GoT S5 E6 "Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken"

"Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken" - Arya (Maisie Williams) trains. Jorah (Iain Glen) and Tyrion (Peter Dinklage) run into slavers. Trystane (Toby Sebastian) and Myrcella (Nell Tiger Free) make plans. Jaime and Bronn reach their destination. The Sand Snakes attack. Written by Bryan Cogman; directed by Jeremy Podeswa.

Promo pics for ep 5x06:

Well that ending was uncomfortable to watch, but it wasn't as bad as in the book. I liked the Dorne scenes, although I think Bronn will die since he was cut by the Sandsnakes spear, she is Oberyn's daughter, so it was probably poisoned. The room of all the faces was pretty cool, hopefully we see Arya get her first face this season. I can't wait to see the faith militant blow up in Cersei's face. I wonder who's side Littlefinger is really on, we know he won't behead Sansa, but who will the Vale support.

Well, saw ep 5x06 earlier this evening. If asked I would title this ep "The wasted episode Part II" (last week's one was Part I of this double feature).
As I already mentioned, I can't get anything out of Arya's story anymore. It actually got on my nerves to see her scrubbing corpses and being talked to in cryptic nonsense. Becoming "no one", "somebody else", serving the Many-Faced God, what a crap! And I'm not getting excited about the room with those pillars full of countless heads of dead people. No way there will be any reasonable outcome of that. What's the point of Arya getting a shape-shifter? Long story short ... I'm done with Arya's storyline. Maybe I'll use FF on scenes with her in the future.
Now to the showdown with the Sand Snakes. Of course Jamie and Bronn had to arrive just in time to prevent the assassination of Myrcella by the Sand Snakes. That's how it's set up very often in TV or movies and I gave up on bothering. I wouldn't call it bad, but I was disappointed by the fight scene as a whole. Three of the "bad-ass" legendary Sand Snakes cannot harm a one-handed Jamie and Bronn?? The whole fight looked more like a show, no wonder only Bronn got a little scratch (don't know if the blades of the Sand Snakes are poisoned generally, so this still might become a problem for Bronn). Just underwhelming to say it politely. But I give some bonus points to the wonderful location there! ;-)
The road trip part with Tyrion and Mormont was ok, but again they wasted the time just with some talking instead of having some adventure combined with some decent action. Getting caught by the pirates could have been delivered in a more interesting way, yes, but what ruined the scene for me, was the "c­ock talk". Seriously, what a ridiculous crap. They couldn't think of a more serious motivation for the pirates to keep Tyrion alive than for selling him to "c­ock merchants". What's the target audience here? Pubescent kids, who start giggling, when they hear the word "c­ock"?? ;-)
I also do have issues towards the religious cult plot. After all what we've seen in the past seasons, we are supposed to believe that a creasy clown like that cult leader is just allowed to take over and even stands above the omnipotence and despotism of the King with his mighty King's Guard? I know, that the showrunners try to sell this as Cersei's trick to get rid of Margaery and her brother without officially being seen as responsible by the Martells, so that the alliance might hold for another while, but seriously, how stupid can the Martells actually be?? Oh, and yes, Tommen still is a kid, but in his position as King, he still could do better than as wuss.
Maybe the showrunners plan to let that backfire on Cersei by having the cult learn about Cersei's and Jamie's incest? But I could think of better ways to finally get rid of her, if her story has to come to an end ...

Ez wrote:

Well that ending was uncomfortable to watch, but it wasn't as bad as in the book. ... I wonder who's side Littlefinger is really on, we know he won't behead Sansa, but who will the Vale support.

Well, I never liked the Ramsay/Theon/Reek story and always considered it a waste of time. I still don't know, what it's supposed to contribute to the story at all. And it is indeed unenjoyable and uninteresting.
Instead of going on with Stannis and Jon in the North and having them just beat the Boltons or at least with Dany over at Mereen, we have to watch how Sansa becomes a part of this sick Ramsay plot.
What leads me to Littlefinger. I guess his plans got a little bit clearer during his talk with Cersei. He wants to sit out the battle between Bolton and Stannis to attack the weakened winner with his army of the Vale and finish him off for King Tommen. Finally as a reward from King Tommen he officially becomes Warden of the North. If Sansa is still alive then he might use her to improve his legitimation, if not, he wouldn't care either.
After all, this ep 5x06 was another disappointment for me too, but I won't give up on the show yet. They still can save the season with a big battle ep in the North, hopefully finally with the appearance of the White Walkers, and Dany's story just has to move on out of Mereen heading to conquer the Iron Throne, maybe after having met Tyrion.
It's possible that the showrunners have to cover up the problem, that this season they partially are running out of original source material, because Martin prefers travelling around and signing up for other projects with HBO instead of getting his ass up to finish the books. We know that Martin has already told the showrunners his ending of the story just in case, but that doesn't solve the problem, that the details how to get there even Martin hasn't worked out yet. So what we partially get right now with these Arya and Ramsay stories and the overall slow pace, might actually be their own way to fill the story. And for me obviously then they are simply not that successfull as I would hope ...

The Ramsey story is in the book, it just happens to a different character. The Boltons are being set up for their fall. The Aryatoryline is playing out just like in the book, her story and the Wall have been the most faithful to the book this season. I agree with everything about GRRM, he has no one to blame but himself that the show will spoil the ending. They have cut a lot of useless characters from the show, if you think the drags, the books really do at times. It was stupid to have Dany stay in Meereen, it just feels like a stall tactic