{"id":35050,"date":"2017-07-17T05:31:01","date_gmt":"2017-07-17T05:31:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/?p=35050"},"modified":"2017-07-17T05:31:01","modified_gmt":"2017-07-17T05:31:01","slug":"game-thrones-recap-return-dragonstone-question-alliances","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/lifestyle\/game-thrones-recap-return-dragonstone-question-alliances.html","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Game of Thrones\u2019 recap: A return to \u2018Dragonstone\u2019 and a question of alliances"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u2018Game of Thrones\u2019 recap: A return to \u2018Dragonstone\u2019 and a question of alliances<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

\u2018Game of Thrones\u2019 recap: A return to \u2018Dragonstone\u2019 and a question of alliances: – Winter is here. The end game is coming. And watching \u201cGame of Thrones\u201d now feels different since we know that there are exactly 14 more episodes after tonight, and that everything must resolved within that timeframe. So when a full minute is spent on the Hound digging a grave for two random people from 20-some episodes ago, you want to yell, \u201cGet on with it, we don\u2019t have much time left!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

So let\u2019s just get to it. As always, please read Alyssa Rosenberg\u2019s thoughtful review\/analysis of each episode, which hopefully pairs well with this \u201clet\u2019s just try to figure out exactly what happened\u201d recap.<\/span><\/p>\n

Arya Stark\u2019s body count increases exponentially<\/span>
\nCollect your winnings if you thought Walder Frey would be the first voice to heard in Season 7, since his throat-slitting at the hands of Arya Stark was one of the final things we saw in Season 6. It became clear pretty quickly that we weren\u2019t watching a flashback, with Frey presiding over a feast of his family members, but the latest in Arya\u2019s face-swapping revenge tour. Once \u201cWalder\u201d went into the specific details of his Red Wedding murders \u2014 the butchering of a pregnant woman, cutting the throat of a mother of five, slaughtering the guests invited into your home \u2014 it was apparent this was a murderous monologue and not a pep talk to some dopey soldiers from the Twins.<\/span><\/p>\n

As the Frey men start to choke on poisoned wine and breathe their final breaths, Arya drops a memorable line on those that are still alive to hear it: \u201cLeave one wolf alive and the sheep are never safe.\u201d Then she peels her face back to reveal her true self before leaving Frey\u2019s child bride with a message for those that ask what went down. \u201cTell them the North remembers. Tell them winter came for House Frey.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

It was one of the most badass moments we\u2019ve seen in the show\u2019s entire run. There is nothing one could possibly do to counteract how cool Arya was in that moment, unless it was something like, I dunno, hearing Ed Sheeran singing a song and being like, \u201cGee, that\u2019s a pretty song!\u201d Well, damn it, that\u2019s exactly how Arya followed up her mass-murder-by-face-swapping.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThrones\u201d has a history with musical cameos \u2014 Coldplay drummer Will Champion in the Red Wedding band that played \u201cThe Rains of Castamere,\u201d members of Sigur Ros performing at the Purple Wedding \u2014 but those cameos didn\u2019t take the viewer completely out of the story in the same way as seeing Ed Sheeran as a random soldier who actually gets a few lines. Anyway, Ed is part of a traveling gang of soldiers who seem nice enough for now. They offer Arya some rabbit and some homemade blackberry wine and they all share a laugh when Arya tells them she\u2019s on her way to King\u2019s Landing to kill the queen.<\/span><\/p>\n

Jon and Sansa have a tenuous peace<\/span>
\nAfter Jon and his soldiers (with a major assist from Sansa and the Knights of the Vale) defeated Ramsay Bolton in the Battle of the Bastards, Jon is getting down to business as the new Lord of Winterfell and the King in the North. He tells his assembled followers to scour for dragonglass, since he knows firsthand it can kill the White Walkers. He also says that it will be all hands on deck \u2014 men and women, ages 10 to 60, will all be asked to fight. This allows Lyanna Mormont to pipe up with one of her inspirational lines and honestly, her schtick is getting old already.<\/span><\/p>\n

Tension arises when it comes to dealing with the Houses Umber and Karstark, though. Both houses had most recently been loyal to Ramsay Bolton and Sansa believes they should be excluded from any new battle plans and be made to pay the price. Jon wants to forgive, both because he needs as many men as possible but also because he doesn\u2019t believe a son should be punished for a father\u2019s sins. (And the representatives of two families present were no more than teenagers, to boot.) As Sansa publicly pushes against Jon, Lord Baelish can be seeing doing what he does best and enjoys the most \u2014 standing in a corner smirking. And surely plotting.<\/span><\/p>\n

Later, Jon and Sansa try to talk out their issues. \u201cYou are my sister, but I am King now,\u201d Jon says, telling her that he doesn\u2019t appreciate being undermined. Sansa hits him where it hurts, saying that Joffrey never let anyone question him, does that mean he was a good king? That one stings Jon, but Sansa reassures him that he\u2019s \u201cas far from Joffrey as anyone I\u2019ve ever met.\u201d Sansa just wants Jon to be smarter than her father and brother, who both made stupid mistakes and lost their heads for it.<\/span><\/p>\n

A message comes for them from King\u2019s Landing \u2014 Queen Cersei demands loyalty, or else Jon will be killed as a traitor. It\u2019s good to be straightforward and efficient with your language because you can only fit so much text on one of those little scrolls a raven has to fly with for a thousand miles. And this brings about another disagreement between Jon and Sansa. Jon would like to put Cersei\u2019s threats on the backburner; he\u2019s most concerned with the Night King and the army of undead that is marching their way. This is understandable. Sansa knows that you can\u2019t just ignore Cersei; if you are her enemy, she will find a way to kill you. So her position, too, is understandable.<\/span><\/p>\n

Never one to bypass a situation he can manipulat, Baelish approaches a slightly frustrated Sansa. He senses she \u2014 as the rightful heir to Winterfell, who has endured unspeakable horrors to get back to her home, and who was arguably responsible for Jon\u2019s recent battle victory \u2014 wants some power. But Sansa\u2019s not in the mood to play Littlefinger\u2019s mind games at this point. She tells him he doesn\u2019t need to get in the last word, she\u2019ll \u201cassume it was something clever.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Cersei rejects Euron \u2014 for now<\/span>
\nIn King\u2019s Landing, Cersei and Jaime are dealing with the realities of their situation. Yes, she\u2019s now Queen, after her obliteration of the Sept of Baelor (and all those inside it, including the High Sparrow, Margaery Tyrell and hundreds more) and the ensuing suicide of her son, King Tommen. Cersei knows that Tyrion has been chosen to be Hand of the Queen to Daenerys, and she won\u2019t let Jaime live this down, since it was his sympathy for their brother that led to him escaping his death sentence and murdering Tywin before escaping to faraway lands.<\/span><\/p>\n

Cersei and Jaime seem to be in very different mindsets when it comes to how to proceed. Cersei wants to push forward to vanquish her many enemies; Jaime notes that those enemies surround them on all sides and that Cersei may like to say she\u2019s the Queen of the Seven Kingdoms, but really she has \u201cthree at best.\u201d Jaime is still processing the death of Tommen \u2014 \u201cOur baby boy killed himself,\u201d he pleads with her \u2014 while Cersei says of her children (all three of them dead now), \u201cI loved them, I did, but they\u2019re ashes now and we\u2019re flesh and blood. We\u2019re Lannisters, the last ones that count.\u201d Maybe there\u2019s a little repression mixed in with the aggression, but it\u2019s also consistent with Cersei\u2019s longstanding desire for absolute power.<\/span><\/p>\n

But to get that power, she needs some allies. Enter Euron Greyjoy, the new King of the Iron Islands. This would be an alliance of convenience, as Cersei needs manpower and ships while Euron needs a queen to further solidify his standing. Euron does his best to sweet talk both Cersei and Jaime as she observers him from the Iron Throne and he stands beside it, even telling Jaime how impressed he was when Jaime slaughtered many of Euron\u2019s men during a battle many years ago.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ultimately, Cersei rejects Euron\u2019s proposal on the grounds that he is not trustworthy, has broken promises in the past and murdered his own brother, not to mention that he\u2019s dressed like an extra in a Sisters of Mercy video. Euron takes the rejection in stride, though. He knows that it will take a priceless gift to win over Cersei, and he won\u2019t return to King\u2019s Landing until he has it.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sam has a really crappy job<\/span>
\nSamwell Tarly is not really enjoying his time at the Citadel in Old Town. What he thought he\u2019d be doing: reading, saving the world from White Walkers. The reality of what he\u2019s doing: cleaning the chamber pots of old men. It\u2019s a gnarly existence and on top of that he can\u2019t even get into the restricted area of the library \u2014 where all the good White Walker secrets are kept \u2014 because he\u2019s not a Maester yet. It\u2019s so bad for Sam that even when he\u2019s on break from toilet duty, he\u2019s on autopsy duty and left to handle and weigh the organs of dead Citadel dwellers.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sam\u2019s impatience gets the best of him, and one night he steals the key from one of the elders who has access to the restricted area of the library. Sam swipes a few books and back in his quarters, where Gilly is playing with Little Sam, big Sam discovers that Dragonstone has an entire mountain with a motherlode of dragonglass buried underneath it. There\u2019s always valuable weapons buried or hidden underground all over Westeros, it seems.<\/span><\/p>\n

When Sam is back on his grind collecting dirty dishes from various dorm dwellings, he\u2019s startled when an arm reaches from inside a room and grabs him. It\u2019s an arm infected with greyscale and attached to someone asking the whereabouts of the Dragon Queen. So it\u2019s safe to say that sickly Ser Jorah Mormont has found his way to Old Town.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Hound sees the Light<\/span>
\nThe Hound is riding through the Riverlands with his new companions, Thoros of Myr and the oft-resurrected Baric Dondarion. These three have history, of course. The Hound killed Dondarion way back in Season 3, but Dondarion was quickly resurrected by Thoros, via the Lord of the Light. (When you see it written out like that, it does make you feel a little ridiculous for watching this show, right?) Anyway, this \u201cHateful Eight\u201d-lookin\u2019 group need shelter from the snowy night and head to a seemingly abandoned house, despite the Hound\u2019s vocal objections.<\/span><\/p>\n

He objected because he remembered the house as the place inhabited by a farmer and daughter that the Hound left for dead back after stealing his silver back in Season 4, despite them being nothing but kind to the Hound and his then-traveling-companion Arya. The current traveling group discover that same father\/daughter as a couple heaps of bones inside, having frozen to death long ago. Is this really a necessary callback? Not really, we already know the Hound has an often-guilty conscience and strives to be a moral man despite his actions.<\/span><\/p>\n

Later that evening, the Hound asks Dondarion what\u2019s so special about him that the Lord of the Light keeps bringing him back from the dead. Dondarion says he has no clue, he only knows that the Lord wants him alive. The Hound does his best Bill Maher impression and asks, \u201cIf he\u2019s so all powerful, why doesn\u2019t he just tell you what the f\u2014 he wants?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

But maybe the Hound will have a change of heart on that line of thinking. Thoros convinces the pryophobic Hound to approach the fire and look into the flames. He\u2019s skeptical at first but eventually sees a vision: Ice. A wall of ice. The Wall. Where the Wall meets the sea. There\u2019s a castle there. There\u2019s a mountain that looks like an arrowhead. The dead are marching past. Thousands of them. Dondarion thinks the Hound is now convinced of their mission.<\/span><\/p>\n

Daenerys makes landfall<\/span>
\nDany and her crew \u2014 led by Tyrion, Varys, Missandei, her army of Unsullied and, of course, three dragons \u2014 finally get back to Westeros and arrive at the ancestral Targaryen home of Dragonstone. It\u2019s seemingly been completely abandoned since Stannis Baratheon (may he rest in peace, the One True King of Westeros) marched his army to its demise. Dany is moved to be back home, savoring some grains of sand, yanking down Stannis\u2019s banner as she makes her way into the castle. As she walks into the battle strategy room with Tyrion, both surveying their surroundings, Dany finally breaks the silence while standing at the head of the table: \u201cShall we begin?\u201d We\u2019ve been waiting for her to return to Westeros and begin her conquest of the Seven Kingdoms for years. So yes, let\u2019s begin.<\/span><\/p>\n

Source:-https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/news\/arts-and-entertainment\/wp\/2017\/07\/17\/game-of-thrones-recap-a-return-to-dragonstone-and-a-question-of-alliances\/?utm_term=.d8152721564a<\/span><\/p>\n

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