History YMMV / GameOfThronesS6E2Home

* TheWoobie: Serving under Ramsay Bolton, Maester Wolkan has to have the most soul-crushing jobs of all Citadel alumni. Even something as cheerful as a copybook birth can be turned into NightmareFuel in an instant. All while he's forced to endure, assist and mind his choice of words at all times or he'll be next.

* AlternateCharacterInterpretation: Roose Bolton was a DeathSeeker who was goading Ramsay to kill him and take over Winterfell. Roose knew that he was too cautious to actually win a battle or war on his own, but he wanted to ensure that Ramsay had it in him to jump the final hurdle and be a true Bolton, ruthless and treacherous, so he kept taunting him about his newborn son. His lack of reaction to Ramsay's betrayal is out of stoic acceptance and not pained betrayal.[[note]]In the books, Roose tells Theon that he expects House Bolton to die out soon. Walda is pregnant and he expects Ramsay to kill her and the baby.[[/note]]

** One of the common complaints about the adaptation of [[Recap/GameOfThronesS3E9TheRainsOfCastamere The Red Wedding]] is that Robb's failings as a leader to spur the betrayal were not properly shown in the series. In this episode, it's shown the Starks actually ''don't'' have the OneHundredPercentAdorationRating, with House Karstark in particular still vengeful for Robb killing their lord.

* AuthorsSavingThrow: One of the common complaints about the adaptation of [[Recap/GameOfThronesS3E9TheRainsOfCastamere The Red Wedding]] is that Robb's failings as a leader to spur the betrayal were not properly shown in the series. In this episode, it's shown the Starks actually ''don't'' have the OneHundredPercentAdorationRating, with House Karstark in particular still vengeful for Robb killing their lord.

** Some reviewers outright suspect that the showrunners dumped all of the Dorne material in the first episode, and killed off many characters in it, because they realized it wasn't working and wanted to quickly wash their hands of it - knowing that the second episode was so strong that it would stand a good chance of quickly winning back the audience after last week. The Dorne material was 1 - a controversial and drastic change, and 2 - most reviewers simply watching it didn't like it - the showrunners can't be totally oblivious, they must have known this material might not be received well...so why else would they prominently put it in the ''season premiere'', which would be under heavy scrutiny? If anything they would have at least tried to push back Doran Martell's death to a later episode - it wasn't even directly connected to other events in the premiere. So it seems likely they were actively relying on this episode to win back the crowd.

** There were two major new subplots introduced in the fourth novel that shifted focus to the fringes of Westeros: Dorne and the Iron Islands. Both were pushed back to later in the TV series and were feared to be cut entirely if the show only lasted seven TV seasons. The Dorne subplot was drastically changed, leading some to fear how they would handle the Iron Islands subplot also returning this season. As it turned out, the Iron Islands material introduced in this episode is ''very'' faithful to the novels and includes many line for line quotes from them. The only major difference is that Balon's DisneyVillainDeath is caused by Euron himself rather than a Faceless Man he hired to MakeItLookLikeAnAccident.

* CreepyCute: There's something very endearing about the two second and third most dangerous reptiles of the known world cuddling each other after getting unshackled.

* WinBackTheCrowd: This episode was far better recieved than the first one, since it stopped spinning the wheels, saw the return of PutOnABus characters like Bran and the Greyjoys, the flashbacks to the backstory, as well as ending the year-and-a-week-wait for Jon Snow's resurrection. Where last week's purge of the Martells was poorly executed, this week's Bolton massacre felt in keeping with the characters and was more properly foreshadowed and with fewer plotholes.

** There were two major new subplots introduced in the fourth novel that shifted focus to the fringes of Westeros: Dorne and the Iron Islands. Both were pushed back to later in the TV series and were feared to be cut entirely if the show only lasted seven TV seasons. The Dorne subplot was drastically changed, leading some to fear how they would handle the Iron Islands subplot also returning this season. As it turned out, the Iron Islands material introduced in this episode is ''very'' faithful to the novels and includes many line for line quotes from them.

* IKnewIt: Jon's resurrection had been wildly speculated before the start of the season and denied multiple times. Sure enough, Jon gets better.

* AlternateCharacterInterpretation: Roose Bolton was a DeathSeeker who was goading Ramsay to kill him and take over Winterfell. Roose knew that he was too cautious to actually win a battle or war on his own, but he wanted to ensure that Ramsay had it in him to jump the final hurdle and be a true Bolton, ruthless and treacherous, so he kept taunting him about his newborn son. His lack of reaction to Ramsay's death is his usual stoic acceptance.[[note]]In the books, Roose tells Theon that he expects House Bolton to die out soon. Walda is pregnant and he expects Ramsay to kill her and the baby.[[/note]]

* AlternateCharacterInterpretation: Roose Bolton was a DeathSeeker who was goading Ramsay to kill him and take over Winterfell. Roose knew that he was too cautious to actually win a battle or war on his own and being ruthless and treacherous himself, but he wanted to ensure that Ramsay had it in him to jump the final hurdle and be a true Bolton. His lack of reaction to Ramsay's death is his usual stoic acceptance.[[note]]In the books, Roose tells Theon that he expects House Bolton to die out soon. Walda is pregnant and he expects Ramsay to kill her and the baby.[[/note]]

* TakeThatScrappy: [[CanonForeigner Olly]], who had become the {{Scrappy}} for much of Season 5, is among those who are sent South of the Wall for TheMutiny.

* AlternateCharacterInterpretation: Roose Bolton was a DeathSeeker who was goading Ramsay to kill him and take over Winterfell. Roose knew that he was too cautious to actually win a battle or war on his own and being ruthless and treacherous himself, but he wanted to ensure that Ramsay had it in him to jump the final hurdle and be a true Bolton. His lack of reaction to Ramsay's death is his usual stoic acceptance.[[note]]In the books, Roose tells Theon that he expects House Bolton to die out soon. Walda is pregnant and he expects Ramsay to kill her and the baby.[[/note]]

* TakeThatScrappy: [[CanonForeigner Olly]], who had become the {{Scrappy}} for much of Season 5, is among those who are sent South of the Wall for TheMutiny.

* AuthorsSavingThrow: This episode was far better recieved than the first one, since it stopped spinning the wheels, saw the return of PutOnABus characters like Bran and the Greyjoys, the flashbacks to the backstory, as well as ending the year-and-a-week-wait for Jon Snow's resurrection. Where last week's purge of the Martells was poorly executed, this week's Bolton massacre felt in keeping with the characters and was more properly foreshadowed and with fewer plotholes.

* IKnewIt: [[spoiler: Jon's resurrection had been wildly speculated before the start of the season and denied multiple times. Sure enough, Jon gets better.]]

* AlternateCharacterInterpretation: Roose Bolton was a DeathSeeker who was goading Ramsay to kill him and take over Winterfell. Roose knew that he was too cautious to actually win a battle of defense, that Ramsay was always a more agressive heir

* TakeThatScrappy: [[CanonForeigner Olly]], who had become the SpotlightStealingSquad for much of Season 5, is among those who are sent South of the Wall for TheMutiny.