SERIES REVIEW: Game of Thrones Season 7 premier

All die-hard fans of Game of Thrones should have watched the Season 7 premier of the critically acclaimed show considering it is, in fact, four whole days after the release, yes? If not, then consider this a spoiler alert!

AFTER THE LONG WAIT

First off, I loved how they started this penultimate season. Although in Hollywood, you never know if they are actually going to let sleeping dogs lie, or if what is dead may never die. They keep bringing everything back. Especially fantasy s based on books. Hunger Games split into two unnecessary parts, The Hobbit into three and an extra Harry Potter. Nothing seems safe!

Being the second to last season of the television series, the end of the epic story is near. I’m not sure the same can be said for the books as

As far as I know this is the penultimate season, and the books will, perhaps, continue along a different vein since the world is no longer willing to wait for George R R Martin.

It opens with a catch-up of the past episodes from the lingering ends in the last season, nicely reminding us where we’re beginning in this one – and then the theme song, that glorious theme song! Plays loudly and we all turn up the volume and dance to its masochistic tune.

VENGEANCE, A PROPOSAL AND GIANT-WHITEWALKER HYBRIDS

Straight off the bat is the very much alive Arya Stark crossing names off her vengeance bucket-list. Her next victims? The treacherous Freys who orchestrated the Red Wedding that turned a dinner invite into a mass execution of most of the Stark family.

As usual, GOT makes you quite happy when certain people die, and then we move on to a bit on The Hound, her old protector, who is now moving with the Brotherhood and, could it be, becoming a brother himself? Then back to Arya who meets Ed Sheeran – yes, that’s right – singing in a forest, Cersei talking about enemies everywhere including the one sailing the seas to come marry her, much like the trailer everyone has watched about a hundred times by now, and of course Jamie, who looks like he’s beginning to think his sister is quite mad, and he might have to add Queen Slayer to his treasonous CV. I really think he is going to kill her – or Daenerys will, with Tyrion lovingly gazing at her by her side. Jon Snow isn’t listening to Sansa, which I think is a terrible idea. The women in GOT have generally proven to be right, no? More often than not. And Sansa at least, has grown into a person with backbone - at long last – and her irritation at chafing under her brother’s leadership is obviously going to be something Lord Baelish will quickly take advantage of. How Jon Snow does not see this…oh wait. Right. He knows nothing. Never mind.

Also, the giants are white walkers. Bran probably knows this, as he shows up with the Reed girl at the Nights Watch, ready to, I assume, assume his role as the Three-Eyed Raven.

Sam is still at the Citadel, and we get out first glimpse of Jorah Mormont (we all know he gets better, right? Form the trailer. We just don’t know how). Sam is having a terrible time, eating slop from one bowl and cleaning out its reductions from another, all the while not learning about what he came there to do in the first place. And in an exciting final scene, Daenerys arrives at her place of birth and begins her war machine. It’s going to be epic.

I’m, of course, nervous about the fact that the episode was so calm. The first few episodes cans sometimes be laying the ground for disaster, which makes me nervous, but I suppose the foundation must be there to begin with.

I don’t know that it’s a good idea to put modern day stars like Ed Sheeran in GOT. Sure, he’s a great artist, but for me, it really takes away from the fantastical world that is GOT. Beckham was in King Arthur and it was ok, because it wasn’t a movie that particularly needed to be taken seriously. You knew it was a Guy Ritchie movie. There were going to be quite a few laughs. But GOT? It didn’t fly with me. It interrupted the flow of the story. Maybe commenters like me, ha, are the reason he shut down his Twitter briefly? Well, no, it wasn’t. But still. No more superstars, please.

What do you think is going to happen in Episode 2? Who is the Greyjoy villain going to bring to Cersei as a marriage gift? Will she actually fall for him (which I totally, ugh, see happening)? Will Daenerys go mad? Who will she choose to partner with? Is Jon going to keep being stupid? And, as always, what the hell does Baelish want?