Consider it EW’s small council, made of two people far too obsessed with everythingThrones.
This week’s burning question:What will happen when Dany meets Cersei?
There were people who really liked it, and people who really didn’t.
Credit: Helen Sloan/HBO (2)
I’d be intrigued to hear your thoughts on the episode in general, Shirley.
We know what Dany wants to get out of the meeting.
She’ll show off her fancy far-traveled wight, and pray for an armistice.
Macall B. Polay/HBO.Macall B. Polay/HBO
But what’s Cersei’s angle here?
Will she evencareabout the army of the dead?
My theory, unformed but palpable: Something goes wrong.
The Night King in ‘Game of Thrones’.HBO
I don’t know what that somethingwrongis.
Let’s make #Queensmoot happen!
Anyone have a direct line to Ja Rule?
HBO
Is this joke already outdated?
All season we’ve beenwaiting for these two queens to meet, and IT’S FINALLY HAPPENING!
Cersei probably cares less about the army of the dead than about growing her hair out again.
(Which is to say, she cares about it a negative amount.)
If anything, I could see her wanting tocontrolan army of ice zombies, not defeat it.
When you’re equal parts desperate and power-hungry, sometimes you have to appeal to your enemies.
Let’s tear that sucker down.)
But, oh right, this is about the queens, not one queen and the Night King.
Here’s how it’ll go: Cersei and Dany begin their meeting.
Cersei has Qyburn use his child army to carry out an ambush against everyone on Dany’s side.
What’s behind it?
BLUE EYES WIGHT DRAGON, THAT’S WHAT’S BEHIND IT!
And it’s breathing fire (or ice?
fire-ice?fierce?)
whatever it turns out to be, it’ll suck up the rest of the season 7 budget.
To go back to your initial question, last Sunday’s episode to me was all spectacle over story.
Is that really what George R.R.
Martin would have wanted for so many of his players?
Does what Martin want even matter anymore?
What do you think, Darren?
And more importantly, if Rhaegal is “the cute one,” what was Viserion?
DARREN:Viserion was always the crazy one, the wild card, the A.J.
The average citizen now is every fantasy-book-loving weirdo 25 years ago!
Is fire still fire if it’s cold?
I swore never to watch another “Inside the Episode” video long ago.
As a storyteller, he has more in common with meticulous Vince Gilligan thananyof the great HBO showteurs.
The army of the dead are far away, then suddenly everywhere.
Or maybe we’re being set up for some larger reveal?
The Dead continue to (slowly) march!
Is he more impressive with an undead blue-eyed dragon?
And what else do you want to see in the season 7 finale?
Do you want to see more of Jon staring moony-eyed at Dany while Dany gets flustered?
Because I do not want to see that, no no I do not.
SHIRLEY:How do I feel about the Night King as the final boss?
(In this analogy, D&D = the Hound.
This is a rough analogy.)
That is to say, I am thoroughly uncomfortable with having the Night King be the evil endgame.
If the Night King had a real character arc and a real personality, then I’d think differently.
For now, it’s as if our heroes simply have to face off against the powers of CGI.
And so, I’m with you on wanting a little somethingmorethan a Night King with a dragon.
If we’re going tohaveto go down this route, then I want to go all in.
Give me giant ice spiders.
Give me a corpse queen.
Give me the Night King’s backstory.
Give me the return of the Children of the Forest and their fun little nature grenades.
Oh, and knock down the Wall, so we can really get this mandatory party started!
But further down the line, give me back Melisandre.
And maybe we will…?
Theyshouldstop with the moony eyes, but theyneedto start getting on with making another Targaryen.
Two sets of Targaryen DNA has to be the key to Dany becoming pregnant again, right?
We have so many prophecies to see come to fruition, Darren.
(Bring back Quaithe!
Are we any closer to finding out who the Prince That Was Promised really is?
And speaking of wolves, are we any closer to solving the Arya-Sansa conundrum?
And he casts his net wide.
It doesn’t surprise me that Dany and Jon have to get together.
(They’ll sing the Love Song of Ice and Fire.
Dany: “I don’t trust nobody…” Jon: “And nobody trusts me.")
Speaking of things I don’t buy: ARYA, WHAT.
Putting aside all the main-character comings and goings Bye, Jon and Brienne!
what we’ve witnessed is a six-episode corridor opera starring Sensible Sansa and Angry Arya and Lingerin' Littlefinger.
We’ve always assumed Arya’s journey was a grand-scale hero’s origin story.
Were we watching her descent all along?
We’re moving towards some kind of reckoning between those three, but what?
Has everyone in Winterfell gone snow-crazy, Shirley?
Did Podrick get out just in time?
I’m 100 percent sure that’s how it went.
Would she ever become a final boss?
And if so,ugh, how disappointing!
Imagine if Arya counseled Sansa, instead of tormenting her further.
(Yeah, this narrative will never grow on me, just as that single never will, either.
Sorry, Tay.)
You’re right to point out that we have no clue what Littlefinger wants.
If he creates chaos in the North, does it even matter?
The only possible, logical ending left for Petyr Baelish is to be killed off.
What Icansee, though, is the finale finally giving Brienne something to do.
Maybe if I pray hard enough to the Lord of Light, it’ll happen?
Come on, D&D.
Give us at leastoneproper Brienne scene before we have to wait a year or more!
Game of Thronesairs Sundays at 9 p.m.
