For obvious reasons, don’t keep reading if you don’t want season seven spoiled for you.
Before I begin, I feel like I need to disclose that this was written minutes after watching the season finale. I’m feeling pumped, nervous, and absolutely in awe for what I just saw on Game of Thrones.
For the first time in a while, I felt like Game of Thrones delivered a season that was interesting throughout its entirety. Between the Dothraki crossing the sea for the first time, plenty of dragon air time, and the White Walker story line finally going somewhere, I found myself looking forward to Sunday nights again.
Season seven gave fans an experience reminiscent of the first few, where they could watch episodes on the edge of their seats and still be surprised at the various twists of the plot.
For starters, the battle scenes of this season were some of my favorite of the entire show. The battle in “Spoils of War” (the dragons and The Dothraki making their first appearance to the Lannisters), and the White Walker battle of the season accentuated how far the heroes and villains have come in terms of their combat finesse, as well as how they’ve grown in terms of strategy and understanding of their enemy.
Then there were huge surprises scattered throughout the season when concerning characters. The writers pitting Sansa against Arya only for them to find justice in killing Littlefinger was the most interesting plot twist of the season, as it showed two sisters who have famously disagreed over everything finally uniting for the survival of their house.
Now that we’ve talked about some of the highlights of the season and their importance to the series, let’s focus on the finale.
Specifically, let’s talk about the zombie ice dragon heading to Westeros.
Let me repeat that in case you didn’t read that right the first time. There’s a zombie ice dragon. And it’s being ridden by the Night King.
It’s fair to say that Westeros is—to put it delicately—screwed.
And while we’re talking about the season finale and people that are screwed, can we talk about Cersei’s character development? She was insane before, but now this woman is really off her rocker. It’s not without understanding, as she’s lost most of her family at this point. But she was a hair away from killing the two remaining family members she has this episode, which shows just how detached Cersei is from reality.
This episode emphasized that, as shown from the fact that she had a White Walker in front of her and she still decided that staying in Kings Landing was the safe bet.
Jaime also showed huge character development this season. Him putting his foot down at the whole I-might-kill-you thing with Cersei showed this. He’s finally choosing the honorable thing to do, even at the expense of Cersei’s favor, which shows just how far he’s come. Once again the Kingslayer isn’t just giving blind loyalty, and for that he has my respect.
Since the Starks stay winning at this point, I feel like things are in their favor for next season. Even half-Starks like Jon are prevailing, although finding out that he’s in love with his Aunt might be a bit of a downer for him. But, as is the Jon way, he’ll muster his honor and fight through his lovesickness to fight the White Walkers—who clearly are going to be the main threat this next season.
Final rating for this season: 10/10. Thank you Game of Thrones for providing minimal Brann airtime and optimal dragon time. Also I hope Tormund is still alive.