GoT Season 6 Wrap-up: Cersei & What's Next

[canyonwalker]

It's been over a week since I finished season 6 of Game of Thrones— "That's the one with The Battle of the Bastards," friends of mine who watched it years ago recall it— and here I still am writing about it. Well, life intervenes. And I don't want to go rushing from one season to the next, anyway. I like to take a short break to savor what's happened and build more appetite for the next season.

"The Battle of the Bastards" isn't the only subplot that reached a climax in season 6. The subplot of Cersei's scheming to regain control over the Iron Throne reached a climax, too.



As I imagine what will happen next in the series given these two storylines I'm also thinking about the fact there are only 13 episodes left. So whatever happens next will have to happen fast... yet we've got both the "Daenerys is coming with an army to conquer the realm" and the whole "Armies of the dead are coming to kill everyone" storylines to resolve! That's where Cersei's story is important because I think she makes it possible for the latter two to be resolved quickly.

So, in the season 6 finale, Cersei blows up the Sept of Baelor, the big temple in the capital city. Lots of the realm's ruling class are inside. Her son, King Tommen, commits suicide upon seeing what she's done. At that point both the king and queen are dead, the head and heir of powerful ally House Tyrell are dead, and Kevan, the head of House Lannister is dead. Oh, and the Grand Maester was killed (separately), too. Cersei has consolidated power unto herself. There is literally nobody left to challenge her for control of her house and the Iron Throne.... Not immediately, anyway.

Recall what I wrote about Cersei's scheming at the end of season 4:

[Cersei] clearly wants to rule but is not that smart. Oh, she's manipulative and scheming and unabashedly evil. The problem is, she can't see past her own ego. She'll make many poor decisions because she's so short-sighted, and that will be her family's undoing. Other noble houses will peel away from her weak, ineffective, and vengeful rule. House Lannister will shrink to be a small player in the Game of Thrones, as even its historical monetary wealth has shriveled through years of costly war, financial mismanagement, and gold mines run dry.

Cersei has won a Pyrrhic victory. She's seized power but has fatally weakened her own house. She's alienated the family's most powerful ally, House Tyrell— which is arguably stronger than House Lannister now, anyway, with its significant lands and wealth, despite its nominal head Lord Mace and his heirs being killed. We see in a cut scene Olenna Tyrell is already allying with the coup leaders in Dorne to crush Cersei and her house— and is at least discussing alliance with one of Daenerys's statesmen. If all three align it won't even be a fight. They'll obliterate the Lannister army and reduce their fortress at Casterly Rock to rubble.

What about the legions of the undead, then? I'm concerned that while it's totally legit in the story at this point that Cersei's rule gets brought to quick end, the showrunners are going to have to cut a lot of corners in telling how the human nations band together to repel the countless undead hordes. ...That is, assuming the ending isn't just, "Everyone dies."

Comments

[some_other_dave]

What I remember from listening to the internet buzz back when this was new: A number of people shared your concern that there seemed to be a lot of story and not very many episodes left to tell that story in. There were also those who were optimistic that there would be more seasons so the storytelling did not have to be rushed.

There was a lot of controversy about what actually did happen in the show, of course. But it's the internet, controversy is practically guaranteed!

[canyonwalker]

I've tried hard to minimize spoilers I see while still watching the series. In what has leaked through my defenses, though, I've seen that people are upset that certain characters did super-important things that didn't make sense for their characters but served to tie up the story quickly. It disappoints me the showrunners chose to do that. I'm planning to write about a similar problem in my next GoT blog, regarding Sansa Stark's character development in season 6.