Game of Thrones Season Six **SPOILERS WITHIN**

Ok, can someone explain the mechanism she used to win? The main point, as far as I could see, was that she managed to fight despite being mauled and unable to stand, by suddenly being less mauled and able to dance.

Having been taught to fight while blind, she removed light from the room, placing the Waif at a disadvantage.



I'm disappointed that the dancing master business was apparently just a rumor based on the silhouette of one of the villagers in the background.

Thank you. I did kind of get that, but given her physical state by that point and the previous demonstrations that her pursuer was far her better in a close fight, I still think that's cheating.

Yeah... She did make a remarkable recovery with all things being equal, but obviously she was not as injured as we were led to believe. She did escape The Waif immediately after being injured and did so again last night.

Well, Arya sparred with The Waif while she was blind. She learned to anticipate her moves without the benefit of sight, while the Waif was simply fighting as usual. Once blind, she could not anticipate Arya's moves.

I guess this was adequately foreshadowed in previous episodes, but to be honest, I was so much into Other story lines that I didn't give Arya's much thought and I didn't see that coming.

But that is itself a problem, given that the person who injured her is supposed to be an expert at this.

I thought the same thing.

You'd think that the Waif would go through the same, if not similar "training" as Arya and would therefore be skilled in fighting while "blind", but maybe she picked a different major at Assassin University.

Alright. I am starting to develop an outlandish theory when it comes to this show. First of all, remember that GRRM was a brilliant SciFi writer once. He loved to fuck with his readers heads. Sandkings, Mistfall, The Second Kind of Loneliness... I've read tons of his stories almost 30 years ago as a kid and they still resonate with me.

Keep that in mind. Bear with me. And remember, I have not read the book, just seen all episodes of the show.

Now. With this episode I noticed something I have never seen before. Because, it was never there before and I checked that with a dozen intro videos on YT. At the end of the credits, the director's name fades out with the smallest of digital glitch effects. It's a split second during fade out. First I thought it was the pirated HD copy I had but it's in the other versions too. I take it they don't all come from the same source so it's probably really there (if anyone has DVR'ed it please check).

Then we have the intro sequence itself. I always thought the Dyson Sphere was just there for effect. But if you think about it, why? Also, it all looks like playthings. That together with Arya's throwaway line about no one knows what's west of Westeros this week... well, got me thinking.

Then we're getting more and more deitys. This god, that god, another cult. Where do they all come from? Are they new, have they always been there? Do they really exist?

Next up: Weiss and Benioff are not writing in a bookless vacuum now. GRRM is executive producing the show. They can't just do whatever comes to their minds.

Weird seasons. Really weird and unpredictable seasons.

Magic in this world seems a strange thing, doesn't it. It always serves a particular goal. Nobody does magic just for fun as we all would do. Hey, I forgot to buy milk, whoosh! Nope.

And lastly we have the magical plot armor. This is not a show that uses this kind of armor liberally. Anyone can die at any time. Except for, well... some. Arya for example. They went out of their way to show her practically mortally wounded last week. This week she gets a band aid and off she goes being an action hero again. Then she beats that Waif woman who's moving like the liquid Terminator in T2. This is NOT the kind of show where something like that just happens. Actions have consequences, being stabbed means death. If it doesn't they would solve it in another way that makes clear she's gonna survive.

So the theory. Probably not the first one to suspect it but hey. What if this is just some kind of (alien?) arena? Or even a Matrix-like simulation? I can totally see GRRM do something like that. Final words in the final episode: 'Computer, turn off the holodeck'. Jamie and Cersei turn into Riker and Troi. GRRM leans back and watches the internet explode

I don't understand how Arya could possibly survive all those falls and stabbings and still keep going...let alone continue to keep fighting.

We've seen better fighters go down after much less.

In season 1 when Ned Stark was fighting Jamie the city guardsman stabbed him once in the back of the leg and the fight was over immediately.

Unless the water that made Arya blind also gave her some invulnerability to death?

Well, perhaps not. Keep in mind that Arya was blinded due to her disobeying the Many-Faced God and taking a life not "on the list" (or whatever)--Ser Meryn Trant. My guess is that The Waif never had such a transgression, and thus never had to learn to fight blind.

Which is another way of explaining why The Most Awesomest Assassins Guild Ever isn't at all awesome, but bogged down by unhelpful bureaucracy. I just don't see a satisfying way out of "it's really cool that Arya studied with these really cool guys who are absolutely deadly, but now she's leaving them because they want to kill her, but she gets away with a bit of luck, a bit of sword training, and her general pig-headedness".

Who'd kept Arya's bedroom candle lit? Did they just like wasting wax?

The waif is different in the books. She's not much of an assassin as she is a servant.

Yes. The Faceless God is......

The Central Bureaucracy from Futurama.....

This episode was okay.

I liked that they ended Arya's story and she can be getting back to the main action.

I do hope we get to see a dragon smacking the shit out of the master fleet.

Bronn is a shipper for Jaime/Brienne. LOL

About time Varys left to go back to Westeros. He has a thing he has to do........

The Riverrun thing made no impact on the story.

Brilliant move on the High Sparrow to get the King to eliminate Trial By Combat. I knew there would be no fight between the Mountain and the Hound. Well at least we got to see one sparrow get his head ripped off.

Now I have a theory on what Cersi is going to do....

I just looked at a map of the Iron Islands and Westeros. How the hell did Theon and his sister get to Essos that fast? They had to sail around the whole of Westeros to get to it.

Oh and I don't think we are getting Lady Stoneheart after-all. Probably not a bad thing.

The iron born are in Essos now?

I must have missed that too. Although there was a split second when I thought the fleet might have been theirs rather than the masters' -- perhaps @Zombie made the same mistake?

No I didn't make the same mistake. It was obvious it wasn't the Iron Born fleet. Why would they be attacking the city when they were talking about getting to Dany first to make an alliance before Euron? Not to mention that the ships in question were not flying the Iron Islands Flag.

You guys realize that Essos is not a city but a continent?

Yara, Theon and their fleet were in Volantis at a brothel (the same one Tyrion and Varys were in) before getting ready to sail to Meeren. Volantis being a city-state located in the continent of Essos.

So that fleet had to sail from the Iron Islands which is on the western side of Westeros and go south around the whole of Westeros. They did it pretty fast.

So yes the Iron Born are in Essos. They were at Volantis and now they are going to sail further east to reach Merreen where Dany is. Maybe they arrive in time to help fight the Masters fleet.

Yes. Yara and Theon were last seen in Volantis and headed towards Mereen to court Dany. The scene where Yara fondling the prostitute was the same brothel that Jorah kidnapped Tyrion and you could also tell because the hooker had a tattoo on her face that shows what her job was. Back in Season 3, Robb's wife Talisa explained that this was a custom in Volantis.

I've read that there are three known continents. Westeros, Essos, and a southern continent that is unexplored. And even Essos itself is mostly unexplored?

Yes. In fact no one knows what is west of Westeros. This world is still largely unexplored.

If we take that the wall is 8000 years old then mankind has been slow to explore the world. They've got the ships to do it but no one wants too.

In the 2nd season Danaerys had a vision where she was walking through a ruined throne room... with snow falling through the roof. Maybe the Red Keep will get destroyed at the end of this season.

Nice theory, but I REALLY hope you are wrong...!

Aryas' fast recovery irritated me, too. The best explanation seems to be bad writing, sad but true. Zombie mentions that the Waif was not a good assassin in the books, just some kind of servant. Or perhaps she was blinded by her hatred for Arya and was unable to perform a good, clean kill. Still doesn't explain why Arya was taking a walk in the city in broad daylight despite knowing that the Faceless Men were after her...?

Damn, I love the Hound! His scenes were pure gold.

If the Waif isn't a good assassin, then The Baddest Assassins' Guild Ever consists of one incompetent assassin and one competent assassin who wrongly trusts his incompetent assistant's competence.

This Is No Way To Run The Black Hand.

I saw Arya's carelessly parading around Bravos as a ploy to lure the Waif out. She already had her plan when she found that dark room with the candle and left Needle there. What I don't get is that once she's mortally wounded, why would she go to the one person she knows is a target of the people trying to kill her too? Why would she take an anesthetic that knocks her out? I've seen people on anesthesia act like they aren't wounded at all, but all of that jumping around Braavos was ridiculous. Some people are calling this The Arya Ultimatum.

With that said, I still liked the outcome of the scene. If you take out the deep stabbing and the knife twisting, the scene makes much more sense. A more superficial cut like the first swipe the Waif took at her and this is a brilliant scene.

^Agreed. Without the intestine-shredding wounds, I would have been , but with them I was .

They should have instead had her get a bad cut on her forearm from blocking the thrust. That would have her running with her other hand holding the wound. Then next day it could open up again in her next confrontation, but she wouldn't need that hand at all when she went to a fencing style with her sword.

With Arya, it was a bit out of how GoT plots go when it comes to battles.

I'm just going to fanwank it away with Arya having become considerably harder than a lot of the GoT characters after being beat so much, and having a great deal of willpower and desire to survive, so overcoming her injuries.

I also think the assassins aren't the best fighters ever, they rely on being Faceless and an ability to fade into the background to gain considerable advantage. It's difficult to defend against what you cannot see, so the skills of the assassin in battle need not be that great.

I mean, I suspect if we saw the Faceless man battle Bronn mano-a-mano, Bronn would make light work of him. Hence he'd pick a face and drop something in Bronn's food or drink and be gone whilst Bronn was doing a great impression of Joffrey's last moments.

The Waif opted to kill Arya in battle due to her dislike of her, it was a bad choice.

Now there's an explanation that actually makes sense! They could have easily done just this if theyhad bothered to show us, rather than going out of their way to demonstrate that Arya still falls for the false face of a harmless old granny.

The show really didn't do a good job with the faceless men.

In the books there are a lot more people involved with Arya.