Game Of Thrones Season 7 Discussion Thread (Spoilers up to and including the latest episode!)

We've got less than a week to go until the 16th of July, and you know what that means: Winter is almost finally here...again! Welcome back to the annual Giant Bomb Game of Thrones discussion thread, your one stop shop for people saying how they don't give a shit about GoT and yet come back here every week to bitch about it all your Game of Thrones discussion needs.

In this thread, you will find:

***SPOILERS***

Everything up to and including the latest aired (NOT LEAKED) episode is fair game. Don't spoiler tag your post unless it contains leaks (production photos, sourced rumors, actual leaked episodes, etc) or book material that we somehow haven't bypassed and that may still be relevant. We really flopped on this one last year, so I'mma try and set it in stone straight from the get-go. Don't come into this thread unless you've seen the latest episode or like living dangerously! Ned Stark dies! Joffery gets poisoned! Melisandre is super old! There's dragons now! Be forewarned!

You might also find:

People getting super salty!

It's cool if you aren't enjoying the show. It's fine to mention criticisms or aspects you wish could be improved or how you'd rather X happened or whatever. Just don't make it seem like coming into this thread and bitching about how you hate everything is some self-flagellation ritual that you need to take part in every week. This isn't a sunshine and rainbows only zone, but don't come here and tell us how watching GoT is like pouring acid into your eyes every week, okay? You'll make me cry, and I cry real ugly. We always have a bit of a problem with this in every season's thread, so let's just take it easy from the start this time.

With all that shit out of the way, here's some info!

When: July 16th at 9PM. See www.daystillgameofthrones.com.

Where: HBO (or your non-US pay TV equivalent, probably), also HBO Now/GO.

What: Cool shit like this:

And trailers like these (trailers may contain spoilers):

So, who's excited? Who's rewatching in the lead up to the first episode? Who's got gifs of cool shit that they've been saving up? Here's to another 10 7 episodes of Sand Snakes and jetpacks!

Can't wait. I wish we got a full season but I'll take it! Not going to rewatch anything but I did rewatch the one with the Hodor origin a few days ago... I forgot what triggered or made me want to see that one again.

I feel I would have hated last season if there were an accompanying book, odd as it is, but I ended up enjoying it a lot save some dumb moments. Thanks for that at least, Gurm.

Cersei is so evil but she also looks baller now so I want her to win.

Reading the comments/discussing the episode here was a large part of the fun for me last season, glad you made another thread. Can't wait for Sunday.

I'm hoping the smaller episode count this time (and next season apparently) means they'll spend less time on any frivolous or throw-away plot lines and it will just be a really tight ship this time around.

I've been attempting to watch very little of the actual trailers, though that's hard given just about the only t.v. I watch is HBO and they are jamming them out every chance they get.

What I will say though is that Daenerys's new outfit/look is mighty slick.

I am a bit cautiously optimistic towards this season. Last season was really strong from a production (or whatever you call it) standpoint (camerawork, music, costumes, etc.). The Battle of the Bastards and the section with the Sept of Baelor were really great to look at and experience. On the other hand the story and characters continued getting worse as I feel they have the last few seasons. Characters becoming more one sided and plot points being dumb or not making much sense.

From the trailers it looks like the production values are as high as ever and that we will get some really cool battle scenes this season. I really hope that the story and characters will improve this season (which the trailers have left me a bit worried about).

They're pretty much obligated to deliver an epic climax after having teased the Walkers for 7 years now. The audience wants it, as subversive and different as Thrones has been in the past. This "Great War" needs to happen. I don't think it will be conclusive though. Shit will be fucked either way, and the victor will have his empire of dirt at the end of it.

Anyway, can't wait to not read the garbage hot takes this thread will have in the coming weeks. The last few season threads on here have been contrarian trash. Holla.

I just finished the Game of Thrones Telltale game, hope that still gets a season 2 which is pegged for 2017 (with no information at all).

And obviously looking forward to this new season of the show.

I hope some people from Skagos turn up soon and they have Scottish accents.

Sorry GoT, EVO same sunday; will catch up soon though. Obviously Cersei is dying in the finale of this season (assuming they don't keep the crazy Varys teleporting everywhere pace from last finale) and probably Baelish gets the throne for a second before Mary Sue shows up and says lul people like seeing me naked I win bitch (and/or I'm George's surrogate daughter). I hope Jaime stays alright through this whole ordeal but who knows. Impending Dragons Vs Zombies that doesn't quite happen yet, maybe some North getting murdered by zombies instead.

This season should be really interesting, next one is most likely where it gets predictable/the dumb characters win because good triumphs over evil and what not. (Next season) Probably some Jesus action from Daenerys eventually to prove that she isn't made of steel.

Ideal situation: Ian McShane gets revived by Rhllor guys and summons John Wick from the great beyond to murder everyone, Red Keep is burnt down and the Continental replaces it.

Based on the end of the last season it feels like most of the major players remaining are the widows of great lords. Hashtag girlsruletheworld.

Game of Thrones has had some of the best actors Scotland has to offer.

Rob Stark

Ygritte

Lysa Arran

Jorah Mormont

Jeor Mormont

The Hound

Rodrik Cassel

Jory Cassel

All played by Scots. It's a shame they didn't let a single one of them use their native accents.

I'm startin to get real worried about this season.

Got a bad feeling that Dany and Jon are gonna die and Jon will either be rezzed again and come back giving zero fucks about being nice about things (which is fine) or being turned into a wight and maybe unkie Benjin or Bran will have to deprogram him, making him even more of a link between the living and the dead. Or he just stays a wight and Dany stays dead and the bit characters have to step up, which is always fun. Also never got the sense that Sansa would really covet power but everything seems to be pointing towards them really trying to make that a thing so we'll see. Hope she doesn't exile Jon north of the Wall and indirectly lead to him becoming a wight oh god WINTER BRAH BRRRRR.

Fuck Cersei getting killed, I wanna know when the motherfuckin Wall finally blows up. Ideally it'd be the big penultimate so we can get more reactions, but that's probably when Cersei would die during the big dramatic whatsit battle episode, and then have the finale end with a raucous boom reverberating across the realm, signaling the start of total war, living vs. dead, remaining vs. remains.

Man, what if they make Sansa go deep on a power trip and Arya has to kill her. I almost can't wait for this show to be done so I don't gotta stress about it no more. Put a nice bow on it.

Less than 3 hours to go! I wasn't able to finish my rewatch, but I did skip to the last episode to watch Cersei blow up the Sept and turn into Maleficent, which was a nice refresher. Very excited to see how the handle the dangling plot threads and how fast they decide to wrap things up.

Just a final reminder: once this thing kicks off, leave the spoiler tags at home unless you are talking about leaks for unaired episodes or book material that may still be relevant to future events. Steer clear of this thread if you somehow wind up behind and don't want everything ruined for you!

Our watch ends (begins?) at 9PM Eastern tonight!

I only hope that since this is being written for TV instead of being adapted, the season will be more evenly paced than the usual 7 episode build up to something actually happening. I do love the intrigue, but everything in moderation.

@humanity: Given that this season only has 7 episodes (granted they are going to be a bit longer than normal, but still) and the next only has 6, I assume things will be more evenly distributed. Hell, my worry is that things are going to go far too fast, or at the very least wind up a bit relentless.

Makes you think back to all of those Red Waste episodes with what felt like endless desert wandering, and what could have been done with that time instead. You should have gone on those boats back in season 4, Khaleesi!

Kind of a slow start. At this point we don't need that much more exposition, so hopefully things really kick off next episode. Going by the ending, they most certainly will.

Also, this show has become really easy to predict. That isn't a bad thing; most of the time it means they (the writers) are making the right choices. Kind of sucks that they're very little surprises to be had, but it's still damn good television.

Kind of a lame episode. The writing was lame at points like the Ed Shereanianeen scene where it was so damn obvious they were trying to "humanize" the Kings Landing soldiers. Lots of lame scenes of bad CGI and swelling music to make something seem "epic". Yeah those 10 people walking up steps is super exciting, what happened to her entire fucking fleet and army?

@flasaltine:

Well, showing the entire army is kinda expensive so we're probably not gonna see it until we get to a big battle. As for the rest of it, I feel like the first episode being a bit boring is par for the course by this point, though given the quality of season 6 I don't exactly have high hopes for the rest of the season.

@rongalaxy said:

Yeah, I'd be worried if things don't pick up immediately, but it seems like they should. As it stands, I think this was a very solid foundation episode: "here's everybody, here's what they're doing, here's what they plan on doing, and now let's get to it." You don't really need surprise with that style of opener, and we really didn't get any (besides Arya's post-murder murderfest), but I'm ok with that.

I forgot how great it is to have The Hound back in action, and using a callback to show his character arc (he clunked that guy in the head and stole his silver after they fed him, prompting Arya to call him "the worst shit in the Seven Kingdoms") was a really nice touch.

Lotsa people are apparently bothered by the cameo during Arya's camping trip, but as I am apparently an old man and had no idea who that guy was, I thought it was fine. It's also a nice counterbalance against her wholesale slaughter early on; we don't need another Ramsey, no matter how justified she would be. There's nothing wrong with more depth, even if it may have been a bit on the nose this time.

I didn't think it was boring at all, I liked every scene. Arya killing all the Freys then seeing soldiers are humans too. Cersai/Jamie then them with Euron. Seeing The Hound back at that house again and how his character has changed was interesting. Bran looking at the undead army. Jon ruling with Sansa being annoying. Sam's stuff could've been shorter, but I enjoyed it and I'm someone who thought Sam should've always gotten way less screen-time. The season premiere needed to show everyone in their current situation and remind the viewer what's going on, since us hardcore fans remember, but the more casual people (like my mom) don't.

This seemed like an above average place setting episode to me. I really enjoyed check ins with Sam, but I wish there was more Bran and Meera. We haven't seen them since season 5!!!

They were in last season (season 6), that's when his wolf, Hodor, and Bloodraven died plus the "ghost" flashbacks where we saw Ned fighting then Jon being born.

The Wall is so going down. They settin that shit up hawwwd.

Good episode. Loved the bit with Jon's council and Clegane and the fire/dead family the most. Very happy to see Bran at Castle Black with Edd. The end was a bit of an eye-roll, but it's fine. Dany should probably wash her hands after touching that table.

@deathstriker: haha can't believe I confused season 6 with season 5, the season they were actually absent from. Maybe it's because it's been over 400 days since the last season wrapped. Thanks for correcting me! I still want more Bran stuff though, that lore is very interesting. It'd be great to see Benjen this season.

Thought every moment was great. Even that Sheeran guy didn't ruin anything.

Turner(Sansa) has done a fantastic job these past couple of seasons.

Sansa was dreadful but the rest of the episode was solid, if uneventful. Jaime doing the whole "I'm the best actor except for Tyrion" thing is nice.

Is it just me or has the writing of this show changed around the end of last season and continuing in this episode? It's not so much "happier" but there is a lot of good guys getting agency, bad guys getting redemption, people getting revenge going on and it feels kind of strange. Like we are skirting LotR territory.

That said, I was really wishing that since Tormound killed Littlejon Umber with his own hands he would get some right to claiming Last Hearth. That way he and Brienne can get married and she can become Brienne of Hearth.

I'm probably forgetting something from last season, but how did the Grejoys suddenly have the resources to conjure up a thousand ships ? I mean, if they could just build a thousand ships on demand why were they just this shit-stain family stuck on an island ?

I did not like the Ed Sheeran cameo one bit - I've no problem with the guy but he's too famous to be just sat there with his normal haircut, singing and talking in his normal voice. At least put on a silly accent or something, lad. I hope there's an outtake where Arya sits next to him in character then pulls out an album for him to sign. I don't understand why you would give such a recognisable celebrity such a lingering role....I spent the whole scene wondering if Little Mix and Kanye West were going to ride past.

Other than that, I enjoyed the episode a lot, glad to have the show back. Favourite scene was Euron's negotiations. The man is not to be trifled with in the books, that's for sure.

Episode was great! Glad to see Sam finally doing what he was meant to do....clean out bed pans. He's the only character that I don't care about at all.

This is all i got to say about the last episode

I liked the episode well enough, but was naively expecting a longer run time since we only get 7 episodes this season. When I say it was an hour, I thought it was a bit on the short side. But then 5 minutes were dedicated to the intro and recap too. So it's only 7ish minutes longer than usual? I thought that was a bit of a bummer. Especially since they are rushing things now.

Balon kept wanting to take territory on land. He wasn't focused on his sea force. When Euron became king, he focused exclusively on their sea force.

I really want to like Sansa but she is incredibly frustrating.

The problem is she thinks she enacting the lessons she has learned from Littlefinger and Cersei but she really isn’t. Littlefinger, Varys and Margaery and the other great Game players would never contradict the newly crowned king in the middle of a fully assembled moot that is very shakey to begin with. They would do it personally, either before or after or during a small council, not in front of every lord in the North. And you do it subtlety by trying to convince Jon and you don’t do that by bleating on about how right you are. But her plan is a terrible one anyway. All she is doing is goading Jon in to reliving the mistakes of Robb all over again. Robb kept punishing his banner men and pushing them like constantly insulting the Greatjon, executing Lord Karstark and breaking his oath to the Frays and it resulted in them rebelling and the Starks dead. Sansa wants to do the same by wiping out the Umbers and Karstarks, all that will do is turn a whole lot of people loyal to those Houses against them. And Sansa undermining Jon in public is just going to go down the same way as Catelyn doing it to Robb.

Also, Cersei is a vindictive idiot and a terrible player of the Great Game. She isn’t one to be taking lessons from. The only reason she has got as far as she has is because Tywin was tactically sound and richer than god. Every action Cersei has taken has been bad and is mostly the reason for the Lannisters downfall.

Just curious, who/what do you think Euron was referring to as a "gift" for Cersei?

@ozzdog12: I know what it is in the books, but since it's never been brought up in the show, I doubt it's the same thing. In the books it's a magic horn that can supposedly control dragons. My top two bets would be Tyrion or Gendry.

@ozzdog12: Thinking it has to be Tyrion's head. Could be a nice call back to the books where after he killed Tywin, dwarfs were being slaughtered left and right and dressed up to try and claim the bounty he had on him

@cornfed40: That happened in the show also.

@jonny_anonymous: hmm, didn't remember that coming up. Ill change my answer to something involving old lady Tyrell lol. The thing that bugged me (because I am a detail idiot) was when the Greyjoy fleet was sailing into King's Landing. It looked like they were sailing in from the North, but that cant have been the way the came. If they sailed around all of Westeros to the South, they would have gone right past the Reach and Dorne, and could have easily fucked those places up for Cersei seeing as their fleets had left, sailed to Dany, and sailed back within the span of about 30 minutes.

@jonny_anonymous: Sansa did unintentionally give Jon even more respect from the other houses it feels like to me though. I'm not sure if they are all just acting as if they are cool with whatever he does, but when he said this is my decision and it's final, they all clapped after the descendants of the slain Lords pledged their houses to him.

From my own perspective it seemed like Jon made all the decisions to unite the North instead of pushing his own power or claim whereas others always seemed to rule for power. It seemed to me like this message was getting across to his bannermen as well, but again I have no idea if they were just pretending to like it.

Lady Mormont somehow continues to be one of the best new characters.
Ed Sheeran felt a little too wink wink nudge nudge to me during his scene. Cameos are fine and all, but let it be natural, this was so on the nose, "it's a new one!" yuck. Though it was actually a nice song, sooo whatever.

Besides that it felt like an okay season starter episode, setting everybody up so they can start knocking down pins. Wasn't particularly thrilling or anything, but it was serviceable. I like when GoT focus's on politics just as much as much as when dudes are getting all stabbed.

I hope the Tormound and Brienne thing pays off eventually, it's great. On the eve of a battle or something I just want some character to open a door and find both of them just going at it.

Also the scene with all of the whitewalkers marching and seeing the giant whitewalkers was really great I thought, super forbidding. It's hard enough to kill the little ones, now they have the giants, maaaaan. A dragon is going to have to kill a zombie giant at some point right?

@zolroyce: Tha song is from the books so he doesn't even get credit for that.

@zolroyce: They were just dead brought back to life though, seemed to me. Not actual White Walkers.

@zevvion: Right, yeah, I keep referring to the dead ones as white walkers, I forget that the whiter walkers are like, the special in command ones, and the rest are just brought back from the dead troops. Still, giant dead dudes.

@jonny_anonymous:Hah, okay, it was at least... sung well then? Mild credit!

Meh overall. The Sam chamber pot montage was like 30 seconds too long, IMO.

seriously. that was very much a 'ok i get it, he cleans shit and wretches everyday.' waaay overdid it.

but i thought the rest was good! i don't want jon and sansa fighting :(

@buds312: I kind of liked that scene. It would have been better/funnier if it was directly after Arya's training compilation.

@zolroyce Yeah, I am very interested to see how they will showcase the upcoming battles. I really hope they don't fall into their habit of 'it's too expensive to show, so we will just imply it'.

@ares42: I had the exact same thought. Apparently a lot of shipbuilders were sitting around with nothing to do for a long time.

I wish they were doing the whole final season at once. I really hate the idea of there only being six more, and then waiting a full year to watch only six again.

Last season Euron order the entire population of the Iron Islands, every man, woman and child to stop what they were doing and start building ships also there has been a pretty big time jump as can be seen by how big baby Sam is now.

The sam chamber pot montage was like the best part of the episode.