Game of Thrones S6.10 “The Winds of Winter” – Review!

Spoiler Warning!

Talk about an epic finale. Game of Thrones has a tradition of quieter finales following epic ninth episodes but this year it looks as though the writers have doubled down with potentially one of the most game-changing hours of the series to date as it pushed all the pieces into the right position on the board for a grand final two seasons. There was plenty of great moments here as we got to see what some of these characters’ journeys had been building towards all this time and finally, finally, we’re going to see Dany head to Westeros. It’s been six seasons coming and now she’s headed there with an army complete with reinforcements from Westeros itself, and Tyrion and Varys by her side along with her dragons. The Dragons are going to be very hard to defeat that’s for sure, and it will almost be certain that Cersei’s reign over King’s Landing will be short-lived, meaning that ultimately her defeat of the High Sparrow will all be for nothing.

But that didn’t stop Cersei getting her vengeance on the High Sparrow in the most brutal way possible though, using her Wildfire to wreck bloody carnage through the trial that she didn’t attend. Margery of course was able to notice that something was up with the Trial when Cersei didn’t show up to make a defence and urged everyone to evacuate, but it was far too late especially as the High Sparrow wasn’t willing to listen. This also led to us finally getting a good payoff on the otherwise underwhelming Faith Militant arc this year, and everything exploded in a grand way. Jaime arrived just in time to see Cersei getting crowned Queen as well-meaning that this might lead to him having doubts about her sanity now, given that she’s also lost Tommen, and could he join Tyrion in switching to Dany further down the line? It could set him up for a Kingslayer 2.0 arc, and it’ll be interesting to see how the writers deal with this as they have planted plenty of seeds for future events.

Of course Cersei could also end up being targeted by Arya, as she appears to be another name on her list. Arya has arrived back in Winterfell and managed to take care at last of Walder Frey, who was responsible for the death of Robb and Caitlin back in Season 3. Her mastery of becoming a Faceless Man was a very cool twist, and could potentially lead to her going down a darker path going forward given how ruthlessly she dispatched Walder Frey. But at least justice has been done, and Arya got her badass moment. Hopefully, we’ll get to see her reunite with Sansa and Jon before the end of the series at least one time.

On the subject of Sansa and Jon though how awesome was that scene? Lady Mormont continues to be one of the best characters of the series with a great speech to rally the Lords who pledged their allegiance again to Jon, proclaiming him to be the new King of the North after dealing with the Boltons. It was a pretty badass scene that really worked, however it did seem to show some potential distrust between Sansa and Jon and makes you ask how long they’ll be allies. Sansa has now become far more calculating, for one, and she’ll probably want more than what she currently has. Littlefinger will too, even if she doesn’t exactly trust him.

We also finally got to see a big question answered at last that some fans have been waiting ages to see. The Tower of Joy aftermath showed that Jon is in fact the son of Rhaegar, it wasn’t exactly confirmed but it’s pretty much a certainty now. We learn that Jon was taken in by Ned to protect him from Robert’s quest to kill all the Targaryens, and it’ll be interesting to learn how he reacts to this when presumably Bran tells Jon next season.

This was a pretty awesome episode then that really worked as a whole made all the more powerful by the epic soundtrack that served as a great addition from the always reliable Ramin Djawadi. Alongside the minor threads such as a banished Melisandre and Sam arriving at Oldtown there were plenty of big developments this episode that made it a must-watch and one of the strongest of the season so far.

And now, we wait. Here’s hoping it’ll be worth it.