"Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken." That’s the Martell motto, but honestly? It’s a bit of a lie when you look at what actually happens in Game of Thrones Season 5 Episode 6.
Fans usually remember this one for all the wrong reasons. It’s the episode that launched a thousand think-pieces and made some viewers quit the show entirely. We’re talking about the Sansa Stark and Ramsay Bolton wedding, a moment that didn't even happen in George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire novels—at least not to Sansa. In the books, Ramsay marries a minor character named Jeyne Poole who is forced to pretend she’s Arya Stark. The showrunners, David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, decided to consolidate the plot. They put Sansa in that position instead. It was a choice. A loud, controversial, and deeply divisive choice.
The Braavos Side Quest and the House of Black and White
While the North was busy being miserable, Arya was over in Braavos playing the weirdest game of "I Spy" ever recorded. This is where the episode actually starts to build some lore. We see the Hall of Faces. It’s haunting. It’s basically a massive library of dead people’s skin. Arya learns that becoming "No One" isn't just a cool title for a LinkedIn profile; it’s a soul-crushing process of deleting your own identity.
Jaqen H'ghar is at his peak cryptic self here. He’s testing Arya’s ability to lie. She fails, mostly because she still wants to be Arya Stark. She still wants her revenge. You can see the conflict in Maisie Williams’ face—the struggle between the girl who wants to kill Cersei Lannister and the girl who wants to survive in a house of assassins. She eventually earns her way into the inner sanctum because she shows mercy to a dying girl, but it’s a dark kind of mercy.
Tyrion and Jorah: The Oddest Couple in Essos
Meanwhile, Tyrion Lannister and Jorah Mormont are walking. And walking. And talking. This is actually where some of the best dialogue in Game of Thrones Season 5 Episode 6 happens. Tyrion finds out his father, Tywin, is dead. Jorah’s reaction is just... silence. It’s a heavy moment.
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They get captured by slavers, led by Mr. Echo himself, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje. Tyrion, being Tyrion, manages to talk his way out of being executed by convincing them that Jorah is a world-class fighter who needs to prove himself in the pits of Meereen. It’s classic Tyrion. He’s using his brain because his legs are too short to run and his arms are too weak to fight. It’s one of the few moments in the episode that feels like the "old" Game of Thrones—witty, fast-paced, and driven by cleverness rather than pure shock value.
The Dorne Problem
Let's be real: the Dorne plot in Season 5 was a mess.
In the books, the Dornish master plan is intricate. It involves Arianne Martell (who doesn't even exist in the show) and a long-game strategy to put Myrcella on the Iron Throne. In the show? Jaime Lannister and Bronn sneak into the Water Gardens dressed as guards. It feels like a high-school play compared to the rest of the series’ production value.
Then we meet the Sand Snakes. Obara, Nymeria, and Tyene. They were hyped up as these elite warriors, but their fight scene with Jaime and Bronn is famously clunky. The choreography was stiff. The dialogue felt forced. When the palace guards finally show up to arrest everyone, it’s almost a relief. Areo Hotah, Prince Doran’s captain of the guard, finally does something, but the whole sequence just lacks the weight you’d expect from a conflict involving the Kingslayer and the Martell family.
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Why the Sansa Scene Changed TV Forever
We have to talk about the ending. There’s no avoiding it.
Sansa Stark marries Ramsay Bolton in the godswood of Winterfell. The setting is beautiful—snow falling, weirwood trees glowing—but the atmosphere is pure dread. Theon Greyjoy (or "Reek" at this point) has to give her away. It’s a layer of psychological torture that the show excelled at, even when it was hard to watch.
When Ramsay forces Reek to watch him assault Sansa, the camera doesn't stay on Sansa. It stays on Reek’s face. This was a deliberate directorial choice by Jeremy Podeswa. The idea was to show the impact through the eyes of a person who had already been broken. But for many fans, this was the breaking point. People argued that Sansa had already suffered enough. After Joffrey, after Littlefinger, after the death of her entire family, this felt like "misery porn."
Game of Thrones Season 5 Episode 6 became a catalyst for a massive conversation about how TV shows use sexual violence as a plot device. Some critics, like those at The Mary Sue, stopped covering the show entirely after this episode. Others argued it was consistent with the brutal world Westeros had always been. Regardless of where you land, you can't deny that it shifted the culture. It forced writers' rooms across the industry to rethink how they handled sensitive subject matter.
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The Queen’s Justice in King’s Landing
Back in the capital, Cersei is playing a dangerous game with the High Sparrow. She’s basically handed him a private army (the Faith Militant) just to spite Margaery Tyrell. It’s a short-sighted move, even for Cersei.
In this episode, we see the "inquest" into Loras Tyrell’s "sins." Margaery thinks she’s safe. She thinks she can lie her way out of it. But then Olyvar is brought in as a witness. He knows about Loras’s birthmark. He knows everything. Suddenly, the trap snaps shut. Not just on Loras, but on Margaery too.
Watching the Queen be dragged away while Tommen—the King!—stands there doing absolutely nothing is infuriating. It shows how much power Cersei has surrendered to the fanatics just to get a win. It’s a masterclass in "leopard eating my face" politics.
Takeaways for the Modern Viewer
If you’re rewatching this now, or if you’re a newcomer wondering what the fuss was about, here is the context you need. This episode represents the moment the show fully broke away from the books. It took risks. Some worked (the Hall of Faces), and some failed spectacularly (the Dorne fight).
Actionable Steps for Navigating Season 5:
- Watch the background: In the Winterfell scenes, look at the Northern lords. The "Northern Conspiracy" is much more subtle in the show than the books, but the tension is there.
- Pay attention to the music: Ramin Djawadi’s score in the Sansa wedding scene is intentionally dissonant. It’s meant to make you feel as uncomfortable as the characters.
- Compare the Dorne dialogue: If you want to see why fans were annoyed, read the "Fire and Blood" speech from the books. It makes the show's version of the Sand Snakes look like cartoon characters.
- Track Cersei’s ego: Every move she makes in this episode directly leads to her "Walk of Shame" later in the season. It’s a perfect setup for a downfall.
The episode isn't "fun." It’s not meant to be. It’s a turning point that moved the pieces into place for the explosive finale of Season 5, but it did so by burning a lot of goodwill with the audience. Whether it was necessary for Sansa’s eventual rise to Queen in the North is still debated in Reddit threads to this day.