8 Things You Need To Know About The Women Of Game Of Thrones Season 6

Women haven't always had the best time of things on Game of Thrones. 

Obviously in a world where murder and brutality come as standard it's difficult for anyone to catch a break, but the show has come in for criticism for its particular violence towards and sexual depictions of its female characters, most notably in Season 5 with the rape of Sansa Stark. 

However, while that's all certainly valid, it has also given us some of the best and strongest female characters on TV. Women who use their smarts and wits to get ahead; women in power; women doling out some murder and brutality of their own. 

The gender dynamics in Westeros are set to shift further in Season 6, with a new Entertainment Weekly cover story promising that the women are on top. HBO programming president Michael Lombardo told the magazine:

The women are rocking this season...Daenerys always does, but also Brienne, Arya, Sansa, Cersei, Margaery, and other characters too, like Yara. They power this season. It’s organic to the storytelling, yet a radical shift. It’s the women that are the hope that we’re watching as the chess pieces move this season, and it’s very exciting.”

Exciting indeed, as we watch these characters who have grown over the past 5 seasons make some serious moves and power plays, and here's all you need to know about them heading into Season 6. 

Bran Stark may be the returning character getting the most attention, but there's another who sat out Season 5 back in action this year: Yara Greyjoy. 

Theon's sister, she hasn't been seen since Season 4's The Laws of Gods and Men, trying and failing to rescue her tortured brother, and her return is part of a big focus on the Ironborn this year. 

They were cut from the show in Season 5, in what seemed to be an Iron Islands or Dorne situation (with the showrunners choosing the latter, unfortunately for us viewers), and it would have been fair to assume that the show could move past them altogether, but instead it appears that their book arcs are making it into the show now. 

Yara's going to be faced with a big new challenge on her home turf, as uncle Euron (Pilou Asbæk) returns home with a thirst for power. That struggle should play out in Season 6's opening episodes, although quite where Yara's storyline heads after that remains to be seen, as in the books she winds up captured by Stannis Baratheon, who is, well, let's say rather incapable of doing such a thing now. 

The Season 6 trailer did give us a brief look at Yara, in a sexual encounter with a mystery woman, but don't expect all her interactions this season to be quite so happy.