'Sup. |
Buckle up, it's going to be a bumpy season.
Spoilers ahoy
Now, this cameo has aroused considerable ire, presumably from people
who dislike Sheeran on principle, because while nothing especially noteworthy,
it isn't inherently offensive to my eyes, as someone whose life has yet to be
impacted by the artiste's music. He's an okay actor, and mostly is required to
sing(1) a song about ladies and hands of gold in a scene which seems intended
to open Arya's eyes to the possibility that the Lannister troops may not be her
enemies, even if Cersei is. She tells them she's going to King's Landing –
which they describe basically as 'worse than Detroit' – to kill the Queen. They
all have a good laugh, none of them try to rape her and no-one gets murdered.
It's all rather sweet and it's perhaps disturbing that we've reached the point
that I'm kind of moved that no-one commits a major felony over dinner.
In King's Landing, Cersei is redecorating, but her floor map mostly
proves that she's short on actual kingdoms under her rule. Surrounded by foes,
she nevertheless intends to overcome through sheer spite, and dismisses
Tommen's suicide as a betrayal. Even Jaime seems to be working out that she is
batshit insane at this point. Nonetheless, she is able to hold her own in
negotiations with Euron Greyjoy, who offers her his part of the Iron Fleet in
exchange for marriage. When she refuses, on the grounds that he's a dodgy
bastard, he offers to return with a great gift, and I'm thinking he's planning
to kidnap Tyrion.
Conscience. |
In the North, the Brotherhood – still accompanied by the Hound – stop at
an abandoned farmhouse, where the owner and his daughter have died. Of course,
this is the family that Sandor Clegane robbed while travelling with Arya, but
now his pragmatic douchebaggery seems to be crumbling under the weight of guilt
and fire-born revelations of the approaching Army of the Dead, and Thoros finds
him digging a grave for the family in the bitter cold of the night.
Jon decides that women are going to train to fight the White Walkers –
with a storming endorsement from Lady Lyanna 'Don't Fuck with Me' Mormont – and
then once more defies Sansa's advice and restores the Umbers and the Karstarks
to their castles under the command of their spotty, teenaged lords. Sansa is
livid that he doesn't use those lands to pay off loyal northerners, and I think
that Jon missed a trick in not pointing out to her that, in addition to not winding
up the houses with more executions – which is what got Robb betrayed – he's
placing them back in control of, as they have just discussed, ground zero of an
impending White Walker invasion. He receives a raven from Cersei telling him to
come to King's Landing and bend the knee or face destruction, but his eyes are
on the north. Sansa is watching his back so far, and giving Littlefinger the
coldest shoulder she feels she can get away with, delivering a sick burn that
you couldn't have imagined from the Sansa of even a couple of seasons ago when
she tells him not to bother trying to get the last word. "I'll just
assume it was something clever."
Up at the Wall, Meera Reed brings Bran to the gates, where they are
admitted after Bran is all uncanny at Jon's buddies. Further north still, the
army of the dead – now including giant wights, because that was necessary – advances.
In Oldtown, Sam is doing drudgework, mostly involving shit, and damn little Sam is growing fast. Sam
asks his Archmaester – Jim Broadbent getting his Dumbledore on – for access to
the Library's restricted section. The Archmaester believes that he has seen the
Army of the Dead, and explains that the Maesters of the Citadel are the memory
of the Seven Kingdoms; the wisdom and the foresight that keeps men from acting
like animals. He assures Sam that the Wall will always stand, but maybe it's
just me, but I'm sure that talk about foresight was a kind of nod for Sam to do
what he does, which is to break into the restricted section and make a few
withdrawals. Back at his lodgings, Gilly finds reference to the mountain of
dragon glass on Dragonstone which Stannis mentioned, and he sends word to Jon.
Then he is accosted by Jorah Mormont, currently resident in a leper cell in the
Citadel, who asks if the Queen has come yet.
In Westeros, black - or at least dark - is the new black. |
Down at Dragonstone, the Queen indeed arrives, sweeping into the
abandoned fortress of Stannis Baratheon to reclaim her birthplace and ask her
advisers rhetorically: "Shall we begin?"
Yes. Let us begin, if not the beginning, then the beginning of the end.
It feels as if the dummies are played out now, and the real players all
revealed. Cersei, Jon and Danaerys; Sansa, Littlefinger and Tyrion; Euron and
Yara; the Mountain and the Hound. Events are moving towards a conclusion, even
if not a definite one, although I am trying to brace myself for some
devastating reversal in episode 7.7 where everyone dies but a few babies and Season
8 is Little Sam and Lady Mormont in Game
of Thrones: The Next Generation.
Next week(2): plans, plots, girl-on-girl action and the return of the
direwolf in 'Stormborn'.
(1) Perhaps in a slightly modern style.
(2) By the short preview.
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