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14 hours ago, Greens said:

Seriously why Ed Sheran, not like the show is struggling and needed a celeb appearance. Just took you right out of the show, terrible decision.

Overall good episode, so much unrest dunno how it will pan out. 

read because the songs are such a big thing in the books but they havent translated into the tv show because none of the actors can really sing or want to sing.. stupid part of it was them not trying to rape and kill arya after.

 

Here is the whole episode broken down with every little detail explained.... I always check this after an episode fills in the gaps (not really spoilers but its a long read)

 

Notes

General

As of the end of Season 6, all plotlines have surpassed the current novels in the A Song of Ice and Fire series, though the TV series has also drastically changed several of them. Season 6 surpassed the novels on some plotlines when it began, such as Jon Snow's, but others were holdovers from prior books (the Ironborn and Riverrun subplots). Whatever the case, from this point onwards, no one can know with certainty if any characters will survive from one episode to the next.

The title sequence is notably different now that no storylines take place outside of Westeros. The production team explained that there are actually formal rules for it, the first of which is that they are required to show four locations: King's Landing, Winterfell, The Wall, and "wherever Daenerys is" at the moment. Daenerys's travels far to the east explicitly helped show just how vast their fictional world is, i.e. the Dothraki or Slaver's Bay, that it's bigger than just the continent of Westeros. The Season 7 title just focuses on Westeros itself. Another rule was that they physically only have so much time for the camera to move around, so they can only show a limited number of locations in each (never more than six so far). Moreover, they only make specific title animations for locations which they know will be recurring, to justify the time and expense in creating it (they never made an animation for Volantis or Runestone). Now that Oldtown is a major recurring location for Samwell's storyline, they introduced a new title animation for it starting in this episode.

Most remaining storylines reappear in this episode. As the showrunners have noted, so many characters are meeting each other again - after scattering in intervening seasons - that they don't need to compete for as much time or take an episode off, i.e. Tyrion is with Daenerys now. Dorne and Olenna Tyrell do not appear but are mentioned. Yara and Theon, despite being part of Daenerys's faction now, also do not appear, but are mentioned.

At the Wall

The opening shot of the White Walkers and their undead horde reveals for the first time that they can resurrect Giants as undead Wights as well. This was strongly implied but not yet confirmed in the current books, which do show that the White Walkers can resurrect seemingly any once-living creature into a wight: at the Battle of the Fist of the First Men (off-screen in the TV series), the Night's Watch was attacked by a huge wight-snow bear. Both the books and TV show, however, have shown the White Walkers resurrecting non-humans, in the form of their undead wight-Horses.

Neil Fingleton is credited as playing one of the giants in army of the dead: the 7 foot 7 inch tall stuntman, tallest man in Britain, actually died of a heart attack in February 2017 (related to his size). Apparently he finished his footage before production ended, around the same time.

The status of what's left of the Night's Watch wasn't made entirely clear on-screen when they last appeared in mid-Season 6, but was explained in several online posts. In their last appearance, Eddison Tollett was said to be the new Lord Commander of the Night's Watch, to his own surprise, as there hadn't been an election. Online posts explained that one of Jon's last acts before he quit was to simply name Edd as the new Acting Lord Commander, assuming he would be confirmed in that role by a subsequent formal election at some point.

Jon says in the Winterfell storyline that he intends to re-garrison the meager defenses of the Wall with the surviving wildlings, which happened earlier in the novels (see below).

Of the companions that Bran Stark left Winterfell with at the end of Season 2, and picked up in Season 3, only Bran and Meera Reed are still alive. He left Winterfell with Osha, Hodor, Rickon Stark, and their two direwolves - in the books, he left with Meera and Jojen Reed as well, but the TV show pushed back their introduction to the start of Season 3, immediately after he fled Winterfell, due to time constraints. Some of these characters may survive in the book version - though the showrunners have confirmed that Hodor will die in broadly similar fashion in the books, and Jojen has had visions that he will die on his quest to bring Bran to the Three-eyed raven.

Bran's return to the North raises issues of the rightful heir to the North: due to the male-preference primogeniture laws of inheritance in the Seven Kingdoms, Bran Stark was always ahead of his older sister Sansa in line of succession to Winterfell - just as Sansa, as a trueborn daughter, ranks ahead of a bastard son. No one, even Sansa, would challenge that he has a better claim than she does - they knew this since they were small children. Robb Stark even spoke of Bran as his direct heir at the end of Season 1, not Sansa or Arya. In addition, Bran brings with him the shocking news that Jon Snow isn't even Eddard Stark's bastard son, but the son of Ned's younger sister Lyanna Stark, in which case he'd rank behind both Bran and Sansa regardless of being a bastard or not.

There has been some fan speculation that the sword Meera Reed brought back from the Cave of the three-eyed raven is actually Dark Sister, the Valyrian steel sword that once belonged to Visenya Targaryen and remained the secondary family sword of House Targaryen. The novels all but state that the Three-eyed raven was originally Brynden "Bloodraven" Rivers, a bastard son of House Targaryen and a major character in the Tales of Dunk and Egg prequels who later became Lord Commander of the Night's Watch, but disappeared beyond the Wall decades ago. He wielded the sword Dark Sister but it was lost ever since. Neither Meera nor any of Bran's other companions brought a sword with them beyond the Wall - Meera just started using it in the cave against wights without explanation, the tacit assumption being that the Children just scavenged it from somewhere. She never used the sword against a White Walker so if it was in fact a Valyrian steel sword, its true nature hasn't been revealed. There is as of yet no confirmation of this, given that the pommel design doesn't match a specific description (it doesn't overtly have a Targaryen sigil on it).

At Winterfell

Alys Karstark first appears in this episode: her role was heavily condensed from the novels, in which she is the center of a subplot involving House Karstark, which chronologically happened during Stannis Baratheon's campaign in the North. Alys is by right the new heir to House Karstark but her father's uncle Arnolf Karstark wants to usurp her position, so he sides with the Lannisters and Boltons. Arnolf joins Stannis's march but intends to betray him mid-battle, and to force Alys to marry his own son to claim rule through her. Alys learns of their plans, however, and flees to the Wall to seek the aid of Jon Snow. Due to the Karstarks being younger cousins of the main Stark line, she actually closely resembles Arya, and she met Jon and Robb at Winterfell when they were children. Jon sends Tycho Nestoris to warn Stannis, and arranges for Alys to voluntarily marry the new Magnar of the Thenns so she can't be forced to marry Arnolf's son.

In the novels, Alys is the daughter of Lord Rickard Karstark, while in the television series, she is his granddaughter, the daughter of Rickard's son, Harald Karstark. The episode confirms that Harald died in the Battle of the Bastards along with Ramsay Bolton and Smalljon Umber. With Harald's death, Alys inherits Karhold, and swears fealty to Jon Snow, once again allying House Karstark with House Stark.

As pointed out by Michele Clapton, Sansa Stark's new costume has semi-circular embroidery on the chest to evoke fish-scales, for her mother Catelyn of House Tully. Tully costumes, as seen with Brynden and her uncle Edmure, feature armor with a more prominent fish-scale design motif.

When Tormund jokes that the wildlings are now the Night's Watch, several northern lords, including Lord Glover, visibly appear disgusted. This is not uncommon, as many people in Westeros despise the wildlings. The northeners in particular despise the wildlings, from the millennia of wildling raids on Northern castles. This disdain is seen in Southern houses as well. In the previous episode, Yohn Royce vocally declared that he would not have the knights of the Vale fighting alongside "wildling invaders." Furthermore, Sam's father, Randyll Tarly, was disgusted when he learned that Gilly was a wildling, referring to her as a thing.

Brienne of Tarth's storyline is drastically diverging from the novels by this point. In the novel series, after Brienne left King's Landing (corresponding to the start of Season 4), she continued to travel around the Riverlands on foot with Podrick Payne searching fruitlessly for Sansa and Arya, far away from their actual locations, without encountering either of them, and without getting involved in the siege of Riverrun either. Her storyline ended on a cliffhanger confrontation with the Brotherhood Without Banners which also involved Jaime Lannister at the end of the fifth novel. Anything Brienne does beyond this point is apparently an invention of the TV series.

Brienne traveling to Winterfell and the Wall in Seasons 5 and 6, and meeting Sansa, was purely an invention of the TV series. Then in the second half of Season 6, the TV series brought back Jaime's subplot at the Second Siege of Riverrun (which takes place throughout the second half of the fourth novel - the TV series instead invented the subplot of sending him to Dorne, while in the novels that mission was given to Ser Balon Swann). Brienne then encountered Jaime at Riverrun - while this did not happen as such in the novels they did meet again in the Riverlands under different circumstances. Brienne returning to Winterfell once again afterwards may not happen in the unreleased novels.

Given that Brienne never went to the Wall in the novels, Tormund being attracted to her in Season 6 was an invention of the TV series. It does somewhat match the point that the wildlings actually respect Warrior women (who they call Spearwives) - in contrast with how Brienne is seen as a target of mockery in the courts of southern Westeros.

Surprisingly given how prominently it appeared, director Daniel Sackheim said in an interview with TVGuide that he thought the amorous looks Tormund was giving Brienne in Season 6 were so subtle he feared fans didn't notice: "I wasn't even sure that when I delivered the episode it was really clear. It was like a fun little bit, but I wasn't sure it was really clear that he had these amorous feelings for Brienne. I'm always amazed what fans pick up." The first time that Tormund gives an impressed look at Brienne when they were in the mess hall at Castle Black was just a brief note in that script, but the production team liked it so much they invented more scenes of it.[3]

At King's Landing

The letter that Cersei sent to Winterfell (as the episode transitions to the King's Landing subplot) once again brings up the completely inconsistent use in the TV series of the title "King of the Andals, the Rhoynar, and the First Men". Since the first episode of Season 1, the TV version shortened it to just "Andals and the First Men", excluding the Rhoynar, who are ancestors of the Dornishmen. At the time, they thought the TV series would never be able to go to Dorne, or at least, wouldn't mention them in Season 1. Apparently, at some point the decision was made to drop "of the Rhoynar" as too much exposition...even though Season 1 didn't overtly explain who the "Andals" and "First Men" were in dialogue (ancestors of the Lannisters and Starks, etc.). When Dornish characters like Oberyn Martell started appearing in Season 4, the TV show could have either kept using the truncated version that excludes "of the Rhoynar", or officially retconned the title and shifted to consistently using the full version with all three names, including "of the Rhoynar". Instead, since Season 4, the TV series has flip-flopped between the two versions with no attempt at internal consistency. HBO production staff are ignoring e-mails from Game of Thrones Wiki staff attempting to pin this down to one version or the other. Considering that this is the official title of the monarch who sits on the Iron Throne that all the major factions are fighting over, it is fairly important.

The showrunners keep stressing in the behind-the-scenes videos and interviews that "Cersei's one redeeming quality" is that she loves her children, and with the last of them now dead, she's free to be a monster. In the books, it's actually a major point that Cersei does not really "love" her children. She only "loves" them as extensions of herself, out of narcissism. She dotes on Joffrey even though he's a violently unstable psychopath, enabling his dangerous sadism because she is delusionally infatuated with her mental image of him as a brave and wise young king, when in reality he is none of those things. Meanwhile, she didn't really "love" Myrcella and Tommen, though she thought she did: she largely ignored them to focus on Joffrey, playing favorites with her children much as Tywin did with his, ignoring her and Tyrion for Jaime. She even threatens Tommen with violence at several points (or rather, threatening to torment his whipping boy) because she wishes he was more like Joffrey, (what she perceived to be) strong willed and decisive.

The showrunners actually overtly stated in interviews from earlier seasons that they changed from writing the "ice queen" Cersei of the novels, to someone who actually shows love for her children, because they were impressed that actress Lena Headey can emote a very convincing motherly performance. They felt this made the character more nuanced, and "reconceived the role to make it worthy of the actor's talents" (see notes on the "Cersei Lannister" article). Now that TV-Cersei's children are all dead, they can no longer show off Headey's motherly performance: thus if it seems jarring that the motherly Cersei from late Season 6 who actually seemed to care about Tommen is suddenly much more tyrannical and flippant about her children, this is essentially a sudden shift closer to how book-Cersei actually behaves, most of the time throughout the novel series.

Jaime Lannister correctly assesses that Daenerys Targaryen would probably begin her invasion by capturing Dragonstone island, citing that it has deep water ports for her fleet, and the personal/symbolic importance that she was born there. In the novels, Dragonstone actually is one of the main anchorages for the Royal Fleet, to defend the approaches through Blackwater Bay to King's Landing itself. It is unknown where Daenerys will begin her invasion in the next novels - certainly she wouldn't land her main invasion force on Dragonstone, as it is an off-shore island, but apparently she is using it as her main base after crossing the Narrow Sea. It is probable that if the Tyrells and Martells ally with her, she would land somewhere in southern Westeros, quite probably Dorne. On the other hand, the books do mention that Dorne infamously doesn't have many good deep water ports - which actually would make Dragonstone a more attractive landing option.

The giant floor map of Westeros that Cersei and Jaime examine contains individual artwork for all the regional capitals, and many but not all of the main castles (see sub-page on "Appearances" for this episode). Cersei's giant floor map of Westeros also contains several errors - though these might plausibly be explained by the fact that it is still slightly unfinished:

"Rook's Rest" is misspelled "Rook's Nest" (with a capital "N" - as if someone mistook the lowercase "r" on a map for a lowercase "n").

In The Vale of Arryn, "Dyre Den" is misspelled as "Dire Den" - apparently the production artist didn't realize that George R.R. Martin frequently uses the letter "y" instead of "i" to make things sound more fanciful, i.e. "Alys" instead of "Alice".

Gulltown is entirely absent from the map - it should be south of Runestone. There are five major cities in Westeros, in decreasing order of size: King's Landing, Oldtown, Lannisport, Gulltown on the coast of The Vale of Arryn, and White Harbor on the coast of The North. The TV series hasn't been able to give as much focus to the other cities besides King's Landing, only just recently showing Oldtown as a physical location, while the other three have remained off-screen. The books were more free to have characters in King's Landing talk about the other cities. The TV series apparently pared down such exposition because it would be difficult to picture a city without seeing it (compared to a book). Lannisport, the port-city that serves the nearby Lannister castle-seat at Casterly Rock, has still been mentioned throughout the TV series, and to a less prominent extent, so has White Harbor (even if it hasn't appeared on-screen, chararcters from White Harbor's ruling family, House Manderly, have appeared on screen). Gulltown is easily the least mentioned of these five cities - in fact it has really only been mentioned in dialogue in the animated Histories & Lore featurettes. Other TV continuity maps show Gulltown. This could possibly be explained as that the painter simply hadn't added in the image for Gulltown yet.

There are seven major Iron Islands, but the map doesn't depict Orkmont or Old Wyk (though it's on the left side of the map, which is noticeably less finished than the rest at this point).

In the Riverlands

According to Dan Weiss in the Inside the Episode video for this episode, Arya's massacre of House Frey was not originally going to be the cold open scene for this episode and Season 7 (it seems that the army of the dead shot in Bran's storyline was going to be the cold open). As Weiss said, they were so impressed with actor David Bradley's performance that they reshuffled the scene out of its original order to go first (i.e. Bradley gives little affectations to his performance to hint that he's really Arya pretending to be Walder). The ripple effect from reshuffling the scene may have affected others (see notes on "Oldtown" below).

The expensive fine wine that Walder/Arya serves to the assembled Freys is stated to be Arbor Gold, in dialogue. In the books, Arbor Gold is broadly held to be the finest wine in all of Westeros, with a very sweet flavor. It is produced on The Arbor, the large off-shore island/region ruled by House Redwyne (Olenna Tyrell's family). Characters have actually mentioned fine "Arbor wine" since Season 1, but this episode is the fist time that its full formal name has been used. Given its quality, it is a very expensive wine, normally only drunk by kings and great lords (Cersei starts drinking it heavily in later books). Smallfolk rarely even see it. Indeed, it is joked that a commoner would sell his infant firstborn son for a cask of fine Arbor Gold.

"Walder" also remarks that it isn't that awful "Dornish" wine. Dornish Red is the other very expensive and high quality fine wine in Westeros, produced in Dorne, flavored with spices and with a very sour taste. It is somewhat exotic and foreign to people in the rest of Westeros, but many great lords have developed a taste for it as fancy import (characters like Renly Baratheon have mentioned enjoying a fine Dornish wine since Season 1). Conversely, Oberyn Martell remarked in Season 4 that he brought his own fine Dornish wine with him from home because he can't stand the stuff they serve at the royal court (i.e. he thinks Arbor Gold is too sweet and bland). There's some debate in-universe about which is the best wine, but largely it comes down to personal taste: those who prefer a sweet white wine prefer Arbor Gold, while those who want an exotic spicy and sour red wine prefer Dornish Red.

This isn't the first time that actor Tim McInnerny (Lord Robett Glover) has appeared in a TV episode in which an entire noble court full of people was killed with poisoned wine - albeit this time not in the same storyline his character is in. A similar scenario occurred in the final episode of The Black Adder, in which McInnerny's character, Lord Percy Percy, supplied poisoned wine to the six assassins of the Black Seal and killed them all (one of them portrayed by Patrick Malahide), but accidentally poisoned the entire vat that led to the death of Blackadder, his family and the entire royal court; Percy and Baldrick were the only survivors, bursting into the court only seconds after the poisoning and shouting to everyone not to drink the wine.

In the Season 6 finale, the official Lannister house words were spoken aloud for the first time: "Hear Me Roar!", to which the Freys responded with a toast of "We Stand Together!" - the motto of House Frey actually hasn't appeared in the current novels, and this is apparently the first time that any house motto was revealed in the TV series before the books. It wasn't directly confirmed that this is the Frey motto, though this episode reinforces it when the Freys toast again - though this time they just say "Stand Together!", leaving it a bit unclear.

Given that Arya Stark's storyline has surpassed the novels it is unknown if she will kill off most of House Frey in this fashion. There are several dozen major Frey characters and the TV show understandably condensed them into a few composite characters. It is hinted that the Brotherhood Without Banners is actually planning an attack on some of the Freys, and Arya may or may not aid them in the future.

There was some concern from reports on this episode that Arya killed all the male Freys, even the innocent ones and children. The actual episode dialogue, however, does not strictly state this: Arya (as Walder) explicitly says that she invited all of the important Freys who matter to Walder ("Every Frey that means a damn") - i.e. if there are younger Frey sons that had nothing to do with the Red Wedding she didn't invite them. On top of this, the TV show never established that there were "good" younger Frey sons, i.e. in the books, Olyvar Frey loyally served Robb Stark as his squire - so loyally that the lead Freys didn't trust him and sent him away from the Twins before the Red Wedding. Given that the TV show didn't introduce them, it didn't have to expend time explaining how Arya spared the innocent ones.

If Arya was going to kill every male relative of House Frey, she'd have even killed her infant first cousin, son of her uncle Edmure Tully and Roslin Frey - and thus make herself a kinslayer.

It is unclear who the new head of House Frey is at this point, if any. There are still female Freys and rule would pass to them if there are no male heirs (though it is implied Arya didn't kill them all down to the last baby son). The Freys are a very large family and the books strongly imply that after old Lord Walder dies, the various internal factions of the family's different branches (by Walder's different wives) are going to turn on each other in a fratricidal bloodbath. This involved over a dozen Frey characters, which the TV show has understandably not introduced.

The question arises about Edmure Tully's fate. In the Season 6 finale, Lord Walder said he was a prisoner in the Twins' own dungeon, but Arya made no attempt to free him. It's possible that the dungeon was too well guarded. Another possibility is that, in the novels, the Freys later send Edmure away to Casterly Rock for long-term imprisonment, so he might just no longer be at the Twins.

Kitty Frey, Lord Walder's new wife, returns again in this episode. She has no book counterpart, because in the novels Catelyn Stark slit the throat of one of Walder's grandsons; the TV version condensed this so that Catelyn killed his current and eighth wife, Joyeuse Erenford.

As noted in the King's Landing storyline, the Lannisters are running low on soldiers, after losing so many due to attrition in Joffrey's wars. The Lannister soldiers that Arya encounters seem to be green conscripts who just left home, are worried about their families, and aren't wary of strangers. A hint at how the Lannisters are scrapping the bottom of the barrel for manpower.

When Arya meets the friendly Lannister conscripts, her dialogue can't express it aloud, but it appears that she was assessing whether she should kill them or not - but then stopped because they technically offered her Guest right by offering to share their meal with her. The camera pans around from her POV to note that they left all their swords piled up out of reach - indicating that she realizes she could probably kill most of them with Needle before they can defend themselves. In her overt dialogue, she repeatedly tries to decline their offer to share their meal, because she intended to kill them. After they repeatedly show her hospitality, hand her a cooked rabbit and outright call her their "guest", however, she visibly relents, realizing she won't lower herself to Walder Frey's level by breaking guest right (technically she "fed" the Freys she feasted with poisoned wine, but they broke guest right first - the stories seem to indicate the gods think that's fair punishment).

Popular contemporary musician Ed Sheeran cameos in this episode as the Lannister soldier singing a song around their campfire. Fantasy fans will remember him for singing the end credits song for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. Apparently, the production team gave Sheeran a cameo because Arya actress Maisie Williams is a fan.

Sheeran's presence brings up a production issue: most actors aren't also trained musicians and singers, so the TV show has actually cut out several major songs that appear in the novels. For example, the wildlings have an important song in the books called The Last of the Giants, which sums up a lot of their mental state about how their world is ending. The TV production team originally intended to have Ygritte sing it at some point, but actress Rose Leslie was so terrified of singing on-camera that she politely refused. Similarly, in Season 2, Sophie Turner said that what she was most afraid of filming that year wasn't any of Joffrey's torments, battles, or the riot scene, but the brief moment when she had to sing a hymn (Gentle Mother, Font of Mercy), because she isn't a professional singer. A few actors on the show were also professional singers, specifically Jerome Flynn (Bronn) and Kerry Ingram (Shireen Baratheon), so at various points the TV show had them perform song that other characters do in the novels. Given how reluctant actors with no singing experience are to sing on-camera, in several ways the only guaranteed way to incorporate these book-songs into the TV show is to have professional singers make cameo appearances to sing them. Indeed, in similar fashion, in Season 2, the lead Bolton soldier singing The Bear and the Maiden Fair was a cameo by professional musician Gary Lightbody.

The song that Ed Sheeran's character sings is from the books: Hands of Gold. A minstrel called Symon Silvertongue came up with it to mockingly hint that he knew Tyrion Lannister was continuing his affair with the whore Shae even though his father told him to break it off - apparently hoping to blackmail him. Instead, Tyrion ordered Bronn to kill Symon, and Bronn disposed of the corpse by selling it to a pot-shop that makes bowls of brown out of "all kinds of meat". The song has added irony, as ultimately, Tyrion murdered Shae by strangling her to death with his chain of office as Hand of the King - a necklace made of stylized interlocking gold hands.

The Lannister conscripts Arya encounters mention wanting to see King's Landing, but now Cersei's guards aren't letting anyone within one mile of the Red Keep, the Great Sept of Baelor was blown up, and the Dragonpit is a ruin. This marks the first mention of the Dragonpit in a live-action episode (the Histories & Lore featurettes have mentioned it in prior seasons), setting up how it will be a major location later this season. King's Landing was built around three large hills, and these three structures were built at the top of each. The Dragonpit is at the top of Rhaenys's Hill, above Flea Bottom. It has actually been in ruins for around 170 years, since it collapsed in riots during the Dance of the Dragons.

One of the Lannister soldiers says that King's Landing at this point is filled with people who would kill you to sell your hide for just two Coppers. Copper Pennies are the lowest denomination of the Gold Dragon currency used in Westeros, and a good-sized loaf of bread is worth around three Coppers.

Beric Dondarrion mentions that he first met Sandor Clegane at "that Tournament" - actually, this was the Tourney of the Hand which was held during Season 1. The parts of the tournament seen on-screen were condensed due to time and budget limitations: Sandor was present but wasn't shown participating (though he did fight off his brother Gregor to defend Loras Tyrell). In the books, Beric and Thoros participated in the tournament as well - as did many of the other knights that Ned Stark sent out to find Gregor Clegane. They formed the original core of the Brotherhood Without Banners. Beric appeared in the TV show but not at the tournament, simply played by a stand-in when Ned sent him to the Riverlands. In the book version of the tourney, Sandor actually beat Jaime Lannister. Sandor apparently encountered Beric and Thoros off-screen in the TV version.

Sandor and Arya encountered Sally and her father on their farm back in Season 4 episode 3 "Breaker of Chains". They gave Sandor and Arya food and shelter, but Sandor broke Guest right by then beating up and robbing the man of his remaining silver. At the time, he rationalized that so many bandits were roaming the countryside from the war that there was no way they'd survive until winter anyway, but it would help Sandor and Arya flee the area.

Sandor's final appearance in the episode digging graves for Sally and her father is apparently a reference to his appearance as a gravedigger in the books, under different circumstances: Brienne of Tarth didn't fight Sandor in the books, instead he was left mortally injured after fighting sellswords from the Brave Companions, after which Arya left him for dead. Some time later in the fourth novel, however, Brienne and Podrick came across a monastery where refugees from the war were seeking shelter, and saw a very large and hooded man with a limp digging graves for the fallen. Their interaction with the Elder Brother heavily implied that the gravedigger was in fact Sandor: the Elder Brother said that he found him near death and nursed him back to health.

Sandor and Arya encountered Sally and her father's farm not long after they started heading south from The Twins after the Red Wedding - now, Sandor and the Brotherhood arrive there while heading north. Meanwhile, Arya just left the Twins and is heading south again. It is possible that they might cross paths soon. Back in "Breaker of Chains", around the same time Sandor first encountered this farm, he remarked to Arya that they were near Fairmarket, which is on the Blue Fork of The Trident.

It is unclear why it is snowing more heavily in Sandor's scenes south of the Twins, but not particularly hard in Arya's scenes slightly farther north at the Twins (one could argue that the Twins are closer to the swamps of The Neck, so there may be some regional lake effect retaining heat - either that or Sandor's scenes aren't chronologically in synch with Arya's).

In Oldtown

The montage of Samwell Tarly doing drudgery work for the Maesters at The Citadel, emptying chamber pots, pouring soup, stacking books, lasts a full 90 seconds.

The appearance of Gilly's son Sam raises the issue of the TV-series internal Timeline once again. Time proceeds more slowly in the TV show, and he's just a baby at the end of the current novels, but starting last season the TV show tacitly acknowledge this is impossible by starting to cast toddlers to play him. It largely avoids the issue here, but given that he is this large and trying to talk at this point, there's no realistic way he's younger than around three years old. He was born during Season 3, and prior seasons did broadly follow a pattern of one TV season equaling one year of story time. Not every storyline was in synch with each other, and some seasons were a little short (Season 4) while others a little longer (Season 5), but broadly, characters state in Season 6 that "years" plural have passed since the Red Wedding in Season 6 (at least two, more likely three). Generally the approximate pattern holds on a season level - or at least has so far. There's no guaranteed plan of this, and for all we know, all of the events of the unpublished seventh novel might only span a single month's worth of internal story time. Thus, while one TV season has equaled one year in the past, there is no guarantee that the final Seasons 7 and 8 will fit the same pattern (i.e. perhaps the showrunners consider them combined as one really long "season" split into two halves, etc.)

Last season left some question of how Samwell could keep Gilly with him at the Citadel even though women aren't allowed to be maesters, and they take vows of celibacy so they wouldn't have accommodations for families. The answer as revealed in this episode is simple: he isn't a sworn maester yet, he goes to work at their university-like building complex during the day, but at night stays with her in an "off campus apartment" of sorts in the main city.

Gilly can now read fairly well, albeit a little slowly as she only recently learned how. Shireen Baratheon started teaching her how to read (along with Samwell) while they were at Castle Black in Season 5.

There is no "Maester Weyland" in the books, the man that Samwell is helping perform an autopsy on, who died from alcoholism complications.

Archmaester Ebrose is in fact a character from the novels: each archmaester is the foremost expert in a given field of knowledge, like a university faculty, and Ebrose is indeed the archmaester of medicine and healing - thus it makes sense that he is introduced performing a medical autopsy. His willingness to believe Samwell's stories about the White Walkers, due to weight of evidence, gives his TV version some shades of Archmaester Marwyn - a separate character from the books, considered an oddball by the rest of the Citadel because his field of focus is the "higher mysteries" (Magic).

The scene between Archmaester Ebrose and Samwell raises a point about medical knowledge in Westeros: the novels apparently indicate that they actually don't have a stigma against performing autopsies on human corpses to further medical and scientific knowledge. The real-life history of human dissection has gone through cycles in many cultures in which human autopsies were forbidden, such as medieval Christianity and Islam, and before that, the Greco-Romans. Famously, late third century Greek physician Galen had to dissect macaque apes due to prohibitions at the time on performing autopsies on human cadavers (leading to several misunderstandings). In contrast, when Pycelle complains in the books that Qyburn's presence on the Small Council is abhorrent, he states that the order of maesters has long opened up the bodies of dead men to try to learn the secrets of life - but Qyburn dissected living men, in agony, to try to learn the secrets of death and necromancy. Thus it seems that they have no prohibitions against autopsies. George R.R. Martin has stated that medical knowledge in Westeros is explicitly better than it was during the real Middle Ages - because he didn't want to have a setting in which characters regularly die from bacterial infections before they're fifty years old, etc. The lack of prohibitions on autopsies may have been a factor in this, or at least, is a way to demonstrate that they have more extensive medical knowledge than the real Middle Ages.

When Ebrose asks Samwell to weigh one of the organs from the corpse, he responds that it weighs "147" - without stating any context for what units they're using. We actually don't know much about the units of measurement used in Westeros. Martin never uses modern metric measurements, to reflect their medieval society, in which measurement systems grew haphazardly out of local custom. They use yards, feet, and miles, not metric meters and kilometers. Other systems haven't been encountered as often: they assuredly don't use kilograms to measure weight. The novels have mentioned the "stone" weight unit, but one stone equals about 14 pounds, so there's no way the "147" organ weight refers to those. In Season 4's "First of His Name", Cersei listed off "pounds, tons, and ounces" but this might have just been the TV writers making an educated guess at what sounds like plausible pre-modern units of measurement they might use.

Screencaptures of the books that Sam and Gilly are reading make note that the High Valyrian term for Dragonglass (obsidian) is "zīrtys perzys" - and notes that this literally translates as "frozen fire". This translation is mentioned in the novels, but Martin didn't come up with a High Valyrian word corresponding to it. Linguist David J. Peterson actually came up with the term as early as May 2014.[4]

When Samwell is looking at the open book with the right-hand page showing a map of Dragonstone island, the left hand page opposite it seems to state that the cure for Greyscale is actually to ingest Dragonglass ground up into a fine powder - though the maester who wrote the book scoffs that it would actually work.

Within the books Sam is researching for information on how to kill White Walkers is a sketch of Littlefinger's Valyrian steel dagger from Season 1, which was carried by the catspaw assassin, and later was used by Littlefinger to falsely frame Tyrion. It isn't unusual that there would be an individual sketch of this dagger: since the Doom of Valyria four centuries ago, no new Valyrian steel weapons were made, and in the entire continent of Westeros there are only a little over two hundred surviving blades - mostly swords, but also a few axes and daggers. There are so few that isn't implausible that over the centuries some maesters made a codex with sketches of each individual surviving weapon.

Another book Sam reads has legible text referring to Lomas Longstrider and his famous book, Wonders Made by Man. Loosely comparable to Marco Polo, Lomas was a man from Westeros who traveled all over the world, even to Yi Ti and back (their China analogue).

The visible text of the book Gilly is reading, Legends of the Long Night, is actually a full block-text quote from The World of Ice and Fire chapter on the Long Night.

Sam recalls that Stannis told him there was dragonglass in Dragonstone, in Season 5's "Kill the Boy": Sam did not think it was important at that time, but now he intends to inform Jon about that. In the parallel book chapter, both Stannis and Sam consider that information as highly important, and Stannis sends orders to the castellan of Dragonstone to mine the material. Jon is not present at their conversation both in the show and the book, but it seems doubtful that Sam wouldn't have told him such important detail.

Samwell says he's sending a letter "to Jon", but in such a vague context it is unclear if he found out everything that happened to Jon after he left the Wall - i.e. if he thinks he's still Lord Commander or if he heard vague reports that Jon left somehow and became the new King in the North. Either way, the message will still get to someone who needs to see it, as Edd would be reading any of the Lord Commander's correspondence.

Prior to the start of the season, there was extensive speculation in the fandom that Jorah would seek out Quaithe and a supernatural cure for his Greyscale. This episode reveals that he went in the opposite direction, seeking a more scientific one.

At Dragonstone

"Dragonstone" is the name of both the large island and the eponymous castle which is its ruling seat.

Dragonstone is the ancestral homeland of House Targaryen, settled centuries ago as the westernmost outpost of the Valyrian Freehold. Due to its isolation, when the Doom of Valyria destroyed their vast empire in a single day, the Targaryens survived on Dragonstone with the world's only remaining dragons. One of the reasons they settled the isle is because it has an active volcano, a preferred nesting ground of dragons.

Dragonstone is one of the strongest fortresses in all of Westeros, because it was built by the ancient Valyrians themselves using advanced construction techniques which were lost after their empire collapsed. The Valyrians were fond of building vast mega-structures by having dragons literally melt down stone with their flames, then teasing out the black liquid stone into various fantastic shapes. The island is also decorated with numerous dragon-themed statues and gargoyles. Its architectural designs seem very strange and foreign to people from mainland Westeros.

The Targaryens spent a hundred years after the Doom building up their strength, then invaded Westeros in the Targaryen Conquest. Afterwards, Dragonstone remained their private domain and final redoubt. Traditionally, the heir to the Iron Throne would rule the island directly as "Prince of Dragonstone" (comparable to how the real-life heir to the British monarchy is known as the "Prince of Wales").

During their exile, Daenerys was the nominal heir of her brother Viserys Targaryen - who made the empty claim to be "King Viserys the Third" in exile. Thus, Daenerys nominally held the title "Princess of Dragonstone". Given that Viserys dies by the sixth episode of Season 1, this comes up more frequently in the first novel, i.e. when Illyrio Mopatis introduces Daenerys to Drogo for the first time, in the book version he lists off her formal title as "Princess of Dragonstone", but this was omitted from the TV version. The title was entirely academic of course, given that they were living in exile and upon Viserys's death she inherited his full title as the Targaryen claimant to the throne itself.

Daenerys Targaryen was actually born on Dragonstone, at the end of Robert's Rebellion. Right before the rebel army sacked King's Landing her father the Mad King sent his pregnant wife away to safety on Dragonstone, where she died in childbirth. Her brother Viserys fled with her into exile in the Free Cities a few weeks later, so she has no memory of it, but technically it is still her true home. Daenerys has spent her life living on the sufferance of others or as a foreign invader in Slaver's Bay, but on Viserys's death, Dragonstone became hers by right.

Of course, much like the Iron Throne, given that Jon Snow is actually the secret son of her eldest brother, Rhaegar, Jon might have more claim to it than her, but even then, Daenerys is his closest Targaryen relative, so Dragonstone would still be hers as next in line to the throne.

Earlier episodes kept this point that Daenerys was technically born in Westeros, on Dragonstone. In Season 2, when the Spice King in Qarth directly asks her if she's ever even set foot in Westeros, she responds that she fled when she was just a baby. In Season 6, Tyrion also remarks to Jorah that Daenerys has never spent "one day of her adult life" in Westeros.

Because Dragonstone is a volcanic island (surrounded by the salty sea), and Daenerys was born there, she matches the prophecies about Azor Ahai and The Prince That Was Promised being "born amidst salt and smoke". Melisandre thought that Stannis fit this as ruler of Dragonstone, although he was born at Storm's End, interpreting it as a figurative "rebirth" when he claimed his position as the Lord's Chosen. Maester Aemon also explains in the novels that in the original High Valyrian the prophecy was made in, "Prince" is actually a gender-neutral term, like "ruler", so the female Daenerys still fits it.

Daenerys also matches other aspect of the prophecies, that the Prince would "wake dragons from stone" - she hatched dragon eggs, which seem petrified as stone.

The new costume style that Daenerys shifts to starting in this episode is actually not entirely new to the series - she has switched to the "old Targaryen style" that her brother Viserys was seen wearing back in Season 1 (as sort of a sign that she has embraced her inner Targaryen nature as a conqueror). Costume designer Michele Clapton explained at the time that because Viserys was older than Daenerys when the Targaryens were deposed (he was a child), he still remembers what the fashions at the old Targaryen royal court looked like and dresses in them - thus even though his one costume didn't appear very often, it was meant to be a window into what the old Targaryen style looked like: asymmetric cut, peaked shoulder cuffs that are separate from the undercoat, long form-fitting sleeves, high collar, and a short cape asymmetrically pinned to one shoulder (as Viserys was seen wearing at her wedding to Drogo in the first episode). Finally, of course, she has also dramatically shifted from her prior blue or white color palettes to finally dressing in Targaryen red and black, the colors of their heraldry. For more information, see "Costumes: King's Landing - Under the Targaryens"

As for the new Costumes of many characters in Season 7 shifting to darker colors, the reason behind this is simple: the costuming department felt that because "winter" has officially descended across Westeros, characters should now be wearing dark colors i.e. the time for wearing brighter colors would have been Renly's camp in Season 2 when they were "the knights of summer".

Dragonstone island was last held by Stannis Baratheon as his main seat during the war. In the books, when Stannis took his main force north to save the Night's Watch at the Battle of Castle Black, he left a small skeleton defense force behind to hold the castle. Given how strong the fortress is even this small garrison was enough to deter a direct attack by the Lannisters: as a result much of the remaining Lannister/Tyrell fleet was pinned down encircling and besieging Dragonstone, trying to wait them out through starvation over time. This prevented the Lannisters or Tyrells from dealing with the rise of Euron Greyjoy on the west coast. Loras Tyrell has come up with the idea to force a quick end to the siege by storming the castle, stating that he can conquer the castle within two weeks; Cersei agrees, in hopes he will die in the fighting. Loras takes the castle, but with heavy and unnecessary losses due to his rash nature, and after fighting through many defenders despite taking numerous wounds, he was doused with boiling oil and left barely clinging to life. Cersei then needlessly gloated to Margaery about Loras, breaking down the already fragile Lannister-Tyrell alliance. The TV series omitted all of this and just had Loras burn to death in the Destruction of the Great Sept of Baelor (in either version, he apparently burns to death - though there is some slim chance he might in fact survive in the books). As a result, as of the most current novel Dragonstone is weakly held by a remaining Lannister force after the siege.

In the episode, Jaime states that "Stannis left the castle unoccupied." When Daenerys arrives with her army, Dragonstone is abandoned and she faces no resistance.

Dragonstone was Stannis's base of operations seen in Seasons 2 through 4, but several major locations on it weren't actually shown on screen at the time, probably due to budget constraints. Most interior scenes focused on the war planning room around the Painted Table - a large table painted as a large map of Westeros which Aegon I Targaryen himself used when he was planning his conquest of Westeros. Exterior shots focused on a generic beach with a large dragon statue in the background as a digital insert. Season 7 depicts all of Dragonstone's exteriors, and several new major internal locations, including a fully realized throne room, hewn from the volcanic rock. Stannis sat on this throne in several scenes from the books that were shifted to the council room. Historically, many prior Targaryens from Aegon I to Rhaenyra sat on the throne of Dragonstone.

Dragonstone was a major location in the Dance of the Dragons, the great Targaryen civil war fought 170 years ago. It was the initial headquarters of Rhaenyra Targaryen and her faction, while her half-brother Aegon II held King's Landing itself. Several prequel projects to follow the main series are being discussed, and it is possible that these Dragonstone sets were introduced with an eye towards being re-used for a prequel series.

As when Stannis held it, Dragonstone isn't worth much in and of itself to Daenerys, as a comparatively small island - but it has an excellent strategic location controlling the mouth of Blackwater Bay, and thus threatening all sea travel going to or from King's Landing. Additionally, of course, it is a strong symbolic move for Daenerys to go from being a foreign exile to directing her invasion of Westeros from the ancestral seat of the Targaryens themselves .

http://gameofthrones.wikia.com/wiki/Dragonstone_(episode)

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