Shea Reviews – Game of Thrones S07E04 – The Spoils of War

Note: This post contains spoilers for Game of Thrones.

“The Spoils of War” was definitely an improvement over the last two weeks. We got a nice scene between Jon and Dany regarding the Children of the Forest and the White Walkers, Arya made it to Winterfell and took Brienne down a notch, and the battle between the Lannisters and the Dothraki was possibly to most tension-filled battle since Blackwater way back in season two, considering we had beloved characters on both sides. The stakes were immensely high.

Unfortunately — and I’m sorry to always be “that guy” — but things didn’t totally come together in the way I would have liked, and I still just don’t think the writing and storytelling are up to the standards of the early seasons. It’s my common refrain, but Game of Thrones now feels like a typical television show. Truly unexpected things rarely happen, characters take actions that feel wrong just to satisfy the plot, and other characters walk around with an impenetrable shield around them because they matter too much to the story to die at that moment. Those aren’t things that used to affect the course of Game of Thrones, and it’s still disappointing to see the show now following that model.

But, I’ve shared plenty of thoughts on those points in the past two weeks, so let’s start by talking about some of the greatness in “The Spoils of War.”

First, that battle in The Reach. I didn’t want Jaime and the Lannisters to win, but I also didn’t want him or Bronn to kick it. We’ve spent so much time investing in these characters, and they’ve gone on such a journey together, that it’ll be a shame when they die. Because believe you me, they’re going to die. Jaime will undoubtedly live through that lame as hell fake cliffhanger, but I wouldn’t be surprised if next week’s episode began with Jaime surfacing to find a torched Bronn lying on the beach. They have one final exchange, Jaime says Bronn can have Highgarden if he lives, Bronn says something about Jaime being true to himself or some shit, then Bronn dies.

In all seriousness, though, Jaime couldn’t go out like this, which kind of affected the stakes of this battle. There’s still too much for him to do on the show — namely, to tell Cersei that Tyrion didn’t kill Joffrey, and then to eventually be the one to put Cersei out of everyone’s misery before taking his own life. Still, a small piece of me hoped that Game of Thrones still had the edge to kill off such a major character in such an unexpected way. But alas, Jaime will live on. It’s ok, though, because the battle itself was amazing.

Despite my complaints about the quality of writing nowadays, Game of Thrones can still bring the spectacle. To see Drogon flying around up close was intense as hell. The framing of the shots from below also helped sell just how scary it would be to see a fucking dragon flying around above you, torching everything. I’m curious about Dany’s strategy to destroy all of the supplies. The storytelling wasn’t super clear, but I thought those carriages were hauling food and supplies to King’s Landing to help everyone get through winter. Couldn’t Dany’s people have benefitted from those, as well? And if not, couldn’t she have found a way to distribute to the common people to earn a bit of credit there? It just doesn’t make sense to destroy it, and only further highlights that she has more of her father in her than she’s willing to admit.

Speaking of rash actions, that whole moment where she questioned Tyrion’s loyalty was complete bullshit. If the implication was that Tyrion was taking it easy because he didn’t want a bunch of people to die, that’s understandable. But it seemed to me that she was challenging his devotion to her — basically accusing him of secretly working with his siblings. Again, the dialogue could have been better here to clear up the subtext, but either way, this is annoying. There is no way Dany would be doubting Tyrion at this point. It came off as the show trying to conjure up some internal conflict on team Dany.

The episode also built on the whole “Dany and Jon gonna get married” fan-fic with Davos’ cheesy as hell “I saw you admiring her good heart” line. It was the worst kind of dad joke. Seriously cringe-worthy. And lame. We did, however, get some nice interaction with them in the dragonglass caves that felt much more natural. When Jon revealed the drawings of the White Walkers, I was waiting for Dany to accuse him of drawing them himself, but I guess humor has never been her strong suit. Tyrion would have nailed that joke.

Back in King’s Landing, Cersei is paying back Lannister debts with Tyrell gold. You can read more about it in my theorizing post, but I think Cersei’s mention of The Golden Company will have some importance in the near future.

Finally, in Winterfell, we got the second Stark reunion in as many episodes, and boy do I have thoughts on this one.

I get it. Arya had to make it back to see her siblings because it’s a tv show and it’s what the viewers want — and it does also serve the important story purpose of highlighting just how much they all have changed in the past several years. These characters may still be siblings, and will always hold a special bond because of it, but they all could not be any more different, now.

However, I can’t help but be a little disappointed that Arya did end up changing her mind and abandoning her trip to King’s Landing — at least for the time being. It’s completely personal preference, but I thought the whole “that’s not you” moment with Nymeria would also be self-reflective. The new Arya isn’t the kind of person that drops everything for family. Her entire life is about vengeance, now. Again, I get why the story went in this direction and I’m sure cool things will continue to come of it, but I think it would have been a more interesting character choice for her to accomplish her goals (or die trying) before allowing herself to see her family again.

Seeing Arya in action against Brienne was super cool, though. We haven’t been able to see Arya get down and dirty much outside of some training montages in Braavos, and she’s clearly turned herself into a pretty efficient assassin. I hope her and Brienne become buds.

Let’s talk about the business with the dagger. Obviously, it’s Valyrian steel, so it’ll prove useful against the White Walkers, but there were much bigger things at play here. First, why did Littlefinger give the dagger to Bran? Was he trying to shake him, reminding him of his almost assassination? Was it a test of some kind? Bran clearly caught onto something with his reference to Littlefinger’s famous speech about chaos and ladders. Sansa’s right, Littlefinger is not a generous man. There’s some other angle he’s playing, and I’m thankful that at least one damn character on this show can still be mysterious.

Also, as a side note, can we all finally agree that Sansa is the most useless Stark? She’s done an okay job running Winterfell in Jon’s absence, but she’s nothing compared to her siblings. Jon is King in the North and currently the best hope at defeating the White Walkers. Arya is a complete badass. Bran is… admittedly weird, but he’s basically all-knowing and all-seeing. Which brings me back to the dagger. Theoretically, Bran now knows that it was Littlefinger that betrayed Ned in King’s Landing. Is it possible the Cersei wasn’t the only one behind the catspaw dagger? Could Littlefinger have had something to do with it? Back in the day, he claimed to have lost the dagger to Tyrion, which we know is a lie. He’s the one that said chaos is a ladder — helping the queen kill a young lord would certainly contribute to that chaos.

I would say Littlefinger’s demise is imminent — and will probably be at the hands of Arya — but he still has too much to do. He has to be around for the reveal of Jon Targaryen, and he has to get one final push into Sansa to try something. I don’t think it’ll work, but he’s been biding his time for a little too long at this point.

Oh, right, Theon is also back and he shockingly forgot to mention that he’s a coward and deserves to die. Man, I hate that character.

The next episode is titled “Eastwatch,” and considering Jon sent the Wildlings there to help hold off the White Walkers, you can bet your ass we’re going to see some action there next week. I have to imagine that Tormund will make it back in one piece — all that creepy flirtation and side-eyeing at Brienne can’t amount to nothing.

8.4/10

So, what did you think of “The Spoils of War?” Let me know in the comments below!