Game of Thrones fans have waited for Season 7 to come much like the Stark family prepares for Winter. I am curious to see what people think. I waited a few days to post my thoughts on the episode because when it ended, I truly did not know how I felt about it.
I am embarrassed to admit, I watched the episode 4 times in 2 days because I was trying to find anything that I just simply missed, but I don't think that I did. Here are my thoughts....
With only 13 episodes in the last 2 seasons of the show, this premier left me feeling gypped. After waiting this long for the season, I feel all they did with every character in this episode is show that a lot of time has gone by since Cersei has taken the iron throne. They could have given us a little more substance than what was given. I appreciate them catching us up on the characters and setting up the next 6 episodes, but with now only 12 more episodes left in the series, I don't want to feel rushed to the end either, which is how I am starting to feel.
We knew Arya was really Walder Frey as soon as we saw him. So the revenge for the Red Wedding did not leave me feeling tingly like it should have, and actually did when Arya killed Walder Frey. I would have liked that to be more shocking since the Red Wedding very much was and even the death of Walder Frey was more surprising. I personally did not care to see the entire house killed, and Arya could have just told someone later that she did it, rather than make a spectacle of it for the viewer's sake. We have not invested enough time into these characters to see them all taken out. We saw Walder eat his kids in the pie and then get his throat slit as Arya smiled at him. That should have been that for the viewer and house Frey.
The next scene was pretty cool. We did get to see the White Walkers bringing the storm as Jon put it, and did I count 3 Ice Giants????
Bran and Meera were let into Castle Black but that's all we get to see of them here. I really wanted to see more with Bran and what he thinks about Jon Snow, not being his half brother, but his cousin. I am certain we will see more about that this season, but will Jon find out is the real question?
Jon is holding a meeting stating they need to find Dragon's Glass, and lot's of it. He also breaks the news to the people that women and children will also need to train and fight against the army of the dead. Lyanna Mormont stole this scene for me as she again put a grown man in his place stating she "Does not plan to sit by the fire knitting as her men are fighting" and she "does not need permission to fight for her country". I can't get enough of this woman child!! After this awesome little tidbit, Sansa had to ruin everything by undermining Jon's authority and questioning him in front of everyone over the Karstark's and Umber's betrayal. He made his decision final and had them pledge their loyalty to him since they were not the one's who betrayed him, it was both their fathers. That was a nice touch and was a good setup for the next scene I suppose.
Jon comes down on Sansa for undermining, and Sansa does compliment him but still goes on to say her father and brother Robb made stupid mistakes and that is why they are dead. She shows her admiration for Cersei and Jon points it out to her. I am hoping that this is not a setup for her betraying her own family. Sansa does, however, point out that the wall is keeping the White Walkers at bay and they are within Cersei's reach. Jon rebuts with pointing out the 1000s of miles between them and Cersei and the fact that they have a southern army. I admit, they both have a point.
Cersei and Jamie are looking at the huge map she is having painted. They confirm that Jamie is not angry with her. She let's him know about Tyrion being Dany's hand and makes him feel like crap because he loves him and helped him escape. She wants to know know where Dany will land and he gives his theory why she will land on Dragonstone. She then points out her enemies on the map stating Ellaria Sand, Olenna Tyrell, Jon & Sansa, and states they are surrounded by enemies and traitors. Jamie is trying to make her grasp any sense of reality she may still have by pointing out winter is here and they need the Tyrell's to feed their men and horses and Cersei points out they are already alongside Dany and her agenda. Jamie is still trying to reason with a terrorist by stating they look like the losing side and the Tyrell's went to the side that appears to be winning. She calls herself the Queen of the 7 Kingdoms and Jamie states "3 at best". Jamie further tries to talk to her and reason with her and she shuts it down with talks of building a dynasty. He points out that that their children are dead and that there is no one to give a dynasty to and he wants to talk about Tommen killing himself. She has none of it, and I am hoping that this will be the turning point between Jamie and Cersei.
After Cersei points out that she learned a lot from her father over the past 40 years we see the Iron Fleet, including Euron's awesome ship with the huge Kraken on the front of it. This ship is awesome and I hope we get to see more of it up close.
Cersei and Jamie have a short exchange about the new alliance and Jamie thinks it is the same as joining up with the Freys.
When I first saw Euron last season, I was severely disappointed with the actor that was chosen, but after the exchange between him and Cersei and then poking fun at Jamie, I think I may have been too quick to judge. He was actually funny, sarcastic, and I want to see more of him now, even though I know he is not one of the good guys.
When they showed Sam at the Citadel cleaning chamber pots, gagging, filling and cleaning soup bowls etc, I was a little irritated. This was a waste of time for air time. They could have just put words at the bottom of the screen stating how much time had elapsed and showed more substance from Sam in his scenes. I understand they were also getting the point across that he wasn't getting trained as much as he wants or needs to, but instead of that, I would like to see him have exchanged words with someone about it, rather than watching him gag and clean shit for 2 minutes. That could have been simply put in a scene with Gilly as she listened to him complain about it. I think this very part of the show is what disappointed me the most. I know it is probably not a big deal to most fans, and I did see the humor they were trying to portray, but please don't make me wait over a year for something, just to see gagging and shit for that long, wasting valuable time that could have been spent elsewhere. Leave the humor to Tyrion and the Hound... Sam did speak up about training how to defeat the White Walkers and he was left feeling defeated so he sneaked into the restricted part of the library only for Maesters and "stole" books to take to his room and read at night.
Brienne and Tormund crack me up with the cat and mouse game that seems to be going on with their exchanges. She is absolutely appalled and he likes it. We also cannot forget Pod the sex god. It was good to see Brienne training him.
I enjoyed the exchange between Sansa and Littlefinger. I like seeing Sansa be a smart ass like she was in season 1, not like the bratty little lady she was, but as the woman she was forced to become, mostly due to him. I think Sansa might know Littlefinger better than anyone and she sees right through him at this point. When she sent him away in this scene by stating, "No need to seize the last word Lord Baelish, I'll assume it was something clever.", I actually raised an eyebrow on the wit. That was a medieval version of "Bye Felicia" if I ever saw one!
Brienne wants to know why Littlefinger is still there and states that she thinks he is sticking around because he wants something. Sansa tells her that he saved them with the Knights of the Vale, and that is why she has not asked him to leave yet and that she knows what he wants. I believe her. Littlefinger did expose way too much to her thinking he could sway her using power as bait in the past, so as long as she remembers not to betray her family, I think she will be fine keeping him close for now, but she better keep an eye on him at all times.
Arya is riding on horseback through the Riverlands after her poisonous rampage at the Frey's, when she comes across some Lannister army men sitting around a fire. Ed Sheeran, being one of the men, is singing. As a girl that absolutely cannot stand Ed Sheeran's whiny ballads, I actually liked his singing in this episode. I'm not sure why he received so much backlash for it. I don't know how music and melody sounded in medieval times, but it was ok to me. I don't think it was big stunt for either the producers or Ed Sheeran. Maybe he is a fan of the show and wanted to participate. He isn't the 1st musician to appear on the show, so why are we picking on him? I don't even like him and I wasn't turned off by it. Anyhow, back to the show. The scene continues with the army men sharing their cooked rabbit with Arya and exchanging typical pleasantries and when asked where Arya is headed, she replied "Kings Landing". She finds out that they are there because of the incident at the Frey's. They continue pleasant conversation. The guys all were in agreement that Kings Landing was an awful place and the streets are covered in pigs blood and shit and were curious why she would want to go to a place like that? She replied with "I'm going to kill the Queen." They all sit quietly for a few moments and then break into laughter as if she is joking.
The Hound is still palling around with The Brotherhood without Banners and it is snowing heavily. They come to the farm where he had stolen the silver from the man and his daughter when he had Arya captive. The Hound does not want to stop at this farm because he knows what he is about to find. Thoros encourages him inside. The man and daughter were in the farm house and were dead. They light a fire and the Hound is asking what is so special about Lord Beric that the Lord of Light keeps bringing him back? Beric tries to explain that he wonders the same thing but he knows he is there for a reason and all he can do is follow the signs the Lord of Light gives him. The Hound with his brutal honesty states that if he is all knowing, why doesn't he just tell him what he wants? He gets interrupted by Thoros, telling him to come over to the fire. The Hound then says one of the funniest lines in the show, "It's my luck I end up with a band of f***ing fire worshipers". It reminded me of Indiana Jones and the snakes. Anyhow, Thoros asks him to look into the fire and tell him what he sees. The Hound sarcastically states, "logs burning", but then takes a deeper look and starts saying what he sees. Basically he sees The Wall, where it meets the sea. There is a castle and a mountain that looks like an arrowhead. 1000s of the dead are marching past. Then, Beric asks him if he believes they are there for a reason. Next, The Hound is burying the father and daughter and Thoros comes out to see what he is doing. Thoros finally understands that he knew these people and says it to him and The Hound replies, "Not really". Thoros puts down his sword and picks up a shovel and helps. Then The Hound attempts to pray over the fresh graves. The Hound is one of my favorite characters and he has come such a long way. He has always had decency within him ever since the 1st season. I hope he makes it till the end of this thing. After this episode, I am wondering how he will factor into the end game? I don't foresee The Hound having any special ability like the Red Priests, since Melisandre was also able to show Stannis what was in the flames.
Back at the Citadel, Sam and Gilly are in their chambers and Sam is reading, looking very tired. Gilly tells him so, says he needs some sleep and Sam replies with, "The dead don't." He is looking through pages of weapons made from dragon glass and comes across a map of Dragonstone. He quickly discovers that there is a mountain there with dragon glass that can be mined and he recalls Stannis saying so, but did not think it was important at the time. He quickly starts writing a letter to Jon to let him know. Next we see Sam, doing his dinner duties and picking up empty dishes from what looks like jail cells. He grabs a bowl from the door and out flies Jorah Mormonts arm knocking the metal bowl to the floor. Sam jumps back and we hear Jorah ask if the Dragon Queen, Daenerys Stormborn has arrived yet. Sam
says he hasn't heard anything.
Enter Dany, arriving to Dragonstone on ship with Dragons in tow. Her 1st step on the beach an emotional one, she kneels down ans feels the sand, then looks up at the huge castle and begins walking toward it. The gates, with two huge dragon heads to either side, are opened for her and we see the huge path that leads to the castle itself. She comes into the castle, and immediatley rips down the Baratheon banner. She walks into the throne room, looks around for a moment and heads straight to the Chamber of the Painted Table. She runs her fingers along the length of the huge table map in front of her and when she and Tyrion reach the end, she asks, "Shall we begin?" The episode ends. When the credits began rolling, I felt disappointed and needed to watch it again to understand why I was feeling this way. We were caught up on all the major players, and the setup for the the next 6 episodes has began to unfold. After watching it again 2 more times the next day, I think I put my finger on why I felt gypped.
Most of the first episodes in the previous seasons have been somewhat like this one. Since we waited longer for this season than previous ones, and a shorter one at that, I feel like it came off as fairly boring and predictable. It had a lot of good qualities and I am glad we got to see where we are with the story after all this time. I waited a few days to post my review just to make sure I wasn't too harsh with my feelings about it. I am thinking that after the next two episodes, I will feel differently and enjoy watching it later when I can watch a couple episodes in a row.
Did you like Season 7, episode 1? Did you expect more like me? Let me know and leave a comment!
Gina Murrell
Mother of Reviews
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