re: Game of Thrones S6:E6 "Blood of My Blood" (reader thread) (NO LEAKS!)

People have been calling it the battle of the bastards for a long time.

This is not a repy to any specific thread but just some observations about Ep 6.

First, several folks have inferred that the Tyrells have a big bad army. Then we see these dudes marching to the Sept led by big bad Mace Tyrell.

Did you notice that Mace couldn't even rein his own horse, he had to have a foot soldier holding the bridle and leading the horse. This compares to Jamie that needs no help directing his horse and can even climb steps with him. Mace and his "Army" were nothing more than about 1 platoon strength-wise of a shiny drill team that is notable only for their ability to stomp the ground in sync while marching. Note that when they positioned themselves in front of the Sept and the camera zoomed out, there were thousands of peasants confronting them that would have torn them apart if they lifted a sword against the High Sparrow. Also, big bad Mace didn't even know what had happened and had to ask the old lady "what happened". She said "He has beaten us" but what she really meant is that He handed them their arse without a sword being drawn. About the only thing notable about the Tyrell Army is that they could blind their adversaries with the Sun shining off their polished steel armament.

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Did you notice that Mace couldn't even rein his own horse, he had to have a foot soldier holding the bridle and leading the horse. This compares to Jamie that needs no help directing his horse and can even climb steps with him.

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Mace's incompetence is running theme for the series. That was a good understated way to show them.

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Mace and his "Army" were nothing more than about 1 platoon strength-wise of a shiny drill team that is notable only for their ability to stomp the ground in sync while marching. Note that when they positioned themselves in front of the Sept and the camera zoomed out, there were thousands of peasants confronting them that would have torn them apart if they lifted a sword against the High Sparrow.

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That is a very very small fraction of the whole Tyrell army which (if fully mustered) is north of 50,000 soldiers.

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Also, big bad Mace didn't even know what had happened and had to ask the old lady "what happened". She said "He has beaten us" but what she really meant is that He handed them their arse without a sword being drawn. About the only thing notable about the Tyrell Army is that they could blind their adversaries with the Sun shining off their polished steel armament.

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Yes Mace is incompetent. Olenna is the brain behind house Tyrell

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What i dont understand is if the CoF helped build the wall after they realize the Others were a bigger danger than the First Men,why did they stay north of the wall.

I also wonder what woke them after thousands of years. Ive heard theories that it was dragons but the time doesnt fit

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Here's what I think I remember from the books:

The first men and the COTF defeated the others. I don't recall if they mention how they defeated them. The COTF and the first men reached a truce, and the land north of the wall would belong to the COTF. But the wildlings said that they had been digging up graves for years trying to find the horn that could bring down the wall, and they ended up waking the Others instead.

And someone else was asking about coldhands. In the books, he was always accompanied by a huge flock of ravens and a giant elk. The ravens attacked the weights when he saved Sam and gilly.

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The first men and the COTF defeated the others. I don't recall if they mention how they defeated them.

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Yes. One of Nan's stories supports this. Those stories are of varying reliability, but I think we can probably accept this as true based on the generality of the statement.

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The COTF and the first men reached a truce, and the land north of the wall would belong to the COTF.

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I don't think the land north of the Wall belonged to the CotF. I don't think we have any reliable information on how things went down at that time. I assumed that the first men and the CotF continued living together south of the wall for time, but the CotF had suffered such irreparable they just faded out over time (as men out-bred them).

I assumed the purpose of the wall was always to keep out the White Walkers. So I don't know why the CotF would have taken the land to the north. Again though, this is my speculation; I don't think Nan's stories are reliable enough for us to know much about that part of history.

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But the wildlings said that they had been digging up graves for years trying to find the horn that could bring down the wall, and they ended up waking the Others instead.

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I don't remember specifically, but I thought in the books the causality was reversed here. The growing influence of the White Walkers made the Wildlings desperate to find a way to bring down the wall.

Either way, I think the resurgence of the White Walkers isn't due to Wildlings digging, I think it is a much bigger deal that just "oops we disturbed the wrong graves."

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And someone else was asking about coldhands. In the books, he was always accompanied by a huge flock of ravens and a giant elk. The ravens attacked the weights when he saved Sam and gilly.

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Hence why this show Benjen is only faux-Coldhands.

From the description

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An alternate version of this scene, to make an awkward situation even more awkward.

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Yeah he put in the description that he made the silence longer to add to the awkwardness. It is so funny

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have you actually read the books? it's a running theme through half the books that Olena is the brains and Mace is nothing more than a boob, they give him honor just to keep him happy and he is too dumb to figure out. They marched their army there in hopes that margery still needed/wanted help from them and could rally the people. Once Tommen marched out and the faith had the common people on their side, Olena knew they were beaten for the day. They could have killed a lot of the faith but the common people would have torn them all apart.

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Yeah, I'm pretty sure Garlan and Margeary were in on the poisoning of Joffrey, but Mace never had a clue, even afterwards. Mace is very easily the most incompetent member of House Tyrell.