Game of Thrones season 6 started out on a really rough note, at least as far as book readers are concerned. The coup in Dorne was terribly handled and made little sense. But since then, the season has gotten much better—even though we’re losing about one major or minor named character every episode. The deaths are becoming meaningless. At the same time, the show is getting better, and that’s for a simple reason: The Great Narrowing has begun.

The Structure Of Game Of Thrones And The Show’s Improvement

Think about the first episode and even the first season of Game of Thrones. At the beginning, every character except Daenerys was in one place—Winterfell. Soon, they spread out to the Wall, the Vale and King’s Landing, but there were still multiple characters in most of those places. But as the books and seasons went on, we met more and more new characters, and they became more and more spread out. Tyrion barely interacted with anyone for most of season 5. Arya hasn’t seen another POV character in ages. Most storylines outside of King’s Landing proceeded entirely on their own. The story widened over the years.

But now we’re well past the midpoint of Game of Thrones, and the story is narrowing. Characters and narratives are converging together again. This is most obvious with Jon Snow and Sansa, who have now reunited for the first time since season 1. Seriously: It’s been a full five years since we saw Jon Snow and Sansa in the same location. People have started and graduated from college in that time.

This is what it’s going to be like from here on out. Characters who were separated are going to come together again, or meet up for the first time. If not, they’ll be cut out entirely. That’s part of why the Dorne coup happened: It was a capstone on a storyline the show didn’t do a great job with. We don’t need to check in there anymore. Brienne is with Sansa instead of on her own; Sansa is with Jon instead of both being on their own. Soon some of the Greyjoys may be with Daenerys. Eventually, Daenerys herself will come to Westeros.

The joy of Game of Thrones is seeing how disparate characters react to each other, and much of that has been lost as characters have separated. But now they’re coming together again, and the show will slowly feel more like it used to: The key players will be interacting and working together or against each other, rather than entirely separately. And that’s a much more dynamic and exciting show than we’ve had for the last two seasons.