If you are reading this I assume you know what Game of Thrones is. Who Daenerys Targaryen is, and Jaime Lannister and Sansa Stark. Ramsay Bolton? We'll never talk about that again. Nor am I going to explain that it is one of the most successful TV series of all time, based on George R. R. Martin's 'A Song of Ice and Fire' book series. And that the series has been called "The Sopranos of Middle Earth" in the press.
Exactly 1 year, 2 months, 3 weeks and 5 days after the first episode of season 6 finally, finally, finally began season 7. Coincidentally, I had that night off and thought 'Oh well, let's see how the Starkjes are doing again.'
Revenge is best served cold
The season opener is off to a spectacular start. Sure, all the dummies are put in position for all that is to come this season, but first we get a bit of Red Wedding processing. Thanks for that! The extremely brutal and unexpected killing of Robb and Catelyn Stark cannot be avenged enough as far as I am concerned. My favourite Stark, Arya, clearly feels the same way. At the end of season 6, she served Walder Frey his own sons like pie before slitting his throat. Now she picks up with her her years of training in death and disguise at the Faceless Men in Braavos and exterminate the entire Frey family root and branch. Cheers!
The golden couple in deep shit
Jamie and Cersei meet on a floor-sized, painted map of 'their' kingdom of Westeros. The paint is still wet. It is there that Queen Cersei wants to discuss a new war strategy with her brother/minor/general, while Jamie wants to reminisce about the suicide of their latest and youngest child, Tommen. They have, for now, the Iron Throne won, but for whom? They are the last of their family, if you discount overflow brother Tyrion for the sake of convenience. Indeed, the Lannisters have managed to surround themselves with enemies.
Daenerys approaches from the south with her dragons, her Unsullied army and her Dothraki warriors. In the granary of Westeros, Highgarden, is Grand Old Lady Olenna Tyrell in power after Cersei blasted High Septon and all the other Tyrells with Wildfire last season. Jon Snow has more pressing problems in the north vying for his attention than Cersei Lannister. So Jamie does have a point when he says they need new allies. The queen sister is visibly irritated by this mansplaining and already has a plan and a partner in mind, in the form of Euron Greyjoy, brand new king of the shabby Iron Islands. But, in possession of an improbably large and well-manned fleet.
Please calm down
This is where the makers of GOT did take a stab at it. In season 6, they already managed to include Euron's fugitive nephew Theon and niece Yara in no time across the narrow sea. They took the Ironborn's best boats and... poof…. Euron has a huge brand-new fleet? And then when that spectacular war fleet of Daenerys finally left, Varys was at her side. Varys, the master spy who, at that point in the series, was elsewhere entirely.
With this narrative time machine that the makers are using to make great strides in the plot, they should be very careful. Absolutely unnecessary and undesirable to start fraying the series. Don't do that to the fans.
No nipple to be seen
How Game of Thrones slowly evolved from a sexist to a women's empowering series you can see here reading in my recap of season 6. In this episode, (female) nudity and sex are even conspicuously absent. The queens are too busy for a game of 'you-know-what'. Cersei, as mentioned, is preoccupied with war and posterity beyond. Euron Greyjoy's marriage proposal is parked affably. Sansa, in her King's Landing time at court, has looked closely at these Grand Dame of plots, and tries to save her brother Jon from the naive mistakes of long-dead father Ned and brother Robb. Jon, meanwhile, takes gender equality to a whole new level. He argues that all men, women and children, must arm themselves to fight the White Walkers. If humanity is to survive that struggle, it cannot have half the population staying on the sidelines, argues the King of the North.
A true Queens landing
And then comes our 'Daenerys Stormborn of the House Targaryen, First of Her Name, the Unburnt, Queen of the Andals and the First Men, Khaleesi of the Great Grass Sea, Breaker of Chains, and Mother of Dragons' finally home. She lands with her faithful, her fleet and her dragons at Castle Dragonstone. The ancestral home of the Targaryen lineage, the place where she was born and where she fled from as a baby with crazy brother Viserys.
Finally home, kneeling on an empty and deserted beach, letting the sand slip through your fingers. Then to walk past the throne, straight to the War Room, where the contours of Westeros are not painted in paint but carved in stone. Eat that Cersei!
The meta wink, does it add anything?
When Arya, on her way to King's Landing by herself, stumbles upon a group of friendly and singing Lannister soldiers, it is a nice scene in itself. Our vengeful Stark meets ordinary guys, with ordinary dreams. Moral: even the enemy is human. Somewhat distractingly, superstar Ed Sheeran has a cameo as one of the soldiers. And also about the song they sing saying "It's new!"... wink, wink. Fair is fair, it doesn't need it from me.
Also The Hound, Arya's former mentor/hostage-taker is confronted with humanity, said it in a different form. Along with the Brotherhood without Banners he spends the night in farmhouse where he once robbed a father and daughter of their last money. Their skeletons bear witness to a cold starvation and The Hound she gives a funeral ceremony in the middle of a nighttime snowstorm. It is wonderfully heartbreaking character development that Sandor Clegane develops a conscience, or something akin to one. And the tongue-in-cheek joke to the manbun of fellow traveller Deric Dondarrion is forgiven the writers.
By far the nerdiest joke of all is Sam Tarly's conversation with the Archmaester (Jim Broadbent, once Professor Slughorn in Harry Potter) during an autopsy. In between serving soup and cleaning up stools, the co-eds running Sam is looking for knowledge that can help Jon get the White Walkers defeat. That the Archmaester does not allow access to the shielded section of the Citadel's library is a subtle reference to the Potter series that is not at all disturbing or distracting.
Next week and beyond.
What can we all expect this season? And most importantly, at what pace? Of course Jon is going to meet Aunt Daenerys, but I doubt that will be next week. Sansa is irrevocably going to get into trouble at the hands of Littlefinger, no matter how puckered she is by now. And how nice that Jorah Mormont reappeared! No doubt the moment will come when he can really give his life for his great love.
The most worrying development seems to me to be the 'priceless' gift Euron says he is going to arrange for Cersei. Tyrion's head, or one of the dragons? He has a hefty asset up his sleeve, that much is certain.
What did you guys think of episode 1? Who dies, what family reunion awaits us? Reactions are more than welcome in the comments!
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