Real Steel: Huge 'Game Of Thrones' Battle Pictures Mean The Return Of Valyrian Steel

Sure, Negan might have a wire-wrapped baseball bat, but does anything beat a good old medieval sword as weapon badassery? I think not! It becomes a game of Where's Waldo as the final two seasons of #HBO's #GameOfThrones wind down, meanwhile the cast hunts for who is still alive in Westeros and those elusive Valyrian steel swords. Just like Pokémon, you gotta catch 'em all. Undoubtedly the use of mythical metal of the dooms of Valyria will become instrumental in the battle of man vs. white walker.

As usual, we will be casting a Melisandre necklace of spoiler secrecy around this post, so don't read on unless you want more of Season 7 to be spoiled.

Battlefront

Twitter user Rick Zornow gave us a gift from the gods with some revealing set leaks from the upcoming season. We see the mounting Lannister armies, which means that the (few) remaining forces loyal to Queen Cersei will be going into battle. At the center of the drama is Nikolaj Coster-Waldau's Jaime Lannister, and Jerome Flynn as his loyal sparring partner Bronn. The pictures fit with the earlier reports that there would be a huge Lannister battle early on, while the use of green screen presumably means that the hundreds of extras will be turned into thousands. More importantly though, it looks like Jaime will be back to swinging a sword and prove that having one hand won't stop the Kingslayer.

What's in a name?

Most interestingly though, eagle-eyed watchers have noticed the glint of a familiar sword handle, which hasn't been seen since Joffrey's demise in Season 4. Behold the return of another Valyrian steel sword, the MIA Widow's Wail:

Last seen in the dying king's possession, we had assumed it would be buried with Joffrey or handed down to his equally doomed brother Tommen. Well, burying a weapon key in the battle to end all battles with a little shit like Joffrey would seem like a waste of a plot device. So, maybe Jaime pried it from his other son's cold, dead hands after he leapt from the Red Keep. "Big deal," you cry, "It's just a sword." However, with the sword back in Jaime's golden hand, it throws open a much more interesting future.

You may remember that Tywin Lannister melted down Ned Stark's ancestral sword to create both Widow's Wail and Jaime's old sword, Oathkeeper. Oathkeeper was then given to Brienne of Tarth by Jaime as a gift for saving his scabby backside several times. With Tarth and Lannister now on opposing sides, and holding the two halves of the Stark's sword, Ice, are we moving toward the sword fight to end all sword fights and a rematch of their infamous bridge duel?

Fear the Reaper.

While Tarthbowl may be a way off, the impending Lannister battle spells big trouble for the rest of the cast, and could mean the death of one major player, and two more recent additions to the cast. Now that Jaime is back in the saddle and all tooled up, who could he be swinging his sword at? Well, a close-up shot from the set reveals that James Faulkner's Randyll Tarly, and Freddie Stroma's Dickon Tarly will be on the opposing side to the Lannisters. The Tarlys were only introduced mid-Season 6, but don't expect them to make it much into Season 7 — the Lannister battle is expected to take place in the fourth episode. I'm sure the Tarlys will be wishing that the plump Samwell hadn't run off with their ancestral sword, Heartsbane.

One person who may be escaping the wrath of Widow's Wail, but is still expected to perish, is Dame Diana Rigg's Olenna Tyrell. Watchers on the Wall has already posted pictures of the Lannisters hauling booty from the (presumed) sacking of High Garden, so it is safe to assume that Season 7 will be Rigg's last. It is unknown whether the High Garden scenes will come before or after the Lannister battle, or whether it all forms part of the same plot.

When we last left the Queen of Thorns she was shacking up with the Dornish royalty to launch a plan of attack on the Lannisters, but it won't go to plan for either family. A previous plot point circulated that Lady Olenna will confess to having poisoned King Joffrey, before taking a sip of her own medicine and dying before Jaime Lannister.

After taking a backseat from the battles of late, and having recovered from his ridiculous tangent to Dorne, it will be great to have Jaime back to his ruthless warrior ways. One of the biggest letdowns of last season was the siege of Riverrun, which ended without a single sword actually being raised and the off-screen death of Clive Russell's Brynden Tully. So at least this this time Jaime's sword can taste the blood of the Lannister enemies — there sure seems to be a lot of them at the moment!