Seven Heavens! Was the finale as good for you as it was for me? I don't know about its ratings...yet, but it sure knocked it out of the park for me. Like all other character themed titular episodes of the series 'The Dragon and the Wolf' teased of what to expect in the season finale, and most viewers's assumptions if not all, were probably realized. A nerve racking episode which took us from the political frenzy in the Dragonpits to the death of a major character at Winterfell, before the inevitable arrival of the White Walkers at the Wall, it was truly an episode worthy of its finale tag, sadly it was to be our last episode of the penultimate season of Game of Thrones, but rather than dwell on that, lets dwell on the seismic events of episode seven and what these may mean for the coming final season of the show, with the uncertain release date of Season 8 we'll certainly be doing so for a long long time.
Sandor 'The Hound' Clegane
Not many characters on the show have had such an intriguing story arc as Sandor Clegane, when we meet him he's Joffrey's bodyguard, a loyal dog who obeys all commands, a man seemingly without a conscience, who only did what he was told, but things have changed very much since then and the Hound has become an unlikely fan favourite as the brutish, selfish, foul mouthed, eater of chickens became a protector, father figure and avenger of the downtrodden as the seasons went by, and in this episode he had some noteworthy reunions which had no doubt contributed to the man he had become.
The Mountain and The Hound: Sandor ‘The Hound’ Clegane finally came face to face with his brother Gregor ‘The Mountain ‘Clegane (or at least whatever’s left of him in that husk) for the first time since their scuffle at the Hand’s Tourney back in Season One, a brief monologue imminently confirming a lot of fan theories about the two brothers settling their differences once and for all, so yes folks Cleganebowl is still on!!!
The Beauty and The Hound: The Hound had another reunion with his would-be killer; Brienne of Tarth and even though she knocked him off a cliff’s edge to his near death (Back in Season 4), there seemed to be no bad blood between the two, their unifying cause being Arya’s safety. It was nice to see the Hound sport a fatherly ‘that’s my girl’ smile after Brienne’s remark about Arya not needing protection. It would be nice to see Arya and the Hound meet again, which will probably happen when Jon's party returns to Winterfell.
The Dragonpit
The summit at the Dragonpit to discuss a temporary truce had quite many reunions if it’s safe to call them that, a number of characters being in the same place since season 4; Tyrion and Cersei, Tyrion and Pod, Pod and Bronn, while some characters were on screen together for the very first time; Jon and Cersei, Cersei and Daenerys etc. The summit got off to a rocky start; Dany's intentional late arrival and showboating on Drogon wasn't appreciated by Cersei; the Queen, not amused by the showmanship it took to pull of a grand entrance. Euron attempts to vex Theon and Tyrion, just before things quietened, if only for a short time after the big surprise is let out of the box, the wight launching forward at Cersei immediately after its release, the look on Cersei’s face as she almost shits herself gave me some pleasure just before Sandor yanked its chains. Cersei agrees to help only if The King in the North stays neutral in the war to come after, but honorable Jon is not one to say a lie even when the fate of the world depends on it...come on! (#honestjon #honestygoals). In light of Jon's formerly unknown allegiance to Daenerys, Cersei declines to the truce and prematurely ends talks…
The Lion Queen
After Jon’s unwavering honour brings talks to a premature end, Tyrion goes to meet Cersei to sway his sister despite the possibility of death, Tyrion and Cersei speak in what would be their first conversation since before the purple wedding. It's a beautifully crafted one, which showed the humanity they were both capable of; Cersei's (misguided devotion to family and the love of her children) and Tyrion apparently not completely free from the illicit act of murdering one's own father (even if he wanted to kill you first) The hostile environment and obstinate nature of both siblings leaves both in an unyielding position, and then, Tyrion perhaps tired of Cersei's threats or an intent to begin a war provokes Cersei to take his head and have her revenge which made for a very tense moment, however Cersei does not, Tyrion subsequently discovers that Cersei is pregnant and presumably uses this angle to convince his sister to agree to the truce…that is until Cersei reveals her ulterior plans to Jaime. Tyrion once said only a fool would trust Cersei, lets hope he heeded his own advice.
Cersei’s revelation to Jamie that she would not be sending her armies to the north and in fact had sent Euron Greyjoy to go ferry the Golden Company (Essos' most infamous mercenary army) across the narrow sea to take up her cause wasn't that much of a surprise given her duplicitous nature, Jamie on the other hand (no pun intended), is more than surprised by his sister's intention to break the truce and his word, his reaction against her plan isn't appreciated by Cersei, and with the imminent shadow of the Mountain behind him, Jamie feels a very icy chill down his spine (am I the only one who thought Jamie had reached his expiration date when The Mountain unsheathed his sword?), at this moment the tension is so thick you could cut it with Valryian Steel, Jaime summons his bravado A-game and calls her bluff. He leaves King's Landing seemingly riding to join up with Tyrion's party just as snow begins to fall. In other news Cersei now holds the Westerosi record for threatening two brothers' lives in a single day, the Lioness is indeed the more feral Lion.
The Dragon and the Wolf
The character themed title of this season's final episode was a double entendre which serviced old and new revelations on the show, the Dragon being the sigil for House Targaryen and the Wolf for House Stark;
Rhaegar Targeryen (The Last Dragon) and Lyanna Stark (The She-Wolf)
If you've not heard about these two by now then you haven't been paying close attention, Rhaegar Targaryen was the first true-born son and heir of Aerys 'The Mad King' Targaryen and Lyanna Stark was the daughter of Lord Rickard Stark and sister to Brandon, Eddard (Ned), Benjen Stark, and betrothed to Robert Baratheon. However Lyanna's assumed kidnap at the hands of Rhaegar by Brandon Stark led to his and his father's deaths, an event which triggered Robert's Rebellion and the eventual downfall of House Targaryen, and as it's been teased since the final episode of season six: The Winds of Winter, Jon Snow's parentage was confirmed, but his legitimacy was stamped beyond reasonable doubt with Gilly's discovery at the citadel that Rhaegar had annulled his wedding to Elia Martell and secretly married another, that other woman? Lyanna Stark of Winterfell as Bran's greenseeing abilities would confirm. It's a beautiful love story, really it is, Rhaegar and Lyanna absconded, got married and died for love...but there's some stupidity in there somewhere - lets abscond, start a great war and let thousands of people die because of a lie. Robert's Rebellion was no lie, The Starks and their compatriots were murdered by the Mad King in cold blood because of his paranoia, Rhaegar and Lyanna were simply the cause of it all.
Daenerys Targaryen and Jon Snow (alias Aegon VI of House Targaryen and Stark)
Yes, Jon may be Rhaegar's son but he is more Stark than Targaryen, Rhaegar may have been his father, but Ned was his Daddy. I guess ya'll are happy now though, Uuuuugh it finally happened, Jon Snow shagged his aunt and his magical Targaryen semen will give them little Targaryen babies uuugh. The only one I pitied worse than myself was Ser Jorah the 'Friendly Knight', the Mormont man doing everything he could to dissuade Jon and Dany from travelling together afterall he had seen the fireworks between them and tried to stop the bonfire, sadly his attempt was thwarted when Daenerys decided to arrive White Harbor with The King in the North (Warden of the North now, I guess). I hope its all out of your systems now, so we can finally talk about important things like the Army of the Dead marching on the wall with a big ass fire breathing Dragonwight!
What Is Dead May Never Die!
Didn't this phrase apply ever so aptly to Theon's dead balls? You can't hurt the nonexistent can you? someone should have told the Ironborn captain that. For the first time in a long time Theon Greyjoy showed true grit battling his fellow Ironborn at the risk of death in an attempt to convince the men to try and save his sister Yara from their uncle, all this after an enlightening and empowering talk with Jon Snow. Theon has been another character with a redemption arc; the ward of Ned Stark whose betrayal cost the Starks so much, he's gone from a most hated character to one who has sought acceptance, forgiveness and redemption ever since, and his new mission to save his sister isn't any different. There is a possibility that this passed over son may become King of the Iron Islands as I fear that poor Yara may not live to be Queen.
The Death of Littlefinger...Chaos is a pit after all
As much as I appreciated and enjoyed his Machiavellian schemes and brilliant mind, it was time for Littlefinger to go. After playing virtually every great House against the other, the interim Lord of the Vale eventually over-maneuvered and dug himself into a pit where he had no real influence, a position that even became further intrenched as the Wolves returned to Winterfell, and thus one of the most brilliant minds in Westeros was reduced to a lovesick puppy at the heels of Sansa Stark. The writers wrote him into this corner and couldn't write him out of it as his scheming became more irrelevant in the North and with the imminent threat of the White Walkers, if he was still in King's Landing perhaps things would have been better as he would have been in his element or had he returned to the Vale after his finest hour (The Battle of the Bastards), alas love makes a man do 'stupid' things, but with the show coming to an end and a greater threat to deal with, Littlefinger had no place in it anymore. A happy (I laughed as he begged for his life) and sad moment (but felt pity to see this great mind reduced to a pathetic, grovelling little boy) for me as one of the best minds in Westeros was written out of this grand story.
The Lone Wolf Dies But The Pack Survives
After the dangerous triangle between Sansa, Arya and Littlefinger for sometime now, there was only going to be one outcome as I predicted, fortunately it was the right one, Sansa is a self professed slow learner, but a good one, and for all her mistakes and stupidity she atoned for much of it by seeing through Littlefinger's deception, Arya's execution of Littlefinger with his own Valyrian dagger was irony on steel, his intended gift to buy Bran's affection being the instrument of his death. It was good to see the sisters bond again and if the threat of the White Walkers comes to an end with no Stark casualty, you can only imagine the triple threat that Sansa, Bran and Arya now pose to anyone. Ned and Catelyn can definitely rest easy, House Stark will remain proud and stand tall.
Eastwatch: The Wall is breached
I always assumed that when the Walkers arrived the Wall it would be at Castle Black, not even the miles of unmanned wall between the Castles on the Wall, just Castle Black! But the Night King has always been Eastwatch bound, why Eastwatch I wondered, is the wall weaker there? Did he know it was previously unmanned? Many fan theories and memes even highlighted and joked about how the Walkers intended to walk around the wall on the now frozen sea water beside it, but there was no walking and that was probably not the Night King's plan all along so what would it have been if Jon's party didn't conveniently hand him a dragon to breach the wall with? I guess we'll never know, what we do know is that bitch came crashing down like a stack of cards, and the dead waltzed through it.
Episode Round Up: The Beginning Of The End
After waiting for 6 seasons for Winter to arrive, it finally did and in epic fashion too, season 7 did not have the luxury of the beautifully worked intricacies of the preceding seasons and was also subject to many narrative shortcuts which threatened to hamper its quality at times, however its pacy (not to mention sometimes impossible) timelines and decisive plot made for some fine viewing, far from the best the show has previously offered but a decent outing nonetheless. Most revelations have been made, snow (no, not Jon) arrived at King's Landing, Jon and Daenerys have finally hooked up and the Walkers have now breached the Wall, Cersei plots against all her enemies and Jamie seems to have seen the light (no not R'hollor, I mean figuratively) and as our Sunday nights and Monday mornings revert to normalcy we might have to wait till 2018 or as far as 2019 for our beloved show to return, hopefully the former. Well its been a delight to have covered this season (we missed episode one though) with you all, thank you for reading and sharing, hopefully we do some video reviews next time around. Keep checking the blog for more exciting reviews and articles, till then, Valar Morghulis.
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