Game of Thrones ‘The Spoils of War’
This episode was epic beyond words. I was not expecting that at all. I am completely blown away. Wow.
The episode starts off with Jaime and the Lannister army after their triumphant win at Highgarden. They've got a wagon full of gold. The Tyrells were one of if the wealthiest houses. Bronn, being typical Bronn, doesn't just want gold, he wants a castle too. But he doesn’t get a castle, yet. Jaime promises that one day he’ll get one. Now their priority is getting the farmers to hand over all their food.
Cersei had promised the man from the Iron Bank that they'll pay in full. And once Jaime returns with all the gold, she will come through with that promise. The crown won't be in debt anymore. Which will be the first time in probably hundreds of years that the crown doesn’t owe any money.
In Winterfell, Littlefinger gives Bran his dagger. The dagger that was supposed to kill him. Catelyn stopped the assassin from killing him, and then she went in search of who it belonged to. She found it belonged to Tyrion, and then all hell broke loose. Wow major throwback. But why would he give it to Bran? What is his reason for doing that? Surely he wants something in return? He says he will do everything he can to protect the Stark children. I still don’t trust him.
“Chaos is a ladder.”
Then Bran, knowing everything, says one of Littlefinger’s most iconic lines. He’s understandably taken aback. That was actually brilliant. I love all the callbacks in this episode.
Meera. She deserves the world. She’s leaving to go home to her family. Maybe this means we’ll get to meet her father?? Anyway, Bran says he doesn’t need her anymore. And he says ‘thanks’. That’s all. This girl dragged you all the way beyond the Wall, was forced to kill her brother, Hodor and Summer died for you, she almost did too, and all you have to say is thanks?? I get that he’s not really Bran anymore, but poor Meera. She deserves so much better.
Arya returns home!! I’ve only been waiting for this since S1, but it gave me chills! It was everything I wanted. The guards don't recognise her and won’t let her in. Just like in S1 when she tried to get back through the gates to Kings Landin, and the guards wouldn’t let her in because they assumed she was just a beggar.
She asks to see Maester Luwin, or See Rodrick, but of course they’re dead. She’s been gone for so long. She really has no idea how different things are. They let her in, and keep an eye on her while they go tell Sansa. But she runs off in true Arya style.
Sansa finds her in the crypts. Of course that’s where she’d go. They have a beautiful reunion! The two sisters hug. They never really got along as kids, but they’re still family. They obviously love each other. Arya tells her that being Lady Stark suits her. She says that she was mad when she found out Joffrey died, because she wanted to be the one to kill him. She lets slip about her kill list, which Sansa awkwardly brushes off. Oh Sansa, you have no idea.
Arya is also reunited with Bran, which is just as awkward as Sansa’s reunion with him. He knows that Cersei is on her kill list. He gives her the Valyrian Steel dagger. Bran has no need for it. That’s going to be very useful for her.
“Are stories aren't over yet.”
It was so heartwarming seeing the Stark kids back together. They haven’t seen each other since the beginning of the show. I got very emotional seeing them hanging out together. Brienne sees them, and she knows that Catelyn would be proud. She kept her promise. They’re back together now, and they’re all safe.
Arya and Brienne have an epic fight. They’re pretty well matched. Arya has some serious skills! That was such a cool scene. Brienne asks her who taught her how to do that, and she replies, ‘no one’. Which is entirely true. She learnt a lot from the Faceless Men. Arya looks up at Littlefinger, like she wants to get revenge on him. He’s not on her kill list, but I hope she does kill him.
I can’t even imagine what is going through Sansa’s mind. Her family are all insane. She’s the only normal one. First Jon died and came back to life. Bran is the ‘Three Eyed Raven’ and knows everything and told her she looked beautiful the night she was raped. And now Arya comes back and has a kill list and mad sword fighting skills. And is a face changing assassin, which she doesn’t know yet. She must think everyone around her is going crazy.
At Dragonstone, Jon takes Dany into the cave where all the dragonglass is. She wanted her to see it before they hack into it. It really is beautiful. She looks around in wonder. She had no idea any of this existed. Then he takes her further into the cave, where there are all these cave paintings. It depicts the Children of the Forest and the First Men, and their common enemy the White Walkers. Even back then they managed to set aside their differences to fight together. Jon tells her they need to do the same if they want to survive. She agrees. If he bends the knee.
He’s not going to. He has too much honour to bow down to a foreign Queen. He’s so much like Ned. He would do anything to protect his honour. But as Dany points out, isn’t their survival more important than his pride? She’s right. And in fact Jon said the exact same thing to Mance Rayder before he was burned alive by Stannis. His fate may very well be the same as Mance’s if he keeps being stubborn.
We all know that Jon has a thing for caves, so I was half expecting something to happen between them in that cave. There was some serious sexual tension in that scene. They way they were looking at each other. The way Jon took Dany’s arm and led her deeper into the cave. When I started watching this show the incest disgusted me. But now seven seasons later, I ship an aunt and nephew togehter. What has this show done to me?
Dany is informed that they won at Casterly Rock. But, she lost the Martell’s, the Greyjoy’s and the Tyrell’s. She’s lost half her allies. Dany is mad. Really mad. And she partly blames Tyrion. It was his idea to send her armies to Dorne and Casterly Rock. She wants to fly her dragons to Kings Landing and burn the city to the ground.
Jon, of all people, is the one to calm her down. He points out that she mad the impossible happen by bringing dragons back. Her followers believe in her. They believe she can build a better world. But burning cities to the ground isn’t the best way to show that. That would make her no different than her father, the Mad King. He threatened to burn cities to the ground, and that caused a rebellion against him. He lost supporters, and lost his life. If Dany lets her anger get the better of her, then why should anyone follow her?
“I've noticed you staring at her good heart.”
Yep, Jon has been staring at her ’heart’. Even Davos can see their chemistry. And he also corrects Jon’s grammar. ‘Fewer’. He learnt a lot from Stannis. They run into Missandei, and have a slightly less awkward conversation than last episode. Where Missandei is from, Naath, they don’t have marriage, so the concept of a bastard doesn’t exist. Davos tries to get her to admit that Dany may have freed her from slavery, but she’s still a slave to her Queen. Umm, not sure what he's trying to prove. Dany doesn’t keep slaves. They’re all serving her because they want to. It’s their choice. As Missandei says, she could leave tomorrow if she wanted, no questions asked.
Then a reunion I hadn't even thought about. Jon and Theon. The Greyjoy ship, the one lone ship that survived it seems, arrives back at Dragonstone. Jon and Theon grew up together. But he betrayed Robb, and took Winterfell, and Jon believed for a time that he killed Bran and Rickon. Jon says the only reason he doesn’t kill Theon right then is because of what he did for Sansa. Serious tension here.
So, Theon has come to ask Dany to help get Yara back, but Dany is gone. She’s not there. So where is she?
Cue, the Lannisters getting ready to head back to Kings Landing. The gold made it safely back. So I suppose Cersei paid the Iron Bank all their debts. But they still need to get the rest of the wagons full of supplies back before nightfall.
Suddenly, they hear a rumbling sound, getting louder by the minute. Jaime, Bronn and Randal Tarly get their armies into line, ready for the attack. Then we hear the Dothraki screams getting closer. It was intense. I was shaking at this point. They get in formation, ready to block an attack.
Bronn keeps telling Jaime to head back to Kings Landing. It’s too dangerous for him here. But he refuses to leave. He wants to fight. But then they hear the dragon roar, and in comes Dragon, with Daenerys riding on her back.
With a simple ‘dracarys’, a whole lot of Lannister soldiers are burnt alive. The Lannister’s are no match against a fucking DRAGON!! It was fucking insane!! They didn’t stand a chance against the Dothraki and a fire breathing dragon! The horses were going down. The people were going down. The Dothraki and Drogon were owning this battle. The way the Dothraki ride their horses and stand up, and then jump off and attack was just epic! They had no fear.
My favourite shot was when Drogon was flying along wiht a steam of fire coming out of his mouth, burning everything in his path.
Jaime orders Bronn to go get their secret weapon, as Dany starts burning the supply wagons. Jaime was so close to being hit, but he somehow managed to get out of the way just in time.
Bronn is kicked off his horse, and his horse gets it’s leg chopped in half. He almost stupidly risks his life to get his gold, but he makes it to their secret weapon. The giant crossbow. They were not expecting this attack, so I didn’t think they’d brought the crossbow. But I guess they knew the Tyrell’s were allied with Dany, so they brought it just in case.
Bronn aims and shoots, and I was so scared that Drogon was going to die. But thank god he missed.
But then he hits Drogon, right in the neck. It injures him, and he’s falling out of the sky. I was so worried that he was going to die, and Dany was going to go down with him. But thank god he found his footing. He found his wings, and landed safely on the ground. He destroyed the giant crossbow and burnt it. Dany tries to pull the giant arrow out. Drogon is in pain. It injured him, but he’ll be okay won’t he?? He better be.
Tyrion is there, overlooking the battle. He sees Jaime. And comments on how stupid he is. Yes he did something so stupid!
Jaime grabs a spear and starts charging right towards Dany! What a fucking idiot. Probably the stupidest thing he could have done at that moment. Did he really think he was going to get a clear shot at Dany?? Of course Drogon is going to protect his mother. He’s about to burn Jaime, but Bronn (I think, but maybe it was Dickon?) pushes him out of the way and into the water. And I guess we’ll have to wait to see what happens. Lets just hope his solid gold armour doesn’t make him sink to the bottom.
I can just imagine what was going through Jaime’s mind. He killed the Mad King because he threatened to burn the whole city down. And now he sees his daughter riding around on a dragon, burning his army to the ground. He wanted to kill her before she did anymore damage.
That was EPIC!! This episode honestly left me speechless. I can’t even put into words how incredible it was. I think that battle tops Battle of the Bastards for me. I mean, we have a Lannister army, against the Dothraki, who are foreign savages form across the sea. Plus a fire breathing dragon. It was just so cool!
And unlike the other battles on this show, I didn’t know whose side I was on. I think I was leaning slightly more towards Dany, but I didn’t want Jaime and Bronn to die. It was such a conflicting battle. And for moment I legit thought that Jaime might die. I’ve waited so long to see a dragon battle like this. I’m blown away!
That episode was completely unexpected. I did not see any of that coming. As this was the shortest episode of the season, I thought maybe it wouldn’t be as good as the rest, but boy was I wrong! We got another Stark reunion and an epic battle! Best episode of the season so far, and one of my favourite episodes overall. This show continually blows me away. If this episode is anything to go by, the rest of the season is going to be insane.
