Small Council: What did we think of Game of Thrones season 7?

Now that Game of Thrones season 7 is over, let’s take a beat and debate its highs and lows. Read our takes, tell us yours, and vote in the poll!

DAN: I think it’s interesting to look back at Game of Thrones season 7 through the lens of pacing. Because before the season started, we heard a lot about how much faster it was going to be. Having seen the whole thing, I don’t think that was really accurate, as the show took plenty of time to stop and smell the roses.

Take the moment when Dany first arrived at Dragonstone: a leisurely, six-minute sequence that lingered on small details like her running her hands through the sand of her home country. Or how about the delightful scene where Arya shares a drink with Ed Sheeran and his fellow soldiers? That moment didn’t move along the plot; it existed to remind us of what Arya’s like when she’s not murdering people. I also loved the way the show slowed down to accommodate the Jon-Dany meeting in “The Queen’s Justice” and the Jaime-Olenna confrontation at the end of the same episode. And then there was “The Dragon and the Wolf,” which was basically a series of lovingly long talks. Yes, Euron Greyjoy warped around the map a bit and it would have been nice to get a little more time with Sam at the Citadel, but to the extent Game of Thrones sped things up in season 7, it was usually to its benefit.

Then came Episodes 5 and 6, where I think the season hit a rough patch. There were two plotlines in play here: Jon and company hunting a wight beyond the Wall and Arya and Sansa clashing at Winterfell. Neither quite worked for me. The way I saw it, the problem was motive. I didn’t buy that Tyrion would come up with the idea for a wight hunt at that point in time, given what he knew; and I didn’t buy that Arya would be so suspicious of Sansa at that time, given what she knew. For me, that colored everything that came after.

Could these problems have been solved with better pacing? Maybe. I think the show could have convinced me of the need for these stories if it had taken more time to cultivate the characters’ motives. For example, I could buy that Arya could be suspicious of Sansa given their history, but not based on the strength of that one letter. I feel like the showrunners had a couple of endpoints in mind (Zombie Viserion and Littlefinger’s death), and jerked the characters around to get there. But it’s not that the season as a whole was too fast; it’s that it sped up suddenly before slowing down again for the finale, which I enjoyed a lot more.

It was a shame that rough patch happened when it did, after the season was going so well. The Loot Train Attack in “The Spoils of War” is one of the show’s finest sequences, which is saying a lot. To me, the moment where Jaime charges Daenerys is Game of Thrones in a nutshell. Here are three characters — Jaime, Daenerys, and Tyrion — all of whom we know well and all of whom have understandable-but-competing interests, on a collision course with each other. I didn’t know who to root for and I loved it. Morally challenging longform storytelling combined with resplendent filmmaking — you can only get it here.

I hope we see more of that when season 8 airs in forever from now.

Macall B. Polay – HBO

BROOKE: A lot of people didn’t like season 7, but I did, and here’s why. Every character we’ve followed since season 1 is positioned exactly where they need to be. Every journey, every expository revelation has come to fruition. There were a few tweaks and adjustments, but for the most part, season 7 was about positioning the players on the chess board. In retrospect, although the accelerated pace was jarring and a departure from the previous six seasons, it did not, in my opinion, compromise the story.

We’ve already seen the journeys, we’ve already learned what makes each character tick, except for Sansa. She’s been a wild card for the last couple of seasons because her motives have been hard to read. How much of Littlefinger’s counsel was she taking in and how much was she disregarding? Why did she protect Littlefinger after he pushed Lysa through the Moon Door? Why didn’t she tell Jon about the Knights of the Vale, and why was she so adversarial with Jon at the beginning of season 7?  How much of the childhood animosity was carried through to the adult relationships among the Stark siblings? It is a credit to Sophie Turner’s growth as an actress that she was able to keep us (or at least me) guessing all season long.

Same with Maisie Williams. Her scene with Nymeria was heartbreaking because she was able to conjure the little girl Arya used to be, and despite everything Arya had gone through since, Williams conveyed — using only her facial expressions and the whispered “That’s not you” — that Arya still has empathy and the capacity to love. She kills, but she’s not a killer. She knows Nymeria as she knew herself when Ned Stark suggested to her that she would be a lady someday. “That’s not me.”

For all the clunkiness leading up to the Littlefinger judgment scene, it didn’t diminish the satisfaction for me. Call me cheesy, but he deserved it, and it was SO gratifying to see the three remaining Starks band together. My sister sent me a meme that said, “Not now—Starks are reuniting,” and I think that’s how I’m going to approach life from now on. Hurricane Irma? Not now, Starks are reuniting. Armageddon? Not now, Starks are reuniting.

I think in season 7, everyone is who they’re going to be. We saw a kinder, gentler Hound, but that was in keeping with the glimmers of humanity we’ve seen all along. He was protective of Sansa in King’s Landing and of Arya during their travels. He gave the father and daughter he predicted wouldn’t survive the winter a proper burial. He’s still a misanthropic churl, but he’s seen the (Lord of) light and has committed himself to a higher purpose.

Really the only character who had a sea change in season 7 was Jaime Lannister. Jaime was an arrogant, cocksure Lannister until he got captured by Robb Stark then lost his sword hand during his travels with Brienne. We learned about the noble man Jaime truly is in the bath scene in season 3 and saw that man in “The Bear and the Maiden Fair” and “Oathkeeper.”  I don’t know about anyone else, but I have been waiting for that Jaime to resurface, and he finally did. He FINALLY figured out that Cersei is like smoking: you know it’s bad for you and will probably end up killing you, but you just can’t quit. He FINALLY quit! I can’t wait to see what he’ll do now that he’s free of Cersei.

I’m not concerned about Jon Snow and Dany because I don’t think Jon will challenge her claim to the Iron Throne once he finds out his true parentage. I’ve already written that Jon is a reluctant ruler. In keeping with the theme of season 7, he is who he is and he’s not going to change this late in the game (of thrones.)

Finally, there were so many great scenes in season 7, but my favorites are:

• Arya at the Twins—“Tell them winter has come for House Frey; tell them the North remembers.”
• Jon Snow and Tyrion reuniting at Dragonstone: “The Bastard of Winterfell”; “The Dwarf of Casterly Rock.”
• Lady Olenna: “Tell Cersei. I want her to know it was me.”
• The Loot Train Battle
• Jon and Dany on the ship from Eastwatch (because I’m a shipper).
• The reunions in “The Dragon and the Wolf”—Tyrion, Bronn and Pod, the Hound and Brienne, The Hound and The Mountain, Brienne and Jaime
• Every Cersei scene—I hate the character, but Lena Headey is amazing.
• And as much as it was horrifying and traumatizing, I have to admit the destruction of The Wall by Ice Viserion was good TV.

KATIE: I have to largely agree with your points, Dan. I think the only instance in which we differ here is that I knew who I was rooting for during “The Spoils of War.” As Jaime charged Daenerys, all I could think was “Get her, get her, get her” even though I knew it wouldn’t go that way. Even if I felt kindly towards Daenerys, the scene offered such a compelling call back to Jaime’s past with her father. Past and present were intersecting, history was repeating…only this time Jaime is determined to end it before it begins. He’s the only one who has seen this before, and as such he offers a fresh look at the destruction Daenerys and her dragons cause, when so many others consider her a hero.

This sequence was one of my absolute favorites of the year. I could go on about it, but then we’ll get three thousand words in before we know it, so I must regrettably move on from my trash son Jaime Lannister to the season as a whole.

When I remove some choice scenes from the equation, my immediate reaction to season 7 is: “It was okay, I guess?” I mean, season 6’s penultimate episode was the glorious and immensely satisfying “Battle of the Bastards,” and this year it’s the mostly nonsensical wight hunt? Maybe it’s unfair to compare the seasons as such, but if you think I’m going to move on from the zombie polar bear, well… I am not. Personally, I would have preferred one measly shot of Ghost side-eyeing Littlefinger. But then, I’m saltier than the Dead Sea over Ghost’s lack of screentime, so it is what it is.

Ultimately, I think the season thrived more on its nuances and foreshadowing that it did on action,
despite the actors’ and showrunners’ claims that this year would be nonstop momentum. Yes, the pace was accelerated, but very little seemed to actually happen. More than immediate gratification of any sort, season 7 is more a series of stepping stones to get to season 8—it was about converging characters and storylines, and laying the foundation for the endgame. This isn’t a bad thing; I just think we’ll have to wait until next year (or the year after?) to appreciate season 7 for what it is in retrospect.

Now, this train of thought involves a fair bit of speculation—but, in my case, that’s just what I do. I do believe that we’ll see some major season 7 payoff in season 8, because there are so many lingering questions, big and small alike (depending on what you expect from this series). Who are the true enemies at play? Cersei and Euron are still going strong, but how long can that last? They haven’t any allies they haven’t bought (provided that Euron succeeds in ferrying over the Golden Company, that is), and if Jaime is riding to Winterfell to pledge his sword to the Starks, does this make Sansa a contender to be the “younger and more beautiful queen” that Maggy the Frog warned would cast Cersei down back in season 5? After all, Jaime is the last (only?) person Cersei loves, and now he’s left her on the highway to Winterfell.

What was the point of Jon’s altercation with Littlefinger in the crypts, when his threat has since been proven empty? Sam has yet to learn the truth of his father and brother’s deaths, and their executioner is en route to Winterfell. On a similar note, Jorah’s greyscale was a pivotal plot point, but he is rather quickly cured by none other than Sam. This could very well put Jorah in a compromising position—because what is the purpose, within the narrative, of his greyscale, if not to meet and establish a bond with Sam, whose family was brutalized by Daenerys, the woman to whom Jorah has pledged his love and devotion?

As it stands now, Daenerys’ alliances are weak. Varys’ primary duty is to the realm, there friction between her and Tyrion, and as for Jon (you can fight me on this), his heart is in the North. The romance between him and Daenerys rings disingenuous when juxtaposed with the likes of Jon/Ygritte and Robb/Talisa. All things considered, if I was into Jon/Daenerys, I’d feel shortchanged by their lack of romantic development.

Jorah is one of the only people who will have Daenerys’ back if things turn sour for her. But what will happen if he who has honored Daenerys through the years finds himself questioning his loyalty to her, for the sake of the man who saved his life, whose kin Daenerys slaughtered? Sam and Jorah’s relationship has the potential to play a significant role in the continually unfurling story, and Daenerys is the (as of yet unknown) common factor.

If season 7 has demonstrated anything, it’s that the political machinations of Game of Thrones don’t rest—not even when the White Walkers are on the march. For a long while I thought that the characters would be forced to see the bigger picture when it came down to it, but this season has proven otherwise. And I think this might be the crowning achievement of these seven weeks: Life doesn’t stop, even when death is coming for it. Many of these characters have been so possessed with their own ambitions that they can’t see anything else—it’s their birthright, their struggles, their plans at stake, and no one but a few people from the North have truly set those things aside for the greater good.

Aside from Arya and Sansa’s rather overdramatized conflict this year, it’s the Starks who keep the White Walkers at the forefront of their minds. The sisters consider Cersei a threat, as they should; but they have their eye beyond the Wall, too. The audience should share their perspective: Winter may be here, but politics are year-round. Really, it’s the most apt metaphor for modern society’s social and environmental climate, so why wouldn’t the cultural phenomenon that is Game of Thrones follow suit?

RICHARD: Plenty of great stuff so far! For me, season 7 was uneven but ultimately satisfying. Yes, I do have issues with the forced Jon/Sansa and Sansa/Arya conflicts at Winterfell, the “let’s go grab a wight” suicide mission north of the Wall (with The Flash 2.0 Gendry doll included) and the speed of the love affair between the normally cautious Jon Snow and Daenerys Targaryen. It seems that these problems, plus a few others, might well have been avoided with a little more time — say with one or two more episodes?

Despite some clunky execution, the three aforementioned plotlines also delivered some great moments. With season 8 rushing towards us, a lot of characters hit the peak of their development this year, emerging fully formed from the chrysalis of their trials. I think the successes of season 7 will eventually loom much larger in our memories than its failures. With that in mind, here are some of the moments where I thought season 7 excelled:

• Theon meeting with Jon Snow and brawling with the Ironborn on the Dragonstone beach. I don’t get emotional very often while watching TV shows, but these two scenes brought me to the verge of bawling. Alfie Allen and Kit Harington killed their scene together, and Allen carried his vulnerability into the beach brawl scene. It was powerfully cathartic and redemptive.
• Cersei becomes the Dark Queen. Speaking of great acting, Lena Headey absolutely tore up the world as Cersei embraced her Machiavellian dark side.
• The snowflake landing on Jaime Lannister’s black glove. For all the blizzards in the North in season 7, nothing announced the arrival of the true winter better than this.
• Littlefinger is caught in his own trap. Yes, the Sansa vs Arya conflict was hard to swallow, but that final scene where Littlefinger’s silver tongue fails him makes up for a lot of it.
• Grey Worm/Missandei and Jon Snow/Daenerys hookups: I’m jazzed that these kids got together. Thrones needs warm,beating hearts to save us from the relentless grimdark, now more than ever.
• The Loot Train Attack: one of the best Game of Thrones battles of any season thus far, featuring the Lannister/Tarly infantry, Dothraki cavalry, a ballista and a superbly-rendered, fire-breathing CGI dragon. What made it wonderful was the masterful integration of character storylines into the chaos: Daenerys, Drogon, Jaime, Bronn and Tyrion (as observer) were all in the thick of it, and we were in there with them.
• The Arya vs Brienne sparring session: GoT has had a number of one-on-one sword duels. It’s hard to think of a better one.
• The journey of the Seven Samurai: I really enjoyed the Boy’s Own quality of the beginning of the wight-capturing expedition north of the Wall. Jon and Jorah Mormont’s conversation about inheritance and honor was particularly good.
• Pretty much every second the Hound was onscreen. Like Alfie Allen, Rory McCann got a chance to shine in season 7, and he didn’t disappoint. His quick scenes with Tormund on the wight expedition and with Brienne on the walk to the Dragonpit were priceless, but the scene where he and the Brotherhood Without Bannners stumble across the abandoned cottage is burned into my mind. The Hound’s choice to bury the bodies of the father and child he robbed, hacking at the frozen earth in the storm, is a wonderful grace note on one of the most fascinating character arcs—a brutal man’s journey towards some kind of faith—I’ve ever seen on film.

RAZOR: Cards on the table: I don’t understand Katie’s disdain for Daenerys. I get not liking a character — heck, I didn’t like Sansa until season 6 — but just ignoring the good in a character — a character who is obviously attempting to do the right thing by fighting the Night King and his army — doesn’t make sense to me.

That said, I felt Daenerys had an off-season. She was outwitted by Cersei at every turn. She allowed Tyrion to talk her out of melting the Red Keep, which could have ended the war before it began. That would have made for bad television, I guess, but it would have been effective, and it was the right thing to do.

This is war. Why don’t some people get this? Even short one dragon, Dany has the most powerful army right now, and she was talked into making peace with the black widow spider that is Cersei Lannister. Eventually, the black widow spider is going to bite you.

Tyrion has made terrible decision after terrible decision in his role as Hand of the Queen, and Dany has paid for it because she is losing the war for the Seven Kingdoms, and she’s losing it badly. Two LARGE DRAGONS, one DOTHRAKI HORDE, one UNSULLIED ARMY. Screw the Greyjoy fleet: she doesn’t need a navy now — just march/ride to King’s Landing, put it under siege, then send in the dragons and burn the Red Keep to the ground. The end.

My stance on Dany’s councilors — Tyrion and Varys — is that they are pseudo-pacifists and it shows in every thing they do and say, and it is making Dany look weak and stupid, and she is neither of those things.

I don’t think Dany will turn into the Mad Queen, or that she’ll be driven to extreme action when she finds out that Jon is really Aegon Targaryen and that his claim to the Iron Throne is stronger than hers. I believe that, if and when this information is revealed, Jon will relinquish his claim to the Iron Throne because he truly loves Daenerys despite the fact they are related. Jon and Dany never knew each other until this season. They are the same age, and it would appear as if their attraction will overcome the incest problem.

Plus, Jon is happy and at home in the North. I know he bent the knee to Dany, but I think he would rather be in Winterfell with the family he grew up with, as Warden of the North, should Dany take the Iron Throne.

Having said ALL that…I enjoyed season 7, to a point. There are some low points, sure, and yes, it felt rushed, but when the action happened, it was top-notch.

Diana Rigg’s final performance as Olenna Tyrell was one of the best scenes in the series as a whole. Nikolaj Coster-Waldau deserves credit in not only that scene, but overall, I feel like his portrayal of Jaime Lannister was the MVP of the season.

The Loot Train Attack in “The Spoils of War,” was one the best battle sequences in the series. And while “Beyond the Wall” was messy in a lot of areas, the battle at the frozen lake was extremely well-done, particularly when Dany and her dragons came to rescue Jon’s ill-advised wight hunting party.

I was apoplectic about the Stark reunions and the forced drama between Sansa and Arya. I think my anger and frustration comes from a place of deep love for the Starks — I expected loving and happy reunions and didn’t get them. I guess seeing Sansa jump into Jon’s arms last year set the bar too high for me.

As for the Night King destroying the Wall at Eastwatch, while I didn’t mind that the Night King used the undead Viserion as his tool of destruction, I simply didn’t care. We’d spent six seasons hanging out at Castle Black and getting to love characters like Dolorous Edd. The show had a perfect way to let the army of the dead through the Wall, since the Night King had touched Bran the season before. But instead, a place we’d never seen before and don’t care about is destroyed and the army of the dead marches through. I simply didn’t care.

We saw how powerful and scary the army of the dead was in the season 7 premiere (with giants carrying longbows). When we saw them again, they couldn’t kill a small party of men before three dragons swooped in and set them on fire.

At this point, I just do not care about the White Walkers or the army of the dead. Now, the Night King riding zombie Viserion could definitely be a problem, but let’s hope Dany on Drogon (with an assist from Jon on Rhaegal?) can overcome it.

Season 7 felt rushed and at times just plain sloppy. Out of five stars, I’d give season 7 a rating of 3-and-a-half stars. PS: I still love you, Katie.

JULIA: Looking back at season 7, it’s tempting to point out its flaws, and I almost did it. But after reading Dan’s opinion, I agree with him that it would be unfair to say that of the whole season. Nevertheless, I understand what Katie means when she says that the pace was accelerated but very little seemed to actually happen. Considering how much happened this year, a lot of time had to have passed in Westeros. But how many game-changing events happened?

I would list three of them: Jaime’s break-up with Cersei; the army of the dead getting ahold of a weapon of massive destruction (Zombie Dragon); and the revelation that Jon has a rightful claim to the Iron Throne. Sure, there were other important developments — the Jonerys hook-up, the Loot Train Attack and Cersei’s pregnancy — but I wouldn’t say those are game-changing, at least not yet.

In past seasons, plot twists usually came in the form of a major character’s death (with the exception of season 2, relatively speaking). This year, the big events involved the characters shifting around the board. That gives the impression that not much actually happened. (The closest we came to an old-school plot twist was when Littlefinger died, although the effect of that was blunted a bit by the Stark sisters’ strange feud.)

I remember a lot of debate before season 7 started as to what it would be about, with a lot of people coming to the conclusion that the political aspects of the show would be settled so the survivors could focus on the real threat in season 8: the army of the dead. That didn’t happen. In addition, as Katie pointed out, a lot of questions from minor plotlines linger.

That doesn’t mean it was a bad season of Game of Thrones; it was just different. There were a lot of good TV moments, and it was exciting to watch all the way through. It was particularly pleasant to watch Jaime, Sansa and the Hound’s journeys, and we got a glimpse of what Cersei’s truly like as a Queen with no husband, father or son to account for.

This wasn’t a typical season — rather, it was the first part of one extra-long final season. And we just entered the longest midseason hiatus in the history of TV, so expectations are gonna be even higher for the ending.

What did you think of season 7? Vote in the poll below! And congratulations to WiC writer Corey Smith, who welcomed baby Elise into the world this week! Hence his absence from the Small Council. Enjoy some down time, Corey.