If you have two eyes and a brain, you're well aware that last Sunday's episode, "The Spoils of War," was one of the most important hours of the entire series. Game of Thrones, for all its grandeur and subversiveness, is finally revealing its traditional three-act structure. Act I is the fall of the Starks, charting the tragedy of Ned Stark, the diaspora of the siblings, and the War of the Five Kings, which ended in the Red Wedding. Act II was the aftermath and reshuffling of political power—the "Feast for Crows," where players like the Lannisters, Tyrells, Boltons, and a still raw Daenerys vied for positioning in a broken, tumultuous realm. That act ended with Jon's reluctant rise to power and parentage revelation, Dany crossing the narrow sea and Cersei wiping the chess board half-clean in "The Winds of Winter." We always knew Act III would mean war and an endgame face-off with the White Walkers, and this past Sunday, after three episodes of buildup, the stage was finally and completely set for the mayhem to come. Surprisingly enough, no one of major importance died in the Field of Fire 2.0 (that we know of), and the winners, losers, and MVP are pretty obvious: yay Starks and Dany, boo Lannisters and Littlefinger, all hail Drogon. So instead of doing that this week, let's look at the five most important endgame storylines estalished in "The Spoils of War." THE STARKS For the first time since season 1, there are more than three Starks in Winterfell. And for the first time since episode 1, Bran, Arya, and Sansa are together again. Even the most casual Thrones observers know how absolutely monumental this moment was, and how clearly it indicates that we're approaching the homestretch of the story. Seeing the three Starks in front of the weirwood tree and walking through the courtyard was an emotional and chill-inducing experience, because it's not just their home—it’s ours too. This is where we began the story and fell in love with our protagonists, and when it was taken from the characters, it was taken from us too. From a story perspective, Winterfell is as sacred to the viewer as it is to any Stark. When Arya looked around the courtyard and saw the direwolf banners hanging from the ramparts, we were all thinking the same thing she was: this is where we belong. Aside from the warm fuzzies, though, reuniting the Starks brings together three of the most powerful and important players in the entire series. Arya is a world-class assassin, capable of donning her victims’ faces, wiping entire houses out of existence, and sparring with the most fearsome fighters in Westeros. Sansa is a shrewd and capable leader, having learned the do’s and (mostly) don’ts of ruling from the likes of Cersei and Littlefinger. And Bran is, well, an omnipotent and all-seeing demigod. After being some of the most vulnerable, victimized characters in the story, the Starks are more than capable of dealing with nearly any threat left on the board. Especially now that Arya is in possession of... THE DAGGER As we went over last week, this dagger has returned from a six-year hiatus to become one of the most intriguing and important elements of the Thrones conclusion. Littlefinger gives Bran the dagger in an attempt to worm his way into the good graces of the rightful heir to Winterfell—and what a foolish thing to do that was. Littlefinger has never looked even close to shook, but when Bran reminded him that “chaos is a ladder,” we saw something in Petyr’s face that we haven’t before: fear. He’s just forfeited a priceless item and bargaining tool, and possibly brought to the attention of someone who can see all space and time his role in dismantling their family. Littlefinger’s impending death will be a crucial endgame moment, and it looks like the first domino has fallen. There’s one more wrinkle about this dagger, and it’s something that potentially vastly outweighs its importance in Littlefinger’s fate. Bran asks him “Do you know who this belonged to?” and interestingly, we’re still not entirely sure of what the answer is. In the show, Petyr invents a story about Tyrion owning it in order to frame him. In the books, it’s implied that Joffrey took the dagger from King Robert and hired the catspaw to kill Bran in an attempt to impress his father. Bran’s question, on the surface, looks like a trap; he knows the answer, so he’d be well aware if Littlefinger lied to him. However, rumblings and discussion within the community have come up with something else: far from being a “gotcha” question, Bran really is curious if Littlefinger knows who the dagger belonged to—because the answer is probably someone of legend. The dagger appeared in one of Sam’s books at the Citadel, which can only mean that it’s an object of great importance to… something. Or someone. Its existence has stuck in the mind of viewers and readers for nearly a decade because there is clearly something highly unusual about it. Not only is it Valyrian steel, but it’s also astoundingly ornate and has a dragonbone hilt, implying that it almost certainly belonged to royalty or someone of mythical proportions. Did it belong to Aegon the Conqueror? Or maybe Prince Rhaegar? (This could make sense if Joffrey indeed stole it from King Robert; he could have in turn taken it as one of the “spoils of war” after slaying Rhaegar.) Can this dagger kill the Night King? It's one of the last loose ends to tie up before the climax of Thrones, and this was a crucial episode for the mysterious weapon. Of course, it also might have had something to do with… THE PACT Assuming Jon and Davos didn’t make those cave paintings about five minutes before Dany showed up, our heroes were just given one of the most crucial pieces of information in the entire Thrones universe. Common knowledge of Westerosi history maintains that the First Men came from Essos, encountered the Children of the Forest, and began a war that essentially wiped the Children from the face of the earth. However, as Dany and Jon now know (and hardcore fans have for some time), the war ended not in domination, but with diplomacy. The First Men and Children put aside their differences to face their common enemy: the White Walkers, which the Children created to destroy the First Men but eventually lost control of. It’s unclear how long the peace lasted, and whether or not the White Walkers were the immediate cause, or if the war simply ended diplomatically and time passed before the Walkers rose up as an apocalyptic threat. In any case, this episode finally introduced to the show the seeds of a long-standing theory within the book-reading community: that the original Long Night ended in diplomacy, and the Great War to come before our story ends will too. There are hints to this—GRRM himself has said that the Walkers are intelligent and can be reasoned with. There is no record of how the original Long Night actually ended. And, most intriguing of all, questions still remain over just who raised… THE WALL While this technically didn’t happen in-episode, we know from next week’s preview that we’ll be getting our first mention of Eastwatch-by-the-Sea since episode 1 of this season. An all-star crew of Tormund, Thoros of Myr, Beric Dondarrion, and The Hound are en route to the easternmost end of the Wall, and as we’ve seen from the season 7 trailers, there’s a confrontation with the army of the dead awaiting us there. The integrity of the Wall is one of the most central concepts in the world of Thrones, but as Archmaester Ebrose said in the season premiere, “The Wall has stood through it all.” That means it’s coming down, and soon. We’ve known pretty much since the beginning that the Wall will have to fall somehow before we can truly wrap this story up. Recent theories have posited that Bran’s mark, the same one that let the Walkers into the Great Weirwood Tree and doomed Hodor, Summer, and the OG Three-Eyed Raven, will allow the Night King south of the Wall. Book readers might point to the Horn of Joramun, which is said to have the power to topple the Wall (and may have already appeared in the show). The most radical theory, however, is that the Walkers can tear it down themselves—because they’re the ones who built it. But why? Legend has it that a proto-Stark named Bran the Builder raised the Wall with magic, but that might not be the true story. Maybe it was part of a diplomatic solution to the Long Night. Maybe humanity and the Children harnessed the power of dragons and dragonglass to the point that the Walkers needed a wall to keep themselves safe. Whatever the reason, all we know is that somehow, a 700-foot-tall barrier of ice that spans the length of an entire continent was raised, and there’s only one race we know of that can control ice like a Valyrian controls fire. And speaking of fire… THE DRAGONS From the very beginning, the dragons have been one of the most essential parts and tantalizing promises of the story. They shaped the very history and world that this series has taken place in, and their return is what made Daenerys the force and central protagonist that she is. Outside of the narrative, they’re also a core part of the entire franchise’s identity, and last Sunday, seven years of teasing and slow-burning gave way to one of the most spellbinding and jaw-dropping action sequences ever committed to screen.
Forget mythical heroes and world-shattering prophecies; Dany riding Drogon into the field of battle is what was truly promised. From the moment the Mother of Dragons gave birth, we knew that the story wouldn’t--couldn’t—end before the dragon queen took her children across the Narrow Sea and brought Westeros to its knees. For show watchers, it took seven years. For book readers, more than twenty. But now, finally, we’ve seen the true potential of the dragons with our own eyes. Questions still remain: will Jon ride a dragon? Will one of them fall or be turned by the Night King? This week, let’s keep those to the side and celebrate an unbelievably satisfying payoff after years and years of waiting. Seeing a dragon in battle was the moment we were all waiting for, and now that it’s come, the Song of Ice and Fire can enter its final verses.
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