This post contains massive spoilers for theGame of ThronesSeason 6 finale , " The wind of Winter . "
In one of best scene in an episode loaded with them,10 - year - old Lyanna Mormontschooled a room full of grownup men by tell them , basically , that they ’re all stupid cowards . InGame of ThronesSeason 6 , woman seized control from dim world , so it fit that someone who could be playing with Bratz chick told a twelve hardened Lord where to shove their Valyrian steel .
The super - sized , super - satisfying " The Winds of Winter " was all about woman get grownup movement : Cersei bollix up up the Sept of Baelor and assumed the Iron Throne ; Daenerys sweep to Westeros with her fleet ; Ellaria Sand and Olenna Tyrell teamed up with Dany ( via Varys ) to seek retaliation on the Lannisters ; Arya intersect Walder Frey off her kill list ; and Sansa rejected Littlefinger and the victor bedroom at Winterfell . The sisters are doing it for themselves as we maneuver into Season 7 and , apart from that whole mass - slaying - by - wildfire matter , it seems like the world might be honorable for it . get ’s take a close tone .
HBO
King’s Landing: trial by wildfire
First , let ’s hear it for Cersei Lannister ’s new look , which is like a cross between Joan of Arc at an S&M rule and Rhythm Nation - era Janet Jackson . Gone are the yellow and red dresses with the huge bell sleeves andthe intricate hair . Now she ’s in a military black dress with an amazing silver chain across the front . ( Not even Lannister amber ! ) It ’s as if she ’s become a kin group unto herself : House Cersei .
The opening montage was utterly gorgeous and established this episode as a major departure from the epic goop and lineage of " Battle of the mother fucker . " The sequence focused in on the details : Margaery ’s plait , Tommen ’s adornments , and Cersei ’s cocktail ring , which I would give every charwoman in my life for Christmas if it were part of aGame of Thrones - inspired jewelry melodic line from Kohl ’s .
Qyburn , her master of whispers , previously confirmed that the huffy King kept a memory cache of wildfire under King ’s Landing and that an abundant provision remained . Who could wrench down such an chance ? We knew Cersei could n’t . As the broken Loras Tyrell confessed his sins and renounced all his title to devote himself the Faith of the Seven , the pieces of her intricate design fell into place : the Mountain arrived at Tommen ’s crib to prevent the Billie Jean King from blend in to the Sept of Baelor ; Qyburn ’s Little Birds lure Pycelle to his rival maester ’s testing ground and his stabby day of reckoning ; and the likewise duped Lancel Lannister – who ’d follow a diminished kid into the dark catacombs for reasons that were very unclear – army - crawl toward a pool of ancient antifreeze , converted into a metre bomb calorimeter with three light up candles .
When the wildfire take fire to a massive , Jolly Rancher Green Apple - colored fireball , it was good-bye to the High Sparrow , Loras , Margaery , Mace Tyrell , Kevan Lannister , the heavy hitter of the Faith Militant , and any of the lords and ladies of the court stupid enough to require to see her in public disgrace . Of course it also had one unintended , and disgraceful , consequence : threatening , indecisive Tommen suddenly turn sullenly critical and silently walking off the balcony of the Red Keep .
Before Cersei encounter out that her last remaining child had been validating damage in her desperate scheme , she celebrated her victory by pouring red wine on Septa Unella , whom she ’d manifestly captured and wed down on a table in a agony elbow room . Cersei wanted to hear the woman hold one affair : that she ’d delight making the King ’s mother miserable . Her address on being a hedonist who do because thing experience salutary fetch such a smile to my human face that it look like I had eat 17 cheesecake brownies laced with Xanax . The capper was her saying , " ignominy , shame , pity , " as she closed the door to the cellular phone , sealing Unella in there with the zombie Mountain . As RuPaul would say : she better work .
I ’m still not entirely sure how Cersei secured the crown for herself . The court anointed her not just queen , but " defender of the Seven Kingdoms , " which seems like it might have some implications . After the death of Tommen , Robert Baratheon ’s bloodline has been exhausted , and it ’s not necessarily the subject that Cersei would have been next in the stemma of successiveness . One Redditorfigured outthat if you follow Robert ’s history back far enough , the only surviving branch of the family tree actually come back to the Lannisters , which would make Cersei , Jaime , and Tyrion the next in bank line for the Iron Throne . But since that has yet to be detailed in the serial publication , it bet like Cersei just declared herself the rule because she ’d killed anyone else who might object .
HBO
Anyone other than Jaime , that is .
Winterfell: it’s a pretty picture
Well , it ’s official : winter has come . stop out the hot hot toddy and toboggan . Sansa and Jon lionise with a talk of the town about trust , how they take to be transparent to each other to thwart all of their enemies . Sansa apologise for not telling him about the Knights of the Vale , although she never explains why she did n’t tell him that they were come . Hey , he did n’t ask . He really should have asked !
Later , Sansa secretly meets Littlefinger in the godswood , where he confesses that he pictures himself sitting on the Iron Throne with Sansa by his side . But as he leans in to buss her , she goes all , " novel phone . Who dis ? " on his ass . Littlefinger becomes Blue Balls . By rejecting him , she is also rejecting her right field to govern as the heir to Winterfell and relinquishing it to Jon Snow . She ultimately engender to make choices for herself , which she has n’t been able to do in the entire series . Her choice here is to stay behind the scenes and body of work as a master manipulator – just as Littlefinger taught her . Those glances that they were giving each other as Jon was being crowned King in the North were pretty suspicious . What was that all about ? She knows by now not to commit Littlefinger , but is she second opine her decision ? Does she know that he ’s plotting something and is trying to cypher out what ?
As for Jon taking the crown of the King in the North … valet , I ’m disquieted . The North supposedly remembers , but did they bury that Jon Snow make out nothing ? He is a very in force fighter , but he ’s a poor military tactician , not an especially hard leader , and a bastard , plus , he often lets his emotions cloud his senses – the hallmarks of a wretched decision - maker . This fop is about as primed to rule the North as a former realness whiz with hair made up of Cap’n crackle debris and dream fit to rein this ok land of ours .
HBO
The Twins: the secret ingredient is…
Speaking of dead king of the North , our visit to the Twins only consisted of two short scene , but both of them spelled end of the world for Cersei . Late in the episode , Arya Stark kill Walder Frey using a face she borrow from the House of Black and White . ( How does that work , exactly ? Does she now have all the faces at her disposal and they ’re uploaded into the Westerosi cloud ? Or does she have to carry them in a traveling bag , like Batman ’s tricks in his utility belt ? )
This was immensely satisfying , of course , because a Stark ultimately take aim retaliation for the Red Wedding , Arya is back to crossbreed names off her Death List , and now there ’s only one remaining name : Cersei . ( This put on that she does n’t consider whatever Gregor " the Mountain " Clegane is now " awake . " ) It look like her next stoppage will be King ’s Landing .
While not as exciting , the first shot that seemed less important could actually have far array grandness . Jaime Lannister sits down with Walder Frey , who explains that they are middling much the same man : those who have made their name by being " oathbreakers . " Jaime , of course , thinks that he ’s much better than this and storms out trying to summon up all of the nobility that he can muster . This is how he ’s feeling when he hark back to the smoldering King ’s landing place and sees Cersei getting crowned .
HBO
He seems very concerned . Is his newfound nobility and decency fail to lead him to render to take down his sister ? Tune in next week to find out ! ( JK , look a whole year and maybe we ’ll get some hints . )
North of the Wall: a one-night stay at the Tower of Joy
After saving them from White Walkers and go with them for an unspecified amount of time , Benjen Stark leaves Meera Reed and Bran Stark by a Weirwood tree . He ca n’t take them past the Wall because it is enchanted and death ca n’t pass . They do n’t go much further either ; Bran decides to get all jiggy with the Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree , putting one manus to the bark and uttering the greensight variant of , " Yo , infant , assure me your secrets . "
He goes back to the moment when his father stormed the Tower of Joy that the Three - Eyed Raven tore him away from earlier this season . There we saw that Ned Stark turned around before mounting the column , which is where Bran call out at him last time , meaning Bran madea hold out impact on historyby cry at him , and now every sentence account is replay , Ned turns around . Or this means that Bran really had no effect the first time and Ned turn around because he heard the Roadrunner meep - meeping its way through the desert or something . How this is interpreted is only important when considering just what Bran ’s powers are and the implications they have on the past times .
However , what we do know is thatthe R + L = J theory , which put forward that Jon Snow is the son of Lyanna Stark and Rhaegar Targaryen , is actually valid . We can clearly hear Lyanna say that Ned must protect her son because if Robert found out he would kill him , the import being that he is the Targaryen heir and since Robert is presently killing all of them , Lyanna ’s son would be on the list . However , when she tell apart him the name , either it was purposely obscured or she really meant for Jon ’s name to be " Shsshshahshshhasdh , " which would be a very unusual name indeed .
HBO
It was strange that Bran was accessing this information at this very moment in meter . What does he want with it ? How is he go to utilise it ? And should he get himself and Meera to safety on the other side of the Wall before watching reruns ofThe Real Housewives of Westeroson his goggle box ( in this instance , telly stands for " Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree vision " ) ? The answer to that last one is yes . Yes , Bran , get the screw back to Winterfell ! There is still an regular army of the drained after your stupid prat .
Meereen: the Unsinkable Daenerys Stormborn
So this was a little awkward . To set out , Daenerys is all , " Hey , Daario Naharis . I screw we pilfer right on each other awhile ago , but I catch ta unmatch you now , sister . Sorry . " That make me very sad , because that means we wo n’t get to see him naked ever again , and there are n’t that many dudes onGame of Throneswe get to see naked , and none of them were as good at being naked as Daario .
And as sad as that made me , the scene that surveil was the most emotional of the night . This season , Dany carry on with the personal sacrifices necessitate to take rule . But the detachment did n’t stand for cutting emotion in her professional life , as evidenced in " wind of Winter . " When she pin the Hand of the Queen brooch on Tyrion , I wanted to scream . Not only does the gesture show Danny trusting the counsel of others , but this was Tyrion finally suffer the respect and responsibility that he deserved all along . I also do it that the Hand of the Queen has a certain feminist ring to it , unlike from what we are used to hearing , but also the same . It ’s just like Dany and the promise she brings – a conquerer - type we know well , but one who was ostracized , then ego - liberated , which is an entirely unlike proposition wholly .
The ultimate conclusion of the episode was great , with the dragons swooping down into the water as all of those ships make their way to Westeros with Dany and her crew in them . ( I strike Varys foretell an UberDragon to get there in time . ) The episode end with three coronations : Jon Snow ask on the poll of the North , Cersei have on the jacket crown of the Seven Kingdoms , and Daenerys taking the crown of being the awing in the whole universe . During Jon Snow ’s ceremony , Sansa and Littlefinger exchanged glance . So did Cersei and Jaime , who make it just as the wildfire grass clear . But that did n’t bechance as Dany , who is sailing to take what is hers . All oculus were on the horizon , everyone focused on the same finish and apparently resistant to all the internecine plotting that we ordinarily link with the game of thrones .
HBO
Where does that get out us at the end of this time of year ? Cersei rules over the Seven Kingdoms , Arya will definitely plan to wipe out her , and Jaime might examine to take her down , too . Ellaria Sand and Olenna Tyrell are out for vengeance , quick to free themselves from the government of King ’s Landing or take it over themselves . Cersei ’s restraint does n’t range very far considering the entire North , the South , Dorne , and the Knights of the Vale are all in candid revolt against her . Her soldiers who are n’t recuperating from the War of the Five Kings do dazed things like campaign against the Blackfish . passably soon , Cersei ’s forces will contend with the Dothraki , the Unsullied , and three motherfucking Dragon . That does n’t seem within her scope . The Seven Kingdoms as we have it away it is come to an end , mostly because , as Tywin Lannister famously said , Cersei is n’t as chic as she thinks she is .
Jon Snow and Sansa seem like they ’ll break away from the nation , but first they have a picayune something address the White Walkers to deal with . Game of Thrones ' endgame has always been a massive combat with the all in , a yarn thread into the first vista of the entire series . The squabbling over who gets the potty is nothing but a misdirection ; all those catch up with up in it will need to band together to struggle the Night ’s King . We have two season of this show result , so the overarching plan seems to be destroying the kingdom as we hump it , then all of the wiped out part of the world unifying to take on a clear enemy . How we get there , though , is dark and full of threat .
Sign up herefor our day-by-day Thrillist email , and get your fix of the best in nutrient / drink / fun .
HBO
HBO
