Game of Thrones season 6 episode 7 review: 'The Broken Man' delivers with Westeros-centric human stories
More politics, less CGI forest grenades
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Your support makes all the difference.It was bugging me that Game of Thrones had been getting overrun with White Walkers, dragons and CGI-bulked Dothraki armies recently, but tonight saw a return to the kind of human, less magic-orientated stories that made it so popular *spoilers ahead*.
The major talking point from it will, of course, be the return of The Hound, whose return had long been anticipated though its circumstances were unclear. It was a shame to see the show deviate from the gravedigger sub-plot found in the books and not give Ian McShane's septon character much of 'The Broken Man' speech to worth with - despite it being the episode title - but a pleasure to see Rory McCann back as one of the show's funniest characters, his journey with Arya having been one of its finest sub-plots to date.
In King's Landing, Margaery managed to get across that she is deceiving the High Sparrow to her mother Olenna, though I hoped this would be through some clever dialogue in the scene rather than the pretty unsubtle passing of a note, while there was an enjoyable role reversal in the Iron Islands, where Yara whored and drank ale while Theon cowered.
The most interesting part of the episode took place at the castle of House Glover however, where the good name of Stark was called into question. We so readily accept the Starks as unblemished heroes, but as Robett Glover pointed out, they are just as guilty of pursuing their own interests at the cost of their allies'. There are really no heroes in the Seven Kingdoms - hell, one GoT director thinks Daenerys is basically Hitler.
Game of Thrones has been guilty of trying to include too many sub-plots simultaneously this season, so director Mark Mylod was smart to discard Bran, Daenerys and more this week, allowing each of the stories it did tackle to advance a more satisfying amount.
We're up to the last three episodes now, and if there's one thing Game of Thrones is reliable for, it's finishing its seasons strong.
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