The highly anticipated new season of Game Of Thrones premiered last night. We will be recapping all episodes this season. Recap articles will contain spoilers. Season 7, episode 1 “Dragonstone” reads much like a recap itself, re-establishing characters and reminding us of the story so far.
The new season starts with a cold open. That is, the sweet cold vengeance of Ayra Stark! Arya has been building up in season 6 to become a major player in the final seasons of Game of Thrones, and we’re left in no doubt that she’d deadly.
She single-handedly wipes out the Frey clan via poisoned wine. Not completely heartless, she does let a few women live, to pass on the message “The North Remembers. Tell them Winter came for House Frey.” The best part is, it’s not even the coldest line delivered this episode.
The White Walkers are coming
After the opening sequence, we’re met with a blizzard, emerging from which are White Walkers. This season promises to involve them a lot more. Amongst their numbers are a few giants, which has led many to question if giants can be turned, can dragons also be turned into white walkers?
Although the appearance in this episode is brief, the coming White Walkers are talked about a few times. First by Brandon who has managed to reach the wall and get inside. Then by the Hound in a vision from a fire.
The Hound, by the way, is trekking somewhere in the cold following those fire bandit guys from before. They stumble upon a cottage with two dead bodies inside, of a father and daughter who killed themselves to stop from starving. For those of you who might not of noticed, it’s the same house The Hound stole from in a previous season. He buries their bodies this episode.
We then jump over to Winterfell where Jon Snow is talking to the heads of the Northen Houses about the threat from beyond the wall. He wants everyone united, going as far to accept alliances from houses that had previously betrayed House Stark, against the opinions on Sansa. His proclamation “I will not punish sons and daughters for the crimes of their fathers.” really drives in his character development and his attitude as a leader.
Finally, Jon also wants to arm all men and women. Lyanna Mormont stands up and is badass as before, I really hope we get to see more of her and that she doesn’t die. Because she is the Queen of shutting down old guys arguing about stuff.
Girl Power in full force
Luckily for us, Jon addresses Sansa’s undermining him in the meeting fairly quickly. We see that Sansa is worried more about the threat from the South, whereas Jon is focussed on the threat from the North. It’s true that Sansa is more politically savvy than her brother, with personal experience in King’s Landing whilst Jon was cooped up at The Wall.
Sansa also delivers a deadly cold line to Littlefinger, more aware of him as a threat but also confident she is able to keep him under control. “No need to seize the last word, Lord Baelish. I’ll assume it was something clever” Of course, no one should underestimate Littlefinger. Still, Stark girls get some pretty amazing lines this episode.
We then move onto Queen Cersi, standing over a painting of her Seven Kingdoms. After all she’s been through, it’s understandable that she’s gone a little crazy. Enough that even her brother lover Jaime has noticed. He points out that they need allies and that their last child committed suicide.
She’s thought it all through and thus enters punk rock wannabe Euron Greyjoy asking her hand in marriage. Which she turns down. And he decides he needs to get a gift to win her her heart. He delivers a few snarky blows towards Jaime and departs.
Poop Soup
We next head over to Sam who is working in the Citadel as an apprentice Maestor. Que poop soup montage. That is, him cleaning out bed pans, cleaning out toilets, and serving soup for dinner. It’s part hilarious, part disgusting. I had to actually look away, or never be able to eat soup again.
Sam is vexed by his inability to go into the restricted area of the Library. The Arch Maestor believes Sam has seen the White Walker, but doesn’t believe the Wall will fall. With no other choice, Sam steals the keys to the restricted areas and “borrows” some relevant books. In these books he discovers the importance of Dragonglass and makes a mental note to tell Jon asap.
Daenerys returns home
If by home we mean the really cool castle fortress that doesn’t seem to be under any sort of protection at all despite its huge stragetic placement near King’s Landing. I guess no one thought it was important after Stannis was defeated.
Also who needs an Iron Throne when you’ve got the really cool one she has there? Every room is better, don’t even bother attacking the King’s Landing, just rule from your awesome dragon castle “Dragonstone”.
So there you have it. The whole episode felt like a large recap. We saw all our characters and what they’re up to. The White Walkers are coming. Daenerys has arrived. Arya is a badass assasin and also got to meet Ed Sheeran in the weird cameo ever.