Game of Thrones Season 7 Episode 4 begins with the Lannisters taking gold and grain
from the reach.
Most of this gold is going to the Iron Bank, but Bronn also gets a cut.
He’s a mercenary.
He fought for Tyrion for gold, he fought at the Blackwater for a knighthood.
And Cersei gives him a noble bride as a bribe.
In the books, he’s still there at Stokeworth.
He adopts Lollys’ son and names him Tyrion just to mess with everyone . He murders his
wife’s brother-in-law for plotting against him.
Basically, book-Bronn lives the good life.
But in the show, Jaime keeps dragging Bronn back to battle, and he doesn’t get much
of a chance to spend all his gold.
The Tarlys are taking food from the reach for Cersei . So what will the people of the
reach eat this winter?
We saw last episode that Winterfell faces a food shortage, so Sansa takes grain from
the north . It looks like Westeros may run out of food, and this is a problem in the
books, too.
“When winter comes, the realm will starve” , Tyrion says, and some people use this to
their advantage.
Littlefinger hoards grain in the Vale, so he can sell it at a high price when people
are starving . The politics and economics of food is important, and it’s cool to see
it acknowledged in the show.
Bronn questions Jaime over whether Cersei could ever be a peaceful ruler , just like
Olenna did last episode . And both times, Jaime struggles to defend his sister.
To Olenna he argued that the ends justify the means, it doesn’t matter if Cersei does
terrible things as long as it wins the war.
This episode he basically says hashtag Only God Can Judge Me, except not even that, cause
Cersei killed the Pope . Jaime’s justifications are getting weaker, and he’s eventually
gotta admit that even though he loves Cersei, she is awful and needs to be stopped.
At the capital, Cersei chats with Tycho, who represents the Iron Bank.
He flatters her by comparing her to her father Tywin.
Cersei’s daddy issues are a big part of her hunger for power and pride.
She always wanted Tywin’s approval, to be like him, to rule like him . She even dresses
like him.
And her brutality is largely learned from him . Go watch the Cersei video.
And so Cersei’s goal is to control all of Westeros . Which is going to cost money – Tycho
offers to lend her more.
It is a bit weird to lend her more money at the same time she’s paying back money – like
couldn’t Cersei just hang on to this gold she has?
But whatever, the point is that the Bank’s supporting Cersei.
Cersei mentions she’s thinking of hiring the Golden Company, an eastern sellsword group
with a rich history in the books.
They were originally founded by a Targaryen bastard called Bittersteel , and still carry
his gilded skull into battle.
In Book 5, the Company invades Westeros as part of Varys’ complex conspiracy – go
watch the Varys video.
The point for the show is probably just that Cersei is buying more soldiers.
Up at Winterfell, Littlefinger talks with Bran.
As the eldest living Stark, Bran should technically be Lord of Winterfell, so Petyr wants to get
on his good side.
He talks of his loyalty to Bran’s mother Cat, who he loved since childhood, and he
gives Bran a gift – the Valyrian steel dagger that was used by an assassin to try to kill
Bran in Season 1.
In the books, we’re told it was Joffrey who ordered this attempt on Bran’s life
, but the mystery’s never solved in the show.
Maybe in the show they’ll say it was Littlefinger . Cause this dagger was a big part of Littlefinger’s
master plan.
Petyr lied and told Catelyn this was Tyrion’s dagger, so Cat abducted Tyrion, which led
to war, which led to Petyr advancing politically.
As Petyr says, “Chaos is a ladder” – he used conflict to gain power.
And now Bran repeats this line, showing that he has seen some of what Petyr’s done.
If the Starks find out that Petyr betrayed Ned and lied to his dear Cat and started the
war that broke their family – Littlefinger is totally screwed.
Bran then speaks with Meera Reed.
Meera spent three seasons fighting to protect Bran, hunting and cooking for Bran, probably
wiping Bran’s ass cause he’s paralysed, all because Meera’s brother Jojen believed
Bran needed to meet the raven.
Now, Jojen’s dead.
Hodor’s dead, Summer’s dead, the raven’s dead, the children are dead, and in a way,
Bran is dead.
Now that he’s got all this psychic knowledge, with everyone’s memories and experiences,
he’s lost touch with his own identity – like Dr Branhattan.
So from Meera’s point of view, all this sacrifice feels empty.
Their story’s so full of loss and tragedy – hopefully somehow Bran’s powers will
be worth it.
Meera leaves to return to her family down in the Neck.
Meera’s father is Howland Reed, the only living survivor of the fight at the Tower
of Joy, where Jon was born to Lyanna Stark.
So Howland, in the books at least, may play a role in telling Jon who his parents are
– he may even be part of a northern conspiracy.
Also, in the books, it’s likely that Bran eats Jojen – so go watch that video.
Arya Stark arrives at Winterfell, her home, which she hasn’t seen for six seasons.
She has trouble getting past some guards, just like she once did in Season 1, but she
soon reunites with her sister Sansa.
Arya and Sansa had a difficult relationship as kids – Sansa was proper and ladylike,
while Arya was an unpredictable tomboy . But now they’ve grown beyond their childish
fights.
After all that they’ve been through, all that they’ve lost, their remaining family
means everything.
Arya meets Bran, and like Sansa, she’s a bit weirded out by the whole psychic robot
thing Bran’s got going.
He mentions Arya’s list of people she wants to kill, and most are dead already.
Still remaining are Cersei and the Mountain.
Also Arya thinks the Hound is dead, but he’s not – maybe they’ll meet again.
The Starks discuss the dagger, and Arya’s suspicious about the whole thing.
It’s looking really likely that the Starks will find out about Petyr’s deception.
Bran gives the dagger to Arya, which will be useful cause Valyrian steel kills white
walkers.
Half the main characters on the show have Valyrian steel now – Jon, Arya, Brienne,
Jaime – even Sam has one.
These are the people who’ll kill white walkers when shit gets real.
We also get a moment with Brienne.
For the last few seasons, Brienne’s been trying to keep her oath to Catelyn Stark to
find and protect Cat’s daughters Sansa and Arya.
For most of the story, Brienne wasn’t successful – she got side-tracked by Stannis and Riverrun,
and the Hound and a bear.
But now, finally, Catelyn’s daughters are home – Brienne kept her oath.
Earlier in the show, Cat called Brienne a lady, and Brienne said that she’s “no
lady” . In the books, Pod calls Brienne ser, but Brienne also isn’t a knight . As
a female warrior in a patriarchal world, Brienne has struggled to work out her identity . But
here Pod calls Brienne my lady, and she starts to correct him but then just says thanks.
With her quest complete, Brienne has finally worked out who she is and so has Pod.
Lady Brienne may not be a knight, but she keeps her oaths.
Brienne later spars with Arya.
Arya saw Brienne beat the Hound in Season 4, so she wants to have a go at the Maid of
Tarth.
Arya doesn’t really swordfight in the books, she mostly just uses stealth and stuff.
But she was trained by Syrio Forel, and in the show by the Faceless Men – as she says,
“No one” – and it looks like all the training has paid off.
She holds her own against Brienne which is hella impressive – Brienne is one of the
best warriors in Westeros, certainly the strongest woman.
So Arya’s up there with the best of them – and now she and Brienne have a mutual
respect.
They’ve both felt like outsiders as female fighters, so this relationship means a lot.
Sansa watches from above, like Ned once did in Season 1.
You can see Sansa realising like, ‘wow okay, Arya really is a ninja assassin’.
Just like Bran is a psychic wizard.
While Sansa’s only special power is fiscal responsibility.
Littlefinger’s up there too, and Arya gives him a menacing glare.
If Petyr had a half a brain he would run back to the Vale, like, now.
Down at Dragonstone, Missandei and Dany talk about boys, then they head into the caves
with King Jon.
Dany leaves her guards behind, which is a sign she’s starting to trust him.
The caves are important because they’re full of dragonglass, which can kill white
walkers.
But the caves also contain markings by the children of the forest, who lived in Westeros
thousands of years before human beings.
The markings feature patterns like this spiral that we’ve seen white walkers make out of
corpses.
This makes sense, because the same spiral pattern appeared at the ritual when the children
of the forest created the walkers – it looks like the walkers are imitating the symbols
of their creators.
There’s also this circle with a line through it which has also been made by the walkers,
and also appears elsewhere in the series.
This kind of resembles some symbols from George Martin’s fruity old sci fi stories – if
you wanna go down the rabbithole of what that might mean, strap on your tinfoil hat and
check out this video by Preston Jacobs . It’s pretty loopy, but is fascinating.
Jon points out markings showing the children and the humans fighting together against the
white walkers.
Of course, the children originally created the white walkers as a way to fight humans,
but Jon’s point still stands.
People need to come together to fight the walkers.
And Jon and Dany are starting to look like they’d like to come together.
We know what happened last time Jon was in a cave with a woman.
But Dany says she won’t join Jon until he kneels.
She says survival is more important than his pride.
This is something Jon said to Mance Rayder in Season 5, but now Jon is in Mance’s position.
If he kneels, he would lose the respect of the people who follow him – and then there’d
be no point in kneeling . Maybe Jon’ll find some other way to win Dany over.
On the beach, Dany finds out that the Lannisters have the reach, so she’s now lost all of
her allies – the Tyrells, Greyjoys and Dorne.
Maybe that convoluted plan of taking Casterly Rock, ferrying Dornish and besieging the capital
was a bad idea after all.
Dany suggests just taking throne directly with her dragons, and again we’re told that
would kill too many people.
Which again, might not be strictly true.
When Dany’s ancestor Aegon took Westeros, his sister Visenya took the Eyrie by flying
up there on her dragon.
She didn’t fight anyone, or burn anything, she just flew right up and said do you want
to surrender or do you want my dragon to eat you – and she won.
Why can’t Dany fly to the Red Keep and try something similar?
It would be risky, and she might have to kill some people, but isn’t that better than
killing thousands of soldiers?
So this whole tension in Dany’s strategy is questionable.
But the point the show’s trying to make is that Dany is willing to do things the hard
way if it’s the right way.
Later, Jon and Davos chat with Missandei, about how Jon is bastard, and Missandei’s
an ex-slave.
A lot of Dany and Jon’s people are underdogs.
Eunuchs, dwarfs, smugglers.
People who rose from nothing, and united behind leaders they believe in.
Theon arrives at Dragonstone, and Jon threatens to kill him.
Because in Season 2, Theon betrayed Jon’s family.
When Robb sent him to make alliance with the Greyjoys, Theon stabbed Robb in the back by
attacking Winterfell, and killing Stark men.
Jon lets Theon live because he did help Sansa escape the Boltons – but no one’s letting
Theon forget his crimes.
In the books they call him Theon Turncloak , and just about everyone wants him dead – but
the gods are not yet done with Theon Greyjoy . His plan in the show is to rescue his sister
Yara from Euron – hopefully Euron doesn’t treat his prisoners as badly as he does in
the books.
Somewhere in the south, the Lannisters finish delivering gold to the capital, when they’re
attacked by Daenerys with her Dothraki, and her dragon, Drogon.
People have been speculating for years how Dothraki would go on a Westerosi battlefield.
And most people agree that if you’re safe in a castle, the Dothraki can’t do much.
But out in an open field, where they can run you down, firing arrows from horseback, the
Dothraki are near unstoppable . This is also the first time in years that a dragon has
been used in battle in Westeros.
Notice at one point how Drogon is shot with arrows, but they bounce right off his scales
– younger dragons can be killed with arrows, but as a dragon grows older, its hide grows
tougher . Not tough enough, though, to stop a scorpion bolt.
Just as Bronn takes a long bow shot to set off the wildfire at the Blackwater, Bronn
uses Qyburn’s scorpion to hit Drogon in the shoulder, wounding him and bringing him
to ground.
If that had hit his eye, Drogon might be dead.
But he burns the scorpion, and faces off against Jaime, who decides to go jousting against
a hundred tonne dragon.
Jaime, remember, killed the Mad King Aerys – Daenerys’ father.
If he killed Dany as well, that’d make him a Queenslayer as well as a Kingslayer.
He doesn’t succeed though – Bronn knocks him into water just as he’s about to get
roasted, kinda like how Tyrion gets knocked into water last season.
Bronn made a comment earlier about Jaime’s riches weighing him down , and now Jaime’s
rich armour literally weighs him down into the water.
Though he most probably will survive.
The dynamic between Jaime and Tyrion is interesting here.
These are both likeable main characters, on opposite sides of the battle.
In Book 1, Tyrion tells Catelyn that he never bets against his family , he’s always on
team Lannister.
But here is with Daenerys, as she destroys his family’s army, and tries to kill his
brother Jaime.
Jaime, who rescued Tyrion from prison.
Jaime, the only one in their family who ever loved Tyrion . Tyrion is loyal to Dany, but
he’s also loyal to his brother.
This tension might be a problem later on.
Another theme of this scene is the horror of war.
Dickon talks about the shock and the smell of first battle, and there are lots of moments
of characters gazing at burning men.
The books spend a lot of time describing the evils of war, and the impact of war on ordinary
people.
The show doesn’t have time for this sort of slow rumination but it’s able to make
some of the same points in a really powerful visual way.
And that, maybe, is when show is at its best.
Thanks for watching.
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