YMMV / Game of Thrones S6E5: "The Door"

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• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • The Children of the Forest were already subject to this due to their backstory as having warred with the humans trying to settle in Westeros and splitting the Arm that connected Essos and Westeros, but the revelation that they created the original White Walkers specifically to fight humans throws them even further into this. Were they Well-Intentioned Extremists who did what they did because they had no options left, are they simply Unwitting Instigators Of Doom who didn't know what they were creating until it was too late, or are they Abusive Precursors who knowingly created the greatest threat to life in the world solely because they were losing the war with humanity?
  • Sansa refusing Littlefinger's help. On the one hand, she's throwing away the support of the Vale, which could be vital to retaking the North. On the other, Littlefinger betrays everyone he supposedly allies with, including her when he married her to Ramsay. Either she's putting Honor Before Reason and being naive or she's refusing to make the same mistake her father did. Or she is really done with the guy who married her to Ramsay since, as she said, either he was too dumb or considered Ramsay's treatment necessary evil, both options proving Littlefinger is not a suitable ally.
  • Sansa's motivations for lying to Jon. Some believe that she really did buy Littlefinger's "half-brother" taunt about Jon potentially taking her claim, but then considering that Sansa knits Jon Snow a direwolf pelt coat similar to Ned's to emphasize his Stark lineage, some argue that Sansa simply doesn't want to explain her connection with Littlefinger to Jon, considering that it's filled with exploitation and creeping, and a cover up of a homicide.
  • Is Brienne uncomfortable around Tormund because she's not used to this kind of male attention, or is she simply not that into him?
    • If the second option is the main reason for her stance, there's an added level for it: does she simply dislike the guy, or is it because of deeply-ingrained prejudice? After all, Brienne is a high-born lady (even if she disdains the moniker) and Tormund is a wildling, lower in social status than the low-born common folk in the realm.
  • The red priestess in Mereen. Does she have preternatural powers of foresight, or did she just do a Sherlock Scan on Varys, noting his effete clothing (deducing that he's a Eunuch) and his vocal antipathy of the Lord of Light religion combined with her knowledge of Lord of Light sorcerous practices to deduce what was done to him?
• Ass Pull: As balls to the wall exciting as the climax was, it did rather... come from nowhere. While Bran affecting the past while greenseeing was foreshadowed heavily, the whole "the touch of a whitewalker marks you, and they can enter this guarded cave" element comes from absolutely nowhere.
• Memetic Mutation: The phrase "Hold the door" quickly caught on with the fandom after the release to honor the Heroic Sacrifice of Hodor.
• Squick: The scene backstage at the play starts with an image of Joffrey's actor's penis, with warts on it.
• Tear Jerker: In a series full of tragic and meaningless death, Hodor's is still one of the saddest.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: Happens again with Brienne, when she tells Sansa not to trust Davos, who has throughout the show continually been morally upstanding, as he supported Stannis. She talks about how Stannis murdered his brother Renly and paid for his crimes... leaving out the fact Renly was a usurper who intended to kill Stannis. Her claiming Davos not being with Stannis is a sign of his lack of loyalty is also rather harsh considering Davos wasn't with Stannis as he had loyally left on their orders... by which logic she should be held at fault for not being with Catelyn when she died.
• The Woobie:
  • Hodor's entire existence as revealed in this episode makes him arguably the most tragic character in the show. His mind was destroyed when Bran warged into present Hodor while still in the past. He could hear Meera's cries to hold the door but so could young Wyllis. Bran accidentally caused Wyllis to become connected with present Hodor as he was sacrificing himself to allow Bran and Meera to escape from the wights, to the point all he could say was "HOLD THE DOOR" which turned into "Hodor" and his mind was destroyed. His death is what caused him to be a simpleton which ultimately led to his death and on and on and on. To sum it up: the whole purpose of his existence was to perform a Heroic Sacrifice against an undead horde, to buy time for his friends to escape.
  • As if the universe couldn't screw Theon over anymore; he's finally returned home and after giving a rousing speech, it looks like the Ironborn is going to back Yara as their first Queen. Nope, Euron ends up usurping the throne (by virtue of appealing to "paying the iron price" for it) and sure enough his first decree is to have Yara and Theon killed. Seeing this coming, both make their exit while everyone else is distracted by the coronation, but it really hits hard that not even his own home is a safe harbor for Theon anymore.
  • Arya, in preparation for her next mission, attends a play where she has to watch a re-enactment of her father's death. The play portrays her father as a power-hungry simpleton, Tyrion as an abusive lecher and Joffrey and Cersei in a positive light.

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