15 May Game of Thrones Season 7 Is Coming to a Close

Attention! If you’re among those few unfortunate souls who still haven’t watched this amazing show, I suggest you go do so right now. Same goes for those who still haven’t seen the recently leaked episode 6. This post contains spoilers, and trust me, you don’t want this last episode spoiled. Go on, we’ll be waiting right here for you. In the meantime, for those up-to-date on the current series events, let me just go ahead and say what most of us are thinking… holy ******* ****!

First of all, let me just make it abundantly clear that GoT had stopped shocking me a long time ago. It hadn’t exactly become predictable, but when you can anticipate what the show is capable of, the shocking stuff really loses the punches it used to have once it actually does happen. Yet this episode, frankly, the most emotional damage I recieved from this show since Oberyn’s death. (queue wailling Pedro Pascal fans)

Now, to address mine and everybody else’s main source of shock… Viserion’s death. Or, as those who haven’t read the books most likely know him, the wuss dragon aka the smallest one. After Daenerys takes her three dragons north to rescue Jon and the others, who were stranded and surrounded by the undead horde in the middle of a frozen lake, a fiery tempest of destruction ensues as the draconic trio sweeps down and decimates the undead army. Then, out of nowhere, we see the Night’s King being handed an ice spear, hurling it towards the flying Viserion and straight-up knocking him out of the sky with one shot.The spear appears to puncture the dragon’s lungs, as fire spills out from his gaping wound, while gallons upon gallons of blood rain down and the mighty beast screams helplessly, until the moment he crashes into the icy lake.

As spectacular as it is, there are several reasons as to why his death had such an impact (non pun intended). First of all, it was completely unexpected. The show did throw many people off-balance by re-introducing Gendry, a formerly major character who had been absent since season 3. Amid how rushed and cheap the entire season felt, everyone was certain his reintroduction served no purpose but to provide a dramatic death scene for one of the two following episodes. And boy, did this misdirection work.

What’s more, this death made an important and definite statements: the dragons can indeed be killed. True, there’s the ballistae which have proven to have necessary dragon-killing power, and we’ve also seen Drogon, the biggest dragon, receive major injuries twice over the course of the show. Keep in mind that both occurred after he was already a very large dragon. But now, with Viserion gone, the dragons are as vulnerable as ever, although that probably wasn’t your first thought when faced with Emilia Clarke’s usual stone-faced performance and Jon Snow’s impervious plot armor over the course of the entire scene.

And now let’s get to the most ominous part of this whole affair… Viserion’s reanimation at the hands of the Night King. Just when I thought the credits were about to roll, we cut back to the icy landscape of the far north. “Wait, what are those chains? Where the heck did they get giant chains? Why are they dragging them…on, no!” Yep, they drag the dragon’s lifeless body out of the frozen lake, and with the touch of the Night King’s hand, his eyes reopen, now with that signature blue hue. There are countless implications and theories as to what this ultimately means for both the current series’ events and the ASolaF lore in general, as ice dragons have long been a topic heavily speculated upon by the hardcore fans, and is so extensive that it would require a separate post or an article completely dedicated just to it.

Well, I can’t say anything else on this topic except that I’m eagerly anticipating the season finale, which really ought to be something even more spectacular than the preceding episode.