OT Game of Thrones S7E1: Dragonstone

Submitted by Eastside Maize on
The season 7 premiere is here. Everything that's understood need not be explained. WE DO NOT SOW

The Fan in Fargo

July 16th, 2017 at 10:49 PM ^

My biggest wish is to see Arya kill Cersei in the cruelest way possible. Some slow painful death. Well, unless if she has her head chopped off by the sword that Jamie has. The half sword that once was part of Ned's. I'd order in Buffalo Wild Wings for that.

ijohnb

July 17th, 2017 at 10:07 AM ^

worry that Arya is going to run around right into the hands of Euron Greyjoy.  He needs a gift for Cercei, who has absolute violent distain for anything Stark. (not to mention the Starks essentially humiliated the Greyjoys for a generation, essentially using Theon as a hood ornament). She is heading South and he has a fleet in Kings Landing, and there has been chatter of him surpassing Ramsey Bolton as the most hated villian on the show. 

Her little feast with the soldiers had sub-text, Arya is 1) in over her head, and 2) taking too many chances.  She was warned that she will not succeed as an assassin unless she is "no one."  Not only is she not "no-one," she is running all over Westeros dunking on people and talking shit afterward.

Strategically, Arya would do little for Cercei (except that Jon Snow does have a big soft spot for her), but for narrative purposes, it would be helpful for the writers who need something to do with Arya and would make any eventual demise for Cercei that much sweeter for the audience.  I'm worried about Arya.

(Note -I know the books would suggest that the "gift" is something else entirely, but the show is not working with as much material or breathing room as the books, I doubt we will see that play out.)

 

In reply to by ijohnb

I Bleed Maize N Blue

July 17th, 2017 at 10:39 AM ^

...not to mention the Starks essentially humiliated the Greyjoys for a generation, essentially using Theon as a hood ornament....

Maybe by Balon's view, but they lost, so had to give up a hostage. Ned treated Theon well. It was Balon who humiliated Theon for wearing fine clothes he didn't pay the iron price for.

...Arya is 1) in over her head, and 2) taking too many chances....

1) Remains to be seen; 2) possibly. Arya just wiped out the men of House Frey and got away. Doesn't seem that she's in over her head yet. Going to King's Landing to kill Cersei ... a viewer will see.

In reply to by ijohnb

TrueBlue2003

July 17th, 2017 at 1:00 PM ^

which is down the center of Westeros.  I can't imagine Euron with his huge Armada is doing anything on land.  He's gotta be going straight for Dragonstone to see if that horn of his actually does woo some dragons, right?

In reply to by ijohnb

mtzlblk

July 17th, 2017 at 12:51 PM ^

is the Queen of Dragons....Daenarys is on the coast and susceptible to attack from the sea and arguably the biggest immediate threat to Cersei at the moment.

In reply to by ijohnb

Abe Froman

July 17th, 2017 at 12:53 PM ^

Arya is going to butcher those sweet, nice boys like pigs in the next episode.  I think this was just to get us emoitionally invested in them, and make us feel more conflicted about Arya's murderous character as she gets back on the road to go after the Queen. 

Like everyone else in GoT, her objective refuses to spare innocents that fall in her path.

ShadowStorm33

July 17th, 2017 at 4:24 PM ^

Eh, I'm not sure about that. I feel like this might be a character development point for her. Before, she would have absolutely slaughtered them. This seems like an opportunity for her to see the difference between Cersei, who she rightfully hates, and some innocent (and young) Lannister soldiers who are just pawns in Cersei's game. It's a great opportunity to learn that not everyone is an enemy/needs to be killed.

Zoltanrules

July 16th, 2017 at 10:11 PM ^

I'm still catching up! Binge watched the first five seasons in the last two weeks (since I sucked up and paid fu%$ing Comcast for HBO on top of my $200/mo +  other services).

I may lose my job but I'll get caught up in the next 48 hours lol.

(Kidding about not posting)

ijohnb

July 17th, 2017 at 8:11 AM ^

give it to Breaking Bad, literally by a nose at this point.  They are neck and neck and with GOT in the home stretch and it will be interesting to see if Game of Thrones can stick the landing.  Breaking was "one of the best of all time" before Ozymandious, Granite State, and Felina, and then it became the unequivocal GOAT.  Game of Thrones is right there though, and has 14 episodes left to hold serve.  I am very excited to see what they are going to do with them.

ijohnb

July 17th, 2017 at 8:43 AM ^

a B.....!

I thought it was 7 and then 8 episodes in Season 8.  Now I learn it is 7 and then 6?  I just read they are thinking about making all of the season 8 episode into feature length "movies" essentially.

Still though, with 13 episodes remaining, that makes last night way to weighty with unnecessary exposition.  I want to have glowing praise for last night, and while it had its moments, did we need 15 minutes of screen time in Old Town with Sam?  We picked up one piece of information about Dragonstone, and while it was a valuable tid-bit, did we need a montage of shit and stew to get there.  That was very un-Game of Thrones-like (felt like a sitcom) and was really just gross/pointless. 

They need to get down to business at this point.

ijohnb

July 17th, 2017 at 9:23 AM ^

will be an issue for the show if it drags out that long.  I don't think it will be a problem in terms of ratings, but in terms of quality that is foreboding.  I feel like they continue to hedge and really still don't have much of an idea where the hell to go with it.  This is one of my favorite shows of all time, but I don't really know how much I am still going to care if the final season comes out in like May of 2019.

In reply to by ijohnb

Cali's Goin' Blue

July 17th, 2017 at 11:40 AM ^

I think the true genius is in George R.R. Martin, the author of the books. When he left off at Book #5, there were endless possiblities for all of the characters. I was so stoked for the next book that I read the entire series a second time and took detailed notes of all the foreshadowing, little sayings I had missed the first time and the such. I think the writers of the show decided to go down a certain path too early and now are running out of options. Without George R.R. Martin giving them one of the best book series(and easily converted into a quality TV show), I don't know how much talent the writers have. I'm not saying they don't have any, but it is hard to guage due to them being given a silver platter of all time for TV shows. 

ijohnb

July 17th, 2017 at 12:10 PM ^

think the biggest key for the writers is just to not overthink it.  Perhaps they have put themselves in a corner and cannot contrive a satisfactory conclusion that addressed everything.  That is fine.  What they cannot do is tippy-toe to the conclusion that is available to them or that they choose to go with. 

Maybe the White Walkers come and lay absolute ruin to everything and take over all of Westeros.  OK, fine.  Maybe Daenarys is a power hungry mad-Queen who takes over Kings Landing and then moves North burning everything in her path to the ground, including Winterfell.  You know what?  I'm cool with it.  Maybe the Wall holds and Jon rules the North and Daenarys takes Kings Landing and they just have a meeting where they are like "are we cool? cool" and just give each other bro hugs and it is all good.  That's fine too.

I'm good with basically whatever as long as they really commit to it.  Last night had a tinge of them continuing to "bide their time," which to me was not a particularly good sign.

In reply to by ijohnb

Pepto Bismol

July 17th, 2017 at 12:23 PM ^

Ulness they're lying, Benioff & Weiss recently said in a Time interview that "We know what happens in each scene" of Season 8.  They knew 90 percent of the ending prior to Season 3.

http://time.com/4791793/game-of-thrones-season-7-david-benioff-d-b-weiss/\

 

They have 12 episodes left which, considering most episodes will be longer than an hour, means they have the equivalent of 6 feature-length films.  They could tell the entire Godfather saga twice over with the time they have left. 

I know if feels perilously close, but they have plenty of time and, unless they're flat-out lying. they know exactly what they're aiming for.

 

Rabbit21

July 17th, 2017 at 1:07 PM ^

As far as whats going on now..... I don't know. Martin clearly has either writer's block or a severe case of "No Fucks Given!"  I think he has an end game in mind he told Benioff and Weiss about but I think he still doesn't have a damn clue how to get there as his story after book three badly needs editing.  Books four and five were pretty disappointing and I'm not encouraged by the samples on his website.  I like that TV is forcing a more streamlined story and that it's good for getting the story focused again.  

He handed them an intriguing world, great characters and themes, and three books of a great plot.  That's nothing to sneeze at but to say whatever problems are occuring in the show now are a result of not having a better roadmap from Martin strikes me as optimistic.

I Bleed Maize N Blue

July 17th, 2017 at 11:28 AM ^

Sam going through the drudgery of a 1st year student at the Citadel may have gone on too long, but wasn't entirely pointless. Yes, he's supposed to become the Wall's next maester, but he was also sent to the Citadel to find out what info they have about dragonglass. And he can't wait until he's advanced enough to be allowed access to the restricted area.

BigBirdBlue

July 17th, 2017 at 12:13 PM ^

but he did feature a little too much for my liking as well.  And completely agree that the montage scene felt completely out of place with anything else they have done to this point.  I did kind of laugh at it, and the someone musical/rhythmic quality of it, but it stuck out like a sore thumb.

TrueBlue2003

July 17th, 2017 at 1:51 PM ^

even though it was well-done in a whimsical, "Stomp" sort of way, which I do agree was un-GoT-like and kind of out of place.

BUT, the scene with the maester in which they're dissecting the guy was really interesting to me.  The guy basically told Sam that maesters should stay out of the fight, their job is to record history and that's what they should keep doing because this winter will end, and someone will survive it, and whomever that is, that's who the Citadel will serve. Does not seem at all worried about the White Walkers.

ijohnb

July 17th, 2017 at 2:00 PM ^

think that may be a narrative tool that the writers slipped in to almost subconsiously manage audience expectations.  There is this belief that what is going to transpire is this massive, all encompassing, apocolyptic event.  I think that the actual purpose of the scene was to foreshadow to the audience that 1) there are going to be a couple of wars here but we are not splitting the atom, and 2) for some people, live will just go on being... life.

Most of the audience is going to expect this entire thing to go out with a bang and completely tied up in a bow.  I think that was a way for the writers to kind of give the audience a heads up that in some ways, the show will end, but then "life will go on."

In reply to by ijohnb

TrueBlue2003

July 17th, 2017 at 4:14 PM ^

because I doubt it'll cause Sam to change the way he approaches anything.

But as for this: "Most of the audience is going to expect this entire thing to go out with a bang and completely tied up in a bow."

I don't know anyone expecting this to be tied up in a bow. I feel like most watchers of the show learned to not even have any expectations, lest those those expectations be shattered/killed off.

Whether there is any resolution to all the storylines, it definitely better go out with a bang, which I'm not worried about.