‘Game of Thrones’ season 6 finale review: Wildfire, the Tower of Joy, Arya’s heart of stone, and a white raven

The season 6 finale for “Game of Thrones” really wasted no time at all creating chaos in King’s Landing; within the first half hour, we saw more action there than in years. Wildfire struck as a result of Cersei’s horrific plan, and countless men and women died as a result … including some important names. The High Sparrow and (seemingly) both Margaery and Loras were among them.

These actions also led to the death of another in King Tommen, who clearly wanted no part of his mother’s reign of terror and went out the nearest window. Cersei seems to be taking pleasure in her new leadership, which has made her the new Queen. She got that, but at the same time, she lost just about everything else in the process. We also don’t exactly know if she is going to be able to keep it for very long given the devastated state of her city and who is coming her way.

For more on “The Winds of Winter,” read on.

The white raven – Up in Winterfell, Jon Snow made it clear (after sending Melisandre away following the revelation of what happened to Shireen) that he wants Sansa Stark to be the Lady of Winterfell. Most importantly, the two had a revelation that winter is no longer coming, it’s here. Cue the white raven!

The issue for Sansa’s potential new title here is that Lady Mormont and others proclaimed Jon to be King of the North … though he’s not really technically a Stark. More on that later.

Dany’s next move – Over in Meereen, Dany is preparing to finally say goodbye — and she’s doing so single. She made the move to leave Daario behind, largely so that he could help keep the peace and help to find new leadership. She realized that she could need to marry for the sake of forging an alliance. There’s no guarantee she will, but consider this “keeping her options open.” Also, we now learned that the region is now the Bay of Dragons rather than Slaver’s Bay. Politically, a great new name for the place.

Also, she made Tyrion Hand of the Queen! It was a lovely gesture, and for the first time in his life, it seems like he believes in something. Dany may also have some allies in Dorne, especially thanks to Varys, who arrived there while Lady Olenna was also chatting up the Sand Snakes. Is anyone else happy we were barely in Dorne?

The end of the episode was Dany and her new fleet, which included Theon, heading to Westeros. This should be fun. Apparently, Varys teleported back in time for them to set sail. (Did he borrow the teleportation device from Littlefinger?)

Arya becomes Stoneheart – Okay, not literally, but it feels like producers are actually giving Arya some of the traits of that character. Tonight, she killed Walder Frey while sporting a mask, and has clearly used her knowledge from the House of Black and White. (Yes, we know that the Stoneheart comparison isn’t a one-for-one given what we know about Walder in the books, but we feel like she’s filling a similar space.) Killing Walder was great, but it was almost too sudden and we wonder how she really made this happen. This may be to us the weakest point of the episode, even if Arya turning up here and checking off the name was awesome.

Bran’s back – Yet, it seems as though Benjen is already leaving to continue along his own mission, which seems to go beyond just helping out Bran. From here, we finally went back to the Tower of Joy! This theory by many fans seems to now be complete. Jon Snow is the son of Lyanna Stark. Rhaegar Targaryen didn’t really come up, but it’s clear now at least that he’s not Ned’s son at all.

Ultimately, we don’t know how you could want more from the finale. It may not have been as mind-bendy as the battle last week, but this was a close-to-perfect final chapter that is now making us a wait a long time to see what happens. Grade: A.

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