Game of Thrones: 7.01 - Dragonstone

[Ursa major]

Given that Dragonstone is an island (the island from which the attack on King's Landing in Season 2 was launched, and from which Stannis sailed north to the Wall), Dany's fleet arriving there without encountering opposition does not mean that there won't be a great sea battle at some point this season.


Oh, and Chekov's gun....

 

[Judderman]

Good point on the navy. The episode didn't show the Greyjoys on Dany's side either. There should be a conflict with Euron's lot still to come. Maybe Euron plans a dragon as a wedding gift to Cersei.

 

[ctg]

Dany's fleet arriving there without encountering opposition does not mean that there won't be a great sea battle at some point this season.

Did the men had no families in Dragonstone? Did they sent every man or every fighting capable men at the Wall?

 

[Mister_Oy]

Did the men had no families in Dragonstone? Did they sent every man or every fighting capable men at the Wall?

Maybe when they saw a big armada coming towards them led by dragons they kinda made themselves scarce?

 

[ctg]

Maybe when they saw a big armada coming towards them led by dragons they kinda made themselves scarce?

Maybe. We'll see in the next one what's the truth.

 

[Ursa major]

Perhaps the people who were refusing go with Stannis were threatened with being declared enemies of R'hllor and, as a result, decided travelling north sounded a lot better than being burned alive on Dragonstone.

 

[Peter V]

Good point on the navy. The episode didn't show the Greyjoys on Dany's side either. There should be a conflict with Euron's lot still to come. Maybe Euron plans a dragon as a wedding gift to Cersei.

I would think more likely Tyrion's head is what he has in mind

 

[Judderman]

Oh yes. Though that wouldn't be very romantic. I searched about it and there are some alternate ideas for victims proposed.

 

[Mister_Oy]

Oh yes. Though that wouldn't be very romantic. I searched about it and there are some alternate ideas for victims proposed.

There's only one victim important to Cersei

 

[svalbard]

A possible piece of foreshadowing in the episode was the moment when Jon pointed out that Sansa respected Cersei and her reply was that she had learned a lot from Cersei. What that means is anyone's guess but mine is that Lord Baelish is in for a rude awakening in the Game of Thrones from Sansa and an early grave.

 

[Ursa major]

Tyrion's head is what he has in mind

It suddenly struck me that one meaning of "bittersweet ending" could involve Tyrion's head replacing the Mountain's on what is currently Frankengregor.

 

[Dan Jones]

The most interesting point in the episode for me was when Sandor looked into the flames at the invitation of Thoros, and saw the Wall and the Walkers. IIRC, the Hound never had, or claimed to have any God, or any magical abilities, so how did he manage to see the truth in the flames? Does this mean that the Lord of Light, Rh'llor (spelling?) is objectively real. The existence of the Gods in ASOIAF has long been debated, but the fact that a bloody-minded non-believer like the Hound should have truthful religious visions seems to indicate that at least one of the gods is real.

And yes, the Hound has all the best lines, but they're not repeatable here. We'd run out of asterisks.

 

[SilentRoamer]

And yes, the Hound has all the best lines, but they're not repeatable here. We'd run out of asterisks.

Although to be fair in the last episode Cersei covered most of the words my wife considers the Unspeakables in her little diatribe.

 

[ctg]

The numbers are in and while the Game of Thrones Season 7 premiere broke records at HBO, it couldn't top the live viewership of The Walking Dead's Season 7 premiere.

Game of Thrones premiered it seventh season on Sunday night to 10.1 million viewers, a 27% increase from the previous record holder in the Season 6 premiere which earned 8.89 million viewers. The Walking Dead's controversial Season 7 premiere, however, topped 17 million viewers as the mystery of "Who did Negan kill?" was finally resolved.

The HBO series added 6 million same day viewers with playback and streaming services, bringing the total to 16.1 million viewers.

Game Of Thrones Season 7 Premiere Comes Up Short Of The Walking Dead Season 7 Premiere

I don't think GoT will suffer some same sort of viewer loss as what happened with the TWD's seventh season.

 

[Gnrevolution]

Three words..... Arya Stark badass.

You could shorten that to two words, Arya Stark, it is well known by now that Arya Stark = badass

I loved this episode, yes it was all about setting up the pieces, reintroducing us to the main characters and the world, but it has been almost 18 months since S6. Don't know how anyone could find this boring, the first two scenes gave us the end of House Frey and White Giants! Jon got to be King, Sansa got to be annoying, Lyanna got to lay some smack-down on everyone in the room and Tormund got to ogle some more at Brienne, this is a romance I did not see coming! Ok, so Ed Sheeran's appearance was annoying (I felt the acting quality drop the second he appeared), but that's my only real gripe with the episode.

Over at KL Cersei and Jaime traded words, and I cannot see that ending well, whilst Euron only really served to drive the wedge deeper between the two of them, I liked that scene even if Euron did come off a bit Jack Sparrow. I even liked Sam's bit at Old Town (once they got past the musical bit), and at least we finally know what happened to Jorah.

And then there was Sandor Clegane. Oh poor Hound, he's really not enjoying life much is he? Too many bad things he's done that there is seemingly nowhere he can go now where it doesn't catch up with him. And although they say the Hound has the best lines in the show, I think in this episode (despite the great performance) that award goes to the Stark girls. Sansa gave the funniest line (IMO) with her response to Littlefinger, whilst Arya gave the most chilling line of the episode, perhaps of all time on GoT. Winter has indeed come for House Frey, question is who's next?

 

[Judderman]

The most interesting point in the episode for me was when Sandor looked into the flames at the invitation of Thoros, and saw the Wall and the Walkers. IIRC, the Hound never had, or claimed to have any God, or any magical abilities, so how did he manage to see the truth in the flames? Does this mean that the Lord of Light, Rh'llor (spelling?) is objectively real. ....

Perhaps the Hound is the "one who was promised" in the Lord of Light prophecy.

 

[Dan Jones]

Interesting. I'd have to remind myself of all the Azor Ahai prophesy stuff, but there are a couple that fit; the bit about being born in smoke (having his face burned as a child arguably created the Hound side of his character), but that's just speculation. Could be, though.

 

[zmunkz]

This episode definitely felt like a hurried reminder of who is still alive, where they are, and what they were doing there. Not much new happened (with the exception of the opening scene).

I think this could have been done a lot better considering this is a shorter season, but I’m not too fussed. No doubt it really starts next week, and presumably at a break-neck pace. Maybe in hindsight it will make more sense that they paused to set all the pieces carefully before hitting the board with a hammer.

 

[JoanDrake]

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.

Any good actor can readily adjust for differences in height, particularly of wizened people. The Face Dancers or Bene Tlexirau (sp) of the Dune novels can basically look like anyone at all

 

[paranoid marvin]

Arya face-ripping thing could get old very quickly. I'm not sure that she could take on the mannerisms of a man she has never met and somehow manage to arrange for all the important Freys to be in the room at the same time, with no guards etc. If she had been disguised as a serving girl poisoning the wine I get that, but not what happened.

Also odd that Dragonstone has been left completely deserted; apart from the gardeners who have managed to keep it in very good condition!