Recounting the impact of ‘War’
Dragon battles, alliances shift those still in the game
Best moves in latest ‘Game’
Spoiler alert! Details from Game of Thrones Season 7 Episode 4, “The Spoils of War.”
Some rulers are loved. Others are feared. Daenerys Targaryen is either, depending on whom you ask. The fourth episode of Game of
Thrones’ “The Spoils of War” started with a whisper and ended with a bang, as Dany brought a dragon into battle in Westeros for the first time, and Jaime possibly lost his life in the fiery battle. It’s the forward momentum we’ve been waiting for. The battle sequence was
Thrones at its very best. Not only was it exciting and superbly shot, but the character arcs made the stakes, both large and small, vital and thrilling. Jaime, as redeemed as he can be after entering a villain, never gives up. Dany comes one step closer to losing her humanity. Tyrion reveals he has not completely forsaken his family. Bronn is forced to choose between life and riches. Even scared Dickon Tarly gets his moment.
“The Spoils of War” made the kind of big impact the series needed at this point. And now, with Jaime’s life in the balance, more Starks in Winterfell than there have been since Season 1 and only three episodes remaining in Season 7, the ramifications should be swift and decisive. There are those pesky White Walkers to deal with.
However, as Thrones begins its inevitable sprint toward the finish of both the season and series, remember that dragon battles and cliffhanger endings aren’t the only things that make the show great. Good plotting, strong character work and smart writing are all necessary, and while “The Spoils of War” was bombastic and well-paced, all that dragonfire distracts from some of its messier elements, be it clumsy dialogue (Bran and Arya deserve better) or inconsistent rules. (Dany and the Dothraki are using that same teleport to get around Westeros that Littlefinger and Varys used, it seems.)
If we’re flying at dragonspeed toward conclusion, it’s worth paying attention to details. The game is all about the players, after all. DRAGONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION Was there ever really any doubt about Daenerys Targaryen?
The first half of the season attempted to show weakness in the Mother of Dragons, but what we actually saw were weaknesses in her allies.
So it shouldn’t have been a shock that she gave up on Tyrion’s big game of Risk and jumped into the fray herself. One of the best aspects of the battle sequence was the way it played with our expectations about who to root for. KING SNOW No Thrones fan asked for a Jon/ Theon reunion, but it’s potentially the most satisfying so far.
But before Theon arrived and Dany left to kill Lannisters, Jon made another case to her to bring her armies and her dragons north to fight the White Walkers, and he has some handy help in his argument from cave carvings the Children of the Forest left in the Dragonstone cavern. FAMILY MATTERS (SORT OF) The parade of Starks showing up at Winterfell is slowly starting to resemble a rendition of He Is Not
Dead Yet from Spamalot. The separation of the Stark family at the start of Season 1 was as much a driver of the series as the murder plots and executions. Bringing them back together is bound to feel awkward.
It’s fitting that Arya didn’t truly reintroduce herself to Sansa until her sparring match with Brienne. Every move she made was an indication of the people who have influenced her and the places she’s been since she parted from her sister. Something about the new Arya, though, troubled Sansa. Maybe it was the realization that not only was her little sister serious about wanting to kill people, but she could actually do it.
And then there’s Bran. Listen, we get that he has lost his identity by becoming the Three-Eyed Raven, but, Isaac Hempstead Wright does not have the gravitas that Max von Sydow brought to the role, and his disaffected manner is more annoying than wise.
But hey, at least he helped Arya get her hands on a Valyrian steel weapon! Littlefinger gave Bran the dagger that was used by an assassin in Season 1. He mentions that it started the War of the Five Kings. What he fails to mention is that he lied about Tyrion being its owner while he was trying to set the Starks and Lannisters against each other. It played out almost like Littlefinger wanted to know if Bran caught him in that lie. After his words about the nature of time last week, we wonder if he’s trying to suss out Bran’s powers.
If only Bran could suss out Littlefinger’s true intentions.