Game of Thrones Season 7 Review

Hi everyone and welcome back to the blog! We’re almost done with Game of Thrones! I can’t believe we’re on the last season already. I feel like all I do is write these season review posts. So, let’s get into it!

First we have to talk about the Starks, and the revelation about Jon Snow. One of the most shocking moments (well, it would’ve been if I didn’t spoil it for myself). We find out that Jon is not a bastard, he’s a legitimate Stark. Ned Stark is his uncle. Which makes me love Ned’s character even more because, as I’m sure other viewers have wondered, how can a man so honorable have a bastard son? But he was helping his sister.

We learn in season seven that Jon’s mom is Lyanna Stark, Ned’s sister, and she give him to Ned because “Robert will kill him.” And that’s it. That’s all we know now. But I did accidentally spoil this for myself, so I know where this is going, and I was shocked. I won’t say anything more until my season eight review.

Continuing with the Starks, we do have a small family reunion between Sansa, Arya, and Bran. I loved seeing them all together, especially Sansa and Arya. All of them have changed so much since they were last seen together, and I do think there is some poetic about how they all grew into themselves and then reunited with one another.

Sansa is surprised at Arya’s sword skills and concerned with what she had to experience in order to become so well trained, and Arya sees Sansa as Lady of Winterfell, taking over for Jon while he’s gone. Of course, she knows a bit about how Sansa left King’s Landing based on the play she saw a few seasons back. She also knew from the beginning how awful Joffrey was.

It’s honestly weird to see all the storylines start to overlap and seeing different characters we’ve seen for seasons finally meet each other. For example, Dany meeting Cersei or Jon, Jaime meeting Jon again after seasons, Jon and Tyrion seeing each other again after literally six seasons, etc. Now storylines are starting to converge and wrap up as we approach the end of the series.

I do see some of the issues people mentioned in the last two seasons. Season seven felt rushed, not overly so, but the travelling time is very condensed. Jon was at Dragonstone in no time, the one character ran all the way back to the wall in no time to get a raven out when the rest of the group was trapped by the army of the dead, even at the start of the season Dany was already landing at Dragonstone, we didn’t see any of her journey across the Narrow Sea. It definitely feels like things are moving along more quickly.

Also, the budget for this season had to be astronomical with all these battles and CGI dragons, etc. I actually looked it up, season seven had a budget of $100 million. Roughly $14-15 million per episode which makes it one of the most expensive TV shows to produce.

Anyways, let me jump back to the Starks, specifically Sansa and Arya. Baelish came through during the Battle of the Bastards by bringing in Knights of the Vale and helping Sansa. Ever since then he’s stuck around Winterfell. We can tell nothing good could possibly come from this. Baelish is a master manipulator.

We see him trying to create a divide between Sansa and Arya by planting notes, sneaking around, playing off their fears, etc. Just when you think Sansa and Arya have really turned against each other, they turn on him. Turns out they were manipulating him the whole time. For once, someone was two steps ahead of Littlefinger, and honestly, it was about time.

Sansa had learned a lot from him, and given his past behaviors and actions, she knew what he was doing to her and Arya. When I saw I have chills when Sansa put Baelish on trial…I mean it.

It makes sense why he wanted to create a divide. Having that separation makes it easier for him to manipulate and change things to his liking as compared to trying to manipulate a united house. He also wanted to influence Sansa, and Arya would get in the way of that. We’ve seen Baelish take down entire families, I mean he pitted Catelyn Stark and her sister against each other.

The other Stark news is that Jon leaves the North to sail for Dragonstone. He’s focused with the army of the dead (rightfully so) and goes to hopefully mine more dragon glass. Jon and Dany meeting is something I’ve been anticipating since literally season one. I know there’s a whole storyline forming there.

I’m not really sure how I feel about Jon and Dany being romantically involved. I knew it was going to happen (because I spoiled it accidentally). Jon ends up bending the knee because he respects Dany and sees that she is different from the other rulers. She cares about those she rules over, and she came to save them from the White Walkers. In the process she lost a dragon; she made a huge sacrifice going to save them. Even Tyrion advised her against going but she went anyway, knowing the danger.

In my opinion, Dany seems like a bomb waiting to go off. Right now, she’s under control, her temper is in check, and her focus is to help the North fight the army of the dead. I feel like as soon as something goes wrong, or Cersei strikes then all bets are off and she’s going to use her dragons to burn down cities. Essentially becoming like every other ruler.

Her and Jon’s romance bothers me because it’s an unnecessary complication, and Jon should know better than to bring emotions into a situation this complex. They both need each other, and what if this relationship goes sour? Dany isn’t exactly the person to forget or forgive.

We all know what happened to Robb when he decided to follow his heart. But now that I’m thinking out loud here, the major difference between Jon and Robb’s romances is that Robb was forgoing his duties when he chose Talissa – he basically told Walder Frey “f*ck you, I’m going to marry who I want” and tried to clean up his mess later when he realized he needs them in order to take down the Lannister’s (no Robb hate, I absolutely loved him. I’m just analyzing his decisions cynically). Jon has proven that he’s not the type to forgo his duties, so maybe history won’t repeat itself. He thinks following Dany is the best for the North. He always has his people in mind.

I’ve never been really thrilled about Dany’s character, and I don’t see the last season changing my opinion. But bringing up Dany’s sacrifice brings up another point. So, she loses one of her dragons…. the Night King was able to take it down with some spear thing. One, that was devastating to watch. I know how important the dragons are to Dany, but she could’ve showed more emotion. I feel like she didn’t seem that beat up about it on screen.

Two, the last thing the White Walkers needed was a freaking dragon, but honestly, that’s some great tv. I knew as soon as that dragon went down that it was going to turn and become a part of their army. The stakes had to be upped.

I’ve been told that the White Walkers end up being a let down, tying into the idea that things are just wrapped up too quickly. Which would stink because they are a threat we’ve known about since season one. Literally the very first scene. And now, they’ve attacked the wall, literally tearing it down, and marching right on through.

That leads to my other concern. There is still so much that has to be wrapped up in SIX episodes. I know some of them are over an hour, but still. We have to wrap up not one, but two wars – and who will sit on the iron throne, Theon has to rescue Yara, Jaime needs to make it to the North, Jon needs to learn the truth about his parentage, Bran’s purpose, Sansa and Arya’s future, Dany and Jon’s relationship – will it survive?, Tyrion’s end game, etc. Literally every character has to be wrapped up, and I just don’t see this being done well for all of them.

Furthermore, I do want to talk about the Lannisters because by the end of season seven, Jaime finally breaks away from Cersei. I’m working on a separate blog post about this, but I think Jaime Lannister’s character arc is one of the most well written arcs of the entire cast. His growth is realistic and not immediate; we see the effect Brienne of Tarth has on him, and now he’s seeing that Cersei’s decisions do not align with everything he’s been learning.

The straw that breaks the camel’s back is when Cersei says she will not honor the truce made with Dany and the North; she will not send her army north to fight the army of the dead. Jaime doesn’t agree with her decision and leaves to fight by himself. Which I love. It sucks that he had to give up the one person who he had made every decision for (even if it was his sister – defs don’t agree with that) but he was in love with her. He did everything for her, and now Cersei is so out of control that he can’t sit back and let her do whatever she wants.

It’s admirable that he stands up to her and leaves knowing that she will probably never forgive him. REALISTIC CHARACTER GROWTH.

Cersei has become even darker of a character. Heck, even the King’s Guard – I mean Queen’s Guard has a whole new black aesthetic. She really embodies the evil queen trope. If anything, she’s become even more ruthless since her children are all dead and the only thing she has left is her position of power. She’s good at hiding her desperation behind vile political decisions.

Jaime was the last person on her side. The last person in her family that she truly trusted. Which makes me think of how similar her and Sansa’s situations were from season 6 to 7.

Sansa and Jon were struggling to find alleys to face Ramsey Bolton. It took Sansa trusting Littlefinger to get extra troops, and Littlefinger has invested interest in Sansa. He claims he’s in love with her, but also, he wants power.

Similar to Euron, who comes to Cersei’s aid with his fleet. He’s not really someone who can be trusted, but Cersei’s in the same position where she needs allies. Euron also wants to marry Cersei and come into a position of power.

Both Sansa and Cersei are political survivors and have learned from others what to do and what not to do. Slowly they have discovered how to play the game of thrones. I do think Sansa is playing a better game than Cersei, and my husband pointed out how Sansa was able to get Littlefinger to help without actually promising anything. Cersei has to give Euron something for all his help.

In general, they both have similar experiences in how they learned the Game of Thrones; they both learn that power matters. We really see Sansa learn this in the last couple of seasons. They both have to operate in a male-dominated system, they both highly value family, and they are both shaped by difficult experiences. I just thought that was an interesting note, and it wasn’t something I thought of until now.

Overall, I will say season seven was not my favorite, and I can feel the decline in the writing and execution. I just really hope this doesn’t turn into a Stranger Things ending where the writers and producers ruin such a good show with the last season…like I mean really ruin it.

I will be back with my final season review in a few week!

Alright folks, that is all I have for this week! Come back next week for another blog post. As always, thank you for reading :)