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Will ‘Game of Thrones’ right its wrongs by the finale?

ANALYSIS | HBO showrunners have suffered in season 7 without the help of George R.R. Martin. Will the finale offer redemption?

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August 27, 2017 at 12:00 p.m. EDT

This post contains spoilers and speculation for season 7 of “Game of Thrones”

Without George R.R. Martin to fill out what falls beyond the bullet points of the plot, “Game of Thrones” showrunners have had to fend for themselves in what turned out to be a flimsy season.

What we now have are characters from Winterfell to Dragonstone and King’s Landing acting in incomprehensible, and in some cases illogical ways. In a television show featuring dragons, white walkers and fire witches, it’s ironic that what breaks the confines of what’s believable are the fundamentals of time and logic.

These basic unanswered questions from the penultimate episode distract from the spectacle of zombie polar bears: How does Gendry make it back to the Wall so quickly? Why doesn’t anyone talk to greenseer Bran? How does a raven travel the hundreds of miles to Dragonstone so fast?

We’ve come to accept that the dragons and other mystical elements are part of this world because there are rules associated with them that help ground the audience. When you start breaking those rules, you get lost.

Let’s catch up with our main characters, location by location, and where they need to be after the season finale if the show wants to redeem itself.

Winterfell

Sansa is the only Stark running Winterfell, even with her siblings home with her.The Stark children aren’t who they were when they last lived in that castle.

Under Littlefinger’s tutelage, Sansa has reached the “novice-intermediate level” in the game of thrones. I don’t believe we’ve seen anything to indicate she’s anywhere near as ruthless as a leader like Cersei or as calculating as Littlefinger, but she’s certainly picked up some important lessons on politics and keeping her underlings happy.

Jon and Sansa’s relationship is as distant as it has always been, but for different reasons than from when they were children. Jon has built himself under Ned Stark’s image and wants to do what is right rather than what is politically convenient. Sansa Stark will do what’s politically correct to keep the Northern houses in order, instead of necessarily what’s right in the “honor bound” sense.

Sansa has been groomed by Littlefinger of all people, Lord of the Vale and the malevolent ‘nice guy’ who has latched on to Sansa in a sickening mix of unrequited love for her mother and powerlust. Sansa says earlier this season that she’s learned a lot from Cersei Lannister, a mad queen who rules like a drunk with a spear.

With Jon gone, Sansa has had to rebuild her relationship with Arya, who is more an assassin than the plucky little sister she used to know.

It was clear in last week’s episode that Sansa has become afraid of Arya, thanks to Littlefinger’s manipulations. The scene with Arya coming toward Sansa with a dagger felt very menacing. Could the sisters turn on each other in the finale, ending in disastrous results?

There is a possibility that the sisters have actually been plotting against Littlefinger this whole time. If that’s true, I think it would be extremely deceptive on the part of the showrunners to reveal this off-screen plot in the finale. With this mess of a season, it’s possible that is where this is heading. If it ends in the sisters teaming up against Littlefinger, hopefully the showrunners can make that ending satisfying enough to make up for the misdirection.

There’s still, however, the cryptic Bran to consider. We know he hasn’t revealed to anyone the full extent of his all-encompassing knowledge as the Three-Eyed Raven. I expect that in the season finale, Bran will reveal major plot points that he has been withholding all season. Maybe he will even play a hand in helping Arya and Sansa see things more clearly.

Dragonstone

Daenerys has always been a divisive figure in the “Game of Thrones” fandom. We’ve been waiting for her to reach Westeros for the last six seasons now, and this season has been an exercise in wish fulfillment.

From the moment she steps foot on Dragonstone, Daenerys is a dragon in the making. She starts off listening to Tyrion’s advice, only to have it fail her every time.

“Enough with the clever plans!” she tells Tyrion at one point, and that’s when things finally start going right for her side.

She devastates the Lannister army during the “loot-train battle” sequence (that’s the showrunner’s term not mine). While Varys and Tyrion question whether Dany is going mad, what I see is someone taking charge and becoming the dragon that Lady Oleanna implores her to be.

As Dany comes into her own as a ruler, she can’t conquer Westeros without strong allies. With her initial allies gone by the fourth episode, Daenerys needs an alliance with the North now more than ever.

…Speaking of the North, how about Jon and Daenerys?

As he recovers from a near-death experience, Jon agrees to bend the knee to Daenerys by way of a marriage proposal (I can’t think of a reason why this hand-holding conversation didn’t end in a kiss other than the director is intentionally withholding this for the season finale).

As much as I enjoy the on-screen chemistry between Daenerys and Jon, there’s of course the incest question. Since they are both Targaryens and unaware of it till now, it could be that Jon finds out about his true lineage this last episode and it could put the brakes on their marriage. But, as we all know, the Targaryens have made a sort of family tradition out of incest, so that may not stop them.

I’m hoping that the final episode will give Jon the confirmation of his parentage, and hopefully another shot of Daenerys riding in on a dragon to save Jon from Cersei Lannister.

King’s Landing

Cersei ends the season having not left the offices of King’s Landing. She killed the Sand Snakes in the first few episodes — an incident that I had actually forgotten about until an astute reader reminded me of it on Twitter.

Other than that, most of Cersei’s interactions have been with her local Iron Bank representative Tycho Nestoris as they formulate a debt-management plan.

While I personally find the scenes with the Iron Bank bland and uninteresting, I expect that we’ve been shown them for a reason. A golden rule of good writing is that you don’t introduce a concept/character unless you’re planning on using them.

In their early interactions, Tycho is skeptical that Cersei will win the war against Dany and be able to pay off their debts:

“The Lannisters owe the Iron Bank quite a lot of money, but the Lannisters always pay their debts. Do former slaves? Or Dothraki? Or dragons?” Cersei asks Tycho to consider.

“Your father’s daughter indeed.”

By the end of episode 5, “Eastwatch”, Cersei has repaid the Lannister’s debts to the Iron Bank. But is she the bet that the Iron Bank will want to take in the long run? She’s demonstrated that she’s willing to commit mass murder with her stunt at the Great Sept. From the Iron Bank’s perspective, even if Cersei no longer owes them any money, what reason do they have to continue doing business with such a mentally unstable ruler?

Daenerys may not necessarily ask for the Iron’s Bank’s help, but she does have an army of Dothraki sitting on Dragonstone that need to eat and the money to fund a giant White Walker war. If she can get a meeting with the Iron Bank, it’s possible they would see her as the better investment.

Speculation on the finale

The official previews for the final episode of the season titled “The Dragon and the Wolf” indicate we’re going to see a major meeting of our many main characters in King’s Landing, including the Lannisters and Jon Snow.

I wouldn’t be surprised to see Drogon and Dany make a surprise appearance at this meeting (the episode title is a pretty big clue as to this). I’m speculating that Cersei’s debts she’s resolved with the Iron Bank will come back to bite her once the Iron Bank can see the dragons and the white walker for themselves.

Absent from the episode stills are the Stark sisters, who are presumably still in Winterfell and within shouting distance of Bran. Having a character an all-knowing being is both a blessing and a curse on a television show. He’s great for exposition, but bad because he should be able to resolve the Arya and Sansa conflict in a single conversation. I’d bet that someone, whether it’s Arya or Sansa, wind up finally talking to Bran and finding out that Littlefinger is the true villain.

While I haven’t been happy with the logical inconsistencies of the last three episodes, the spectacle has been fantastic. Though it felt like they may have taken some shortcuts in logic to reach the end, hopefully the season finale will prove to be worth the journey.