King's Landing is where most of the action will be. For Riverlands, it looks like we're getting some Frey/Lannister action. LOTS of speculation about what's going to happen there, but I'd be surprised if it's anything too revolutionary or cliff-hangery. I hope we don't see any Greyjoys. For Sam, I'd be happy just to see him arrive in Oldtown so we can get a brief look at it, without wasting too much time on narrative there. As much as I wouldn't mind not seeing much Winterfell in this episode, we'll probably have a lot of Sansa/Littlefinger discussion. Mereen should be some minor Dany/Tyrion chat. I'm confident we'll see the rest of the Tower of Joy stuff with Bran and that will be the season's big reveal/ending. Arya's arc effectively ended in her last episode, so I'd be happy not seeing her again, other than maybe a brief flash of her on a ship or something.The Shoemaker wrote:Lots of loose ends to tie up. Kingslanding, Riverlands, Greyjoys, Sam, Winterfell, Mereen, Bran (Tower of Joy finisher?) and maybe even Braavos.
Great cinematography in the Winterfell sequence of this episode (not so much the Mereen section). It truly showed the brutality of war, specifically an all-out post-charge melee. Lots of grit and grime, chaos, randomness, and death. The same director is doing the next/finale episode, too, so that should be good (even though it's certainly not to be as grand in action, it'll be grand in scope).The Shoemaker wrote:And I'm sure like everyone else it was really neat seeing the scene where the Boltons surrounded the Starks and when Jon was being trampled.
Spoiler
"I found it to be really disturbing when Jon was punching Ramsay's face in, as well as when Sansa smiled after watching him being torn apart by dogs." — We're supposed to be disturbed. Moreso by Sansa. With Jon it was more or less war and adrenaline and then he snapped out of it. But with Sansa, it's become clear that her experiences have made her a realist, or closer to one at least. If you want to survive, you've got to get in the game. She knew Rickon was fucked. She kept some of her cards close to her chest because she finally wants some agency for a change. Good people are allowed to smile after their torture-rapists are killed, but more pertinently, after they get what they wanted. This is the first time that Sansa has chosen something, pursued it, and had it go her way. Not that it's likely to keep up (Littlefinger will see to that), but we'll see.
It was a bit sudden - not a whole lot of build up (Arya leaving Braavos, deciding she would go to Frey first, traveling across half of Westeros), but worked as much as it could have.
