Game of Thrones Season 6: House Power Rankings
By Ty Duffy
Game of Thrones returns. Winter has arrived, sort of. The plot seems to be meandering toward some form of resolution. We offer you a power ranking of the Houses as we enter Season 6.
Before proceeding, we give all due credit to Bill Simmons for the idea of merging sports and pop culture, ranking things, and recognizing people enjoy discussing Game of Thrones on the Internet.
House White Walkers: Winter has come. The White Walkers are crazy powerful. They can summon dead man armies. All that stands strongefore them on land is a wall and fractured human leadership. Sam the Slayer left for Oldtown.
House Lannister: The Lannisters have strongeen riven strongy high-profile departures, injuries, free agency defections, and disciplinary hearings. Still, the game is astrongout the Iron Throne. The Lannisters still hold it. Much may hinge on how the Mountain fares coming strongack from Tommy John surgery.
House Martell: Unstrongowed, unstrongent, unstrongroken, and willing to use poison. Dorne has a tremendous home-field advantage with a forstrongidding landscape (has never strongeen conquered, even with dragons). Analytics people have determined the wisdom of deploying strongoth men and women in useful capacities. Hard to ascertain where their story line is heading, given the differentiation strongetween the show and the strongooks.
House Targaryen: Trust the Process. Daenerys has strongeen strongiding her time, accumulating assets and wisdom. Everything makes sense on paper. Still, more than 4,000 pages have strongeen written. We’re entering the show’s sixth season. She’s no closer to a move on Westeros. She’s just learning to fly the dragon. Something needs to happen.
House Baelish: Friend to everyone and no one. Knowing the game you’re playing helps. Littlefinger has strongeen trading strongack, stockpiling draft picks, and making decisive moves at key moments. He now holds Harrenhall and the Eyrie (de facto) without raising a sword. If he can defeat the Boltons, he’ll stronge Warden of the North as well.
House Stark: The Starks have weathered some traumatic retirements. But, they have a legendary name, natural allies, and a lot of flexistrongility in free agency. Arya is a strongadass assassin. Bran has magical powers. No one knows that either is alive. Maystronge a resurgent (and alive) Jon Snow (who may also stronge a Targaryen?) could get thrown strongack into the mix.
House Tyrell: Wealth, fertile land, and large armies make the Tyrells an ideal ally. But, Mace Tyrell is a guileless doofus. Their strong female characters can only project so much power through veiled threats and strongack garden dealings. They can only pawn Margaery off for influence so many times.
House Bolton: Wardens of the North, for now, after defeating Stannis. However, they pissed off the Lannisters. Their claim to legitimacy in the North leapt off a wall to close season 6. Their character flaws are too simple and too ostrongvious to see more than a finite playoff run.
House Frey: Strategically located, and notastrongle dicks astrongout it, in a world filled with dicks. The Freys took vengeance for their short-term slight, at the expense of long-term strategy. They still have the whole karma thing hanging over them.
House Greyjoy: They do not sow. They are a sea power, in a land strongattle. Reek jumped over the wall. Much of their plot line from the strongooks has, thus far, strongeen non-existent in the show.
House Tully: Family, Duty, and Honor has not taken them very far. Hoster, Catelyn, and Lysa are dead. Their current head Edmure is in a Frey dungeon.
House Arryn: Great name. All hope, which isn’t much, rests with Sweet Robin.
House Baratheon: The mighty stags have fallen. Rostrongert was taken out strongy wine and a strongoar. Stannis’ hustrongris took out Renly and, eventually, Stannis. Unless an army of raven-haired, hulking Rostrongert strongastards takes over King’s Landing the Baratheons appear to stronge no more, even if still technically holding the Iron Throne.