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Jul 23, 2017 · Stormborn: Directed by Mark Mylod. With Peter Dinklage, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Lena Headey, Emilia Clarke. Daenerys receives an unexpected visitor. Jon faces resistance. Tyrion plans the conquest of Westeros. Cersei gathers her allies. Arya has a reunion with old friends. Sam risks his career and life.
- (48K)
- Action, Adventure, Drama
- Mark Mylod
- 2017-07-23
- Overview
- Synopsis
- Appearances
- Cast
- Quotes
- Behind the scenes
- In the books
"Stormborn" is the second episode of the seventh season of Game of Thrones. It is the sixty-second episode of the series overall. It premiered on July 23, 2017 on HBO. It was written by Bryan Cogman and directed by Mark Mylod.
On Dragonstone
During a thunderstorm at Dragonstone, Tyrion Lannister, Varys, and Queen Daenerys Targaryen talk about the stormy circumstances of her birth. Varys informs Daenerys that Queen Cersei Lannister's position on Westeros is tenuous. Tyrion counsels her not to burn the Seven Kingdoms and proposes that she forge alliances with the other Houses not currently aligned with Cersei. Dany then questions Varys about his previous services to her father the Mad King and King Robert Baratheon. Varys confides that King Robert Baratheon had little interest in ruling but initially appeared to be a definite improvement over Aerys II. Dany then confronts Varys about his role in hiring the assassins to target her; Varys reminds her that his choices were limited to either feigning continuing loyalty to Robert by arranging the assassination, or refusing and losing his head for it. She distrusts Varys due to his track record of switching allegiances. Refusing to be intimidated, Varys points out that incompetent rulers do not deserve blind loyalty, then recounts his lowly origins as a castrated slave and tells her that his true loyalty lies with the oppressed masses. Varys tells Daenerys that if all she wants from him is blind loyalty, she may as well have him killed, but he is much more useful to her and to the Realm alive, and that he believes she is the last hope for the people. Dany accepts his fealty on the condition that he not conspire against her - instead, she has Varys swear that if he thinks she is failing the people, he'll tell her when she's wrong and be as honest with her as he has been today. Varys agrees. Seemingly satisfied, Daenerys also warns Varys that if he betrays her, she will burn him alive. Varys replies that he would expect nothing less from the "Mother of Dragons." Daenerys is then visited by the red priestess Melisandre, who believes that Dany might be the Prince That Was Promised. Varys questions Melisandre about her previous service to the ill-fated King Stannis Baratheon. While Daenerys initially does not believe that she could be the Prince, Missandei reveals that the High Valyrian word for "prince" or "princess" is gender neutral. When Daenerys asks Melisandre if she believes the prophecy applies to her, Melisandre replies she believes it could refer to Daenerys or one other: Jon Snow, the King in the North, who has united the North and the wildlings against a common enemy. Tyrion vouches for Jon Snow and convinces Daenerys that he will make a good ally, given the crimes committed by the Lannisters against his family. Dany accepts Tyrion's advice, and tells him to extend an invitation for Jon to attend her at Dragonstone – where Jon must "bend the knee." In the Chamber of the Painted Table, Yara Greyjoy and Ellaria Sand firmly advocate an immediate assault on King's Landing. Tyrion advises against laying waste to the Kingdoms' capital and causing the deaths of tens of thousands of innocents. When Ellaria belittles Tyrion for his lack of stomach for war (despite his previous command and service at the Battle of the Blackwater), Tyrion retorts by deriding Ellaria in that her sole accomplishment to the war effort has been to poison an innocent girl, his niece Myrcella Baratheon, for the sake of petty vengeance against the Lannisters. Ellaria does not deny it and expresses regret that her lover Oberyn Martell died for the cause of Tyrion's freedom. Daenerys ends the argument with a rebuke for Ellaria to respect her Hand. Back to the matter of the invasion, Daenerys insists she doesn't wish to be known as the Queen of the Ashes, to which Olenna Tyrell sarcastically ponders if Daenerys will take the Iron Throne by asking politely. Olenna reminds Daenerys of her granddaughter Margaery Tyrell's fate, a beloved queen who was killed when Cersei blew up the Great Sept of Baelor. Tyrion proposes using a combination of Tyrell and Dornish forces to lay siege to King's Landing, much to the chagrin of Olenna and Ellaria, who balk at the thought of using their own soldiers. Tyrion, however, insists that using the Unsullied and Dothraki would arouse the patriotism of Westerosi bannermen, who would see them as foreign invaders and potentially close ranks behind Cersei. He proposes sending Grey Worm and the Unsullied to take Casterly Rock instead, cutting off Cersei's retreat and dealing a massive blow to the morale of the Western army. In the meantime, the Greyjoy fleet will escort Ellaria back to Sunspear to rally the Dornish forces and then ferry them up the coast to King's Landing, bypassing the Stormlands and allowing the siege to commence early. Daenerys accepts Tyrion's proposal and reminds the others on her council that she will not be attacking King's Landing, and requests consenting approval from everyone, which they give. Daenerys dismisses everyone except Lady Olenna. The Dragon Queen tells the Queen of Thorns she is aware that her motives are based on revenge for Cersei and not out of love for Daenerys. Daenerys insists that she will usher in an era of peace. Olenna, however, reflects that there was never a lasting peace under the Mad King, or any preceding Targaryen, for that matter. She tells Daenerys that Tyrion is a clever man but she herself has outlasted many clever men by not listening to their advice. Olenna says the lords of Westeros are sheep but Daenerys is not a sheep. She counsels Daenerys that if she's to rule Westeros, "You're a dragon. Be a dragon." Later, Missandei visits Grey Worm to bid him farewell before his departure to Casterly Rock. Grey Worm confides that Missandei is his weakness, and when she expresses confusion, he tells her that the Good Masters of Astapor tortured the Unsullied by exposing them to their worst fears. For example, a fear of dogs led to being made to sleep with dogs, a fear of heights means climbing a cliff. If the young boy was afraid of drowning, he'd be thrown into the sea. If he drowns, it would be "good", and if he learns to swim, it would be "good" because only the fit survive. Grey Worm recalls that he was never the biggest/fastest/strongest but he was the most fearless warrior until he met Missandei. She replies that she also has to deal with fear and kisses him. Missandei strips naked and proceeds to undress Grey Worm. Grey Worm is reluctant to remove his trousers (presumably not wanting to horrify her with his castration scars) but eventually acquiesces to Missandei's wishes. The two of them then share an intimate sexual encounter.
In King's Landing
In the throne room of the Red Keep, Queen Cersei Lannister gives a speech urging several nobles from the Reach, including Lord Randyll Tarly, to reaffirm their allegiance to the Iron Throne and not follow House Tyrell in supporting Daenerys. Cersei warns that the Targaryen's Dothraki and Unsullied hordes would pillage their lands and homes, and rape their women. When Lord Tarly points out that Daenerys has three dragons, Maester Qyburn replies that he is "at work on a solution". Following the audience with Queen Cersei, Lord Tarly meets in private with Jaime Lannister, who wants to appoint him as his general. Tarly is unwilling to break his fealty to Lady Olenna Tyrell and is wary of the Lannisters, who "cut [their rivals'] throats at weddings". Jaime reminds Tarly that he also swore an oath to the Iron Throne, and tells him that Cersei is preferable to Daenerys and her foreign armies. Jaime also promises that Cersei will make Tarly the new Warden of the South. Later, Qyburn leads Cersei to the dragon skulls beneath the Red Keep. He tells Cersei that his spies have reported that one of Daenerys' dragons was wounded by a spear at Meereen, showing that the dragons are not invincible. Qyburn then displays a scorpion, a long-range artillery weapon, and reassures her that they can hurt dragons. He has her test the scorpion on the nearby skull of Balerion the Black Dread (the dragon of Aegon the Conqueror) and she is pleased when the bolt pierces through the massive, hard skull.
At Winterfell
At Winterfell, Jon Snow, Sansa Stark, and Davos Seaworth discuss the letter they received from Tyrion. Jon asks for Sansa's opinion and while Sansa remembers that Tyrion was kind to her and was unlike the rest of his family, she wonders if the message is truly from Tyrion. Jon confirms the letter's authenticity as it ends with the line "For all dwarfs are bastards in their fathers' eyes," which is what Tyrion told Jon when they first met. Even so, Sansa worries it is too big a risk and Jon concedes that now is not the right time to go to Dragonstone. Davos opines that Dany will make a good ally in the war to come against the White Walkers; Jon himself told him that wights are killed by fire, and what creatures just happen to breathe fire? Some days later, Maester Wolkan brings Jon a message from Sam in the Citadel. Jon gathers the Northern lords in the main hall and announces that Sam's letter reveals there is a vein of dragonglass beneath Dragonstone. He adds that Lord Tyrion has invited him to Dragonstone to meet with Queen Daenerys and announces his decision to travel to Dragonstone to convince Daenerys to join their fight against the White Walkers, declaring that he plans to travel with Davos to White Harbor and sail to Dragonstone island. Lords Yohn Royce and Robett Glover voice their opinions that a Targaryen cannot be trusted, citing the atrocities committed by Daenerys's father. Lady Lyanna Mormont urges the King in the North to stay at home. Jon accepts that he is taking a risk but stresses that the fight against the White Walkers is more important, and they need Daenerys' aid if the North is to be saved. Jon emphasizes that the North is his home, it is part of him, and he will never stop fighting for it. Sansa reiterates her objection to Jon's leaving, and Jon tells Sansa that he is appointing her as ruler of the North in his absence as she is his sister, regent, and a Stark. Sansa accepts. In the catacombs beneath Winterfell, Petyr Baelish finds Jon Snow, who is visiting his father's tomb, and vouches that Tyrion can be trusted. Petyr tells Jon that while he and Eddard had their differences, they both loved Catelyn Stark. He notes Catelyn wasn't fond of Jon, and muses that perhaps Catelyn underestimated Jon's potential as Jon now stands as the North's best chance against the coming storm. When Jon, who clearly distrusts Baelish, says that Petyr shouldn't be there and that they have nothing to say to each other, Baelish replies that Jon should be grateful to him for saving him from death at the hands of Ramsay Bolton. Baelish insists he is not Jon's enemy. He tells Jon that he loves Sansa, as he loved Sansa's mother; a disgusted Jon, angered by this, lashes out and seizes Baelish by the throat, slamming him into a wall. He tells Baelish, "Touch my sister and I'll kill you myself." Outside, Jon, Davos, and several horsemen then prepare to ride south to White Harbor while Sansa watches from the castle battlements. Before Jon leaves, he and Sansa bid each other farewell. Petyr, emerging from the catacombs, gazes at Sansa.
Firsts Deaths
•Obara Sand •Nymeria Sand •Many Ironborn soldiers
Starring
•Peter Dinklage as Tyrion Lannister •Nikolaj Coster-Waldau as Jaime Lannister •Lena Headey as Cersei Lannister •Emilia Clarke as Daenerys Targaryen •Kit Harington as Jon Snow •Aidan Gillen as Petyr Baelish •Liam Cunningham as Davos Seaworth •Sophie Turner as Sansa Stark •Maisie Williams as Arya Stark •Carice van Houten as Melisandre •Nathalie Emmanuel as Missandei •Indira Varma as Ellaria Sand •Alfie Allen as Theon Greyjoy •John Bradley as Samwell Tarly •Gwendoline Christie as Brienne of Tarth •Conleth Hill as Varys •with Iain Glen as Jorah Mormont
Guest starring
•Diana Rigg as Olenna Tyrell •Jim Broadbent as Ebrose •Pilou Asbæk as Euron Greyjoy •Gemma Whelan as Yara Greyjoy •Anton Lesser as Qyburn •Jacob Anderson as Grey Worm •Keisha Castle-Hughes as Obara Sand •Rosabell Laurenti Sellers as Tyene Sand •Jessica Henwick as Nymeria Sand •Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson as Gregor Clegane •Ben Hawkey as Hot Pie •Tim McInnerny as Robett Glover •James Faulkner as Randyll Tarly •Rupert Vansittart as Yohn Royce •Tom Hopper as Dickon Tarly •Bella Ramsey as Lyanna Mormont •Richard Rycroft as Wolkan •Ben Fox as a Crossroads Inn patron •Mark Roper as a Crossroads Inn patron •Megan Parkinson as Alys Karstark •Harry Grasby as Ned Umber
Uncredited
•Logan Bruce as an Ironborn •Graeme Peacock as a Silence crewman
Melisandre: "I believe you have a role to play, as does another. The King in the North, Jon Snow."
Varys: "Incompetence shouldn't be rewarded with blind loyalty."
Tyrion Lannister: "We turn the dragons loose, tens of thousands will die in the firestorms.
Ellaria Sand: "It's called war. You don't have the stomach for it, scurry back into hiding."
Tyrion: "I know how you wage war. We don't poison little girls here. Myrcella was innocent."
Ellaria: "She was a Lannister. There are no innocent Lannisters! My greatest regret is that Oberyn died fighting for you."
General
•The title refers to Daenerys Targaryen, and how she received her personal sobriquet, "Daenerys Stormborn" (which she has used throughout the series). Right before the rebels arrived at King's Landing at the end of Robert's Rebellion, her pregnant mother was sent to safety on Dragonstone. Her mother went into labor soon afterward, during a massive storm that smashed to pieces what little was left of the Targaryen fleet anchored at Dragonstone, before dying in childbirth. Being born during this ill-omened storm, she earned the nickname "Daenerys Stormborn". The episode itself opens with Tyrion and Daenerys referring to this. •The original title of this episode was actually "The Mad King's Daughter", as Bryan Cogman revealed in a post-premiere interview. His initial draft of the episode had someone refer to her as "the Mad King's Daughter" in every other storyline, and these were actually filmed, but the lines were trimmed for time from the final version (i.e. Cersei calls her that in the final cut, but someone would have called her that too in the Winterfell storyline). The idea was to stress that no one in Westeros really knows Daenerys because she's been in exile her whole life, and her father was an infamous, literally insane tyrant, so many people would realistically be somewhat wary of her. •It is the second episode (following "Breaker of Chains"), whose title refers to one of Daenerys's sobriquets. •The soundtrack playing over the credits is a rendition of the House Greyjoy theme. On the official soundtrack release it is titled "Ironborn." •Cogman went on to say in his post-premiere interview that with so many once-separated characters now meeting again, there was a danger in the writing process of going into "recap mode": two separated characters summarizing their experiences even though we, the audience, already saw this, so it would waste time and narrative focus. •In the original draft, for example, Varys's scene with Daenerys was actually much longer, as he gives a summary of the current political situation across all of Westeros for her to plan out her next move - this was actually filmed, but edited for time/focus. •Similarly, his original draft included a scene - which was removed from his second draft and never even filmed - of Theon and Tyrion on Dragonstone having a conversation about Sansa - Tyrion was in a sham marriage to her and worries about her safety, and Theon explains how they escaped Winterfell. This was never even filmed and cut from the script fairly early, by the second draft revision, because they'd just be using up screentime summarizing things the audience already saw (not to mention, why Theon and Tyrion wouldn't have had such a conversation in the days they first met in Meereen, which was weeks or months ago). Cogman said one of the primary reasons he initially put it in was just because Peter Dinklage (Tyrion) and Alfie Allen (Theon) are two of the best actors in the cast, so he wanted to have a scene showing them off together. •Cogman also remarked in his post-premiere interview that while filming Season 7, even the actors were surprised at times at how fast the pace is going, that is, how much time passes off-screen between scenes: we see a character writing a letter sent by messenger-raven, someone else receiving it in another part of Westeros, then the original sender reacting to a response letter in the same episode. Cogman emphasized that this isn't inherently a contradiction in the internal timeline of the TV series, it's simply that the pace of the narrative is officially faster i.e. in Season 1, Ned Stark and his family travel from Winterfell to the Inn at the Crossroads within a single episode, because many weeks of travel happen off-screen. Weeks and months of narrative pass for Robb Stark while on campaign in Season 2, as well, when scenes aren't directly connected. The timeline only becomes an issue when there is an overt contradiction. For example, Grey Worm leaves Dragonstone and arrives at Casterly Rock, on the other side of the continent, by ship in the next episode, which confused some reviewers - but nothing actually limited how much time passed between these episodes (presumably, weeks pass off-screen); it would only be a contradiction if, for example, Grey Worm arrived at Casterly Rock and said "we left Dragonstone yesterday". •The Bran Stark and Sandor Clegane storylines do not appear in this episode. The storyline of Daenerys and her various allies shifts into focus, which only briefly began at the end of the last episode. •The title sequence updated for this episode to replace the Twins from the preceding episode with Pyke - even though there are no scenes set in the Iron Islands themselves, the Greyjoy characters are very prominent in it (sometimes the animations are chosen on a representative basis). •This is one of the few episodes to actually refer to the eastern continent across the Narrow Sea from Westeros by name as "Essos" - only four times in the past six seasons, making this the fifth time. It is called "Essos" by name in both Daenerys's scenes and by Cersei. Essos is a loose fantasy analogue of Eurasia, and indeed is so vast that characters usually refer to a more specific region, such as "the Free Cities" or "the Dothraki Sea". A character saying "I am going to Essos" is loosely similar to someone in real life saying "I am going to Eurasia" - which could refer to anything from Italy to China. •This episode has two characters named "Nymeria" in it: Arya's direwolf Nymeria (who returns), and the Sand Snake, Nymeria Sand (who is killed). The dialogue simply avoids referring to Nymeria Sand by name. Both characters were named after Nymeria, queen of the Rhoynar, the founder of unified Dorne who lived a thousand years ago (Nymeria Sand is in fact her descendant as a member of House Martell) prior to this episode.
On Dragonstone
•Daenerys Targaryen becomes aware of Jon Snow for the first time, not knowing that he is her nephew by blood. Jon, and nearly everyone alive, is unaware he is the hidden son of Daenerys's older brother Rhaegar Targaryen and Eddard Stark's sister Lyanna Stark. Jon is currently known as Eddard Stark's illegitimate son while Bran Stark is the only living person who knows the truth of Jon's parentage at this time, with the possible exception of Howland Reed. •Tyrion Lannister recalls accompanying Jon Snow to the Wall in Season 1's "The Kingsroad", and cites the deaths of Eddard Stark and Robb Stark at the hands of the Lannisters as reasons why Jon will likely ally with Daenerys against Cersei, despite Aerys Targaryen's crimes against House Stark and House Stark's role in the subsequent rebellion against him. On the other hand, Daenerys wasn't even born when her father killed Jon's grandfather, while Cersei directly betrayed Ned and benefited from Robb's defeat. •Daenerys and Tyrion remark on how she was born on Dragonstone during a large storm similar to the storm currently sweeping over the island at the time. As explained in the "General" notes above, the storm she was born during was so massive and dangerous that it destroyed what was left of the Targaryen fleet at anchor. A preview chapter from the sixth novel explains these weather patterns: because the planet Westeros is located on is bigger than real-life Earth, it has much larger stretches of open water across its oceans, and combined with the fact that the warm summer seasons can last for years at a time, massive super-hurricanes are generated in the warmer southern waters of the Summer Sea during their summer years. These large storms sweep north, and usually tend to slam into the Stormlands and Shipbreaker Bay (it's why these locations have such names in the first place). While the winds and rains can be dangerous, the water the storms dump when they make landfall has also turned the southern portions of the Stormlands around Cape Wrath into a lush temperate rainforest. The odd thing is that the storms pass over the Stepstones to reach the Stormlands, the island chain between Westeros and Essos at the southern end of the Narrow Sea, before curving west to hit the Stormlands. If they went a little farther to the west, however, the storms would make landfall in Dorne, and dump all of their rains there - but because they don't, Dorne remains a parched desert land. No one is sure why the storms go up the Narrow Sea instead of west to Dorne: Doran Martell and most maesters think it is due to weather patterns, while septons and the superstitious think the "weather patterns" are like that because Durran Godsgrief of Storm's End offended a sea god in ancient times. At any rate, on rare occasions, one of these super-hurricanes will sweep even farther north, past Massey's Hook and into Blackwater Bay, where it will ravage islands like Dragonstone. •Daenerys confronts Varys about her condition during her exile and in Season 1: that he wasn't a very good secret benefactor given how much peril she was always in, begging for support from one Free City then the next, nor did he seem aware that her brother Viserys Targaryen was weak and stupid - and given that Varys had no way of knowing Drogo would kill Viserys, presumably for most of the 17 years after the rebellion he should have been planning to put Viserys on the Iron Throne, not her. She is sarcastically quoting what Varys's ally Illyrio Mopatis said to Viserys in the Season 1 premiere ("Winter Is Coming"), that the commoners "drink secret toasts to his health" - to demonstrate that unlike Viserys, she won't fall for such flattery (Jorah later explained that the commoners don't care about politics so long as there is peace, so the idea that there would be a general uprising against Robert Baratheon is pure fantasy). She also points out that she was practically sold off like a horse to secure the marriage-alliance with Drogo's Dothraki. So, ultimately, he didn't seem to be keeping good track of Viserys or Daenerys's welfare. Varys can only respond that he did what he could with limited resources while keeping it a secret. She also brings up that he aided assassination plots against her, though Tyrion argued in Season 5 that Varys must have been intentionally botching the assassinations - just stringing King Robert along so he wouldn't replace Varys with someone who would actually try to have her killed. •Varys's allegiances are somewhat different in the novels due to an omitted storyline from the TV version, but this is a massive spoiler for the books, so it will not be discussed in this article. •It's also brought up that Daenerys and Varys haven't really had a discussion before about their past history and potential future strategies. Apparently, Varys returned to Dorne by the end of last season, then the Martell fleet met the Targaryen fleet in the Narrow Sea (contrary to the claims of some critics, it was never visually established that he sailed all the way back to Meereen again for no reason, but that time passed of-screen). Even so, it's unclear why he didn't discuss it with her after he boarded her boat right before arriving at Dragonstone - but this may only have been a matter of a few days, and she may have just been waiting for her first official council to confront him with it. •Olenna Tyrell meets Daenerys Targaryen in this episode. Interestingly, Olenna is one of the few characters left alive by this point who is old enough to remember when House Targaryen was originally in power and held the Iron Throne - even the time before the reign of the Mad King, when King Aegon V Targaryen was a good and stable monarch (Aegon V being Maester Aemon's younger brother). Other older characters who might remember those days – Aemon, Tywin Lannister or even Barristan Selmy – are dead by this point in the TV series. Olenna actually mentioned back in Season 4's "Oathkeeper" that in her youth she was originally betrothed to "some Targaryen or other" as it was "all the rage" due their then-stable rule. Of course, not personally wanting the match, she managed to get out of it and married Luthor Tyrell instead. In the books, Olenna was betrothed to one of King Aegon V's sons, but he actually wasn't attracted to her either because he was secretly a homosexual, and ultimately argued with his father as well to have the betrothal called off. •Bryan Cogman (who also wrote "Oathkeeper") explained in subsequent interviews that he likes putting in historical details like this to try to weave disparate story elements together (the Targaryen storyline in Essos isn't in utter isolation from the Westeros storylines, they used to rule Westeros). However, he said that while he actually did write more historical references for this episode, they were ultimately cut for time, because it was a lot of exposition that wasn't directly relevant to the current plot. In the finished version, Olenna only vaguely refers to the fact that she lived through the reigns of Daenerys's father, and his father before him - and there were just as many wars then as there are now. •The prophecy of the Prince That Was Promised is mentioned very prominently in Daenerys's conversation with Melisandre; it has been mentioned only sporadically in earlier TV seasons, but was much more prominently foreshadowed in the novels. The TV producers stated that they tried to avoid setting up prophecies when possible, because it ties them in to a future storyline that they don't have an absolute guarantee they'll be able to finish. The novels also explain that the High Valyrian word for "prince" used in the prophecy is gender-neutral - sort of like "Ruler That Was Promised" or "Leader That Was Promised" in English. The phrasing consistently used is "Prince That Was Promised", which Melisandre even used last season, though this episode renders it as "Prince Who Was Promised" - though as this is itself a translation from the original High Valyrian, it's probably up to the choice of the translator. •At first glance, it might seem odd that Daenerys is unaware that the High Valyrian word for "prince" is gender-neutral, given that she was just speaking with Melisandre in High Valyrian about the prophecy, and moreover, Daenerys even stressed in Season 3's "And Now His Watch Is Ended" that Valyrian is her mother tongue. Missandei, a skilled translator, even says that Daenerys's High Valyrian is excellent in Season 3's "Second Sons". The prophecy is set up much more in the novels, however, explaining that this is a mistaken assumption many people made, particularly in the past three generations since the Targaryens took an interest in it (around the time of Daenerys's grandfather). Daenerys's older brother Rhaegar was motivated by the prophecy; Rhaegar also frequently wrote correspondence with Maester Aemon (his grandfather's uncle) at the Wall. Both of them knew High Valyrian very well. Yet when Maester Aemon hears that Daenerys is not only alive but has hatched three new dragons, the possibility occurs to him that Daenerys is the prophesied figure, at which he laments that in all these years it simply never occurred to him that the "ruler who was promised" could also be a woman. This scene only occurs in the TV series, as Daenerys hasn't heard of the prophecy yet in the books - but if in the books it didn't even occur to a very well educated scholar and Targaryen like Maester Aemon for so long, it isn't unreasonable that it wouldn't occur to TV-Daenerys either after a brief mention. Aemon even says the prophecy was made a thousand years ago, and in all that time translators never stressed that it could be a man or a woman, rendering it as just "prince". •After the episode aired, staff linguist David J. Peterson indeed confirmed that this is how he would justify the scene, that Daenerys doesn't realize that "prince" is gender-neutral in High Valyrian - specifically citing that it simply didn't occur to Maester Aemon either in the books. Peterson said of the issue, "When I saw it in the script, I didn't even question it. Seems fine to me now." Peterson also used the example that even in English, it is common for occupation nouns to be non-gendered - "surgeon", "doctor", "actor" - but if you refer to a "surgeon" out of context, many native English speakers will still assume that the surgeon is a man. •Reacting via Twitter, Sam Coleman (Young Hodor) compared it to how the word "doctor", such as in the TV series Doctor Who, can equally refer to a male or female Doctor. •The actual High Valyrian word - which can be translated as "prince" or "princess" - wasn't actually given in the novels. In the High Valyrian language that Peterson constructed for the TV series, the word is "dārilaros". •In A Feast for Crows (chapter 35, Samwell IV), Aemon goes on to explain that dragons themselves were a hint that a "prince" can be male or female - people forgot how dragon reproduction worked after they died out, but according to septon Barth dragons can actually switch from female to male and back to female again, as mutable as flames - apparently this influenced High Valyrian to not use specific genders for terms regarding powerful figures. The TV show hasn't introduced this point about dragon biology. •In Fire & Blood, however, archmaester Gyldayn dismisses Barth's speculation that dragons can switch sex as nonsense. •Melisandre introduces herself to Daenerys by saying, "I am called Melisandre." She uses the word called as opposed to saying, "My name is Melisandre". This may be a hint to the novels, in which it is revealed in Melisandre's POV chapter in the fifth novel that this isn't her original name: long ago, when she was a child, her original name was "Melony". When she was sold at a slave auction, she was referred to as 'Lot Seven'. •Melisandre was previously seen speaking High Valyrian with Thoros in Season 3. High Valyrian was the language of the fallen Valyrian Freehold, their fantasy analogue of the Roman Republic, but High Valyrian remained the language of well-educated people in Essos, much like Latin in real-life medieval Europe (and many people in Westeros learn it as well). The common everyday speech of the general populace diverged over time into Low Valyrian, much as Italian or Spanish diverged from Latin. Thus the "Valyrian" that Grey Worm and Missandei were speaking in Season 3 is actually a variant of Low Valyrian, and not exactly the same language that Daenerys is speaking in now. In the books, Melisandre is described as fluently speaking and saying prayers in three languages: Asshai'i (the language of Asshai, where she says she is from), High Valyrian, and the Common Tongue of Westeros. •Daenerys welcomes Melisandre because the red priests helped to keep the peace in Meereen, back in Season 6. Tyrion actually met with Kinvara in Meereen, another high-ranking priestess from Volantis while Melisandre is from Asshai, put apparently they are both part of the same religious organization (the books haven't clearly explained the hierarchy of the Lord of Light religion). •Melisandre still believes that Jon Snow to be the Prince That Was Promised. Actress Carice van Houten stated in an interview with the LA Times that, "She’s still on the path of Jon and just knows that they have to meet in order to... God knows, but she’s on Jon’s track." Note that Melisandre only says Daenerys "has a role to play" and does not say that Daenerys is the Prince That Was Promised. •In the books, Melisandre prays to the Lord of Light to give her a vision in her flames of Azor Ahai reborn, the prince that was promised - but all she sees is "snow" - i.e. perhaps a metaphor for Jon Snow. When Melisandre first saw Jon in the Season 4 finale, she was looking at him from across the funeral pyres of those who died in the recent battle - she looked through the flames, and saw Snow (a pun reference to the moment from the novels). •Another part of the prophecy given in the books is that "the dragon has three heads" - as hinted by the three-headed dragon used in House Targaryen's heraldry. That is, "the prince" might not actually be one person but a group of three people acting towards a common goal. Many also think it has to be someone of the Targaryen bloodline - Rhaegar was convinced of this, but it might not strictly be a requirement for all three persons, if true. •Melisandre's gives an added line of the prophecy in this episode which is not in the books, and might be a spoiler for future novels: "The Prince Who Was Promised will bring the dawn". The first war against the White Walkers 8,000 years ago to end the Long Night was called the War for the Dawn, war to bring back the dawn, etc. •It is possible that this new line may in fact refer to the sword, "Dawn", forged from a falling star (and as strong as Valyrian steel. Part of the prophecy is that the Prince would be born under a falling star - then the TV series flashback last season made it a point to show that young Ned Stark rested the sword Dawn at the foot of his sister's bed right after she gave birth (so this part of the prophecy might be figurative). In the books, Ned returned Dawn back to Starfall, the home castle of Arthur Dayne's family. •In the books, Daenerys hates the Starks, along with the Baratheons and Lannisters, for their role in the downfall of her family's dynasty - as she heard from her brother Viserys's skewed version of events. She refers to the Starks and Lannisters both as "the usurper's dogs". On two occasions, Ser Barristan Selmy tells her a very "sugarcoated" version about her father (mentioning very gently he was a bit unstable, relating mainly positive facts and omitting all the atrocities he committed) - thus Daenerys still has no idea that her father was an extremely deranged tyrant, who ruthlessly harmed her mother and many other innocent people. Selmy also tells that Ned tried to dissuade Robert from sending assassins after her (Barristan was present at the Small Council scene in which was discussed in the books, but he was absent in the TV version - though others could have just told him about the assassination plan, similar to how Renly told Loras about it); Daenerys, however, doesn't change her mind (at least not yet) about the Starks, reasoning that if a child is set upon by a pack of hounds, it does not matter which one tears out his throat. It remains to be seen how she would treat Ned Stark's children, who like her weren't yet born at the time. She forgave Tyrion and was willing to work with him, not holding him responsible for the death of her kin, so she may act the same towards Jon, but it is uncertain. •Daenerys says she will not be "queen of the ashes". This is perhaps a reference to the novels: one of the visions Daenerys sees in the House of the Undying is of her father, telling someone (perhaps Rossart) "Let him [Robert] be king over charred bones and cooked meat. Let him be the king of ashes" - referring to the wildfire plot. The same turn of phrase was also used in the TV series in Season 3's "And Now His Watch Is Ended": Varys tells Olenna that Littlefinger doesn't care who he has to hurt to seize power: he would burn Westeros to the ground so long as he got to call himself king of the ashes. •Tyrion Lannister clearly resents Ellaria Sand for killing his niece Myrcella Baratheon, which occurred in the Season 5 finale "Mother's Mercy", and claims that "we don't poison little girls here", which seems to be a reference to Oberyn Martell's promise to Cersei that Myrcella would be safe in Dorne ("We don't hurt little girls in Dorne"). Unlike the psychotic Joffrey, Tyrion had a good and loving relationship with Cersei's younger two children. Though Tyrion is in a position to demand justice for Myrcella's murder, a likely reason he does not is out of fear that the Dornish will withdraw support if Daenerys kills Ellaria and the Sand Snakes. •It is unknown if the Dornish will kill Myrcella in future novels, as their storyline has been drastically changed. In the released "Arianne" sample chapters of the sixth book, Nymeria and Tyene depart for King's Landing, accompanying Myrcella, with the intent of stirring up trouble between the Lannisters and Tyrells. It is doubtful that they (let alone Ellaria, who begs them to forgo their vendetta) intend to harm Myrcella. Yet there are vengeful Dornish who seek to avenge Oberyn's death by killing Myrcella, as Doran warned Ser Arys Oakheart; one of those, Gerold "Darkstar" Dayne, indeed attempted to kill her. •Tyrion says that the Lannisters have been the real power in Westeros for decades: this is technically true, as Tywin Lannister lent King Robert Baratheon so much money to fund his new regime that he became dependent on him (and after that propped up their own puppets as his successors). Before that, Tywin was Hand of the King to the Mad King for nearly twenty years as well. •Tyrion's plan to attack Casterly Rock is similar to Robb's plan to do the same in Season 3 ("Kissed by Fire", "The Rains of Castamere") - Robb didn't actually plan to do this in the novels, it was an invention of the TV series, perhaps to increase the shock of the Red Wedding by giving Robb some hope of victory. In the books, Catelyn urged Robb to quit fighting the Lannisters, return to the North and drive the ironborn invaders away (after Balon Greyjoy died, which happened earlier in the books), and he agreed - although it was obvious that Robb would lose as a result all the lands he conquered (as Roose Bolton warned him in the show), and eventually might find himself caught between the ironborn and the Lannisters. Nonetheless, capturing the enemy's home castle has been a common goal in many major wars in Westeros's history, as it is a humiliation which may make a rival's vassals abandon them: •As seen in the second novel/Season 2, that fact that Theon Greyjoy was able to seize control of Winterfell, even just using a raiding force of only 20 men against a skeleton defense, was a grave humiliation for Robb, which started to make his subordinates lose faith in his ability to win the war. •During Robert's Rebellion, the entire Tyrell army was pinned down besieging Storm's End, even though Robert Baratheon was out in the field with his army, and it didn't have direct strategic significance. Both Robert and the Targaryens thought that if Storm's End fell, many of his vassals would abandon him even if his field army was winning, but his younger brother Stannis successfully lasted out the entire siege until the end of the war. •As the showrunners point out in the Inside the Episode video, the four faction leaders around Daenerys's war council table are all women: Daenerys herself, Yara Greyjoy, Ellaria Sand, Olenna Tyrell. Three of the four men in the room are eunuchs (Varys, Grey Worm, Theon) - while the fourth, Tyrion, is not a typical able-bodied military commander, but a disabled dwarf. •The meticulously constructed prop for the table map of Westeros in Dragonstone's war room (the Painted Table), which was constructed for Season 2, notably doesn't contain the errors which appeared in Cersei's floor map introduced in the preceding episode: the major city Gulltown is clearly marked, "Rook's Rest" is not misspelled as "Rook's Nest", and "Dyre Den" is not spelled as "Dire Den". •Yara Greyjoy's fleet is clearly referred to as "the Iron Fleet", even though her uncle Euron Greyjoy referred to his own fleets as "the Iron Fleet" in the preceding episode. In the books, the "Iron Fleet" is the national fleet of the Iron Islands, composed of their best ships and crews, but it is only a fraction of their total naval forces, from the combined fleets of each individual House. Yara took "the" Iron Fleet (as her uncle Victarion did in the novels, cut from the TV show), but the simple answer in the TV show seems to be that Euron just considers his fleet the real "Iron Fleet" now. This is directly comparable to how both Joffrey and Stannis at the Battle of the Blackwater considered their respective navies to be the real "Royal Fleet". •Yara's fleet is charged with taking Ellaria Sand back to Sunspear to quickly ferry the Dornish armies north by sea. The TV series has never actually depicted Sunspear, the regional capital of Dorne. It only showed the Water Gardens, which are a private retreat of the Martells just down the road from Sunspear itself. The "shadow-city" which extends around Sunspear castle itself is the largest settlement in Dorne, but given its arid climate it isn't really a full sized city by the standards of the rest of Westeros, but a moderately sized market town. •In the behind-the-scenes videos for this episode, Emilia Clarke explains that Daenerys's reluctance to make a direct assault on King's Landing with dragons and a foreign army of Dothraki and Unsullied is because she has grown from her experiences in the Liberation of Slaver's Bay. In Meereen, she charged in with dragons and an outside army, and it led to a protracted insurgency against her. She realizes that she needs to win the peace after the major fighting, she has grown more skilled at the politics of war, and realizes she needs to win over the rest of Westeros's lords while focusing on the Lannister army itself. •Tyrion summarizes that the Tyrell and Dornish armies will make a passive siege of King's Landing while the Unsullied attack Casterly Rock, but he doesn't explain what their large Dothraki mounted horde will be doing. The line was probably just trimmed for time (according to Cogman, several lines were trimmed throughout), but presumably they will be used against the Lannister field armies. •In Season 1, King Robert had a discussion with Cersei about the effectiveness of the Targaryens using a Dothraki horde in Westeros. Cersei repeated her father Tywin's assessment that the Dothraki are excellent as a cavalry force against field armies, but they are not equipped for or skilled at castle sieges. Robert countered that the Dothraki don't need to take their castles: if they defeat all their field armies, while the Iron Throne's lords hide inside their castle walls and do nothing to protect the countryside, eventually the commoners will grow to resent them, and lords will start openly abandoning them to side with the Targaryens. •His assessment was made before Daenerys even acquired an Unsullied army, who as seen at Yunkai and Meereen, are effective at siege warfare, as an elite infantry force. Thus their strategy for dividing up military objectives logically has the Unsullied and Dothraki complement each other: Unsullied for castle sieges, Dothraki for pitched field battles (not that the Unsullied at unskilled at field battles either, but the Dothraki are far more numerous for those). •As for the movements of Daenerys's armies, it is unclear why her fleet would need to pick up the Dornish army from Sunspear and ferry them north to Dragonstone and King's Landing, when her fleet had to pass Dorne in order to reach Dragonstone, farther north in the Narrow Sea. It's possible that she simply only took a small fraction of her entire fleet to Dragonstone - there's no way her entire force of over 110,000 (not even including the Tyrells and Martells) could have quartered on Dragonstone island itself. In which case they may have just been sending Yara to rejoin their other fleets - Dorne is a likely stopping point for any army passing over from the east. •According to linguist David J. Peterson, the point when Grey Worm informs Daenerys that a red priestess from Asshai (Melisandre) has arrived and seeks an audience was originally supposed to be in Valyrian: he doesn't know why it was changed to English in the final version.
In King's Landing
•The intention of Qyburn to use a custom-made ballista against Daenerys's dragons appears to be a reference to how the dragon Meraxes died in the First Dornish War. While the Targaryens conquered the rest of the Seven Kingdoms in Aegon's Conquest, the harsh desert of Dorne proved quite an obstacle. A few years later they returned and captured all of its castles and towns, but the Dornish launched a brutal guerrilla war against their occupation forces. The Targaryens responded by burning any castle which rose against them with dragonfire, but the Dornish armies would flee when the dragons came and return as soon as they left. When Queen Rhaenys Targaryen attacked Hellholt while flying Meraxes, however, the garrison put up a stiff defense, and a very lucky shot with a ballista bolt managed to hit the dragon in the eye mid-flight, piercing into her brain and killing the dragon instantly. Rhaenys apparently died in the fall but her body was never recovered. Meraxes's death was a stunning blow to the Targaryens. •The TV episode didn't expend exposition on the history of how Meraxes died, given limited time, though this is fully explained in the Season 5 Blu-ray animated short "Dorne". Instead, Qyburn cites that Drogon was wounded in the ambush at the Great Pit of Daznak in Meereen as proof that Daenerys's dragons aren't invincible. The writers actually admit in the Blu-ray commentary for that episode that Drogon was able to be wounded with spears in that attack because he was just a juvenile at the time - which is true. Dragons' scales get thicker and harder as they age, until fully adult dragons' scales are practically impervious to swords, spears, or projectiles. Contrary to myth, a dragon's underbelly isn't any more soft or exposed than the rest of its hide: the eyes are the only weak spot on an adult dragon, the only part of them that isn't covered by their armored scales. There are historical examples of juvenile dragons being injured with human weapons, but the only thing that can pierce an adult dragon's hide is really another dragon. After Meraxes died, subsequent wars involving dragons did shift tactics to try to aim for their eyes with heavy projectiles - but the dragon-riders were very wary of this as well, so they were more careful to make quick bombing-runs on ground targets and evade projectile fire. A major example is the Siege of Rook's Rest during the Dance of the Dragons, when Aegon 's forces did try to shoot the adult dragon Meleys in the eyes, but her rider successfully evaded their fire. Ultimately, no other dragon was ever killed again by shooting it in the eyes. Vermax was also killed by human action in the Dance, though in that case it was a younger dragon and his foes hurled grappling hooks in his path, so he ended up impaling himself with more force than a human weapon ever could. •It's possible that Qyburn's custom ballista is actually going to be present in the next novel, given how it evokes the details given only in the novels about how Meraxes died: when they practice shooting it, they even aim directly for the eyes of a dragon skull. •It's unclear how effective Qyburn's ballista weapon will actually be, given that they tested it by shooting at a stationary skull, while a live dragon is a moving target. It did manage to pierce dragonbone, which is stronger than steel, but a living dragon would be covered in a thick layer of armor scales. •The Making Game of Thrones blog made an update post for this episode, explaining that all of the dragon skulls in the Cersei scene are real props, not CGI. First, the art department made 3D sculptures, then the props department made full-sized skulls based on them out of polystyrene. Head sculptor Darren Fitzsimons stated that the prop of Balerion's skull is "about 30 feet long, 11 feet high, and 16 feet wide," and it took his team six weeks just to sculpt it (before painting and plastering). They kept a real sheep skull in their office as a comparison when making the surface texture. In the books, it is said that Balerion was so large that he could comfortably swallow a war-horse whole, along with its rider. •Notice that the dragon skulls are all different sizes, because they died at different ages - one of them is even no larger than a dog's head. Several characters have remarked in prior seasons (as in the books) that the dragon skulls got increasingly smaller the more recent they were - implying that younger generations of dragons got stunted through inbreeding. This wasn't true of most dragons, who simply died young in the Dance of the Dragons - but the Last dragon was indeed a stunted, sickly, inbred creature who died young, not much bigger than a dog. In Season 1, Viserys mentioned to Doreah that the more recent dragon skulls were smaller until the last was no bigger than a dog's, and in Season 4, Tywin repeated this information, dismissing that the last dragon's head was the size of "an apple" (exaggerating), though Joffrey pointed out that the oldest skull was the size of a carriage. •Note how large Balerion's skull is, compared to Drogon's head: Balerion's skull is twice as tall as Cersei, while Drogon's head is roughly the same height as Daenerys. Dragons keep growing as long as they live, and Balerion was the oldest and largest - hatched before the Doom of Valyria, he lived to be two centuries old before he died (of old age, one of the only Targaryen dragons to do so). Decades-old dragons like Balerion were practically invincible, with scales harder than steel - Qyburn's scorpion-bolt would have no hope of penetrating them, only piercing his eyes. •Even compared to earlier Targaryen dragons, Daenerys's dragons are growing unusually fast (possibly due to the resurgence of magic in the world they brought), because it sometimes took a decade or two for them to reach a size at which they could be ridden. This is a discrepancy even in the books, however, and the vague explanation used to handwave it is that, much like individual dogs, individual dragons just grow at their own rates unique to each one. •Arya previously stumbled upon the preserved dragon skulls in the catacombs below the Red Keep in Season 1's "The Wolf and the Lion". •As Viserys explained in Season 1, the dragon-skulls used to be put on display along the sides of the throne room, but they were removed when Robert seized the crown. Viserys didn't know what happened to them and thought Robert might have just had them smashed to pieces, but Cersei explains in this episode that Robert kept them stored in the levels of the dungeon as a sort of trophy. •When Cersei first enters the catacombs with the dragon skulls in them, she walks past tattered old Targaryen dragon banners on the floor. This is a detail from the books, in which other characters who pass through this way (such as Tyrion and Jaime) spot them, put away there much like the dragon skulls. •Cersei Lannister's twisted narratives of Daenerys Targaryen to demonize her and convince several lords to switch back to the Lannister side is filled with half-truths, which while not complete fabrications, are exaggerated or taken out of context (which makes them more effective than total lies). The accusations against Daenerys are similar to the Liberation of Slaver's Bay ("Breaker of Chains"). The slave masters used lies and scare tactics to terrify the slaves into submission. •Daenerys’ Targaryen's Unsullied are described as a slave army, playing to the Westerosi opposition to Slavery, but leaving out that they are now free men loyal to her out of gratitude ("And Now His Watch Is Ended"). •That Daenerys is leading a Khalasar of Dothraki "savages" - which is technically the truest statement, as the Dothraki do have a feared reputation ("Blood of My Blood"). Cersei ignores the fact that all of the noble houses and Great Houses have committed similar atrocities during the War of the Five Kings (the Lannisters most especially). •Daenerys' crucifixion of the 163 Great Masters, not revealing it was retaliation for their crucifixion of 163 children. The fact that the Great Masters were practitioners of slavery, an institution abhorred in Westeros, was also neglected ("Two Swords", "Oathkeeper"). •Daenerys' execution of the Great Master she had burned alive and fed to Rhaegal and Viserion, when she got bored with crucifying them - she only did that one or two times, not out of boredom or sadism but as a calculated means of execution to try to scare the rest into not supporting the ongoing shadow war against her ("Kill the Boy"). Cersei has done far worse for more flippant reasons. •She stresses that Daenerys is Aerys II Targaryen's (the Mad King) daughter and focusing on his tyrannical reign, even though Daenerys was born after her father died. She also doesn't bring up Daenerys's actions to end slavery in Meereen. •Cersei's accusations about the Dothraki to the lords gathered before the Iron Throne are technically accurate - that they will burn their villages, rape their women, butcher their children - but are also hypocritical. George R.R. Martin intended this in the books, highlighting how much of stereotypical Fantasy literature treats their analogue of medieval European knights as the "good" faction, with fantasy analogues of foreign non-white cultures (if they ever show up at all), usually being depicted as villainous foreign hordes. Martin wanted to stress that in real medieval Europe, knights committed all kinds of war atrocities, including the exact same things they had accused other cultures of, i.e. English knights claiming that if the Mongols or Muslim powers invaded, they would rape, pillage, and burn their lands. Even as the English were doing the exact same things in France and Scotland, announcing Crusades to "save oppressed Christians" in the Near East only to massacre entire Muslim and Orthodox cities when they got there, etc. The first novel/TV season includes characters like Robert Baratheon warning of the "barbarism" of the Dothraki, but then in the second novel/season the Lannisters themselves under men like Gregor Clegane and Amory Lorch conduct a campaign of mass torture and rape throughout the Riverlands. At the very start of the story, the Dothraki are also shown enjoying fights to the death at weddings - "a Dothraki wedding without at least three deaths is considered a dull affair" - only for Tywin Lannister to then engineer the massacre of the Starks at a wedding, breaking guest right. Tywin, Cersei, and other lords in Westeros who have committed similar violent acts deriding the Dothraki as "savages" is supposed to be hypocritical, in-universe. •Randyll Tarly, Sam's father, returns in the episode by traveling to King's Landing. During conversation, Jaime cites him as the only one who ever defeated Robert, during the Battle of Ashford; this was previously mentioned in Season 5's "Kill the Boy" by Stannis to Sam, after he realizes he is Randyll's son. •Randyll Tarly is often portrayed in the novels in a quite negative light, especially his behavior toward Sam and Brienne, but even if he's described as a ruthless and stern man, he is not outright sadistic, often dispensing strict justice that is nonetheless within the bounds of the law, similar to Stannis. In this episode he proves to be an honorable person as well: reluctant to break his oath to the Tyrells, and open in expressing his negative opinion about both the Lannisters and the Freys - bluntly referring to the Destruction of the Great Sept of Baelor (Cersei's wrath and how she deals with her enemies), the killing of Aerys II Targaryen (Oathbreaking), and the Red Wedding (Tywin and the Freys' violation of Guest right). •It is unclear if Randyll will do the same in the next novel, but due to various story condensations, this may be representative of what several other characters will do. As the episode acknowledges, Randyll fought for the Targaryens in Robert's Rebellion, as did the rest of the Reach. On the other hand, rather than depicting him as blindly breaking ranks with the Tyrells and new Targaryen claimant to serve the crazed Cersei, it depicts him as very conflicted, only grudgingly switching to Cersei's side out of fear of the Dothraki (who do have an earned reputation as pillaging conquerors) - even the Mad King never brought a Dothraki horde to Westeros. He also says he is wary of what Cersei might do to his people if he crosses her, given that she just demonstrated that she is willing to massacre hundreds of innocent civilians to achieve her goals. Thus, while for various reasons book-Randyll might not do this, with so many of other storylines omitted, the TV show doesn't really break its own internal logic to have TV-Randyll do this (only very grudgingly siding with Cersei). •Dickon Tarly (Sam's brother) was recast starting in this episode: Freddie Stroma played him in his one, debut episode in Season 6, but he couldn't return for Season 7 due to a scheduling conflict. The role is now taken up by actor Tom Hopper. As a wink to the audience to explain the change, when Jaime meets the Tarlys he doesn't recognize Lord Randyll's son and mistakenly asks if his name is "Rickard", causing him to announce to both Jaime and the audience that he is in fact Dickon Tarly. "Rickard" is the name of Ned Stark's father but it is also a fairly common name in Westeros. •Randyll Tarly accurately points out in the throne room scene that Daenerys Targaryen has three adult dragons, and her ancestor Aegon I Targaryen managed to conquer the Seven Kingdoms with only three dragons as well - admittedly, bigger dragons, but she has a much larger army, and even the support of the Tyrells and Martells.
•The episode contains influences from the following chapter of A Clash of Kings:
•Chapter 65, Sansa VIII: Randyll Tarly, now aligned with the Iron Throne, is present at court for the first time in the narrative.
•The episode contains influences from the following chapters of A Feast for Crows:
•Chapter 7, Cersei II: A Lannister praises Randyll Tarly for his military background.
•Chapter 29, The Reaver: A Greyjoy destroys an enemy fleet in a naval battle.
•Chapter 35, Samwell IV: Someone reaches the conclusion that Daenerys is the prince that was promised, because the High Valyrian word for "prince" is gender-neutral, just as dragons are creatures which have no fixed gender.
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"Stormborn" is the second episode of the seventh season of HBO's medieval fantasy television series Game of Thrones, and the 62nd overall. The episode was written by Bryan Cogman and directed by Mark Mylod. It first aired on HBO on July 23, 2017.
Jul 24, 2017 · After last week's foreboding and stately premiere, "Stormborn" floored the narrative pedal, with nearly every scene delivering some kind of major consequence for our characters, setting the stage...
Tyrion tries to save Westeros from itself. Sansa questions loyalties. Stream Season 7 Episode 2 of Game of Thrones online or on your device plus recaps, previews, and other clips.
Jul 23, 2017 · Game of Thrones. Track 2 on Season 7 Scripts. Producers. D.B. Weiss & David Benioff. Season 7 – Episode 2 – Stormborn Daenerys receives an unexpected visitor. Jon faces a revolt. Sam...
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Jul 23, 2017 · Category: Game of Thrones (TV series) "Stormborn" is the second episode of the seventh season of HBO's fantasy television series Game of Thrones, and the 62nd overall. The episode was written by Bryan Cogman and directed by Mark Mylod. It aired on July 23, 2017,[1] and had 10.11 million viewers.[2]
