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May 29, 2016 · Blood of My Blood: Directed by Jack Bender. With Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Lena Headey, Emilia Clarke, Natalie Dormer. Bran and Meera find a new ally. Gilly meets Sam's family. Arya makes a difficult choice. The Lannisters and Tyrells march against the High Sparrow.
- (36K)
- Action, Adventure, Drama
- Jack Bender
- 2016-05-29
- Overview
- Synopsis
- Appearances
- Cast
- Quotes
- Behind the scenes
"Blood of My Blood" is the sixth episode of the sixth season of Game of Thrones. It is the fifty-sixth episode of the series overall. It premiered on May 29, 2016 on HBO. It was written by Bryan Cogman and directed by Jack Bender.
Beyond the Wall
Meera pulls Bran through the snow as he remains in vision-state, but she is clearly getting tired. Bran experiences a rush of visions: King Aerys shouting "Burn them all!"; the Red Wedding, his family, wights in Hardhome, wildfire, dragons, Jaime Lannister and the Iron Throne. Pursuing wights are also seen. Meera cannot go on any further and tries to wake Bran, who comes out of his visions to say "They've found us." She can hear wights approaching through the trees. With no more energy left to pull Bran, and barely enough to draw her sword, she apologises to Bran for failing him, as the wights come into sight. Just as all appears hopeless, a mysterious rider appears and attacks the wights with a sickle and a flaming flail. Once the wights in the immediate vicinity have been dealt with, he urges Meera and Bran to come with him because "the dead don't rest," and they escape on horseback. Later, when they have reached relative safety and the rider is preparing a meal, Meera asks why he helped them. The rider reveals he was sent by the Three-Eyed Raven who "lives again" - just as he says this Bran wakes up. The rider reveals himself as a disfigured Benjen Stark, Bran's uncle, and explains that he was stabbed in the gut by a White Walker's sword and left to die, but the Children of the Forest rescued him and stopped the magic that would have turned him into a Wight. He explains that Bran must now be the Three-eyed Raven, and when the White Walkers come to the realms of men, Bran will be waiting for them.
At Horn Hill
Sam and Gilly approach Horn Hill, the seat of House Tarly. Sam warns Gilly that they must claim Little Sam is Sam's son, and that Gilly should hide the fact that she is a wildling, since his father abhors wildlings. Sam introduces Gilly and Little Sam to his mother, Lady Melessa Tarly, and sister, Lady Talla Tarly. In spite of her rough appearance, both immediately notice Gilly's beauty, and Melessa is delighted to meet her first grandchild. Talla tries to tell Sam of her upcoming betrothal, but Melessa shushes her. Talla takes Gilly under her wing, offering her a dress and a spare bedroom. That evening, they all have dinner along with Sam's father, Lord Randyll Tarly, and brother, Dickon Tarly. Sam reveals his plans to become a maester and eventually return to Castle Black. Randyll criticises Sam for his weight and mocks his attempt to claim hunting and fighting skills, both of which Sam admits can actually be attributed to Gilly and Jon Snow, respectively. Talla is delighted to hear that Gilly can hunt for herself, and suggests that Randyll should be more like Gilly's father, a suggestion which makes Sam and Gilly wince. Gilly, defending Sam from Randyll's verbal assault, mentions Sam's heroism on three different occasions in which Sam proved himself to be a greater warrior than Randyll will ever be. But in doing so, she inadvertently reveals her origins from North of the Wall. So Randyll doesn't seem to take in her point about Sam's qualities but instead only hears that she is a wildling. Randyll reveals his prejudice towards wildlings and his contempt for Sam. Melessa, thoroughly angered by Randyll's behavior, declares that Sam isn't the one dishonoring House Tarly, Randyll is. She then storms out, taking Talla and Gilly with her. Randyll eventually agrees that Gilly and Little Sam can stay at Horn Hill; Gilly will work in the kitchens, and Little Sam will be acknowledged and raised as a bastard. However, this will be Sam's last night at Horn Hill, forever. Sam later apologises to Gilly for not standing up to his father and that he will be leaving at first light. However, he shortly returns to her, declaring that he has changed his mind, and says that they need to stay together as they belong with each other, and that they are all leaving right now. On the way out he takes Heartsbane - the family's Valyrian steel sword.
In King's Landing
Tommen is speaking with the High Sparrow about Margaery's Walk of Atonement, and the High Sparrow offers to let him see her. Tommen enters Margaery's cell and is surprised to find her speaking positively about the High Sparrow and contritely about her past sins, including her vanity about being seen to help the poor and needy. He finds himself agreeing with her feelings towards the High Sparrow. Later, Mace Tyrell leads an army through the streets of King's Landing to a waiting Jaime Lannister, before giving a rather pompous speech at which Jaime cringes. Together, they proceed to the Great Sept of Baelor, outside which the High Sparrow, Septa Unella, the Faith Militant and a large crowd of city folk are preparing for Margaery's Walk of Atonement. The army arrives, along with Olenna Tyrell in a litter, as the High Sparrow is speaking, and Jaime demands he release Margaery and Loras, before they can "be on their way." The High Sparrow refuses and fends off Jaime's threats to kill all the Sparrows by saying each Sparrow yearns to die in the service of the Gods. After a tense few moments he proclaims it will not be necessary, as there will be no Walk of Atonement. Margaery has already atoned for her sins by bringing another into the faith. To Jaime's astonishment the doors of the Sept open and King Tommen emerges, escorted by his own guards, and walks down the steps to join the High Sparrow and Margaery in a demonstration of unity between the crown and the faith. The crowd burst into cheers after Tommen's speech, demonstrating that the High Sparrow now has the support of both the crown and the smallfolk. Baffled, Mace asks what is happening. Olenna replies in disgust that the High Sparrow has beaten them. At the same time, a furious Jaime seethes at the High Sparrow's triumphant expression. Later, in the throne room, Tommen strips Jaime of his position in the Kingsguard because "an attack on the faith is an attack on the crown," but reveals that Jaime will not have to face imprisonment or humiliation; he can continue to serve his King and the Lannisters, just not in King's Landing. Jaime later complains to Cersei that he has been ordered to help Walder Frey recapture Riverrun, but instead he intends to have Bronn find as many hired killers as possible, then march into the Great Sept and kill the High Sparrow. Cersei says that he should go to Riverrun and show everyone how easily a Lannister can take a castle, as to attack the High Sparrow and his fanatics would probably result in Jaime's death and destroy everything they are working for. She does not need Jaime to be in the city for her trial, it will be a trial by combat and she has the unbeatable Mountain. She reassures Jaime they will still defeat all their enemies, and they kiss.
Firsts
•King Aerys II Targaryen (flashback) •Lady Melessa Tarly •Talla Tarly •Dickon Tarly •Lord Randyll Tarly •Lady Kitty Frey
Deaths
•King Aerys II Targaryen (flashback)
Starring
•Nikolaj Coster-Waldau as Ser Jaime Lannister •Lena Headey as Queen Cersei Lannister •Emilia Clarke as Queen Daenerys Targaryen •Natalie Dormer as Queen Margaery Tyrell •Maisie Williams as Arya Stark •Jonathan Pryce as the High Sparrow •John Bradley as Samwell Tarly •Isaac Hempstead-Wright as Bran Stark •Michiel Huisman as Daario Naharis •Tom Wlaschiha as Jaqen H'ghar •Dean-Charles Chapman as King Tommen Baratheon •Hannah Murray as Gilly
Guest starring
•Diana Rigg as Lady Olenna Tyrell •Richard E. Grant as Izembaro •David Bradley as Lord Walder Frey •Essie Davis as Lady Crane •Joseph Mawle as Benjen Stark •Tobias Menzies as Ser Edmure Tully •Ellie Kendrick as Meera Reed •Faye Marsay as the Waif •Roger Ashton-Griffiths as Lord Mace Tyrell •Ian Gelder as Ser Kevan Lannister •Hannah Waddingham as Septa Unella •James Faulkner as Lord Randyll Tarly •Samantha Spiro as Lady Melessa Tarly •Eugene Simon as Brother Lancel •Tim Plester as Walder Rivers •Daniel Tuite as Lothar Frey •Kevin Eldon as Camello •Leigh Gill as Bobono •Eline Powell as Bianca •Rob Callender as Clarenzo •Eva Butterly as the mummer playing Margaery Tyrell •David Rintoul as King Aerys II Targaryen •Freddie Stroma as Dickon Tarly •Rebecca Benson as Talla Tarly •Robert Aramayo as Lord Eddard Stark •Raül Tortosa as a Tyrell bannerman •Lucy Hayes as Lady Kitty Frey •Glen Barry as a mummer •Brendan O'Rourke as a mummer •Ross Anderson-Doherty as a mummer •William and James Wilson as Sam •Nanna Bryndís Hilmarsdóttir as a musician •Ragnar Þórhallsson as a musician •Arnar Rósenkranz Hilmarsson as a musician •Brynjar Leifsson as a musician •Kristján Páll Kristjánsson as a musician
Uncredited
•Aisling Franciosi as Lyanna Stark •Tamsin Greene Barker as a Braavosi Theatre Server •José Mellinas as the 'That's Right' Man •Kiran Shah as a Braavosi Theatre Sound Artist •Milly Burke Cunningham as a Frey Daughter
Walder Frey: "They're laughing at us! All across the Riverlands right down to King's Landing, they're laughing at us! I hear it in my sleep! I'm not dead yet, unfortunately for you. And I'll not leave this world until they all choke on that laughter!"
Jaime Lannister: "I'm being sent to deal with the Blackfish. Apparently Walder Frey can't manage it on his own because he's 400 years old."
Cersei Lannister: "Stand at the head of our army where you belong, where Father wanted you. Show our men where their loyalties belong. Show them what Lannisters are, what we do to our enemies. And take that stupid little castle back because it's ours and because you can."
Jaime: "You'll stand trial soon. I need to be here for you."
General
•The title of the episode refers to how a Dohtraki Khal and his bloodriders address each other. As a double entendre it apparently also refers to Samwell’s reunion with his family, Benjen Stark returning to his nephew Bran, and the Lannisters and Tyrells trying to save their children from the High Sparrow. •Although major settings for the episode, Horn Hill and The Twins do not appear in the title sequence for the episode – even though Meereen, which doesn't appear in this episode, is still kept in it the opening credits. •This episode marks the first time three Essos locations are featured in the title sequence (Braavos, Vaes Dothrak, and Meereen), and the first time since "Fire and Blood" in Season 1, only three Westeros locations are featured (King's Landing, Winterfell, and the Wall). •Dorne does not appear in this episode, and has not reappeared since the Season 6 premiere. The Wall, the North, the Vale of Arryn, Meereen, and the Iron Islands also do not appear. •This is only the fifth episode of the entire TV series that Tyrion Lannister doesn't appear in, who is currently the character who has appeared in the most episodes. It is also only the tenth episode that Jon Snow hasn't appeared in (matching Daenerys Targaryen, who also hasn't appeared in only ten episodes up to now, but who does appear in this episode). The frequency with which these three characters appear roughly matches the books, in which they also have the most POV narration chapters. As for the other "Tier A" starring characters (as they are called in the pay grade), Cersei has only missed 7 episodes, Sansa and Arya both missed 12 episodes and Jaime missed 16 (due to his imprisonment for most of Season 2). Cersei only became a POV chapter narrator in the fourth novel, but she does frequently appear before that in other chapters narrated by Tyrion, Ned Stark, Sansa, Jaime, etc. •This is the first time the TV show has had a scene take place in the Reach, and as of this episode, the show has visited all 9 regions of the Seven Kingdoms (the original "seven kingdoms" plus the borderlands that became the Riverlands, and the capital region of the Crownlands). With the appearance of Horn Hill, a castle has been shown in every part of the Seven Kingdoms except for the Stormlands and the Westerlands. •Locations in the North, the Vale, the Riverlands, and King's Landing appeared in Season 1; locations in the Iron Islands were introduced in Season 2, and locations in Dorne were introduced in Season 5. As for the Crownlands apart from King's Landing, Dragonstone was introduced in Season 2, and Stokeworth was briefly seen in Season 5. •The production team did hope to introduce Storm's End, ruling seat of the Stormlands, in Season 2: however due to budget constraints the parley between Renly and Stannis had to simply be filmed on cliffs by the sea - though they did state in dialogue that they were in the Stormlands at the time. Robb Stark's army technically entered into the Westerlands in Season 2 while on campaign, leading to the Battle of Oxcross, but these scenes basically just focused on the Stark army camp, without showing any major locations such as Casterly Rock itself. •With Edmure Tully's appearance, this episode also makes Season 6 the first season to include a character from each of the 11 current Great Houses. Members of Houses Stark, Lannister, Baratheon, Targaryen, and Greyjoy have appeared in every season of the show, while members of Houses Tyrell and Martell have appeared in every season since their introductions in Season 2 and 4, respectively. Tullys have been featured in Seasons 3 and 6, while Season 1 and Seasons 4 through 6 have had at least one Arryn. The new Lord Paramounts of the North, House Bolton, have been featured in every season starting with the second, while the new Lords Paramount of the Trident, House Frey, were seen in Seasons 1, 3, and 6. •Secretly, of course, Tommen Baratheon isn't actually a Baratheon, but the Lannisters maintain the pretense that he is. Brienne of Tarth and Davos Seaworth are from the Stormlands and were major Baratheon champions. The reintroduction of the Brotherhood Without Banners this season might mean Robert Baratheon's bastard son Gendry will reappear. •This is, to date, only the second TV episode (after "Lord Snow") in which no one actually dies, not even named animal characters (direwolves, horses, etc.). Jaime is shown killing the Mad King in a flashback set prior to the events of the episode – for a fraction of a second during a quick montage. The play in Braavos presents a fictionalized dramatization of Joffrey and Tywin’s deaths, but of course the actor himself is fine. Only nameless undead wights are seen being killed in the episode.
Beyond the Wall
•This episode marks the return of Benjen Stark, who has not appeared in the show since the third episode of the first season "Lord Snow." Benjen Stark's fate has not been revealed yet in the books, but Bran’s storyline already surpassed the novels in the preceding episode. •In the books, as Samwell and Gilly are heading south to the Wall, they are surrounded by dozen of wights. They are saved by a mysterious figure riding a giant elk, who keeps his face hidden, escorted by many ravens. He tells them he was sent to find someone, and Sam is not "the one." After Sam and Gilly cross paths with Bran and his companions as they head through the Wall in the opposite direction, this mysterious man joins Bran's group and escorts them north. This figure doesn’t identify himself. Sam and Gilly come up with the nickname "Coldhands" for him, given that his hands are as cold as a corpse’s – it soon becomes apparent that Coldhands is in fact some kind of reanimated corpse serving the Children, but unlike the wights, Coldhands's eyes are not glowing blue but black, he can talk and has a will of his own. He helps Bran and his companions reach the cave of the three-eyed raven, but does not enter with them, because the cave is magically warded against dead things. •There has been rampant speculation among book-readers that Coldhands actually is Benjen Stark, somehow saved and changed by the Children of the Forest. A point against this is that when Bran asks Leaf about Coldhands, she says that the White Walkers killed him “a long time ago.” •A major issue raised is that a transcript of the third novel which George R.R. Martin gave to his editor was later made public, with hand-written annotations from both of them. On one page, the editor circled Coldhands’s name and wrote “Benjen?” – but Martin responded by writing “NO” in capital letters next to it. •In the Inside the Episode featurette for this episode, however, Dan Weiss openly refers to him as “Coldhands Benjen.” •Thus there are three possibilities; •1 – Coldhands actually is Benjen in the novels; in which case, either Martin always knew and simply lied to his editor to keep it a total secret, or, Martin simply changed his mind at a later point. •2 – Coldhands and Benjen are separate characters in the novels, however, Benjen is now the same kind of creature Coldhands is – undead, not fully resurrected, but with his consciousness intact. In this case, Coldhands was foreshadowing Benjen’s return. Coldhands is the only person shown in the novels that the Children reanimated – but nothing says they didn’t reanimate others. •3 – Coldhands and Benjen are separate characters in the novels, but Benjen never died and had to be reanimated, but was off doing other missions for the Children elsewhere - in which case the TV show is outright merging aspects of both characters together to simplify the narrative. •The books don’t have a term for the kind of creature that Coldhands is (or that TV-Benjen is revealed to be now). As Benjen stated, he was impaled with a sword by a White Walker and left to die so they could reanimate him as a mindless wight, but the Children of the Forest intervened and plunged an enchanted dragonglass dagger through his heart to hold off the other part of the Walkers’ magic. He wasn’t “resurrected” the way Jon Snow and Beric Dondarrion were, but is some sort of undead revenant. Like a wight killed in a relatively non-disfiguring manner, his skin is visibly pallid and his hands are blackened, - but in the books, Coldhands is explicitly not “a wight.” •Corpses currently reanimated as wights cannot be set free of the White Walkers’ control by thrusting dragonglass through their hearts. In the episode, Benjen directly states that the Children got to him in the middle of the process, before the White Walkers could take full hold over his body. •Benjen tells Bran that he is “the three-eyed raven” now. In the Inside the Episode featurette for the previous episode, the showrunners more clearly explained that the reason Bran didn’t immediately flee the cave when they knew the Night King was coming is because the old three-eyed raven was frantically “uploading” all of his memories and visions into Bran’s mind, so Bran could keep experiencing the visions even after he died. The way the showrunners describe it in the featurette for this episode, “three-eyed raven” is something of a title (perhaps used for the most powerful living Greenseer?), but also much more than that: in some ways the old three-eyed raven’s memories live on in Bran, so he isn’t purely “Bran Stark” anymore but a mixture of the two. •Compare to the Dune chronicles by Frank Herbert, of which George R.R. Martin is a fan. Each new Reverend Mother of the Bene Gesserit is transferred the ancestral “Other Memory” of a previous Reverend Mother, forming a sausage-chain of memories stretching back across many lifetimes. Becoming a Reverend Mother profoundly changes a person, as all of these new memories and experiences are incorporated with their pre-existing ones. •In his vision, Bran sees several glimpses of the past, including: •The fall that paralyzed him ("Winter Is Coming") •The beheading of his father ("Baelor") •The death of his mother ("The Rains of Castamere") •Several images of the Night King during the Massacre at Hardhome ("Hardhome") •Daenerys appearing before her khalassar after surviving Drogo's funeral pyre ("Fire and Blood") •The Night King turning Craster's last son into a White Walker ("Oathkeeper") •Young Ned Stark at the Tower of Joy ("Oathbreaker") •Roose Bolton killing Robb Stark ("The Rains of Castamere") •The Children of the Forest creating the White Walkers ("The Door") •Jon Snow battling a White Walker ("Hardhome") •Bran's visions also include several past events never before depicted in the TV series: •The Alchemists' Guild creating massive amounts of Wildfire at the Mad King's request. •The first-ever on-screen appearance of the Mad King himself, Aerys II Targaryen, shouting "Burn them all!" - commanding the pyromancers to put the Wildfire plot into effect and burn down King's Landing rather than let it fall to rebel armies. •Jaime Lannister killing the Mad King at the very foot of the Iron Throne itself - as he explained in Season 3's "Kissed by Fire," in order to stop the Mad King from carrying out his insane plan to burn down the capital city. •Jaime, having killed the Mad King, sitting on the Iron Throne, stunned by what he has just done. •Following a vision of Eddard Stark asking where is his sister, a scene showing a body covered with blood with the hand of someone else touching it (Bran later sees this vision in full in the Season 6 finale). •Bran also seems to have visions of the future: •A large dragon, possibly Drogon, in flight above a city looking like King's Landing - though this vision could very well be from the past, when the Targaryens still had dragons. •A large underground wildfire stockpile actually exploding in a spectacular green fireball. •Aerys II Targaryen’s appearance in the flashback oddly contradicts all other representations of him made by the TV series, particularly that he is outright cleanshaven. In the books, Aerys’s madness reached a point where he was too paranoid to allow any blades in his presence (except those of his Kingsguard), resulting in him not cutting his hair and beard for years. He also stopped cutting his fingernails - nor did he clean himself regularly. By the time of Robert’s Rebellion itself, Aerys looked like some kind of insane homeless vagabond: his filthy, matted hair was so long that it hung below his waist, his uncut nails several inches long. The odd point is that other parts of the wider “TV continuity” kept this detail: since Season 1, the Histories & Lore animated featurettes included in the Blu-ray releases accurately depicted the Mad King with a long, unkempt beard. It is unclear why the TV series flashback changed this detail. •Also in the brief flashback to Aerys II’s death, there were no dragon skulls in the Iron Throne room – which were stated to have only been removed after Robert Baratheon usurped the throne. Given how brief the flashback was it probably wouldn’t have justified the time and resources for the production team to make such substantial changes to the throne room set. An accurate point is that the throne room in the flashback has spiked iron braziers filled with burning fires around the support columns – not the decorative filigree design of vines and flowers seen on the columns in Season 1. When Joffrey redecorated the throne room in Season 2, he explicitly said he was restoring it to what it looked like back when the Targaryens were in power, because he thought it looked menacing and impressive. The symbol of the seven-pointed star set in the stained glass above the throne wasn’t present in Season 1 either, but was apparently another feature from the Targaryen era that Joffrey restored. •These flashbacks are the first time other members of the Alchemists' Guild have been depicted: before, only their leader Wisdom Hallyne appeared on-screen (in Season 2). It was unclear if Hallyne’s costume in Season 2 was meant to be some kind of uniform that all of the pyromancers wear, but the ones in the flashback are seen wearing the same costume he did. No particular mention has been made in the novels about whether or not members of the guild wear some kind of uniform. It’s possible the new costume team starting in Season 6 simply based their uniforms in the flashbacks on Hallyne’s costume in Season 2, extrapolating that it was some kind of uniform.
At Horn Hill
•In this episode, Samwell Tarly and Gilly arrive at his family's castle-seat at Horn Hill. Samwell's father Randyll Tarly has been mentioned since Season 1 but makes his first on-screen appearance now. •Horn Hill is depicted as an opulent fortified villa rather than a castle like those seen in the North or the Stormlands. This is appropriate to the Reach's pleasant climate, which allows for more courtyards and larger interior spaces, since heat conservation isn't an issue. The Horn Hill scenes were even filmed in Catalonia. •Samwell and Gilly were mostly absent from the first half of Season 6, barring one scene on their ship, but this matches just how long their journey was: from the northern edge of the Seven Kingdoms at the Wall to the southern shore of the Seven Kingdoms at Oldtown. In fact, they didn't just go from the northern to southern end but along the even longer diagonal distance: they left Castle Black (in the Season 5 finale) and went to the eastern end of the Wall to the Watch's port-castle at Eastwatch-by-the-Sea to board their ship. Eastwatch is thus at the absolute northeastern corner of the Seven Kingdoms, while Oldtown is at the absolute southwestern corner, in the Reach. Nor did they go in a straight line, but had to sail around the continent lengthwise through the Narrow Sea. •Contrast the realistically long time it took for Samwell and Gilly to travel from the Wall to Oldtown by sea with how in the preceding episode, Littlefinger somehow traveled the vast distance from the Vale to the outskirts of Castle Black, without explanation (which was an invention of the TV series). •In the books, Samwell and Gilly's sea journey from the Wall to Oldtown takes up much of their narrative in the fourth novel – most of this was omitted from the TV series. •Few ships make the journey to the isolated waters near the Wall, so there aren’t any direct voyages between the Wall and Oldtown. Instead, Samwell and Gilly leave Eastwatch-by-the Sea on one of the small ships that the Night’s Watch possesses, which deposits them in Braavos, where they can find another larger ship to make the long journey along a major trade route. While there Sam actually cross paths with Arya Stark, who saves him from two swaggering street toughs. He introduces himself to Arya, but she gives him a false name, thus missing an opportunity to reunite with her brother, or at least notify Jon she is alive (though in the TV version Brienne found out Arya was alive, and she later told Sansa and presumably Jon). •Samwell and Gilly book passage on the Cinnamon Wind, a ship from the Summer Isles. George R.R. Martin himself has stressed that Westeros realistically wouldn’t have that many non-white characters in it: it’s about as likely for a character from Yi Ti to appear in Westeros as it would be for someone from China to appear in England during the medieval Wars of the Roses. Even so, Martin himself explicitly cited the crew of the Cinnamon Wind as one of the few examples of “people of color” characters who enter into the narrative (outside of Slaver’s Bay, etc.). It is also one of the few times Summer Islander culture is presented in any detail. The Summer Islanders have a very open and positive attitude towards sex, and after Sam has sex with Gilly in their chambers he is wracked by guilt at breaking his vows of celibacy, but the captain's daughter Kojja Mo chides him that in their culture this expression of love is nothing to be ashamed about, and forces him to go to back bed with Gilly, threatening to throw him overboard if he doesn't. No mention is made in the TV series about who the crew was on the ship that Samwell and Gilly traveled on. •In the novels, Maester Aemon actually departed the Wall with Samwell and Gilly, but being over 100 years old he was too frail to make the voyage and his body was already failing before he left, and he soon catches a cold while on the trip which makes his health rapidly decline. Aemon dies aboard the Cinnamon Wind at some point when the ship is passing around Dorne, and Samwell gives a eulogy for him. The TV series simply reshuffled the order of these events so that Aemon's death occurs at the Wall before Sam and Gilly leave. The crew of the Cinnamon Wind previously encountered Daenerys Targaryen and her young dragons when she was looking to book passage on a ship at the docks of Qarth, and they share information about her with Aemon. Daenerys was his last living relative, being the great-grandaughter of his younger brother, and news that she was both alive and had hatched new dragons briefly gave the dying Aemon a second wind, but it was not enough. The TV version simply has Aemon hear news about Daenerys's activities in a letter that arrived at the Wall in Season 5. •As their ship rounds the southwestern corner of Westeros, their ship runs into ships of the ironborn making renewed attacks upon the mainland under the direction of their new king, Euron Greyjoy, and have to fight them off. Then they arrive in Oldtown. •Curiously, the episode presents it as if Samwell and Gilly actually arrived at Horn Hill first, and haven’t been to Oldtown yet. Oldtown is the main port for all of the southern half of the Reach, so their ship would probably have had to land there before they continued on to Horn Hill. Given that they debarked off-screen, it is entirely plausible they landed somewhere farther east like in the Stormlands and then just continued overland. •In the books, Sam and Gilly arrive at Oldtown in their final chapter, and Sam intends to send Gilly on ahead to Horn Hill without him, but neither of them is shown arriving there. Horn Hill is near Oldtown so it is possible that Sam will visit there in the next novel. Sam’s father Randyll isn’t even present at Horn Hill at this point in the novels; as one of Mace Tyrell’s most important vassals he is with his liege-lord in King’s Landing, and was given a seat on the Small Council. Thus the reunion in this episode isn’t directly from the current novels – though it does closely match the descriptions given for all of these characters and how they probably would interact. •Given that Samwell hasn’t gone to Horn Hill in the novels – yet – he also hasn’t stolen House Tarly’s ancestral sword, Heartsbane as of the end of the fifth novel. Randyll states that it is made of Valyrian steel and has been in their family for 500 years (no new Valyrian steel swords were made after the Doom of Valyria 400 years ago). Jon Snow discovered at Hardhome that Valyrian steel can kill White Walkers, just like dragonglass, and he shared this information with Sam right before he left the Wall. This probably influenced Samwell’s decision to steal his father’s sword - or might even have been the primary reason he took it. •The TV version condensed events so that Jon Snow actually went to Hardhome in Season 5 – in the books Jon sent other characters and only heard vague reports coming back by messenger-raven. This resulted in Jon explicitly discovering in Season 5 that Valyrian steel can kill White Walkers, just like dragonglass, and he directly tells Sam this before he departed the Wall. In the novels, Sam read in an ancient book at Castle Black that “dragonsteel” can kill White Walkers, and he and Jon speculate that this may mean Valyrian steel, but as of yet they haven’t been able to test this. Therefore, it is possible that in the next novel, Samwell will confirm in further readings through ancient books at the Citadel in Oldtown that Valyrian steel can kill White Walkers, which will convince him to return to Horn Hill to obtain the ancestral Tarly sword. Given that in the TV version Samwell already knows that Valyrian steel can kill White Walkers, it was free to simply reverse the order of these events – visiting Horn Hill first, then taking Heartsbane with him to Oldtown. •Samwell has three sisters in the novels, but Talla is the only one named. The TV show condensed this to just Talla. Sam’s brother Dickon is Randyll’s fifth child in the novels – as Sam grew up and increasingly appeared to be a disappointment, Randyll just kept having more children with his wife until he successfully produced another son to replace Sam. •Talla is not betrothed to anyone in the books, and no character named "Symun Fossoway" has been introduced in the novels yet. House Fossoway is another powerful noble family in the Reach (actually two, as there is another cadet branch of the family). •Dickon, meanwhile, actually is betrothed in the novels, to Eleanor Mooton, whose family rules Maidenpool in the Riverlands. They are betrothed around the time Samwell goes to Oldtown in the fourth novel, and it is mentioned that they have married as of the end of the fifth novel. •Dickon isn’t being particularly cruel or mocking Gilly when he laughs in disbelief when she earnestly says that Sam killed a White Walker: recall that in Season 1, many characters including Tyrion Lannister laughed at the idea that the White Walkers are real. It has been 8,000 years since the White Walkers were last seen, and in the present day most of Westeros thinks they are entirely mythical and never existed. Only a few characters in the North itself such as Ned Stark believed that the White Walkers ever existed at all, but even they thought the White Walkers were totally destroyed and would never return. The Tarlys are located at the extreme southern end of Westeros opposite from the Wall, so they really aren’t in a position to hear any of the rumors about the White Walkers’ return. •Hannah Murray pointed out in a behind the scenes video for this episode that her character Gilly has never really thought of herself as a member of the wider "wildling" culture as a whole, because she spent her entire life at Craster's Keep, very isolated even from the other wildlings. Her father's homestead is all she knew. In the behind the scenes video, Murray said Gilly standing up to Lord Randyll's insults about wildlings in this episode was the first time that Gilly really thought of herself as "a wildling" and discovered the pride in her heritage that other wildlings like Ygritte and Tormund previously expressed. •It was never mentioned in on-screen dialogue, but Stannis Baratheon’s wife Selyse was actually born into House Florent, another powerful vassal family from the Reach. This episode also doesn’t directly state that Samwell’s mother Melessa Tarly was also born into House Florent: Selyse Florent and Melessa Florent were actually first cousins in the books (though the Florent family tree has been somewhat jumbled in the TV version). Thus Samwell was actually Shireen Baratheon’s second cousin – though the TV show never pointed this out, even when Sam and Shireen had scenes together in Season 5. •Gilly gets her first new costume since she was introduced on the TV series in Season 2 - meaning that she finally got to change out of the dirty, heavy roughspun wool costume she was wearing on the show for four and a half years. As Dan Weiss said, "Hannah has long had the shitiest costumes on Game of Thrones; she’s been in a burlap sack for five years. She was so happy that she finally gets into a real piece of clothing this year." •This makes Hannah Murray the cast member who has gone the longest without a costume change - barring a few cases of characters who wear official uniforms. Arya Stark disguised herself as a peasant boy at the end of Season 1 and didn't change costumes until mid-Season 5 (about three and a half seasons without a costume change). Samwell and Dolorous Edd haven't changed costumes because they wear Night's Watch uniforms (Sam since Season 1, Dolorous Edd since being introduced in Season 2). Grand Maester Pycelle has also worn the same costume since Season 1, as his robes are the official uniform of a maester. Podrick Payne has also generally worn the same costume since being introduced in Season 2, but it is apparently some sort of standard-issue leather armor as a Lannister squire. The other only character who wore the same costume for so long, but not been required to as part of some military uniform, was Hodor - Hodor was introduced in Season 1 before Gilly was introduced in Season 2, however Hodor and Bran's storyline took a year off and didn't appear in Season 5. Thus Kristian Nairn (Hodor) is the only other non-uniformed cast member who can match how long Hannah Murray (Gilly) has been wearing the same costume - though Gilly slightly edges Hodor out in the sense that she wore the same costume for four and a half continuous seasons in a row. Hodor also acquired a new heavy fur coat in Season 4 when traveling beyond the Wall - which is a new costume of a sort. In contrast, Gilly originated beyond the Wall, so she always had a heavy fur coat, though she took it off for some interior scenes. •Hannah Murray (Gilly) and Kit Harington (Jon Snow) came up with a prank to play on John Bradley (Samwell) this season, sort of to make up for that fact that his co-star Murray had to have such an ugly costume all this time and he didn't. The showrunners thought it was hilarious and went along with it: they scheduled Bradley-West for a fitting at the costume department in a ridiculous new outfit that looked like some absurd variation on something Henry VIII would have worn. Surprisingly, Bradley-West didn't realize it was a prank at all - he rationalized that the show has never actually shown what people in the south of the Reach dress like before, and Samwell was supposed to be a bit of a bookish fop yet son of a powerful nobleman before he came to the Wall, so he thought that it was meant to be an in-universe joke that Samwell's formal wear at dinner was supposed to look silly. •This is the first time that non-Tyrell nobility from the Reach have been shown. Interestingly, their style of clothing has some similarities to the Tyrells but also several differences. The difference is quite notable because the Tyrells themselves also appear prominently in the episode (albeit Margaery isn’t wearing her signature style, but Olenna is along with their servants). •According to the “trickle-down principle” that costume designer Michele Clapton developed in earlier seasons, the vassal Houses from each of the Seven Kingdoms actively try to emulate the style of dress set by the Great House in each region: vassals from the Westerlands emulate the style of the Lannisters’ clothing, and even their servants wear simplified imitations of their style (i.e. Cersei’s handmaidens dress like her). The Tyrells’ personal servants previously seen in King’s Landing also emulate how the main Tyrell family tresses. •The Tyrell style of dress seen with Margaery and her handmaidens is plunging necklines, short cuffed shoulders (to contrast with Cersei’s long billowing sleeves), and sometimes backless gowns which show more skin. The dresses for Margaery and Olenna also have a symmetrical cut running down the exact middle of the torso – this is to contrast with Cersei’s Lannister style, which also has a cut running down the front, but which is off-center and asymmetrical. Margaery and her handmaidens also wear their hair swept back away from the face – both to show more skin, and to contrast which how Cersei wore her long hair down, as if shielding her body like armor. •The Tarly style, in contrast, has very large puffy shoulder pieces – the Tyrell shoulders are short and peaked (though neither of them are like the long wrist-length draped sleeves of the Lannister style). Talla’s dress that she lent to Gilly even has form-fitting wrist-length sleeves beneath the large shoulder pieces. The Tyrell style has a symmetrical cut running down the middle, but the Tarly style is entirely one piece on the front of the torso (it sews up in the back, not the front). The Tarly neckline is more of a broad U-shape, not the sharp plunging neckline of Margaery’s Tyrell gowns; none of them are shown with backless gowns. Moreover, the color scheme is entirely different – not the greens, teals, and golds of the Tyrells (from their rose sigil), but the colors of the Tarly’s own sigil, primarily warm reds with dark green as a secondary color (as their sigil is a red huntsman on a green background, and the Tyrells also have a green background, they plausibly could wear green colors just like the Tyrells – but they choose not to, emphasizing the color in their heraldry that the Tyrells don’t use). Their hairstyles are somewhat more like the Tyrells but not exactly: Melessa wears some of her hair up but parts also spill down her front – sort of like the earlier stages in Maragery’s style before she perfected it. Talla’s hair, meanwhile, is exactly like the style of Margaery’s handmaidens – possibly because Talla is younger and thus more imitative. When the Tarly women clean and style Gilly’s hair, however, it isn’t swept up at all but falls completely down. •That the Tarlys’ costume style does not imitate the style of their Tyrell overlords actually matches their backstory quite well, and was probably a very deliberate choice by the costume designers. A plot point in the novels is that the Tyrells actually didn’t use to be kings over the region they rule, the way the Starks were kings in the North and the Lannisters were kings over the Westerlands. The ruling family of the Reach (House Gardener) was destroyed during Aegon's Conquest – the Targaryens elevated House Tyrell to rule over the Reach because they voluntarily surrendered Highgarden to them. The Tyrells do descend from House Gardener through the female line, but many other families in the Reach actually had a better claim to Highgarden – House Florent is even a cadet branch of House Gardener, with direct male-line descent. Therefore, many deride the Tyrells as “upjumped stewards”, and it is a plot point that many of their vassals do not respect them the way that the Starks’ and Lannisters’ vassals respect them because they used to be their royal families. Melessa Tarly herself was outright born a member of House Florent, and thus probably wouldn’t have great love for the Tyrells. Instead, the Tyrells’ hold over every vassal House in the Reach is somewhat loose, and they have to be masters of court intrigue to keep them all in line. Thus it makes sense that the Tarlys actually don’t emulate the exact same costume style as their Tyrell overlords. •The only other similar situation to this was for the Riverlands, which weren’t an independent kingdom at the time of the Targaryen Conquest. Thus House Tully did not rule as kings either, the Targaryens chose them to rule just as they chose the Tyrells in the Reach. Similarly, the Tullys’ vassals didn’t respect them as much as some other Great Houses are respected by their vassals because they were never their kings. Correspondingly, in earlier seasons the Riverlands were the only major region of the Seven Kingdoms that broke the “trickle-down principle”: Tully vassals such as House Frey made absolutely no attempt to emulate the Tullys’ style of dress at all, because they outright resented their rule. Thus just as the Freys didn’t dress in the same style as the Tullys, the Tarlys don’t dress in the same style as the Tyrells – hinting at their somewhat more decentralized hold over the Reach. •The Tarlys have further reason to not feel compelled to emulate the Tyrells. In ancient times, the Tarlys actually were kings – albeit not over all of the Reach, but over their own petty kingdom in the eastern portions, in the foothills of the Red Mountains. The Reach as a whole used to be divided between four petty kingdoms: the two big ones were the Gardeners in the north and the Hightower in the south, but the Tarlys ruled their own small petty kingdom in the southeast in the foothills of the Red Mountains, and House Redwyne used to rule the Arbor, a large off-shore island, as its own tiny kingdom. •The Reach is in several ways analogous to real-life medieval France: both are the “heartland of chivalry” and both are very large and populous kingdoms, offset by a large number of hostile borders which they have to divide their larger armies between (negating the advantage they have from their large populations). In the real life Middle Ages, there was a major cultural divide between northern and southern France, the north with a continental climate and heavy soils and the south with a Mediterranean climate. Similarly, there appears to be a major divide in the Reach between the northern and southern halves, divided by the Mander River. In ancient times, the Gardener kings (and their Tyrell stewards) ruled over the northern half from Highgarden, while the southern half was ruled over by the kings of House Hightower from their seat at Oldtown. This divide extended to the point that during the Dance of the Dragons, the north and south of the Reach outright joined opposite sides in the war, dividing the region in half. Thus, historically, there is also much to justify that families from the southern half of the Reach like the Tarlys have very different looks and fashions from those in the north like the Tyrells. •The Tarly sigil displayed on the chest of Randyll Tarly’s costume is in error: the huntsman on it is facing to the left, but in all previous appearances of Tarly banners it is shown facing to the right - such as when Tarly banners prominently appeared at the Purple Wedding. Some of the previous banner props are even reused to decorate the Horn Hill set in this episode, highlighting the difference. This being said, there have been some other instances in which the direction that Stark direwolves or Lannister lions face have been flipped when they appear on armor, other costumes, and other decorations. •Gilly's son Baby Sam appears prominently in this episode. Continuing from his previous brief appearance earlier in the season, this raises some issues with the TV series' Timeline. Two years are stated to pass between Season 1 and Season 3, and Gilly's son was born in Season 3, but afterwards it is unclear how much time is supposed to be passing in the TV series, i.e. at a steady pace of one year of story time per TV season to keep up with how fast the child actors are aging, or perhaps slowing down (events in the novels took less time). The only other hint about the passage of time is that Roose Bolton said in the Season 3 finale that he was going to marry Walda Bolton, then in Season 5 she said she was pregnant, and in early Season 6 gave birth. Thus at least around one year must have passed since Season 3, but if one TV season equals one year, as many as three years may have passed since then. Gilly's son brings this issue into focus because he was outright born in Season 3. Samwell and Gilly arrive back in the Reach in the fourth novel, when her son is still only about one year old and thus "a baby". If time is moving slower in the TV version, her son shouldn't be "a baby" anymore but possibly a "toddler" up to 3 years old. The TV series has apparently addressed this possibly discrepancy by being deliberately ambiguous: the child actor they cast to play Gilly's son this season is clearly bigger than a one year old baby and looks around 2 to 3 years old, but they avoid stating exactly how old he is. •Two episodes from now, in episode 6.8 "No One", Edmure Tully outright states that he has been a prisoner of the Freys for "years" since the Red Wedding - years plural, meaning at least 2 years and possibly up to 3 years (if one TV season equals one year). The Red Wedding occurred at the end of Season 3, and Gilly's baby was born earlier in Season 3. Thus her son must be at least 2 years old by this point - which indeed seems to be matched by the age of the child actors they are using now. •Melessa says that she and Randyll once met Lord Umber from Last Hearth. Since Smalljon has become Lord Umber only recently, the lord to whom Melessa refers is presumably Greatjon Umber.
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May 31, 2016 · By. James Hibberd. Published on May 31, 2016 04:09PM EDT. Photo: Macall B. Polay/HBO. For a Game of Thrones episode with "blood" in the title (twice!), "Blood of My Blood" was a surprisingly ...
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May 29, 2016 · List of episodes. " Blood of my Blood " is the sixth episode of the sixth season of HBO's fantasy television series Game of Thrones, and the 55th overall. The episode was written by Bryan Cogman and directed by Jack Bender. It aired on May 22, 2016, [1] and had 6.71 million viewers.
May 29, 2016 · EPISODE 6 - BLOOD OF MY BLOOD. TITLE SEQUENCE. EXT. BEYOND THE WALL. Heavy snow is falling. MEERA is dragging BRAN’s sledge through the forest. BRAN’s eyes are glazed white. He...
May 29, 2016 52m TV-MA. 77% An old foe comes back into the picture. Gilly meets Sam’s family. Arya faces a difficult choice. Jaime faces off against the High Sparrow. Directed By. Jack Bender. Written By. Bryan Cogman. Watch on these services. Subscription. + 4 more. Cast of Blood of My Blood. Peter DinklageTyrion 'The Halfman' Lannister.
May 30, 2016 · Warning: Full spoilers for the episode below. "Blood of My Blood" was kind of all over the place, story-wise - checking in with Bran, King's Landing, Sam's nightmare father down in...
