The final season of HBO’s Game of Thrones is just days away, and you need to be prepared to head into what is guaranteed to be an explosive conclusion, eight years in the making.
On this week’s episode of Merbear and The Maiden Jer, Jeremy Baker and Meredith Geddes take you back through Season 7, highlighting they key moments that got us where we are. We’ll talk to Aziz Al-Doory from History of Westeros who will shed some light on the mythology of ice dragons, and why he believes Cersei is the one to watch going forward. Then Jeremy and Meredith will look at some of the theories bouncing around about Season 8 with help from Michael. He’s a moderator on the subreddit for A Song of Ice and Fire and host of the podcast Maester Monthly.
There are tons of spoilers so if you’re not caught up with Game of Thrones, stop reading now….you’ve been warned.
Season 7 of Game of Thrones starts with an incredible cold open as Arya Stark, who has been separated from her family since Season 1, takes out the entire Frey House while exercising her new skills as an assassin. The Freys were in her crosshairs since they killed her brother, Robb Stark, and her mother at The Red Wedding in Season 3. Her mission to cross off other names from her kill list change with news that her family is back home in Winterfell. It’s here that we get the reunion of the remaining Stark children as Sansa, Bran, Jon, and Arya come together for the first time since Season 1. However, all is not well as tensions between both Sansa and Jon and Sansa and Arya make for an uncomfortable homecoming. In the end, the younger Starks rally and take out one of Game of Thrones’ biggest players, Lord Petyr Baelish — otherwise known as Littlefinger — while the eldest Jon was away from Winterfell.
In Dragonstone, Daenerys Targaryen and her team of followers attempt to take down the Lannister army. Her allies consist of Varys, Olenna Tyrell, Elaria Sand and the Sand Snakes, Tyrion, and Yara Greyjoy. Unfortunately, shortly after these characters embark on an attempt to take down their biggest rival, Cersei Lannister, a new ally to the Lannister’s, Euron Greyjoy, attacks them. He kidnaps Yara and Elaria to take Cersei at King’s Landing. Here, Cersei makes quick work of killing Elaria’s daughter, and imprisoning the rest.
As this first blow comes to Daenerys’s forces, Jamie Lannister offers a second by poisoning Olenna Tyrell in Highgarden, but not before she admits to killing Cersei and Jaime’s son Joffrey Baratheon. This is followed by a third as Jaime’s military cunning leaves half of Danaerys’ army stranded by a thwarted attack on the home of the Lannisters, Casterly Rock. Angered by this, Daenerys and her dragons counter-attack by meeting the Lannister forces as they rode away from High Garden. Her efforts decimated her enemy’s forces, and made it clear to Cersei that Daenerys is a formidable opponent in the battle for the Iron Throne.
WATCH: Recapping the first 7 seasons of Game of Thrones
Jon Snow, in the meantime, travels to Dragonstone in search of dragon glass and finally meets Daenerys. Here they quickly make a plan to go beyond The Wall to capture a wight, or an ice zombie, and bring it back to Cersei Lannister. The hope is that she will lay down the Lannister’s weapons in favour of a truce as an army of the undead, led by the Night King, threatens the whole kingdom. The plans go awry when the team beyond The Wall, consisting of The Hound, Beric Dondarrion, Gendry, Sir Thoros of Myr, Tormund Giantsbane, and Jon Snow, are attacked by the Night King. Danaerys comes to the rescue, but loses a dragon to the Night King’s army, causing her to finally agree that the main threat lies north.
With a captured wight in tow, all of the players vying for the Iron Throne descend on King’s Landing for a tense meeting with Cersei Lannister. For a moment, it seemed that Cersei would agree to a detente, but her thirst for power is too great and she reveals to Jaime that she has no desire to lay down her weapons. This treachery causes Jaime to leave his sister’s side in favour of defending the north. This happens just as the Night King, while riding a zombie dragon Viserion, takes down The Wall — the last line of defence between the undead and The Seven Kingdoms of Westeros.
While all of this unfolds, we also get Sir Jorah Mormont back from the citadel, fully cured of his greyscale disease thanks to the handiwork of Samwell Tarly. Samwell and his girlfriend Gilly come into some key information about the heritage of Jon Snow. It turns out he’s actually the son of Rhaegar Targaryon. His birth name is Aegon, and he’s not only Danaerys’s niece, but the rightful heir to the throne.
Danaerys and Jon are unaware of this fact, and the season concludes with them sleeping with each other.
Jeremy and Meredith also chat about some of their favourite theories and hopes for the next six weeks of the final season of Game of Thrones
If you enjoy MerBear and the Maiden Jer, please take a minute to rate it and review it on Apple Podcasts and be sure to tell a friend about the show.
Contact:
Jeremy Baker
@Jeremy_Baker on Twitter
Meredith Geddes
@MeredithGeddes on Twitter
Guests:
Aziz Al-Doory
@WesterosHistory on Twitter
Michael Monaco
@MaesterMonthly on Twitter
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