'Game of Thrones' Reaction

There are spoilers for “Winterfell," the first episode of season 8 of Game of Thrones, ahead. If you haven’t watched this episode yet, stop reading now.

On Sunday, the final season of Game of Thrones kicked off with the premiere the first episode entitled, “Winterfell." This episode begins with Daenerys, Jon Snow, and everyone else in Dany’s army arriving in Winterfell. It follows the different reunions between the characters, focusing mainly on the Starks. “Winterfell” also gives a brief glimpse of the future political conflict between Daenerys and The North. Further south, the episode updates us on Cersei and her quest for the Golden Company, an army she intends to use in her future fight against Daenerys. This episode also touches on the relationship between Cersei and Euron Greyjoy.

Before I touch on the nitty-gritty, I just want to begin with my overarching reactions to this episode. This episode was definitely used as a placeholder in order to get all the characters into the correct starting position, and set up the conflicts that are going to drive the show through these last five episodes. There was a sense of that throughout the episode, notably in the interactions between Jon, Sansa, and Daenerys. This episode wasn’t necessarily action packed like many episodes from last season, nor did it have the political dialogue that drove many of the episodes in the earlier seasons. I don’t mean that as a condemnation of the episode. It just seemed like the directors needed to set everything up, had to use an episode to set these pieces up, and that episode happened to be “Winterfell." I don’t think we will have a full view of how impactful this episode was until later in the season, but as far as a stand alone, it was pretty average. I would give it a five out of ten. Now to the nitty-gritty details.

I like to start with the positives of each episode because this is art, and art is incredibly difficult to make. So, right off the bat, the first thing I really enjoyed about this episode was the reunion between Jon Snow and Sam Tarly. Like damn. That moment was intense. Sam, after learning Dany roasted his father and brother, was ordered by Bran to tell Jon the truth about his heritage. Sam not only obliges, but challenges Jon’s reluctance to take the throne and if Dany is fit for the throne. He tells Jon, “You gave up your crown to save your people. Would she do the same?” Like holy shit. That line so instantly powerful because the answer seems clear—no she wouldn’t. Dany has been driven by one goal for her entire life—get the Iron Throne. This interaction, along with Jon’s true identity, is pretty clearly setting up some conflict between Jon and Dany in the future, and by all accounts Jon has a better claim to the throne and, through the throne, Dany’s crown.

I also really liked Sansa and the Northerns reaction to the Southern army arriving in Winterfell. Last season, Jon was declared king, went south, and gave up his crown without so much as considering how the North would react to this. Yes, I know an army of the undead are marching on Winterfell and the living need to band together to stop this giant threat. But like, Jon was still the King in the North and he gave up that crown without ever considering the ramifications. There needs to be consequences to that action. Daenerys and her army have yet to prove themselves to the Northerners. There should be icy feelings, there should be distrust, there should be disappointment directed towards Jon Snow. I think this was best exemplified in Sansa who continually questioned Dany and her army while focusing her concerns back to the North, and those she rules.

Finally, I really enjoyed the reunion between Tormund and Dolorous Edd at Eastwatch. Dolorous (who is the Lord Commander of the Night’s Watch) rallied the Night’s Watch and abandoned The Wall because, well, The Wall isn’t much use when there is a gaping hole on its east side. They meet up at Eastwatch, where young Lord Umber was trying to rally his people to go to Winterfell. Let’s just say he was too late. The Night King and his army apparently invaded Eastwatch and killed all the inhabitants. They then nailed the young lord to a wall in a beautiful spiral shape. This was just a great cinematic scene. Tormund’s group and the Night’s Watch interact in front of the young lord. As you watch the two groups discuss the next plan of action, you see the young lord’s eyes open as he tries to attack the living. It was suspenseful, exciting, and just an enjoyable moment in the show. I want to know why the Night King consistently puts bodies in weird, spiral shapes, so hopefully the show will address that in the next five episodes.

Now, to the things that I don’t like and let’s just start with some brutal dialogue that seemed incredibly out of place in the show. I mean some of these lines were just terrible. The first one that comes to mind is when Cersei says, “You want a whore, buy her. You want a queen, earn her.” That line sounds like the Twitter bio of a person that your mom would never want you to date. It was just cringe inducing and it didn’t even make sense. She went and slept with Euron in the very next scene! If you are going to use a quote like that, at least hold off on the sex until like, I don’t know, a few episodes later.

Another poorly written line occurred when Jon and Dany took their dragon journey to the waterfalls. Jon looks at Dany and says something along the lines of, “You’re pretty far north for a southern girl.” My eighth grade self would have been proud of that pickup line, but for two people who are facing an army of the living dead and an insane queen, that line just wasn’t great. It was jarring and felt really out of place coming from the brooding Jon Snow.

The final example I’ll use occurs when the Northern Lords are meeting with Dany and her army for the first time in the great room of Winterfell. Sansa, worrying about the amount of supplies that she has gathered, asks Dany what her dragons eat. Dany responds, “whatever they want,” and the scene ends. Like, what the hell Game of Thrones? I know they were trying to give Dany her badass moment in front of the Northern Lords but that is a legitimate question. Sansa, as the Lady of Winterfell, needs to know the logistics of housing the army who arrived at her doorstep. Can you imagine if Dany had responded like that to Ned? Or Tywin Lannister? I know the directors are setting up the conflict between Dany and the North. I know they want to remind people that Dany is a badass with two dragons. They might even be alluding to Dany being on the wrong side of a conflict by the end of the show, but throughout the early seasons we saw Dany have the wherewithal to respect her allies. Hell, her hand is Tyrion, who we know is an amazing diplomat. But, in the initial interaction with the North it seemed like Sansa’s (and the North’s) legitimate questions were just used by the directors as a way to say, “We have dragons and they are bad asses, deal with it.”

Finally, in what was probably the most disappointing scene in the entire episode, Jon Snow’s first ride on a dragon. We all knew that Jon was going to have an opportunity to ride a dragon, but I always imagined it being this grand, climatic moment, and it just wasn’t. Let’s set the stage first. Dany, the Mother of Dragons, considers these beasts to not only be her children, but also to be the last connection she has with her ancestors. Virtually all of the political capital she garnered originated from her first steps out of that fire with those three beasts flittering around her body. When she loses one of her dragons, she says it is like losing a child. Her dragons are historically very picky—they hardly let anyone other than Dany touch them. Dragons of the past only let those with High Valerian blood ride them, a fact that Dany knows, yet she just casually lets Jon Snow mount and ride one of her children and doesn’t even bat an eye. Like the entire scene is filled with goofy, Marvel-esque one-liners. It’s a joke. Jon’s first ride on a dragon should have been an epic scene that proved to the world that he was, in fact, a Targaryen. Instead, it felt like a casual Sunday drive filled with quaint jokes.

Overall, I thought this episode was pretty average and forgettable, but I’m not holding that against it. The episode seemed like it was meant to move different pieces around and it fulfilled that goal. There were a few memorable moments, specifically the interaction between Jon and Sam, which I really enjoyed. I want to withhold fully desecrating this episode until I see a few more episodes in season eight. I know I picked on the writing a lot, especially some of the jarring one-liners, but truthfully I’m really excited about the rest of this season and I can’t wait to see how the different conflicts are resolved.