‘Game of Thrones’ Season 6: Here’s Where We Left Off

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/22/arts/television/game-of-thrones-season-6-premiere-primer.html

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“Game of Thrones” returns for its sixth season on HBO on Sunday, and with a cast of thousands and nearly as many subplots, you could be forgiven for being a little fuzzy on the details.

We’re here to help: Below is a primer on where we left off in Season 5 with most of the show’s major characters. Other significant active characters are marked in bold.

Please check back Sunday night at 10 p.m. for a recap of the season premiere. For a deeper dive into Season 5 and earlier, please feel free to check out past episode recaps.

Last seen: Full of dagger holes, bleeding out at Castle Black.

If you hadn’t heard, Snow appeared to die in a mutiny in the Season 5 finale and trailers, photos and everyone associated with the show suggest that he is actually dead. That said, approximately 0 percent of “Thrones” fans think he will stay that way. The question of how he comes back — whether it’s Melisandre the red witch, currently at Castle Black, who revives him; some other sorcerer; or some other mechanism altogether — will hang over the show until it’s resolved.

Last seen: In charge in Meereen.

Season 5 was a rough one for Tyrion, who arrived in Pentos in a box, was kidnapped by Ser Jorah in Volantis, dodged Stone Men in Valyria and finally landed in Meereen just in time for a violent insurrection by a gold-masked group known as the Sons of the Harpy. The good news: He survived and is back in a leadership position after spending nearly two seasons either imprisoned (for the trumped-up Joffrey murder charge) or on the road. Better news: He has Varys the cagey adviser back at his side, a fun pairing that briefly happened last year but was quickly torn asunder. Bad news that perhaps undercuts everything else: Harpys still presumably lurk in the shadows.

Last seen: Exiled in Dothrakiville.

Live by the dragon, die by the dragon. Or end up far from home with no GPS by the dragon, at least. The mercurial Drogon deposited Dany in Dothraki parts unknown at the end of Season 5, and while most of us were probably glad to see her finally leave Meereen, the circumstances don’t seem much better wherever she is now. You’ll recall that she’s the widow of a Dothraki warlord (Khal Drogo), so perhaps that will smooth the way for her. She dropped a bread crumb in the form of a ring, and is currently being tracked by a duo consisting of her boy toy (Daario) and her lovelorn, greyscale-ridden admirer (Ser Jorah), so maybe they’ll find her. Or maybe they’ll come to blows. Either way, it should be more fun than Meereen.

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Last seen: Shamed, cradled by a reanimated super soldier in King’s Landing.

Contemptuous and nasty throughout the early seasons, Cersei had been heading for a fall and last season she took it. Not long after she empowered a religious sect, the Sparrows, in order to persecute Margaery, she herself was locked up for once seducing her twit of a cousin, Lancel. Everything culminated in her agonizing walk of shame in the Season 5 finale. She now has the resurrected Mountain at her disposal, which could be useful — “I choose violence,” she says in a trailer. (The slithery Qyburn stands ready to help as well.) But Cersei is also presumably about to learn that her daughter Myrcella is dead, which would also seem to bode poorly for the feckless Tommen, her remaining child who is paradoxically both the king and the least powerful person in this story. A witch once predicted Cersei would lose three children (“Gold will be their crowns. Gold their shrouds …”).

Last seen: In a boat, holding his dying daughter/niece in his arms.

Jaime and Bronn took an extended vacation in Dorne that didn’t work out well for anyone, except for perhaps the viperous Ellaria Sand, who poisoned Myrcella as retribution for her lover Oberyn Martell’s death in Season 4. But for the rest of us it was a bummer — Jaime lost his daughter, Bronn got locked up and the whole thing was a bit of a dud from an entertainment standpoint. Now Jaime gets to tell Cersei, who already thinks he’s a kind of a deadbeat and is presumably still smarting from her walk of shame, that her daughter is dead. There’s still time to turn the boat around, Kingslayer.

Last seen: In jail in King’s Landing.

Margaery thought she had it all figured out, going from one king (Joffrey) to another (Tommen) before the first one’s body was even cold. But she, too, ran afoul of the High Sparrow/Septon and his followers, thanks to her perjury during the trial of her brother Loras. (He is gay and the Sparrows’ fundamentalist spin on the Faith of the Seven is intolerant.) The whole thing was orchestrated by Cersei, who later ended up being persecuted herself. But that is probably of little comfort to Margaery, who remains in her cell, at least until her grandmother, the wealthy Lady Olenna, figures out how to spring her.

Last seen: Leaping from a high wall at Winterfell.

At the beginning of Season 5, the long-suffering Sansa had the look of a young woman ready to leave her bad luck and bad marriages behind and move on to better things. But no. Petyr “Littlefinger” Baelish married her off to Ramsay Bolton, the worst person on the show. She spent most of last year as a hostage in her own childhood home, Winterfell, and her wedding-night rape was probably the most notorious scene of Season 5. Targeted by Ramsay’s jilted girlfriend Myranda, she was saved when her former adopted brother Theon/Reek rediscovered his inner nobility, throwing Myranda to her death and helping Sansa escape. Some wondered if they would survive the jump, but the pillowy snow of the North remembers, apparently, because new scenes show them fleeing into the countryside. Theon Greyjoy, by the way, could be leaving Reekdom behind just in time. His people, the Ironborn, will be more heavily involved this year. You might remember his rugged sister Yara and loathsome father Balon from previous episodes, and additional Greyjoys will show up in Season 6.

Last seen: Blind in Braavos.

Arya seemed destined for ninja-hood at the beginning of Season 5, joining a mysterious group of assassins called the Faceless Men. But instead she ended up in an extended “Karate Kid” training phase at their House of Black and White, doing menial labor for Jaqen H’ghar and taking regular abuse from an unpleasant girl called the Waif. Then things got dark: When Arya reverted to vengeful form, blinding and executing the awful Meryn Trant, one of her kill-list targets, she paid the price with her own eyes. At least for now.

Last seen: Vanquishing Stannis in battle.

Ramsay has become a major figure in this story, mostly through treachery. But his villainy caught up to him at the end of Season 5, driving Sansa to escape Winterfell rather than endure his abuse. As a Stark, she conferred a veneer of legitimacy upon House Bolton, which is otherwise despised in the North and probably most other places, too. Further complicating things for Ramsay is that his coldly calculating father Roose Bolton has sired another child, and the maesters say it’s a boy. This is 1) bad for the former bastard Ramsay, because it threatens his position within the family, and 2) really bad for the unborn child and his mother, because well, see Reason 1.

Last seen: Killing Stannis, missing Sansa.

Brienne is a loyal and fearsome warrior who has nevertheless elevated mission-bungling to an art form. She and her faithful squire Podrick, on a quest to protect and serve the Stark girls since Season 4, are so far batting .000. They’ve encountered each of them and have nothing to show for it, and the girls have since been blinded and brutalized. Sansa even sent a signal at the end of Season 5 that Brienne, who had been waiting for said signal for days, missed because she went after Stannis. That said, she’s still in the vicinity of a fleeing Sansa and did finally kill Stannis, who she’d been targeting since Season 2. So the long game is kind of her thing.

Last seen: In a magical cave in Season 4.

Bran took a gap year to focus on his studies with the Three-Eyed Raven, who will be played by Max von Sydow this season. Perhaps you’ve been puzzled by photos and trailers from the new season that show the paraplegic Bran standing. The explanation is that he is able to walk in his visions, which we’ve previously seen in bits and pieces but will be more substantial this year, as Bran comes into his own as metaphysical force. Hodor’s back, too! (Go ahead and say it, you know you want to …)