TELEVISION Catching up with last season’s ‘ Game’ moves
HBO’s Game of Thrones premieres its seventh season Sunday ( 9 ET/ PT), which is great news for fans — if they can remember what happened last year.
From hundreds of deaths to revelations about the WhiteWalkers to new alliances, Season 6 was incredibly dense. If you don’t have time to catch up on the most recent season before Sunday’s big premiere, here are six key points you should remember.
1 MANY, MANY DIED
Was the sixth season the deadliest in the series’ history? It depends on how many nameless casualties you count, but the writers certainly dispensed with many of the antagonists over the course of 10 episodes.
In the finale, Margaery, her brother Loras, fundamentalist leader the High Sparrow, Lannister relatives Kevan and Lancel and more were killed in the explosion at the Sept, Septa Unella was contained for her long punishment of Cersei and King Tommen committed suicide. Jon and Sansa dealt with Ramsay in the Battle of the Bastards. Dany killed a group of Khals in the East, as well as two of the three Wise Masters of Slaver’s Bay that had been plaguing her. Arya killed theWaif, and later, Walder Frey.
2 JON, CERSEI AND DAENERYS IN POWER
With all those players taken off the board, the game of thrones has gotten much smaller. Jon was declared King in the North after he took Winterfell back from the Boltons. After the Sept explosion and Tommen’s suicide, Cersei was crowned Queen of the Seven Kingdoms, unopposed. Dany managed to ally herself with the grieving Olenna Tyrell, the Sand Snakes of Dorne and Yara and Theon Greyjoy, while gaining a new army after burning Vaes Dothrak to the ground.
One more pesky wannabe king could cause problems: uncle Euron Greyjoy.
3 BRAN TIME TRAVELS, HAS CHANGED PAST
After a certain Season 6 episode, we were never able to think of the phrase “hold the door” in the same way again. We discovered Bran has more powers than we knew, such as visiting the past. At first, he appeared to just be an observer, but a fateful encounter revealed that he could change it.
In the finale, Bran witnessed the birth of Jon, who is revealed to be the son of Ned’s sister, Lyanna Stark ( who dies soon afterward) and Rhaegar Targaryen, making him Dany’s nephew, Sansa’s cousin, and potentially the strongest claimant to the Iron Throne ( although still a bastard). Bran, who is now the mythic Three- Eyed Raven, is the only person who knows this, it seems.
4 SOME ARE MIA
Brienne of Tarth and her trusty squire Podrick Payne have not been seen since the eighth episode of Season 6, when they rowed away from Riverrun after Jaime took the keep.
Also missing is Melisandre, whom Jon banished from the North after her part in burning Shireen at the stake came to light, and the Hound. His reappearance reminds us that Beric Dondarrion and the Brotherhood Without Banners are still around.
5EVERYONE ELSE IS AWILD CARD
What happens when you’re not one of the major players anymore? That’s the question Arya, Sansa, Jaime and Littlefinger will confront in the new season.
When we last saw Arya, she was finally back in Westeros and she had crossed off another entry on her vengeance to- do list. Sansa was present for Jon’s ascendancy to King in the North, but Littlefinger was whispering in her ear again and she seemed a tad resentful when he didn’t share credit. Jaime, too, was not overjoyed at Cersei’s coup d’etat.
6 THE WHITE WALKERS ARE A HUGE PROBLEM
In the excitement of Cersei’s coup and Dany’s voyage, it may have been easy to forget that the White Walkers are behind the Wall. We learned with the reappearance of Benjen Stark that the White Walkers can’t cross it because of ancient magic. Sam and Gilly went to Oldtown to learn more about them, and Sam gained a Valyrian steel sword along the way — one of the few weapons that will kill a White Walker. Jon and Brienne also have Valyrian swords.
We also learned during one of Bran’s trips to the past that the White Walkers were created as a weapon to fight man. It worked a little too well.