Game of Thrones Dragonstone Review

Game of Thrones Dragons

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Game of Thrones is an American fantasy television series produced by the HBO cable network. It is based on the novel series A Song of Ice and Fire, written by George R.R. Martin who serves as a producer, creative consultant and scriptwriter on the television series.
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Game of Thrones Dragonstone Review

Beware! The night is dark and full of terrors. And this Game of Thrones Dragonstone review has many, many spoilers!”

If you haven’t seen this week’s episode……DO NOT READ ON!

This week……are you sitting comfortably? Then we shall begin….

Walder Frey….or is it?

The episode opens with Walder Frey (David Bradley) addressing his enormous family in the banquet hall of Riverlands, he’s regaling how he killed the Starks at the Red wedding. At this point I started wondering whether I’d remembered season 6 properly, as Frey is dead, his throat slit by Arya Stark (Maisie Williams) after she’d fed him a meat pie made of his own 2 sons, As the Frey Family starts choking on their poisoned wine it becomes clear there was some Ethan Hunt style deception going down. Frey then removes his face to reveal Arya Stark in disguise.

It was an odd opening scene (but a cracking one) in that it feels very much like a scene dropped from last season’s finale, but at least the scene was efficient in wiping a House off those maps everyone loves. Major points to David Bradley for slowly altering how he plays Frey to show it is actually Arya in disguise.

Bran at the Wall

Bran (Issac Hempstead Wright) fresh from the vision of the Night King and his zombie hordes marching towards the wall, finally makes it to the wall door. Edd (Ben Crompton) lets him and Meera (Ellie Kendrick)  in after a pathetic amount of questioning. The scene begs the questions as to whether Bran has some telepathic powers. The scene was kind of like a Obi Wan and the “these aren’t the droids you’re looking for” moment. I’m sure it will become abundantly clear what Bran brings to the table.

Jon knows something

Meanwhile, Jon (Kit Harrington) is trying to rally support with a “I know something” speech and clashing with Sansa (Sophie Turner) who does everything she can to undermine Jon. Sansa is shaping up to be a force to be reckoned with. She’s been through a lot over the years, and she’s also been counselled by Littlefinger (Aiden Gillen) so she’s not above reminding Jon that he’d do well to listen to some council of his own. Comparing him to Joffrey was a low blow by Sansa, but she soon backtracked to stay on the good side of her brother. The scene gave the impression that Sansa has some ulterior motive, and whilst I’d like to believe she is loyal to Jon, but I feel she will turn against him once she finds out his true parentage.

Cersei has no allies

Cut to Cersei (Lena Headey) and Jaime (Nikoaulaj Coster-Wald) who are clearly dressed for winter (its here) discussing their enemies from all sides. Cersei doesn’t consider the Night King to be a threat yet……how wrong she is. It takes Jaime to remind her that she’s not the Queen of the Seven Kingdoms (three at best) and to sound a note of caution: she has no allies.

Game of Thrones Dragonstone

But who does she call? Euron Greyjoy!! Pilou Asbaek continues to offer the right amount of smarm and charm as Euron, who plays well again the steely nature of Cersei. Euron offers Cersei his formidable fleet in exchange for her hand in marriage, which she promptly declines. Although Euron’s line about killing your brother “you should try it” led to a wonderful reaction shot from Jaime.

Montage of Sam

Meanwhile Sam (John Bradley-West) is working at the library dreaming of getting into the locked Maester books. When he’s not doing this, he’s doing some pretty menial work. The fast edit montage of him emptying bedpans, washing them, and filling similar shaped bowls with awfully similar food was amusing, although in my opinion went on for a touch too long. But the scene does introduce us to Jim Broadbent’s Archmaester Marwyn.

Girl Power

Back at Winterfell, Brienne (Gwendoline Christie) is still teaching Pod (Daniel Portman) to fight, much to Tormund’s (Kristofer Hivju) amusement. I’m not sure whether his advances are winning Brienne’s heart (as she’s in love with Jaime) but the interaction between them both is worth watching. The scene also reveals that Sansa has Littlefinger’s number. She tells Brienne that they wouldn’t have won back Winterfell without him, but that she knows why he’s sticking around.

Game of Thrones Dragonstone

Ed Sheeran

The episode then takes a decidedly bum turn with a cameo as Ed Sheeran. Sheeran leads a camp fire singalong (yawn) amongst a group of Lannister soldiers. They leave Sheeran in scene sat next to Arya, which is an incredibly distracting move. It makes the scene very pointless and prompts me to go make some tea.

The Hound

The Hound (Rory McCann) is finding life with Thoros (Paul Kay) and Dondarrion (David Michael Scott) a little dull and tiresome, though he changes his tune when he has a vision in the fire of dead people…..more zombies! And there is a critical shift in his attitude. The Hound has spent the past seasons not really caring for anyone, he now seems concerned with carefully burying the dead. His rough “I’m sorry you’re dead. You deserved better both of you” is more eloquent than anything a Priest could have said.

Dragon Glass

In the next scene Sam has found some vital information about dragon glass or at least the location of a huge mountain of it under Dragonstone. He promptly writes Jon to tell him about it as we learnt earlier Jon needs it to defeat the Night King. Convenient as Daenerys (Emilia Clarke) will soon be at Dragonstone and Jon needs the dragon glass, and the are related, but don’t know it yet. But even that is topped by the surprise cameo of Jorah Mormont (Iain Glen), who is in one of the hospital cells suffering from grey scale.

Dragonstone

The final sequence was worth the wait! Daenerys and her army have arrived in Westeros……with DRAGONS!!! Yay!

Game of Thrones Dragonstone

The scene is superb and plays out in almost silence as Daenerys walks off her ship onto the beach at Dragonstone, then leads everyone to the Targaryen Castle, which in my opinion is probably one of the most beautiful castles the show has every brought us. She runs her fingers along the vast dust-covered painted table, carved in the shape of Westeros, and declares “Shall we begin?”

Game of Thrones Dragonstone

Season 7 is a go!

Summary

This episode is a standard kick off to a Game of Thrones season, lots of scene setting and catch ups with old friends. This season is only 7 episodes, so this episode could be viewed as a waste of precious time, but I feel after a 13-month hiatus we need this episode to set the scene for this season and the next.

In fairness to this episode, the writers couldn’t have maintained the climatic episodes of the season 6 finale. Its exciting to see how this season will play out, but one thing we know for sure is that Daenerys is in Westeros, everyone else is in Westeros and there are DRAGONS! How will this end?

Episode Highlight – Drogon, Rhaegal and Viserion……sorry Daenerys in Westeros….but really the dragons

Episode Low point – Ed Sheeran. Please can he die a bloody death in a later episode?

Quote of the Episode – “Tell them the north remembers. Tell them winter has come for the Freys”

Game Of Thrones airs Sunday evenings on HBO in the States, with a simulcast on Sky Atlantic and Now TV in the early hours of Monday and a repeat Monday evenings at 9pm.

About author(s)

Jenn

Jenn is a Book Lover, Fangirl, Daniel Cudmore's Number one Fan, and Ricky Whittle connoisseur and the "chairwoman" of #TheWhittleExperience. Co-Owner of FANdomConsultants.com. When not found traveling to and from NYC (my home, my heart), reading, or writing on one of the several sites she owns, she's usually on Tumblr stalking Ricky Whittle gifs and scouring the Internet for more goodies on Dan. Jenn is also a budding artist and has her own studio where she creates some fandom made goodies. Follow her on Twitter, & Instagram.

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