Callbacks and Easter eggs in “Stormborn”

As usual, the latest episode of Game of Thrones—”Stormborn”— was packed with callbacks to prior episodes and Easter eggs for attentive fans. Let’s highlight a few.

Let’s start with a couple callbacks that were almost certainly supposed to ring bells in the heads of fans, like the way Jon Snow throttles Littlefinger pretty much exactly like Ned did back in season 1. And in both cases, it was because they thought Littlefinger was disrespecting a woman in the Stark family — Cat for Ned and Sansa for Jon. In both cases, they were right, but that doesn’t make Ned any less dead.

Speaking of Littlefinger, the phrase “queen of the ashes” came up a couple of times during Dany’s war council, said first by Tyrion and later echoed by Dany. That phrase first popped up in season 3 — it was a nickname Varys gave to Littlefinger. Apparently he’s been spreading it around the members of Team Dany.

Then there was the heartbreaking moment during Arya’s scene with Nymeria where she recalled something Ned said to her back in the first season. Ned couldn’t tell Arya what do to, and Arya can’t tell Nymeria.

"[MAIN SPOILERS] That’s not you. from gameofthrones"

Sticking with Arya’s scenes, we saw that Hot Pie’s method to identifying knights hasn’t changed since when he was traveling with her, Gendry and Lommy back in season 2.

"GoT Season 2 Line Callback"

And there was the adorable way she was acting like the Hound while eating:

""Got any ale?": Arya and the Hound from freefolk"

Here’s a small detail we may be reaching for: in “Home,” the first episode in which Euron Greyjoy made an appearance, his brother Balon mentions that Euron cut the tongues out of the mouths of his crew members. “Needed silence,” Euron replies.

First of all: gross. Second of all: is that the reason the one Ironborn guy said nothing when Ellaria Sand asked him to “get it over with” and kill her and her daughter rather than take them prisoner? All he did was shake his head and smirk. Perhaps he couldn’t talk if he wanted to.

Or he was just being quiet and evil. Hard to tell.

Later, when Theon is having his Reek flashback, he sees one of Euron’s soldiers pulling a knife out of a guy’s mouth. We won’t show you that pic, but the question arises again: was Euron’s man cutting out the guy’s tongue, or doing something else, like removing a gold tooth?

Whether these are intentional Easter Eggs or not, one thing is clear: Euron is awful. Although he does use awesome kraken-themed weapons:

Is that axe for sale yet?

For more fun with props, did you notice the pile of Targaryen banners lying the catacombs beneath the Red Keep where the dragon skulls were kept? I guess Robert was weirdly sentimental about his conquests.

Cersei went down to the catacombs to play with Qyburn’s new anti-dragon device, aka his giant crossbow. She shot the skull of Balerion the Black Dread straight through the eye, just like Joffrey shot a mounted boar’s head through the eye when he was playing with a normal-sized crossbow back in season 3.

"[MAIN SPOILERS] Like Mother, Like Son from gameofthrones"

King’s Landing may soon be under siege. Back in season 2, Bronn described one of the many difficulties that could present. The guys Arya overheard at the Inn at the Crossroads and Bronn, speaking back in season 2, are thinking along similar lines.

"A confirmation of something Bronn said in Season 2"

Here’s a small one involving Sam, who clearly felt honor-bound to save Jorah Mormont from death, Jorah’s father having been Sam’s former Lord Commander when he was at Castle Black. In fact, Sam may have been repaying old Lord Commander Jeor Mormont in a very literal way.

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"View post on imgur.com"

Sam was also involved in this next one. Back in season 5, Maester Aemon and Sam chatted about what Daenerys Targaryen was getting up to in Meereen. “She sounds like quite a woman,” Sam said. That phrase came back round in “Stormborn.”

"[MAIN SPOILERS] She sounds like quite a woman. He sounds like quite a man. from gameofthrones"

In the Dany half of the mashup above, Melisandre is telling the Mother of Dragons about the Prince That Was Promised, a messianic figure destined to lead humanity in a war against death. As Missandei points out, the word “prince” isn’t quite accurate — that word doesn’t have a gender in High Valyrian. In A Feast for Crows, Maester Aemon gets very excited about this detail, and thing it foretells great things for Daenerys.

"What fools we were, who thought ourselves so wise! The error crept in from the translation. Dragons are neither male nor female, Barth saw the truth of that, but now one and now the other, as changeable as flame. The language misled us all for a thousand years. Daenerys is the one, born amidst salt and smoke. The dragons prove it."

We’ll be back next week to break down the callbacks and Easter Eggs in “The Queen’s Justice.” In the meantime, what stuff did you catch?

Next: Game of Thrones cinematographer teases the 'different' penultimate episode of season 7

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