Winter has returned in the middle of the summer
Strong women characters and the existential threat of White Walkers define the new season of ‘Game of Thrones’
For most of six seasons, fans of HBO’s “Game of Thrones” could reliably and blissfully dive into the violent escapism of George R.R. Martin’s medieval-style fantasy.
Inevitably, though, after 60 episodes the series has strangely begun to reflect the real world.
With only 13 episodes in the series left — seven this year and six in 2018 — the question on everyone’s mind is who will win the Iron Throne?
Showrunners D.B. Weiss and David Benioff are promising a faster pace to wrap up the many clashing storylines with bigger episodes, some even movielength.
They are also promising “magnificent” epic battles both on land and at sea in a series that has already provided some killer bloodbaths, including last season’s gutwrenching “Battle of the Bastards.” That episode won several Emmys.
And we look forward to cast members who have never worked together before finally coming together on the show. Beyond that, there’s not a whole lot more anyone can say for sure.
Speculation on how the endgame will play out is rampant. Cast members have deftly talked around what will happen in Season 7, dropping hints that may or not be true.
At the glamorous Season 7 premiere screening of “GOT” on Wednesday at the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles stars such Kit Harington, Sophie Turner, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau and Maisie Williams referred to plotlines coming round or coming together, but it didn’t sound like they knew what happens next year.
The event featured a live orchestral performance of “GOT” music led by composer Ramin Djawadi, and an open-air afterparty on the roof of a nearby parking garage where White (Stilt) Walkers strode among the guests, white-clad dancers performed on a dance floor that featured a map of Westeros while scenes of dragon fire and winter coming flashed above on the concert hall facade.
Critics got to see the episode, which clocked in at about 60 minutes and had the faster pace Weiss and Benioff promised. However, we were warned against giving away spoilers. On Wednesday, HBO released new photos from the episode, including Dragon Queen Daenerys Targaryen (Emila Clarke) approaching the throne at the “Dragonstone,” her ancestral home. We also meet Jim Broadbent’s character.
At this point, though, the only ones who know where the characters will end up next year are Weiss and Benioff.
It’s their story now. Season 5 was the last based on Martin’s novels. They have steered the course since, including the resurrection of Jon Snow (Harington) at the beginning of Season 6.
That proved one secret impossible to keep. Yet, there are there are significantly fewer leaks coming out of the “GOT” campthan there are in Washington, D.C.
We’ve heard this weather forecast for six years. Suddenly, it’s here. It refers to an exceptionally long, harsh cold season that’s been predicted, but also possibly to an existential threat — White Walkers, an ancient magical race that can raise the dead. Led by the Night King, they were believed extinct, but after thousands of years they have risen.
Still, while most of the attention on the show’s new season is about who will be gaining the Iron Throne, the White Walkers’ significance can’t be underestimated. All you need to do is look back to the very first scene in the very first episode of Season 1.
The series begins at the Wall, a massive edifice erected in the North of the Kingdom of Westeros to keep out White Walkers. The Night’s Watch, a ragtag army, stands guard. Their biggest threat is Wildlings, a free people who live in the wasteland north of the Wall.
When a small scouting party finds a massacred group of Wildlings, and soon face a horrifyingly encounter with Walkers, one of whom decapitates a member of the Watch.
One escapes, though, and makes his way south to the castle of Lord Ned Stark (Sean Bean), who beheads him for desertion, discounting his story of revived Walkers.
This is just 13 minutes into the episode, and throughout the six seasons the danger of White Walkers has continued to be played down by nearly all those in power, who are more concerned about shoring up their own power.
Sadly, that reminds us of the way many of today’s existential threats have been treated. Warnings about terrorism or the consequences of global warming have too often been ignored or played down as politicians fight among themselves.
Of the final contenders for the Iron Throne only Jon Snow, who was once the leader of the Watch and has fought White Walkers, takes the danger seriously. He wants to organize against the growing threat from the North, however, as we now know from HBO’s description of Episode 3, Jon will face a revolt.
Could it be from his half-sister Sansa Stark (Sophie Turner)? She’s wanted to become queen since she was as a starry-eyed, selfish girl. She was married off twice, nearly three times, as a prize. After surviving torture and sexual abuse by a cruel husband, she now has steel in her veins. (There was a smile on her face as her tormenter was torn apart by dogs.)
“No one can protect me,” she said at end of last season. That’s something she repeats in the new season. She likes Jon but no longer relies on men. Getting the crown and some revenge along the way may be the only ways she feels safe.
Meanwhile, her younger sister, Arya Stark (Williams), is already on her own path of retribution, having slain the man who killed her brother and mother. But she isn’t done by a long shot.
In fact, the other two contenders for the throne are both survivors of the brutality of men.
In the capital of King’s Landing, Cersei Lannister (Lena Headey) holds the crown. Throughout the series, she has been seen as something of the evil queen, but Cersei, too, had been married off to a brute as well as publicly humiliated. Although she is smarter and more cunning, she has played second fiddle all her life to men. Now she will have the opportunity to show she better than them.
Daenerys Targaryen (Emila Clarke) might make a good ruler. She and her army land in Westeros in this season’s first episode. Having been married off by her feckless brother to a savage warlord, the Queen knows first-hand what it’s like to be a puppet captive. That has given her an abhorrence of slavery, and she has made it a point to abolish it. But while she has inherited the ability to control dragons, she may have also inherited the insanity that runs in her family. Getting the Iron Throne is an obsession that could spin out of control.
Along with the show’s many heavily sexualized female characters, Martin has created a number of strong female characters. The trials and sexual abuses they have endured has spurred much discussion about the plight of women in the real world. Turneris advocating for Women for Women International, a nonprofit that helps women in wartorn countries — some of whom have been sexually assaulted — develop skills to improve their financial and physical well-being.
That kind of consciousness raising, however, was an unlikely byproduct of Martin’s aim in the novels, which was crafting a rousing adventure thriller involving dragons, sex and questions of who dies next.
The Washington Post has counted 1,243 deaths of named characters over the six years. The series even brought in the esteemed British actor Ian McShane last year for one episode — just to kill him off.
In a quick perusal, I found at least 20 cast members who had arcs of 10 episodes or more who died, mostly horrible, deaths.
This doesn’t even count Robb Stark’s very pregnant wife, Talisa (Oona Chaplin, who only appeared in nine episodes). She was repeatedly stabbed in the stomachat the infamous “Red Wedding.”
The savageness of the scene set the internet ablaze as did Ned Stark’s beheading in the first season. So some may find it ironic that we first meet Ned chopping off a head.
There is a nihilistic streak that runs through “GOT.” Even those who begin in the light end in darkness. The contenders fight and live their lives in a world above the common folk, who none of them have any interest in really helping. Daenerys frees slaves but then uses them for war.
The series has drawn criticism for its unrestrained use of female nudity, sexual abuse and scenes of torture. A number of fans have been turned off by these aspects and stopped watching, but the series still draws around 23 million viewers an episode, not to mention the many more who watch it later.
(Meanwhile, HBO is pondering as many as five prequels.)
Now that “GOT” is getting down to the nittygritty, it’s likely some who left will return expecting to see a winner.
But will there even be an Iron Throne at the end?
Think of it like climate change, rising oceans and Florida — the landscape may be altered forever. And right on cue Wednesday, an iceberg the size of Delaware broke off from Antarctica, not enough yet to raise the oceans, but scientists — who first warned about this in 1978 — are worried that the event may unleash even larger bergs that could.
There is one wildcard in all this “GOT” speculation in that it’s Weiss and Benioff who control the storyline. So no one knows if the duo’s intentions coincide with Martin’s.
Still, as writers will tell you, there is an importance to any opening scene, foreshadowing something bigger. So don’t get too fixated on the games being played this year without keeping an eye on the far north.