Spoilers Game of Thrones - Season 7

[Miss Chicken]

There were definitely 13 people in the party that set out from Eastwatch.

Mortality rates were

A-Team 1/7
Red shirts 6/6

 

[Gary7]

Just for clarity sake, when I see people saying "only 7 episodes left", I was scratching my head... as I know there's going to be a season 8. But now I understand. Only 6 episodes! Dammit.

From Wikipedia:
Season 8 of Game of Thrones was announced by D.B. Weiss and David Benioff on March 12, 2017. Like the seventh season, Season 8 will be shorter than previous seasons, consisting of six episodes, due to the smaller amount of story content remaining, as well as the increased production values and time required to film episodes involving larger set pieces than in previous seasons. Filming will begin in October 2017. The season is expected to premiere in late 2018/early 2019.

So this won't be another "summer entertainment" thing. Perhaps fall into winter. How fitting, eh? As I think the ending will probably wind up somewhere in Winterfell.

But given all the energies involved that shortens the number of episodes, they must be unleashing tremendous resources on the set and CGI. It should be a visually spectacular finale season!

 

[137th Gebirg]

Agreed - I just hope they take a little more time crafting a less compressed and overly-accellerated story due to the smaller episode number. One of the directors recently came out and admitted to the "haziness" of the time compression this season. They need to take that understanding back to the writers' room and the editor's desk and make sure it doesn't happen again next year. Or, at the very least, no where near as much.

 

[Vandervecken]

So I am wondering what, exactly, defeats the Night King and his white walkers and wights. Seems to me if this is going to be the LAST time "Winter" is faced and beaten, it's going to have to be something fundamental. Like undoing the original Children of the Forest magic that created them. Have we seen anything that can do that? It must be that the Children themselves (assuming some survive) are unable to undo their own necromantic magic, as they would have done so already, surely.

I wonder what the resurrection magic used to bring back Jon would do to the Night King, if you could do it quickly? In my misspent youth playing AD&D, I remember Heal and Raise Dead and Resurrection and other, assorted, life-bringing spells to basically damage and do the opposite to undead. Something like that?

 

[Reverend]

If it goes that route, then Tyrion has to be one to kill her.

I disagree. While Tyrion certainly has ample reason to want her dead, I think there's much more dramatic potential in the incest twins doing each other in. Which IMO is more important than who may "deserve" the honour. Indeed, I imagine the queue for that one stretches down the street and around the corner.

I was one of the ones that once thought that Syrio was Jaqen and was always hoping that he would flash that face to Arya at some point to let her know he was alive and well. Might have gone a long way to healing some of the trauma that has teetered her over the sociopathic cliff. Now I'm not so sure anymore.

There may be a scene next season that goes down that road, but who knows at this point? Doesn't really matter either way in the greater scheme of things.

It was a nice theory while it lasted, but as you say, the time to reveal that as a twist would have been in the house of black and white. At this point it just isn't relevant anymore.

 

[dahj]

But given all the energies involved that shortens the number of episodes, they must be unleashing tremendous resources on the set and CGI. It should be a visually spectacular finale season!

I hope they allocate more money for Ghost than this season

One of the directors recently came out and admitted to the "haziness" of the time compression this season. They need to take that understanding back to the writers' room and the editor's desk and make sure it doesn't happen again next year. Or, at the very least, no where near as much.

Well they start shooting in October so writing should pretty much be done by now.
But I don't think teleporting will be that big of an issue next season, I expect now that the characters have converged they'll stay clumped together and not zip around so much.

 

[Locutus of Bored]

You wrote:

...he can walk through fire and extinguish the flames by mere proximity to them, including dragon fire, which is much hotter than normal flame, able to burn men to ash in seconds.

What you've written here includes an ability to walk through dragon fire. As I said, we don't know if he can walk through dragon fire for sure. I'd say it's likely a being as powerful as the Night King can do so, but we don't know for sure.

Yes or no, was the fire burning on the ground that the Night King walked through and extinguished created by the dragons? That was literally all I said. Not that it didn't cool down significantly since being created (but still burn way hotter than normal flames that soon after ignition), not that he could survive a direct hit from dragon fire intact, just that the original source was from a dragon and therefore quite a bit hotter than normal flames (though to burn people to ash in seconds we're talking nuclear blast level temperatures that cool quickly and significantly enough for Dothraki riders to quickly jump though it a minute later).

Again, at no point did I say the Night King could survive a direct hit from a dragon. We don't know that yet. He can survive slowly walking through the flames about a minute later though, and can extinguish them.

 

[137th Gebirg]

Fire also doesn't seem to be a complete instant re-death to the wights, either. The undead bear they encountered was on fire thanks to Beric's and Thoros' swords and it kept on going full Revenent on the redshirts and poor old Thoros. The wight that Jon killed in Mormont's solar took a while to catch on fire and stop moving. The flames that the NK walked through looked like they had been on the ground for some time by that point and, with the extreme cold produced by the Walkers' presence, wouldn't last long without any fuel on the ground to sustain it.

The javelln scene was essentially critical as it demosntrated a fundamental underestimation of the power and resourcefulness of the Walkers and an equal overestimation of the perceived strength and invincibility of the dragons, both by the characters and the viewing audience. It is entirely possible that, if anyone can survive dragonfire, it's the NK and it should be assumed from this point forward that he may be able to, from a tactical POV. It was technically a victory for our heroes, yes, but ultimately a Pyrrhic one, as they sacrificed WAY too much on what was essentially a strategic blunder that could have been handled much better on many fronts.

The end result were the deaths of a number of good and experienced men (particularly Thoros and Benjen) and one of Dany's irreplacable dragons, which was turned for use by the enemy making the situation even worse, and all just for a single wight for Qyburn to drool over.

 

[Gary7]

So I am wondering what, exactly, defeats the Night King and his white walkers and wights. Seems to me if this is going to be the LAST time "Winter" is faced and beaten, it's going to have to be something fundamental. Like undoing the original Children of the Forest magic that created them. Have we seen anything that can do that? It must be that the Children themselves (assuming some survive) are unable to undo their own necromantic magic, as they would have done so already, surely.

I wonder what the resurrection magic used to bring back Jon would do to the Night King, if you could do it quickly? In my misspent youth playing AD&D, I remember Heal and Raise Dead and Resurrection and other, assorted, life-bringing spells to basically damage and do the opposite to undead. Something like that?

I'd like to know where the Night King came from. Was he basically a powerful dead man brought back to life, similar to what Melisandre did for Jon Snow, but it went wrong somehow? Usually evil gets started by some tragic event or mistake that sets the antagonist on an evil rampage.

We've been given hints about the demise of the White Walkers... as Jon slicing through a White Walker lieutenant caused many wights to disintegrate, I think it's easy speculation to say that Jon Snow is somehow going to have a one-on-one confrontation with the Night King and end up killing him. And that ends up eliminating all the wights... and perhaps turns back those who were turned into White Walkers without dying (e.g. the baby). But the dragon is done for. It may be that the two left are male and female, so they can reproduce.

Part of me wondered if Jon might die in the process of battling the Night King, given how he's living on a "second chance" (having been brought back to life). Usually such people aren't long for the world in most stories, for some reason. But there's tremendous audience love for Jon Snow. Maybe he'll survive. But I have a strong feeling Daenerys and Jon won't end up together in the final episode. That would be too easy, too convenient, too predictable.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

So I am wondering what, exactly, defeats the Night King and his white walkers and wights. Seems to me if this is going to be the LAST time "Winter" is faced and beaten, it's going to have to be something fundamental. Like undoing the original Children of the Forest magic that created them. Have we seen anything that can do that? It must be that the Children themselves (assuming some survive) are unable to undo their own necromantic magic, as they would have done so already, surely.

I don't see it being anymore complicated than Valyrian steel or dragonglass. The hard part is getting close enough to him to do the deed.

I disagree. While Tyrion certainly has ample reason to want her dead, I think there's much more dramatic potential in the incest twins doing each other in. Which IMO is more important than who may "deserve" the honour. Indeed, I imagine the queue for that one stretches down the street and around the corner.

Believe me, I've been arguing for Jaime killing Cersei for a long time now, but I just meant that in that particular scenario (i.e. she goes crazy and preemptively kills him first), then I would say Tyrion has to be the one to kill her (for thematic purposes).

 

[dahj]

I'd like to know where the Night King came from.

He was one of the First Men that the Children of the Forest captured and turned into the first White Walker(by shoving a dragonglass dagger into his heart) to defend themselves from the invasion of First Men to Westeros.

Usually evil gets started by some tragic event or mistake that sets the antagonist on an evil rampage.

Pretty much, yeah.

 

[Reverend]

Believe me, I've been arguing for Jaime killing Cersei for a long time now, but I just meant that in that particular scenario (i.e. she goes crazy and preemptively kills him first), then I would say Tyrion has to be the one to kill her (for thematic purposes).

Hmm...I don't know. Seems a little too neat for my tastes.
I mean if nothing else, Tyrion already got to kill Tywin and after what happened with Shae I get the sense he's all vengenced out. Not really his style, one might say.

I think for storytelling purposes, Cersei needs to die by her own hubris, one way or the other. Hell, who knows, maybe the Night King gets her? That could be an interesting twist.

 

[Turtletrekker]

Could Cersi out "Ice Queen" the Night King?

 

[The Nth Doctor]

Could Cersi out "Ice Queen" the Night King?

Or better yet, bring on the Ice Wedding!

 

[Skywalker]

There were definitely 13 people in the party that set out from Eastwatch.

Mortality rates were

A-Team 1/7
Red shirts 6/6

Thirteen is a very unlucky number. They should have found a fourteenth member. Perhaps a burglar from the Shire?

 

[137th Gebirg]

I'm also curious what happened to Craster's sons. They made such a big deal about them in the first two to three seasons and then nothing after that. Are we meant to believe that once they were turned they were age-accelerated, becoming the NK's "generals"? Seems to be yet another dropped thread in favor of story expediency.

 

[Mr Awe]

I fully expect the Wall to either be destroyed or bypassed in the season finale and all of Westeros moving it up once Dany and Jon present hard evidence setting the stage for all out war in season 8.

That all sounds a little too straight forward. And, if there's one thing you can say about Game of Thrones is that "straightforward" usually doesn't apply! I think there will be a few wrinkles in that sequence! For instance, I'm pretty sure that a good chunk of Kings Landing and Dany's forces are going to be destroyed. Perhaps even in the season finale. I even think there's a chance that Dany's herself will be killed.

For that last bit, I might be reading too much into Tyrion's "all is lost if you die" stuff, but it makes me think that they're setting her up to die. Tyrion and Jon could ride the two remaining dragons.

 

[Mr Awe]

This Sansa/Arya tension is ridiculous, and not in a good way.

This was my least favorite part of the episode.

What I'm hoping is going on is that Arya is now intentionally freaking her sister out with the faces and weird shit in order to see who Sansa goes running off too. Then, she can deal with that . . . which will lead her to Littlefinger. I'm wondering if the season finale is his final episode?

 

[Mr Awe]

Regardless of whether or not Cersei survives until Season 8, she's likely dying at the hands of either Arya or Dany; anything else at this point would be a "jump the shark" moment.

Pretty sure that it'll be Jaime who kills her. He needs to make a decision about morality and, once he does, her time is short. Of course, I don't see him wanting to live after her death so I'm also guessing that he'll either die simultaneously or shortly thereafter.

 

[Mr Awe]

We've got to see Dany(and Jon) sitting on the Iron Throne at some point, and it can't just be that in the show finale Jon kills the Night King, pops of to the coronation and then we get end credits. That would suck considering that the show has been building up to a new kind of rule for Westeros, so we have to see them rule, fight the army of the dead, make some tough decision, maybe even face some opposition, and there's only 6 episodes left.
Heck, we had Robert as king for 7 episodes and he was just a plot device

I don't think Dany will get the throne, or at least not have it very long. The Brotherhood without Banners is likely to be the new democratic ruling group after the monarchy is gone.