This Week in Westeros: "Dragonstone" (Season 7, Episode 1)

WARNING: This Post is Dark and Full of SPOILERS

So after the bombastic finale of Season 6, Game of Throne’s Season 7 has a lot to live up to. So, let’s see how the first episode pans out.

For those of you who need it, here’s a quick recap of where Season 6 left our characters. Cersei had used the Mad King’s wildfire caches to blow up the Sept of Baelor, killing everyone inside, including the High Sparrow, Lancel, and the Tyrells (minus Olenna). Because of this, Tommen jumped to his death, leaving Cersei as the ruler of Westeros. The Hound had found new allies with the Brotherhood Without Banners. Arya had started using her stolen Face/Off powers to kill those who wronged her family, starting with Walder Frey. Bran had become the new Three-Eyed Raven and discovered that Lyanna Stark and Rhaegar Targaryen had a secret child: Jon Snow, who was currently being crowned the new King in the North. Danaerys had FINALLY set sail for Westeros, having allied herself with Theon and Yara Greyjoy, the Sand Snakes, and Olenna Tyrell. Oh, and winter is finally here.

So, with that done, what’s starting to happen in Season 7?

The episode opens with Arya, now disguised as Walder Frey, singlehandedly killing the remaining Freys “who mean a damn” using poisoned wine. Admittedly, it was kind of predictable what was going on long before Walder rips off his fake face, but it was still highly enjoyable to watch Arya doing what she does best: revenge.

After that, Arya encounters a group of Lannister soldiers camping in the woods, including one played by Ed Sheeren, who of course shows off his singing talents. Not gonna lie, I couldn’t really stop giggling every time he was on screen. The sheer absurdity of seeing Ed Sheeren in medieval armor was just jarring. He wasn’t really bad at all; I just couldn’t see the character, only Ed Sheeren. I don’t know how much he’ll be in this season, but it feels like this could be more than just a mere cameo.

The rest of the scene shows that these soldiers are rather sympathetic individuals, with wants, needs, and their own lives. They even show a surprising amount of hospitality to Arya, a complete stranger, with no knowledge that she’s the daughter of one of their enemy houses. It does well to show that even though these men may serve evil forces, they’re still humans and not necessarily bad themselves, just doing their jobs. Hopefully this is a recurring theme throughout the season for Arya, as her roaring rampage of revenge causes her to pause a few moments to think whether or not killing the lackeys of the people that wronged her is the same as killing those people themselves.

When your legs don't work like they used to before
Hodor will sweep you off of your feet

In the North, Jon and Sansa continue their planning for Jon’s “King in the North 2017” campaign. The issue comes up of some of the Northern houses who betrayed the Starks – namely the Karstarks and Umbers – and Jon, along with several of his cohorts, believe that their castles should be burned to the ground. Sansa reminds them that the castles themselves did nothing and they can’t afford to lose strongholds right now. Then she convinces Jon to allow the surviving heirs to the Karstarks and Umbers to pledge their loyalty to Jon as penance, as the children of traitors do not necessarily reflect the actions of the traitors themselves. I really love the kind of political mind Sansa has evolved into, and it’s clear that she has learned a lot from her time with Littlefinger. However, it’s also this tutledge that will most likely widen he divide already created between her and Jon, as the two have different viewpoints on how the North should be run. This also serves as a nice parallel to the lessons Arya learns with the Lannister soldiers, all of the “sins of the fathers are not the sins of the sons” stuff.

At the Wall, Bran and Meera finally show up and are finally taken in. Bran proves his worth to Edd by using his magic psychic eyes to show the past with the Battle of Hardhome. That’s about it for this plotline for the episode.

In King’s Landing, Cersei and Jaime talk about Cersei going off the deep end and how with the enemies they’ve created after the Green Trial, they’re not really in control of all of the Seven Kingdoms anymore. But then Euron Greyjoy stops by to pledge his loyalty and ships to Cersei…only for Cersei to dismiss him because she doesn’t trust him. Honestly, who can blame her? But this is a typical Cersei move. She’s not doing what’s wise politically, but she refuses to admit that she’s not in a position to be shooing away potential allies willy-nilly. But Euron says he’s going to return with a gift to prove his worth to her, so this definitely won’t be the last we see of him. We didn’t have a whole lot of Euron last season, but from the brief scene we had this week, I’m starting to like Euron a little more. He shows he’s a heartless sociopath – with his admiration of Jaime killing Greyjoy soldiers during the Greyjoy Rebellion – and that he clearly has no fear mocking the Kingslayer and is not intimidated at all by the FrankenMountain. Euron could prove to be a very intriguing player this season. Also, I feel like Jaime should be more pissed at Cersei over what she did last season, but hopefully the rest of the season will get to show this.

Over in Oldtown, we see what Sam had been up to after starting his internship with the maesters: scrubbing toilets. The rapid editing of the “Sam’s job sucks” montage was humorous, and it was nice that the Archmaester (played by Professor Slughorn from Harry Potter) is one of the few people who believe Sam actually encountered and killed a White Walker, simply by using logic and facts to realize Sam is telling the truth. But Sam’s life could get way more interesting, as he takes a book from the maesters’ restricted section of the library (okay, now they’re just blatantly referencing Harry Potter now that they have Slughorn aboard) that tells him there’s a mountain of dragonglass underneath Dragonstone, the very same mineral Jon desperately needs to fight the White Walkers. Needless to say, we probably won’t see a whole lot of Oldtown this season, since Sam’s probably going to leave to help Jon or whoever. But hey, Jorah’s in Oldtown too, seeking medical attention for his rapidly progressing greyscale infection. So maybe Sam will be joined by Rock Zombie Jorah to fight White Walkers. That would be pretty cool.

"I'm here to drink wine and love my children.
*takes a long sip*
And I'm all out of children."

Over with the Hound, the Brotherhood Without Banners stops to rest at an abandoned house, the same house the Hound and Arya stopped at in Season 4, the one with the father and daughter that the Hound robbed. Yeah, now they’re dead. It’s a touching part of the episode, showing off the Hound’s humanity as he regrets the fate of the family and buries them himself. (Let’s just hope they stay dead in the ground.) The Hound also realizes that Thoros’ fire magic stuff isn’t all BS, as he looks into the flames to see horrific events yet to come involving the White Walkers. Apparently, they’ll be attacking one of the Night’s Watch’s strongholds…the same one Jon is sending Tormund and others to. Whoops. I’m not sure if I really like the part with the Hound looking into the fire, as I felt he started to believe in this magic stuff way too easily. I was honestly waiting for him to finish his spiel about what he was seeing, and then turn to Berric and say that he was messing with him the whole time to mock his god. Also, how exactly does the fire-seeing work? Do you have to be magic to see visions? Can anyone see visions? Is the fire magic? The rules are very vague and I wish they’d clarify.

And at Dragonstone, the ancient home of the Targaryen lineage, Daenerys and her fleet finally land, taking back the castle for the dragons. It’s really awe-inspiring to see Daenerys finally back at her birthplace, and it’s cool to finally see more of Dragonstone aside from the war room where Stannis and Melisandre made shadow babies. And considering the information Sam discovered about Dragonstone, Daenerys and Jon may come to odds when he presumably tries to mine her ancestral home for weapons against the White Walkers.

Speaking of which, the White Walkers’ zombie army now includes undead giants. Yeah, humanity is screwed. How much are you guys betting on seeing a zombie Hodor at some point?

So overall, this was a pretty good season opener. We learned a lot about where our characters are going this season and what they’ll be doing, and they moved around pieces more than I thought they were going to. Not really has happened with the plotlines for Bran and Daenerys in this episode, but at least they’ve both gotten someplace where they can set up for this season. Basically, everything has a good start for where this story is going.

When you go back to your hometown and everything looks way worse than you remember.

Final verdict: 7.5/10

So can we just have one episode this season where Ed Sheeren sings the theme song?