mum:
    My personal take was that Sansa and Theon were hoping the snow would break their fall.

    It’s supposed to bee ambiguous I guess. We don’t know whether they’re determined to escape or die trying, or they know something we don’t (or both). Maybe I’m reading too much into this, but the way they looked at each other could mean that they remembered something. They bot grew up in Winterfell and probably know if it’s possible to survive a jump into the snow. Maybe even Theon did it before?

86. Christomir: They didn’t have such a dramatic effect. Those injuries were by no means the main reason for Drogon refusing to fly Dany back to Meereen… at least – not immediately. He (it?) just didn’t feel like it – grumpy or something, I guess…

    The way I understood it was that he just ate all those cows or whatever and that’s what dragons do, they overeat and rest, maybe like a snake or something.

87. Ok, let me as an unsullied ask for unsullied posts to remain on this site (or any future site its creators may found in the future, if need be). I’m with Oz on this, ‘Once unsullied, always unsullied’, that means till this story is done on TV (and/or cinema).

    Now, as for this episode, it was definitely good, very good. It brought many surprises, many expected (although tragic) consequences and still left many questions.

    Arya’s revenge scene felt like coming too fast and too soon. It still seems to me a little on the cheap side that Meryn was made so (much more than before) despicable. But the consequence of her disobeying the rules made me hope once more there is at least some supernatural at work in the House of Black and White (the concept of using real faces that they would bring on themselves was stretching my believability).

    Stannis’ downfall came even faster than I expected, but pretty much in the form I expected it. I will mourn for Selyse. She did redeem herself in those last two episodes. However I’m sad Davos is left in the dark when it comes to Stannis’ family last moments, let’s hope he soon meets some of the deserters that have seen Shireen’s burning.

    Jon gave a mercy blow to Caesar in the first episode and was killed as Caesar in the last. Trouble at Castle Black was foreshadowed for the whole season, but I seriously wasn’t expecting for anything this decisive to happen to Jon Snow. I actually got excited at the Benjen mention (though wary), but knew it was going downhill as soon as I saw the ‘congregation’ of brothers standing there silent.

    Now Daenerys’ scenes were amazing and far better than expected. After last episode’s not that great CGI (very good still, but Daenerys riding Drogon didn’t ‘make me believe’), Drogon was a living creature here, licking his wounds and resting. Because he sure was only resting. Daenerys back with the Dothraki may seem like her reverting 4 seasons, but I hope it will be worth it. Also Varys! Finally back with Tyrion and back to scheming and plotting.

    Now the very disappointing part. I kept hoping the weird actions of almost everyone in Dorne (or on their way to Dorne) would somehow make sense. Alas, it still doesn’t.
    Alright, Ellaria and the Sand Snakes revenge (all against their beloved Oberyn’s beliefs) was a constant. Still doesn’t explain why they so bizarrely tried to take Myrcella in the Water Gardens. Neither why weren’t the Water Gardens protected in any way (both Trystane and Myrcella could have been killed ten times over before Areo and the guards came). Or why Doran let his heir (maybe even only heir?) alone go where his brother and sister died. And yes, Trystane’s future ain’t looking much better than Sansa’s adventures throughout the years…

    Which brings me to Sansa. I was hoping for Sansa to assume herself a little more strongly. Not just try the candle part and wait for rescue. But well, she did stand up to Myranda.
    Unlike many, I found Sansa’s Winterfell storyline to make sense and be worth it. But quite frankly I though she’d be just a little less reliant on Reek/Theon in the end.

    And at last, the very best part of the episode, Cersei’s atonement. I actually more or less knew about the walk (due to a smallish spoiler I saw, then too much curiosity from my part and then a bit more spoilers… blame my short sighted interest in Cersei). Knowledge of course created expectation, which is treacherous. Expectation so often brings disappointment.
    But it was so intense that it just blew all expectations out of the water. Magnificent performances all over (even the small ones at the end: Qyburn, Pycelle with his delight). And I was so much afraid someone would actually stab Cersei and it’d be the last we see of Lena Headey in GoT.
    Lena Headey made this finale one of the best (if not the best).

88. Lulu’s Mum,

    Oh, I do like the way you think 🙂 Yes, providing they both hit him enough to do some damage

89. Oz, meant to say excellent recap as always! Wondered tho – you often speak of ozzette’s reaction. What was hers last night?

90. So, Ozzette didn’t give up on the show?

91. Arya Havin’ a Larf:
    How could you leave out the quote?

    “My Valyrian is a bit nostril”.

    Reminds me of the ever present chance of using the wrong tone in Mandarin Chinese and saying “This is my horse” while introducing your mother…

    Or “Sky Pig Religion” (tianzhujiao)

92. Lulu’s Mum,

    you promised me flying zombie nazi sharks -_-

93. Roose On The Loose,
    I’m sorry Loosey Roosey, I know you were all geared up to flash your friends for other reasons and that moment didn’t materialise either, so double let down. (Did you do it anyway, just because you could?) I was praying for FZNS, but was just dreaming big rather then promising, I’m so sorry if I gave you false hope 🙁 But there is a silver lining to all this. Ignore for the moment the mass deaths, cliffhangers, how dark the story is and the terrifying oh-my-gawd uncertainties which the sullied are now facing. There IS hope: flying zombie nazi sharks are real and they are coming http://www.dreadcentral.com/news/86685/sky-sharks-nazi-super-mutant-flying-zombie-sharks-ready-attack/ GET ALL THE HYPE WITH A SIDE ORDER OF HYPE SAUCE AND DO THE HYPEY HYPEY SHAKE AROUND THE ROOM INSTEAD!!! 😀 😀 😀

94. The Wolves of Winter,

    The Wolves of Winter,

    I see. However, I consider “unsullied” as those of us who simply watch the tv show. In the show the information you mention has not been discussed so even though you didn’t read it in the books, it is still something we don’t know about. Therefore I consider it a spoiler and would prefer you to not mention it on an unsullied discussion. Thanks.

95. Lulu’s Mum,

    OMG that could take over Sharknado and Sharknado 2 as that greatest flying shark movie of all time 🙂 🙂

    The pants stayed on, the only moment that made me feel like flashing was Arya, but I thought it might be totally inappropriate when there was an underage girl playing a prostitute stabbing pedo bear in the eyes

96. If the forces of Stannis was half of what it was in the battle, how did he think he could conquer all the way to KL if his whole army would be equal or a bit bigger then the Bolton forces?

97. wwwwwww,

    Quite frankly, he had nothing else to do. The whole of his family was dead at that moment, Melisandre fled. All he could do was to either run and be forgotten (and live with what he did to Shireen) or to lay siege to Winterfell and hope the deserters may come back if he’s successfull enough.

    But it’s quite likely at least some of the mounted deserters fled directly to the Boltons, informing them of the latest manpower data. And that was that Boltons would have possibly double the men than Stannis, and unlike his, Bolton’s were all mounted. As Stannis would say, numbers win battles.

98. TOIVA,
    wwwwwww,

    I think the phrase is “shit or bust”

    Although which is shit and which is bust I can never work out.

99. Roose On The Loose,
    Probably for the best, tbh. People can misinterpret enthusiasm and it was a scene with many themes: is he cheering murder, mutilation, beating young kids, presumed pedo tendencies, a brief impression of the girl in The Ring – albeit with blonde hair, the end of the series? You might have accidentally come across as a massive Meryn Fucking Trant fan and your mates think his middle name is due to what an amazing person he is (can’t remember where it came from now?).

    As for the sharks, is there a Sky New Zealand? Our UK version has a sci-fi channel which is jam packed with completely realistic shark-related awesomeness. They seem to be THE go to predators in any circumstances; dead/living in snow/whatever, they can adapt. Plus some serious prehistoric action, what’s not to like when someone who has leapt off a building and totally fortuitously landed in a passing helicopter gets to legitimately shout “follow that pterodactyl”? Oh and HOW could I forget the giant (40ft toe to toe span) fire breathing spiders. It’s an embarrassment of riches!

    Judging by our similar taste in documentaries (don’t try and tell me GoT and the films we’ve mentioned aren’t real!), do you know the website http://www.B3TA.com? Give it a whirl, you might find some things to like there 😀

100. hexonx: I feel it worked too quickly to be the same.

     Ahh, but remember, the poison Bronn had from the wound was called “the long kiss goodbye”. And what exactly did Ellaria give Myrcella? A long (rather inappropriate, IMO) kiss goodbye. Can’t get any more obvious than that.

101. Predictions:
     Bronn will rush in recognize the blood coming from Myrcella’s nose as a result of poison ask T if he carries an antidote & revive Myrcella. Tyene will join the “good” side becsuse of her relationship w/Bronn; she will not allow some lady of the court to swoop in & take her man

     Jon’s eyes were dead, dead, & then they focused & widened & it looked like a shadow was looming over him – I think Red will revive him some how (every limb & eye crossed w/hope)

     Arya’s blindness will only enhance her assassination skills, she will learn to be stealth like, because that kill was too passionate & lasted too long, @ least they had time to kneel to the many face god. That scene was all of her hate & anger rolled up in 1; maybe the joy of the kill is out of her system now.

     Cersi, all I can say is her storyline makes me love to hate her (I use to just hate her); that WOS, Lordy, who else could have done it & kept their eye on the prize? Not until she literally fell to her knees did she lose it…a little bit. The combination of her, Qyburn & Mountain-Zombie is SCARY! Watch out for the wildfire!! & back to my Myrcella comment , Jaimee better start praying to the lord of light that Myrcella is ok before returning to KL.

     Sansa & Theon…., so I’m thinking her maternal “Cat” instincts will turn on and she will stop at nothing to reunite w/her brothers. We will see her strength shine through like never before. Theon, not realty caring where his storyline goes @ this point. Maybe he’ll nobaly give his life to save Sansa while on this get away journey. Oh yeah, they survive the fall due to the ginormous wind blown snow bank against the castle wall as well as the large cart of hay that was parked there befor the snow began???

     Dany, Dany, Dany. I am very happy her dragon was in a deep rejuvenation snooze when the Dothraki’s galloped up, he would’ve taken out her real army before she had a chance to assemble them. Now this plot puzzles me, because I seem to remember a poem, riddle about the return of Drogo or her baby something. But Dany needs to learn & have confidence to think for herself. She is a very strong character to have survived what she has thus far, but my crystal ball get cloudy when u think of her future. In the mean time Tyrian & Vary’s will have a ball as interim CEO’s of Mereen. GW should prepare for long term LOA, there’s a new army in town & their name is Dothraki’!

     Thank you for reading my long rant – I just love love love this show!

102. Christomir,

     Agreed. The spear injuries are a minor reason why he would not fly her back.
     Drogon is friggin exhausted!
     He breathed fire several times,ripped apart several men, flown hundreds of miles and has eaten a herd of sheep.
     All he wants to do is sleep.

103. Since Drogon is mentioned, I’ve got to say he looked very, very well done in the last episode. I just rewatched and it was a living tired animal that wanted to regenerate. Much better than when he flew with Daenerys in the sunset. (Notice how the fried bones move on the ground, how Drogon’s tail and wings move…)

104. The Plot Thickens…,

     Jon: Red needs to do it fast. How can she manage to do it in secret before they burn his body, and how can they escape? Will he start following the Lord of Light, who seems like the Devil to me? The only good thing about Jon dying is that it frees him from his vows – he can do everything now! But will the Northern lords accept him once they hear he died, and will they take Winterfell? He still can’t be lord of Winterfell unless someone legitimizes him or it turns out he’s not a bastard.

     Dany: I’m thinking the Dothraki are there mainly to stall her until her dragons are the size of jumbo jets. Right now they’re not big enough to win a war and are vulnerable to spears. Maybe their flames have a certain reach and they have to get low to the ground to do damage until they grow bigger and can do it from higher up. They need to be jets, not tanks. Maybe the Dothraki will overcome their fear of salt water to sail to Westeros, but I’m thinking they would be a lousy army. They have no discipline and only want to loot, rape and take slaves to sell. Dany won’t have any of that. Also, they’re male chauvinist pigs, let’s be honest. It would be hard for them to follow her.

     Someone needs to let the other 2 dragons out, fast! I don’t think they can grow much in the dark, and we need them to grow!

105. As an Unsullied with a huge imagination, I have to look for clues about next season in the title of the next book. I have no great love of Jon Snow (he’s way too Mary Sue for my tastes, disregarding the thing with Ygritte) but to lose him at this point would be completely devastating in a story line sense. The Wall has a major role to play with the coming Army of Death, and we sure as hell are not going to start watching things from Olly’s perspective. There has to be at least one empathetic character in each location (try and make a case for a location without someone likable), and now that Sam and Gilly have left there is literally no one to make a plot line for the Wall.

     Here’s where I feel it gets portentous – the next book is called The Wolves of Winter. I mean come on. Who are the Wolves? In a metaphorical sense, predators. In a GoT sense? The Mother-effing Starks, not only because of the house sigal, but also the Direwolves. Even if Jon really isn’t a bastard (I have too many Sullied friends) HE STILL HAS A DIREWOLF. Is he maybe a Wolf of Winter? Who knows. But a girl cannot disregard this idea. Also Ghost is awesome.

     However if Jon does come back in the form of another actor, I’ll be mourning the loss of Kit Harington forever. His interviews are giving me a pit in my stomach.

106. Thanks for this unsullied recap. Long time lurker here, non-book reader, and first time poster.

     About Jon Snow: one thing is almost sure: he will warg into Ghost. In one interview he was asked what role he wished he could do in GoT. His reply was “A warg. I would like to go into a wolf”. And D.B. Weiss’ reply was: “I have two words for you: season six”. (Oxford Union panel).

     Only thing left to ponder on is what happens to his body.

107. a girl has an idea,

     Also an Unsullied here, but I believe the next book is the Winds of Winter, not wolves.

     And when it comes to the Wall being without main protagonists, you sure do have a point. But, there’s Davos that doesn’t have anywhere else to go (and we’ve seen a lot through his perspective already) and also Melisandre might stay. Fire wielding mage would be helpful against wights. And Melisandre needs to redeem herself to viewers at this point, I’m sure she’d have opportunities at the Wall.

Comments are closed.