USA TODAY US Edition

Jon Snow makes his case on ‘Thrones’

Dany maintains her might; Sansa on slippery slope

- Kelly Lawler @klawls

Spoiler alert! Game of Thrones Season 7 Episode 5, “Eastwatch.”

Can’t we all just get along? The excellent fifth episode of Game of Thrones Season 7 proved that working together is better than going solo, especially in a world as tough as Westeros. But just because players are starting to unite (or are thinking about it), doesn’t mean they’re on equal footing.

We ranked the top 10 characters from Sunday’s episode based on how well they’re winning the battle for Westeros, and their own survival.

1 JON SNOW

What a difference a week makes. After getting little to nowhere in warming Dany to his cause, Jon made inroads courtesy of Tyrion’s insane plan to convince Cersei that White Walkers are real. Jon, it seems, did enough to convince Dany to

try this plan. He rounded up his very own Expendable­s/Avengers/ Suicide Squad to get it done.

2 DAENERYS TARGARYEN

Dany only drops because Jon had such an impressive week. But she is in more or less the same place as last week, with her military supremacy intact.

3 SANSA STARK

Arya may be questionin­g her motives, but there’s no denying that Sansa is an effective and popular ruler in Winterfell. But it appears Littlefing­er is helping her behind the scenes, and his help comes with strings and occasional backfires.

4 CERSEI LANNISTER

Cersei still sits firmly on the Iron Throne with powerful allies behind her. She is not as panicked as Jaime is by Dany’s forces, but she’s not being stupid, either. The pregnancy could mix things up, or it could be a complete fabricatio­n.

5 TYRION LANNISTER

He may not have been able to convince Dany not to burn Dickon and Randall Tarly, but he did manage to sell his ridiculous plan and get himself in a room with his brother again. But if another one of his schemes fails Dany, he could find himself falling very fast down this list — or worse.

6 ARYA STARK

Arya learned a lot in her time away from Winterfell, but she’s a little too confident as she breaks into Littlefing­er’s room. She may be shaken by what she read in Sansa’s letter, and Littlefing­er likely will run straight to Sansa to inform her of Arya’s snooping. The joyful sisterly reunion was so short.

7 JAIME LANNISTER

He survived his plunge into the river last week, and avoided capture by Dany’s forces. But his shaky relationsh­ip with Cersei and his problems fighting with his hand make us worry about his future.

8 GILLY

Sam does not deserve to be on the list after he ignored Gilly’s shattering reveal. But Gilly, just learning to read and more levelheade­d than Sam, might use this informatio­n at a later date.

9 LITTLEFING­ER

We see you, Littlefing­er, doing shady things in Winterfell. We don’t like it and you’d better hope it doesn’t hurt Sansa. But you keep managing to make yourself influentia­l, don’t you?

10 GENDRY

Gendry is on our list simply because he survived all his seasons off the air.

 ?? HELEN SLOAN, HBO ?? Dany warms up to Jon’s cause to defeat the White Walksers.
HELEN SLOAN, HBO Dany warms up to Jon’s cause to defeat the White Walksers.

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from United States