THE MAD KING
Some of the most exciting new footage (especially for book readers) was that of Jaime Lannister assassinating the Mad King Aerys in the King’s Landing throne room. It’s a nice way to connect Aerys to the increasingly warmongering ways of his daughter, Daenerys. But this is also where Jaime—cloaked here in Kingsguard white—got his nickname “Kingslayer.” We see the king calling to “burn them all” and Jaime stab him in the back. Jaime and Ned discussed this moment back in Season 1 and it’s another example—like Arya’s play or Bran’s vision of the Tower of Joy—of how history can be twisted into legend. The way Ned paints it, Jaime is a villain.
Jaime: When I watched the Mad King die, I remember him laughing as your father burned. It felt like justice.
Ned: Is that what you tell yourself at night? You’re a servant of justice? That you were avenging my father when you drove your sword in Aerys Targaryen’s back?
Jaime: Tell me, if I stabbed the Mad King in the belly instead of the back, would you admire me more?
Ned: You served him well when serving was safe.
In Season 3, Jaime tells a more complete version to Brienne:
You all despise me. “Kingslayer. Oathbreaker. Man without honor.” You heard of wildfire? The Mad King was obsessed with it. He loved to watch people burn. They way their skin blackened and blistered and melted off their bones. He burned Lords he didn’t like, he burned Hands who disobeyed him. He burned anyone who was against him. Before long half the country was against him. Aerys saw traitors everywhere, so he had his pyromancer place caches of wildfire all over the city. Beneath the Sept of Baelor and the slums of Fleabottom. House, stables, taverns. Even beneath the Red Keep itself.
Finally, the day of reckoning came. Robert Baratheon marched on the capitol after his victory at the Trident. But my father went first with the whole Lannister army at this back promising to defend the city against the rebels. I knew my father better than that. He’s never been one to pick the losing side. I told the Mad King as much. I urged him to surrender peacefully. But he didn’t listen to me. He didn’t listen to Varys who tried to warn him. But he did listen to Grand Maester Pycelle—the great sunken cunt. “You can trust the Lannisters,” he said. “The Lannisters have always been true friends of the crown.” So he opened the gates and my father sacked the city. Once again I came to the king begging him to surrender. He told me to bring him my father’s head. Then he turned to his pyromancer. “Burn them all,” he said. “Burn them in their homes, burn them in their beds.”
First I killed the pyromancer and then, when the king turned to flee, I drove my sword into his back. “Burn them all,” he kept saying. “Burn them all.”
Jaime’s Season 3 version lines up pretty well with what Bran saw in his vision (though he left out the part about how he was sitting on the Iron Throne when Ned walked in). But the young Stark just learned that the villainy of the Lannisters is more complicated than he was brought up to believe.
WILDFIRE
For most of the significance here, you can refer to the passage above. You can see the pyromancers setting up caches of wildfire at Aerys’s behest. But it’s worth remembering that Aerys didn’t manage to burn the city. Jaime stopped him. So what’s with the big explosion? There are some theories. In the books, Cersei gets a little wildfire-happy during Margaery and Tommen’s wedding feast. Will they move that plot forward as part of Cerise’s ongoing struggles with the High Sparrow? Will she go citywide with her vengeance? Possibly! Or maybe Bran is destined to use wildfire against the White Walkers should they come to King’s Landing. Either way, like Drogon’s shadow over the city, this image foretells doom for the capitol.
Bran also got the joy of re-living the death of his mom, dad, and brother. Lucky kid. He also flitted briefly back to the Tower of Joy scene. Ned’s question—“where is my sister?”—is followed by an image many interpret as the answer. Is that a bleeding Lyanna Stark and the sad hand of Ned in the final frames? (A quick sleeve comparison proves it’s not, as some assumed, Talisa and Robb.) We may find out for certain before the season is through.
THE RULES OF THE WHITE WALKERS
Hey! Bran got to watch “Hardhome!” Lucky! That episode was the best. There are a few Hardhome frames that I didn’t include here and it’s the only place I cut corners. But you get it. Snow, ice, zombies, death, etc. Presumably, Bran now knows a) how White Walkers use Craster’s babies to make more White Walkers b) that the Night’s King can raise the dead and maybe c) that Jon’s Valyrian steel sword stopped that Walker in his tracks. When coupled with the vision of Daenerys, we get the birth of the armies of both ice (White Walkers) and fire (dragons.)
Bran also saw the icy army of the undead marching on the Fist of the First Men, got a little refresher on how the Children of the Forest made the White Walkers, and was reminded of how the Night’s King marked him. (Nice reaction face, Bran!) As if he was in danger of forgetting. Also, Bran now knows the most startling White Walker secret of them all. The Night’s King? He’s been re-cast. Lastly, Bran saw the wights running after him and Meera in the woods. Is it just me or is this the first time we’ve gotten fast zombies on this show? The Stark kid wakes up just in time to tell Meera that the wights are here to kill them. Helpful, kid! Work on that timing.
More breakdowns of the other images here... I didn't post them because it was something shown in the show already.
http://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood...season-6-bran-vision-breakdown-aerys-wildfire
wtf !!!
