Game of thrones season 6 review, Go Tyrion, go !

Season 6 has started, with lots of spoilers and theories sprouting around the web. People are either Ow!Ow!ing or complaining. The Dorne department sucks, the Ironborn plot apparently leads nowhere, the mother of dragon is on a boring trek, Arya has graduated as a full-fledged assassin, Ramsay just fed his baby brother to the dogs, Sansa remains magically dry after wading through snow and water, King's Landing is its usual cesspool of intrigue, but John Snow is back.

Meanwhile, in Mereen, the imp is temping for Dany. So far, there have been two major scenes, one which drew tears from the audience, and one which elicited boos and outrage.

Book savvy Tyrion is perhaps the only person in Westeros to know about dragons otherwise than empirically. Up to now, the dragons have been treated either like children (Dany) or horrible monsters (the rest of the world). Tyrion, by contrast, addresses them as rational beings, and gets an appropriate answer. The next scene, which I saw as a kind of countermask, has Tyrion addressing his fellow human beings Missandei and Grey Worm as he would Jaime or Varys, and getting blank stares in return. The Dragon Whisperer has apparently failed to do his homework on ex-slaves.

GOT adolescent audience reacted strongly to the latter scene. Boring, boring, boring, nothing happens, what's the point ?

Apparently none of the humor of the scene percolated into the brains of an audience geared for blood, murder and incest. Kill them, rape them, torture them or resurrect them is OK. But talk to them ? Seriously ?

I loved this scene. Missandei and Grey Worm have dealt with Masters all their lives. Even Dany speaks down to them, treating them as her children, matronizing them. Tyrion is an instinctive Republican. Because he's smaller than everyone else, he has fought all his life to lift himself up to everyone's level, even social inferiors', since his small size cancels all the perks of his Lannister name. Now suddenly he finds himself with people who not only do not look down on him, but expect him to be aloof and pompous. The ex-slaves cannot wrap their minds around the fact he treats them as equals, abolishing distances, and Tyrion does not understand that years of silent, stoic obedience have been their answer to oppression, since, for him, being brash and vocal was what helped. The scene tells more about Grey Worm and Missandei than their usual stuffed performances around Dany, it also reveals a lot about Tyrion, his thirst for friendship or simply congenial company. This was a lovely, well-crafted scene, extremely well-played. I hope it finds a receptive audience.


The Ironborn are back!

And so are Bran and Meera, although Bran seems to have all the fun

My favorite couple, Sam and Gilly, are taking a cruise

And Ramsay is still being Ramsay

O happy days!