Game of Thrones Season 7: It's A Bit Nippy Out (SPOILERS)

[Jim_Campbell]

No particular spoilers in this post, but I don't see the point of the entire thread being a mass of spoiler blocks. It's right there in the title. Steer clear until you've seen whichever is the current episode.

Well, it's great to have arguably the best thing on TV back for a new (albeit slightly shorter) series. A fantastic opening scene, followed by the usual series opener of careful set-up and a fair bit of what (presumably) is foreshadowing.

I'm already seeing the usual moaning from a small sub-set of (presumably amnesiac) fans who seem to forget every year that the awesome stuff at the back end of ever series only works because of the care the writers spend moving all the pieces into place in the early stages.

I'll make a point of mentioning that the character development of the Hound has been fantastic over the last few series: a brutal and brutalised man thoroughly confused by a moral transformation occurring almost against his will... it's just great, and Rory McCann handles it fantastically in this episode.

I can't wait for the next episode, and the only downer is that the series will be over all-too-soon, followed by another agonising year-plus wait for the finale.

[TordelBack]

...and the only downer is that the series will be over all-too-soon, followed by another agonising year-plus wait for the finale.

-book reader plays Reynes of Castermere on tiny violin-

[Link Prime]

the series will be over all-too-soon, followed by another agonising year-plus wait for the finale.

The wait is what makes it so satisfying!

Really enjoyed this opener, nothing more to add except: GIANT ZOMBIES.

[Jim_Campbell]

-book reader plays Reynes of Castermere on tiny violin-

I only have one book left to read now. Paused on my GRRM marathon to break it up with Abercrombie's The Blade Itself, which also manages (thus far) to invigorate what's a fairly tired genre, albeit with a very different approach. By the time I get back to Westeros, perhaps GRRM will have got his shit together...!

[TordelBack]

Blade Itself is the best post-GoT fantasy I've read, great characters start to finish. The trilogy as a whole maybe doesn't quite hold together as well as the first book, but by heck it rockets along. The follow-up (The Heroes) is coincidentally next on my reading mound.

[Bolt-01]

Not a lot to add except I wish that the cameo's in the soldiers Arya finds weren't so easily recogniseable. This is the sort of thing I find distracting on a first watch.

However, it's wonderful  to be back.

[Keef Monkey]

Yeah that cameo leapt out like a sore thumb. He wasn't even bad, it's probably just that he's everywhere these days that it just pulled me out of the episode way too much.

[IndigoPrime]

Didn't bother me any more than: "Look, it's JIM BROADBENT!" If he'd been shit, it would have been more of an issue, but he was OK. Perhaps it helps that I'm not that familiar with Ed Sheerhands.

[sheridan]

I can't wait for the next episode, and the only downer is that the series will be over all-too-soon, followed by another agonising year-plus wait for the finale.

On the bright side, the episodes in this series are longer than in previous - amounting to a total of 57 extra minutes over the course of 7 episodes, so it's almost like we're getting an episode free.  Seven and a bit hours in total - more than enough to keep us going until the finale next year (and of course much better that they take their time so that in ten years we can all watch it and appreciate the quality).

[sheridan]

I had no idea any of the soldiers were celebs - was there another one who's famous?

[JOE SOAP]

more than enough to keep us going until the finale next year

Game Of Thrones: season 8 may not arrive until 2019

[sheridan]

more than enough to keep us going until the finale next year

Game Of Thrones: season 8 may not arrive until 2019

I'm not worried about that - I'd much rather we had the best completed series for posterity than rush it at the last minute.  Also gives me time to catch up on the books...

[radiator]

Personally, I thought the cameo in question was excruciating, and embarrassing for all involved.

Though I love GoT, since they started to diverge so drastically from the framework of the books* (around the end of season 4 by my reckoning) it's been a mixed bag. When it's bad, it's really bad - certain iconic book characters and scenes have been really sidelined and squandered imo, and certain plotlines have lost coherence and a sense of logic somewhat - but when it's good it's phenomenal (agree with the OP that, for example, anything with the Hound is generally superb).

*and I'm not so naive as to think a literal book-to-screen translation would be remotely possible. Though I've come round a lot on books 4 and 5 of the saga since rereading them, in many ways the show writers have done a very good job of taking two very unwieldy and arguably meandering tomes and curtailing/combining plotlines in a very skilled fashion.

I had no idea any of the soldiers were celebs - was there another one who's famous?

Not really, but one of them was played by Thomas Turgoose(?) - aka the instantly recognisable kid from This Is England.

[Rara Avis]

I've come to the conclusion that I have Daenerys. If it weren't for her invincible plot armour she would have been killed off long ago. My only hope that she is being set up for a massive fall as the series comes to it's conclusion. In the books Euron has a horn that can control dragons, it hasn't been mentioned in the show yet but could this be the present he's gone off to get Cersei?

Also you can see it's the beginning of the end for Cersei and Jamie. She's gone all Mad King / Hitler and he can see she's clearly losing the plot. Who will ally with them after the Sept of Baelor?

Not the best episode ever but a good opener getting all the players on the board... 

[The Enigmatic Dr X]

This show proves you can make anything better by adding zombies.

Not going to watch until this and the next series are done