Recently we learned the Game of Thrones season seven finale episode would be named “The Dragon and the Wolf,” which is easily the most intriguing title of the season, for perhaps its most mysterious episode. Today, we have a new batch of promotional photos from the finale, giving us an early taste of what we may encounter.
UPDATE: Even more photos have surfaced, this time at FarAwaySite.
The following are the most prominent among them, including our first look at Littlefinger in the finale, and at Jon in Dragonstone. It’s also getting pretty heated between Cersei and Jaime, and not in a fun incest way:
Original article below:
These promotional photos appeared earlier in the week than usual via DNA India:
HBO has officially released some of the previous photos in a higher resolution, as well as quite a few new ones, and a few screen captures too:
The finale is just four days away, and I don’t know about you guys but I’m not ready for it. Even as a spoiler-phile, there is much of this 80 minutes episode I know nothing about. Is this how it feels to be an Unsullied? It’s exciting! And a little bit terrifying.
Hodor?
oh bran is here…
That Jaime/Cersei picture makes me so excited.
Hodor!
Totally cannot wait!
I agree- even with the spoilers (that I won’t mention) we know very little about the finale- what we do know cannot possibly fill 80mins.
Wondering if the person didn’t know, or was deliberately withholding the details because it’ll be stellar- as all GOT finales have become.
My prediction (and this is total supposition) is Cersei is gonna try and wipe out all her enemies at the Dragonpit, and we may even get some big ticket deaths.
She did say in ep5 that they must behave as Tywin would’ve… and what tactics did he employ when all his enemies were gathered in one place? 😱
Hey! Bran is back! Now spill the tea, honey. Stop hugging that tree and talk to your sisters!!!
Jaime looks like he’s explaining frustration. Glad to see Theon!
They must be arguing about how implausible it was Dany could have flown to rescue Jon in time too.
I’m interested in S8 date now lol
I’m afraid and excited at the same time… This episode promises to be amazing.
That gathering is going to end up in a carnage, I fear.
I just got a bad feeling about Brienne, guys.
OOOHHH that Jamie Cersie pic!! He does not NOT look happy there..actually verging on angry !!!
and that Sansa pic.. she looks kinda..smug there? Not quite feeding -abusive- monster-husband to his dogs smug.. but smug nonetheless
If there is a Bran photo there then I am hoping for a scene where he finally reveals something. Littlefinger’s schemes, Jon parentage, anything along those lines!
I also think that is my favourite Cersei dress this season. The others have veered a little too modern in the embellishments and too overt in their ‘amouring’ whereas the fur gives her those powerful shoulders in a more natural way. I liked when Cersei’s costumes more subtly showed her thoughts. I know her character is going full out with her intentions now, but some of the costuming this season has felt a bit as though it is showboating for cosplay options compared to previous seasons. I’d also like to know the designer’s decision to move Cersei towards silver instead of gold embellishments this year. That dress would look great with golden lion embroidery on it somewhere. Cersei still seems to hold onto this Lannister pride and it used to show in her costuming.
Elizabethe,
I just re-watch and cannot believe how badly Sansa treated Brienne. That is reason alone for Arya to take her face!
Very painterly composed images.
There seems to be the set up for a battle , but considering the action of E5 and E6 I don’t think anything like that takes place. I guess Grey Work just waits outside KL with the troops.
Dany could burn Euron’s fleet , tho logical , that won’t happen either.
Bran’s eyebrows are on fleek.
spacechampion,
This Jaime/Cersei picture reminds me of Dany/Jon face to face in DragonStone: very tense, impossible to understand to each other, I can imagine Jamie and Cersei are arguing about what to do before meeting everyone in the dragonpit, or what to do after meeting everyone at the dragonpit! And they disagree, of course…
Boojam,
Same here, a big battle has been hyped for episodes, but I don’t believe they will actually fight, because that would be a massacre and no-one would be alive for the 6 remaining episodes of season 8!
I hope there will be very good dialogues between all these characters, like in every good GOT episode! And myabe some dead characters too…
Bran gonna release some stuff this week!
I don’t understand why people would even want spoilers. What fun is it to know what’s going to happen ahead of time before you see it play out on the screen? I avoided the internet like the plague last week. Probably all the people whose parents let them open presents before Christmas.
Elizabethe,
Me too 🙁 – after seeing all the interviews with Gwendoline Christie with longer hair ….
We only have Winterfell and Kings Landing as locations, so lot of things can happen.
I guess we will visit Dragonstone briefly at the begining of the episode, but still many characters interactions in WF and KL. 🙂
Sansa looks great and there we have my man Bran!!
Well, the only thing I can tell is that Cersei and Jaime are having an argument. As Elizabethe said, this may mean something bad for Brienne. Or it may be that Jaime is getting the point regarding the army of the dead, whereas Cersei would rather burn them all than give up her throne.
I’m glad to see the Sansa and Bran shots which are very probably at Winterfell. And the Theon shot which definitely seems to be on Dragonstone.
I’m sure the King’s Landing stuff will be great. But I’m glad they are not putting ALL their eggs in that basket for the season finale.
And it’s good to see it at least looks like Jamie is confronting Cersei. His arc has not exactly been the fastest or most consistent but I keep holding out hope he will come around.
Ryan,
Beware! Apparently the hackers that hacked hbo threaten to leak info about episode 7 or the episode itself.
I think I’ll limit my internet use to a minimum possible, just to be safe…
No more pictures of the PowWow. I am interested in that.
Dany has got to appear at that and my guess is that she has Drogon with her so they save that as a surprise.
Also Euron must be there but shows up separately?
It is interesting that Brienne is with team Dany she was not detained in any way.
Also Theon , wonder if it is explained why he is there?
A whole lot of people in one place who have never been in one place before.
I wonder if Bronn is there?
The Mountain is probably there , which is interesting since , seems, the Hound will be there.
At first i thought Salador Saan was there, but it was some Dothraki, actually a number of Dothraki there.
Thoughts:
* Theon! We get two Theon pictures, though neither of them really tell us anything – other than he appears to be at Dragonstone still. Hoping for some Greyjoy stuff in this episode. Other than Theon arriving at Dragonstone, we haven’t really seen them since episode 3.
* Sansa looks pleased about something. Not sure what given she seemed pretty freaked out in the last episode. Hopefully it is the downfall of LF or news that Jon has secured dragonglass in the south. We don’t know what the last piece of information she got from him was.
* Bran looks potentially upset/emotional about something, or as much as he can be in his current frame of mind. I’m really looking forward to seeing how they resolve the WF stuff in this episode.
* Bronn and Jaime on the battlements looks like a trailer still. I wonder if Jaime will come to regret trusting Tyrion or come to see how wrong he is about Cersei?
* Cersei is looking pretty fierce in her picture with the Mountain. I love her costume in the stills and trailer shots we’ve seen of this episode; a very regal look.
* Jaime and Cersei are hopefully arguing in this picture. I need him to see what she is becoming, but while she is carrying the child she says she’ll acknowledge as his I am not sure it will happen.
* Still missing Arya, LF, Sam and Gilly from the promotional materials. None of these four were in the trailer, and they don’t appear in the stills.
Bran! and two photos of Theon! I expect he is done exploring Dragonstone by now, maybe even found the so far unseen picked jars containing Stannis’ sons….
Sou,
Oh no. I hope not. But yeah, I may I have to do the same thing I did last week – stay mostly offline.
Brienne is part of the North/Stark delegation, she is with Jon actually so it makes sense she is on Dany’s team.
And for Theon, well I guess is the Pyke representative in Dany’s team, Euron is in Cersei’s team (iron born never know where to stand…)
The worst thing is…after this episode is over we’ll have 18+ months maybe to wait for the next one 🙁
Oh well will have to fill in the time with re-runs of all the Blu-Ray boxsets again…
Pic of Sansa must be after she comes in from looking over the battlements. She’s still wearing that cloak. I like that she’s smirking considering she looked so pensive in those shots.
Was thinking with the Lion banners around someone in team Dany’s group should be carrying a Targ one.
Boojam,
Yep, Tyrion for instance? Cersei would be pleased!
Glad to see Bran showing some emotions in the photo. So, he’s not completely a robot (at least not yet).
I am so happy to have been Unsullied this year and not reading anything with spoilers, but this year has come to an end too quickly IMHO. It’s not i wanted them to stuff it with ridiculousness, but just slow it down a tad. The end is looming and honestly i can’t imagine not having GOT to look forward to anymore.:(
That pic of Jaime and Cersei looks intense. Do you think we could get lucky enough for him to walk away? My feelings are that he will stay with Cersei to the end and that saddens me. We’ve seen a better man in Jaime that isn’t manipulated by his twin. Too bad he can’t let that man control him.
I love that we’ll see more of Bran. I understand his brain is probably overloaded and he’s no longer himself, BUT he downloaded a lot of information and so far I see no sign of him sharing any of it EXCEPT for the WW. I understand they are the driving force for GOT, but to not have him intervene with his crazy sisters or do something, anything about Littlefinger just totally baffles me.
I also have a feeling that Jon may never learn the truth about his parentage. I hope, I pray I’m wrong but that would certainly be bittersweet.
Jo2,
or the endgame perhaps
Sorry guys these photos leave me a bit cold and are nothing we haven’t already seen. Sorry I hate it when posters are negative. I think I’m having withdrawal symptoms 🙁
I wonder if we will get a Dany / Brienne intro meeting. Dany might have dragons but she has never seen a woman like Brienne!
H
Y
P
E
Skipped the pics but that name, yaaaaas
Sou,
You know, I have no patience for that sort of thing. To me it’s just mean and serves no point unless it’s to line their pockets. Which basically makes them thieves. Obviously other than coming here I will have to check my email and stay away from anything else online.
Woohoo get ready for the Jaime/Cersei breakup
Oh you bet it is, Luka!!! Yes, yes and yes! Isn’t it great?! 😀
…but no, I don’t feel ready either. Actually still working on getting my head around Beyond The Wall, but hopefully my brain (and stomach) will be ready for the final 80 minutes in 4½ days..
I think he’ll walk away eventually, and my guess is: next episode. But he’s been manipulated a lot since he came back to KL with only one hand, and for him to leave Cersei will require something very personnal, like learning she lied and she is not pregnant, or a miscarriage, or maybe Cersei killing Brienne although she said to Jaime she won’t…
But then, once Jamie has left Cersei and KL, where will he go? To Dragonstone and Dany? He killed her father, and I think she has enough of one Lannister… To Winterfell? Maybe… If Brienne is still alive… I really don’t know…
Ah! Theon! I’m so hyped for episode 7 for him alone! Can’t wait!
Yep, same here!
I can’t wait to see the costume Daenerys chooses for this one and how she is going to time her arrival..
I just wish that she does something like what she did in astopor at the end of the episode and finish cersei off..
Dee Stark,
Well, I gave in and looked at the pics. Not much different from the trailer I watched after Beyond the Wall. Do you not watch the trailers, either, Dee? If not you have more backbone than I…lol.
Elizabeth,
LOL
nope I haven’t seen the trailer 😉
Redx,
Thank you!
Dragonbringer,
dragonbringerr
where have you been all season
It is the last episode so D&D better give us a Ghost sighting….
Hahaha… She’s relentless and fierce when it comes to that, but hey, you can’t do anything but love Dee’s determination and super-hype, right 😀
When it comes to official unsullied-approved material published here on WotW only (and a couple of this seasons “Next on…”) I’m in, but other than that…blissful ignorance in the dark!
You’re our hero, Dee. 🙂 I couldn’t not look at the preview and photos, wanting to have a glimpse of my favorites. 🙂 But I don’t want to know anything beyond these. Sunday can’t come fast enough! Gah.
Dead Dane Walking,
Yes, it’s been blissful being in the dark this season!
Dee Stark,
Unfortunately I picked this season to get my injured and a arm fracture which kept me out of texting ..
I hope you have enjoyed this season and Jon and dany scenes like me …
What I’d pay to see Ghost… 🙂
Dee Stark,
I have to say i must start following you in not reading spoilers .. it just kills the enjoyment of the show…and also not getting involved in heated conversations about show and characters …It just kills the fun and ability to appreciate the fine work people are putting in for the show …
So I am going to try to avoid leaks and spoilers this season and I hope I am strong enough to resist the temptation like you …
Hopefully GRRm releases that damn TWOW by next year
Dead Dane Walking,
Sam,
THANK YOU
its hard but I can last 7 more episodes this way 🙂
The only thing I like to see is episode titles!
Dragonbringer,
Dragonbringer,
Yes I think you should do that next season. Only 6 episodes left… I think you can detach next year and come back spoiler free!
Oh no, I really hope you feel better.
Its too bad because this is DANY’s season and would have loved to converse with you about it
I am absolutely adoring this season… Jon and Dany.. and all that story. So much 🙂
And I didn’t know that I could love Dany more…. but I did after last episode. She is a true queen, and what she did last episode solidified that to me. I love her sooo much!!!!!!!!!!
Dee Stark,
Dee you are too freaking amazing! I like to think I’ve done pretty well this year, but that would never happen for me. I don’t have that much backbone…lol.
Dead Dane Walking,
I admire her perseverance! Gotta love that:)
Last one of these threads for the season. By this time next week, it’ll be over for at least a year, and I’ll be rewatching Season 7 from the beginning as a way to cope with the looming sense of withdrawal.
I’m feeling a little wistful, I must say. It’s been a great ride. But I also couldn’t be more excited for the finale, and all that it will bring! Especially with that promo and that title …
Those pictures of Jaime and Cersei are quite striking. Their conversation looks to be highly charged.
elizabeth,
elizabeth,
you are so sweet!
Cersei’s smug face was mentioned in the preview trailer thread but I have to bring it up again. We’re not seeing Daenerys at all in this stuff, but she has to show up. Everyone and her armies are there and the plan has been for her to go too. I’m picturing Cersei sitting in her chair with that smug face we see in the trailer looking and talking down to Jon and everyone else there… and then Daenerys showing up in some fookin’ amazing regal, blinged outfit shining like a god. In my mind I’d even go ahead and throw in the Rhaegal style dragon winged helm for show. I want Cersei to be visibly shaken when seeing Daenerys.
Dee Stark,
I should get full recovery by the end of this month then we can have those discussions in forum section
An HBO subscription fee?
The last weeks have been really tough this year, but I might actually step up to full Level Dee for S8 – at least during the six weeks they will air 😉
Clob,
I want that too ..
I just wish the dragon pit to be like tourney of harrenhall where everyone of the Lords of westeros ( atleast those who are alive ) to be present there …
Ha! “Level Dee” I like that. 🙂
Speaking of season 8 I already know what scene I will be looking forward to the most in season 8 episode 1 ..
Dany meeting Ghost for the first time
I wonder how long it takes for a woman to start showing that she in pregnant on Plantos????
and how long is a woman pregnant for before giving birth on Planetos?
No clues to the mystery…
Is Cersei really pregnant?
Clob,
If they are going down that path of upgrades, I would reeeally like to see a cool – and dare I say much needed – saddle on Drogon for Dany!
LOL. 😀 I do pay my cable! 😀
In a way, it is. At this point, anything that is in the books but not on the show cannot be used without basically being Deus ex Machina. The show has assiduously avoided that. (And, no: “cavalry arriving at the nick of time” is not DeM if we knew that the cavalry was out there; it’s cliche and tiring, but it’s not a random new thing appearing out of thin air.)
Now, there are lots of speculations and book-readers often have been speculating for longer than show-watchers. However, at this point, both parties are speculating based (hopefully!) based solely on what they have seen. We all have preconceptions and predictions at this point.
Sue made the very astute observation on Twitter that claims that this season felt like fan-fiction because so many fans had predicted the general events are completely ass-backwards. If M,B&W have done their jobs properly, then we should be anticipating the general events by now.
And if M,B&W come up with stuff that none of us anticipated, then they will be resorting to true Deus ex Machina: “Vrothia, the hitherto unmentioned Bravosi Goddess of Defecation and Vomitting arises to smite down the Night King with a Numenor” would surprise all of us, and not because of cleverness but because it’s just random.
But at this point, show-watchers and book-readers have to be on the same footing. Unless book-only stuff is introduced next week or in the first episode next year, then it’s too late for it to be relevant. (And at this point, I expect any new things to be things that would first have appeared in Winds of Winer or [more probably] Dream of Spring: there cannot be too much “new” but there could be a Deathly Hallows analog of some sort.)
firstone,
It would really screw with people if Cersei walked out carrying a baby. 😛
Dead Dane Walking,
I think they are saving the saddle and armor for both dany and dragon for next season..Hopefully made out of dragon glass..
It will be the first thing dany Jon and turion will think of after what happened last episode …
Er, almost certainly. Indeed, my bet is that she went after Jaime so aggressively because she knew that the timing was right.
Cersei would not start “showing” that quickly because she’s given birth multiple times before, and thus the fetus would drop sooner than it would for a young woman giving birth for the first time. (The muscles get stretched and unless Cersei knew about modern calisthenics, that would be unavoidable.) Moreover, she’d be wearing the heavier clothes of winter that would better mask such things.
It is much too late for arbitrary soap-opera drama like a fake pregnancy. (What could she do, blackmail Jaime into marrying her?) My question is: will this shatter her alliance with Euron?
That’s very good because stealing cable is very, very naughty! This gives you license to do something else very, very naughty to balance things out. Enjoy! 😉
I like that idea, Dragonbringer – it a whole different experience being in the dark… and I’m sure Team Dee will encourage and back you up 🙂 Personally I will also completely resist the heated discussions. It just takes you to the point, where you almost wish the show is over, but the fandom is like an addition…
And btw. get well soon. Good to see you’re back!
Wimsey,
Thanks for explaining DeM. I didn’t know this. I thought anything or anyone that saves the day is a DeM. So, in the case of Uncle Benjen, I didn’t expect him to appear and save Jon (I thought Rhaegal would swoop in and pick him up. 🙂 ) but since I’ve known that he’s out there beyond the wall then he’s not a DEM?
I get you, jared! …I too feel the need for a little “vacation” away from the intense atmosphere and heated discussions after Sunday. Suspect I’ll be checking in for reviews and ratings etc. in the days after, but then it’ll be a little break, then it’s S1E01 when fall starts kicking in 🙂
Looking forward to the context of Sophie’s “the pack survives” voice over from the trailer.
Btw, this may have been covered elsewhere, but anyone have any idea who Beric was referring to with his “there is another” line?
Wimsey,
Maybe Euron is the father.
Wimsey,
Haha! I’m glad I’ve got the license. Okay, I’ll think of something very, very naughty to balance things out.
It would look great, but is that possible? Not too brittle? …I would think dragonbone and leather straps for saddle and armor, but then again I’m not a book-reader (yet) so I may be wrong 😉
Yes, I would damn well hope they’ll think as far as that. At least I expect Jorah to insist on that after his rather uncomfortable take-off from the lake island!
So does that mean The Hound aka Wight Babysitter will also be part of the “North/Stark delegation” along with Brienne? If so, I hope the writers will devote at least two minutes for some Brienne-Sandor repartee. Can always count on Sandor for some comic relief in the midst of a seriously tense situation. 🐔
YAY BRAN!!! I am very hopeful that he will have been starting to get a handle on managing all the insane amount of knowledge of everything that he’s learned…and he will play a positive and pivotal role in the upcoming episode.
Side note: If they don’t resolve the Sansa/Arya storyline this season, but instead leave us hanging, I think my head will explode!!! I personally have come to believe that Arya is being manipulated by LF, but Sansa has it figured out, she’s onto him. It’s why she sent Brienne away at the first opportunity. She has figured out that LF is responsible for Arya getting that old scroll…she played worried and pretended to confide in him about it to see how he’d react…when she said to him that she thought Arya might try to hurt her if Arya thought she was betraying Jon, and LF pointed out that Brienne is honor-bound to protect her, even from Arya, Sansa knew he would try to manufacture evidence to Arya that Sansa is betraying Jon…so she sent Brienne away. This doesn’t remove ALL incentive for LF to manufacture betrayal evidence, but it buys Sansa time, and throws a curve ball at LF so he has to rethink his strategy.
I really think Sansa is about to surprise everyone who has been underestimating her.
Dead Dane Walking,
Thank you and completely agree with you..every Sunday I was just thinking that I forget what it was in the first place that made me love this wonderful universe and characters that live in them..I have come to accept the show for what it is and glad that it is there for us to give an ending to this story but it’s still is disappointing that we have only 7 more episodes …
I’ve always said that if CGI costs are the problem, crowdfunding would generate whatever money is necessary in a matter of hours. I know I’d donate my lunch money to see Ghost. And I’d skip dinner too for more Nymeria.
🐺🐺🐺🐺🐺
Dead Dane Walking,
I would definitely expect someone to start working on it and willing to bet that someone will be tyrion because he had already brought up dany getting hit by arrow twice in this season and dragon and viserion got hit in the battle…
I don’t know about dragonglass but in the books we are getting Euron having Valyrian steel armor which he claims to have gotten from ruins of Valyria..
Oh, I’d throw in a whole week’s worth of lunch money. I hope that’s enough? A girl has to eat… 😀
fingers crossed this episode is a much needed return to form for the show 🙂
But most likely several of them will be feature length and that’s something to remember, look forward to and cheerish when we hear Ned from his tomb go: “Noo, now it really ends” 🙂
Gotta go…Have a great day everyone!
ginny,
Agree that Sansa has it figured out, but I don’t think Arya fell for Littlefinger’s machinations, either. That scene in which Arya shows Sansa the scroll?
Think “a” scroll, not necessarily ” the” scroll. For all we know, it could have been a new one that said, ” Play with me. He’s trying to pit us against each other–slimy little scumbucket that Lord Baelish is.”
Just a thought.
Love the photos of Theon in conjunction with the short sequence with him from the preview, seems like he has found some determination again after (wisely) jumping ship in Episode 2. I think that a change in his goals or him making a daring plan this finale is surely to come at this point. It´s even mirrored in his attire, I would say:
I love the returned “black Theon” on a costume-design-aspect and I think this is a telling change. The last time he wore this costume, he was on a rising trajectory in confidence and both him and Yara were feeling pretty determined to asisst Dany in her conquest. After he jumped ship, Yara got abducted and he was picked up by the other Iron-Born, he went back to wearing his regular old stuff and he was seemingly feeling depressed.
So far, the Ironborn on the show have been generally associated with brownish-blue colors and these muddy-seaweedish colors, except Euron with his pitch-black casual attire which gave him a pretty self-assured look. I really think that Theon being now dressed in this more blackish attire once again is showing some kind of change in his self-perception or his determination. At the end of the episode, I´m convinced that he will have either chosen to save or (hopefully not) avenge Yara and to kill Euron.
He was talking about Leia. 😛
He was responding to Jon saying that Daenerys getting there is their only chance. Beric said, “no, there is another,” and pointed at the NK. He followed it up by saying that the NK made them all so killing him destroys all of the wights and Walkers presumably. What I don’t fully get is Jon’s response of, “You don’t understand.” I’m not sure what that means.
Dragonbringer,
Missed you too. Sorry to hear about your health problems, but hope you will be OK. Looking forwards discussing this season during the long night of off-season. In general I love it: even though I had some issued with Ep 5 and 6, they grew on me after numerous rewatches and now I am ready to say I love them too.
OMG. Epic dance off incoming! 😀
Elizabethe,
Nooooooo I expressly forbid it! Faithful sidekicks ftw! 😀
Clob,
I think Jon was saying if you kill the Night King and kill all the wights that would include the wight that they are going to bring back to Cersei…. and they want to keep that one alive.
but that makes no sense because if they killed all the wights then the problem would be solved and they wouldn’t need be bring a wight back to Cersei…
I gotta watch Beyond the Wall again…
What emotions? His face looks completely blank to me.
Even if she doesn’t try to wipe them out à la Tywin (which she’ll totally try to do), I love the symbolism of having the meeting at the Dragonpit:
Cersei’s message to Dany is crystal clear!!
Clob,
Jon knows that fighting the night king and the white walkers is completely different from usual fights south of the wall: there is no honor, there is no “let’s avoid killing our soldiers, let’s just fight each other” like he asked Ramsay Bolton, the night king wants to destroy humanity and he has tons and tons of wights to sacrifice. Plus, Jon already faced white walkers in single combat and even though he won he was exhausted (watch hardhome again), they are certainly very strong (like the mountains) and since they are all dead then they probably don’t feel pain, exhaustion, etc.
Or maybe it’s simply that Jon is a very negative person and does not beleive in himself defeating the night king 🙂
firstone,
Clob,
Me too. There’s a reddit thread (https://www.reddit.com/r/freefolk/comments/6uafe6/why_jon_snow_you_dont_understand_s07e06/?utm_source=amp&utm_medium=comment_list).
A lot of interpretation seems to be that Beric would need to fight through the wights to get to NK. But why wouldn’t Beric understand that? There was also a comment that *maybe* Jon saw something *familiar* in NK when they stare down in HH.
My guess is that Jon meant it’s not that easy to simply walk up and kill the NK. Jon knows the NK has incredible powers and Beric’s proposed charge up toward him would have been suicidal with almost a zero chance of success. Plus, Beric wasn’t sporting any Valyrian steel or dragonglass (although I supposed there were dragonglass weapons with them that he could’ve “borrowed”). In other words, to me, Jon seemed to be saying “hey, look Beric, I know you are fine with heroically sacrificing your last life for the greater good, but that idea just doesn’t stand a chance…we’d both be cut down before we even got started.”
Ten Bears,
yes, right, so many meetings are expected for the last episode… Since it will be a meeting between Dany, Cersei and Jon, basically, I hope there will be time for Jaime/Brienne, Brienne/The Hound, Podrick/Tyrion, Bronn/Tyrion, The Hound/The Mountain, Theon/Euron, and I probably forget some extras… Maybe this is why the episode is much longer than usual, like family dinners!
They got their asses kicked even with Dany coming to save the day, so I’m wondering if that was just his way of saying “it’s not that simple”. He and Tormund were the only two that had seen how powerful the NK is prior to this episode, and they still managed to underestimate him.
Dolorous Edd has seen the power of the NK, but he wasn’t with them on the special ops mission, so I guess my point it pointless.
Wimsey,
Cersei is playing the game of thrones with everybody including Jamie…. Cersie thinks Jamie betrayed her and she warned him to never do that again.
Cersei also asked Jamie “are you afraid of me” and Jamie said “Should I be?”… Cersie could be wondering if she has Jamie wrapped around her finger so she says she is pregnant and that she will go public saying he the Father… Jamie totally changes and melts into Cersei’s arms…
I am thinking the final issue that could make Jamie snap might be Jamie finding out that Cersie is not pregnant…. big “if” Cersie isn’t pregnant? Just a guess…. season 8 is gonna be good
I blather about Chekhov’s guns, but a good way to look at Deus ex Machina is the reverse of this. If you fire a gun late, then that gun must be hung earlier in the story. So, if you summon help and help does arrive to save the day, then a gun is hung (summoning!) and help arrives (firing!). If help arrives out of nowhere for no good reason, then that’s basically the equivalent of old Greek plays in which they lowered a statue of a god onto a stage with a crane (god & machine!) and the good guys suddenly were safe.
A related class of sin is for something to be arbitrary: it just happens but not because of anything stemming from the main characters. Gollum just falling into the volcano (as he does in the books) fits into that. Of course, it can be a bit fuzzy. Suppose that Benjen had told Jon “The Three-Eyed Raven sent me.” That means that it is not arbitrary for Bran, but it is for Jon. That gets difficult to avoid in a multiprotagonist story, as “free will” means that characters do things for their own purposes regardless of what other characters do.
Most of the time, what people call “Deus ex Machina” really is “The Cavalry arrives at the last second (again!)!” If there is a bomb set to a timer, then the timer cannot be stopped before the last second. (Unless it’s stopped and then starts again for some reason: then the bomb is re-defused at the last second!). This is a badly overused cliche or trope. However, if the Riders of Rohan are summoned, then it’s not Deus ex Machina when they arrive: it’s just cliche! (In the books, the Rohirrim arrive just when the gates to Minas Tirith are breached; in the film, they arrive just as the last defense are in danger of falling.) What would have been Deus ex Machina is if, say, the Infantry of Imbulbam had shown up out of the blue, too. (And, yes, I just invented them.)
Of course, having Jon being revived by R’hllor is sort of literally Deus ex Machina – a god interceded – but not literary Deus ex Machina: we learned years before that this god sometimes would revive killed people. But, then, if you hang a god early in a story, then you must have divine intervention before the end of the story! 😀
So, this is more of a technical question to help me wrap my head around Jaime’s options:
Is he officially still part of the King/Queensguard or has he been released from that to take up Tywin’s position as the head of House Lannister and Lord of Casterly Rock? If it’s the former, then I suppose he’s bound to do whatever his sister tells him to, but if it’s the latter… theoretically he could, as commander of the Lannister Army, decide to pack up and take the army back to the Rock. Just because Cersei is the queen and a Lannister, doesn’t mean she controls the Lannister army, right? As in, they aren’t the army of the crown, but they’re supporting it because the crown is family?
I guess what I’m trying to sort out is whether or not Jaime has the authority to stop the Lannister army from carrying out Cersei’s orders if he feels they are unreasonable.
Sansa looks badass with her new cloak.
(I assume she won’t be allowed to be one, though).
Lol! Yeah, I just meant within this group 🙂
Wimsey,
Evidently HBO feels that the subscription fee is insufficient to give us direwolves. I don’t know what it would take at this point – probably some kind of blood magic.
zarf21,
That is an interesting thought, first because I thought Arya returned that scroll to the mattress after she read it. And second, because I simply don’t want to believe that Arya and Sansa are really being so stupid.
A Dornish Tyrell,
Anyone meeting with Cersei would have to be completely stupid to show up before she herself was present in the location. And I’m pretty sure that the shots from the trailer showing the armies massing outside KL imply that there’s an understanding that if anything happens to the meeting participants, the city is getting sacked.
Too logical? Maybe. I always assume characters on this show have learned things from past mistakes, but often it turns out to be otherwise. But I really hope that at this point, no one would meet with Cersei without some sort of serious backup plan with which to threaten her in case of treachery.
I hope that we are going to see Yara one more time.
Again, I think that it is too late for this. I think that most of us saw it coming when we saw Qyburn in the room with her, and the look that he gives Jaime.
My bet is that the rift will be much simpler and much less arbitrary than a fake pregnancy. Jaime is going to accept that the wight is evidence that the old stories are true. He’s also going to take the absent dragon seriously, and think: “We could only anger a dragon, yet whatever is beyond the Wall seems to have killed one.” He also seems to think that even just one dragon combined with Dothraki & Unsullied (and, now it seems, the North) is enough to defeat them.
Cersei is going to dismiss it all. The wight is some clever fake, probably along the lines of what the Mountain is. Jon & Daenerys, whom she will quickly spot for being lovers (given that everyone else notices that the two of them cannot take their eyes off of each other), clearly are in league to get revenge against the Lannisters for the deaths of both of their fathers. Tyrion, who almost certainly really did kill Joffery, is in league with them. She’s going to be like George W. Bush was after 9-11: Bush “knew” what really happened (Saddam Hussein was behind it!) and saw everything through that “truth”: if Al Qaeda was more than a story, then they were in league with Saddam. (They weren’t.) Tyrion, Jon & Daenerys are Cersei’s Saddam’s, and the White Walkers are her Al Qaeda.
Something like this would fit this year’s story (choosing your battles), and it should put yet another wedge between them. In particular, at this point I expect Jaime and Cersei to kill each other with Jaime trying to stop Cersei from wiping out their defense against the Walkers and Cersei trying to stop Jaime from falling for their enemies tricks.
Fierce as a Wolverine,
I went back and checked, Arya folds the scroll and looks as if she is going to put it back but we don’t actually see her replace it in the mattress.
Fierce as a Wolverine,
Well, they hung a wolf-pack early this year: my bet is that it will be fired before the show is done. However, would showing dire wolves be anything other than a fan-service this point? Unlike dragons, they are not integral to the plot. They are not integral to the story. They basically are just symbols at this point.
And, let’s face it: Nymmeria did not look very good. It’s hard to CGI living mammals because they still do not CGI fur that well. They can use CGI to inflate a dog (which they are doing), but it still looks slightly fuzzy.
So, if it’s not going to advance the plot or further the story or even look good, then why bother?
They’ve never shown Euron & Cersei together in any way, and good story telling hangs the guns before firing them. Cersei clearly was not taken by Euron, and there is no way that she intends to honor her promise to him.
Some would argue the Arya/Sansa storyline meets that criteria!
Fierce as a Wolverine,
But the explosion of the Great Sept of Baelor was just an unfortunate accident!! Cersei told Tychos as much! 😉
That is all about choosing battles.
Me too!!
Okay but where are the Jon and Dany pictures?I want them.
EW have just posted an article with more pictures from the finale! Including characters not featured in the pictures from earlier:
http://ew.com/tv/2017/08/23/game-of-thrones-finale-photos-out/
I re-watched season 1 episode 1 recently and there was an interesting scene with Jaime and Jon. Jaime smugly mocked Jon and the Night’s Watch, and commented about men being nothing but sacks of meat with bones to carry it around. I hope it all comes full circle in this finale. I don’t think Jaime has seen Jon since the very first episode, and it would be fantastic if there was some form of acknowledgement from Jaime as to Jon’s maturation over the years, and perhaps Jaime seeing Jon is the impetus for Jaime leaving Cersie and going to the Wall. Is it too much of a stretch to think Jaime could end up as the Lord Commander of the Night’s Watch in season 8?
Theon looks good. Like a proper Greyjoy. I hope, hope hope that he is the one to end Euron once and for all; that Euron is really there in the show for Theon’s endgame storyline.
Hey, Dragonbringer, good to see you back, at least for the final episode of the season, which is such a great one for your fav. character. I will say that for me, contrary to my expectations, the Jon and Daenerys interactions have been a highlight of the season, and Dragonstone my favorite location. Hope you feel better soon.
Branflakes,
Jaime was stripped of his position as Lord Commander of the Kingsguard by Tommen back in Season 6. While he’s remained by Cersei’s side as she’s ascended to the Iron Throne, she hasn’t compelled him to rejoin those ranks (as evidenced by his full Lannister armor, as opposed to the new black Queensguard armor worn by the Mountain and the rest).
It’s not clear whether as Tywin’s eldest living son, Jaime has now reclaimed his hereditary title as Lord of Casterly Rock, or if Cersei, as Tywin’s eldest child, now claims the title of Lady of Casterly Rock in addition to being Queen of the Seven Kingdoms (if it’s the former, it would sort of mirror the situation between Jon and Sansa, where Jon is King in the North, but Sansa is the Lady of Winterfell).
It has, however, been established that Jaime is the Supreme Commander of the Lannister Army, so he wields a great deal of influence on that front. As for whether the army would choose to follow Jaime if he decided to defy Cersei … that’s a very good question. Jaime would technically be in rebellion against the Crown if he defied Cersei’s orders, but since he’s led the Lannister army into battle at Riverrun, Highgarden, and the Blackwater Rush, there’s a chance that the army may feel more personal loyalty towards him. So it’s hard to say, but I expect that we may find out.
Dragonbringer,
Hi you are finally back!I am sorry about your hand.So how are you enjoying the Jon/Dany story because personally I am loving it.They have been great this season.
Question:Did Cersei ever meet Lyanna?
Tamwell Sarly,
How about you wait until the final episode before you make such a claim ? Oh no,this storyline hasn’t concluded in one episode,it’s useless !
I fear greatly for Yara in this episode. Theon may look great in those new threadsd, but he does NOT look happy.
I’d like to see Euron’s reaction to the wight. He’s always up for a challenge. I’ll be he would think he could take on the Nights King. I’m sure Cersei would be glad to promise him anything if he took his Ironborn up north to fight!
Alba Stark, thanks for the additional pics.
No pics of Dany … I’m intrigued
Fierce as a Wolverine,
LOL!!!!!!!!
Its crazy how much the fandom wants direwolves to make appearances. I am one of them.. its just crazy how its a major consensus
Season 7, episode 7, 7 pictures, episode is 77 minutes if you don’t count previous/intro and credits. Looks like a magical episode to me. Can’t wait.
I wonder what Cercei is planned. But most of all I’m excited for Sam and theon storyline. And will we see embrose again?
Dee Stark,
Same here, I was very conflicted last episode. On the one hand I was sad to see Vyserion go on the other hand I was thinking if all the dragons would die we would see more of the direwolves next season.
Jenny,
Its safe to say Lyanna has never been south
Wimsey,
I thought Nymeria looked great actually.
Kevin1989,
The previously one doesn’t count in the runtime,i don’t want to be rude but it’s been said like a hundred times already .
in the books we are given the idea that she did (most likely at tourney at Harrenhall) but never stated outright
the show has never said one way or the other
Alba Stark,
To me, Bran looks as Buddha-like as ever. There is no special emotion in his eyes.
Jenny,
If you’re implying that she will recognise that Jon looks like her,i really doubt it,if anything Jaime knows more about Lyanna than her and he already met Jon way back in season 1 and he didn’t recognise him so nope,i think some people are kinda reaching in how much Jon looks compared to Lyanna,obviously the actors can’t because duh but even in the real world children don’t always look like their parents that much .
Kris Logan,
I didn’t know if it was the previous on or the credits that wasn’t counted so I wrote them both. But still credits and the intro is roughly 3 minutes, so the episode itself is ca 77 minutes long.
And I’m new here in the comments. Previous I only read the articles. So I don’t really know what’s been said before.
I believe she was asking about Lyanna Stark, not Lyanna Mormont. 🙂
Alba Stark,
Still no pictures of Daenerys. She just HAS to be wearing something magnificent!! Everyone else seems to be wearing their finest. Tyrion even has a new tunic.
tiny direwolf,
It’s pretty obvious that she’s going to make a dramatic entrance with the dragons so that’s why .
I went back to watch “Stormborn” and “The Spoils of War” and it’s actually the same dark clothes. But that aside, he looks awesome in his ironborn clothes and these new pictures certainly do him and his outfit justice.
Calm down, seriously. I’m not a complaining one single bit about the Arya/Sansa story line. That’s why I said “some.” I was poking a bit of fun at those that do complain. Irony/sarcasm 101, sheesh.
Tamwell Sarly,
Sorry,but this past week has been hell so i’m always on the edge .
Wimsey,
The Dragon and the Wolf will probably be a set up for season 8… with some good cliffhangers. I’ll be surprised if any main characters die this Sunday.
There will be a ton of game of thrones play in season 8 and I hope the wights are gone as soon as possible so the King and Queens can determine who continues to play the game of thrones and who dies.
Everybody’s story in season 8 will be EPIC!!!!
Jamie does not look happy… at all!
The focus was not as sharp as everything else. That probably was a consequence of not being able to scale the resolution of the digital shots to the size that they were going to make her.
Sadly, in another few years, it probably will be possible to do furry mammals in CGI well. That would make putting in dire wolves a lot easier, at least on screen. There is a separate issue of making them relevant to the story, though.
We need an irony font. How about Klingon?
My Buddha is chubby and laughing! Wait, that might be my Elvis….
Well, looking at those photos, I can surely agree that nothing f.cks you as bad as time.
And I certainly include myself, compared to the 2011 me.
I think that it will be very much the other way around: the characters are going to realize that the Iron Throne is a minor issue next to the Night King and his White Walkers.
What I really am hoping is that we learn the why of the Walkers. Why they came back almost necessarily has everything to do with what needs to be done to make them go away. GRRM has told us for years that his stories are about conflicted people working through those conflicts. We know why people should want the Walkers to go away: but we need to learn why they will feel conflicted about that. Why they went away last time and why they came back this time should be linked to that.
No, Cersei was not at the Tourney of Harrenhal – there is nothing pointing towards that in her PoV chapters and Tywin did not attend because he was angry at the king for making Jaime join the Kingsguard. The tourney of Harrenhal was where Jaime swore his oath to become Kingsguard, and Tywin took Cersei and left the capital immediately after hearing Aerys’s decision – so he would not have wanted Cersei there either. Also, if Cersei was there, someone would have commented how Cersei was one of the most beautiful ladies present (they only mention Elia, Lyanna, and Ashara). Kevan Lannister has seen Lyanna, maybe he was there at Harrenhal, and he compares Lyanna’s looks with Cersei’s and decides Cersei was more beautiful.
Was Cersei at Harenhall? I don’t recall that ever coming up. (I remember that Jaime was, which makes it more probable that Cersei was than was not, too: but it does not guarantee that she was present.)
Even if Cersei was at Harenhall, then the two might never have met. From the descriptions (both on the show and in the books), there were a lot of people there.
Jared,
I think the army thing might be significant – or at least makes Jaime a more important player than I’d thought he could be before… given Jaime’s hangups with his father’s legacy, it would be interesting if he actually goes and pulls a Tywin move by pulling military support from the crown and backing the more likely winners at the last minute (which I believe is how Robert’s Rebellion went down? I think?). He can be his father after all!
Yeah, well, Kevan’s view was not exactly objective! Kevan definitely bought into the “Lannisters are better than anyone else” mystique, particularly where anything connected to Tywin was involved.
Kevin1989,
I was wondering if Ebrose might be invited to the shin-dig as a representative of the Citadel….harking back to Sam’s idea of them sending ravens to all the Maesters…with proof other than the words of a boy
Wimsey,
Cersei wasn’t at Harrenhal.
1. That photo of Bran is really quite beautiful.
2. Sansa, please find an excuse to dispense with LF.
3. Meeting of Queens and Kings plus handful of Hands and fighters. Hmmm what can go wrong?
4. Jaime, hopefully seeing a certain someone will remind you that you can do better.
Jenny,
Whoa wouldn’t that be something if Cersei knew who Jon’s parents were and revealed it at the Dragon Pit! We know Jon looks like his mother.
I doubt it but it is an interesting possibility. Broadbent did say that he’s in five episodes and he has only been in four so far (no ep. 4). However, he also said that his scenes are all with Sam, and since he left I assumed he then meant he’s in episodes through the fifth one.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DjTp0lfcgEE
So cute.
If one of them kills the other one on Sunday, I am setting the world on fire.
I am so freaking nervous for this meeting. Cersei would not let this opportunity pass by to kill Tyrion or any of the others… ah! Is it Sunday yet??
Fierce as a Wolverine,
Mhh. Not putting the scroll back in place is careless as hell for a trained assassin. She really made sure that LF would think that she had taken the bait. She did lock the door again behind her, so that LF would be certain she was trying her best to be discreet.
Aryamad,
S7 Cersei could let the opportunity to kill Tyrion pass by because she has already done so.
It looks like Daenerys will have her entire forces there, and I assume the dragons nearby. I think Cersei is going to have to honor ‘guest right’ because if she tries anything it will be a suicide move.
awol,
As some of us already mentioned, I’m super worried for Brienne. And Bronn. Cersei is an emotional vampire. She will eventually make sure that Jaime has no one but her to worry about.
Maybe I’m simplifying it too much, but I just figured the Children and the First Men alliance was strong enough to push the NK back to the extreme north. They built the wall (with the inclusion of some magic) and the time since then the NK has been slowly amassing his massive undead army (as well as creating more white walkers). Now that it’s large enough, he’s ready to retry killing everything so that he rules/controls everything. That’s too simple? There’s a deeper meaning?
Wimsey,
> Gollum just falling into the volcano (as he does in the books) fits into that
I think Tolkien may have meant that as divine intervention of Iluvatar, since Gollum was otherwise quite stable on this feet in rocky ground… Actually Gandalf talks about Gollum’s purpose of life in the beginning of the book when Frodo laments Bilbo didn’t kill him, but not as clear as how Beric muses about Rhllor, so I admit it’s not truly spelled out that Iluvatar kicked him. For me “the little evil destroys the big evil when the good fails” fits into the story of the book, which is about “good” and “evil” rather than about the characters themselves.
Snowblind,
Nah she doesn’t know.Why would she?Realistically nobody should say anything but considering Beric’s words last ep,this episode’s title and how the show likes to foreshadow these things somebody might mention he looks like his aunt.Jaime saw her for sure.Yes he didn’t say anything in season 1 but it wasn’t important to the plot back then lol.
Wimsey,
About Nymeria’s appearance, you wrote:
“The focus was not as sharp as everything else. That probably was a consequence of not being able to scale the resolution of the digital shots to the size that they were going to make her.”
___________________
I thought the blurry look was because director Mylod resorted once again to his [annoying, in my view] trick of having characters emerge out of focus from the background. He did it with the Waif running on top of the wall trailing Arya through the streets of Braavos; he did it again when sxe-wielding Sandor came upon the campsite of the juvenile joke-telling rogue members of the Brotherhood without Banners.
The special effects crew does such a marvelous job making fictional dragons like look like real, sentient animals. I have a hard time believing they can’t use the same ingenuity and CGI technology to render a “realistic” fictional
direwolf.
If it’s a function of budgetary priorities, I’m ready to kick in 10 bucks, and I’m confident 500,000 other fans would gladly do the same if it meant Ghost and Nymeria in S8.
(I’m still hoping Nymeria and her ravenous pack show up again in Sunday night’s episode. Preferably when WeaselFinger is outside by himself in the godswood. Smelling like bacon. )
🐺🐺🐺🐺🐺
Hopefully it will be a good episode. This season has been the worst by far of all the seasons, so it needs to end strongly.
I am not all that worried about Bronn actually. Thta castle he keeps asking about is relevant, and until he either gets one and uses it to influence the war, or doesn’t get one and jumps ship in the best possible way because of it, I think he is safe because his story isn’t finished.
As for Brienne, she might die but if her death influences Jaime to flip sides it will be worth it in terms of story value.
Very worried about what Cersei has planned. Sansa’s brother/KitN, Tyrion, the younger more beautiful queen, Brienne/Jaime’s conscience–she wants all of them dead and they’ll all be right there in front of her. And she thinks she’s Tywin now-but she’s never been as cunning or patient. Plus she REALLY enjoys hurting people.
otoh So ready to get on board another Jaimewatch- ie counting down the hours for him to break up with her lol (Please let it happen before she/he dies. Maybe she’s not pregnant. That would do it right?) I love their pics. Just hoping it means he comes to his senses.
Bran will save us from this horrible sister fight! So glad he’s in the pics. I don’t care which one of them does it-Sansa, Arya, Bran warging someone/something, The Hound and Varys and Tyrion showing up with Jon and spilling all the beans immediately-SOMEONE needs to kill LF and stop the Grima Wormtongue madness.
This is what she wants and yeah, I’ve thought about it too. Since I love both of them-Brienne and Bronn-it would really cement my feelings about Cersei (not that I need that)
I still feel like Brienne has more story. But my imagination is now thinking back to when Jaime told the story of the Mad King in the bath and he collapsed naked in her arms “My name is Jaime”
If she died in his arms calling him Jaime…
And now I’m crying. LALALALALALAL
Nope. Big nope. Brienne is going to survive for the epic Long Night Love Triangle and if they go out, they’ll go out fighting together. *optimistic fan fic*
J+T+B=YAY lol
I’m still having a hard time with this “plan” because…well, it’s pretty dumb and/or naive. It just doesn’t make sense to me. Tyrion of all people would know that Cersei couldn’t care less about the ‘greater good’, ESPECIALLY now that her children are all dead (I think the pregnancy thing is a ruse to get Jaime to fall in line).
Seeing a twitching corpse isn’t going to get her to believe that there’s an entire unstoppable army of them. Even so, that would be a problem that she can deal with at a later time. AFTER she kills all of the enemies in front of her NOW. Again, Tyrion would know this.
I’m curious if this plan is going to be in the books at all. It just doesn’t seem like a logical course of action compared to everything that occurred in the show during the first 4-5 seasons. I just hope/pray that Tyrion isn’t as stupid as this is beginning to make him look. Hopefully, he has some ace up his sleeve once Cersei tries to roast everybody.
And, yes, I’m also a little nervous because the show hasn’t killed off a main favorite in a while and I just can’t figure out what’s going to happen (which is a good thing)!
Is it possible both Arya and Sansa are onto LF, but not trusting each other with their information and suspicions?
I am super bummed the finale is already upon us. Amazing how fast the years have gone. I can’t even imagine what it will be like with the last season/finale episode.
It’s weird that posted as I was not finished writing but closed my phone. Oh well. Im so used to some of the posts/questions of Jack Bauer that I just assumed someone would literally wonder about Lyanna Mormont, as silly as that is.
H.Stark,
We’ll probably get a scene from an unspecified location down south in Dorne; based on the episode title, I suspect the episode opens with a flashback showing Rhaegar marrying Lyanna. (Purely speculative)
I don’t care if she ends up with Jaime or the Hound, but I want to see Brienne knighted by the end of it all!
I wonder what the Night King will pull in the finale. We have to see him one more time right before next season?
I’m guessing next season is him against Westeros…crossing the wall, attacking Winterfell, King’s landing? etc.
Clob,
She is wearing her spoils of war outfit with the red cape.
Theon looks good.
Clob,
That’s interesting re Ebrose (Broadbent) saying he appears with Sam in five episodes and so far he’s appeared in four? If so, perhaps that would mean him and Sam will also be in Ep7?
I presume Sam still has the family sword ‘Heartsbane’ and he’s no warrior. So maybe he presents it as a gift to someone worthy of swinging it? TBH, I’ve no idea – Just speculating…
Chuck,
I can see that happening in the next episode as well.
I can’t help to wonder what exactly S8 episodes will consist of though.
If what is left of the living are united against the dead after S7….. there still needs to be more than that to fill six episodes of S8. That would mean the WW are compelling enough to draw out the final battle.
Unless the living are not united yet and Cersei is still alive and still exploiting advantageous opportunities.
Nice DeM stuff. However, I prefer Ex Machina to Deus Ex Machina…it’s a better movie.
—-
Oh Bran…ever so pensive, are we? Do tell, do tell!
ramses,
I don’t know if the final count is set in stone but I have to believe that either it will be longer than 6 episodes, or longer in length than 60-70 minutes.
I know it’s not popular to voice on this forum because a lot of folks (myself included) love the show and don’t like reading negative comments. But fuck it.
I think this season has been great. It has consisted of some of the best actions scenes I’ve ever seen on GOT, much less any other TV show or even in movies. Truly a work of art.
But that has some a little bit at the expensive of the writing and plot. Previous seasons focused on the writing/plot with some heavy, but few, action scenes thrown in. This season and (presumably the next) have been the opposite.
I just hope that next season they slow the pace a bit, and show us the interaction between the characters we love in a timely and somewhat languorous manner.
Anyways, just my opinion.
CGI Scales, teeth and skin are childsplay compared to CGI fur. Scales, etc. provide fewer moving parts, and the way these things behave in different sorts of light is much more homogeneous than with fur. Even feathers are much easier to simulate on a computer than is hair. Fur and hair still bedevil CGI because much more chaotic in their motions: you have lots of individual strands that move 95-99% together and 1-5% independently. That is thousands of individual elements for every dozen elements on other animals.
It is a lot easier if you make the animal or person monochromatic (e.g., King Kong): but too many animals (including canines & humans) have a mix of hair colors. So, you need to take into account the reflectivity & translucence of every shade: there is no set parameter! (That’s why the Dire Wolves are just real huskies in which the computer effects are used to magnify the apparent size of the animal.)
This is not just a problem for GoT: it’s just a tricky problem for modeling in general. When they do get to the point where they can CGI dogs/wolves/etc. efficiently, then you will read about. That will be one of the last barriers to completely CGI films in which people & other mammals look “right,” and then what “acting” means and demands is going to completely change.
Touché, good ser, touché: the next round of pork pies are on me.
Thinking about it, I don’t think Dany needs an amoured up or impressive outfit. I hadn’t thought of it before but I would love to see Cersei’s reaction to a younger, more beautiful queen (with dragons) and for her strong belief in her blowing up the sept being the right thing for her to do to protect the Lannisters and her children blah blah etc to disappear when she sees Dany. She’s been able to convince herself that is was a necessary move I think even with Tommen’s suicide but maybe she will doubt herself after meeting Dany?
Jo2,
I believe in the books it was part of the prophecy; something along the lines of a younger more “beautiful” queen taking her place.
Yes. I don’t think either of them trust LF, but both of them are too damaged to really trust each other. They’ve got serious walls up. However, I also think LF is Sansa’s closest frenemy and she has a real, but complicated bond with him, plus she needs the Knights of the Vale, so it’s not so easy for her to dispatch him. She needs sufficient proof of his misdeeds, which means giving him enough rope to hang himself unless Bran finally 3ER’s him.
I’ve only read about 50 comments but I do not think think sansa is smirkingly an de Cersei seems to be holding her baby bump. Don’t know what to make of that.
I’m hoping Bran will put put a stop the bickering between the sisters with a revelation.
Khal Bronson,
The best reason for Tyrion’s plan I read on reddit was that Tyrion wants Jon & company to bring the wight to King’s Landing for the people who live there to see the real enemy (the army of the dead) and turn on Cersei.
I still think it was a terrible idea to bring a wight to Kings Landing but that is at least a better reason especially if the King’s Landing people are getting hungry for food.
Jaime looking at Cersei there, such beautiful disgust. I hope he comes to realize what a Mad Queen she is – I remember the meeting of Jon and Jaime back in the very first episode, I thought wtf how dare they add this random scene.
But then, I liked it. I thought – I want to see them fight white walkers together. Jaime serving under Rhaegars trueborn son would also bring it back around to Jaime/Rhaegar, former Kingsguard,how he respected Rhaegar and when he told Jaime he’d change everything after the Battle of the Trident. Can’t remember if this was in show or not…But I hope Jaime is around when Jons parentage is revealed. If he ever does leave Cersei he’d bend the knee to Jon. Maybe? Almost like how Barristan the Bold found Dany and regained his honor. Beautiful soul he was.
To people who say the plan to catch a Wight was stupid. I ask, what else could they do to show everyone what’s beyond the Wall? I always assumed in both show and books that eventually the South would learn of it. Never knew how GRRM or they would write it, I thought the wight idea was ok. Happened quickly though, but not the worst plan if the end goal is to prove the existence of the WWs. Jon knows he doesn’t have enough men, the North has what, 9000? Plus the Vale and whatever is left of the Wildlings. Not enough to man the wall as he’s planning.
Could always take a few prisoners north and kill them, see if they change?
A friend is having a tough time now that the whole Fantasy aspect has combined with everything else in the central plot, its a hard clash now from everything that’s been in the show previous.
A Dornish Tyrell,
Agreed. It’s a poor choice of meeting place for Team Dany, confined and many potential hiding places. Meeting on an open plain would have been more secure for everyone.
Chuck,
Yes, that’s why I want to see it 🙂 To see Cersei’s realisation that putting all of her effort into getting rid of Margery believing she was the one she had to get rid of may have been for nothing as there is another younger, more beautiful queen now
Beric meant that there is another way for them all to survive, for them to defeat the army of the dead, other than Dany, responding to Jon’s “Dany is our only chance” line. Beric is saying that, if they kill the Night’s King, then every single Other and every single wight will die instantly because he made them all.
This was nicely setup in this episode when Jon killed one Other and all his wight-minions that he created died with him. But since the Night’s King presumably made all of the Others, then killing him would kill the Others he has made.
Would it really? I think it would certainly wipe out the majority of wights because we saw the NK make all of the Hardhome wights, and he’s likely made most of the other wights. However, I’m not sure that the Others work the same as the wights. In fact, I’m sure they aren’t exactly the same. So they may or may not fall with the Night’s King. And if they didn’t, then the wights that the other Others made would still be in play.
I also do not believe that the Night’s King will die as easily as the other Others but that likely there will be a special something extra, like removing his dragonglass heart, to killing him that Jon doesn’t know how to do yet.
Ginevra,
We have to take into account that Jon saw the pictures of the Dragonstone cave and that there was a different Ningh King (it had a beard). So, I guess Jon suspects that even if the Night King is killed a successor may appear, although he doesn’t know the mechanism (he has to find out).
They would not have any good means of getting the masses to see the wight well enough to buy the stories. People viewing the wight from afar could easily think it’s just clever costuming or a puppet or something: after all, street performers of various sorts would be common in this sort of culture, and they would be used to paying pennies for this sort of trickery. Moreover, given that this basically is something from a fairy tale, people would approach it assuming that it must be fake: and getting people to overcome preconceptions is no mean feat.
I think that the real goal is to get the people advising Cersei to accept that the real threat is beyond the Wall. Tyrion has to know (deep down) that Cersei will never accept that it is real. Jaime, on the other hand, might. If Jaime is persuaded, then Cersei herself becomes much less important.
Some people have felt that if the southerners were told about White Walkers and wights from a trustworthy person, then they would believe it. It’s come up here many times: why aren’t the southerners or even the northerners responding to the ravens warning about White Walkers? More than once, we’ve seen the explanation: the NW was sending ravens, but because White Walkers are a northern fairy tale that either died out long ago or never even existed, nobody is taking it seriously.
What both show and book setup early is that it would take some concrete proof for the Westerosi to accept what really is happening. I had thought that they wouldn’t: the Walkers would breach the wall, and then issues would arise when the northerners would flee south, only to have their retreat mistaken for an invasion.
One thing that they are using well is Daenerys’ crush on Jon. That gives a believable explanation for her to take him somewhat seriously: most of us probably have experienced situations where we take what a crush says much more seriously than what someone else says! (Of course, Daenerys also is trying to be politic: so, that’s a double whammy.)
Sigh: if only they hadn’t felt the need for every visual cliché on film last week….
Red Nightmare,
That’s your opinion,don’t try to push it as fact
I was hoping to see a picture of Podrick. Oh well, I know he’s going to Kings Landing. Maybe a reunion with the ladies he did magical stuff with back in Season 3.
Would love to see him with Lord Tyrion and Bronn and bring the Holy trinity back in the game.
Red Nightmare,
Reminder that’s your opinion! You must be one of those whingers that’s always whinging to sound edgy.
Anyway, I personally think it’s been a great and strong season despite few editing issues here and there. Sadly, it was short. Woulda loved it to be longer.
Or maybe the NK shaved his beard? I haven’t seen anything to indicate the NK isn’t the same exact one the Children created thousands of years ago (which Bran saw in one of this visions in season 6). I think it’d be a really cheesy, horrible way to go to build the NK up as this nearly unbeatable force, kill him, and then have another NK succeed him.
Wimsey,
Thank you for your explanation. Always a pleasure reading your post. 🙂
I dunno. He looked sad to me. Sadness is an emotion, no?
Well, truth be told, I took an organizational behavior class in grad school and during a lecture the professor displayed pictures of people demonstrating different emotions. We had to identify which emotions they were expressing…and I got them nearly all wrong!
So, I’m not a great source, but in the pic of Bran above he sure looks pretty emotionless to me.
Cersei’s dress is chainmail & spectacular.
Tamwell Sarly,
That seems like an interesting class! I’m actually a clinical psychologist, but yeah, I guess we’ll never know until we see the scene. I’m curious about what’s happening with Bran.
Wow is that were Machina e Deus really comes from? I had no idea (btw been wondering where you were the last few weeks, glad to see you back. Wondering where Wolfish is as well)
Apollo,
10min scenes
Cersei really wanted to marry Rhaegar. She even viewed him as way more impressive than Jamie. She also really despised Lyanna. Not sure if they ever met or if she ever saw her. But how do you think Cersei will respond to Jon???
Sure she doesn’t know R+L=J, but will their be any odd familiarity with Jon or any hint of attraction? Will she try to hit on him to get him to align with her? Or will she simply view him as her enemy?
Fierce as a Wolverine,
Let’s be honest: The direwolf vfx is pretty lousy. Even the one with Nymeria wasn’t terribly convincing. I mean, I love the wolves, but for whatever reason, they can’t get it right.
So we dont have to avoid the internet like the plague. What fun is it to do that?
I think relieved myself, not smug.
I don’t think you understood what’s going on there.
Sansa removed a piece from LF chess board, he was going to use Brienne to break the sisters apart.
Arya, dropping Cat’s vow, LF bringing up Brienne’s vow, Sansa recieving and also swearing a vow from and to Brienne.
Jamie Lannister’s so many vows speech.
All bread crumbs.
Sansa’s protecting Briennes honor, and keeping her own, of not asking anything that may bring dishonor.
ginny,
+ 100, all those VOW crumbs, I think Wolcum came to Sansa, and she told him to give him the scroll, she needs more then Bran’s vision to end him, I think Royce is her plant, I’m not sure of Glover he acts more like Cobray, but he could be with Sansa.
Sansa is keeping Arya in the dark, she needs her emotions, and Sansa removed LF piece ( Brienne ) from his side of the board.
Badass, doesn’t mean weapons handler, Lady Olena and Tywin proved that.
QOT2 Stark version.
Sure, but this is suppose to be Sansa’s game point, catch up to the teacher and beat him at his own game. ( Ramsey thing isn’t her story at all )
That’s why I think Wolcum, and Royce and Bran are a close circle, I’m not sure on Glover, he’s so whiney and I think Sansa is keeping Arya out of the loop she wants her emotions real if LF birds are around.
I don’t think anybody could do so currently: doing mammals with multicolored fur is just beyond current CGI capabilities.
Does anyone else think Cersei will bend the knee to Dany after seeing the wight? I think Dany will have the IT without violence and then we can focus on WWs!
Well, so I was taught: old as I am, I was not actually there at the time! It was considered blasphemous for actors to portray gods, which is why they used statues. And because statues are notoriously bad at taking directions (they, like, just stand there), they had to use machines to lower them onto the stage!
I’ve seen the same sort of study. Basically, they showed a single shot: what was the emotion? Then, they showed the sequence of shots, where you could see how the face started and ended, with the single shot somewhere in there. The sequence was much easier to interpret, and people do a much better job of getting them right. However, with single shots, your success rate was very typical.
So, your take home point is very sound: these shots could involve any number of emotions.
Sam,
My blushes!
Yes.
Arya and Sansa don’t trust each other’s METHODS and sometimes their instincts, but they know Littlefinger is the bigger problem of MOTIVATION.
The scenes between them hvae been constructed to be misleading to the viewer but ultimately what has been said between them is this:
Sansa to Arya – Don’t do rash things that will mess everything up. The stakes are too high.
Arya to Sansa – Don’t make decisions out of fear, sometimes the rules are wrong in other words Littlefinger needs to be gone, and I am a trained assassin who can take on any identity as long as I have the face. My skills are at the service of House Stark.
Arya would kill Sansa if she was clearly acting against House Stark and Jon, but she doesn’t think she is. She is basically testing the possibility by not being direct with Sansa. But she is also trying to tell Sansa that she needs to stop being a good girl and do what it takes even if the methods are dirty (assassination).
I am starting to get excited by the possibility that Arya will take and use Littlefinger’s face.
Ryan,
Some of us want spoilers because we are eager to know what happens next. It’s fun finding out the basics and wondering how it will look on screen. It actually revs up the anticipation for some knowing what’s going to happen and curious to see how it plays out visually.
spacechampion,
Dragons and ravens fly fast. Ever caught a plane from London to Edinburgh? It’s fast… Makes sense to me, given how fast a lake takes to freeze over enough for people to walk onto.
Sou,
Leaks including Episode 7 have been out for many months already so why do they even bother I wonder.
Clob,
What I don’t fully get is Jon’s response of, “You don’t understand.” I’m not sure what that means.
Me too! I brought it up in an earlier thread but it seems that by the time I’m home from work and can get on here to post it’s like 2 am and everyone is already done conversing for the most part 🙁
Chuck,
Same. Watching this Sunday’s season finale will definitely be bittersweet. I think many were hoping that the shortened season would be offset with longer episodes but alas most of them were regular time.
King Podrick,
I don’t understand why you and at least one other have called this poster out simply for stating his/her opinion. What gives?
Fiery Heart,
Yeah.. my feelings exactly.. Dragons must be crazy fast at full speed. Drogon made it out of Meereen absolutely miles in a couple of hours and he was weaker and smaller then.
Even if it took 3 days.. I can buy them being on the rock that long.. with flaming swords and warm clothes.
Tycho Nestoris,
Liiiikkkeee….. Bran? 😉
Can’t wait to see Cersei’s face when she sees Dany’s big entrance..they are making a suspense here not showing Dany in those photos and that’s why i’m 100% sure she will make a big entrance with Drogon.
awol,
That’s just a little too neat and clean for this type of story. Neither Arya nor Sansa have any reason to trust one another: they are very different people, and they both naturally reviled the sort of person that the other one was. Insofar as either woman can tell, the other one spent the intervening years since they last met doing exactly what the girl she last knew wanted to do: Sansa was intermingling with the other aristocracy, Arya was exploring the world. They are not close enough to share their horror stories with one another: and, quite frankly, I am not positive either would completely believe the other.
Ultimately, I think that it comes down to this: Sansa undermining Jon and Ned for her own vainglory completely fits in with Arya’s preconceptions about Sansa; Arya recklessly trying to stir up trouble and cause chaos simply for the sake of doing it completely fits in with Sansa’s preconceptions about Arya. The sad part is that both of them are much more concerned about fighting the Lannisters than the White Walkers, so they could be forming an alliance against Jon and Bran to worry about the south, not the north: but neither woman thinks that the other truly is on her side.
Red Nightmare,
This season is very far from being the worst. This season had a lot of epic moments, fan favorites characters finally interactin and amazing battles (7×04), plus, this is the season with the most dragons action. This season is actually one of the best, along with season 4 and season 6.
Season 5 will always be the worst season. Nothing will be worst than the dorne plot.
Clob,
I think Jon just meant that Beric didn’t understand it wasn’t going to be that easy to just kill the Night King. Jon has seen the Night King before. Yes it would work to kill him, but it’s not going to be that simple to do it. That’s what Beric didn’t understand IMO. It was similar to how Sansa says “You don’t know Cersei like I do” Come to think of it Sansa also said that about Ramsey Bolton too “You don’t know him!” I think Jon is just following in a similar dialog, but being Jon he doesn’t go into detail… His not big on alot of words.
Thi Targaryen,
At least Season 5 will always have HARDHOME, easily one of the best episodes of the series.
Wimsey,
Me too, where is he? All the dragon hype made me forget. I hope he’s still around somewhere.
Raenarys,
I did😉
I have no evidence. It’s just strange that Bran sort of nudges Jon on this journey (with the raven message) then disappears from the next episode. He doesn’t even warg ravens to watch over Jon? That seems like a telling omission that maybe Bran might-have-sorta-coulda sent Jon (and Daenerys) into a trap. I have to believe Bran’s absence was a conscious decision by the writers. Why they felt the absence was necessary? That, I can only speculate on (my favorite part of this series is speculating); it gives me the shivers.
“The thought of drowned knights under the water gave Bran the shivers. He didn’t object, though; he liked the shivers.
Yes. They’ve written it all in an attempt to mess with us, and to try and make the Winterfell storyline as interesting as possible. They’ve had them do seemingly dumb things they probably wouldn’t do to get the story where they want it, just like they had Tyrion make mistakes he shouldn’t/wouldn’t have. Simple words in their conversations would end the rift, but they’re not spoken. Sansa has been willing to tell everyone but Arya that Littlefinger is not to be trusted and he’s only after power, and her. Wouldn’t you think that she would warn Arya immediately that he is always up to no good? Arya knows that, but at least she’d know then that Sansa does too.
Before Arya returned to Winterfell Sansa was simply putting up with Littlefinger, straight out telling him to stop talking and visibly tired of him bothering her. Now she’s suddenly chummy with him again, asking for and listening to his advise. The only thing negative about Littlefinger from Sansa that Arya has heard was about him giving Bran the dagger.
I don’t have evidence either, but it’s the one theory I put all my faith in. I love the speculating too! Bran always liked the scary stories from Old Nan. And I think it makes sense for him to be The Night King. He’s been trying to fix his mistakes his whole time warped life…
Like the new updated photos. Lena is so good at using her hands in her acting, she is impatient or upset about something in that one photo with her standing and her fingers on her left hand are spread out (trying to control that emotion, like during Tyrion’s trial). I want to see this scene with her and Jamie, we’ve seen a few stills from it and it looks intense! Could this be the “no one walks away from me” scene? (Title of a music track on the soundtrack.)
Sansa does NOT look smug – smug is being overly proud and happy with one’s deeds. There isn’t a hint of a smile on her face. She doesn’t look pleased or proud – she looks sad and pensive, like she’s trying to work something out. Like the responsibility is wearing on her. She has a sister who has someone’s faces in her carry-on, a lurking twat who only cares about getting himself on some stupid throne any way he can get there, and a bunch of lords who are, as she aptly put it, little better than weather vanes in their loyalties. She has to figure out a way to keep all of them fed, housed, orderly and useful. Not smug, you dingbats, worried.
Thronetender,
Hmm, I could have sworn that there was a picture of Sansa at the top of this post originally, seated at a desk and looking a bit smug, which may or may not include a smirk, IMO. But that photo is no longer there. The outdoor, hooded Sansa is still there, and she doesn’t look smug there, I agree. But desk Sansa seems to have disappeared. Or I’m crazy. One of those.
LF looking a little too smug in the picture at the top, so not liking that. Jon is very serious in his one at Dragonstone (I think he is standing next to Davos). I like that Jaime and Cersei seem to be arguing – he needs to make a move away from her and soon. Very, very soon.
I wonder which of these new pictures come before the big meeting in KL and which come after.
Podeswa 👎 Could have used anyone but him or Mylod
Great article, thanks! I forgot about Robb sharing Sansa’s letter with some of the Northern lords, and no one believing Sansa did anything but write what Cersei dictated to her.
I agree with the author about most of it except that I think Sansa and Arya are not working together…they both suspicious of LF, but not sharing with one another…yet. I think Sansa was genuinely afraid for a few minutes when Arya was talking about taking her face while walking toward her with the Valerian dagger. I hope it ends with LF dead or defeated and the remaining Stark kids alive and united.
nope, not crazy.. here is the pic (that does seem to have disappeared from here)
http://static.dnaindia.com/sites/default/files/2017/08/23/603675-sophie-turner-in-a-still-from-ep-7-the-dragon-and-the-wolf.jpg
How can a spoiler-phile don’t know what’s going to happen when the script for The whole season has been leaked months ago?
Ginevra,
That picture is indeed missing in this update. But I have to agree with Thronetender, I didn’t see smugness or a smirk there either.
Script summaries. Which lack most of the context, especially emotionally speaking.
I have a question that I haven’t been able to figure out..
Was Sansa actually summoned to KL? If so, why? For the broader story, I understand why Brienne needed to leave Winterfell and go to KL, but I’m not really sure why Cersei would summon Sansa (and there being no mention of it outside of the scroll).
Not a chance. Cersei will never bend for anyone. The only way she’ll let anyone take the throne from her is when they pry her corpse away from it.
I’m guessing everyone is being summoned for the BIG MEETING, the unveiling of the wight. Cersei has something big planned. She wants all the current Lord/Ladies of the high houses present.
Luka Nieto,
Youtubers have been detailing scene by scene every chapter since May.
Even exact dialogues.
As exciting as the Dragon Pit scene looks to be, I’m most looking forward to the intrigue at Winterfell. I have no idea what’s going to happen, but I suggest that Baelish start wearing full body armor, or better yet buy some used gear from Gregor Clegane. #AryaTheCatIsOnTheProwl
Seems to me from the trailer that only main characters (appart from soldiers,assistants,etc) will be there.
A few of them, yes. But just a few. Believe me, I know. I’ve read everything there’s to read.
Jared,
Isn’t there a Lannister army near Riverrun? I was thinking of the Lannister army squad Ayra meet on her way to Winterfell. They said they where there to keep the peace in the Riverlands. To me logically if he left Kingslanding he could go to the Riverlands to find those men. I was also wondering is there any Lannister army at Highgarden?
I am with you, I’m a bit confused about this and the timing of the arrival of the invitation. Most people think it was an invite to the Dragon Pit Party. But it seems that it came before it was known that a wight was secured and brought below the Wall. I mean there was a chance it would not have made it out. It would have been premature to invite people to see something that they did not know they had yet. So, is the invitation for something else, not specifically for Sansa, or a ruse by either LF, Arya, or even Sansa to get Brienne out of WF? While I have my doubts, I’m rolling with it and hope that it will become clear later or will simply not matter in the long run.
Apollo,
I think Cersei described it as a “clever” plan…
Maybe Cersei Lannister’s “clever” plan will work better than Tyrion Lannister’s “clever” plans have worked in season 7?
Maybe Not…
I don’t believe there would be an “army” anywhere other than what remains within KL and Euron’s webbed-feet men. I’d assume there’s a small garrison around the Riverlands that doesn’t amount to a lot of men. It didn’t seem like they were leaving many at Highgarden either; probably a small garrison as well, if any. One could say that Daenerys had the Dothraki take that back too, although at this time it’s rather pointless. They really shouldn’t have all that many left without magically creating more. Cersei suggesting they pay for mercenaries is one indicator that they’re severely lacking in numbers.
Is that Jon in Winterfell in the new updated pictures?
I think it’s a big set up/foreshadow for a final battle scene in season 8…
New Rockstars has a good youtube Beyond the Wall review that talks about it some.
Dragonstone. He’s standing next to the “Painted Table”
yes, brienne confirmed Sansa’s presence is requested. The sender of the raven was not revealed. As for why, I don’t believe it was mentioned outside of leaks.
Ser Broccoli McBroccoliface,
Looks like Dragonstone.
ginny,
I agree, they don’t seem to be acting, but arya did spend time with the mummers. They could have decided to act out some scenes, but their emotions seemed genuine. The writer’s interpretations seemed plausible except for both of them being in on it together.
eejazz,
Indeed, if someone was to invite Sansa to attend the Dagonpit parlay, it should have been Jon or Jon & Dany. Jon should also informed her about his trip to Eastwatch and other recent developments as well.
But as for Cersei she may be thinking that Sansa is not quite OK with Jon being the KITN and that bringing her to the parlay will create some chaos: I guess she learned some thing from Littlefinger too. And also there is a possibility that Littlefinger is still feeding Cersei with information.
If I were Jamie, I’d been tired of all this political war crap, and have Bronn help me kidnap Cersei and spirit her away to CR. Send a raven to DS that Cersei abdicates and the Lannisters bend the knee.
selena,
Thank you!
Juri,
I should have hedged a bit with “seems” because she might not be smug in that pic, but I also wouldn’t be shocked if she were feeling smug at that moment.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2OIoLlZ43yo
Sophie and Maisie in the “Carpool Karaoke”! for the old gods and the new! the are SO HILARIOUS! I ADORE THEM!
Seriously though, they are brilliant actresses, the adore each other, yet in the series is the complete opposite, how do they do it?
Hey, that’s uncalled for. Jack Bauer’s pessimism can get stuck on a feedback loop at times, but he hasn’t insulted any other commenters.
I for one care about what he has to say. I believe he has intelligent and meaningful contributions. While I don’t always agree with him – and find some of his worrying about episode titles and red carpet dates to be amusing – I’ve never understood this site to mandate homogeneity and uniformity.
If you disagreed with what he wrote, explain why. Please don’t launch personal attacks or presume to speak for everyone.
“Will you piss off already, nobody likes you or cares about anything you have to say”, is neither intelligent nor meaningful.
if only
Tywin never really had that situation, so we can only extrapolate. However, the closest thing we saw was the Red Wedding: and in that case, he got someone else to do his dirty work. Of course, Cersei lacks Tywin’ subtlety!
The big question is, or should be: is there any chance in hell of Cersei accepting that the wight is what Jon & Co. claim it is? My bet is on “no.”
It would seem probable that a lot of those troops would have been used in the Reach, and then in the troops guarding the gold & grain. Those were big operations that would have required a lot of men, and those would take priority over a “peacekeeping” mission.
However, the show has not gone into much detail about numbers of troops or their distributions, so it is possible that they have a decent sized army there still. Moreover, many Lannister troops should have reached Kings Landing with the gold.
We’ll need to see the rest of the sequence to know: that face could be part of any number of expressive sequences.
Hey! It’s Thursday, and I have not had to hide from this place because of reported leaks. What gives? 😀
So many pics of tension between Cersei and Jaime! In the bed scene between them a few episodes ago, after she dealt with Ellaria and came up to give Jaime a vocal surprise, (she bent the knee then!) he looked so loving toward her, almost adoring. NOW every pic of them is obvious strong disagreement.
Even the pics of Cersei alone show her clenching her fist, or arms crossed over her mid-section. Signs of fear and some mental disarray. Although she certainly has some well-deserved mayhem coming her way, I can’t believe it’s going to last long. She has always found a way to work her way out of shit and has always reeled Jaime back in, some how, some way. Yet, even though I don’t think he could ever bring himself to kill her, he certainly looks more upset with her than we’ve ever seen before.
There are more pics of Theon than there have been in a long time, yet none of Euron or Yara. What have the writers done with all the momentum from that bunch from the beginning of the season? It’s like a deflated balloon. Euron started out like a big deal, now nothing.
I’d almost rather see more of them than the nonsense at Winterfell.
Bran pics – I am ecstatic to see Bran pics – I’m hoping that means lots of visions. I like the visions, even that little bit with the Ravens was good. More visions please
Not that I’m really complaining about the season, there have been some strange turns, but for the most part, it’s been pretty good. I just can’t wait to see what becomes of the bit of emotion we saw between Dany and Jon, and hope that doesn’t become a deflated balloon, too. It seems like the writers have deferred a whole lot of stuff to the final season, (Ghost) which is a long way away.
It might still happen. But if does, we’ll warn you as soon as we can 😉
Suuuuuuper nervous about Jaime situation. They have literally engineered things so he is as conflicted / paralyzed as is plausible.
1) Jaime can’t let Brienne die. He probably will not want Tyrion to die.
2) Cersei almost certainly will not back down and Jaime should know she will try to kill as many of her enemies as possible.
3) Jaime believes they cannot win the war vs Dany AND imo will soon believe they need to surrender to join the fight.
4) but this fucking baby thing – Jaime certainly cannot kill Cersei – he’s killing his own innocent child. Furthermore, it makes it very unlikely he will betray or abandon Cersei – plus I think he really wants to be a father again.
The possible outcomes to me seem to be:
1) The baby is miscarried or fake leaving Jaime free to choose his own path which IMO would be to leave or possibly kill Cersei before she can kill Brienne.
2) Brienne is killed by Cersei and Jaime kills Cersei in some kind of rage (IF Jaime murders his sister-lover and unborn child in this way I will be super mega pissed TBH).
3) Jaime tries to broker some kind of deal behind the scenes where Cerseis life will be spared upon their surrender. Cersei finds out and kills him first.
4) Jaime watches Cersei attempt to kill or actually kill some number of Tyrion, Brienne, Jon, etc but does nothing for now because baby. This would be super duper frustrating but maybe is actually likely.
But then, what about Cleganebowl (GET HYPE). Is this happening? If so, WHY? Does Cersei gamble that The Mountain is unstoppable and that she’ll surrender if he loses against Jons Champion? If so, why??? And what if she wins?
I dunno you guys halp.
Thronetender,
On Euron and Yara, as I posted on another thread that the whole Cersei plot thing is misdirection (it will happen but not this episode) and that the reason we have heard nothing from Euron is that we are suppose to be discounting him. He will play a big role in this episode. My own personal pet theory is that the big twist will be that Euron will give up on Cersei (maybe because Danerys bargains to get Yara back in the big Cersei-Danerys parley) and try to take out everyone including Cersei in order to give the Ironborn “this world”. This will not end well for both Euron and a bunch of our favorite characters.
It’s back, but even there she appears deep in thought, and not “happy” or extremely satisfied about anything that’s happened. I wasn’t directing my rant toward anyone specific. I have enjoyed watching Sansa take charge like a proper lady. I don’t want to see her get derailed.
She’s actually doing the work of two people – overseeing what the Vale army is up to, and making sure Littlefinger is operating to the best interests of the Starks and the North in general, would normally fall to the Lord of the household. Which would be Jon, or her husband if she ever marries again. But with Jon out saving the world, as he must, and no worthy husband on the horizon, all the chores become hers. It’s a lot. Yes, I’m wildly extrapolating beyond what has been shown, but it can’t be helped. GRRM purposely created “worlds” full of detail, and that’s what I’ve started doing: extrapolating what the details and activities would be in the world we’ve been shown.
It’s also my frustration over how Arya is being portrayed. I’d much rather see her make use of herself by helping train the children to use arms, especially the little girls. That would be right up her alley, especially after her speech about girls not being able to choose what they want to do. Instead they show her stalking the stalker and giving her sister grief. I hope that’s cleared up and not deferred to next year.
I would agree, but what does make me think it may be something else is this dialog took place after Jon was looking into the flames of Thoros’ burning body. I wondered when the camera lingered on Jon’s face if maybe he saw something.
I hope Littlefinger be alive at the end of the Season! Cant Wiat to Watch the next episode.
Yes, technically there should be a Lannister army around there. I was curious what their reaction would be when the little girls tell them how Walder suddenly turned into a little dark-haired girl. Would the soldiers believe Walder’s wife at all? If so, would they connect any of the activity to the strange little dark-haired girl they saw on the road? Just wondering. I guess it would depend on how much the Faceless Men are known or talked about.
No doubt you’re right about each living up to the other’s preconceptions, but I truly believe they’re working against Littlefinger, perhaps individually but probably together. When Arya first heard about LF, she said “Littlefinger! What’s he doing here?” Perhaps that crystallized Sansa’s thinking, if she wasn’t already seeking a way to safely get rid of him. No one knows better than her what LF is. Arya knows that the bounder conspired with Tywin against Robb. They’re Starks, and two heads are always better than one, especially when your Pack has an enemy in common. Most of my reasoning was summed up nicely in that Time.com article someone above gave the URL for. But the dagger exchange was the clincher. I think it was more than a gesture of trust; I think it was a signal to act.
BTW, I doubt Arya knows about the WW. For plot convenience, the show often omits natural exchanges of information. (It is infuriating that we so frequently have to grope towards whether someone knows some key information or not.) Plus Sansa particularly known for doing that on purpose. And since nobody seems to care about the Others but Jon, they’re probably concentrating on Winter preparation. Sansa may have a dodgy reason for not telling Arya. She doesn’t want Arya’s interference , and she’s micro-minded about Cersei (and LF). If Arya did know that Jon’s entire being was devoted to preparing for and defeating that enemy, they really would be at daggers with each other. Unfortunately, nobody talks to Branipedia unless things really deteriorate, so he probably hasn’t enlisted Arya on his and Jon’s obsession with the Others. One of the sisters will surely do it on Sunday, probably Sansa in her ‘Lady’
capacity.
firstone,
I love New Rockstars! And yes, that was exactly my take: the army of the dead can possibly be defeated by taking out only the Night’s King. And then all the king’s horses and all the king’s men couldn’t be put back together again. (And all the king’s dragons and bears and spiders.)
OT: Just wondering if there will be a video review thread like with past episodes? The vid reviews weren’t all bad, were they? Did I miss something? In fact, Ozzyman’s review of Ep6 actually lifted me up from some of the significant issues that have been gnawing on me. His take on the stronger parts of the episode completely overshadowed the weaker, well-debated parts. Thx, Ozzy!
We should have some hint of that if it were the case that they were working together in some way. They are both main characters, after all: we have to see why they are doing what they do. So, if they were conspiring together, then we need to see that: and we need to see the thought processes that get them to overcome their past and band together. It would be particularly important here: Jon & Sansa had been arguing about whether Lannisters or Walkers are more dangerous; if Sansa is going to put both of those on hold and treat Littlefinger as the enemy (when, really, he’s just a creepy nuisance), then the motivation behind that is a huge shift in both women’s contribution to the story.
Arya has to have heard it at this point. People in Winterfell are going to be talking about two things: what’s happening in the south and what is happening in the north. (Because they will have next to zero information about either, it will be mostly rife speculation!) Moreover, Bran is there.
Moreover, it’s not for plot convenience: the worst part of last weeks episode was not the “last second rescues” over and over, but the extended pointless stating-of-the-obvious dialog among the wight hunters.
However, the key point is that Arya has never seen a White Walker. Despite that, she’s taking Jon’s side because of her dislike of Sansa (which was extremely well-developed in the first season).
My bet is that I will eventually feel that the pluses outweighed the minuses, too. However, between the fan-serving dialog and the multiple cinematic cliches, it is the first episode this year that I haven’t rewatched! And that’s a shame, because up until that episode this had been the strongest season yet.
Wimsey,
I would tend to agree if it were just the two of them but it is not. Bran is still around and so is Jon. Ned is not the only glue that holds them together even if it is constantly near breaking point.
Aray is not an idiot. She doesn’t hate Sansa (not really). She has memories of who Sansa WAS but just as Sansa doesn’t think she knows Arya anymore, Arya can’t be sure she knows Sansa. Arya did get good at reading people via game of faces and uses provocative dialogue to bring out “tells” in Sansa’s face. So she is testing, as I said. She gave Sansa the dagger, after telling Sansa what she can now do. The Same dialogue with a different slant on the acting would more obviously be saying, “My skills are at the service of House Stark. Are you also truly serving House Stark?”. So in spite of the misdirection I am still quite sure that is what Arya was implying. Both an offer and a threat.
Sansa, deep down, really does want to be queen still. And frankly she is not wrong to somewhat resent being passed over in favour of Jon because it was very clearly because she is a she. But she is also loyal to family, and everyone says she is just like her mother. When it comes down to it, she will go with family, duty. Still that tension is in her and is the main reason she keeps Littlefinger around; the vision of her as queen that he offered was seductive.
Tycho Nestoris,
I watched Beyond the Wall again and Jon is staring at the Night King giving him the evil eye and the Night King is staring right back at Jon.
In the Spoils of War Jon tells Davos “I saw the Night King and I looked him in the eyes” The Wight Walkers blue eyes are always focused on for some reason.
Jon and Brian need to start talking about the Night King as soon as possible.
Thanks for keeping us happy with photo updates, love these! Jamie and Cercei clearly are not seeing eye to eye on something. Wonder what it could be? 🙂 For some reason I like seeing Tyrion and Jon together. I guess you could say they have chemistry.
Ten Bears,
I hate mean people. Why does there seem to be a few that wants to pick on Jack bauer? Far as I’ve seen he’s never been rude or deserves anything like this.
firstone,
Perfect, thanks for posting!
What happened to Edmure Tully?
Late to commenting, but so excited and sad this is the final episode this season. Maybe we’ll get a lovely song again for the finale.
But this itself is the key. What Arya sees is Sansa basically acting like the Sansa she knew and disliked so much. And she sees Sansa undercutting Jon, which fits Arya’s existing profile of Sansa because Sansa was Catelyn’s Daughter. Indeed, part of the point of Arya’s exchange with Sansa is that Arya is very much Ned’s Daughter.
Now, had Jon been there, then things could have been quite different. Arya would have argued that the biggest danger was to the south, not to the north. After all, even if she accepts the stories about the White Walkers, those stories cannot compare to her personal experiences. (Second-hand description of “Some blue guy making hundreds of corpses stand up” <<< First hand witnessing "Father betrayed & executed.") However, that's not what happened.
Ultimately, this is a story: and this year's story is about choosing battles. If the girls were uniting against Littlefinger and putting that battle over the ones against the Lannisters or the Walkers, then we need to see them reach that conclusion in the same way that we saw Jon, Daenerys & Tyrion sweat out whether the Walkers or the Lannisters (or each other) were the bigger threats. It cannot be some sort of unshown trick or surprise: that's basically the same as Deus ex Machina in that we are first seeing the fired gun when it is fired without a prior hanging.
Instead, we've seen Sansa basically choose the battle of trying to protect Jon from himself (which, no doubt, also entails focusing on the south rather than the north as a by-product) and Arya choosing the battle of protecting Jon from Sansa.
True, but: what can Bran tell Jon that would help? OK, learning that the White Walkers actually were a weapon created to destroy a Great Evil that turned on their masters offers some small insight: but, then, Jon’s not going to like learning that the Great Evil was humanity!
I love the new photos!!
Things to be excited about:
Tyrion and Cersei reunion y’all! I can’t wait to see them trade some zingers.
John making bedroom eyes at Dany (how awesome was that when he called her Dany?)
Cersei and Jaime arguing!
Things I am worried about:
What is going on with Littlefinger looking smug in the great hall with Sansa at the head of the table. I have supported her and been angry at Arya’s distrust of her, but is she going to make a power grab after all? Did she send Brienne (playing the role of Sansa’s conscious) away so that she could do it? It’s a difficult situation. On one hand, I feel like she ought to be Queen in the North. On the other, at this point it would be a betrayal and then there is the vengeful faceless sister to deal with if she does. Also makes me wonder in what context we will hear her deliver that chilling line from the trailer “When winter comes and the white winds blow, the lone wolf dies but the pack survives.” I had been expecting this as a re-conciliatory offering, trying to convince her sis to calm the eff down and work with her. Then with the Bran pics I started to wonder if he would effect the reconciliation with a reveal about Littlefinger. What do you all think?
Wimsey,
I feel like Bran probably knows more than what we have seen. But I doubt that he and Jon will meet up in this episode. Of course, there has been more time-defying travel than usual this season, so I guess it’s possible.
awol,
Re: Sansa being passed over. Did anyone else notice how Jon passes over Lyanna Mormont with offering Longclaw to Jorah last episode? I know that some will say that sword was meant for Jorah initially. But my understanding of these Valerian swords is that they are family heirlooms, like Heartsbane and Ice and (Dawn?), that are meant to stay within that family. Of course, Ice is no longer a Stark family treasure with Brienne wielding it, but you get the idea.
It’s a patriarchal society for sure. But I wonder. And then there is the question is why did Jeor Mormont take it to the wall in the first place. And why did he go to the wall? Because of what his son did? I digress.
Something else that I would like to discuss. How does a huge battle not break out here? It reminds me of medieval chronicles that I’ve read, where each party brings a large army to a meeting, and then the meeting gets put off because there are too many soldiers in one place and the negotiators don’t want to start a battle. Also, when the Dothraki ride up in the trailer, I’m thinking, who stops them from going further? Ultimately the walls of the city, but it seems like something might happen.
That really happened only in the last episode. Remember, the show has repeatedly noted that about one year is passing per season. Months elapse in single episodes. Jon will be making the journey from Eastwatch to Kings Landing, probably via Dragonstone: that means many days and even multiple weeks of travel. We should not be surprised if Jon ends up back in Winterfell at the end of the episode: again, signifying some time. In the very first episode, we learn that Robert took months to get to Winterfell; however, he also was traveling with large wagons that move slowly, and the journey probably could be done in about 4 weeks by a small party that could change horses during the trip.)
Ships could greatly speed things up if they get favorable winds: but you are still talking about significant amounts of time.
This is just an anachronism that is tough for modern people to factor out, particularly those who have not spent large amounts of time camping, hiking, sailing ships, etc.: for most of history, distance communicates time. Sansa has been tabulating how much grain, meat & other supplies are coming into Winterfell from throughout the North: but the North is huge and travel now very slow, so that means that many weeks and even months have elapsed. Arya would have need weeks to get there from the crossroads, and Jon similar amounts of time to get to dragonstone.
Woo-hoo! It looks like Jaime is arguing with Cersei! Possibly even leaving in anger!
Come on, Jaime, dump the bitch and be the man you were meant to be!
It was stated at some point ( in the books for sure ) that Jeor Mormont went to The Wall so his son could take over their house. Then Jorah screwed up.
Why should Jon give to a little girl a sword twice her size? In peaceful times maybe, but right now it’s needed in the war against the Dead and he knows first hand how effective it is. Or he’s simply waiting for the war to end and for her to come of age 😉
He didn’t need to offer Longclaw to Jorah, but this was expected to happen. A good scene, although we learned from it what we already knew: Jon is as honorable as Ned and Jorah is the quintessential knight. I wonder what the rest of the group thought of it, looking from some distance: “Look, Jon is showing off to the new guy with his Valyrian steel”?
Gods, it’s times like these that make being a spoiler-phile really, truly sweet! Knowing what will happen on so many fronts, but getting to really see how things are played out by such wonderful actors, with such an amazing crew behind all of the scenes – it couldn’t be better. Nothing like it. 😊
Cannot wait for tomorrow, but wish they’d aired every second week to drag it out longer. 😜 Always hard to see the end of a season, especially this close to the end of the series!
Really though, was that title the best they could do? Maybe the next one will be called “Water is Wet”? 😉
I also feel very unsullied apart from one nugget from Winterfell. My predictions as follows:
– Jamie kills Cersei
– The Wall is coming down.
– Chaos breaks out at the Dragan pit parlay
– Euron kills Yara (I think this is the pre-curser to the Theon on the beach snippet from the trailer).
That still leaves plenty of space for 80 minutes!
Also Jon seems to have magically healed up following his ice bath last week?!
Elizabethe,
I think Brienne is in S8 as she has a valerian steel sword which kills white walkers.
Red Nightmare,
I think that’s harsh, I’d rank it above seasons 2 and 5 personally. The first four episodes were all strong.
I read the leaked outline and can only recall two plot points from this episode that a lot of main characters would meet in the Dragon pit (seen in these pics/the preview) and something from Winterfell. With the episode being 80 minutes there are surely going to be a lot of surprises for all of us.
This seems like you read the leaks but we’re trying to be witty. I’m glad you tried, now I know who to ignore.