Well, I'd say Stoneheart would be just a simple matter of makeup artistry, not too fancy. But it could be related to the resurrection of a certain character (Stoneheart maybe, but possibly someone more important)interesting excerpt from that article
"Gower was much more cryptic about a mind-blowing VFX challenge that fans will see in Season 6… probably. “Benioff and Weiss, when they write the outline each year, for last two years, we got to this one point and we read this one gag and thought 'Oh my God, how the hell are we going to do that? But this is going to be incredible!’ And then it got pulled and we didn’t do it in Season 4,” says Gower. “And then, lo and behold, in Season 5 there it was again. And it’s pulled again! But now, in Season 6, it looks like we’re going to do it. Fingers crossed they won’t chicken out.”
Stoneheart?
This is an interesting angle. They made no move to burn his body, so he should become a wight at the very least. Could he come back as part of the white walkers and lead the army of the dead to right the wrongs the realm has suffered?
Eeeeexactly.
People who say the Unsullied suck (A) forget that we haven't seen them in battle yet, and (B) totally misunderstand melee combat.
The Unsullied are trained for formation-based warfare like Greek phalanxes or Roman legions. Whatever their particular prowess may be with spear and shield, even as lone fighters, the spear and shield basically require formations using shield walls and such.
All of the strengths you'd expect of such a soldier are totally useless in individual combat, let alone taking on multiple enemies at once, and especially in confined quarters or in conditions where you cannot deploy a longarm like a spear in an effective manner. Instead, the types of skills the Unsullied likely have probably include things like:
- Moving in formation.
- Maintaining discipline in the heat of battle.
- Indomitable morale.
- Ability to march quickly and fight upon arrival.
The other thing I think this shows is something that anyone who lives in a major American city probably knows: a police force -- even one specifically trained for the job -- cannot effectively police an area without the cooperation of the citizenry. Insurgencies work when they are coordinated and when enough of the population supports them. There is no effective way to quickly control or eliminate an insurgency short of exterminating the entire population indiscriminately. Other than that, you have to engage in counter-insurgency tactics which requires developing an intelligence infrastructure, obtaining local cooperation, all of which takes a good amount of time.
I agree, to a point, when on patrol we see them get ambushed from around corners and from Harpies popping out from buildings, that I can buy, what I can't is the situations where they are in essentially a stand up fight. The first situation is the one that cost Ser Barristan his life and saw Grey Worm seriously wounded, that small room that they were in is ideal for the Unsullied, just back up past the openings and their shield wall is virtually impenetrable. With their shield wall reaching from one wall to the next there's no room for the Harpies to outflank the Unsullied, they can't attack from the flanks, much less the rear. The Harpies are then facing a multitude of longs spears that they have to get past in order to try to attack the Unsullied with their short swords and knives. If they manage to get past the spears they then had to get past the shields which could also be used offensively, or, if Ser Barristan were to pull back behind the shield wall he could attack anybody who got past the spears with his sword from between the shields.
The other scenario was in the arena, if all of the Unsullied had pulled back from the seats and went down into the arena they could have formed a square and protected Daenarys from there. While a square is designed to be used against cavalry, I can't see why it couldn't be used against infantry that's largely armed with short melee weapons; the same basic ideas apply, you're up against a mobile opponent who can attack you from any side but who lacks the reach you do and naturally shies away from long, sharp, pointy objects.
A lot of viewers aren't going to appreciate that the Unsullied have faced situations that may not be suited for their training; they were told the Unsullied were bad*** and instead they get trounced every time they're seen fighting. Being told one thing and shown another is going to lead to a disconnect in many viewers' minds. It's like the early days of TNG where to prove that this alien that just boarded was a threat it would throw Worf half-way across the bridge. After a while it stopped demonstrating that the alien was a real threat and instead suggested that Worf was just a huge wimp.
Oh, no argument there.
But that's also partially down to Martin's own writing. Once Dany occupied Mereen, she basically faces no threat that can be surmounted by the Unsullied. It's only after she takes off on her dragon and the city is encircled that the Unsullied may end up playing a role in the defense of Mereen. Although why anyone would lead an army outside the walls of a fortified city is anyone's guess, unless they expect to be able to repel the enemy. But we have to wait for Book 6 for that stuff to be dealt with.
The major events were the same in the book, but the details differ:so Alister and Ollie were just twiddling their thumbs for days after all the Wildlings passed through Castle Black to Julius Caesar him?
It makes no narrative sense, Thorne could have just not opened the gate and left Jon and the Wildlings to starve and die.
Even the ancient Greeks, who fought primarily with spears (and who it appears the Unsullied are modeled after), kept short swords behind their shields for close-quarters combat.