‘Game of Thrones’’ seventh season was its silliest… and its most entertaining

Lucien WD
Lucien WD
Aug 28, 2017 · 3 min read

Since most of my friends gave up on Game of Thrones a long time ago (they’re not aspiring TV critics — I watch this sh*t for context), I’ve long been struggling to summarise episodes of the HBO fantasy in witty tweets or WhatsApp messages. It’s usually pretty damn difficult, since the average Thrones episode consists of several long conversations in large rooms, and the occasional stabbing of someone whose name I don’t know. Not so with Season 7! A mercifully condensed 7 episodes, this has been — overall — my favourite run of the show, with concentrated action and a smaller cast. By the time we reached last night’s season finale “The Dragon & The Wolf”, I dare say I was enjoying it. Yes! Me! Enjoying Game of Thrones!

In past seasons, there’s been far too much going on involving nameless characters and distant locations for me to follow (I still don’t know who Euron Greyjoy is or why he hates everyone so much). But Season 7 saw the show firmly contract into one(ish) coherent narrative. Jon and Daenerys finally met, united to fight the Army of the Dead approaching from the North. Cersei is pretty much the show’s main villain now (apart from that aforementioned Army of the Dead). Arya and Sansa have been feuding a tad back at Winterfell, as Littlefinger manipulates the elder sister Stark. And good old Samwell is digging around in the Citadel for *shocking* revelations in Jon’s family tree. All this culminated in Episode 7, as Kit Harrington, Emilia Clarke, Peter Dinklage, Lena Heady and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (the show’s 5 highest-paid stars) shared a scene for the first time. It was… fairly satisfactory, if not an explosive clash of characters. That explosiveness was saved for later in the episode: we’d been led to believe Sansa was going to betray her sister under Littlefinger’s guidance, but she was actually setting up poor Baelish for execution! She even referenced his Moon Door (I love Baelish’s Moon Door)! Then, in the most romanticised depiction of incest I’ve ever seen (even on this show), we witnessed Jon and Daenerys going to bed while Samwell informs Bran that the couple are… aunt and nephew! Yet Ramin Djawadi (MVP of this episode) didn’t care, releasing a soaring score onto the sequence that it probably shouldn’t have had. And then one of the Wight Walkers rides a resurrected Ice Dragon to the wall, which proceeds to decimate said wall with its ice/fire breath. Very, very cool.

This is to say: every storytelling decision in Season 7 was based on feeding audience cravings rather than prolonging the drama, which has been my issue with the show previous. If something *crazy* could plausibly occur, it did. And it was a lot of fun. A fantasy epic with dragons and ice warriors is hardly the place for serious, grounded drama, and Thrones is at its best in my opinion when it’s big and loud and silly. Which is a rarity. And the Ed Sheeran cameo doesn’t count.

Luwd Media

Keeping You Interested.

)
Lucien WD

Written by

Lucien WD

Communications student at Dublin City University.

Luwd Media

Keeping You Interested.

Welcome to a place where words matter. On Medium, smart voices and original ideas take center stage - with no ads in sight. Watch
Follow all the topics you care about, and we’ll deliver the best stories for you to your homepage and inbox. Explore
Get unlimited access to the best stories on Medium — and support writers while you’re at it. Just $5/month. Upgrade