Small Council: Let’s talk about this week’s Season 7 SPOILERS

Usually, the Small Council poses a question to which every writer provides a different answer. But this week, with huge SPOILERS for Game of Thrones Season 7 busting out all over, we thought we’d just open the floor. What does all this news mean for our characters in Season 7? Do we like it? Do we hate it? Sound off!

DAN: There’s no need to bury the lede: Jon Snow and Daenerys are going to meet in Game of Thrones Season 7. Face-to-face. Mano-a-mano. Walking along as pleasant as you please in full costume and hair, talking about whatever Kings in the North and Mothers of Dragons talk about. As an ensemble show, Game of Thrones doesn’t really have a main character. However…if it did, Jon Snow and Daenerys would probably share top billing. (Alongside Tyrion, who’s there filming scenes with them in the Basque Country, as well.) In short, this is a big deal.

And on the one hand, I’m thrilled. We’ve been watching these characters on their separate journeys for six seasons now. That’s six seasons of hard-won victories, humbling losses, and personal upheavals. To see them finally interact will be very satisfying for long-time fans. I imagine it’ll be like the scene in Season 5 where Tyrion and Daenerys meet for the first time, but, like, x 1000.

But on the other hand, is this meeting too predictable? Game of Thrones has made a name for itself by not giving the audience what it wants, zigging when we expect it to zag and killing Ned Stark when we expect him to be our point of contact throughout the series. A meeting between Jon Snow and Daenerys seems inevitable, which isn’t entirely on-brand.

But then again, we have more perspective now that we’re nearing the end. With the benefit of hindsight, we can see that Jon and Daenerys may have been the main characters all along, and that the likes of Ned, Robb, and Catelyn were decoys. And I do really want to see what Jon and Dany make of each other. So proceed, show, and make sure it’s not boring.

What do you guys make of the coming Jon-Dany summit, or of the many other meetings and reunions we’ve learned are going to take place (e.g. Jon-Tyrion, Jon-Theon, Davos-Tyrion, Gendry-everyone)? What of the fights and sets and conflicts we’re picking up on? Game of Thrones Season 7 doesn’t air for months, but it already feels like the most exciting thing on TV.

SARAH: I might be villainizing myself here, but I’m not interested in Daenerys. I think she’s inept, and being carried by Tyrion and his superior abilities. I’m not particularly excited to see her meet Jon because I don’t care enough about her. I’d also rather see Jon married to Ser Pounce than endure a Jon/Dany romance. Sure, House Targaryen were big fans of incest, but half of them were off their rockers. If Jon and Dany want to form a strong, familial bond, I’m here for that. That kind of emotionally nuanced relationship interests me far more than a clichéd Disney romance.

Moving on, I’m definitely excited by the pictures of Jon and Theon’s unfriendly reunion. Theon has had one of the strongest arcs in the show, accompanied by consistently stunning performances from the criminally underrated Alfie Allen. Speculation is rife that Jon will execute him for betraying Robb, but that makes little sense when we consider Theon’s overall story. He has been ‘killed’ once by Ramsay Bolton, and what is dead may never die. Theon is a better representation of the Drowned God than his posturing, foolish uncle Euron ever could be. I see him lasting until the end.

Jon was not able to kill Melisandre in good faith when he discovered that she murdered a child, because he owed his life to her, and she had done some good. The situation is similar with Theon. He helped balance the scales a little by saving Sansa’s life, and then by using himself as bait to protect her from the Bolton guards. Jon has every right to be mad at him, but his good heart and just nature will likely make him spare Theon’s life. I’m interested to see how their relationship progresses from here, and how they will possibly manage to work alongside one another in the wars to come.

Aside from that, Gendry seems to be repaying Davos for saving his life with the help of a very large hammer. We all know that a warhammer was Robert Baratheon’s weapon of choice. Could it be a hint? Could Gendry be legitimized? Will he ask Jon if Arya is, you know, seeing anyone? Am I reading too much into it? Probably.

COREY: The sheer numbers of spoilers leaking out over the past few days is mind-boggling, and quite frankly hard to keep up with. But the thing that has struck me is that we are seeing a titanic contraction of the Game of Thrones world. No more Dany criss-crossing the far-flung deserts of Essos, or Jon Snow Stark trekking through the frozen wastes of the North. Heck, even Arya has returned from Essos, so outside of Jorah the Explorer searching for the cure to greyscale in Essos, we are likely done with an entire continent. It’s a boomerang, so to speak, from the first season, when the world expanded quickly.

So it will be fun to watch characters who have not seen each other since the first season reunite. Some of these characters, like Theon, will be forced to answer for their crimes, as Sarah alluded to. The world is contracting, and it’s going to bring characters together in ways that will likely catch us off guard. We don’t know how Jon will react to seeing Theon. We think we know how Jon and Dany might end up together. But in the end we just don’t know, and it’s pretty exciting.

A perfect example of this might be Littlefinger and Varys. In the past, Varys kept Littlefinger’s betrayal of Ned Stark to himself, as Varys was nominally an enemy of House Stark as he feigned support for House Lannister. Varys now serves House Targaryen, and all these on-set pics make it look like Houses Stark and Targaryen will band together. Might Varys mention Littlefinger’s betrayal of Ned Stark to Jon? Especially if Jon mentions that the Starks won the battle of Winterfell with Littlefinger’s help? These are the types of things we are going to run into a lot in Season 7. It’s a great time to be a Thrones fan.

ANI: JON AND DANY JON AND DANY OMG. *runs about muppet flailing*

Actually, though that’s top billing, and I’m excited to see it happen onscreen in an official manner, with dialogue and perhaps sparks large enough to light the biggest fire the North will ever see, the real moment that made my heart go pitter patter was the handshake.

You know the one. When Tyrion Lannister and Jon Stark met once again, this time on far more solid ground in their lives than when they parted. The mutual respect was visible from space…or at least from where the fans with their long-lensed cameras stood. And then they reached across the divide and shook on it.

Look, whether or not Jon and Dany fall into bed together, at the end of the day, it’s the diplomacy that matters. And Tyrion is an excellent diplomat for Dany’s cause. And whatever else happens this season, it looks like, Louie, this could be the re-beginning of a beautiful friendship.

RAZOR: All hail Lord Gendry Baratheon, First of his Name, Rower of Boats and Maker of Cool Helmets, Lord of the Stormlands, and Swinger of Kick-Ass Hammers. This is how I imagine Daenerys legitimizing Gendry, and setting him up as the ruler of Storm’s End, so she can gain the support of the Stormlands. I mean, have you seen his new clothes? Our old Gendry would scoff at such finery, but now that he’s the newly legitimized heir of House Baratheon (maybe), he’s got to look the part.

We’ve now seen Gendry in two scenes: swinging his mighty hammer at some gold cloaks, and leaving Dragonstone on a boat with Jon, Davos, and Jorah. My hopes are high for a newly minted generation of Baratheons supporting the new generation of Targaryens, just like they did when Aegon the Conqueror took the Seven Kingdoms. At least, this is how I hope it all shakes out.