GAME OF THRONES - S6E9 BATTLE OF THE BASTARDS 2AM ONWARDS SPOILERS/THEORIES ETC ENTER AT PERIL

[EverySongbirdSays]

THIS THREAD IS FOR THE EPISODE TITLED BATTLE OF THE BASTARDS

FIRST UK SHOWING 2AM 20/6/16

SPOILERS

ARE

COMING

AND WHAT DO WE SAY TO THOSE WHO ASK IF SANSA IS MARRIED TO TYRION OR RAMSEY?

WE SAY THAT MIGHT RESOLVE ITSELF THIS WEEK!

WARNING THAT MANY OF US HAVE READ THE BOOKS AND DISCUSS PLOTS CHARACTERS AND BACKSTORIES THAT HAVE YET TO APPEAR/MAY NOT APPEAR IN THE SHOW

AND WHAT DO WE SAY TO THOSE WHO COME TO THIS THREAD THEN COMPLAIN THERE ARE SPOILERS???

WE SAY NOT TODAY!!!!

Wow! What an episode. It had something for everyone...so long as everyone wants death and destruction in huge quantities.

I wept (RIP Wun Wun), I cheered (Dany/Yara epicness and Sansa's new line in dog food). I almost passed out from holding my breath during the battle.

And about that battle scene...just wow! I've been on the set of GoT and seen what goes into the filming of 'small' scenes - ones that involve just a few actors and minimal CGI requirements and it still feels like an enormous production. I can't wrap my head around the scale of that battle scene. The realism and attention to detail is staggering. Kudos to the director.

Bring on the season finale!

Is there a tune to that racehorse rhyme?

"Bring on the season finale!"

So this wasn't it? Oh good. DH thought last night's episode was the season finale, because it was 56 minutes long.

HarlettOScara, so envious of you getting a chance to go onto the set! Yes, the scale of the production is enormous. The 'inside the episode' shorts on Youtube are good for seeing more about this kind of thing. The one about filming the battle (linked a few times on this thread) is great. It shows the horses being filmed separately from everyone else and falling onto something like a very thick gym mat, so I suppose that was all then edited in afterwards. Incredibly clever [a film ignoramus writes].

Oh yes, and I believe next week's episode is about 90 minutes long. I'm hoping to see absolutely everybody who's still alive getting a bit of airtime.

Oh cool

I stand by johns stupidity. I suppose it's to do with motivation. His motivation was to get his brother and as are silt he risked the lives of thousands of men and the north being left under ramsaysxrule for years - can you imagine how that would have went down for the small folk

So yeah johns loyal but not really great leader material is he

Abd yes Sansa specifically told him don't do what he wants you to do

What did he do?

Idiot.

Plus - and ok ramsays a crack shot - but surely the further away he was from rickon when John got close the harder the shot would be for him?

With the exception of arya I don't think any of the Starks have proved themselves intelligent. And Sansa is and always has been vile right from the start with areas friend when she wouldn't do the right thing in case she upset Joffrey . She's not really changed at all.

Can't watch it on demand as it doesn't have subtitles

It doesn't automatically have them, but you can switch them on, on my oldish sky remote it is the 'help' key that brings up subtitles and audio description.

I don't know if John is particularly stupid but is certainly moved by his emotions rather than an analytical brain. In this most recent episode, women have done much better in that regard.

I wouldn't want to be in Ramsay's army - I'm fairly sure it's not normal to continue firing arrows once your lot and the other lot are having a melee. You don't know who you'll hit.

Ramsay of course doesn't CARE who he hits.

Other leaders would. Even if they had plenty of fighters, they wouldn't want the others to think of them as someone who would fire arrows at them.

Having watched re-watched and re-watched I am now of the opinion that Sansa is the most strategic of all and did save the day. On Thronescast (Grace Dent was on it) they made a point that Jon wouldnt listen to Sansa and she had been worried he wouldnt again... so I think I have changed my mind. I would like to see her bring down Cersei though as she was so in awe of her in the book and series.... I wonder if Sansa will bump into The Hound as he ventures North?

I don't think that Sansa's becoming darker unexpected from her behaviour as a child. She was rotton.

However, I do expect her to go darker (almost completely betraying a sibling), before redemption.

Do think she'll be a redeemed character, like a Jamie, but we'll begin to really hate her first.

Arya and Bran should be at Winterfell soon. I want to see a Stark council of war. I want Jon and Arya together fighting side by side. Their sibling relationship was the loveliest (giving her needle for eg).

Anyone else think that during the suffocation bit, the remaining wildlings were trying to protect Jon by keeping him in the middle of the circle so that the spears of the Bolton troops would get to him last? It was SO claustrophobic but IIRC someone (Tormund?) pushed him down behind a dead horse at the start of the scene and when he popped out above them at the end he was right in the centre.
What an episode though! We kept having to stop it as it was so tense, then at the end I had to remind myself that we'd already had the dragons and Dothraki at the start. Worth the previous few borefest episodes to have that one.
Feels like this series has been High Sparrow blah blah DANY FIRE blah blah HOLD THE DOOR blah Arya blah blah OMFG DRAGONS OMFG JON WUN WUN RAMSEY OMFG!
Bring on the finale!

EverySongbird Sorry for not replying, but I went to bed and other posters gave much better answers than I could have.
Although it is worth remembering that the Stark forces were marching on Winterfell, so they could have waited for Baelish answer. Obviously, Littlefinger was protecting his own forces. And so was Sansa.
Sansa sees Jon as a rival and wanted his army therefore power gone.

I can't wait to see the Sansa - Littlefinger wedding. LF is the Warden of the Vale, so Sansa will not find a better match.

Middle When did Jon not listen to Sansa? I genuinely can't remember.

Rowan Stark war council! Yes! I like the sound of that.

I have not seen season 1. Was Jon always touching Sansa or is this a new thing? He can't keep his hands off her.

Sansa is now cold and ruthless. She just needs to learn to be more calculating. I think she's sticking with Littlefinger as she sees his rise and how he's managed to survive and is emulating him. She also took Cersei at her word in the siege of Kings Landing when she told her to never love anyone but her children. However under Littlefingers tutelage that one may go out of the window as well. She's not as experienced as Littlefinger so he is still pulling her strings, but she is aware he is now, she may not know for what purpose, but she plays along to survive.
As Jaimie said, in his experience girls like her never survive very long.

Unfortunately, this battle for survival has meant she will sacrifice anyone as a first resort. She has become a cross between Cersei and Littlefinger. She knows Littlefinger sees her as a younger version of her mother and wants to act out that fantasy. She also knows he wouldn't hesitate to kill her the moment she's no longer useful just like he did her Aunt. She's going to play that game for as long as possible and push anyone else under the bus in order to survive.
Unfortunately, this would also mean Bran as she knows she's only as valuable as the titles and lands she carries. So, unless she ends up dead or on the throne herself, he could well be a goner, despite his power.
The only thing that's going to save Bran from his sister as things stand now is if he arrives with the Others relatively hot on his heels as they are at the moment. Or if Littlefinger decides to play a longer game and marry Sansa off to Robin and deal with Bran at a later date assuming that he'll be easy to manipulate.
Of course Dany and the Others are going to really put a spanner in the works for him.

I wouldn't want to be in Ramsay's army - I'm fairly sure it's not normal to continue firing arrows once your lot and the other lot are having a melee. You don't know who you'll hit.

Davos stopped his archers firing exactly because of that, said something like 'we'll kill our own men'.

I don't see the evidence that Sansa is a cersei littlefinger baby Machiavelli tbh. The idea that she would have bran killed is far fetched.
I'm not saying Sansa isn't a ruthless self interested survivor (as is arya, whereas Jon is not) but a family annihilating psychopath? Not seeing it yet.

I'm wondering why all the houses were so loyal to the Bolton house. They were a powerful house but Ramsay was a bastard and a mad dog, I wouldn't have expected so many houses to put their faith in him.

My guess is they weren't particularly loyal to Ramsay, they just thought he would win. And last time they were loyal to a Stark they lost.

Before the battle, when they are talking about Ramsey, she says "did it ever once occur to you that I might have some insight?" maybe that's how she feels generally. I always struggle with any cold character, Stannis, Tywin, Cersei, Cat and Sansa, but I prefer this Sansa to the one in first few seasons. She's hard to read.

Well that made up for the last few weeks, didn't it.

Are we 100% sure that that was Rickon?

He seemed to be too old to me; he was only 5 or 6 when he was sent off with Osha; this guy looks/looked to be in his (early) teens.

Lurker checking in. Nothing of any use to add but i was also screaming ZIG ZAG for all the use it wouldn't have done.

I thought that too Lady Stark, especially when he fired at his hostage and his own men., showing he only cared about himself.

Due to England being a bit feckless at football there's another clash at 9pm on Monday