Game of Thrones Season 7 TV Review

Game of Thrones (2011-)
Season 7 - 7 episodes (2017)

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Created by: David Benioff, D.B. Weiss
Starring: Emilia Clarke, Peter Dinklage, Kit Harington, Sophie Turner, Lena Headey, Maisie Williams, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Aidan Gillan, Gwendoline Christie 

Plot: 
HBO's fantasy drama series adapted from George R.R. Martin's book series A Song of Ice and Fire follows the civil war of kings and usurpers in Westeros who wish to sit on the throne. The scale and scope of the story is staggering, fully realized with a large ensemble cast.


Only six episodes remain. Daenerys finally reached Westeros at the beginning of season seven. Winter has arrived after seven seasons, and the white walker threat is real and imminent.

Verdict
With a shorter season this season moved quickly, in pacing and sheer physics. Everything that's been coming for the past six years is coming into place. Characters that have never met finally share the screen, and there are many reunions. Episodes four, five, and six are a great run. The show has maintained the focus from season six and just gotten better.
Watch it.

Review
If you just want to read my season eight speculations, scroll to the end. If you want to read my episode by episode recap, click here.

This season may be peak Game of Thrones. It's full of milestones and reunions, even if the real threat has yet to start. That threat is so close now. The first episode of season eight will have to deal with the undead army.
 Season seven was putting the pieces in play, but it didn't feel static. It had great character development, big set pieces, and lots of excitement.

My Game of Thrones interest had begun to wane around season four. The cast and lore had just gotten so large that you needed a list of the characters. Episodes often felt like a clip show as each one tried to cram in all the characters. I never abandoned the show, but by enthusiasm had decreased. Season six changed that, refocusing the story. It did away with an unnecessary character (Ramsay Bolton), and put us on the course to the end. Ramsay's virtue to the show can be debated, but we always knew he wouldn't be the enemy at the end. He served to develop other characters, but the show never did him justice as  real character. He was a puppet.

Six years of drama are now converging. Not only that, this show is correcting any deficiencies. The pacing is perfect, and the focus has narrowed. We're heading to the end, whatever that may be. There's no more filler. Now, it all matters. There are still many characters that require a cheat sheet to keep track of, but this show is firing on all cylinders. Even if you don't know a character, the show keys you in on whether they are important.

Episode three

Jon is desperate to protect Westeros and forges an alliance with Daenerys for dragon glass to create weapons. It's a testament to how big this show is that Jon and Daenerys are first sharing screen time after six seasons. There were lots of hints at Jon's heritage and the feelings developing between the two Targaryens. Season six revealed Jon's parents.
Cersei still thinks she can retain the Iron Throne. In her defense, she's still there. Daenerys is ready to make her claim to the throne. With all of her might she didn't put up much offense. Both Tyrion and Jon cautioned her against violence, urging her to be a fundamentally different ruler.

Episode four - Arya and Brienne

Episde four was big, the kind of episode that usually closes a season.. The living Stark children are reunited at Winterfell, what a milestone.  The two female warriors Brienne and Arya square off, and best of all a dragon is unleashed in a battle. It's a devastating battle.

Episode five was a great followup, developing the Jon-Daenarys relationship and showing Daenerys Jon is unafraid of dragons. There's a lot of characters speculating about the ruler Daenearys might be. It also starts the Sansa-Arya plot line that wraps up in episode seven. The biggest thing is that it sets up episode six, the journey beyond the wall. The only way to prove the white walker threat is real is to bring a wight to Cersei.

Episode six

Episode six goes North of the wall to capture a wight and prove to the Lannisters there is a larger threat. While the pacing and focus has been improved, this episode highlights one of the problems with fewer characters, the writing has to drastically reduce travel time to make stories work. No longer do we abandon characters until the next episode. This is good and bad.
Gendry was able to run back to the wall in twenty minutes after what seemed like a multi-day trek. A raven flew to Dragonstone to Daenerys and Daenerys rode a dragon to North of the wall in one night. The physics don't add up, which put a damper on a compelling story.

Episode six - The night king

Episode six - The wight dragon

The show gave us a huge clue that killing the night king could singe handedly destroy the entire wight army. The problem with that aside from the army and lieutenants between the night king and everyone else is that the night king now rides a wight dragon.

Cersei and Qyburn thought they had built a crossbow that could kill a dragon. It didn't. Thinking dragons just couldn't be killed, episode six gave us a shock.

Episode seven - Daenerys Targaryen and Jon Snow (Targaryen)

Episode seven was full of reunions. We haven't seen this much of the cast in one place since the first few episodes of season one at Winterfell.

Winter is here. Season 7 has ended and we must wait for 2018 or 2019 to see the final season of Game of Thrones. If it follows the typical schedule, we should see it in April of 2018, but the final season is understandably different. Don't think the final six episodes mark the end of Game of Thrones, once the final season is done HBO plans to investigate multiple prequels with one of them developed enough to turn into a series.

Speculation
My speculations for season seven were hit and miss. While I predicted that despite being a Targaryen Jon Snow still wouldn't hold the iron throne, so far I'm right. He's never wanted to be a king. While he has the best claim now that we know he's not a bastard Targaryen, I don't think that's going to change for him. He's made his choice to follow Queen Daenerys. While the show is teasing he may sit the throne, I don't buy it. That and Daenerys is determined.

I predicted Euron Greyjoy would make an early exit in season seven, and I wasn't wrong, though he did come back in episode seven only to leave again.

I predicted Arya would create more chaos than she actually did. I was sure she'd trim the cast, and while she did off a few characters, she was more subdued than expected.

I predicted the Stark children would reunite, and what do you now. Sansa, Arya, and Bran ended the season all in Winterfell.

Will the show figure out what to do with Bran? Season six made his visions flashbacks which offered some energy, this season he flatly states whatever viewers need to hear. It's just boring. He has the ability to warg, but hasn't used it to any effect. At one point he saw the wight army approaching, but shouldn't he be keeping tabs on that? Shouldn't he have been scouting when they broke through the wall to end episode seven? For someone that knows everything, he isn't used to any great effect. Couldn't Sansa and Arya have used him in their Baelish plight?

I expected Daenerys to sweep across Westeros before the white walker invasion, but despite a battle here and there, she didn't make much progress other than a truce. I speculated that Daenerys might not make it to the end, and I stand by that. That might be the fire Jon Snow needs to conquer everything. Then again it's a quaint image to have Jon and Daenerys as King and Queen when the series concludes. Sansa is still my pick as queen, but I think a dragon born is more likely.
Cersei is still around, but I don't see her lasting. My predictions of who would live were right, but my death predictions were off. There wasn't a lot of dying in season seven, though I did call Baelish.

So what's going to happen in season eight? Cersei is in a pretty safe spot initially, breaking an oath to fight white walkers while staying behind in King's Landing. The rift between Cersei and Jamie is growing. Jamie might be the only one to stop her.

At some point Jon and Daenerys will discover their relation. They won't like it, may refuse to accept it, but eventually they'll have to. Daenerys will be concerned about Jon's legitimate claim, but he will give it up to her.

There are going to be a lot of glorious, going down in a blaze of glory main character deaths. The show isn't going to leave much on the table. Houses will fall. HBO is developing a number of prequel stories with new actors. They can't do spin offs because I don't think many characters will be alive at the end.
There are a couple redemption stories in the making. Theon has had the roller coaster ride and he's going to attempt to save his sister. I expect he'll die, but at least he finally did something. Unfortunately there are too many other more interesting characters, so his story just doesn't matter.
Jamie is another character with extreme highs and lows. He's going to be the only one to stop Cersei. We don't hear him called king slayer as often, but his final moniker will be kin slayer.

My predictions are that Sansa, Tyrion, and Bran will live. Everyone else is a tossup. Cersei, Daenerys, Jamie, and Jon won't make it. Prove me wrong season seven!