We review every commentary on the Game of Thrones season 7 Blu-ray boxset

Episode 707, “The Dragon and the Wolf.” Commentary by executive producers/writers David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, Lena Headey (Cersei Lannister) and Kit Harrington (Jon Snow).

• At one point, Kit Harington starts asking hypothetical questions about Ghost, gently poking fun at fans who wondered where he was in season 7.
• HBO leaned on Benioff and Weiss to cut the opening sequence of the episode, where we see the Unsullied and the Dothraki amass outside King’s Landing, but they fought to keep it so the viewers understood the stakes of what would happen if the Dragonpit meeting went wrong.
• Benioff: “There’s a lot of shipping memes about Pod and Tyrion. Or there should be.” Yes, the producers are aware of ships.
• Kit Harington: “[Daenerys] says that she can’t have children.” Weiss: “And you’re like, ‘We’ll see about that.’”
• Really, this could just be a list of wisecracks the group makes. They’re clearly enjoying themselves. Benioff: “There are no small parts.” Headey: “Hmm…I’ve seen some.” Weiss: “Low-hanging fruit.” Benioff: “Seen some of those too.” Also, apparently Harington and Gwendoline Christie had an ongoing bit where he was baby and she was mommy. I have no idea if they’re joking.
• Lena Headey’s take on Euron Greyjoy: “Swipe left.”
• Jon Snow’s monologue about the value of truth apparently had some special meaning on the day it was filmed, but they don’t say what it was.
• Headey is of the opinion that, somewhere deep down, Cersei loves Tyrion, or at least wants his respect. Tyrion gets her in a way that Jaime, “the stupidest Lannister,” doesn’t.
• Headey to Harington: “Would you share a cheese plate with Joffrey?” Yes he would.
• Lena Headey’s stomach growls audibly and it’s hilarious. In fact, Headey is hiarlious throughout. She seems genuinely shocked by many moments, including Arya cutting Littlefinger’s throat and Lyanna and Rhaegar’s wedding. Benioff: “Lena, do you not read the scripts?” Headey: “No, cause I fucking watch it! And then you ruin it every year because you make me do something — that you pay me to do — and then I fucking learn things I don’t want to.”
• Headey to Benioff and Weiss: “Do you want to tell us what’s coming up?” Benioff: “No. It’s very interesting. I think you’re both gonna find it very intriguing and sexy.”
• Apparently the scene between Jon Snow and Theon in the Dragonstone throne room is one of the first scenes Harington shot for the season. Also, Benioff and Weiss had “one of our very few arguments” about how many times Harrag the Ironborn jackass should knee Theon in the balls before Theon turned the tables: three or four.
• Benioff and Weiss point out an interesting parallel between Sansa and Daenerys: although Sansa goes through with executing Littlefinger, she’s at least a little conflicted about it, and it shows. But Daenerys shows no emotion at all when she’s executing.
• Benioff confirms that Jaime covers up his golden hand on his way out of King’s Landing because he’s afraid it will reveal his identity.
• The scene between Bran and Sam was the first scene Isaac Hempstead Wright filmed for the season. It’s impressive how their performances are so consistent even though everything is shot out of order.
• Maisie Williams and Sophie Turner are very good friends, and have a habit of talking to each other in exaggerated Northern accents. They did it so often it started to creep into their takes, and the producers had to give them “time outs.”
• Dan Weiss as the army of the dead walks over the remains of the Wall: “This is all a way of telling Kit Harington that he better get in good shape for this coming year. Gonna be swinging that sword a lot. Even Lena may have to pick up a sword.” David Benioff: “The Valyrian steel sword is gonna come in handy.”

Episode 707, “The Dragon and the Wolf.” Commentary by director Jeremy Podeswa and director of photography Greg Middleton.

• The production got very few takes of the scene where everyone was walking to the Dragonpit, which was made all the more difficult by bumpy roads and the sheer number of people involved.
• Podeswa, who I always thought did great character work, payed as much attention to the little moments in the Dragonpit — the stolen glances between characters, the pauses between loaded lines of dialogue — as I figured he did. “It’s one huge scene, but it breaks down into many little scenes.”
• Apparently Jorah had a couple lines that were removed from the Dragonpit sequence. Dunno what they are.
• In the original script, the wight emerged slowly from the box, but in the end they thought it would be scarier if it burst out and went right for Cersei.
• I never considered that part of the reason why we see Tyrion walking down the hall with the Mountain was because it was a “physical gag” that paired the smallest character with the biggest.
• Peter Dinklage’s first day of filming for season 7 was the intense Cersei-Tyrion scene, months before they filmed the Dragonpit sequence. These people are good.
• A fun parallel: in the Tyrion-Cersei scene, Cersei is sitting in Tywin’s old chair. In the Sansa-Littlefinger thing at Winterfell, Sansa is sitting in Jon Snow’s chair.
• Podeswa pins down one reason why the Jon-Theon scenes is so good: even though it’s a small, intimate moment, having it take place in the cavernous Dragonstone throne room makes it feel more epic.
• Podeswa: “This was one of those happy accidents. We didn’t really…I didn’t know what Alfie was going to do when he got to the shoreline. I just asked him to walk out there at the end of this.” Middleton: “And we just chased him out. I think I was on that close-up camera. I just chased him out there to try and get him putting water on his face.”
• The shot of Sansa standing on the Winterfell ramparts with her hood was referred to as “The French Lieutenant’s Woman shot” in the script.
• When reading the scripts ahead of time, Littlefinger’s death scene was the biggest “oh my god” moment. The group waxes poetic about Littlefinger’s role on the show and Aidan Gillen’s wonderful performance as “a cornered animal.”
• When Arya slits Littlefinger’s throat, she “takes away his voice, the only thing he can use against them.”
• Benioff and Weiss wanted the last shot of Cersei for the season to be her and that giant map, for whatever reason.
• The Jon-Dany love scene was described very simply in the script; just “they make love,” basically. It was up to Podeswa, the actors, and the crew to work through the specifics.
• Another neat parallel: back in the first episode of the season, Archmaester Ebrose (Jim Broadbent) allays Sam’s fears of a coming apocalypse by saying that the Wall has rebuffed threats to Westeros for thousands of years. And now, at the end of the season, his reasoning comes crumbling down.

Next: What should HBO’s new Game of Thrones prequel series be called?

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