The Broken Man

"The Broken Man" is the seventh episode of the sixth season of Game of Thrones. It is the fifty-seventh episode of the series overall. It will premiere on June 05, 2016. It was written by Bryan Cogman and directed by Jack Bender.

In the North
Jon Snow and Sansa Stark attempt to garner support from the remaining houses of the North in order to remove Ramsey Bolton from Winterfell. They go to the Mormont Island, where Lady Lyanna Mormont, although reluctant at first, eventually agrees to providing support in the form of 62 men to House Stark after Davos comments on the Lady's precarious situation.

First

 * Septon Meribald
 * Lady Lyanna Mormont
 * Bear Island maester
 * Mormont master-at-arms
 * Lord Robett Glover
 * Lem

Deaths

 * Septon Meribald

Cast
Starring
 * Nikolaj Coster-Waldau as Ser Jaime Lannister
 * Lena Headey as Queen Mother Cersei Lannister
 * Kit Harington as Jon Snow
 * Natalie Dormer as Queen Margaery Tyrell
 * Liam Cunningham as Ser Davos Seaworth
 * Sophie Turner as Princess Sansa Stark
 * Rory McCann as Sandor Clegane
 * Maisie Williams as Arya Stark
 * Jonathan Pryce as the High Sparrow
 * Kristofer Hivju as Tormund Giantsbane
 * Jerome Flynn as Ser Bronn
 * Alfie Allen as Prince Theon Greyjoy

Guest Starring
 * Ian McShane as Brother Ray
 * Diana Rigg as Lady Olenna Tyrell
 * Clive Russell as Ser Brynden Tully
 * Tobias Menzies as Lord Edmure Tully
 * Gemma Whelan as Princess Yara Greyjoy
 * Faye Marsay as the Waif
 * Jóhannes Haukur Jóhannesson
 * Tim McInnerny as Lord Robett Glover
 * Ian Whyte as Wun Wun
 * Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson as Ser Gregor Clegane
 * Tim Plester as Walder Rivers
 * Daniel Tuite as Lothar Frey
 * Ricky Champ as Flynn
 * Ian Davies as Morgan
 * Murray McArthur as Dim Dalba
 * Hannah Waddingham as Septa Unella
 * Bella Ramsey as Lady Lyanna Mormont
 * Margaret Jackman as the Waif's disguise
 * Kevin James Horsham
 * Louis Rolston
 * Kaite Alexander-Thom
 * Jed Murray
 * Michael Patrick
 * Matt Faris
 * Neil Keery
 * Heidi Romanova
 * Danielle Claire Jenner
 * Ella Hughes
 * Zoi Gorman
 * Billy King

Cast notes

 * 12 of 28 starring cast members appear in this episode.
 * Starring cast members Peter Dinklage (Tyrion Lannister), Emilia Clarke (Daenerys Targaryen), Aidan Gillen (Petyr Baelish), Carice Van Houten (Melisandre), Indira Varma (Ellaria Sand), Nathalie Emmanuel (Missandei), John Bradley (Samwell Tarly), Dean-Charles Chapman (Tommen Baratheon), Gwendoline Christie (Brienne of Tarth), Isaac Hempstead-Wright (Bran Stark), Conleth Hill (Varys), Michiel Huisman (Daario Naharis), Hannah Murray (Gilly), Iwan Rheon (Ramsay Bolton), Tom Wlaschiha (Jaqen H'ghar), and Iain Glen (Jorah Mormont) are not credited and do not appear in this episode.

General

 * The title probably refers to Septon Meribald and his speech about "broken men" from the novels - conscripts in wars who desert and turn into bandits, wretched men living from one day to the next, and the opposite of how glorious the stories say war is going to be like. George R.R. Martin has said that two of the most thematic speeches in the entire books series were Varys's riddle pondering what the nature of power is (given in Season 2), and Septon Meribald's speech about the horrors and suffering in war.
 * The title might refer to Sandor Clegane, "The Hound", if the fan theory is correct that he actually survived being left for dead by the side of the road while very badly injured - making him a "broken man".

In the Riverlands

 * This episode marks the first time that Brynden "The Blackfish" Tully has reappeared on-screen since the Red Wedding in Season 3's "The Rains of Castamere".
 * The Siege of Riverrun subplot is a holdover from the fourth novel which, like the Greyjoy Kingsmoot subplot, was pushed back to Season 6, because Season 5 condensed the storylines for other major characters (Jon Snow, King's Landing, Tyrion, Daenerys) from both books four and five into a single season. In the books, Brynden Tully never had to retake Riverrun from a light Frey garrison - he wasn't present at the Red Wedding in the book version, instead Robb Stark left him behind at Riverrun with the Tully army to hold their southern flank. After word came out of the massacre at the Red Wedding, Brynden pulled back his men to the castle and gathered ample food supplies for a length siege. The Siege of Riverrun is ongoing in the background from the middle of the third book to about the middle of the third book by the point Jaime arrives with a Lannister army to help the Freys.
 * Jaime Lannister never went to Dorne as he did in Season 5 of the TV series - the Dorne subplot in Season 5 was so heavily condensed or outright changed that it bore little resemblance to that subplot in the novels. Instead, that was the point in time at which Jaime left for the Riverlands to deal with holdout pockets of Robb Stark's Tully allies - and thus he wasn't present when the Faith Militant arrested Cersei, nor for her impending trial by combat. When he received a letter in which Cersei begged him to come back and aid her he burned it in disgust, realizing that her petty plotting against the Tyrells nearly destroyed their family's hold on power and endangered Tommen.
 * Due to the way Season 5 was heavily condensed, Brienne of Tarth didn't head north to the Wall in the books looking for Sansa and Arya Stark: instead she continued to wander around the Riverlands searching for Sansa, her progress slowed through that war-torn part of the countryside. The TV series had Brienne spot Sansa on the road out of the Vale, and thus follow her to Winterfell, where she spent the rest of Season 5 largely waiting for Sansa to light a candle in a window as a signal (actress Gwendoline Christie has openly said that after Season 5, fans would walk up to her on the street and complain that she didn't do much in Season 5 other than wait for a candle). Brienne's storyline picked up again at the beginning of Season 6, however, and gave a plausible and unconvoluted reason to send Brienne back to the Riverlands, and thus her subplot from the fourth novel: Sansa simply commands her to head south and try to develop a line of communication with her Tully allies commanded by her great-uncle Brynden.
 * Brienne doesn't try to reach Riverrun in the novels, though at the very end of the fifth novel she cross paths with Jaime again with his army in the Riverlands.
 * Bronn appears in this episode for the first time in Season 6. Actor Jerome Flynn was unavailable in the early part of the season due to working on another project, but it didn’t really significantly affect anything because he was only going to become heavily involved in the plot starting with Jaime’s trip to the Riverlands anyway. The only difference is that as a result the TV show didn’t insert Bronn into the background in various minor scenes, just to establish that he is still in the storyline (as done in past seasons before a character’s main storyline picks up). Overall the TV show was able to work around his schedule without any major difficulty.

In the North

 * Lyanna_Mormont's_letter.pnga Mormont appears for the first time in this episode, the new head of House Mormont of Bear Island. She was first mentioned early in Season 5, when it was explained that she is the young 10 year old niece of Jeor Mormont (and first cousin of Jorah). Stannis sent all the Northern Houses letters asking them to acknowledge him as the rightful king, but despite having no substantial army left and only being a little girl, Lyanna sent back a defiant letter which read "Bear Island knows no king but the King in the North, whose name is Stark."
 * Lyanna Mormont was apparently named directly after Lyanna Stark, Jon and Sansa's aunt who died in Robert's Rebellion, and who appeared in flashbacks earlier this season.
 * In the books, Lyanna's mother Maege Mormont is still alive, and she has older surviving sisters (the eldest, Dacey Mormont, died at the Red Wedding). Maege did leave young Lyanna as the acting ruler of Bear Island, and she sent the same letter that appears in the TV version. Maege did appear in Season 1 but had no speaking lines and disappeared without explanation from Season 2 onwards: it is unclear if the TV version is officially condensing this so that TV-Maege simply died "off screen" and didn't have any other daughters, making Lyanna the official new head of the House.
 * 607 Glover Preview.png[[Robett Glover]], played by Tim McInnerny, is introduced in this episode, younger brother of Lord Galbart Glover, who briefly made a minor appearance in Season 1. No stranger to medieval television serials, McInnerny previously played Lord Percy in the British sitcom Blackadder.

In the Free Cities

 * Arya Stark has officially surpassed all of her current material from the novels as of this episode. She actually regains her eyesight at the end of the fifth novel, and the play she attended in the past two episodes (a stilted reenactment of the War of the Five Kings) actually appeared in a preview chapter that Martin released for the as-yet unpublished sixth novel. At he end of that chapter Arya actually kills a target she wasn't supposed to kill: Raff, one of the Mountain's men, condensed into Meryn Trant for the TV series, whom she killed in the Season 5 finale. It is quite probable that Arya killing Raff will anger the Faceless Men both because she did it without orders and because he was a major enemy of "Arya Stark" - demonstrating that she will never let go of her past and never be "no one". In the previous episode, the Faceless Men decided to kill her for refusing to kill a target - because seeing the play makes her remember who she is and "Arya Stark" would never dishonorably kill someone who she felt didn't deserve it. Now at this point - barring a few bits and pieces which might have been reshuffled to later episodes - Arya is advancing completely beyond her currently known book material.
 * The only subplots which haven't caught up with their materials from the novels at this point are Samwell and Gilly actually arriving in Oldtown itself, a few (condensed) parts of the Greyjoy subplot, parts of the King's Landing storyline, and a few elements from the Slaver's Bay storyline (though Tyrion has caught up). This isn't counting major subplots which were simply abandoned such as the Martell storyline from the books and the Griff storyline in the Free Cities. At the rate these few subplots are advancing, it appears that every subplot will totally catch up with the books by the end of Season 6.
 * 607 Greyjoys in Volantis trailer.png Free City of Volantis reappears on-screen for the second time in this episode. Yara and Theon Greyjoy's ironborn fleet stops there for supplies as it heads east to Slaver's Bay. In the books, their other uncle Victarion Greyjoy took the [[Iron Fleet]] east to Slaver's Bay, but the TV series condensed him out and simply gave his storyline to Yara and Theon (they are related plotlines in the books).
 * GOT S6 42.pngers for this episode show [[Yara Greyjoy]] kissing a female prostitute in a tavern in Volantis. The context is unclear - given that Yara has a wry sense of humor, and let her own brother Theon unknowingly feel her up in Season 2 so she could later taunt him about it, it's possible she's doing this just to taunt the men in her crew who think it's exciting, etc. Yara's character is named "Asha Greyjoy" in the books, she was renamed to avoid confusion with Osha the wildling (Asha Greyjoy is a much more prominent character, but was only introduced in Season 2, after Osha was introduced in Season 1). Asha in the books shows no particular hints of being bisexual or experimenting with women: she is very sexually active and unashamed of this, going so far as to learn from a woods witch how to make her own moon tea (an abortion drug). Game of Thrones Wiki reached out to George R.R. Martin himself to inquire about this:
 * Question: "Is Asha Greyjoy (renamed Yara in the TV series) bisexual in the books, or it was implied, and we just didn't catch on to it?"
 * GRRM: "I have a number of lesbian and bisexual women in the novels (and a couple who experiment), but Asha is not one of them. Unless I am forgetting something..."


 * Martin therefore confirmed that Asha in the books is not bisexual, nor does she even experiment with women, and if this is the case in this episode it is an invention of the TV series for Yara, distinct from her book version Asha. On the other hand, as Martin himself pointed out, several female characters in the novels at least "experimented" with having sex with other women, but this was cut from the TV version: Cersei Lannister experimented with having sex with a handmaiden in a drunken fog in the fourth novel, and Daenerys Targaryen experimented with having Irri have sex with her as well. Thus it's possible that making TV-Yara bisexual - or "experimenting" - is the TV series's attempt to make up for cutting out bisexual experiences these other characters had in the novels. That being said, if they were going to make a female character bisexual who wasn't in the novels, Yara/Asha is one of the more probable candidates - given that she is very sexually active and adventurous in the novels, to an unusual degree for a highborn woman in their culture, but just with men. This is in contrast with, for example, if the TV series decided to randomly introduce certain other female characters kissing another woman, such as Sansa Stark, Meera Reed, etc. - compared to them, this change isn't such a drastic difference for TV-Yara from book-Asha.