Since its controversial conclusion in 2019, Game of Thrones has been used as one of the prime examples of the trend of multimedia adaptations being of lesser quality than their source material. But although there are some major problems with the final seasons of the blockbuster fantasy series that are hard to deny, one of the middle seasons is, for the most part, stronger than some viewers remember or are willing to admit. By Season 6, most of the source material from the completed entries in George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series had been exhausted, and, while Martin told the series’ creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss some of the most crucial aspects of his plans for the still unreleased final novels, for the most part, it was up to them to continue the show how they saw fit. Without the guidance of the books, the ending provided by Seasons 7 and 8 became uneven, but the first full post-book season is one of the series’ most exhilarating and perhaps, its best.

‘Game of Thrones’ Season 6 Made Necessary Cuts to the Cast

An earlier decision that Season 6 continued to benefit from was the creators’ choice to keep the cast a bit smaller than it is in the books. Both the written and filmed versions of Martin’s world are incredibly expansive, but the former became even more so during the most recent novels in the series, A Feast for Crows and A Dance With Dragons, which each introduced a host of new characters and storylines to the already sprawling narrative. After adhering fairly closely to the written canon of the first three novels throughout the first four seasons, the show began to diverge onto its own path in Season 5 by excluding a number of these additions and reducing the significance of others.

Although these choices remain divisive with the books’ most passionate fans and likely did contribute in at least some ways to the series’ later problems, for the most part, they paid off in Season 6. While the complexities of the world and plot are huge parts of the appeal of both the books and the show, the additions from Feast and Dance complicated things so much that the stories of some longer-running, more central characters arguably lost some of their momentum — and many fans suspect the increased scale is one of the major reasons Martin has not yet completed the final volumes. Reducing the complexity of the storylines centered on Dorne and the Iron Islands, and excluding the character of Young Griff, who was introduced in Dance, with the possibility raised that he is a long-lost relative of Daenerys Targaryen’s (Emilia Clarke) and therefore a possible heir to the Iron Throne, allowed Season 6 to maintain a tighter focus on the main cast and conclude the stories of some other supporting players.

Both the books and the show are famous for their willingness to kill off major characters. But while none of the deaths featured in Season 6 are as dramatically impactful as, say, the death of Ned Stark (Sean Bean) or Tywin Lannister (Charles Dance) from earlier seasons, the sixth installment does have a particularly high body count, with many important supporting characters meeting their fates. Detractors will likely argue that this reduced the intricacy of the series’ plotting, and that’s true to some extent, but it also allowed for significant forward progress to be made in the more central storylines, much more so than in the recent novels.

Most of Season 6’s deaths contribute to the story arcs of main characters in crucial ways. For example, Ramsay Bolton’s (Iwan Rheon) murder of his father Roose (Michael McElhatton) sets the former up as the ultimate tyrannical ruler in the North before his own defeat at the hands of Sansa Stark (Sophie Turner) and Jon Snow (Kit Harington) earns the latter pair their family’s home region back, which in turn allows them to shift their focus to the inevitable battle with the undead White Walkers. Likewise, Cersei Lannister (Lena Headey) assassinating several of her enemies, including the High Sparrow (Jonathan Pryce) and Margaery Tyrell (Natalie Dormer), by bombing the Sept of Baelor, cements her as the series’ main human antagonist, a role she would occupy until Daenerys’ heel turn in the final episodes. And the tragic death of Hodor (Kristian Nairn) reveals the full extent of Bran Stark’s (Isaac Hempstead Wright) supernatural powers.

In addition to propelling the plot forward, these developments also have important relevance to the series’ themes. Cersei taking power just before her son Tommen (Dean-Charles Chapman) kills himself is one of the show’s most devastatingly elegant illustrations of what an empty, costly prize the Iron Throne really is. Sansa feeding Ramsay to the dogs he used to slaughter many of his other victims is somewhat cathartic given the horrible things he did to her, but is also itself pretty chilling, again raising the kinds of questions about vengeance and when and to what extent violence is justified. And Bran’s time-traveling brainwashing of Hodor, though mostly accidental, is a dark turning point in the former’s story that foreshadows the cold character he becomes when he completes his mystical training. Though Hodor’s fate was one of the beats Martin informed the series creators of, Benioff and Weiss still deserve credit for how well the twist is executed within the series, especially given that a finished version of it hasn’t appeared in the books yet.

‘Game of Thrones’ Season 6 Shouldn’t Be Blamed for the Show’s Later Problems

Another argument against Season 6 is that some of the momentous events that happen within it don’t have their aftermaths explored thoroughly enough. This is hard to completely refute in some cases, but it should really be used as a criticism of the subsequent seasons. Two of the events subject to this kind of discussion are Jon’s resurrection and Cersei’s aforementioned bombing of the Sept. Detractors argue that Melisandre (Carice van Houten) is able to resurrect Jon too easily, but at this point in the series, another follower of her religion, Thoros of Myr (Paul Kaye), is shown to be able to bring Beric Dondarrion (Richard Dormer) back from the dead multiple times. It is only after Jon does not prove instrumental in vanquishing the Whites in Season 8, suggesting that he might not be the prophesied “Prince That Was Promised” after all, that his resurrection and the other supernatural occurrences related to him begin to seem forced.

Similarly, given the earlier worldbuilding, one would assume that Cersei would have a harder time maintaining control over King’s Landing without a living child in whose stead to rule than she does in Seasons 7 and 8. The actual bombing of the Sept is entirely in character for her, as it shows great ambition and ruthlessness while not necessarily being the most strategically wise choice, as has been the case with many of her past plots, to say nothing of the fact that she didn’t know Margaery’s death would lead Tommen to kill himself.

‘Game of Thrones’ Season 6 Is an Underrated Epic

Image via HBO

Hindsight seems to have warped the public perception of Season 6. Like earlier seasons, it does an excellent job of weaving the various storylines together and setting up future developments, even if one of the ways it does so is by trimming down the cast. The fact that the subsequent seasons squandered some of the potential it generated should not be held against the season itself. Indeed, between the faster pacing, the expected aesthetic mastery, and some iconic sequences, like the Battle of the Bastards, Hodor holding the door, and Daenerys eliminating the slavers before preparing to finally return to Westeros, Season 6 could easily be dubbed the most eventful and exciting installment and stands as proof that the series didn’t always need to adhere closely to the books to be great.