Game Of Thrones (Season Seven)

WARNING: CONTAINS SPOILERS

Seven Hells!  Suddenly there were only seven episodes in this seventh season of Game Of Thrones.  Sure, they were mostly longer than usual, but the overall effect of fewer, bigger instalments compared to the normal format was that there was a lack of the complication in which all other series have revelled.  Thrones’ beauty is often in its complexity, and its fierce refusal ever to compromise on this: no detail is dumbed down to promote accessibility.  In 2017, international expectations for the series were unprecedented, so it was unlikely any nascent viewers would require catering for.  This was for the fans, and by this point, there were millions of fans worldwide.  The web woven round Westeros by season six was indeed as intricate as any ensemble story-lining ever attempted.  Sixty hours of background meant that every encounter and re-encounter between characters was drenched in an excess of history.  Should this season, then, have continued to mine that deep vein, painstakingly inching things along?  Perhaps, but, instead, season seven ramps things up in a way we have never seen before.

Nevertheless, progress requires departure from the way things were done before.  In that sense, this series overhauled the old approach to big set pieces: building up to the most explosive action for an episode nine free for all (like the Battle Of The Bastards in season six).  Instead, breath-taking sequences were peppered throughout, a lavish garnish of production budget, particularly when compared to earlier seasons’ clever navigation of not being able to afford a thousand Wildlings to sweep the battlefield.  Whether it’s the Lannister forces facing a dragon attack while absconding with Tyrell gold from the Reach, or the Unsullied taking Casterly Rock, in both an imagined and a real sequence, we are spoiled in the eyeballs for untold extras in expensive costumes running generally amok.  The show is elevating itself from the biggest boxset of all time to a sequence of Hollywood blockbuster films.  This is a stroke of luck for the action fans, but the beginning of the end for what has up to now been exceptional storytelling.

Amid all this destruction, though, we begin to tally up how many prestigious families have been totally wiped out.  The Targaryens have been over since before season one, but the Tyrells get done, the Greyjoys are nearly over, the Martells mostly stabbed and the Starks are only just emerging from complete annihilation.  This leads us to one of the best threads of the whole season: the Starks getting their groove back.  We’re treated not only to Bran finally returning to Winterfell, but Arya also finally comes home after the longest time a child has ever gone out to play for without telling her parents where she is going.  Of course, Jon pops off to Dragonstone (more on this later), so it’s almost a one in, one out policy, but our hearts soar as Sansa gradually reassembles her surviving siblings around her.  Bran, however, isn’t that arsed.  He stares blankly ahead, telling people he’s the Three-Eyed Raven as if this is a Westerosi equivalent of declaring “no offence, but” before saying something awful.  He is immobile as his sisters hug him.  You start to wonder if he’s the first case of late-onset Asperger’s in the Seven Kingdom.

Nevertheless, once he has cruelly dismissed the wonderful Meera after totally mugging her off for all her help, he observes as tension seems to fester between his two sisters.  There follows the most delicious intrigue as it seems Petyr Baelish is successfully playing the Stark girls off against each other.  We’ve come so far, yet it all seems poised to fall apart.  That is, until a scene in the hall at Winterfell when Arya is brought before her sister, apparently to answer for her crimes.  The moment Sansa artfully directs proceedings to accuse Littlefinger instead of her sibling, and his subsequent oilier-than-ever squirming to get out of the situation at any cost, constitutes a huge story arc pay-off that has been built series on series before finally rewarding us as fans.

The other big reunion is the assembly of Westeros’s biggest lads for a bit of a stag weekend north of the Wall.  Berric Dondarrion, Thoros of Myr and the Hound team up with Jon Snow and pals to range into the snows to find and capture a soldier from the Night King’s army for the sole purpose of some show and tell with Cersei in order to encourage her to support them in the coming war against the dead.  Even Gendry (not seen since season three) gets to come along for a bit.  I’ve spoken before about my issue with people not wearing hats in the snow, but these lot face blizzards and zombie polar bears with loose locks blowing irresponsibly in the breeze.  That said, the whole of Beyond The Wall is one of my favourite episodes, but their recklessness extends beyond anything we could ever have imagined.  In the end, it costs a whole dragon to get a dead man in front of Cersei.  The same dragon ends up resurrected on the side of the baddies (melting the Wall in a climactic finale), while Cersei has no intention of supporting her fellow living beings.  Maybe Daenerys could have popped up there on the dragon in the first place, preventing such a big fail, but I suppose that wouldn’t have led to such exciting action.

So let’s talk about Dragonstone.  Formerly Stannis’s gaff, before Brienne offed him in season five, Daenerys moves in to a castle that seems to have been done up in the meantime.  This may be down to more daytime scenes this time around, and fewer occasions of burning relatives alive on the beach to appease the Lord Of Light, but I can’t believe they didn’t throw out the tacky old Westeros map table, or at least put some windows in that room what with all the stormy weather.  Either way, much is made of the walkway between the castle and the beach, so some location scout must be very pleased with their find featuring so heavily.  It provides plenty of vistas for Jon Snow to brood over, not to mention serving as the perfect platform for intimidating dragon flyovers.

One corner of Westeros that gets plenty of attention this time around is Oldtown, with the workings of the Citadel expanded on further through the eyes of Samwell Tarly.  For a graduate trainee, his immediate appointment to personal assistant of the Archmaester seems a bit suspect, but it at least brings into our lives the wonderful addition of Jim Broadbent’s performance.  Even with the rest of the cast’s incredible strength in their roles, it’s always smashing when another household name joins in on the fun.  Even if that fun is ignoring Samwell’s pleading to deal with the Night King or refusing to have Jorah Mormont’s greyscale treated, focusing instead on having Jon’s pal empty endless overflowing bedpans.  All being said, this element fits in seamlessly to the rest of our stories’ richness, exemplifying the fact that Game Of Thrones is now operating completely in its own universe.  While viewers can revel in the bolder action, our sense of the coming end makes inevitable our resistance to things resolving.  Just as all men must die, all good things must come to an end, and Game Of Thrones, even when not at its peak, is one of the best.

Best newcomer

This was easier back in season two when new characters popped up all the time.  This penultimate season proves to be less of an opportunity for great new faces, so I’m going to cheat and bring in someone who actually debuted in series six.  Euron Greyjoy still counts as a bit new, doesn’t he?  Either way, his goading of Jaime Lannister creates a great chance to dish out shade-throwing lines about Cersei liking a “finger up the bum” while we can also credit him with superb enunciation of the word twat.

Most valuable character

While this series is dominated by Queen Cersei’s resurgence, it’s the Night King who’s the best monarch.  Undying loyalty from his subjects?  Check – they’re already dead.  A crown that can’t be taken off?  Check – it’s quite literally growing out of his skull.  A great throwing arm?  Check – he can take out an airborne dragon with just a quick toss of one his spears.  He gets extra marks for consistency too, quietly offering an underlying, simmering tension to everything else that has unfolded, we’re now poised for his time to shine and he couldn’t be more ready.

Best death

Despite Tyrion’s protests, Daenerys incinerates two generations of the Tarlys after taking both Dickon (not Rickon) and Randyll prisoner.  Unwilling to swear loyalty, their obstinacy leads to a great dracarys moment, and we all know that Samwell probably isn’t arsed.

Jaw-dropper moment

I’ll finish with another discussion about bollocks.  Our Theon finally finds an advantage to forced castration when a disobedient Iron Islander refuses to follow his leader on a mission to rescue Yara from Euron following the epic sea battle that turns the tide against Daenerys.  Theon gets the salt kicked out of him, but it’s not until he’s able to withstand several huge blows to the crotch unaffected that the tables turn and the rascal takes another step to redemption.