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Jun 29, 2016 · Game of Thrones concluded what many have considered its best season with one of its finest—and the deadliest—episodes, "The Winds of Winter," which excelled in dramatic storytelling just as...
- Star Kit Harington
MARC HOM for EW. Kit Harington was cast in the London stage...
- Star Kit Harington
Game of Thrones season 6. List of episodes. " The Winds of Winter " is the final episode of the sixth season of HBO 's fantasy television series Game of Thrones, and the sixtieth overall. It was written by series co-creators David Benioff and D. B. Weiss, and directed by Miguel Sapochnik.
- Overview
- Synopsis
- Appearances
- Cast
- Quotes
- Behind the scenes
- In the books
"The Winds of Winter" is the tenth and final episode of the sixth season of Game of Thrones. It is the sixtieth episode of the series overall. It premiered on June 26, 2016 on HBO. It was written by David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, and directed by Miguel Sapochnik.
At the Twins
Jaime Lannister and Bronn arrive at the Twins to celebrate their victory at Riverrun and the alliance between the Freys and the Lannisters. However, Jaime had to ride north from King's Landing to retake Riverrun from The Blackfish with the persuasion of Edmure Tully. Walder Frey nevertheless crows over his victory and tries to build rapport with Jaime, stating that they are both "kingslayers." Insulted by the comparison, Jaime angrily asks him why the Lannisters need House Frey on their side when they cannot control the Riverlands and then leaves the feast and a dumbstruck Walder. Later, Walder Frey is seen eating dinner in his hall. When one of the servants serves him pie, he does not recognize this servant and immediately questions who she is, slapping her on the behind as he sarcastically wonders if she's one of his progeny. He goes on to gripe about the tardiness of his sons, Black Walder and Lothar Frey, to which the servant earnestly insists that they are already present, directing a confused Walder's attention to the pie. Walder opens the pie and reacts in horror: he has been served the flesh of his own sons, a fingertip with nail still attached visible in the stuffing. The servant removes her face, revealing that she is Arya Stark of Winterfell, come to remind Walder of his crimes and take revenge. Arya cheerfully tells him that the last thing he is ever going to see is a Stark smiling down at him as he dies. Lord Walder is shocked and tries to escape, but Arya seizes and holds him down, then slits his throat, watching with a satisfied smile as the man who murdered her mother, brother, and pregnant sister-in-law, and the last living mastermind of the Red Wedding, bleeds to death.
In King's Landing
In King's Landing, everyone is getting ready for the trial of Ser Loras Tyrell and Cersei Lannister. The smallfolk enter the Great Sept of Baelor, along with Queen Margaery Tyrell, Lord Mace Tyrell, and Ser Kevan Lannister. As Grand Maester Pycelle heads to the sept, a small child stops him and whispers something into his ear. The Sparrows of the Faith Militant bring Ser Loras in first, as the High Sparrow awaits. Instead of having a trial, Loras confesses to his crimes and tells the High Sparrow that he wishes to devote his life to the Faith. The High Sparrow tells him that this would mean that he renounces his family name and his future lordship of Highgarden, but Loras tearfully agrees. The Sparrows then seize Loras and carve a seven-pointed star into his forehead. Mace actually tries to fight his way through the crowd to stop them but Margaery, her voice trembling, holds him back. Shocked, Margaery protests to the High Sparrow for mutilating her brother but the High Sparrow replies that he only promised to allow him to leave after Cersei faces her trial. King Tommen prepares to depart the Red Keep for the trial of his mother but Ser Gregor Clegane prevents him from leaving his room. Lancel tells the High Sparrow that Cersei has yet to leave the Red Keep, so the High Sparrow asks him to go retrieve her. As Lancel is walking out, Arthur, one of Qyburn's "little birds", lures him away to the catacombs below the Sept. Meanwhile, Pycelle follows Frances, another little bird, into a room where Qyburn awaits him. Qyburn apologizes to Pycelle for the inconvenience, then multiple children surround Pycelle and begin stabbing him repeatedly to death. Margaery, realizing something is very wrong since Cersei and Tommen are still not at the Great Sept for the trial, confronts the High Sparrow. She tells him that it's a trap, but he does not listen. Below the Sept, Lancel continues to follow Arthur, who drops the torch that he was carrying. When Lancel goes to pick up the torch, the child stabs him in the spine and runs off. Paralyzed from the waist down, Lancel looks around where he is laying and discovers that there is a cache of wildfire (one of those the Mad King secreted beneath King's Landing as part of his plan to deny the city to his enemies when facing certain defeat at the end of Robert's Rebellion) about to be set off with three candles at the end of the hall. He desperately crawls toward it in an attempt to put the candles out. Margaery tells everyone in the Sept they need to leave immediately, but the Faith Militant block the doors, preventing anyone from exiting. Lancel does not make it to the candles before the wildfire ignites, flooding the tunnels with green flame. In the Sept, the gathered nobles hear the muffled explosions before the fire punches through the floor, burning the High Sparrow down to his bones where he stands, then building to such intensity that the Great Sept shatters and crumbles to rubble, flinging debris far and wide and levelling the city for a mile around. Cersei, looking out one of the windows in her room, smiles at the explosion even as the screams of the terrified and dying population shatter the air. Meanwhile, from his own chambers, Tommen stares at the explosion in shock and disbelief. After being informed of the explosion and its casualties, including his beloved wife, Tommen takes his crown off his head, sets it down somewhere and then calmly steps out of the window to his death. Still feeling victorious, Cersei pays a visit to Septa Unella, who is unconscious and has been strapped to a table. Cersei awakens her by pouring a pitcher of wine on her face as she struggles. She prompts Septa Unella to confess that she enjoyed tormenting her during her imprisonment, not for the sake of the gods, but because it felt good. Continuing her mockery, Cersei smugly goes down a list, "confessing" that she committed her crimes, including her incestuous relationship with Jaime, causing Robert's death, and the massacre of the people in the sept because it all felt good. Finally, Cersei reminds Unella of the promise she made that her face would be the last thing the septa saw before her death, to which Septa Unella stiffly declares that she is not afraid to die. Cersei gleefully assures her that she will not die right away and her torture will last many days and brings in Ser Gregor Clegane, who removes his helmet and begins his work. Walking away and closing the door, Cersei echoes the word "shame" three times, just as Unella did during Cersei's Walk of Atonement while the Septa screams in horror at her fate at Ser Gregor's hands. After Tommen's body is found, Cersei's triumph is greatly diminished. Standing by his covered remains with Qyburn, she insists on seeing her son's face one last time. Qyburn asks Cersei what she wants to do about funeral arrangements, since the Sept of Baelor is obviously no longer an option. She tells him to burn the body and bury the ashes where the Great Sept of Baelor once stood, so that Tommen may rest with his brother, sister, and grandfather. Jaime, Bronn and the Lannister army they are leading arrive back at King's Landing, but their looks of triumph turn to those of shock as they witness smoke rising from where the Great Sept and its surrounding districts once stood. Later, Cersei and her Kingsguard enter the throne room, the path to the Iron Throne flanked by Lannister guards. Cersei ascends the steps and stands before the throne. Qyburn, who is now her Hand, proclaims Cersei Queen of the Seven Kingdoms and all the associated titles. He places a crown on her head and she sits down on the throne. The crowd of nobles assembled to witness the coronation glare at her with undisguised hatred, aware of what she did in order to gain power, seemingly professing their loyalty only out of fear of Cersei's wrath, but she has eyes only for Jaime, whose expression is stony. Cersei has achieved her ultimate ambition to become Queen of the Seven Kingdoms - or at least, what little of it the Lannisters still control.
In Oldtown
Sam, Gilly, and her son finally arrive at Oldtown, spotting the Hightower, with dozens of white ravens being released, signalling the arrival of winter. After arriving at a bureaucrat's desk in the Citadel, Sam informs the maester he has been sent by the Night's Watch's Lord Commander, Jon Snow, to be trained as a maester. The bureaucrat, maintaining a deadpan expression, is hesitant because Jeor Mormont and Aemon are recorded as Lord Commander and Maester of Castle Black. Sam awkwardly informs him that the two died before ravens could be sent out. While he arranges for Sam to meet with one of the Archmaesters, he allows him access to the Citadel's library, but sharply bars Gilly and her son from following. As Sam explores the library by himself, he is in awe of the vast collection of books and scrolls.
Firsts
•Citadel maester •Cley Cerwyn •Wyman Manderly
Deaths
•Pycelle •Lancel Lannister •High Sparrow •Boake •Loras Tyrell •Margaery Tyrell •Mace Tyrell •Faith Militant 1 •Faith Militant 2 •Kevan Lannister •Moelle •Scolera •Tyrell lady •Margaery Tyrell's handmaiden •Tommen Baratheon •Lyanna Stark (flashback) •Walder Rivers •Lothar Frey •Walder Frey •Many Sparrows •Many King's Landing residents
Starring
•Peter Dinklage as Lord Tyrion Lannister •Nikolaj Coster-Waldau as Ser Jaime Lannister •Lena Headey as Queen Cersei Lannister •Kit Harington as King Jon Snow •Emilia Clarke as Queen Daenerys Targaryen •Natalie Dormer as Queen Margaery Tyrell •Liam Cunningham as Ser Davos Seaworth •Sophie Turner as Lady Sansa Stark •Aidan Gillen as Lord Petyr Baelish •Carice van Houten as Lady Melisandre •Nathalie Emmanuel as Missandei •Indira Varma as Ellaria Sand •Maisie Williams as Arya Stark •Jonathan Pryce as the High Sparrow •Conleth Hill as Lord Varys •Dean-Charles Chapman as King Tommen Baratheon •Kristofer Hivju as Tormund •John Bradley as Samwell Tarly •Isaac Hempstead-Wright as Bran Stark •Jerome Flynn as Ser Bronn •Alfie Allen as Prince Theon Greyjoy •Michiel Huisman as Captain Daario Naharis •Hannah Murray as Gilly
Guest starring
•Diana Rigg as Lady Olenna Tyrell •David Bradley as Lord Walder Frey •Julian Glover as Grand Maester Pycelle •Anton Lesser as Lord Qyburn •Joseph Mawle as Benjen Stark •Finn Jones as Ser Loras Tyrell •Ian Gelder as Ser Kevan Lannister •Roger Ashton-Griffiths as Lord Mace Tyrell •Jacob Anderson as Grey Worm •Gemma Whelan as Queen Yara Greyjoy •Ellie Kendrick as Meera Reed •Eugene Simon as Lancel Lannister •Keisha Castle-Hughes as Obara Sand •Rosabell Laurenti Sellers as Tyene Sand •Jessica Henwick as Nymeria Sand •Rupert Vansittart as Lord Yohn Royce •Tim McInnerny as Lord Robett Glover •Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson as Ser Gregor Clegane •Hannah Waddingham as Septa Unella •Daniel Tuite as Lothar Frey •Tim Plester as Walder Rivers •Robert Aramayo as Lord Eddard Stark •Aisling Franciosi as Lyanna Stark •Frank Hvam as Citadel maester •Bella Ramsey as Lady Lyanna Mormont •Josephine Gillan as Marei •Sara Dylan as Bernadette •Sabrina Bartlett as Arya Stark (in disguise) •Dermot Ward as an attendant •Aron Hegarty as Tommen Baratheon's manservant •Sean Blowers as Lord Wyman Manderly •Tom Varey as Lord Cley Cerwyn •Nathanael Saleh as Arthur •Annette Hannah as Frances •Jesse Magee as a little bird •Lucy Gallagher as a little bird •Fionn Kernan as a little bird •Michael Nevin as a little bird •Iona Clarke as a little bird
Uncredited
•Michael Fitzgerald as Glover General •Andrew McClay as Jon Snow Soldier •Frédéric André as Knight •Kevin-Barry Brown as a Bolton Infantry
Cersei Lannister: "Your gods have forsaken you. This is your god now."
Margaery Tyrell: "Forget about the bloody Gods and listen to what I am telling you."
Lyanna Mormont: "House Mormont remembers, The North remembers."
Lyanna Stark: "His name is [...] If Robert finds out, he'll kill him! You know he will! You have to protect him. Promise me, Ned! Promise me!"
Walder Frey: "You're not one of mine, are you?"
Handmaid: "No, my lord."
General
•The episode title is a reference to the name of the unpublished sixth novel in the A Song of Ice and Fire series, The Winds of Winter. •The soundtrack playing over the credits is a rendition of Daenerys's theme. On the official soundtrack release it is titled "The Winds of Winter." •At 68 minutes running time, this episode was the longest episode in the television series so far. This record was surpassed in Season 7. •Interestingly, all of Cersei's children died in the same order they were born in, as well as in chronological seasons. Joffrey was Cersei's firstborn son, and he died in Season 4. Myrcella was Cersei's second child, and she died in Season 5. Tommen was Cersei's final child, and he died in Season 6. Tommen and Myrcella also both died in season finales. Furthermore, both Joffrey and Myrcella were killed by poison. •In the title sequence, House Stark's direwolf sigil is restored to Winterfell. The Bolton sigil replaced it from Season 5 onward, though the direwolf sigil could be seen broken in two beside the flayed man, and in Season 3 the animation showed Winterfell burning (after it was burned at the end of Season 2 - at the end of Season 3 it was revealed that Ramsay and the Boltons burned it). Thus this is the first time that Winterfell has appeared restored, with the Stark sigil, and not a burning ruin since the Season 2 opening credits. •The Twins returns to the title sequence for the first time since Season 3. Oldtown appears in the episode but not in the title sequence. •All storylines in the TV series have surpassed the books as of this episode. The TV series adapted certain subplots out of sync with each other. Thus, while Jon Snow's storyline surpassed the books starting in the Season 6 premiere, other major subplots this season such as the Greyjoy subplot and Tully/Frey subplot were holdovers from other novels. Now even these remaining subplots have caught up. The Slaver's Bay storyline surpassed the novels in the preceding episode. •Two subplots were omitted from the TV show but won't be introduced now: when Tyrion flees east to get to Meereen it introduces a major new political shakeup happening in the Free Cities, while the Dorne subplot in Season 5 was drastically condensed, then outright abandoned at the beginning of Season 6. Because Dorne is close to the Free Cities, preview chapters for the next novel reveal that the Dorne and Free Cities subplots are going to combine with each other into one big subplot -- all of this was removed in the TV version. •Jaime and Brienne each had about another chapter's worth of material involving running into the Brotherhood Without Banners in the Riverlands, but this subplot has also been omitted entirely thus far. •With the death of Mace Tyrell, all heads of Westeros's Great Houses at the beginning of the TV series are now dead. The heads of Houses Arryn, Targaryen, Baratheon, and Stark died in Season 1, the head of House Tully in Season 3, the head of House Lannister in Season 4, and the heads of Houses Martell, Greyjoy, and Tyrell in Season 6. •This also includes the heads of House Bolton and House Frey, who were elevated to Great House status during the war as a reward for their betrayal of the Starks. •This set of leaders had been in place since the end of Robert's Rebellion, which resulted in new leaders for just two Great Houses (Stark and Targaryen). Not even Aegon's Conquest saw this much turnover, resulting in the deaths of three heads of the Great Houses (House Hoare, House Durrandon, and House Gardener, though in fairness, the entire houses went extinct in those cases). •Four of the remaining Great Houses are now led by women (Daenerys, Cersei, Olenna, Ellaria), two are divided between male and female leaders (whatever the situation is between Jon and Sansa, and the outright civil war between Euron and Yara), and three are technically headed by men but none of them are in much of a position to lead (the captive Edmure, Littlefinger's puppet Sweetrobin Arryn, and whatever is left of the Freys). •Two images from Bran's vision in "Blood of My Blood" appear in this episode: the wildfire exploding through the tunnels under the Sept of Baelor and Ned Stark hand touching Lyanna's Stark's bloody hand. •There are multiple parallel scenes between this season finale and the first season finale for the TV series, "Fire and Blood", establishing it as something of a bookend for the intervening five TV seasons: •The first scene of both finales focuses on the Great Sept of Baelor during circumstances of a calamitous event. The first finale began immediately after Eddard Stark was beheaded at the end of the previous episode (albeit the full exterior design of the Great Sept wasn't produced until Season 3, but they stated in dialogue that they were at the Great Sept). This finale's first scene is also at the Great Sept, but shows its destruction, and the deaths of many characters. •The first finale was the first time that Arya Stark took on a fake persona - one of many she would adopt over the course of the narrative. Yoren quickly pulled her out of the crowd after her father was beheaded, cut her hair short with a knife, and told her to pretend to be a boy ("Arry") so he could take her back north to Winterfell (the Watch doesn't take female recruits and they would be looking for a girl). In this finale, Arya has reached the apex of her skill at fake personas - literally using a shapeshifter mask to look like someone else, in order to take revenge on the Freys. •In the first finale, Catelyn confronted Jaime in their army camp after he was taken prisoner, and he was fully embracing his arrogant persona as "the Kingslayer", and dismissing Catelyn's accusations that things like "honor" mean anything in a world as grim as Westeros. Jaime later revealed to Brienne in Season 3 that he actually killed the Mad King for very honorable reasons, but out of pride, he doesn't want to acknowledge that he cares what other people think. In this finale, Walder Frey tries to commiserate with Jaime by saying that they're both "the same" as kingslayers. In contrast to his conversation with Catelyn years before, Jaime is visibly disgusted and ashamed at this, now seeming to think there is such a thing as "honor" in the world (and he doesn't want to be like the honorless Walder Frey). •The first finale included a scene of Joffrey sitting crowned on the Iron Throne, terrorizing the royal court by having a musician's tongue cut out in front of them, giving them great concern about their new monarch. This episode similarly has newly crowned monarch sitting on the Iron Throne for the first time: Joffrey's mother Cersei, and the crowd in the royal court is similarly terrified by their new monarch and unenthusiastic (as she just blew up the Great Sept in a prior scene). Joffrey did sit on the Iron Throne once in a prior episode to that (when Eddard was captured in the coup) but he also explicitly said that his coronation had not occurred yet; thus the Season 1 finale was still showing the "newly crowned" Joffrey on the Iron Throne for the first time. •The first finale had a scene of Bran Stark going into the crypts of Winterfell, where he pointed out his aunt Lyanna Stark's tomb and statue, and briefly summarized what happened to her: she was promised to Robert but Rhaegar carried her off, and Robert went to war to get her back, but she died anyway (though mentioned since the first episode, this was also the first time that Lyanna's story was summarized to the audience in full). In this finale, Bran is once again dealing with his aunt Lyanna and Rhaegar - by having an extended vision-flashback in which he discovers that Lyanna actually died in childbirth from bearing Rhaegar's son, none other than Jon Snow. •The first finale had the scene of Robb being hailed as the new King in the North; this finale directly mirrors this with the scene of Jon being hailed as the next King in the North - several of the Northern lords kneeling to him in turn, then all taking up the shout of "the King in the North!" •More loosely, in the Season 1 finale, Catelyn comforted the distraught Robb (after learning of Eddard's death), who said he wanted to kill all the Lannisters. Catelyn reassured him that first, they had to get his sisters back, and then they would kill all of them. This finale is the first episode in which Sansa is shown as safe and in control at Winterfell again, while Arya - though technically free for years - has not only returned to Westeros but exacted vengeance on their other enemies. Meanwhile, the last of Cersei's three children - Tommen - dies in this episode. Thus, by this episode, it all comes full circle: the Stark girls are "back", while "all" of Cersei's own children are dead. •Tyrion's subplot in the first finale ended with him being named as the new (acting) Hand of the King by his father Tywin. After rising in power in Season 2 then falling in later seasons until he was just a fleeing exile in Season 5, this finale ends with Daenerys Targaryen once again naming Tyrion as Hand of the King (her Hand of the Queen). •The Season 1 finale ended with Daenerys triumphantly hatching her newborn dragons, presaging that the game board had just been altered in a big way and she now had the means to conquer Westeros. The following seasons, however, showed that the reality of this would be slow going, as her dragons needed to grow to maturity and she still needed to acquire an army and experience. Paralleling the earlier finale, this finale closes with Daenerys actually sailing to Westeros, with her now adult-sized dragons, ready to conquer. •Season 6 continues the show tradition of killing off at least one king per season: Season 1 -Robert Baratheon; Season 2 - Renly Baratheon; Season 3 - Robb Stark; Season 4 - Joffrey; Season 5 - Mance Rayder and Stannis Baratheon; Season 6 - Balon Greyjoy and Tommen. •The number of recurring characters who were killed in this episode (eleven) is greater than in any of the former episodes. Of those, only two characters have died by the point the books reached - Kevan and Pycelle, both killed by Varys in the epilogue of the fifth book; Loras was horrifically harmed during the siege of Dragonstone in the novels, but he is still alive. •The episode confirms two fan theories about the novels: the theory that Jon is the son of Lyanna Stark and Rhaegar Targaryen, and about the pies which Lord Manderly brought to Ramsay's wedding feast. Both were heavily implied but they haven't been outright confirmed yet. •It is the third season finale in a row, in which members of House Lannister are killed: in Season 4 finale - Tywin; in Season 5 finale - Myrcella; in this season finale - Kevan, Lancel and Tommen.
At the Twins
•In the books, Jaime Lannister's army doesn't advance all the way north to the Twins after the siege of Riverrun, and thus he never personally met Walder Frey in the series (but they could have met at some point before the beginning of the series); after leaving Riverrun, his army advances to Raventree Hall, the seat of House Blackwood (earlier episodes in Season 6 did mention in passing that the Blackwoods were also in revolt like the Tullys) - the last stronghold in the Riverlands which has not yielded yet to the Iron Throne. From there, Jaime travels back to King's Landing, but an unexpected encounter with Brienne at Pennytree makes him go elsewhere; it seems Brienne, who was ordered by the monstrous Lady Stoneheart (the reanimated Catelyn Stark) to kill Jaime, reluctantly follows the order to save Pod's life, and is leading Jaime into a trap. The chapter ends with a cliffhanger, which should be resolved in the upcoming sixth novel. •Instead of advancing to Raventree Hall as in the books, in the TV version Jaime travels all the way to the Twins, then returns back south to King's Landing. Given his comments to Lord Walder, and because Raventree Hall is between Riverrun and the Twins, it's possible that they're implying the other rebelling Riverlands Houses (Blackwood and Mallister) were subdued again off-screen. •When the Twins first appear in the episode and Lord Walder's voice is heard toasting "To House Lannister!", the Lannister soldiers gathered in the feast hall shout back "Hear me roar!" (it is a little indistinct, but confirmed by the subtitles). This is actually the first - and the only time - that the Lannisters' official house words have appeared in a live-action TV episode. As explained in a scene between Maester Luwin and Bran back in Season 1 ("The Wolf and the Lion"), the Lannisters' unofficial motto - "A Lannister always pays his debts" - is much more popular than their official one. That the TV show hasn't used the official motto frequently before is unsurprising: even in the novels, the official motto "Hear me roar!" is typically only mentioned specifically once (chapter 56 of the first novel), in addition to the appendices, just to point out that the unofficial motto is much more popular. Previously the official motto was only confirmed by one of the Histories & Lore animated shorts from Season 1, narrated by Tywin. •In the same scene, Lord Walder toasts House Frey, to which others respond "We stand together!" - suggesting that perhaps this is the motto of House Frey (which is unknown even in the current books). •Lord Walder says to Jaime that the Starks mocked him for years, and sarcastically remarks, "Where are they now?" - which in retrospect was ironic, as later in the episode it is revealed that the servant girl during that scene was actually Arya Stark in disguise. •In interviews, the writers confirmed that the disguised Arya was eyeing Jaime because she didn't expect him to be at the Twins, and was wondering if she should alter her plans to do something about him as well - but ultimately she decided not to risk altering her original plan to kill just the Freys, particularly because Jaime was never actually on her kill list. Despite being Cersei's own brother, Jaime was never directly involved in any of the worst crimes against Arya's family: he was already captured when her father was executed by Joffrey and he had nothing to do with the Red Wedding. Though Jaime was responsible for crippling Bran, something that planted the seeds for the Stark-Lannister conflict, Arya remains unaware of this. •Ironically, in A Storm of Swords, Roose says "Jaime Lannister sends his regards" when he kills Robb, even though Jaime was not involved in the Red Wedding at all (since Jaime did send his regards through Roose, though sarcastically and unaware of what was coming). •When Lord Walder speaks to Jaime, he mocks him by stating that the only battle Jaime fought in in the War of The Five Kings was the one that he was defeated and captured in, which was the Battle of Whispering Wood. However, this is incorrect. Before he was captured, Jaime had previously fought in a battle in the hills below the Golden Tooth, where he had defeated the Riverlords, and then proceeded to lay siege to Riverrun. This battle was actually mentioned in Season 1 by Kevan, though it happened off-screen. Of course, in-universe Walder is probably getting his facts a little condensed together for the sake of making a wry comment at Jaime. •Jaime's disgust is palpable when Lord Walder says that they're both the same as kingslayers. This may be shifted around somewhat from a similar incident in the novels, when the Freys at the siege of Riverrun say that the knights who accompanied Lord Piper's son to the Red Wedding were "traitors and rebels". Jaime scorns them by reminding them that the Freys also took up Robb's cause, then betrayed him - and that makes them twice as treacherous as Lord Piper. Jaime enjoys seeing his words make Edwyn Frey's smile fade. •Technically, Jaime may have broken guest right when he threw Bran Stark out a window in the first episode of the TV series, "Winter Is Coming" - though Bran was a member of his host's family, not his host, and he didn't attack him literally as he was a guest at the Stark's table, the way that Walder did to Robb. •Arya feeding Walder Frey his own sons to him baked in a pie is a reference to a larger subplot in the novels, the infamous "Frey pie" incident, which takes place in the North and doesn't involve Arya. Wyman Manderly - who actually appears in this episode - grudgingly had to feign peace with the Lannisters and their Frey allies, but was planning to pay them back for his son's death. A large contingent of Frey soldiers in the books accompany the Boltons into the North to help them grind down the surviving lords. Three of them are sent as envoys to White Harbor but disappear soon afterward. Later, during the Ramsay Bolton's wedding feast at Winterfell, Wyman gleefully serves the remaining Freys and the Boltons three large meat pies, and to assure them that they aren't poisoned, he happily eats large portions of each himself. Wyman enjoys the pies so much that he needlessly takes a second helping of each, even after he already convinced the Freys and Boltons they aren't poisoned. When they ask Lord Manderly where the three missing Freys are, he answers innocently (or feigns innocence) "The road has many dangers, ser. I gave your brothers guest gifts when we took our leave of White Harbor. We swore we would meet again at the wedding. Many and more bore witness to our parting". •Lord Manderly has given two clues about his deed, that no one seems to understand: first, he emphasized the point of giving the missing Freys guest gifts - afterward, they were no longer protected by the guest right, and he was free to do with them as he pleased. Second, he asked "Abel" the bard to play the song about the Rat Cook. •Feeding Lord Walder a pie containing his own sons, (in the TV series only - in the books he is not present at the feast), may be an in-universe reference to the legend of the Rat Cook, which Bran Stark brought up in Season 3. The Rat Cook was a member of the Night's Watch who felt insulted by a visiting king, so he broke Guest right by killing the king's sons and feeding them back to him cooked into a pie. For this the gods cursed him by turning him into a rat, doomed to eat his own young. In the TV version Bran brings this up right after the Red Wedding, insisting that violation of guest right (as Walder Frey did) is the one thing above all others that the gods will punish. •Out of universe, the "Frey pie" incident with Lord Manderly from the novels may be a reference to the infamous climax of Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus, in which Titus avenges himself on Tamora by killing her sons Chiron and Demetrius and feeding them back to her baked into a meat pie ("Why there they are! Both baked in that pie!...") •In the novels, after the Freys take Riverrun several of Lord Walder's more prominent sons are given possession of the castle - but among the servants is the singer Tom of Sevenstreams, a member of the Brotherhood Without Banners, hinting that the Brotherhood is going to orchestrate it's own reverse-Red Wedding, to ambush and kill the Freys inside Riverrun. When she eventually returns to Westeros, Arya Stark may indeed link up with the Brotherhood again and help them take revenge on the Freys: obviously, certain scenes have been condensed and moved around, but it is unclear how large of a condensation it is that Arya will personally kill Walder Frey (for all anyone knows, she may in fact personally kill him in the next book). •Arya also killed Walder's two most prominent sons in the TV series, Lame Lothar Frey and Black Walder Rivers. Lord Walder has several dozen descendants, about a dozen of whom are prominent recurring characters in the novels, but their actions were understandably condensed into just these two in the TV version. Lame Lothar is the Steward of the Twins and his father's right hand, coordinating the day to day activities of the castle; Black Walder Frey and Walder Rivers are two of their prominent army commanders (condensed in the TV version into just one character, "Black Walder Rivers"). In the novels, all three of them are still alive. •In the novels, several characters express their fear that when old Lord Walder eventually dies, it will lead to a fratricidal bloodbath within House Frey, as different internal rivalries play out for who will rule. Similarly, in the TV version, House Frey continues to exist in some fashion: Lord Walder has numerous descendants and Arya didn't kill them all. Still, she has taken revenge on those most directly responsible for planning and carrying out the Red Wedding in the TV version, and decapitated House Frey's central leadership. With the loss of not only Lord Walder but also his two most trusted sons, the TV version of the Freys may dissolve into infighting as well. •With the deaths of Lord Walder Frey, Lame Lothar Frey, and Black Walder Rivers, it is unclear who exactly is the current head of House Frey. Walder's eldest son and heir Stevron Frey was introduced with speaking lines in Season 1; Stevron later died in the second novel, however, at the Battle of Oxcross. Stevron didn't reappear after Season 1 so it was never established if he actually died "off-screen" in Season 2 at Oxcross as he did in the books. After Stevron's death in the novels, the heir to the Twins is Stevron's elder son Ryman; after Ryman is killed by the Brotherhood, his elder son Edwyn is the heir, but he fears that his younger brother Black Walder will kill him to take his place; the TV show has condensed this even further. No other named legitimate Frey sons or grandsons have been formally introduced on-screen. •Walder Frey directly states that Arya's uncle Edmure Tully is for the moment being kept in the dungeons at the Twins - even though Jaime promised him gentle imprisonment at Casterly Rock (perhaps he meant in the long term). It's possible that next season will begin with Arya descending to the lower levels of the castle and freeing her uncle Edmure. •Even in the books, readers have pointed out that it may be complicated to kill all members of House Frey, given that many of them are women and children who had nothing to do with the Red Wedding, and particularly, Arya's own uncle Edmure recently fathered a child with Roslin Frey (he hasn't been born yet in the books but enough time passed in the TV version that he has). Thus Arya can't truly kill every single Frey without murdering her own first cousin and making herself a kinslayer. •With the death of Walder Frey, all three of the architects of the Red Wedding are now dead. Each of them died violently, but ironically, Walder Frey was the only one that a Stark directly took revenge on. Both Tywin Lannister and Roose Bolton were later killed by their own sons for unrelated reasons. •Arya avenges her mother Catelyn's death by killing Walder Frey the same way that her mother died, having her throat slit, in the same room that her mother died as Walder looked on, and killing her mother's actual murderer Black Walder. She also avenged her pregnant sister-in-law by killing Lame Lothar. It is not made clear if Arya knew about Talisa but it's possible she could have found out while in her servant disguise. •Both of the main participants at the Red Wedding itself, Walder Frey and Roose Bolton, died in ways mirroring how they killed the Starks during their betrayal. Arya slit Walder's throat after serving him food, and at the beginning of the season, Roose's own son Ramsay embraced him and stabbed him in a shot visually paralleling how Roose stabbed and killed Robb Stark. The mastermind of the massacre, Tywin Lannister, was shot and killed with a crossbow just like Grey Wind and many wedding guests were. •In all irony, despite all the men who had been killed at the Red Wedding as well as the deaths of Robb's wife and unborn child, Lady Catelyn swore to Walder Frey that if Robb was spared, she would give herself up as a hostage to ensure the Starks would take no revenge against the Freys and Boltons for their crimes, which would have been plausible since the bulk of the Stark army had been annihilated in one night. Walder refused and had both Robb and Catelyn killed, which led to Arya Stark taking revenge by slitting Walder's throat. With Jon Snow retaking Winterfell and the last scion of House Bolton being fed to his own hounds, it turns out that the Starks ultimately did take revenge for the Red Wedding, against both the Boltons and Freys, as Catelyn implied would happen if Robb was killed. •Another factor that makes Arya's killing of the three Freys all the more ironic is that Catelyn and Robb had agreed Arya would marry another one of Walder's many sons, Waldron, in order to secure an alliance with House Frey back in Season 1. •Back in Season 2, when Arya was hiding her identity at Harrenhal by pretending to be a peasant refugee, Tywin Lannister recognized that she wasn't actually a commoner because she didn't talk with a lower-class accent. As Tywin explained, the commoners lack the education of more highly-born people and nobles, so they tend to make grammatical mistakes and compress words together: thus they typically say the slurred "m'lord" instead of clearly pronouncing two separate words "my lord". It is unclear if this was intentional but in this episode, when Arya is wearing her shapeshifter mask to look like a serving girl (and is played by a different actress), she clearly pronounces "my lord" as two separate words when she speaks, the way a highborn does - perhaps a subtle hint early on that the serving girl wasn't what she seemed.
In King's Landing
•Cersei Lannister's storyline has surpassed the novels, but it is indeed possible that she will kill the High Sparrow and the Tyrells in this manner. She won't kill her uncle Kevan this way because in the books, he was killed along with Pycelle - and by Varys. Cersei and Qyburn had nothing to do with their deaths. •In the books, Tyrion actually gathered up all of the old wildfire caches around the city to use in the Battle of the Blackwater, but Cersei did commission the Alchemists' Guild to keep producing increasingly large quantities, which she later used to burn the Tower of the Hand to the ground, becoming almost erotically excited at the sight of it burning - hinting at developments in future books. Thus in the books, the wildfire caches were removed but Cersei would probably replace them, while in the TV version, they simplified the plot mechanics to just have the original wildfire caches always there. •The rumor which Qyburn tells Cersei in "No One" is revealed in this episode: Aerys's wildfire plot. •Perhaps it is ironic that Cersei committed a similar atrocity (though in much smaller scale) to the one that her brother Jaime prevented years ago by killing the Mad King, who sought to destroy the entire city by using wildfire. •In the fifth novel, Ser Barristan Selmy tells Daenerys that her father lusted after Joanna Lannister and acted indecently at her bedding. Based on that, there is a fan theory that Aerys slept with Joanna (with or without her consent), and he is the father of Jaime and Cersei, or Tyrion's. •There are many hints scattered in the books that may support the theory: •One of Tyrion's main interests is the study of dragons. •Tyrion's mother, similarly to Daenerys and Jon, died giving birth to him. •Joffrey had many negative traits that Aerys and others who carried the Targaryen madness strain also had. Joffrey could have inherited that strain via Cersei, who is also somewhat mentally unstable and capable of homicide and sadism, though on a smaller scale. •Tyrion called Joffrey "Aerys the Third". •Tywin told Tyrion "Men's laws give you the right to bear my name and display my colors since I cannot prove that you are not mine". •The last sentence Tywin told Jaime and Tyrion was "you are no son of mine", almost in the same words. •Genna Lannister, Tywin's sister, told Jaime "Tyrion is Tywin's son, not you". •Cersei's act of destroying the Great Sept of Baelor with wildfire in this episode may also support (but not confirm) the theory. •In the fourth novel, Cersei destroys a building in King's Landing using wildfire - the Tower of the Hand. The residents are forewarned of the demolition, it is performed in a controlled manner, and no one gets harmed. Curiously, when Jaime hears about Cersei's intention, he tells her "Now you sound like Aerys", and she feels excitement watching the tower being destroyed - perhaps in parallel to Aerys (her father?), who was aroused by watching people burnt to death at his command. •There was a large amount of foreshadowing in the TV series that Cersei would destroy the Great Sept with wildfire: •When Olenna left King's Landing, she pointed out that Cersei had lost all of her allies, had nothing left to offer anyone, and ended by bluntly asking if Cersei was just going to try to kill everyone as her only remaining option. As it turned out, Cersei did just resort to assassinating all of her enemies in the city - ignoring the long-term political backlash this will cause. •Jaime remarked to Edmure that Cersei loves her children so much that she would burn cities to ashes to keep them safe. Jaime was being figurative and didn't know what Cersei was planning to actually detonate a massive explosion in King's Landing to destroy the Great Sept. •In the preceding episode, Tyrion rather prominently reminded the audience about the wildfire cashes stored throughout the city when he revealed their existence to Daenerys, pointing out how ruthless and evil her father was. •The very first scene depicting the Great Sept of Baelor on-screen back in Season 3 mentioned wildfire, and this may have been an intentional hint about its later destruction. In episode 3.4, "And Now His Watch Is Ended" Joffrey was giving Margaery a tour around the Great Sept, and he mentioned that Aerion Targaryen's remains are stored there - explaining that Aerion died from drinking wildfire in a moment of drunken folly, thinking it would transform him into a dragon (and he was wrong). George R.R. Martin did tell the showrunners as early as Season 1 what the broad strokes of storylines from future novels were going to be, so they must have known about something as significant as Cersei blowing up the Great Sept with wildfire in the future. •Throughout Seasons 5 and 6, characters have used the phrase that "The Crown and the Faith are the twin pillars that hold up the realm" to urge why the Iron Throne needs to remain allied with the Faith of the Seven: if one falls, so will the other. It's not clear if this was an intentional visual cue by the director, but notice that when Cersei watches the destruction of the Great Sept, the camera shot is framed in such a way that she is watching it from between two pillars. Similarly, the window in Tommen's room is framed by two pillars, when he commits suicide by walking out of it. With the metaphorical pillar of the Faith destroyed, Cersei is dooming the other pillar of the Iron Throne itself: specifically resulting in Tommen's death, but more broadly, shattering her already weak hold on power. One of the reasons Tommen killed himself is that he realized no one would ever support the Lannisters' hold on the Iron Throne again after committing such sacrilege. •Margaery Tyrell's death is a major spoiler for the next novel. There was no hint or indication that she would die. There is no explicit confirmation that this will occur in the next book, though it seems unlikely that the TV show would kill off such a major character if she didn't also die in the books. •Cersei probably won't kill Loras Tyrell in this manner, though he does indeed receive mortal burn wounds in the latest novel. In the fourth book, Euron Greyjoy begins attacking the west coasts and is threatening Highgarden itself, so the Lannister-Tyrell alliance needs to move its fleet west to intercept them. The problem is that their fleets are still tied up besieging Stannis's remaining garrison at Dragonstone island. Realizing he needs to force a quick end to the siege at Dragonstone to save his homeland, Loras boldly volunteers to Cersei that he will lead the assault. Cersei, being aware how rash Loras is, is only too happy to agree, knowing full well that it will be a bloodbath and she hopes he gets killed. Loras's performance in the ensuing battle at Dragonstone leaves many in awe: Aurane Waters tells Cersei that he never saw a braver knight. Towards the end, however, Loras became badly wounded: he was shot by two arrows, a mace blow broke some of his ribs, and then he was trapped under an archway from which the enemy poured boiling oil on him. Loras was horrifically burned over most of his body and not expected to live. On the other hand, by the end of the fifth novel, Loras has stubbornly managed to cling to life - barely - against all odds and all predictions of the maesters, so it is not clear if he will pull through. Ultimately, however, in both the books and TV series, Loras ends up being horrifically burned. •Note that Loras's father Mace Tyrell doesn't react negatively to him confessing that he had sex with Renly and is a homosexual, but instead Mace is so horrified at the Faith Militant carving their symbol into Loras's forehead that Mace instinctively tries to rush to his son's aid and has to be physically restrained. While it is somewhat unclear in the books, George R.R. Martin has mentioned that Loras's entire family including his father know he is a homosexual but they simply don't care. It is unclear how typical this attitude is compared to other regions of Westeros or even within the Reach, although Olenna's flippancy in "The Climb" implies that the Reach might have a winking tolerance for it, at least in private. Nonetheless, unlike the internal rivalries among the Lannisters and Baratheons, or to a lesser extent the Starks earlier (the Sansa-Arya rivalry and the friction around Jon's bastard status), all of the Tyrells loved each other and got along very well. •It is unclear who the heirs to House Tyrell actually are in the TV continuity at this point. Olenna Tyrell only vaguely mentions that with the deaths of her son Mace and her grandchildren Margaery and Loras, Cersei took away her "future". In the novels, they actually have two older brothers, Willas and Garlan, who were omitted from the TV continuity, as Loras was repeatedly said to be the current heir to his father. Moreover, as a large and powerful Great House, in the books, they have numerous cousins and second cousins who hold various positions within their reign over the Reach. •The TV continuity technically did acknowledge that other minor Tyrell cousins exist, and they are direct descendants of Olenna. Back in Season 3 episode 4 "And Now His Watch Is Ended", an unnamed Tyrell handmaiden - credited only as "Tyrell lady" - actually had a speaking line in which she showed her embroidery to Olenna and asked, "Do you like it, Nana?" - i.e. directly stating that Olenna is her grandmother. In the books many of the minor Tyrell cousins serve as handmaidens to the main members of the family, thus it was always somewhat implied that the background handmaidens that appear in the TV show are actually Tyrell cousins. This "Tyrell lady" was never formally named, but the eldest of Margaery's cousins who serve in her retinue as handmaidens is Elinor Tyrell. •Of course, given that Mace Tyrell was in the Great Sept with his entire retinue along with Margaery to observe Loras's trial, it is not impossible that all of Margaery's handmaidens, including her cousins, were present in the Great Sept and killed in the explosion. •The Tyrell family is so large in the novels with so many scattered cousins of the main line that they weren't all directly acting as handmaids and attendants to the main branch, and thus wouldn't be present in the Great Sept to be killed. For example, in the books, one of the other students at the Citadel when Samwell Tarly arrives is Mace's much younger first cousin Leo Tyrell - the son of Moryn Tyrell, youngest of Luthor Tyrell's three younger brothers. The TV series has never introduced any of these minor Tyrells so it is self-consistent, but it would still be a change from the novels to say that the entire Tyrell bloodline has been extinguished. •The situation with House Tyrell is cleared up in Season 7 when Olenna dies during the Lannister attack on Highgarden and dialogue from Jaime and Tyrion establishes that with her gone, House Tyrell is completely extinguished. •It is unclear who the heirs to House Lannister are now, after Tywin's three children Cersei, Jaime, and Tyrion, and with all three of Cersei's children dead. Even Jaime pointed out in Season 4 that if he didn't inherit as a Kingsguard, and Cersei's children were Baratheons, Tyrion was Tywin's only realistic heir, unless he wanted the title to pass to some minor cousin he'd never even heard of. •Kevan Lannister and his son Lancel die in this episode. Kevan's two younger sons Willem and Martyn Lannister previously died in Season 3. Martyn actually lived in the books but the TV version condensed him with another Lannister cousin. In the books, Kevan also has an infant daughter named Janei. •Tywin had other siblings and cousins in the books, who had their own children who could potentially inherit rule after Tywin's three children - that other minor cousins exist has also been sporadically mentioned before in the TV series but the specific ones from the novels haven't been introduced by name into the TV continuity. At Tyrion's trial in Season 4, Jaime even complained to Tywin that if Tyrion dies the rule of House Lannister would pass to Lancel or some other even more minor cousin they barely know - acknowledging that they exist. Besides Cersei, Jaime, and Tyrion, the only other Lannister that has appeared on the show and has not been killed is Reginald Lannister (a minor cousin invented for the TV series). •Tommen Baratheon's death in this episode renders "House Baratheon of King's Landing" extinct - the cadet branch of House Baratheon that was going to hold the Iron Throne as the new dynasty founded by Robert Baratheon. Of course, after Robert's death, the royal House was "Baratheon" in name only, as all of Cersei's children were actually Jaime's bastard children. •For that matter, "House Baratheon" as a whole is now officially extinct. At the start of Season 2 it split into three factions led by Joffrey, Stannis, and Renly, but even after the deaths of Robert's brothers, the Lannisters at least maintained the pretense that Tommen actually was Robert's own son. Now no one can even claim that any trueborn Baratheons are still alive. The only known surviving member of the Baratheon bloodline is Robert's bastard son Gendry - this may be relevant in the future but for now, he hasn't been acknowledged or laid claim to the title (the way that Jon Snow claimed rule of House Stark due to lack of legitimate male heirs). •In the books, at least two of Robert's other bastard children survived: Mya Stone in the Vale and Edric Storm, who was raised in Storm's End and later taken in by Stannis. Stannis considered (urged by his wife and Melisandre) to sacrifice Edric, but he was saved by Davos who secretly sent him to the Free Cities. Parts of Edric's storyline were merged with Gendry's, but otherwise, Edric and Mya apparently don't exist in the TV continuity, and Gendry is being treated as Robert's only surviving bastard. •Actor Dean-Charles Chapman now holds the distinction of filming two death scenes in the TV series, for two separate characters: he first appeared in Season 3 playing Martyn Lannister, but was then called back in Season 4 to be recast as Tommen Baratheon - given that Tommen is Martyn's first cousin once removed, it does make sense that they would resemble each other. In Season 3 Chapman filmed Martyn's death scene when the Karstarks killed him in his prison cell, and now in this episode, he filmed Tommen's death scene committing suicide by jumping out a tower window. The only other people on the TV show who have filmed multiple death scenes are stuntmen (i.e. Ian Whyte played two different giants who died). •The death of the High Sparrow might mean that Cersei will try to reinstate Jaime to the Kingsguard. Seven members including Gregor appear on-screen during her coronation, however - though at this point it doesn't seem that Cersei would feel limited by the tradition that there are supposed to be only seven Kingsguard members at a time. •As Cersei was responsible for both Kevan and Lancel's deaths, this makes her a kinslayer. She is the third of Tywin's three children to be a kinslayer: Tyrion killed their father Tywin with a crossbow, and before that Jaime killed their distant cousin Alton Lannister as part of an escape attempt (though he felt bad about it). In the books, Jaime never killed any of his kin: Alton was the TV version of Cleos Frey, who was killed by outlaw archers on the way to King's Landing. Cersei didn't kill Kevan in the novels, Varys did, though it now seems probable that she is going to blow up the Great Sept using wildfire, in which case she is probably going to kill Lancel along with the rest of the Faith Militant, still making her a kinslayer. •This is ironic given Tywin's hypocritical insistence on the importance of the Lannister family and its legacy - as Cersei directly said in Season 4, he cared more about the idea of family than his actual children, and his mistreatment of them ended up warping their personalities in ways that ended up destroying not only himself but the rest of his relatives. •Cersei has now totally purged what little was left of the Small Council. Her uncle Kevan Lannister was Hand of the King, while Mace Tyrell was simultaneously Master of Ships and Master of Coin. Even Grand Maester Pycelle is dead, the last original member of the Small Council from Season 1 (and who, in fact, had been on the council longer than anyone, since before the reign of the Mad King). The only surviving members are Qyburn (who was Master of Whisperers) and Jaime himself - as pointed out earlier this season, the Lord Commander of the Kingsguard is one of the seven permanent members of the council, but it is unclear if Cersei will have him reinstated. Cersei named Qyburn as her new Hand of the Queen - notice that he is wearing the traditional hand-sigil pin of the office during Cersei's coronation. It's possible that she might not even bother to rebuild the Small Council after this, preferring to rely on her own (extremely limited and unreliable) judgement and just keeping Qyburn as her direct advisor. •Meanwhile, Daenerys Targaryen is steadily building up her own Small Council, with capable advisors and administrators. She just named Cersei's brother Tyrion as her Hand of the Queen, and it seems probable that Varys will be her Master of Whisperers and Yara Greyjoy her Master of Ships. •The reanimated Gregor Clegane takes off his helmet for the first time in this episode - his face is still obscured by shadow but seems very corpse-like. In the novels, after his reanimation he wears an all-concealing helmet visor - in the TV version, his eyes are visible, possibly due to the practical needs of the actor to move around. In the books, however, it isn't even clear if Gregor has a head anymore, but is some sort of Frankenstein's monster. There are some lines in one of Bran's visions which somewhat imply that he doesn't have a head anymore, coupled with the fact that the Lannisters later claimed that he died and delivered what they said was Gregor's skull to Dorne as proof of his death. •Cersei in this TV episode, particularly the scene in which she taunts Septa Unella, behaves much more like Cersei from the novels than before, flippantly remarking on the joy she takes in crushing her enemies. A difficulty is that much of this was conveyed in Cersei's POV chapters in the novels - things from her inner mental narration that she wouldn't actually dare say aloud, limiting the TV show's ability to communicate it. Now Cersei isn't bothering to put up an act anymore, and openly admitting how she actually feels. •Lena Headey vaguely mentioned in a subsequent interview with Entertainment Weekly that the scene in which Cersei toys with Septa Unella then leaves her to be tortured was originally going to be much more graphic: "It’s so depraved, it’s brilliant. The scene was meant to be worse, but they couldn’t do it. This is like the tame version. It’s pretty bad still though." •The scene reportedly took ten hours to film. Unella's actress, Hannah Waddingham, was subjected to unsimulated waterboarding, an experience she described as traumatic. Additionally, Waddingham has stated in an interview with Entertainment Weekly that the experience caused her to suffer "chronic claustrophobia". •Tommen's death fulfills part of the prophecy that Cersei received from Maggy in her youth. This part of the prophecy foretold that all three of her children would predecease her: they would have golden crowns (hair) but also golden (burial) shrouds - and indeed Tommen's burial shroud in this episode is gold colored. Of course, this may have been a self-fulfilling prophecy, given that Tommen's death was indirectly due to Cersei's own actions. •Cersei's actions didn't directly lead to the deaths of Joffrey and Myrcella. On a general level, however, her coup in Season 1 to assassinate Robert and put Joffrey on the throne started the war and initiated an indirect chain of events which led to their deaths. •With Tommen's death, all of Margaery's husbands are dead. •As pointed out in the "Inside the Episode" featurette, Tommen might not have died if Cersei had considered that he would be upset at his wife's death, and come to console him or try to explain what happened. It is stated in the featurette that Cersei failed Tommen in this way by not being there for him. Tommen may also likewise be upset that his mother just murdered hundreds of people, many of them innocent bystanders, and no one will ever think he is a good king after this. Instead, Cersei prioritized watching the explosion and gloating while sipping a cup of wine, and then tormenting Septa Unella in the dungeons. Thus Tommen's death is directly her fault, and she could have easily prevented it if she actually gave more thought to him. This is sort of a point from the books: Cersei thinks she loved all of her children, but she really fixated on Joffrey while ignoring Tommen and Myrcella as anything more than extensions of herself. •Cersei crowning herself as the new Ruling Queen on the Iron Throne is farcical in-universe, comparable to two men on a sinking ship fighting over who gets to be the captain. With all of her children dead, she has no real claim to the throne, but the extinction of House Baratheon, as well as the heir of House Targaryen (Daenerys) travelling to Westeros in order to invade leaves the inheritance of the throne unclear. Cersei is able to claim the throne as the widow of Robert Baratheon and the mother of Joffrey and Tommen. In the book series, there are two examples of widows with no actual blood relation claiming the lordships of their husbands if no other viable heirs exist: Lady Donella Hornwood (born Manderly) claims the lordship of Hornwood after House Hornwood effectively goes extinct in the War of the Five Kings, and Barbrey Dustin (born Ryswell), who has ruled as Lady of Barrowton since her husband Roderick Dustin died in Robert's Rebellion. As with Robert taking the throne through conquest, this presedence only represents a convenient excuse: Cersei simply seized control of the capital city with whatever is left of the Lannister armies, because they happened to be in King's Landing at the moment. It's doubtful she can hold the city against her enemies with what few forces she has left. •Cersei isn't even functionally the queen over more than one or two of the "Seven Kingdoms" anymore. The North has just successfully risen in revolt again, joined by the Vale. Frey control over the Riverlands was already tenuous as Houses Blackwood and Mallister and the Brotherhood Without Banners were in open revolt, and it has now been weakened even more thanks to Arya. The Iron Islands remain independent and weren't even controlled by her son Joffrey. Now, both the Reach and Dorne are openly declaring for Daenerys Targaryen. Essentially, the only parts of Westeros that Cersei actually controls anymore are King's Landing and the Crownlands, the Westerlands, and maybe a bit of the Riverlands between to connect the two. With House Baratheon destroyed, Cersei might conceivably be claiming the Stormlands in the same way she has claimed the Iron Throne: by being the widow of Robert Baratheon and mother of Joffrey and Tommen. However, the Stormlands have no military strength left at all following the Battle of the Blackwater, and even if they did, their chances of supporting Cersei are small given they had previously backed Renly and later Stannis. •In effect, with the destruction of the Lannister-Tyrell alliance and resurgence of the North, the Lannisters' zone of control has shrunk back to more or less what it was right after Joffrey first took power, so they're no better off than they were originally (in early Season 2). In fact, they're actually far worse off than they were when the war began: Cersei has zero actual right to rule, half of the Lannister armies were destroyed by Robb Stark, and the Lannisters are financially bankrupt from heavy wartime spending. Winter has finally begun, but they don't have access to either of the two main breadbasket regions of Westeros anymore: the Riverlands are now a burned out husk, and the Reach has outright turned against them. Olenna even tried to warn Cersei in Season 5 how ridiculous it was to turn against the Tyrells, given that the Lannisters are directly reliant upon them for money and even shipments of basic food supplies. Cersei apparently didn't realize or simply didn't care that killing the ruler of House Tyrell and his two children would turn the Reach to open war against her. Both regions that had thus far been neutral in the War of the Five Kings (Dorne and The Vale) have openly declared for someone else - adding their large unbloodied armies to the fight. •Given that the few remaining territories the Lannisters still control are in the middle of Westeros, Cersei is now facing major enemies in all four directions: Jon, Sansa, Littlefinger, and their armies to the North; Euron Greyjoy's fleets and armies to the west; the Tyrells and Dorne to the south; and Daenerys's army and dragons arriving in a fleet from the east. Of these, she has no chance of rebuilding alliances with the North or the South, because they hate her with a vengeance for the Lannisters killing several of their immediate family members. Euron meanwhile is a wild card. •During Cersei's coronation, the title for the ruler who sits on the Iron Throne has once again flip-flopped between "King of the Andals and the First Men" and "King of the Andals, the Rhoynar, and the First Men," with no semblance of internal consistency. •The full title refers to the Rhoynar ancestors of the Dornishmen, but because back in Season 1 the showrunners didn't know if the TV series would ever introduce Dornish characters, they removed virtually all references to the Rhoynar and the Dornish so as not to confuse the audience. The result was that the shortened title "King of the Andals and the First Men" has been used since the beginning of the very first episode when Ned Stark executed a Night's Watch deserter. •This shortened title was consistently used through Season 4, even when Oberyn Martell was physically present at Tommen's coronation as "King of the Andals and the First Men". There was one isolated incident earlier in Season 4 when Missandei introduced Daenerys using the full title "Queen of the Andals and the Rhoynar, and the First Men" - but in the Season 4 finale, Missandei introduced Daenerys using the shortened title, omitting "the Rhoynar". •Through Season 5, the TV show continued to consistently use the shortened title "King of the Andals and the First Men", to the point that the Wiki of Westeros considered the single appearance of "the Rhoynar" in Season 4 to simply be a non-canon script error. •In the Season 6 premiere, however, Daenerys once again introduced herself as "Queen of the Andals and the Rhoynar and the First Men". At this point, it wasn't even clear what the title is supposed to be in the TV continuity - in contrast with if the writers officially chose to make a formal retcon that the title would subsequently include "the Rhoynar" and stuck with it consistently. •Now at the end of Season 6, the TV show once yet switches back to using the shortened version, with no internal consistency, when Qyburn crowns Cersei as "Queen of the Andals and the First Men", omitting "the Rhoynar." •Marei the prostitute reappears in this episode, in Pycelle's chamber, making her the longest recurring prostitute character in the TV series. She first appeared in the Season 2 premiere and with this episode, has appeared in five continuous TV seasons (even Ros only appeared for three TV seasons, and Shae for four seasons). •Kevan is the fifth Hand of the King to the Iron Throne who is murdered in a row, following Rossart, Jon Arryn, Ned Stark and Tywin. Tyrion does not count because he was never officially appointed to be the Hand by Joffrey, but was acting as the Hand while Tywin was absent from King's Landing. •Most of those (except Arryn) have been slain by or at the command of Lannisters: Rossart by Jaime; Ned on Joffrey's order for execution; Tywin by Tyrion; and Kevan by Cersei. •Cersei's apparent victory over the High Sparrow and many of his followers does not necessarily mean she managed to destroy the Faith Militant entirely. It is unlikely that all the organization members were in King's Landing and that all of those were close enough to the explosion site. •In the books, there are at least two thousands of the Faith Militant in King's Landing alone; there are hundreds more of them, maybe thousands, in many places all over the realm. When Jaime stops at Darry, he is stunned to see about one hundred of the Sparrows there. Thus, even if in the upcoming novels Cersei destroys the Sparrows in King's Landing, there will be plenty more of them outside the city, seeking revenge; the loss of their supreme leader may not stop them for long.
•The episode is adapted from the following chapters of A Game of Thrones:
•Chapter 5, Jon I: During King Robert's visit, Jon sits away from his family during the feast and is seated with squires of similar age to him. Benjen notices this and asks Jon about this, noting that Jon usually sits with his family.
•Chapter 39, Eddard X: A flashback of Lyanna Stark's death scene. She begs Ned to promise her something.
•The episode is adapted from the following chapters of A Storm of Swords:
•Chapter 56, Bran IV: It is explained why Coldhands cannot pass beyond the Wall.
•Epilogue: Members of House Frey fall victims of assassination by a vengeful member of House Stark believed to be dead.
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