Game of Thrones Season 6 Episode 6 Blood of my Blood

Finally, the return of Benjen Stark! A wise move by the producers to condense characters here and make Benjen = Coldhands. Brings a beloved character back and prevents that thread from dangling.  Good to see Bran will be in capable hands for the next stage of his journey.  If the signs are right, it sounds like he's going to be a major player in the fight against the White Walkers.

Horn Hill looks amazing - I'd rather live there than in the Red Keep! I'm really genuinely surprised at how bold Sam was to steal Heartsbane, it sure to land him in a heap of trouble.

Ok, was everyone else disappointed not to see the Tyrell army wreck the Sparrows? And to see Tommen getting worked by everyone? This puts all the chips on the presumed upcoming Clegane-bowl. Also, the resultant removing Jaime from the kingsguard opens him up to be heir of Casterly Rock, and more immediately gets him off to Riverrun to face off with Blackfish.

Bran's visions were interesting -- lots of focus on Wildfire, will there be an accident in Kings Landing?  Also cool to see the death of the Mad King.

Can't wait for next week an hopefully another round of visions!

Name of the Wind - Chapters 10 - 12

Chapter 10

Kote learns about alar, the principle of absolute belief that is central to magic, or "sympathy". Also learns disciplines of Heart of Stone and Seek the Stone. 

We start to see some of the secrets of how magic works. Kote shows himself to be a determined student.  It's interesting to me that we get so much detail about how magic works in this world -- you don't get that most of the time in fantasy, more like "he says some magic words and it happens." So I definitely appreciate this approach. When he explains alar, how many of you tried to do it?

Chapter 11

Kote learns how to bind two items together, so by moving one the other moves. He starts off with iron coins and moves on to increasingly more dissimilar things (which is notable since the more alike the things are, the easier it is to bind them.) Later, Kote gets in trouble with his mother for singing a bawdy rhyme about Lady Lackless.

Again, I like how magic works in this world and how certain principles are laid out. The structure of the book helps in this, in that we do the training with Kote and grow in understanding with him. At first I wasn't too excited about reading a coming of age type of story but it actually works well in that it allows the slow reveal of how the magic works.  Also I'm wondering about who Lady Lackless is and when we'll see her in the story (full disclosure - I was reading a blog post about Kingkiller Chronicles and saw someone's dream casting of the characters and saw Lady Lackless among them, so I assume we'll see her before long.)

Chapter 12

Kote's father is trying to compose a song about the Chandrian, and consults Abenthy. Abenthy notes that Kote is a prodigy and his parents need to think about his options. He suggests university. The parents wonder where his talent (and red hair) come from.

Laying more foundation with a little more background about the Chandrian. Also introduces some ambiguity about Kote's parentage - where did the red hair come from?  Not sure if that's going to be an issue - could it be that these are not his real parents at all? If so its kind of the old Moses origin story and may go a long way in explaining why he's so damn good at everything (it's sort of annoying, isn't it?)

Name of the Wind - Chapters 7 - 9

Chapter 7

Kote will only accept that his story be taken down verbatim, and wants to be able to check it himself, so he has Chronicler teach him his shorthand method. He is able to learn it in under an hour. He begins his tale by discussing all the names he has gone by.

The author slowly reveals bits of background without context, building curiosity about Kotes' background. And - yay - we learn how to pronounce his true name!

Chapter 8

Kote begins his tale of his childhood as a member of a wandering troupe of performers . He says they are Edema Ruh, which seems to be something like gypsies. His father is the head of the company and his mother is a former noblewoman. One night he sees and old man named Abenthy use real magic while his troupe was visiting a small town. Abenthy appears to be down on his luck, and Kote recruits him to join the group.

Sounds like the start of a coming-of-age origin story. I usually don't go in for the stuff -- it's been done so much in fantasy, but Kote seems to have an interesting origin with an air of mystery.  I wonder how his artistic past will figure into the later story.

Chapter 9

Kote begins to learn about the arcane from Abenthy. Abenthy is secretly preparing him for the university.

We learn a little more background on arcanists and how magic works. There is the whole naming thing, which seems to be the major method, and some other unique mechanics as well.

Game of Thrones - Season 6 Episode 5 the Door - reaction

Whoa, what just happened?

Not even going to discuss Hodor, because I'm sure everyone has already discussed it to death. Crazy ending to the episode, tears shed for both Hodor and Summer.  I'm skeptical whether Hodor holding the door for three minutes would be enough to allow Meera (dragging Bran on a sled) enough time to escape from the 5000 wights who were chasing, but hey, I guess that's why it's called fantasy.

So we start with Sansa, who may be #theWorstStark or #theBestStark, not sure which.  She's keeping secrets from Jon, planting ideas in his head about gathering up an army, and even compares him to Ramsay at one point.  One could interpret it as her using Jon to regain her castle.  She's learned her lessons from Littlefinger, whom she called on the carpet but didn't execute.  Is it because she thinks he'll be a useful pawn later, or because he still has a hold on her? The producers hinted at both on the inside the episode.

Arya has a big decision coming up. Will she really be no one and follow instructions, or is this when she strikes off on her own?  My prediction is she decides to run off, but has to overcome the Waif to get away.  That feud has been simmering for long enough.

Euron stole the show at the Kingsmoot, and didn't even bother to deny that he killed his brother.  All the Ironborn loved it.  Funny, everyone else on the show gets hell for kingslaying or kinslaying, but on Pyke they give you a crown.  Greyjoy is #theWorstHouse.  Really interesting that Yara and Theon run away with the ships, what will they do, I wonder?  Try to get to Dany first?  Seems like the only play that makes sense, but what happens when they get to Mereen and the rest of the Iron Fleet shows up behind them?  I don't see a rationale for them linking up with Jon Snow, and certainly not with the Lannisters, which might mean .... Dorne?

Oh yeah, and the Children of the Forest created the White Walkers. Wait ... what?  Chew on that until next week.

Name of the Wind - Chapters 4 - 6

Chapter 4

Chronicler has had trouble finding a horse and is walking around in the evening when he stumbles upon Kote by a bonfire waiting for spider-monsters. One of the scrael knocks chronicler unconscious. When he comes to, Kote says he killed 5 of the things and plans to bury them. Chronicler passes out again. Kote reveals he was wounded in the attack.

Okay, this is starting to get good!  Hopefully these scrawl are the beginning of a full on demon invasion! Let find out wh Kote and Bast can do about it.  Chronicler should definitely just find something to hide behind.

Chapter 5

Kote returns to the inn and Bast tends to his wounds.

Bast mentions something about thinking Kote isn't suppose to bleed - is he human? Some hints that maybe Bast is the one that's not human - calls Kote's "people" primitives and sings a song about lending some of his Immortality.

Chapter 6

Chronicler wakes up in Kote's inn. He knows who Kote is and was looking for him. Kote is pissed. Apparently some serious shit went down in the past and Kote is afraid for his life. Also: not everyone believes Kote is the good guy. Kote has also heard of Chronicler - he was famous for a book debunking the existence of dragons. He offers Kote a a chance to set the record straight. Kote reluctantly agrees, but wants 3 days to tell his story.  Chronicler agrees, reluctantly, since it will make him late to his next appointment.

I had a moment of confused loyalties as I had liked both characters so far and then it seemed like they would be at odds. Then it became clear that this was a device to set up the backstory. Now I'm wondering if the bulk of the book will consist of the story Kote tells Chronicler or if it will be a shorter backstory to set up more action in the present.