GoT Season Seven

[HuskyHawk]

Well, there is anti-dragon industrial strength crossbows.

Well there was one. Now we don't know if there are more. It didn't exactly prove effective, even when it was a surprise.

 

[Rocktheworld]

I was a little hard put to understand why Arya was so interested to learn that Littlefinger was in Winterfell. She doesn't seem to have had any interaction beyond the one you just identified.

She did overhear him and varys muttering things down in the dungeons right before/as everything started popping off in King's Landing

 

[BlueHen]

Just watched. Great episode all around. You guys captured the highlights.

But aside from that, and before Davos made his remark, I could have sworn we were close to a kissing moment between Jon and Dany. Yes, the show is going there folks. When she said "bend the knee" it almost could have been "marry me". It more or less rhymes.

Arya's sparing match was meant as a message, not sure for who. Maybe Littlefinger. Maybe Sansa. But that was well crafted performance art.

It did not appear on screen, but I inferred the following after Jon told Dany not to burn Kings Landing. "Then what would you do?" "I'd take out the army while it is open and exposed outside Kings Landing. Show the soldiers the dragons." Dany sure as hell didn't come up with it herself.

I think it was a message to the viewers (us) that Arya is a skilled fighter. I suspect that she will engage in one on one combat with another skilled foe and win. They glossed over her training when she was in Essos, heck she was consistently getting her rear end kicked by the waif. I think the show runners wanted to make it clear that Arya is extremely dangerous in combat, that way when she kicks butt later on we're not surprised.

Yesterday I speculated on Arya killing the Mountain, having thought about it some more I now think she's going to kill a White Walker; her dagger is made of Valerian steel, so that should be an effective weapon. Maybe she takes out the Night King.

 

[John]

still some episodes left to go, but up to this point who do you think has had the meatiest role acting wise?

 

[Scalito]

She did overhear him and varys muttering things down in the dungeons right before/as everything started popping off in King's Landing

That was Ilyrio Varys was conspiring with.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

Did I see Randall Tarly roasting at the end of the episode?

 

[Scalito]

Did I see Randall Tarly roasting at the end of the episode?

He kinda disappeared. I think a guy like him will die on screen.

 

[HuskyHawk]

So I was looking into some of the recap, and it seems that some people are drawing the same conclusion I did from the whole Arya/Littlefinger/Bran situation up in Winterfell.

1. Littlefinger gives the dagger to Bran
2. Bran lets Littlefinger know, that he knows Littlefinger worked to see Ned Stark executed
3. Bran gives Arya the dagger. Bran lets Arya and Sansa know that he knows what Arya has done, can do, and plans to do.
4. Arya shows everyone, but in particular Littlefinger, just what she can do by sparring with Brienne.
5. Littlefinger nods in acknowledgement. His underwear may be soiled.

The show repeatedly omits side conversations that we assume occurred, like Jon advising Dany to attack the army. Did it omit Bran letting Arya know what Littlefinger has done? His work against Ned, and the fact that he gave Sansa to Ramsay? If so. He's on her list. And there's nobody else on that list nearby.

 

[intlzncster]

Well there was one. Now we don't know if there are more. It didn't exactly prove effective, even when it was a surprise.

It certainly wasn't ineffective. Two shots and the biggest baddest dragon was out of the sky. Now all you need to do is take it out on the ground.

It's not like those things are magic. They are wood and metal. Pretty simple to construct if you have the resources of the entire kingdom at your disposal.

Get them 10 of those devices and you have something. 7 shooting in the sky, 3 shooting when it hits the dirt.

 

[intlzncster]

I think it was a message to the viewers (us) that Arya is a skilled fighter. I suspect that she will engage in one on one combat with another skilled foe and win. They glossed over her training when she was in Essos, heck she was consistently getting her rear end kicked by the waif. I think the show runners wanted to make it clear that Arya is extremely dangerous in combat, that way when she kicks butt later on we're not surprised.

Yesterday I speculated on Arya killing the Mountain, having thought about it some more I now think she's going to kill a White Walker; her dagger is made of Valerian steel, so that should be an effective weapon. Maybe she takes out the Night King.

iirc she got a significant amount of her sword training from Syrio Forel in Kings Landing as well.

 

[intlzncster]

1. Littlefinger gives the dagger to Bran
3. Bran gives Arya the dagger. Bran lets Arya and Sansa know that he knows what Arya has done, can do, and plans to do.
4. Arya shows everyone, but in particular Littlefinger, just what she can do by sparring with Brienne.
5. Littlefinger nods in acknowledgement. His underwear may be soiled.

Not only that, but specifically, Littlefinger sees that Arya is now in possession of said dagger, which implies a couple of different things.

 

[John]

iirc she got a significant amount of her sword training from Syrio Forel in Kings Landing as well.

Syrio, Jaqen H'gha, The Hound...not a bad set of mentors.

 

[intlzncster]

Syrio, Jaqen H'gha, The Hound...not a bad set of mentors.

Seriously. Guess that's why a 4ft 90lb shrimp can be a deadly killing machine.

 

[HuskyHawk]

Not only that, but specifically, Littlefinger sees that Arya is now in possession of said dagger, which implies a couple of different things.

Well it implies that she met with Bran and that he thought she might want that dagger. Since Littlefinger knows that Bran knows...he assumes that she does as well, and that dagger, well...it is a like a bullet with his name on it. Very interested to see if he plays it cool, tries to kill her, or hightails it out of there.

 

[Mots010]

She did overhear him and varys muttering things down in the dungeons right before/as everything started popping off in King's Landing

Arya also saw Littlefinger at Harrenhall when she was Tywin's cup girl or whatever.

 

[OneTrickPony]

I would like to know why the Knights of the Vale are sticking around too, but to answer that you need to know what Littlefinger is plotting. His behavior is odd. The last time civil war broke out, he was beaming from camp to camp, meeting with all the players and brokering deals to his advantage. Now he is just . . . giving advice to Sansa.

No siree. Makes no sense.

If you buy into the Fire and Ice dichotomy...he's making a play for the Ice side of the equation while Vary's is on the Fire side.

Better question for Littlefinger...can you cozy up to a White Walker when all else fails?

 

[OneTrickPony]

For those scoring at home, the Targaryan/Stark side has Dothraki, a half man/half magic tree mystic that can see everything at once, the best assassin in the 7 kingdoms, and THREE SCALITOING DRAGONS, and they are still losing. They are the WORST.

I am off the fence. I want Cersei to win.

Back in character...

 

[OneTrickPony]

It was important because the Iron Bank was about to shut Cersei down, and now she should be able to pay them off.

But strategically, look at the map. Highgarden is pretty useless down in the south-west. It was never fortified, because nobody wanted it. Danny is perched just off-shore of King's Landing. Dorne is to its south. Littlefinger (for now) is on board and holds The Vale. RiverRun should revert back to the Tullys. The Twins are up for grab. Winterfell is back with the Starks.

The Lannisters just retreated entirely out of any position north of Kings Landing. They've got the Iron Islands with Euron I suppose, but it's useless. They are bottled in.

Surprised no one has rushed to occupy the Twins given their previous strategic importance...less so with Euron's fleet , of course...but I'd love to catch the Lannister army sailing north with a few dragon's on hand...

 

[Excalibur]

By the way, anyone else not buying Jamie, with his bad hand, beating any Dothraki in hand to hand combat?

 

[HuskyHoosier]

How is it that DT was flying on a dragon hundreds of feet in the air yet her hair was not blowing in the wind? Good hairspray in those days

 

[MilliniumPrince]

How is it that DT was flying on a dragon hundreds of feet in the air yet her hair was not blowing in the wind? Good hairspray in those days

A woman flying on a fire breathing dragon....and the stillness of her hair is hard to believe

My wife asked the same question after the episode.

 

[OneTrickPony]

Here's a q for the engineers (geeks) - are the spokes on the wheel used to draw back the bowstring on the scorpion long enough to develop the right amount of tension needed? I would have thought that wheel would need to be a bit larger in diameter, unless there's some gearing we can't see. I vaguely recall something about lever arm length vs force from HS physics.

Looks like there is no block and tackle to magnify the forces, so this looks like a straight lever arm mechanical advantage of maybe 4 or 5 to 1. The setup may be for two men to draw the bow, and Bron was just running a little high on adrenaline. A block and tackle would slow it down in proportion to how much it multiplied the force...so that's the tradeoff...faster draw, but less tension.

 

[CTGoonie]

A woman flying on a fire breathing dragon....and the stillness of her hair is hard to believe

My wife asked the same question after the episode.

Dany has walked through fire that burned all her clothes but did nothing to her hair. That's some magic hair right there.

 

[HuskyHawk]

A woman flying on a fire breathing dragon....and the stillness of her hair is hard to believe

My wife asked the same question after the episode.

Aqua Net.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

He kinda disappeared. I think a guy like him will die on screen.

I would tend to agree, but there was a guy cooking as Tyrion was viewing the battle, at about 47:45 on the HboGo replay, that looked a lot like Tarly.