Little Finger was supposed to get the North in exchange for clearing out the Boltons. But in usual Balish style he has added his own twist. I kind of think hes got his eyes on the Iron Throne and is setting up Sansa and her cousin to be his allies.
That’s how I interpreted Sansa’s actions, too. When Ramsay used Rickon to draw Jon and his army into a charge, I was thinking, “Jon, you fool, this is exactly what Sansa warned you about.” Then when Jon and his men were surrounded and about to be slaughtered and Sansa shows up with Littlefinger and his army, there is a look of realization on Jon’s face, and affirmation on Sansa’s. She knew something like this would happen, so she let it happen and used it to her advantage by setting up this countermove, unbeknownst to Jon. She was willing to sacrifice Jon in order to win Winterfell.
By the way, I know we jokingly refer to Jon’s ‘plot armor’ frequently, but during the battle I really did start to get the impression that there is some kind of supernatural protection or ‘luck’ surrounding Jon. He was in the middle of the clash and all that chaos and I counted at least five times he should have been dead, but he always dodged or parried at just the right moment to avoid getting killed or even wounded. Yeah, he’s supposed to be a good fighter, but it felt like this went beyond skill and he had an aura of destiny about him. Maybe Melisandre is right about the Lord of Light’s desire for Jon to stay alive.
I was afraid Tormund was a goner there for a moment.
LOVED the scenes with Dany and the dragons. Awesome stuff!
Yeah, I wasn’t quite sure at some points if he had been killed or not. But he seems to have just gotten a bloody nose.
That was… AMAZING!
The only thing missing was a make out scene between Daenerys and Yara.
Tactics wise it was lame but whatever, I got my money’s worth.
No, what’s weird is apparently that Wildlings even have surnames.
I wouldn’t go that far, but I can see a roll in the sheets for them in the future. Daenerys wasn’t been with a woman since way back when her handmaiden was teaching her how to make love to Khal Drogo.
Girl power!
When I saw that look between Sansa and Jon, I knew, she knew he’d fall for Ramsay’s trap and she used it to her advantage.
So Yara, my new favorite (RIP) in the Iron Islands. Sansa in the north, and Daenerys in the Iron Throne?
I thought it was an epic episode, not even black water bay gave me that scope of a battlefield.
Love how Sansa smiled when Ramsay was being dog food and screaming.
Declan
I just wish they’d kept Ramsay alive for a while and given him the Theon treatment.
I wonder if Bran would be able to father children. If not, the Stark surname dies when he does. (Well, Benjen, but he took a vow.)
That was one ugly ass battle. Not in the cinematography sense, but in a good way. Really captured the chaos. I especially admired the part where Jon was in the scrum, fighting people as they came at him, and one fight was interrupted by a charging horse running the opponent down.
I have noticed that the show is getting more Hollywood though. It’s probably unavoidable since we’re near the endgame. You can kill anyone in the early and middle parts of a story, but once you get towards the end certain things have to happen and that’s making the show a little more predictable. But it demonstrates what Martin has accomplished with his world that the battle held suspense for us. We figured Jon and Sansa had to be victorious, but given what had gone before we knew that things didn’t necessarily have to go that way. The main plot is Westeros vs. the White Walkers, and it seems only Dany is really crucial to that and thus bulletproof.
But she kept saying they didn’t have enough men, and when he said they’re all we have, she just stood there. Wouldn’t that have been a good time to tell him to wait, more men are on their way?
If they had been even 10 minutes later, it would have been too late.
Who was it that said Ramsay would end up dog food?
Oh yeah, it was me, back in the episode 6.02 thread:
OH
MY
GOD. This was the most epic, awesome GOT episode ever.
Just the first 15 minutes alone would have fans talking for weeks.
Without question, that later battle was the best battle scene I’ve ever seen caught on film. I actually started getting queasy during it. The horror of not just getting your guts taken out with a sword, but of being crushed to death under an endlessly increasing pile of bodies scared the shit out of me.
Then, finally, the justice we all wanted.
Bravo, Game of Thrones, Bravo.
Forget the Red Wedding. This was 60 minutes of story and cinema at its absolute finest. One of the greatest television episodes in history.
If she was using Jon as bait, then why was she pleading with him not to fight, and why was she warning him that Ramsey was the one who set the traps? Jon did exactly what she begged him not to do. Was she using reverse psychology or something?
And how was she timing Littlefinger’s arrival to the second without anyone else knowing about it? How did she even know her raven got through?
It is a cliché, that’s true. But the specific thing that it reminded me of, and I have no doubt was the inspiration, was von Blücher’s late arrival on the battlefield at Waterloo. Just goes to show, sometimes the Prussians really do ride in to save the day at the crucial moment.
As BlackKnight already posted, Sansa had a plan for the battle and she played it very close to the vest.
I think my favorite bit was Jon getting crushed in the mosh pit of death and managing to struggle his way out.
I also have to wonder now, Sansa AND Jon are both in the north…which kinda means we don’t need both of them to continue the story line.
My favorite little touch was when Dany was talking to the slavemasters while they thought they still had the upper hand and one of them was giving her lip. In the distant background behind the slavers, you can see the small, out-of-focus figure of Drogon flapping his wings and starting to move toward them before dropping out of view. That’s when Dany launches into her “No, you’re fucked!” speech to the slavers.
Yeah, I loved that you could see Drogon approaching while those smarmy masters sneered at Daeneris.
Loved this episode. It felt a little by-the-numbers plotwise, but the production and the battles really made up for it. That was just awesome.
So… We’re headed for a matriarchal world, I guess. We have the sand snakes and den mother in Dorne, Sansa in the North, Daeneris coming for the Iron Throne, and the Greyjoys in the Iron Islands. Poor Cersei was just ahead of her time.
I think what’s going to happen now is that Sansa is going to become the Warden of the North and lady of Winterfell, with Littlefinger being supported as Lord of the Vale. She will send Jon Snow back to the wall to organize the battle against the White Walkers while she and Lady Mormont reunite the North.
If that’s the case, there may be a real clash coming between her forces and the Lannisters. I don’t think the Lannisters can allow the North to unify and build up their strength again under a leader opposed to Lannister Rule.
I think the Sansa strategy analysis is interesting but wrong. She hasn’t displayed that depth of planning and she didn’t or couldn’t know the Knights of the vale would even come. They didn’t show anything that lends to the level of forethought that would be required for that type of plan to work.
No, I think Sansa was simply withholding information as a power play, trading in secrets as it were. She’s been holding back for a while and that is well before the battle plans. I really yikes the episode but the whole time I kept thinking what a dick move it was to not tell Jon. Basically many of those people died for Sansa’s pride or quest for glory/power.
Balish “I will do anything in my power to make things right for you” (paraphrasing)
This was at the meeting with him and Sansa.
The fact that so many people are thinking she was a dumbass for not telling Jon about the Knights are doing Exactly what she told Jon not to do. She did something totally unexpected, and by keeping her cards to herself the entire time Jon was free to do what Ramsay prodded him into doing thus leaving Ramsay to feel he had things under control and that he was going to win. Sansa just took everything she learned from her time with Tyrion, Balish, and Ramsay, and came up with her own game plan. This was one of the greatest plot points of the entire series if you ask me.
So Tyrion talked Dany out of the whole “BURN THEM ALL” thing? Ramsay has done a lot of creepy things but the creepiest has got to be how much he enjoyed that beat down Jon gave him. That bloody smile. . .brrrrr.
It wasn’t clear to me how Dany got ships. She only burned the one?