Small Council: Reactions to the new Season 6 images

So HBO just released 20 new images from Game of Thrones Season 6. What do we think of them? Any stick out? What crazy conclusions can we draw from them? The Small Council is in session.

DAN: HBO is cruel, dropping so few hints about the upcoming season and then deluging us with all these photos like this. Ah, well. It’s a good kind of pain.

Anyway, one of the most interesting things about the photos is what’s not included in them. There are no shots of Jorah and Daario, the Martells, or Littlefinger. Assuming these stills all come from the season premiere, I think we can guess that none of those characters will show up. Otherwise, we have:

• Six shots of King’s Landing, either of the Lannister family mourning the death of Myrcella or of Margaery in holy jail with the High Sparrow and Septa Unella.
• Five pics in and around Winterfell, two of the Boltons inside the walls, one of Sansa and Theon trying like hell to get away, and two portraits of Sansa standing in the cold.
• Five stills in Meereen, three of Tyrion taking care of business (two of them with Varys), one of Missandei sitting in a chair, and one of Team Meereen gathering for a strategy session.
• Three of Daenerys, who doesn’t look to be having a good time now that she’s traveling with a hostile Dothraki horde.
• Two photos from the Wall, one each for Melisandre and Davos. Those guys have rather a lot to talk about.
• Two of Ironborn characters that we haven’t seen for a while: Asha and Balon.
• Two of Arya, blind and begging on the streets of Braavos. They look like they’re two different angles on the same scene.
• One of Brienne. I’m guessing she’s still near Winterfell, but the photo doesn’t give much away.
• One of Sam and Gilly, likely en route to Oldtown.
• One of Bran and the Three-Eyed Raven.

That shot of Bran could do with some unpacking, but I’ll leave that for another. It’s possible that this spread gives us an idea of how the premiere will go: we’ll spend most of our time around King’s Landing, although there’ll be some meaty stuff at Winterfell and over in eastern Essos. We’ll stop by the Wall and the Iron Islands, and check in quickly with the likes of Arya, Brienne, Sam, and Bran.

And wait, isn’t there someone I’m forgetting? What other important character doesn’t show up in these stills? I’m sure it’ll come to me.

But seriously, folks, I’m guessing the good people at HBO didn’t include any shots of Jon Snow—dead, alive, or otherwise—precisely because they know he’s the character we want to see most badly. I’m sure the network will find a way to tease us with info on that score.

As for the individual photographs, I think the one that intrigues me most is the one of Arya begging on the streets of Braavos. She looks so scraggly and disturbed, and it represents another big costume change for Maisie Williams. And those eyes are giving me all kinds of creepy. I’m looking forward to seeing Williams crush this material.

LEXI: It may not be a trailer but I’ll take it! As Dan mentioned, it definitely sticks out that our favorite deceased Lord Commander of the Night’s Watch is missing, although of course it’s not surprising. Jaime arriving home with Myrcella’s body also looks like it’s going to be quite intense. Cersei is going to need a lot of wine for that chat.

But the pictures that stick out to me the most are the ones of Sansa. In one, it appears that Theon is down on the ground. Is he hurt? How and why do they get separated? Does Sansa have to leave him to try and save herself? As Sophie Turner previously mentioned, it sounds like season 6 is going to be a big one for Sansa. Assuming that this really will be the season when she takes charge and comes into her own, it looks like it’ll be a very interesting journey. If she’s going to take charge, she’ll obviously need help. So who’s going to find her first? Brienne? Littlefinger? Another Northern house? April 24^th can’t get here fast enough!

KATIE: If these photos prove anything, it’s that my suspicions that Myrcella would make it out alive were completely off-base. I really thought that Bronn would have managed to slip her some of his antidote, but here we are, dead Myrcella and all. Ah, well; I tried.

In other regions of the Game of Thrones map, I’m positive I won’t be able to look straight-on at the screen whenever Arya shows up. I love her like a sister, but my nervous preoccupation with eyeballs guarantees that I will be focused on a spot just above Arya’s shoulder the whole time.

Otherwise, I’m with Lexi: Sansa’s shots have my full attention (who’s surprised?) As mentioned above, Theon’s position suggests that he may have obtained a couple bumps and bruises from that truly impressive jump, but what I really like about the shot is that Theon has this sort of reverent expression when he looks at Sansa. He might as well be bowing down to her, as far as my very emotional reaction is concerned. The reasonable part of me says that it’s all circumstantial, but the rest of me just wants Sansa given the respect and affection she deserves. For now—that is to say, until the season premiere clears all this up—I’ll take this as a start. Let’s all take a leaf out of Theon’s book here and bow down.

I’m digging all the other photos, too, but generally everyone looks just as perturbed as always, so I don’t have any educated guesses there. Just another year playing the game of thrones, I guess, and once again I’m so excited to see the moves everyone makes in their attempts to win.

RAZOR: I love, love, love these photos! There is so much to talk about that I can hardly contain my excitement in one Small Council piece. So, in the interests of short-forming this bad boy, I’ll just hit the highlights that grabbed my attention.

• I think Theon is hopping on board a boat to head home to the Iron Islands, and Sansa is staying behind.
• Melisandre, looking supremely confident and smug, seems to be leaving Castle Black. Does she have a certain resurrected bastard in tow?
• I’m enthralled by the Bran and Three-Eyed Raven photo. Are they watching young Ned, Brandon, and Lyanna play at wooden swords?
• I’m glad, at least, that we see Roose Bolton. I wonder how large a part he will have to play in the coming Battle of the Bastards.
• Oh look, Balon is alive and…well? He looks as much the curmudgeon as ever. Time to take a long walk off a short rope bridge, Balon.
• Tommen and Jaime actually break my heart in the photo with Myrcella’s body.
• The photo of Yara looking to the sea makes me think she recognizes someone coming into the harbor. The real question: is it Theon or Euron?
• I really hope we don’t have to suffer through an entire season of Sam and Gilly on the boat. The only thing that would make that better is if that boat is captained by those awesome Summer Islanders from A Feast for Crows.
• If I were a betting man, I would wager a gold dragon that Davos is watching Melisandre leave Castle Black. Has Davos taken the Black?

The other photos are neat, and very interesting, yet they don’t grab my attention like the ones I’ve mentioned above. I do want to know how Tyrion maneuvers through the volatile political landscape of Meereen, and I can’t wait to see how much more unhinged Cersei becomes after seeing the body of her murdered daughter. Game of Thrones Season 6 is going to be amazing.

ANI: This is a wealth of material, but you know what strikes me the most about it? There’s nothing here we didn’t already know. There are *zero* and I mean *zero* spoilers here. There are pictures that raise *questions* certainly (See: Bran and the Three Eyed Raven) but the surface explanation is what we already were told last month after the first picture of Bran dropped: he and the Three-Eyed Raven will be seeing history in flashbacks.

Meanwhile, the rest of the pictures tell us nothing. Six pictures of King’s Landing, all of which focus on Myrcella being dead (which we knew) or Margaery being in jail (which we knew). Five of Winterfell, either of the Boltons in charge (which we knew) or Theon and Sansa desperately trying to get somewhere in the snow (which we knew). The same goes for the pics of Meereen; there is nothing that tells us anything. The shots of Dany also tell us nothing—that one pic is basically a rerun of the shot from HBO’s yearender video, and the other is strategically angled so we don’t see the Dothraki characters she’ll directly be interacting with. Brienne has no direction and stands looking frustrated, which is no surprise. And of course we knew that Arya was blind—the beggar outfit is new, but honestly, for the book readers in the crowd, not unexpected.

In fact, what little is spoiled is the stuff book-readers know already. Sam and Gilly are on a boat to Oldtown (And they didn’t bring their flippy-floppies.) No sign of whether they’ll stop over in Braavos like they do in the books. The Ironborn are coming back, but the high-profile casting of Euron Greyjoy already gave that away. Balon is alive, but the show hadn’t killed him off yet. In fact, all that does is make book-readers wonder if the show will kill him off immediately, or if the Kingsmoot might be cut altogether? What I’m saying is this doesn’t really tell us squat.

Speaking of things that don’t tell us squat: Those two pictures from The Wall. They are so bland, so generic as to be a big old middle finger to us. What they’re saying is this could be all they give us between now and April 24th, and we’d eat it with a spoon.

The only stories they don’t give us pictures of are the ones that would probably actually spoil things: Jorah and Daario, who are off to parts unknown looking for a disappeared dragon queen. And the Martells—lord knows if Doran knew what that kiss was, and if he didn’t, how he’s going to handle it when news gets back to him? But not a clue, not a hint, not a jot.

Sorry. No spoilers please, we’re Thrones.

CAMERON: There’s a lot of snow, but also there’s no Snow. Also, there’s some good shots of the Greyjoys. Time for them to get… kraken. Ani’s right in that there’s nothing here we didn’t already know about, but that’s on par with HBO seizing the opportunity of being ahead of the books to conceal the big stuff until the episodes are in our eyeballs.

A note on the poll: There were 28 shots in all, but some were near-repeats, like the two shots of Arya begging on the streets of Braavos. Those kinds of shots are combined, resulting in 24 poll options.

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