My Quick Thoughts on “Blood of My Blood”

After “The Door,” it was not surprising that last week’s episode of Game of Thrones would be a bit of a letdown. The show, however, is moving at breakneck speed, and there were a few significant developments. Note, *SPOILERS* to follow.

Blood of my blood - Arya

Will Arya Be Free of the House of Black and White?

Even though most of the storylines by Season 6 have diverged from the books, I was still surprised to see Arya’s story in Bravos ending the way it appears. In A Dance With Dragons, Arya completes her training and is going to be sent off to an apprenticeship in another city. She’s done all the temple priests have asked, and it’s clear her story as an assassin-in-training will continue in The Winds of Winter. But on the show, it looks like she’s done with the temple, and now will have the Waif to deal with.

Don’t get me wrong: I’m happy Arya’s decided to return to being Arya Stark. In fact, that’s always been my hope, ever since she hid her sword Needle under those stairs. I really want Arya to finish her hit list, and she was never going to be able to do that as a nameless servant in the House of Black and White. Yet with last Sunday’s development, some are questioning the entire point of the past season-and-a-half in Bravos. If she defeats the Waif and goes back to her life as Arya Stark, what has she truly learned from her time in the House of Black and White?

Maybe the answer is: She learned that she needs to be Arya Stark – that it’s her destiny. Perhaps that’s the point. Only by trying to abandon her past did she realize she needs to stay true to who she always was. It won’t surprise me if the books end up at this same point, but now that Game of Thrones is rushing towards its conclusion, it feels like the show’s writers are skipping a few steps.

Blood of my Blood - Benjen

Benjen Stark is Coldhands

This point will only make sense to those who have read the books. Way back in A Storm of Swords, a seemingly undead Night’s Watchman called “Coldhands” saves Gilly and Sam from the White Walkers after they flee Craster’s Keep. Then, in A Dance With Dragons, when Bran and company arrive at the Wall, Coldhands is there to escort Bran to the Three-Eyed Raven.

The show had omitted Coldhands from the plot until last Sunday when Benjen suddenly appeared to save Bran and Meera. Benjen never calls himself Coldhands but admitted he was mortally wounded by a White Walker, only to be saved by the Children of the Forest. In the showrunners’ commentary after the show, the writers called Benjen “Coldhands,” making it crystal clear they’re one and the same. If true, we’ve seen another spoiler from The Winds of Winter.

That said, I remember a report where George R.R. Martin disclaimed that Coldhands was, in fact, Benjen. But this may have been Martin playing with words, assuming the “human” Benjen died, only to be reborn as Coldhands. Either that or the writers have merged two characters again, as they did with Sansa and Jeyne Pool.

Blood of my blood - Dany and Drogon

Daenerys’ Story Seems Like It’s Moving Too Fast

This may be the first time I’ve seen what looks like a major a plot hole in Game of Thrones. Rather than ending with the Waif setting out to kill Arya – which would have been the perfect way to finish episode 6 – we got a scene with Daenerys and her new Dothraki army. Then, all of a sudden, Drogon appears, and the next thing we see is Dany on his back rallying her troops to war.

I had a problem with this. If Dany can just summon Drogon at will, why didn’t she do that while she was captured and forced to march to the Dothraki temple? Or, why not use Drogon to roast the Kahls alive instead of tipping over all those braziers? It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.

What would have made sense is for Dany to go on a quest to find Drogan. A legit quest, like where she’s chasing down dragon sightings or following a trail of charred goats. At some point, we all know she needed to reunite with her dragons. But this seemed way to effortless, especially given how untamable Dragon seemed in Season 5 (and in A Dance With Dragons too).

Now, maybe the end of episode 6 was supposed to depict this quest in a super truncated form. The problem, however, was that the scene was so brief it hardly portrayed the work she should have gone through to find her dragon. My fear is that this is a symptom of the writer’s simply moving way to fast to get to the end of Game of Thrones.

Season 5 basically covered the entirety of both A Feast for Crows and A Dance With Dragons. Those stories, frankly, could have made up two full seasons of Game of Thrones. Given its reported length, The Winds of Winter could probably fill two more full seasons. My guess is that the writers don’t have that kind of time, which is why Game of Thrones seems to be moving at warp speed now that it’s untethered from the books. So far, this was the only time I was disappointed by the show’s decisions this season. But I hope this doesn’t become a trend.

Those are just my quick thoughts. What did you think about this episode of Game of Thrones?

* Images courtesy of Rotten Tomatoes

Recent Comments

  • Bill
    June 6, 2016 - 4:42 pm ·

    The appearance of Drogon did seem to happen almost as an afterthought, Joe. I sure hope they're not rushing through this. It makes a ton of money, does it not? Are some actors or actresses looking to leave?

    Same with Arya. Why did she go back to the house after aborting her mission?

    I'm a week behind watching, so need to watch the next episode before reading your next post.

  • Joseph Finley
    June 8, 2016 - 7:16 am ·

    Bill, thanks for the comment. I've read that there will be only 13 episodes after this season, although I understand that HBO has denied this. What HBO has not denied, I believe, is that there will be only two more seasons of GOT after this one. I think they are rushing some stories, trying to hit all the plot points Martin gave them leading up to the end. But after the next episode (which I won't spoil), it's clear they've gone back to the books. So who knows? Other than the Dany/Drogon scene, which was implausible, the rest of the show is holding together pretty well. Except in Dorne, which they've never gone back to since episode 1 of Season 6.

  • Bill
    June 8, 2016 - 10:33 am ·

    Yeah, several storylines that the books spent considerable time with were flashed over or ignored. I realize the books were 6000+ pages!

Join My Reader List

Join my reader list to receive a FREE novella, Click HERE!

Follow My Blog

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Privacy Policy

Your email address will never be shared. Read more about our privacy policy here.

Blog Archive