Dragonstone

This episode largely serves to remind viewers where each of the protagonists are and where they hope to go. In the opening scene we see that Arya's revenge against the Freys didn't end with the killing of Walder. Meanwhile her brother Brandon reaches The Wall, warning of the approaching threat while their siblings Jon and Sansa disagree on how to proceed after the defeat on Ramsey Bolton and his forces. Back in King's Landing Cersei, now the Queen, is seeking new allies for the coming fight against Daenerys's forces as well as against the Armies of the North and the Sand Sisters to the south. Elsewhere Sam is trying to find a source of dragon glass and Daenerys finally returns to Westeros.

I really enjoyed this episode; it started well with Arya making it abundantly clear that she has lots of people to kill. It then proceeds to remind us what other characters are up to while setting things up for future episodes. The tension between Sansa and Jon hints at possible problems to come and the meeting between Cersei and Euron Greyjoy suggests the possibility of an interesting alliance. Apart from the opening scene there is little in the way of violence; even that involved poison rather than action; that didn't bother me though as the more talky elements served to remind me of the various characters after some time away from the series. I know some people weren't keen with having singer Ed Sheeran appear as a Lannister soldier but it didn't bother me; if I hadn't heard about his appearance before watching I doubt I'd have thought anything of it. As expected the cast are all on fine form and the effects are impressive. Overall a long season opener that immediately brought me back into the story after a gap of almost two years.

Game of Thrones is finally on its seventh season now. And we finally have the endgame in sight for the story. This episode does admittedly fall short of the previous two OUTSTANDING episodes from season six, but we still want to see where Daenerys, Tyrion, Jon Snow and The Hound end up by the time the story is all wrapped-up come season eight.

This was a good episode to start on, but I'm mighty curious to see where this will all go to. Will Tyrion survive? Will Daenerys actually take back her long-lost home of Kings Landing? And will The Hound confront his brother The Mountain? I hope the latter happens; that will be a fight to remember.

Anyway, Game of Thrones is still on the air and still leaving an impact on us.

After being impressed by how impressive the sixth season of Game of Thrones was when it continued the character arcs for the surviving Stark and Lannister family members and the writing was as strong as the previous five seasons (despite one episode in season 5 that I considered to be my least favorite, Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken even though it was decent). Anyway, when I saw the first episode of the seventh season last summer in order to catch up with the series finale coming in 2019, it lived up to my expectations and it became a great start. The reason why I'm giving this a 9/10 is because the only quibble that I have with Dragonstone is that while it was great to see Ed Sheeran and the other song artists Will Champion, the drummer from Coldplay and Gary Lightbody from Snow Patrol playing Lannister soldiers and sharing a scene with Maisie Williams, they only appeared for four minutes. I mean, after they sang that song together, I was expecting them to have more screen time in the seventh season, but sadly, they didn't. What a shame.

Anyway, the rest of the episode is solid. The storyline continues to be exquisite much like the previous six seasons and continues to up the ante with the relationships. Not only that, there are some great scenes that made it worthwhile to other viewers. Arya disguising herself as Walder Frey and having her revenge on the House of Frey for killing her mother Catelyn Stark and her brother Robb Stark by killing them, Sandor Clegane, who survived his wounds after the fourth and sixth seasons and having to atone for his old life of working with the House of Lannister, and Daenerys's dramatic homecoming to Dragonstone. Those sequences are amazing and another perfect example of well-paced and atmospheric filming which makes them on par with The Red Wedding, the Execution of Eddard Stark, the destruction of the Great Sept, and more. Ramin Djawadi continues to create more excellent music for his score for this season. It fitted the scenes really well as well as retaining the scale and scope of the production designs, which are still as gorgeous and before. The editing is sharp, the pacing didn't drag, and the acting continues to be strong with the best coming from Maisie Williams, Kit Harrington, Sophie Turner, and Emilia Clarke.

Overall, Dragonstone delivered what it promised. It showed the characters trying to make an army to they can begin the war against the White Walkers while continuing the depth and development. This deserves a thumbs up from me. :)

Season 7, episode 1. The Hound and Beric Dondarrion are aligned - both wonder why they are still alive, Beric talks Hound into looking into the fire to see what he can see. Cersei is trying to find allies - Jaime is there to help her. Arya pays a visit to all the Freys to remind them "The North Remembers". Daenerys, Tyrion and their fleet arrive in Westeros. Sam and Gilly are adapting to their new life in Oldtown - Sam discovers a Stannis must have been correct. The Night King is making his way south.

9/10

Just out of this world awesome, has to be the best season premier of any show ever. Every second of this one hour episode was pure gold, everything from the writing, to the amazing acting, directing and effects.

HBO has done it again, this is the reason why Game of Thrones is the greatest show that has ever been. I have to also praise the score by Ramin Djawadi.

All and all, this episode made it official, that Game of Thrones is way way better than the books it's based on. Sorry George, but sometimes adaptations are just better. And this is one of those times.