Game of Thrones: 7.01 - Dragonstone

[ctg]

Jon organizes the defense of the North. Cersei tries to even the odds. Daenerys comes home.

 

[Koopa]

Spoiler: My thoughts

- Arya was great in this episode, but she actually left Freys alive... . Pretty sure something will happen why she won't make it to Cersei though.
- Giants are among the army of the dead
- Bran is at the Wall and gets in without actually proving he is whom he claims he is. Surely word should reach Winterfell soon. Or will there be some plothole?
- Tension between Jon, Sansa has begun. And (given the trailer for episode 2) tension between the north and the vale as well. Don't see why Jon finds it hard to at least listen to Sansa council though. Which he seems to somewhat balk at. In his defense Sansa, her advice was never going to fly with Jon's mentality. Wether that is a good or a bad thing depends on the situation imo.
- Euron's armada looks impressive
- Lol @ sam doing work and hating it. Wonder why they zoomed in that book. Do the maester leave that book open on purpose to annoy and tease the acolytes even more? The dragonglass being real in Dragonstone will no doubt be the vital to Jon visit to Dragonstone. And selling the reason why he needs to visit Danaerys to his allies. Jorah in a cell confirmed at the citadel. Getting healed presumable. Wow, the citadel getting more awesome by the second with all their feats.
- Maesters putting their faith in the wall is somewhat surprising. Didn't see that thought coming. Had no idea the Citadel put so much value in the wall and it's purpose. Their faith in it is understandable too. Naive since they clearly underestimate what is coming. But given history somewhat understandable.
- Trying to remember Clegane meeting that girl and her father. It's a bit foggy. It did show
- Why is Dragonstone completely deserted? At least some smallfolk should be roaming about. Guess that would have changed the scene too much. Place definitely looks dreary. Lol@Dany looking at the map and Tyrion gazing at the sculpted dragons.

 

[ctg]

I thought it was a good opening for this season. Thing is it wasn't the greatest as there seemed - at least to me - something missing. My brain says ambition as I think HBO is taking this forward very carefully, conservatively instead of being ballsy and going with the pacing we are accustom from theprevious seasons. Nevertheless, it's good to have Game of Thrones back on the small screen.

The timing on middle of the holiday season is somewhat curious as I'm pretty sure some of the regular viewers might be saving this for later review. After all you might not be talking about it with the usual people around the water cooler. Then again almost all major American series has gone through a grinder and there are no competition between the A-list titles. Instead we watchers get these things one after another. Does that mean there's only a limited number of viewers or does the schedulers have some other agenda in their mind.

Speaking of agendas, I was totally surprised by Arya's betrayal through Walder's face. I don't understand how the faces also change body structure, even height. Arya is much shorter than the old man, but yet she managed to fool everyone including the viewers by her move. Thing was I thought Walder had finally flipped and gone absolutely mad in his murderous paranoia. It looked as if he'd decided to get rid of the witnesses in the King of the North come knocking. He could have at least plead the fifth and claim he knew nothing.

"It's just happened and I couldn't do a thing."

But the North remembers. Arya didn't said that even though she should've. It's a detail that could have aided the opening to be better. Not that there was much wrong with the writing. Everything was connected and it brought whole cast, including the state of Joran Mormont up to date. The only one that was really missing was Lord Varys. With the pacing going forward with so rampantly can we expect to get more than five minutes on individual character progression?

Sam seemed to be the only one who had any progression and I hope he understood to make copies from the keys to the restricted library. I would without batting an eyelid, because the way they are treating those trainees in horrible. There isn't a place in the Westeros that's nice and lovely. It's all wrapped up in something terrible or then there's something truly evil skulking around the rose bushes. To be honest, there isn't a place in the world that I'd like to visit as a tourist.

 

[Koopa]

I think you missed out on the part where Arya says the North remembers. True she didn't say it in her speech to the Male Freys, but she said it afterwards to the woman. That when people ask her about what happened here, she should tell them that the north remembers and that winter came for house Frey.

 

[REBerg]

Spoiler

Why is Dragonstone completely deserted?

I also wondered at the emptiness of Dragonstone. Didn’t Jaime tell Cersei that Dragonstone was the most likely beachhead for Dany’s invading forces? I fully expected a Lannister welcoming committee behind those enormous sets of doors the Dany detail opened on its leisurely amble to the castle throne room. I suppose the dragon reconnaissance overflights upon their arrival eliminated the ambush possibility.

The apparent resurrection of Walder Frey confused me, making me think I was watching a flashback. Nice job by Arya in polishing off the Frey faction while leaving a witness behind to tell the tale. Arya will reach the end of her kill list too quickly if she doesn’t pace herself.

I thought the episode spent a little too much time on Sam’s duties of delivering food and servicing bedpans at the Citadel. I was glad that I had already had my dinner.

Overall, I thought the opener nicely distributed time to keep assorted storylines moving toward their inevitable intersection. I had hoped, with the shortened season, that episodes would be expanded beyond the standard hour.

 

[Koopa]

they probably will lenghten the episodes further down the road, depending on how much they want to move the story forward in one episode. What they want to be their begin and endpoint of every episode.

 

[Peter V]

How do you hide spoilers?

 

[Ursa major]

How do you hide spoilers?

Look along the list of edit buttons, and you'll see that there are nine groups of them. The sixth group, whose first symbol is a smiley face, contains three other buttons. Click on the last if these (which looks like a page with some text, with a drop capital at the top left, and a letter I at the bottom, and you'll be given a list of options, the second of which is "Spoiler".

The first thing you can do is give the spoiler a title (but this is not compulsory); either way, click on Continue and you'll get something like the following (which I've given the title "Spoiler Example", but without the spaces in the commands (which stop the commands from working):
[ SPOILER="Spoiler Title"]This is a spoiler.[/ SPOILER]

Without those added spaces, you get:

Spoiler: Spoiler Title

This is a spoiler.

 

[Stuart Suffel]

More of a 'ok, are the cameras ready', sort of episode. Which is fine.

 

[Koopa]

I don't know I think the story moved forward plenty.

 

[svalbard]

As an opening episode putting all the pieces in play and allowing the viewer to get their bearings I thought it worked. There were some sparkling moments of dialogue especially between The Hound, Beric and Thoros.

Roll on next week.

 

[Heather Myst]

Three words..... Arya Stark badass.

 

[Culhwch]

How do you hide spoilers?

There should be no need to hide spoilers in these episode threads. The thread is for discussion of a given episode, so it's assumed that if you're in here, you've seen it, and if you haven't, you should know better.

Great return episode, engaging throughout. Loved the start with Arya in particular. Could've done without Ed Sheeran though...

 

[SilentRoamer]

They give the Hound all the best lines!

I thought the Hound digging the graves for the family who "would be dead by winter" was a nice touch - as a non book reader of the series is this somehow paying homage to the "gravedigger" in the books who some assume to be The Hound?

 

[Ursa major]

The thread is for discussion of a given episode, so it's assumed that if you're in here, you've seen it, and if you haven't, you should know better.

Perhaps; perhaps not.

I won't be seeing this season until the DVD comes out, and yet I read both these threads and some of the episode by episode reviews provided in the media.

First of all, my main interest remains with the books, from which the show has deviated significantly in many areas -- where I can tell, and has probably now done so in others, where I can't -- so there are no "real" spoilers for me. (Note that in the early seasons, there were far fewer deviations from the books -- books I had read -- and that did not spoil my enjoyment of the show at all.)

Perhaps I'll be more careful when it comes to next season, on the basis that the show will be showing GRRM's "bittersweet" ending -- bittersweet being GRRM's own spoiler -- but I very much doubt it. A Song of Ice and Fire is, after all, more than just a (multi-)plot outline, as is Game of Thrones. (And reading episode recaps is very much not the same as watching the episodes.) The show's highlights have included those much remarked upon one-on-one character interactions... some of which are not only absent from the books, but sometimes have involved characters that never met in those books. (Oh, and the Varys-Littlefinger dialogues -- all of them private -- were a real treat in the show. There is no way GRRM would have put them in the books, as he's clearly been keeping us away from those characters' thoughts.) Similarly, there are so many things in the books that have not made it to the screen.

Obviously, others may disagree, and if they are not sure, they should avoid these pages... and, eventually, news programmes around the time next season comes to an end....


As a wider justification of my own approach, I ought to say that neither hearing the 1981 Lord of the Rings radio serial, nor seeing the Peter Jackson films, spoilt the book for me when I eventually got round to reading it. Different media; different experiences.

 

[Peter V]

First of all, my main interest remains with the books, from which the show has deviated significantly in many areas -- where I can tell, and has probably now done so in others, where I can't -- so there are no "real" spoilers for me. (Note that in the early seasons, there were far fewer deviations from the books -- books I had read -- and that did not spoil my enjoyment of the show at all.)

This is the same for me. The show is very well done and I really enjoy it but it has taken me a couple of series to get over the increasing disparity from the novels and accept the show as virtually a separate entity. I have at last stopped shouting at the screen "that didnt happen"!!!

I started the series around the turn of the century. It was a bit of a drag waiting for A Feast for Crows but this was nothing when compared to A dance with Dragons. As for this latest... well I find myself judging Martin harshly. Clearly $ comes before the massive fan base that put him where he is.

Three years between the first two novels, then a year or so for the third, followed by four for the next. Not great but they are an epic and a lot goes into them so it is understandable perhaps. But then to wait six years for the next and six years and counting for the latest...

He puts the grr into GRR Martin

 

[Judderman]

There should be no need to hide spoilers in these episode threads. The thread is for discussion of a given episode, so it's assumed that if you're in here, you've seen it, and if you haven't, you should know better.

Precisely.
Don't look at episode discussions and reviews if you don't want to know what happened in the episode.

 

[Mister_Oy]

This is the same for me. The show is very well done and I really enjoy it but it has taken me a couple of series to get over the increasing disparity from the novels and accept the show as virtually a separate entity. I have at last stopped shouting at the screen "that didnt happen"!!!

I did it the other way around. I read all the books between Season's 5 and 6 - I did yell at the book a few times though

 

[Judderman]

There was quite a lot of progress this episode regarding alliances and groups going from one place to another. But my wife said it was boring. I'm a fan but have to agree it was a bit boring overall. Though the books would have taken a lot of pages to go through all these progressions regarding alliances and people moving from place to place etc.
Generally the last two episodes of each season are the most exciting and dramatic, hopefully with the shorter seasons there will be some earlier great episodes too. There is a lot of scope for battles and further treachery on the horizons.
The most major recent loss for the show is that Tyrion no longer has Bronn to joke around with! The Hound is now the closest to a comedian remaining. His scenes were probably the most interesting. A lot of the other scenes were quite bland in terms of drama and dialogue.
It will be interesting to see if Littlefinger cracks. He finally may not be getting his way if Sansa casts him aside.
Another episode where the Dragons show up near the end to make everything appear more grand.

 

[ctg]

It will be interesting to see if Littlefinger cracks. He finally may not be getting his way if Sansa casts him aside.

Sansa should make sure that he meets the end. Littlefinger is a bit too slimy and repulsive after everything he has done to her. If the push would come to shove, I believe Littlefinger wouldn't bat an eyelid to use Sansa to save his life. So far what he has done to make her any better? If it's love, he has a very strange way of showing it.

Another episode where the Dragons show up near the end to make everything appear more grand.

I would have expected to have some navy battle since there was so much fuss around "the biggest and best ships" to take her over the Narrow Sea. There was nothing. Whole landing at the Dragonstone (previously occupied by The Red Lady and late Stanis) felt staged.