My Insight Into Game Of Thrones S7E7

August 28, 2017 ~ BlogHollyBlog ~ 3 Comments

WARNING

The below post will contain spoilers of Season 7 Episode 7 of Game of Thrones. If you have not seen the episode yet and do not want spoilers please DO NOT read on. For everyone else, let’s begin.

Let me start out by saying when I see the four words flash across my screen on Sunday nights I get giddy and don’t pay attention to any social media. Those four lovely words are, “Quiet In The Realm.”

Now just a quick overview of what I will be doing on posts like this. I will not be recapping a full episodes of Game of Thrones (GOT). I will be breaking down plotlines from time to time, going over character dynamics and just pointing out things I was thinking as I watched the show.

Season 7 Episode 7

It’s the season finale and boy did HBO not let us down! So much happened- The good, bad, ugly and the WTF? Where to begin….

The meeting at King’s Landing set the high tension for the rest of the episode, even though there was a fun scene between Jamie and Bronn. We see the Unsullied, at the front Grey Worm, standing outside the walls of King’s Landing. Bronn brings up the fact why are these guys fighting if their cockless. Making the point that men fight for coin to use at brothels. Jamie then states that his brother, Tyrion, is siding with someone who is cockless. Which made me laugh but then I realized so is Jamie. Both of the people going for the Iron Throne are women. Cersei who is sitting as Queen of the seven kingdoms and Khaleesi who has stated claim to the iron throne.

Having people seeing each other for the first time in a while was welcoming to all the fans. The Hound and Brienne seeing each other since Brienne left him for dead. Letting him know that Arya is still alive and at Winterfell and able to take care of herself. Then Tyrion trying to get Bronn to turn his back on Cersei and join Khaleesi, which he refuses. The Hound standing face to face with The Mountain, which made me remember how tall The Hound is. This seems to foreshadow the face off we’ve been waiting for, Clegane vs Clegane. Speaking of unruly siblings, Tyrion comes face to face with Cersei for the first time after killing their father. Euron calling out Theon in front of everyone and Cersei telling him to sit down.

The Hound dropping the box that contains the captured wight, having it run straight at Cersei. She’s lucky the chain was there. For once, everyone sees that the dead are real and they are almost unstoppable. As we see The Hound chop it in half, take off its arm and the dead still comes crawling to attack the living. Jon shows Cersei that the only way to kill them is with fire and dragonglass. Euron leaves and says he’s going back home when he finds out the White Walkers can’t swim. Cersei states she will join Khaleesi and The King of the North if Jon doesn’t take sides. Jon being raised by Ned Stark, she knows that he doesn’t lie and tells everyone he already bent to knee for Khaleesi causing Cersei to storm off and tell them that there will be no truce.

Tyrion has a crazy idea to go to talk to his murderous sister, Cersei, alone. As he walks down the hallway Tyrion is met by Jamie. Jamie tells his younger brother that he tried to talk to Cersei but she kicked him out of her presence. Knowing this, Tyrion is faced with a bigger uphill battle than we thought.

Once face to face with Cersei, Tyrion apologizes for the death of all of Cersei’s children. This hit me wrong because Cersei knows now that Lady Olenna was the one who had Joffery killed and Tommen committed suicide because of Cersei killing Margaery Tyrell. The only person who’s death Tyrion had an unintentional hand in was Myrcella. We see Cersei not using The Mountain to kill Tyrion who told her to do it for him ruining the Lannister family. She threatens to do it but isn’t able to go through with giving the orders for his death. Tyrion then finds out that Cersei is pregnant from giving her wine and her not drinking it and the giveaway of her touching her stomach as they spoke. Cersei then agrees to aid Khaleesi and The North in the fight against the dead.

Jamie is preparing the Lannister Army to march to The North and battle the dead and we see Cersei come to him and tell him he’s not going. She tells Jamie to let them fight and die because she has access to the Iron Bank and that Euron did not betray her but instead is traveling to get the army of mercenaries in Essos, The Golden Company. For those not in the know, The Golden Company is a mercenary group and one of the largest and most skilled sellsword companies in the Free Cities, consisting of 20,000 Infantry, Cavalry, and War Elephants. They have the reputation of never breaking a contract, which is quite uncommon among mercenary organizations.

This news hits Jamie harder because Cersei made a plan without involving him, with a man she verbally acknowledged she would marry for his fleet. Jamie stands his ground and tells her that he is going to keep his word and fight with the others at Winterfell. Cersei then uses The Mountain to stop Jamie and tells him if he leaves she will have him killed. Jamie FINALLY calls her bluff, he tells her to give the order and again she can’t. He walks out a freeman, jumps on a horse and we see him cover his golden hand and head towards Winterfell. This was the moment I have been wanting for seasons but it’s bittersweet because Cersei is still alive at this point. As Jamie heads out, snow begins to fall on King’s Landing. Winter has come South.

We finally get mention of the lost Yara Greyjoy and have a little scene where Theon finally stands up for his sister and himself. He convinces the remainder of his men to go after Euron and to save his sister. It wasn’t easy, but it was nice to finally see Theon fight back some. He is still most certainly sailing off to meet his death, but at least he’ll do it trying to save his sister.

Now on to Winterfell and the moments that happened in The North. We find that Sansa is doubting Arya’s loyalties to her over Jon Snow, of course with prodding by Littlefinger. Sansa decides to send guards to bring Arya to the great hall to face counts of treason. As Arya is standing in front of Sansa, Bran, and the Lords of the North, Sansa begins to read off the counts of treason. At this moment, I am getting very frustrated because I can’t believe after all this time Sansa can’t see that Littlefinger is using her to benefit himself. I was about to toss away everything nice I’ve said about Sansa’s growth as a character, that is until she turned from Arya and called on Littlefinger to ask how he pleads to these charges.

I cheered as Arya stepped aside and Littlefinger was now in her place. Her tried to get the Knights of the Veil to save him and they denied. He pleaded to talk to Sansa alone and she declined. Bran then called him out on the conversation Littlefinger had with Ned Stark as he had a knife to his throat. Littlefinger then drops to his knees and pleads for Sansa’s mercy because he loves her and he loved her mother. Sansa then points out how Littlefinger betrayed them both, which leads to Arya slitting his throat and him bleeding out on the floor. All of this was a breath of fresh air, because we were expecting Sansa to be foolish and fall into Littlfinger’s web of lies again. It was nice to see her learn and adapt. Thus ending Littlefinger’s story in all of this.

We then get to see Samwell coming into Bran’s room, which means he made it to Winterfell. Bran tells Sam that he can only see into the past, which caught me off guard because I thought him being the Three-Eyed-Raven meant he was all-seeing. This isn’t the only thing he told him, Bran finally tells someone that Jon Snow is actually a Targaryen and has the legitimate claim to the Iron Throne. This is because Rhaegar Targaryen (Note: Rhaegar wasn’t the mad king – Rhaegar is Dany’s brother, the Mad King was their father) had his other marriage annulled before he married Jon’s true mother, Lyanna Stark.

Bran then says that Jon needs to be told who he really is. Which I agree with completely but what threw me off is Bran said that Jon is a Sand. Sand is the last name given to Bastards from Dorne, since Jon was born in Dorne his new last name would be Sand. Sam brings up the part that Gilly read to him before that he seemingly ignored, but apparently he took note of it. He tells Bran that about how Rhaegar had his original marriage annulled; it was recorded by the High Septon in his private journal. Bran goes back in time to watch their wedding and to revisit Jon’s birth, where we hear Lyanna tell Ned that her baby’s name is Aegon Targaryen. Also, I hope Samwell has that book stating the annulment happened because I feel like people will have a hard time believing Bran without other back up when all this comes to light.

It is significant that Jon’s real name is Aegon, because the original Aegon Targaryen was the first king of the Targaryen dynasty of Westeros; he was known as Aegon the Conqueror, the Unifier of the Seven Kingdoms – and thus many of his descendants were named after him.

Next, we see that Jon Snow still knows nothing as he goes to Khaleesi’s room and they end up having sex. This made me go, “Oh great, more incest” but it’s different between these two. They do not know they are related and that Khaleesi is actually Jon’s Aunt. I believe that Khaleesi will get pregnant here as well and the idea of the naming a heir won’t be needed. I’m betting the death of her dragon, Viserion, will lead to her being able to give life to a new child.

The final scenes of the 90-minute episode take place at the Wall. We see Tormund standing on top of the wall looking over into the cold night. He is talking with Beric when he sees the first of the dead making their way to the wall. The moment has come we have all been waiting for and dreading when the wall is faced with the White Walkers and the 100,000 plus of the dead. Ice Viserion then comes into play here as he breathes his blue fire breath on the wall, destroying it and creating a path allowing the army of the dead to come through easily. I’m calling it blue fire because I do not see Viserion being able to melt the ice wall with ice breath. We also see the Night King riding Ice Viserion as the dead march into the land of the living. I’m wondering why no one had any fire or dragonglass arrows ready at this point. They knew the dead were coming to the wall yet no one seemed prepared to even attempt to fend them off. To be fair, the only ones who could see them were at the very top of the wall and I doubt many arrows would hit from up there. Regardless, the North have some troubles ahead of them and they are coming NOW.

This episode overall was well done but left a lot of questions in its wake. I can say that even though there were only 7 episodes none of them were wasted on stupid storylines or unimportant characters. As the months go by I’m sure more theories will come out about what people think is going to happen in the final season of Game of Thrones.

Would you like for me to do some blog posts about these theories as we wait for the 8^th and final season? Let me know in the comments below as well as your take on the season finale of season 7.

My Insight Into Game Of Thrones S7E6

August 21, 2017 ~ BlogHollyBlog ~ 5 Comments

WARNING

The below post will contain spoilers of Season 7 Episode 3 of Game of Thrones. If you have not seen the episode yet and do not want spoilers please DO NOT read on. For everyone else, let’s begin.

Season 7 Episode 6

I’m going to jump right in and start with Arya and Sansa, who are still at Winterfell and haven’t heard from their brother, Jon Snow. Arya did a lot of mental poking of at Sansa in this episode even though we only saw them briefly. The first thing she did was read out the scroll she found in Littlefinger’s room. Blaming Sansa for their father’s death because she wanted to be Queen of the Seven Kingdoms. She also let Sansa know, that she was present at the beheading of their beloved father, Ned Stark. Sansa gets defensive and Arya asks her if it’s because she’s scared that she will show the Lords of the North her note and Sansa’s excuses of being young, scared and alone won’t go over well with Lady Mormont, who is younger than she was then and is currently leading her house. Sansa then gets an invitation to King’s Landing to speak with Queen Cersei. For some reason, she stupidly decides to send off her one loyal protector, Brienne of Tarth to this meeting in her place. While I look forward to seeing a reunion with Brienne and Jamie, this is not a good use Brienne for Sansa. Once again, she has fallen into Littlefinger’s plan.

Of course, Littlefinger decides to appear and root around in Sansa’s mind. Causing her to doubt her sister even more. Which sends Sansa to go through Arya’s room and find the faces in Arya’s bag. Sansa is shocked and confused by this and is then confronted by Arya right then. Arya explains her journey of training to become a Faceless Man, which is something that Sansa has no context of. She then asks her sister to play the truth game which she had to do during her training with Jaqen H’ghar. Sansa refuses to answer and Arya pulls the Valerian steel knife on her that Bran gave her in a previous episode. Arya then makes Sansa aware that she could take her face, become her and no one would be the wiser before handing Sansa the knife and leaving the room.

This is a big transitioning point for these two characters. Arya calls Sansa out on all of her weaknesses: wanting power, being pretty and weak. She also points out that neither of the girls are where they thought they would be when the show started. Arya wanted to be a Knight and Sansa to be a Queen. Even though Sansa has grown as a character throughout the seasons, she still holds on to these tendencies which makes her an easy puppet for people like Littlefinger. I believe that Arya sees what is happening and is playing the game with Littlefinger by not letting him know she has caught on. I always hoped that Arya would be the one to kill Littlefinger, but now I believe Arya giving Sansa that dagger is a sign. Sansa has never directly killed someone with her own hands, the closest was Ramasy, whom she had fed to his dogs. I believe that Arya has set the stage for Sansa to end Littlefinger, which would be glorious for us all. Hopefully Sansa will stop Littlefinger from taking advantage of her! I also hope Brienne makes it to King’s Landing okay and as she is most likely walking directly into a trap.

Now it’s time to jump beyond the wall and join the merry group of men on a suicide mission to catch and bring back one of the dead. I really hate the fact that Jon, Jorah, Gendry, The Hound, Thoros of Myr, Beric Dondarrion, Tormund, and a few wildings are even outside of the wall. They hope to catch one of the wights still ‘alive’ and bring it back to Kings Landing to show Cersei that the White Walkers are real and are the bigger threat to all for now. Hopefully catching one of the dead will be worth this trip in the end.

The best part at the beginning is getting some bonding moments between Tormund and the Hound. I liked that Tormund tells The Hound he’s not as mean as he thinks he is and that there is sadness in his eyes. Also, as Tormund talks about his love for Brienne, he lets the Hound know that she’s still alive, which is foreshadowing for them to meet again. Then when Gendry is complaining about how the Brothers Without Banners gave him over to the Red Witch and left him for dead, The Hound jumps in and tells him to quit bitching because he’s alive and Beric has died six times, been brought back to life, and still doesn’t complain about it. This quickly shuts Gendry up as he stares on awe at the news he has received.

The group of men are quickly reminded where they are as an undead polar bear comes at them. We get to see some dual flaming sword action as both Beric and Thoros light up their swords and hack at the bear. They come out victorious, at the cost of some of their wildling red shirts and with Thoros getting mortally wounded. It makes me wonder how they are going to face the rest of the thousands of White Walkers. Especially because they don’t seem to have much in the way of dragonglass weapons on hand.

They continue their journey and come across a small group of wights being led by an actual White Walker. The group quickly attacks the dead and once Jon kills the leader, all but one of the wights fall dead as well. This is new to us and the group, Jon guesses that if you kill the White Walker who created kill the minions, that they all just die with it. The men then proceed to knock down, and tie up the remaining wight but not before it lets out a loud, screeching call to the other dead.

Jon sends Gendry back to The Wall so he can send word to Khlaseei that they are being surrounded by the Army of the Dead. Since he is the fastest out of all of them, he is the only one safe for now. The rest are then met with the other 1000+ thousands of White Walkers, which sends them on a run for their lives. They come to a frozen lake that begins to crack under their feet. This causes them to pause for a moment but they quickly realize they have no choice but to run as they are being surround by a mass of the dead. Taking refuge on a small rocky island in the center of the frozen lake, the Army of the Dead just stand and stare at their trapped foes.

The White Walkers stop running after the men as the King realizes they will only fall to the depth below. Now, we are at a standoff, our guys slowly freezing to death as the Army of the Dead waits for the ice to freeze back over. Hours go by and sadly, Thoros of Myr succumbs to his wounds and dies. Beric uses his sword and light him on fire so he won’t turn into one of the wights. The poor Hound is seeing their flaming sword again and is definitely uncomfortable of being so close to the flames.

More time goes by and the Hound foolishly starts throwing rocks at the dead surrounding them. He scores a hit and knocks the lower jaw bone off of one wight. This didn’t even seem to faze the wight as it stands still, waiting for its opportunity to attack the now freezing men. He decides to toss another rock which falls short and now alerts everyone that the water as refroze. This sends the horde of wights bearing down on them and causing a fight for their life to ensue.

Jon sees that from the rear of the men thatmore wights are coming for them. Piling up one another, climbing and reaching to get to them. It’s in this moment you see defeat on his face but just in time Khaleesi brings all of her dragons to the fight. Even though Tyrion begged her not to go with the Dragons, she did not listen. The dragons begin to destroy the armies of the dead with flaming breath which gives the men a break from fighting. Until Khaleesi lands Drogon and the dead go after her, but Jon quickly jumps in fight them off as the surviving members of the group load their captured wight on to Drogon’s back and hold on for the dragon to take flight.

Then comes the moment that broke my heart. The Night King taking one of his ice javelins,throws it at full speed at one of the dragons. Viserion is hit and falls hard onto the ice, his blood spewing everywhere. You see the life drain from his closing eyes before his body slips into the depths of the ice water.

Jon then sees the Night King grabbing another spear and quickly yells to Khaleesi to go. She reluctantly takes Jon’s advice and takes Drogon and the surviving men with her as Jon fights off the non-relenting attackers. Khaleesi looks to him as her dragon takes flight, the spear is thrown and he barely avoids getting hit, almost throwing Jorah overboard as well. We see both dragons falling away as Jon is also overpowered and pulled into the cold, watery depths.

This is a signal to the White Walkers that everyone is dead or gone so they quickly resume their march towards the wall. But Jon isn’t going down so easy as he burst through the water and pulls himself out and onto the ice. Just as Daenerys is immune to fire, it appears Jon is immune to freezing solid. This might be a product of his blood being of both Targaryen and Stark. But it also re-confirms the theory about Jon and Daenerys. The book series is not called ‘Game of Thrones’, that is the title of the first book. The series is called “A Song of Ice & Fire”. Clearly, the ice is Jon and the fire is Daenerys.

Still alive, the frigid water over powering his muscles as he can hardly move as all the dead take notice and start coming after him again. Just when we think this will be the end of Jon Snow we see a light coming through the wights and killing them as it passes. This turns out to be Uncle Benjen Stark (AKA ‘Cold Hands’), riding his horse to Jon. The last time we saw him was when he haled Bran escape the lair of the Three Eyed Raven when it was overtaken by White Walkers. He quickly dismounts and puts Jon on his horse as Jon pleads with him to come with him. Benjen says there’s no time and smacks the horse to ride away. The last look we get of Benjin is being overtaken by wights and his light going out forever.

Next, we find Khaleesi waiting at the wall, seemingly looking for any sign of Jon. Sure enough, he is brought to the Wall by Benjen’s horse. Jon wakes up to a concerned Khaleesi sitting by his bedside and the first thing he does is apologize for the loss of her dragon, Viserion. She quickly explains to Jon that the dragons are her children since she can’t have any of her own. She then notices the scars on his body, especially the one by his heart. Khaleesi then swears that she will destroy the Night King and the Army of the Dead alongside Jon. Saying that now that she has seen the threat with her own eyes, it must be done. Jon then tells her that he will bend the knee to her and accept her as his Queen, since now, he sees her for who she truly is. She takes his hand and says she now sees him too. There’s a connection moment that rings of an early conversation that Khaleesi hand with Tyrion and he pointed out the way Jon Snow looked at her. In a loving, longing way. She pulls her hand away noticing this and tells him to get some rest.

We are then transitioned back to the dead pulling Viserion’s dead body from out of the frozen lake. It’s a cool scene, thousands of wights dragging these massive chains attached to the Dragon’s body. Where they got such huge chains, one can only guess. The Night King then goes over and touches the dragon’s dead body, which then opens his eyes and now they’re that glowing White Walker shade of blue. So, not only does the Knight King have thousands of dead soldiers of all races, he now has an undead ice dragon (the GOT equivalent of a Weapon of Mass Destruction).

This left me awestruck and with so many ideas and questions. I think it’s funny how fast the dead are now when they were so slow on the earlier seasons, but everyone seems to be moving at double time now. Does this mean that the Night King can will ride Ice Viserion over The Wall now? I know there are wards and protections on the wall but how does that pertain to a dragon and going over instead of through? I believe Ice Viserion will replace his fire breath with ice breath and all of this will end up with some massive battle between the Night King riding Viserion and fighting off the other two dragons, with Daenerys riding Drogon and Jon riding the third Dragon, Rhaegal. This all makes more sense when you think about how Viserion was named after Daenerys’ awful brother Viserys and Rhaegal is named after her brother Rhaegar, who was considered one of the better Targaryens. But more importantly, Rhaegar is apparently Jon Snow’s real father, so it all fits.

Only one more episode for this season! This episode was slightly longer than the others (71 minutes as opposed to the usual 59) and the next one is longer too (81 minutes). But after that we have to wait a year or so for the final season of this amazing show. While I know that we get an epic battle between the Army of the Dead and the living, now with at least one Dragon on each side, it will be heart breaking to watch Daenerys have to face one of her children reanimated as a wight for the Night King. I also fear that we might someday see a wight version of Hodor and Bran’s DIrewolf, Summer. The possibilities are frightening.

My Insight Into Game Of Thrones S7E5

August 14, 2017 ~ BlogHollyBlog ~ 7 Comments

WARNING

The below post will contain spoilers of Season 7 Episode 5 of Game of Thrones. If you have not seen the episode yet and do not want spoilers please DO NOT read on. For everyone else, let’s begin.

Game of Thrones Season 7, Episode 5

This week’s episode was definitely a setup for next Sunday’s episode 6. A lot of small things happened that will lead to big events into the coming final episodes of season 7, we only have 2 left!

Let’s start off with Jamie Lannister, who was saved from Drogon’s fire blast last week by Bronn tackling him into the water at the very last second. He then quickly gets back to King’s Landing and is having a conversation with Cersei. He tells her they are in a losing war with Khaleesi because of her Dragons and the Dothraki soldiers at her side. Cersei quickly brings up that she has the Tyrell money, which means she has the Iron Bank on her side. She also points out that she will pay mercenaries to fight for her and that they will because she has the money to maintain that now. Jamie, being the general he is, knows that depending on mercenaries is never a sure bet, because you don’t know how they will react when facing Dragons. Cersei is quick to point out that Jamie killed, The Mad King (Who was Khaleesi’s father) and their only hope of surviving without fighting lands on their brother Tyrion’s shoulders and she would rather fight than trust him.

Jamie also drops the truth bomb on Cersei that Lady Olenna had their son, King Joffrey, killed and not their younger brother Tyrion, who she insisted would pay for his death. Cersei, of course, doesn’t believe this at first but Jamie pointed out that Lady Olenna wanted Margaery to marry Tommen, who was easier to control than Joffery, meaning that Lady Olenna would hold the true power in all seven kingdoms. This causes Cersei to sip some wine as the reality of what happened to her son sets in. She then verbally smacks Jamie for allowing Lady Olenna to die in a peaceful way instead of screaming in agony like she wanted originally.

We also catch up with Daenerys, who we find presiding over what is left of the Lannister army. She gives them a choice, bend the knee and join her… or die. Samwell’s father, Lord Randyll Tarly stands in defiance before the new Queen. He won’t bend the knee and neither will his son, Dickon. The two are taken aside for punishment. Tyrion tries to persuade Daenerys into showing mercy, he suggests that they throw them in dungeon or take the Black and be better used against the dead. Before Daenerys can say anything, Randyll says that she cannot command him to go to the wall. They made their choice and Drogon burns them to ashes in front of the remaining Lannister army. After seeing this, all of them bend the knee. This is a tough scene for Daenerys, one minute she is talking about how she didn’t come here to murder and the next she roasts two nobles to death. But one could argue, killing those two men caused the other hundred to bend the knee and thus saved more lives than it could have cost. In some ways, this is no different than Ned or Robb beheading lawbreakers in the past. But clearly, Tyrion is having second thoughts after watching all of this.

We then cut to a cool scene where Daenerys returns home after battle and lands Drogon right next Jon Snow as he broods intensely on a lonely cliff. At first, you can see Jon’s fear but he stands his ground. Drogon growls at first but then calms down. Jon even pets the dragon, which is something we haven’t seen much of in this series. Perhaps Drogon can smell the Targaryen blood within Jon? Speaking of, there’s a huge bomb dropped about that later that most people will miss. I’ll come back to that shortly.

Jumping to Bran back at Winterfell he sends ravens over the wall to scout out the White Walkers. He finds them quickly but the Night King quickly notices and this sends the ravens flying away in terror. Bran has scrolls sent out explaining what he is saw, knowing he has to warn everyone as soon as possible. Jon receives this message and tells Khaleesi that he needs to leave, with or without her aid. She says she can’t help him and battle Cersei at the same time, if she were to help Jon then Cersei would strike while their backs are turned. This leads Tyrion to suggest he go to King’s Landing and meet with Jamie, who is the only person in the world that could convince Cersei that the White Walkers are real, a true threat and that everyone needs to band together to fight their common enemy, the dead.

This leads to Davos taking Tyrion to King’s Landing and sneaking into the castle where the Dragon skulls are kept. Bronn brings Jamie to him, under a false invitation of training since their last battle. Jamie is shocked when he’s met by his brother, who he thought he’d never see face to face again. Jamie, as expected, is automatically defensive and reminds his brother that he promised that the next to he saw him he would chop him in two. Good thing Jamie only had a practice sword at this time, even though I still think he wouldn’t kill his brother, not meeting like this anyway. Tyrion explains the situation with the White Walkers and pleads with Jamie to convince Cersei that they are more of the threat and everyone needs to unite towards a common goal. Making sure to say they are putting their war in a hiatus for now, it is not a draw.

Bran’s message reaches the Citadel and is met with disbelief by most of the elder Maesters. Samwell overhears this conversation, but it falls on deaf ears. No matter what Sam says, they just don’t seem to believe. They do agree to ask for more information from Winterfell. This doesn’t satisfy Sam, but he is dismissed from the room. Still unaware that his Father and brother have died, Sam is later seen at home complaining about how the elder Maesters will not take action. Gilly, reading from an old book, mentions a note about how a Maester issued an annulment for Prince Rhaegar’s marriage and, at the same time, married someone else. It’s a quick mention and Sam totally missed it, but this is HUGE news! We already know that Rhaegar and Lyanna Stark were in love and the product of this secret union was Jon Snow. But this news confirms that it was legal and Jon Snow is NOT a bastard and actually another rightful heir to the Iron Throne. How this all works is still a little sketchy, since this means that Daenerys is his aunt, I’m not sure how the laws work in this realm. That all said, Jon and Daenerys doesn’t know any of this. The only two people who seem to know are Bran and Howland Reed (Ned’s friend who was there with him when they got to his sister’s deathbed) and neither are talking yet. We did see Howland’s daughter, Meera, take off to go be with her family in the last episode, so I imagine that we’ll see them again at some point. I don’t see Jon Snow making a huge claim about this, he doesn’t seem the type. But once this news becomes public, it causes waves across everything. Will the North still support him? What will Daenerys do?

Jamie then returns to Cersei and explains what is happening to her. She scoffs at this and is quick to say to major things to him. Nothing happens without her seeing it and do not betray me again. She also comments that he should punish Bronn for betraying him as well with the move he pulled for Tyrion. Then she lets it be known that she is with child, it’s Jamie’s and she will tell everyone it’s his. All of this is important because I think she sees him wavering in his sense of victory and his absolute loyalty to her, so she has to pull him back in and hold tightly. He is her only true ally and she knows this, causing her to do anything to keep him close.

Davos goes into King’s Landing and brings back Gendry, who has been hiding out as a blacksmith in King’s Landing all this time, back to the boat with him. He then takes Tyrion, Gendry and himself back to Dragonstone where Khalseei and Jon are waiting. When the three men arrive Davos tells Gendry not to tell Jon Snow who he really is which of course, is the first thing that Gendry does. It takes Jon a minute to process everything, but he is accepting of Gendry and mentions how both their fathers fought together.

In a touching scene, John Mormont has come back to Khalseei who gives him a big hug. She is happy to see him return and have a trusted ally. This is in true Game of Thrones fashion and doesn’t last long as Tyrion comes up with a plan on how to convince his sister that the White Walkers are real and not just some child’s tale. He suggests they catch one White Walker and bring it to King’s Landing so that no one can deny their existence anymore. Of course, Mormont volunteers to go on this quest and soon Jon, Mormont, Davos and Gendry are heading off to the wall to go on a White Walker hunt.

Now we get to Arya at Winterfell, who is keeping an eye on Sansa and Littlefinger while Jon is away. She sees the lords of the north questioning making Jon King since he is not there with them. They mention that they should have made Sansa the Queen instead. Sansa pauses for a moment at this and then knocks the idea down saying Jon is still, and will be, King of the North.

We then cut to a scene where Arya is with Sansa in a room which use to be their parents. Arya points this out and Sansa just drops the “So what?” response. Without being deterred, Arya reminds Sansa how she always liked having all the nice things to prove she was better than everyone else and that she knows what Sansa is now thinking, that she should be ruling the North over Jon Snow. Arya points out that’s why Sansa was hesitant to shut them down with their qualms about Jon being at Dragonstone. She verbally pokes Sansa and says she knows that she needs the Lords power to take and keep the north. Leaving Sansa speechless and Arya a truth teller.

This last part got me so frustrated as Arya knows how Sansa is, but not Littlefinger. Arya is tracking Littlefinger, trying to find out what he is plotting. She sees him hand a note to one of the grounds girls and her quickly take it away. She then follows him back to his quarters where he is given a note and he asks if it’s the only copy which it is. Once Littlefinger leaves his room Arya is quick to pick the lock and look for the message. She finds the note in a small hole in the mattress and proceeds to read it. This is a note from Season 1 that Sansa was forced to write and send home by Cersei. Arya was never made aware of this note before and has no idea the circumstances behind why Sansa wrote it. As Arya is relocking Littlefinger’s door we see him hiding in the shadows watching her from a distance. Knowing now that he planted that note for Arya to cast more doubts about her sister and her allegiances. We can all only hope that Arya will catch on to Littlefinger quickly and end his life, but this being Game of Thrones we will never truly know until it happens.

We end the episode at Eastwatch Castle on the wall, with Jon’s White Walker hunting party who are now met with a caged group consisting of The Hound and the Brothers Without Banners. After some back and forth, the jailed men joins Jon’s group and you see them all heading out past the safety of the wall’s gates and in search of the White Walkers. This is an amazing group of characters together on an impossible quest: you have Jon Snow, Gendry, Tormund, Jorah Mormont, the Hound, Thoros of Myr, and Ser Beric Dondarrion all setting off beyond the wall to capture a White Walker. It pains me to say this, but there is NO way that all of them are going to come back alive from this. I’m calling it now, the next episode will end in tears.

My Insight Into Game Of Thrones S7E4

August 7, 2017August 9, 2017 ~ BlogHollyBlog ~ 5 Comments

WARNING

Game of Thrones Season 7, Episode 4

Arya made it to Winterfell!!! Okay, I’m done fan girling, I thought she was going to King’s Landing after meeting face to face with her direwolf, Nymeria. Instead she went and joined her “pack” in Winterfell. She was met with some oafish guards, that even though they didn’t look alike reminded me of Tweedledum and Tweedledee from Disney’s, Alice in Wonderland. Arya being the badass she is, convinces these two Winterfell guards to let her onto the grounds and once their backs are turned, she slips away.

When Sansa is alerted to her sister’s presence, she quickly deduces where she will be: the tomb of their father, Ned Stark. This is the moment where Arya points out that their statue looks nothing like her father and Sansa comments that those who knew how he looked are all dead. Arya then counters with that they are still alive. It’s a touching moment between two sisters who haven’t seen each other in years.

Try as I might, I can’t completely figure out Littlefinger and his strategies. He approaches Bran Stark and hands him the knife that was meant to kill him. Bran, being completely different since he became the Three Eyed Raven, is blank-faced during this whole exchange. He later gives Arya the Valyrian steel dagger which she quickly adds as a sidekick to her trusty sword, Needle. An interesting comment is made here, how the person who wanted him dead must have had money because of the Valyrian dagger that was wielded by the would-be assassin.

The best part in Winterfell came between Arya and Brienne. Arya tells Brienne that it has been a while since she was able to train and that she wanted her as a training partner. Their training session was great, and everyone got a peek into Arya’s skill set as she upset Brienne, including Sansa and LittleFinger. Is anyone else just wanting Arya to stab Littlefinger in the eye with Needle, or is that just me?

Now, let’s shift over to Dragonstone to Jon showing Khaleesi the dragonglass whole in the mine before his break it all to pieces. Of course, this is not the only reason he asked Khaleesi here, he also wanted to show her the drawings on the rock walls. These etchings were from the Children of the Forest, the childlike people that looked after Bran and the Three Eye Raven. It showed how the First Men and the Children of the Forest united against the White Walkers and Jon made sure that Khaleesi sees this. She says she will join in his fight, but only if he bends the knee to her. He knows the lords of the North would never go for that idea, but he needs to the aid of Khaleesi’s dragons. This is a crossroads that Jon will have to decide very soon.

This moment quickly fades when Khaleesi is met with news that the Tyrell army was defeated by the Lannsiter army. Which also means that she now has no local allies left since the Greyjoys were also defeated. Cersei has Ellaria, which cuts off Dorne. With Lady Olenna dead, House Tyrell is no longer a player. Which means Cersei is now winning this power struggle and no one wants that. In her frustration of this news, Khaleesi accuses Tyrion of not being completely loyal to her – which cuts him deeply and is not the case.

She then decides to go off to High Garden herself, riding one of her Dragons with the Dothraki Horde following her. We finally get to see a dragon in action! As dragon fire is rained down on the Lannister army. Anyone the dragon misses, the Dothraki are taking care of. In this grueling scene you see Jamie Lannister watch his army get totally slaughtered. Definitely not the image anyone would have thought after their conquest of House Tyrell.

However, not all is lost for the Lannister’s in this battle. Their new weapon, the Scorpion, for fighting the dragons was put to the test and hit its target, wounding one of Khaleesi’s dragons. Luckily the dragon managed to destroy the weapon before it could be fired again. It had to land so Khaleesi could try to remove the massive arrow from its wing.

Jamie was on horseback nearby and watched in horror as his recent victory quickly turned to defeat. He saw Khaleesi with her back turned and saw his chance to end her rebellion against the throne and save Cersei’s life. He must have assumed at this point that he was going to die, but would not go down without a fight. Jamie rode his horse straight toward Khaleesi hoping to take her to the grave with him. When he was almost on top of her, the dragon stuck its head out in defense of her and shot a fireball at Jamie. Just when you thought he was fried someone, I’m assuming Bronn here, tackled Jamie off his horse and into the watery depths. The episode ends with him sinking towards the sea floor, I do not believe however that this will be Jamie’s demise. We will see him again.

(How I saw Jamie Lannsiter when the Dragon was destroying his army.)

Before this battle, Lord Tarly says “All the gold is safely through the gates at Kings Landing.” So Daenerys didn’t rob Cersei of all the money. Cersei has it. What they did do is decimate the Lannister army and, it appears, destroy all the food they stole from the Tyrells. Which scares me in the long run, because winter has come and people are going to starve. If they destroyed all the grain, that might come back to bite both Cersei and Daenerys in the ass later.

All of this will hit Cersei hard, because she just lost the bulk of her army, her brother Jamie, and the provisions to last through the winter. Oh sure, she has the gold to pay off the Iron Bank, but will she use it for that now? Or will she take the gold and invest in more troops? At this moment Lady Olenna’s words echoed in my mind, “You’re a dragon. Be a dragon.” Khaleesi finally decided to embrace that part of herself and it won her the battle, but definitely not the war.

My Insight Into Game Of Thrones S7E3

July 31, 2017 ~ BlogHollyBlog ~ 11 Comments

WARNING

Game of Thrones Season 7, Episode 3

Game of Thrones is not letting us down this season! So many momentous and jaw dropping (As if we can still be shocked by this show), moments were dropped on us tonight. It was a wild ride so hold tight.

The introduction to Jon Snow landing on the shores of Dragonstone were very, “Mother of Dragons.” Having a dragon fly over your head and make you drop in terror isn’t the best way to stand your ground, good thing it wasn’t infront of Khaleesi. As we know, Khaleesi, has many titles bestowed upon her from “Mother of Dragons” to “Breaker of chains”. Her introduction to Jon Snow was very long winded and Jon’s was very brief but important, “The King of the North”.

A quick rundown of their interaction is Khaleesi wanted Jon to bow to her and pledge his loyalty, as well as the North, to her but he told her no. Which was kind of disheartening for me because I just want them to become allies already! I do understand why it wouldn’t be so easy for either of them to become best friends forever that quickly. Khaleesi’s father, “The Mad King”, killed both Brandon and Rickard Stark. Rickard was roasted alive in his own body armor and Brandon had a cord put around his neck and sword placed out of his reach. Brandon was struggled to death by his attempts to get to the sword and save his father. All because, “The Mad King”, abducted Lyanna Stark and hide her away in Dorne. So, of course this all makes Jon hesitant in trusting Khaleesi, and not to mention his pledge to the families of the North who appointed him King.

Now- Khaleesi on the other hand, she didn’t trust Jon because he is the ‘Bastard’ son of Ned Stark. She points out that many people have hired assassins throughout her life to kill her, one of those people being Robert Baratheon, who was close friends with Ned and became after her father was killed. (Varys really needs to tell her about how Ned was the ONLY person who tried to talk Robert out of killing her on multiple occasions.) She points out that she shouldn’t trust Jon because of his father’s connection to Robert and putting a “Hit out”, on a baby. Along with the fact that Jon isn’t revoking his title as King of the North when Khaleesi believe she should rule all seven kingdoms, not share the north with Jon Snow. She also seems to not buy that Jon telling her about the White Walkers, that it is a distraction point and refuses to believe him. She also took note of Davos mentioning that he was stabbed in the heart, to which he said it was for his people. Which Tyrion dismissed as a flight of fancy, but it was enough for her to take pause.

So she then takes his boat and strands him on Dragonstone, not holding him imprisoned however, he is free to move about the grounds and the castle. This isn’t completely bad because it gives Tyrion time to convince Khaleesi to allow Jon to mine for the Dragonglass which he seeks to make weapons from. She agrees to this and gives him the men and supplies he needs to accomplish his goals for the Dragonglass. This also gives her an opportunity for a future ally, since she just found out that the Greyjoys and the Dornish women were all captured by Euron and taken to King’s Landing to face Cersei Lannister. On the plus side, we do get two quick scenes at the Citadel. Samwell’s treatment of Jorah Mormont’s Grayscale appears to have been a success! Just in time too, Daenerys needs him now more than ever.

We then get to see Theon rescued from the freezing water and ship wreckage by a ship sent for survivors of the Euron attack. When he’s hauled onto the ship he’s bright blue from spending some time floating around in the cold waves. Theon tries to tell the ship captain and crew that he attempted to save his sister but he lost to his uncle Euron. The captain calls him out on this lie and tells him that they would be dragging a dead body on board the ship if he had attempted to save his sister’s life, then walks away leaving a defeated Theon to shiver on the deck of the ship.

Next, moving to Euron leading the prisoners of his conquest, Yara Greyjoy, Ellaria Sand and her daughter Tyene, through the streets of King’s Landing. It’s funny to me, that the same people that threw rotten food and yelled at Cersei for her walk of shame are now doing the same to these women for a Queen they detested. No matter though, Euron hands over Ellaria and Tyene to Cersei in the throne room in front of all the nobles. He keeps his niece, Yara, which still gives me some hope she can be saved. Cersei takes both the Dornish women and has them gagged and shackled to a wall in a dungeon. As Cersei is talking to both women, mainly Ellaria, I notice that she has this beautiful lipstick on and I’m thinking, “Wow, her lips are popping tonight!”

There is a reason for this, as she tells the women how she has been thinking about killing them she brings up the death of her only daughter, Myrcella. She then proceeds to ask Ellaria why she killed her only daughter, who was her favorite. She then pulls the gag down from Tyene’s face, kisses her, wipes off the lipstick and takes an antidote. Cersei makes sure both women know that Tyene is poisoned and will die and that she plans to make Ellaria watch her daughter die, and then to watch her corpse rot, and that she will keep Ellaria alive for this by any means necessary.

We now see the Unsullied army going to Casterly Rock, where they plan to take over the Lannister castle there. We see the Unsullied fight their way up ladders to the top of the wall, seeing them fall injured and dead, not sure which solider is Grey Worm. We then see a hole in the wall, on a waterway, Tyrion explains he had this put in the wall to sneak in his whores and that was the only reasonable way inside. Grey Worm leads the handful of Unsullied in this way and proceeds to take Casterly Rock by opening the front gates and letting the rest of the Unsullied in. Here’s what we didn’t expect, the Lannister army wasn’t even half of the normal one stationed at their castle. Leaving us asking where did they go?

Of course, this leads to Jamie Lannister leading the bigger part of the army to attack the castle of Olenna Tyrell. Her troops quickly fall to the Lannister army and she herself admits that the Tyrell army aren’t the best fighters. Jamie approaches Olenna, who is sitting aware of her fate. She warns him that Cersei is a curse on him and it will lead to his own death. He then puts poison in her wine and tells her that Cersei wanted a much more horrific death for her, but he talked her into letting him end it this way. Olenna being the badass she has been since day one, grabs the wine, chugs it, then tells Jamie that she killed his son King Joffrey with poison and that she wanted Jamie to tell Cersei. Which I don’t think he will, since Cersei told Euron she would marry him after the war was over and that he pleaded with Cersei for an easier death for Olenna.

I hate to say this but I believe Jamie’s fate is sealed, with everything Olenna pointed out to him before she died, I think he will die because of Cersei. Even though Khaleesi is now without The Greyjoys, Dorne and Tyrell armies. None of this matters though, if no one heeds Jon Snow’s warning of the disaster still to come, the White Walkers.