3 comments on “Feedback Post: S06 Episode 7 – ‘The Broken Man’”

1. Fluids Jun 6, 2016

   GOT: Season 6: Episode 7 Feedback.

   Overall I gave this episode a 70 out of a 100. Not the strongest of episodes. I felt there was a lot of setup, however some great reveals.

   The Good:

   • I loved the cold opening revealing the Hound is back! Ian McShane did a great job as Ray the Septon, however I felt there was a bit of bad with his part of this episode (the Bad.)

   • It’s hysterical how Tommen is using the High Sparrow to get sex from Queen Margaery. She seemed a bit uneasy perhaps with the thought of being pregnant with one of Tommen’s heirs.

   • Cersei is in big trouble and Tywin’s lines to her from past seasons about her thinking she is a lot smarter than she actually is keeps ringing in my head. I found the scenes between her and the Queen of Thorns humorously tragic for her. Lady Olenna gave her both barrels.

   • I love how Queen Margaery’s loyalty message to the Queen of Thorns was half out loud and half in writing to get out of there as fast as possible. No doubt she has a plan and she doesn’t want her grandmother to die in King’s Landing.

   • Leanna Mormont was fantastically precociously cagey. I love those scenes when she pledged 62 men.

   The Bad:

   • We got basically a bottle episode for Ian McShane’s character and his flock, which includes the Hound.

   • It was good back story for the Hound and showed how the inner conflict between his new found faith is clashing with all he knows from his past. However, I thought killing off the flock so soon gave his choice to go back to his old life less emotional in pack then I thought I should have felt inside of him. They could have very easily had the Hound talk to a character about what happened to him and we would have gotten the same impact. The story itself of a killer being reformed and then returning back to his old ways due to violent outsiders has been told in so many tv shows and movies; so many times that it’s become a story framework trope. The most recent one I can remember is the movie John Wick.

   • If Lady Olenna is being charged with going up against the King and the Faith Militant why is it that Mace Tyrell wasn’t charged as well? He led the forces to get back Queen Margaery. I think something else is going on here. Does the Sparrow know she’s behind Joffrey’s death? What do you both think?

   • I thought Yara and Theon’s scenes were more sexposition than toughening of Theon’s resolve.

   The Unknown:

   • Who is Lady Olenna writing to? Why do I feel like she’s writing Baelish?

   • Who is Lady Sansa ravening a message to? I bet it’s Little Finger to get the assistance from the troops at the Vale.

   • Is Arya having a bad dream or is she is danger of dying from the Waif’s wounds? Who is in Braavos who could help her? I tend to think this is all a dream because we last saw her in a darkened room blowing out a light; holding needle; waiting for the Waif to come after her.

   • No doubt the Hound is out for revenge. What’s his move after that? No doubt he will look for those men who approached the camp earlier. Abe and Roberto do you see him battling the Mountain in Cersei’s Trial by Combat?

   • Why didn’t Jon and Sansa use Ser Davos and the White Walker threat to convince the other Northern houses to join them?

   • If Ser Jaime meets Lady Brienne next episode will she tell him she found Sansa? If so will he use that to be able to talk to Black Fish again and get him to give up Riverrun?

   • Does Yara have 1,000 ships to help Dany?

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2. Brian Morris Jun 6, 2016

   Necessary but not very good.

   I think this episode furthers some story lines but ultimately just filler. Do you think that there is some form of an arrangement between Martin and the show runners limiting the actual spoilers from the books? This whole season has just rehashed previous plots from the books or, like the resurrection of Jon Snow, provided spoilers that were not really spoilers.

   Feedback for the actual show….
   I cannot believe that Arya Stark, who was preparing to defend herself in one episode, then in the next is simply wandering around, unarmed and distracted. At first I thought it was a dream sequence, that Arya would wake up startled with the Waif about to stab her or something, grab needle and put an end to it. Instead it is like she missed the whole mission of the Faceless Men, you know the whole assassin’s guild who wear other peoples faces. I mean if an old lady wearing a black and white outfit who was the same size and build of the Waif walked up to me I might be on guard.
   As a former combat medic there is no way she would survive getting stabbed like that. Go visit a port near you and look at how disgusting the water is. She would probably die of infection today after she fell into the canal. Back in medieval times people dumped everything in the water, from dead bodies to human waste t0 industrial by products. All of those billions of bacteria would love to make a home in her massive slash wound and three or four puncture wounds. She took a whole six inch blade in the abdomen, buried to the hilt, shook it off like a bee sting and is now just walking around town. No tears, no crying out for help, nothing. “Yep I got shanked but so what I am a faceless man, sort of but not really. No I am a Stark, getting shanked is a right of passage for me.” I imagine she will wonder into the mummers show and Lady Crane will nurse her back to health. I still hope she wakes up and it was a bad dream.
   All of the time – distance problems were even more atrocious in the North this episode. Even if Bear Island and Deepwood Motte are near each other they are far away from Castle Black and are not on the way to the camp site that Stannis used, who I assumed marched due south from the Wall. I enjoyed the scenes but they didn’t really further the story. A few minute exposition of the difficulty finding support was all that would be necessary. Why not recruit the hill tribes? Or the Manderly’s? I know that they would have to travel all the way down south but if you had limited resources wouldn’t you visit them instead of Bear Island? They, Sansa and Jon should know the relative strength of each of the Northern Houses. The Manderly’s are the richest people in the North, they could buy them a sell sword company. Which now that I think of it what happened to the sell swords who abandoned Stannis? There should be a whole band of outlaws just raising hell in the North as they tried to find a way home.
   I am no real strategist but if I was planning this battle I would have the Wildlings attack, raid really, the Karhold, the Last Hearth, and especially the Dreadfort, drawing troops from Winterfell to defend their homes. Then ambush these forces and destroy them in detail. The Wildlings are not a disciplined army, they are raiders. They will never be able to stand up against a cavalry charge or break a shield wall. Jon know this in the book and show when he comments that the 300 Night’s Watch could defeat the Wildling army when he is taken there by the Lord of Bones.
   In the Riverlands, If the Blackfish is such an experienced commander then every night he would order a few of his guys to sneak out of Riverrun, slit a few throats, let some horses go, steel a pig, something, anything to keep the Freys on their toes. The Freys are obviously not prepared for that. The Blackfish “and twenty good men” could probably walk into the Frey camp, kill Black Walder and the other one, rescue Edmure and be home in time for breakfast. If Ramsey could pull it off so could the Blackfish.
   I did like the verbal jousting between Jamie and the Blackfish. I just wish that Jamie had mentioned to Bronn that the Blackfish was a hero of his youth or something like that. That would have provided a bigger emotional reaction to the Blackfish’s comments. How would you feel if your childhood hero called you a loser without honor.
   I know I am reading way to much into this. It is just a TV show based on a fantasy series. But if you are going to depict battles with irregular forces then they should be used appropriately. Also if you are going to gut stab a teenaged girl, dump her in a shit ladened canal, she will die of infection, even if there is a gastrointestinal surgeon hanging out nearby. Maybe Qyburn can save her, zombie Arya would be fantastic, but I doubt that some random person in Bravos is up to the task. Wait a minute I just had a thought….. the person who cures Jorah’s greyscale will cure Arya’s massive staph infection, then we can have a Jorah-Arya team up. Then Dario and the Hound can team up. Then they can fight, to the death… The winner can ride a dragon. That is how the series will end.
   I love your podcast. I don’t know what I am going to do for the next 40 weeks until next season.
   My final comment is “The Hound for King” “Long live the Hound” at this point he is not the worst choice for the job. I am not sure what he will be the king of as Cersei is obviously going to burn Kings Landing to the ground.

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3. Katrina Jun 8, 2016

   finally!

   This was another strong episode in a strong season. The show seems to be flying now that its free of ‘book story expectations.

   I was so very glad to see Sandor Clegane. He’s my favourite character from the books and the tv show, and it was quite the revelation to have his survival confirmed 16 years after his apparent death was published.

   Septon Ray lived up to his name as a bright spot in a dark world, and so he had to be extinguished. Ray was attacked in part for what he represents and or existing, just as the Blackfish, Jon and Sansa, Cersei and Arya were attacked in different ways for their identities and actions.

   Speaking of Sansa, my guess is Sansa is picking up on old loyalties and promises and has written to Lord Royce for help rather than Little Finger or Robin Arryn.

   Rating 90

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