The third and final part of this review will go over things that don't need their own post. This isn't because they're unimportant but because of the low word count. In other words I don't have that much to say about them.
In this post I also go over some predictions for the eighth and final season of Game of Thrones. The show started out strong and in the seventh season it became extremely weak. Viewers deserve to see a good ending for the series that they've spent so long on. I am hoping that the writers learn from the failure of the seventh season so that a much stronger eighth season can be written.
The budget Game of Thrones had for its seventh season was a big reason why some things happened or didn't happen. I have heard many people say that the show has an unlimited budget. That is just not true. While the budget can be extremely large, there are still limits.
Because of the budget the length of Season 7 was much shorter. While I understand why this season was so short, I don't like it. Finally Daenerys Targaryen is in Westeros and ready to conquer the Seven Kingdoms. Because of time, her failed conquest didn't have much to it. While I didn't want her victory to be easy, I didn't want Cersei to have cheat codes either.
The budget is the reason we had no Ghost this season. His absence was the most maddening. In my mind there is no way that Jon Snow would leave his companion in Winterfell. Besides the obvious protection the creature would give him, Ghost is also a reminder of Jon's home. As there was no real explanation of Ghost being left a Winterfell except in a deleted scene, I feel free to believe Ghost really went with Jon to Dragonstone.
Nymeria not going with Arya Stark doesn't seem to be a budget issue. I agree with the explanation that the direwolf is just imitating the Stark. Like Arya, Nymeria only truly thrives in the wild. The young Stark's line to her direwolf even references a line she said to Ned Stark back in Season 1.
Fangirling aside, Drogon does take center stage. When Daenerys goes to attack the Loot Train she only takes her favorite dragon. Now taking the other two would be overkill but it would make sense for her to take them. She is pissed off that she doesn't have any victories under her belt and is trying to be a dragon like Olena Tyrell said. So she's not exactly listening to Tyrion Lannister as closely as she usually does.
So her taking all three dragons merely to intimidate her enemies makes sense. Her only taking Drogon makes sense if we look at the budget. The budget could've only handled one dragon and not all three.
Trying to figure out the Azor Ahai Prophecy is a favorite pastime of Game of Thrones fans. There are so many ways to read the prophecy that it is extremely hard to talk about. Not if you're like me and want to cover every nook and cranny. In Season 7 of Game of Thrones fans have updated some of their predictions. Whether completely or figuring out even more nuances.
Because of the forced relationship between Daenerys Targaryen and Jon Snow shippers now have proof of their predictions. Daenerys would be Nissa Nissa and Jon Snow would be Azor Ahai in this scenario.
But I'm not too fond of this idea. Not just because I don't ship the pair but because of how I read the Azor Ahai Prophecy.
Anyways...the long story short is that I don't think Nissa Nissa has to be a love interest of Azor Ahai. In the legend she was his wife but that legend has been told so many times. Has been uttered over so many centuries. It could be that the legend refers to the creation of Valyrian steel or Nissa Nissa's role in the legend is symbolic. A wife is someone who is the other part of your soul. In other words: Nissa Nissa being Azor Ahai's wife is merely a symbol of what he/she treasures the most.
So whoever Azor Ahai has to kill has to represent what he/she treasures the most. Nissa Nissa could be a love interest but they aren't restrained to that role.
Sansa and Bran Stark would both be viable candidates. They are both family members and are symbolic of his entire family. However, I think his Nissa Nissa would be Arya Stark. This is due to the fact that she was his closest sibling while growing up. It would pain him to no end to kill her. Sure he would feel pain while killing Sansa or Bran, but it would be a different level of pain with Arya.
The Dragon Queen also values Jorah Mormont. In Season 6 she realizes she needs him to rule the Seven Kingdoms. A fact that the writers forgot in Season 7. Also in Season 7 she was the happiest when she reunited with her adviser. For a brief moment in time she could simply be a woman and not a queen. To kill him would be to destroy an important part of herself. Her last link to what she had been before she became Daenerys of a Thousand Titles.
And about Jaime...due to the events of the episode some believe it is confirmed that Jaime is Azor Ahai. The salt is the water and the smoke relates to him nearly dying via dragon.
I think this theory is a little bit of a reach and I don't think it's true.
Like many guessed, Rhaegar Targaryen didn't kidnap Lyanna Stark. Instead they ran off together and married in secret. Many have pointed out for years how he is not the type of man to just randomly kidnap a maiden. Not even because of a prophecy. Though, from what we know, he never told anyone what he had actually done. This caused Robert's Rebellion to be a thing.
Yes, there were other facts but the rumor around Lyanna and Rhaegar certainly didn't help anything.
This was a confirmation many were looking forward to. From Season 6 we already knew that Jon Snow was a Targaryen, we just didn't know if he was a bastard.
While it was more than a little maddening not to have a full reveal earlier in the Season, it was also funny. The humor came from all of the memes about the scene. In all honesty the memes are what made the truly terrible parts of the season a little bearable for me. Especially when it came to the 'bend the knee' bs.
The majority of the boatsex scene is Sam and Bran discussing their findings. The only part of sex we see is Jon going to Daenerys' room and a brief moment of them having sex. Like really brief. Extremely brief. I loathe Jon/Daenerys and yet this upsets me. They even had to half-ass the sex and I don't know why I'm not happy about that.
Anyways...if the scene had a proper buildup and a little bit of exposition, I would count it as a sex scene. What do I think would make a proper sex scene? Jon and Daenerys talking which allows the walls between them to fully crumble. Then they either gently or roughly take off each other's clothes. A quick cut to Sam and Bran talking about Jon's actual heritage before going back to the sex. This needs to have a little length to it. Then the scene ends with Daenerys in Jon's arms and the final shot is an aerial shot outside the ship. The words spoken as the screen goes black are the same words Bran says in the finale as those were good.
Game of Thrones Season 7 left viewers with a bunch of unanswered questions. Unfortunately they weren't the good type of unanswered questions that leave viewers asking philosophical questions for years to come. Like the end of the Watchmen comic or Inception or Memento.
The questions the seventh season of Game of Thrones left viewers with were ones that showed poor writing. Ones where important details weren't answered so important answers are left to hopefully be answered next season. If they are even answered at all.
Below are some questions that should have been answered in Season 7.
What happened to Edmure Tully?
After the Red Wedding he was captured. When Jaime Lannister came to the Twins he used Edmure to allow an easy capture of the castle. Then Arya Stark came to the Twins to enact revenge for the Red Wedding. And then...then she left in the awesome cold opening.
It makes the most sense for Edmure to have been freed by Arya. He is family to her and so she should think of that. This would mean the Twins are now ruled by an ally of House Stark and will fight against Queen Cersei. The thing is Arya, at the beginning of Season 7, was very focused only on revenge. The thought of going back to Winterfell, of going home, never occurred to her until she found out Jon had reclaimed their home.
So Arya might have very well left Edmure in his cell as she didn't care about him. All she cared about was revenge.
At the beginning of Season 7, Ellaria Sand ruled Dorne. In all honesty how she became ruler of Dorne is a question in its own right. Are we really supposed to believe that Dorne allowed itself to be ruled by bastards with no questions asked? Shouldn't another House have tried to overthrow them and gotten lots of support?
But back to Season 7...who rules it now that Ellaria is dead? If we're to assume Dorne was able to be so easily ruled by bastards, it could be that another House has already had a plan to take over if an instance arose. Other options include Ellaria having a plan in case she and her daughters died or Dorne hasn't realized that Ellaria is dead yet.
If it's the latter case then Dorne would continue as normal as it waited for its ruler.
The fact that I don't know how much time passes in my own writing doesn't matter here. I'm an idiot with a keyboard that doesn't have a team behind me. I don't have people that research for me. I don't have millions of fans hanging onto my every word. I don't have the psychotic fanbase where my fans will defend any stupid thing I do.
Game of Thrones is the exact opposite. It is so big that it has to think more carefully about what it does. Such as the writers can't do a bread and jelly fic just because they were bored one day. If you don't get that reference...just know I write some insane crack!fics that you shouldn't read on an empty stomach.
Moving on!
The point I'm trying to make is that Game of Thrones needs to have a timeframe that Season 7 takes place in or some things make no sense. People seem to be able to go anywhere in an instant. Such as Gendry being able to go to Castle Black to send a raven, the raven arrives in Dragonstone, and Daenerys goes with her dragons to rescue Jorah and some other people. With no actual timeframe it seems to happen in maybe a day at most. In any case that series of events seems to happen way too fast.
This one requires a real good answer. When Daenerys goes to rescue Jorah, Jon, Tormund, and the others Drogon stays still. He stays still for so long because Jon didn't get on Drogon because the script said so. And the official reason for Jon's action in this matter makes no sense. Drogon staying so still makes him a prime target for the Night King who wants a dragon of his own.
If I was to kill a dragon I'd want to get the easiest target. The target that I could get in one hit. Also if by killing that target I'd kill other enemies at the same time...well...that target would become the one to go after.
The Night King had every reason to go after Drogon. Not only would he get the ultimate weapon, he would also get rid of some powerful enemies. Daenerys has dragons and therefore is a powerful enemy, Jon has proven himself to be a formidable enemy of the White Walkers in the past, and some believe Jorah Mormont is Azor Ahai. So there are at least two powerful enemies of the Night King on Drogon.
But the Night King decides not to go after Drogon and goes after Viserion instead. Viserion is flying and has no one valuable on board. Yet that is the dragon the Night King goes after.
It is safe to assume that the White Walkers tossed the chains into the lake and the wights who had already fallen in the lake chained Viserion. Then other wights pulled him up. There is no canonical answer given to us by the show. So some people have speculated some wights acted out of character and swam.
There is also the question of how the Night King was able to get chains. It's amusing to think he just carried them around for no reason. I like the theory that the Night King manipulated events so that he ended up getting a dragon. That would make it so he somehow got chains specifically for when he killed a dragon.
It would be great if the show had actually addressed any of the questions I pointed out here.
Viserion is now the mount of the Night King. He has been resurrected and taken down part of the Wall. A wall that has stood for an extremely long time. The Season 7 Finale gave us a hint at how powerful of a beast Viserion has become. It would be a waste if he doesn't become an antagonist next season.
Not only will he be extremely powerful, he will also hit at Daenerys Targaryen's emotional core. She already got hit a deadly blow with Viserion's death and teamed up with Jon to get revenge. So to have her have to kill one of her children will hurt her. Even if she doesn't land the killing blow, she will have to help cause his death.
I am one of those people that don't believe Drogon will easily beat Viserion. If he does beat the undead dragon at all. My belief is that Viserion has become even stronger after his rebirth. Strong enough to make a worthy opponent to Daenerys' favored child.
What is less certain to me is how Jon will react to this news. If the writers follow their epic failure of Season 7, they may very well have Jon decide that he's so in love with Daenerys his lineage doesn't matter. This will make it so he forgets his own character and decides to keep bedding his aunt.
Of course why should I complain about that? It's not like Jon/Daenerys promotes BAD incest.
As Season 8 is the final season of Game of Thrones, it appears as if she will die then. It will be sad to see her go and I hope her death scene does her justice. She is one of my favorites on the show so I hope she doesn't get a death scene like Littlefinger did. I want her to go out strong as the fierce lioness she is.
I'm also hoping she gets killed by a dragon as that would be awesome.
It could be that the Night King successfully conquers Westeros and the remaining humans have to flee. It is possible that there is nothing that can defeat the dead. The bittersweet ending could very well be our favorites surviving but living in a foreign land.
However, I think it's safe to say that the Night King will be defeated. I don't want this defeat to come easily and want there to be a large cost. I want to feel excited and exhausted when this evil creature is put to rest. But I also don't want the defeat of the Night King to feel like how easily Cersei Lannister got victories this season. All Cersei's victories were won because Tyrion Lannister was dumbed down which made them feel very disappointing.
It's my belief that the Prince Who Was Promised and Azor Ahai are two different people. Hopefully the answer to both of those prophecies will be something that the majority don't suspect. Such as Jorah Mormont turns out to be Azor Ahai. While a few of us already think that Jorah is Azor Ahai, the majority of people are betting on Jon Snow or Daenerys Targaryen.
It would also be interesting if both of those prophecies are fake, embellished over time, or don't have anything to do with defeating the Night King.
If the show follows the writing of all seasons before Season 7, the obvious contenders won't be sitting on the Iron Throne. This means Jon and Daenerys won't be sitting on this valued seat. It makes sense for Jon not to claim his birthright. He never wanted power, he just wanted to get rid of a threat. It doesn't seem as if Daenerys would ever abandon her claim so that means she might die.
I'd actually love it if she died in the first episode of Season 8 as it would show that the show still has balls. Anyone can die which means no one is safe.
Game of Thrones Season 7 was highly flawed. There were way too many instances of plot holes, questions left unanswered, and important things felt extremely rushed. This was a shortened season but that is no reason to forget pacing. It just means that pacing needs to become the focus and to cut things that ruin the pacing.
People were able to traverse all over Westeros in a manner that seemed too quick due to no mention of time. We are only meant to assume the timeframe which causes problems.
The fact that Sansa Stark is so suspicious of Arya doesn't make sense. They aren't the best of friends but they know each other. Sansa should know that Arya doesn't want to rule. Littlfinger's plan of turning the sisters against each other is not as clever as his past plans.
However, there is no real substance underneath them. The Loot Train Battle was interesting in that it forced us to root for both sides, but there was no real battle. There was just a massacre. And afterwards...Jaime Lannister and Bronn getting away with no problem makes little sense.
While the dragons coming to rescue the idiots who went beyond the Wall was cool to see, the whole thing breaks apart when you think about what was happening. The plan to get a wight made no sense and then you have the sense of time being an issue. You think about how fast Gendry ran, the ravens flew, and how quickly Daenerys Targaryen got there.
The attack by Euron Greyjoy was the most impressive but even that broke down upon looking at it. How did he just happen to be there?
I can understand they needed to hurry the relationship along due to the shortened season, but the relationship the showrunners wanted greatly suffered for it.
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Game of Thrones Season 7 Review Table of Contents
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