The figurative winter we’ve all been waiting for is here. The highly anticipated season premiere of Game of Thrones starts where the finale of the last season left us – with Jon Snow lying in a pool of his blood with Ghost howling nearby. At this point, Castle Black seems deserted, the brothers have left the cold corpse in the yard, having broken their oath to the now dead Lord Commander of the Night’s watch.
The scene is broken by Ser Davos, one of the very few likeable characters in a show cluttered with the most diabolical and dreadful men from all over the seven kingdoms. Ser Davos carries Jon’s corpse away with a few of Jon’s friends (not the dishonourable lot that pierced his heart repeatedly).
What follows is an episode dealing with the many cliffhangers from the end of the last season. Sansa Stark is alive after her jump from a high tower in Winterfell and understandably on the run, Daenerys is being herded off to Vaes Dothrak, Myrcella is dead, Margery is still a prisoner, and Rickon is still unimportant to the plot.
The season will be blatantly different from the book series at this point. The story is well beyond A Dance with Dragons (the last book that has been published in the A Song of Ice and Fire series), and so, anything can and will happen. It is an exciting place to be.
Many of us knew that the red wedding would take place and that Oberyn’s head would explode, but these scenes when played out left us cringing, shocked and tweeting for weeks. At this point, anything drastic that’ll happen – which is plenty – will be unanticipated.
With where things stand right now, one could wonder if a war is coming to Westeros. But it doesn’t seem likely. With most of those who claimed to be the “One true king” dead, the Khaleesi lost and on her way to the temple of Dosh Khaleen (where the widows of Khals live out their days, serving as seers), the Sand Snakes finally living up to the renegade role they were given in the book, Myrcella dead and Jamie swearing revenge on Dorne, it seems that the scale of war may be traded in for random and intense bursts of chaos and bloodshed all over the seven kingdoms. And beyond too, Arya a blind beggar girl sitting on the streets of Braavos, will need to remember her lessons with Syrio Forel more than ever. She is truly on her way to becoming a girl with no name, a faceless killer.
With Jon’s death still heavy on our hearts, the dearth of WhiteWalkers is a welcome relief in the episode, but there is no reason to believe we’ve seen the last of them. Now that Jon is gone, imagine the scale of slaughter – only by comparing it to the Battle in the North that played out in season five.
All the major protagonists are scattered all over the kingdom – Vaes Dothrak, Winterfell, beyond the wall (yes, we do remember Bran and Hodor). Even Rickon (though who knows where that boy and his Direwolf are now!), Dorne, King’s Landing, Meereen and Braavos – there will be a lot of take in and a lot to keep up with. But with five seasons of Game of Thrones worth of experience, you’ve probably learned who’s who, whom to be cautious of, and whom to trust (the answer is always – no one.)
The first episode of season 6, The Red Woman, will be aired on Star World Premiere HD on April 26 at 10pm. If the dodgy fates of Jon, Sansa, the Khaleesi and Tyrion have kept you largely dissatisfied all year, it’s important to remember to park yourself in front of your TV. And if you have somehow managed to save yourself from the most mindboggling spoiler of them all, well, then you’re in for a surprise that only George RR Martin could have conjured up.
Till then, Valar Morghulis.