THE POWER DUOS
Jon Snow and Tormund Giantsbane
Jon is the King in the North. Tormund is a powerful leader of the Wildlings. Both are accomplished warriors. They have now fought a number of battles together including the Battle of Hardhome, where they outlived an attack from the White Walkers and their wights. While Jon Snow has been instrumental in garnering support among the Houses in the North, Tormund has done the same among the Wildlings, ensuring that Jon has the men to take on not just the Boltons but also the White Walkers when they come. If we had to bet on anyone holding off the White Walkers it would be J&T.
Littlefinger and Sansa Stark
There is no one who knows the art of manipulation better than Littlefinger/ Petyr Baelish. And while he has manipulated plenty, it is his partnership with Sansa Stark that still has the most potential. He may have forced Sansa to marry into House Bolton, the same House which had murdered her mother and her brother, but when Sansa stepped up to the game and used her alliance with Baelish to get his armies to defeat Ramsay in the Battle of the Bastards, we figured out just maybe this will be an alliance to reckon with. Who would have thought Sansa had such a conspiring mind?
Tyrion Lannister and Varys
If there is anyone who can beat Petyr Baelish at the game of thrones then it is the Spider, Lord Varys. And if anyone can understand politics almost as well as Tywin Lannister, it is his son Tyrion. So when Varys enlists Tyrion’s help to get the deserving monarch on the Iron Throne, you know that they will get the required results or... die trying. Was it any surprise that Dany, who has been stuck in Meereen forever, made a move for Westeros after Tyrion ended up as her Hand, which happened in the first place because Varys sent Tyrion to her. If nothing else, we’d be happy to just hear Tyrion and Varys quip all day.
Jaime and Cersei Lannister
It is not just the fact that this brother-sister duo were parents to two kings — Joffrey and Tommen — that makes them so powerful but the fact that they are so committed to each other and to keeping the Lannister name one to reckon with. Cersei is a vengeful queen who will stop at nothing to decimate her enemies, perceived or real, as we saw in the last episode of Season 6. Jaime as Kingsguard now stands beside Cersei on the Iron Throne, and has shown time and again that he would do anything to protect his sister, even when she is wrong. With the Lannister army behind them, they are definitely not people to mess with.
THE WEDDINGS
Khal Drogo and Daenerys Targaryen: She was sold as a wife to Khal Drogo by her brother as a pawn, but Drogo and Daenerys’s wedding will go down as one of the most important weddings. Apart from being the first step towards her becoming the Khaleesi, this was also the day Dany was presented with three petrified dragon eggs as a wedding gift. The rest, is history!
The Red Wedding: The Red Wedding is aptly titled given the number of people who die. A dagger through Talisa’s abdomen kills both Robb Stark’s unborn child and his wife, arrows bring down Grey Wind, Robb’s direwolf, Catelyn Stark’s throat is slit, the entire army of the North is burnt to death in their tents, and Robb is stabbed through the heart by Roose Bolton. Planned by Tywin Lannister and Roose Bolton and implemented by Walder Frey, the wedding of Edmure Tully and Roslin Frey put one more king in the grave in the War of the Five Kings. The words “the Lannisters send their regards” will always be a stab to our hearts.
Tyrion Lannister and Sansa Stark: A strategic alliance to improve the Lannister’s hold in the North, the marriage between Tyrion Lannister and Sansa Stark turned out to be the shabbiest celebration at King’s Landing. Joffrey walked Sansa down the aisle instead of her father, the same person he had beheaded in Sansa’s presence.
The Purple Wedding: The War of the Five Kings for the Iron Throne ended with the death of King Joffrey Baratheon, at his own wedding with Margaery Tyrell. While his victory was being enacted, Joffrey choked to death, turning purple after being poisoned. We couldn’t have been happier to see him go; this was one plan that we are glad Petyr Baelish hatched with Olenna Tyrell.
Robb Stark and Talisa Maegyr: A secret wedding ceremony between Robb Stark and Talisa Maegyr, before a High Septon as he tied their hands with a ribbon marked both the beginning and the end of a Stark generation. In the madness of love, Robb went on to marry Talisa, knowing well that he was promised as a groom to House Frey and set the ball rolling for the Red Wedding.
THE WEAPONS
Ned Stark’s Ice: A Valyrian steel sword, Ice was heirloom of House Stark. We saw Ice in action in Season 1, when Ned Stark used it to behead a deserter from the Night’s Watch. It was used to behead Ned Stark himself later that season. In Season 4, Ice was melted to make two long swords — King Joffrey’s Widow’s Wail and Oathkeeper, which was passed on to Brienne of Tarth by Jaime.
Jon Snow’s Longclaw: A House Mormont sword given by Jeor Mormont to Jon Snow, replacing the bear on the pommel with a direwolf, the sigil of House Stark. The Valyrian steel was used by Jon to hang the traitors of the Night’s Watch and in The Battle of the Bastards.
Lightbringer: A weapon we have heard only whispers of and never seen, the Lightbringer is said to be the sword of the prophesied hero, Azor Ahai.
Wildfire: This flammable, green substance was Aerys Targaryen’s weapon of choice against King’s Landing in the moment of defeat, till Jaime Lannister took his life and saved the day. Ironically, in Season 6 it is a Lannister, Cersei, who uses it to blow up the Great Sept of Baelor, felling her enemies in one big kaboom. Wildfire also won the Lannisters the Battle of Blackwater Bay.
Poison: In a series with dragons and famous swords, it is often poison that fells the mightiest. As was the case with Joffrey who died after ingesting the Strangler, a deadly poison, at his own wedding feast. Myrcella was also killed by poison, administered by Ellaria Sand.
Dragonglass: The only object other than Valyrian steel that can kill a White Walker. Samwell Tarly uses his dragonglass blade while trying to save Gilly’s baby in Season 3. In Season 5, Jon uses dragonglass at Battle of Hardhome.
Arya’s Needle: The sword Jon gave Arya Stark is probably the most famous sword, among fans. It is the one she used to learn how to ‘stick them with the pointy end’, and Arya’s put it to good use more than once.
THE EPIC BATTLES
Battle of the Bastards: It wasn’t going to be easy to top the epic battle at Hardhome, but fans of the show were in for a jaw-dropping sight when Jon Snow, Ned Stark’s bastard son, and his supporters went up against Ramsay Snow (now Bolton), Roose Bolton’s bastard son. A mismatched battle from the start with Ramsay commanding an army of 6,000 men as opposed to Jon’s 2,400-strong army. Jon charging into battle facing an army of galloping horses is a sight to behold. The fantastic music adds to the atmosphere as the Wildings are surrounded and Jon is almost trampled. And then Littlefinger’s Knights of the Vale rally to save the Northern forces, helping the Starks take their rightful place at Winterfell.
Battle of Hardhome: They have been on the sidelines of the show right from the start but the first time we saw the White Walkers in all their scary glory was during the Battle of Hardhome in Season 5, with the Night King, the first of the White Walkers himself, leading the attack. The White Walkers manage to kill thousands of Free Folk — who Jon and Tormund had come to convince to move South of the Wall — and turn them into Walkers. It is awesome to see Jon, Tormund, Wun Wun the giant rush into battle with the Walkers, with Jon managing to kill one of the Walkers with Longclaw. As Jon and the Free Folk he rescues sail away from the carnage, the look on the Night King’s face tells us this war is far from over.
Liberation of Slaver’s Bay: In a quest to raise an army to stake her claim to the Iron Throne, Daenerys Targaryen takes counsel of her adviser Ser Jorah Mormont who tells her about the Unsullied warriors in Slaver’s Bay. Apalled by the treatment of these soldiers, Khaleesi wages war against slavery and the abuses of the Good Masters, freeing 8,000 soldiers from the city of Astapor, using Daario’s knowledge and the Unsullied army to conquer Yunkai and sieging Mereen. The fearsome sight of Drogon, Dany’s largest dragon, on the rampage through Astapor is not easily forgotten.
Battle of the Blackwater Bay: When Stannis Baratheon attacked King’s Landing with a naval fleet to take the Iron Throne, he might have won the battle had it not been for the then acting Hand of the King, Tyrion Lannister, who masterminded victory with strategy, not a huge army. After the green-hued flames of the wildfire destroys a major portion of Stannis’s fleet, the remainder of Stannis’s army is greeted by one led by Tyrion. Tyrion’s role as a general in the field saves the Lannisters from loss of the Iron Throne and leaves him with a daunting scar right across his face, which now is a big part of his identity.
THE ANIMALS
Dragons: Dany’s three dragons have stolen the show since they hatched. The fiercest of them is Drogon, and by far the largest, but Rhaegal and Viserion are not to be trifled with either. Drogon is fiercely protective of Dany and helps her escape when she is attacked by the Sons of the Harpy. The sight of the dragons flying high above Daenerys Targaryen’s navy, as she sets sail for Westeros will be forever etched in our minds. Oh, and lets not forget the three-headed dragon theory, yes the sigil of House Targaryen, while we are at it.
.jpg)
Direwolves: The sigil of House Stark, the direwolves, have played key roles in the story. Whether it is Sansa’s Lady, who gets beheaded because Arya’s Nymeria (who Arya sent away) attacked Joffrey, or Rob Stark’s Grey Wind who is beheaded and whose head is sewed on to Robb’s body and paraded. Ghost has been Jon’s shadow through thick and thin and is now settled at Winterfell with his master. Both Summer, Bran’s wolf, and Rickon’s Shaggydog were killed.
Ravens: They mostly serve as messengers for the maesters of Westeros. But then there is Bran Stark’s consuming dreams of the Three-Eyed Raven taking him on a journey beyond the Wall to meet the last Greenseer, a person capable of perceiving the future and looking into the past. Then the white raven from the Citadel which brings the news of the change of seasons to Winterfell. As of Season 6, Winter has truly arrived in Westeros.
Hounds: The Bastard’s Girls, a pack of hound bitches that Ramsay Bolton bred at the Dreadfort, were his favourite weapon of choice. On capturing Theon Greyjoy and imposing him with a new identity of Reek, Ramsay left him to live in the kennels with the vicious hounds. To make his dogs even more ferocious, Ramsay often starved them. Their moment of glory arrived when Sansa turned the same prized hounds on their master after the Battle of the Bastards and watched as they fed on him. A more fitting death we couldn’t have wished for.
THE CONFESSIONS
Jaime’s confession to Brienne of Tarth: “I asked him to surrender peacefully to me. But, the King did not listen to me. ‘Burn them all’, he said. I drove my sword into his back. ‘Burn them all’, he kept saying,” confessed Jaime about killing the Mad King, as Brienne listened in horror about how Mad King had his servants place Wildfire under the houses of King’s Landing in the wake of his defeat and how Jaime saved the very people who called him ‘a man without honour’.
Tyrion’s confession to Tywin in court: “Yes, father. I’m guilty. Guilty. Is that what you want to hear?” exclaimed Tyrion Lannister in court while being tried for the murder of Joffrey Baratheon. “I am guilty of a far more monstrous crime. I am guilty of being a dwarf. I’ve been on trial for that my entire life.... I did not kill Joffrey but I wish that I had. Watching your vicious bastard die gave me more relief than a thousand lying whores.” What a speech!
Cersei’s confession to Tywin: “Your legacy is a lie,” Cersei whimpered to Tywin Lannister when she confessed to her relationship with her brother, Jaime. Taking away all room for doubt, the vicious Cersei broke down Tywin’s pride and made him forego the strategic arranged marriage between Loral Tyrell and herself.
Cersei’s confession to the High Sparrow: On her imprisonment by the Faith of the Seven on charges of adultery and incest, Cersei Lannister admitted to having committed adultery with her cousin Lancel Lannister. She was punished to a walk of atonement by the High Sparrow as a penance for her confessed sin. “Shame! Shame! Shame!” cried a group of Sparrows as Cersei walked from the Great Sept of Baelor to the Red Keep, stripped of all clothes, with her head shaved and in full view of the public she once ruled.
