Recap / Game of Thrones S7E7: "The Dragon and the Wolf"

Outside King's Landing, the Unsullied, led by Grey Worm, have made it east from Casterly Rock. They stand in their rigid formations, while on the parapets of King's Landing, Jaime looks on in concern. Bronn is overseeing Lannister men filling barrels with pitch, and when told they have prepared 500 barrels, he doublechecks the number of Unsullied and orders 500 more. Bronn joins Jaime at the wall and notes that he likes being called 'my lord', to which Jaime snarks that "the thrill will fade"; Bronn admits it might, but that's assuming they survive the coming battles. Bronn can't understand the Unsullied's motivation to fight, since they don't have cocks; when Jaime says they might fight for gold, Bronn asks him what does he think soldiers spend gold on. Jaime, in a moment of introspection, points out gold can be used for a man's family, to which Bronn counters that a man can't have a family without a means of attaining that family, i.e. a cock. Jaime wonders if that's all it comes down to, causing Bronn to observe that Tyrion has sided with "the cockless". Jaime snarks that Tyrion has always had a soft spot for the downtrodden. A horn is blown, and Daenaerys's khalasar rides into view, something neither Jaime or Bronn are happy to see. Their losses at the battle of the Roseroad notwithstanding, there are still tens of thousands of Dothraki left, and Bronn obeserves that it looks like the Lannister forces are going to be downtrodden.

In Blackwater Bay, the Iron Fleet rides at anchor as Dany's five ships sail towards the meeting. Varys, Tyrion, Theon, Jon, Davos, Jorah, Missandei and Sandor are all on the lead ship, while Dany is conspicuously absent. Jon asks Tyrion how many people live in King's Landing, and when told that it's around a million, notes there aren't even that many people in the entire North — but here, they're all crammed into one place. He can't understand why anyone would want to live like that, but Tyrion tells him it's because there's more work, hence more money to be made, "and the brothels are far superior". In the hold, Sandor cautiously approaches the box containing the wight, which is silent; he raps lightly on the lid, and it begins to scream and thrash, unsettling even The Hound.

At The Red Keep, Cersei wonders why Dany is nowhere to be seen, but Qyburn can't answer that question. He tells her that everyone else, including Tyrion, are heading to the Dragonpit for the meeting, and Cersei turns to leave. She pauses and orders Ser Gregor that if there are any problems, he is to kill Dany, then Tyrion, then Jon, and can dispose of everyone else in whatever order he wants. Jaime looks slightly taken aback.

On the road to the Dragonpit, Missandei asks why the Targaryens built such a place and Ser Jorah tells her it's because dragons are territorial hunters — they nest where they want to nest regardless of where that might be, and when they're hungry, they don't discriminate between livestock or humans, so letting them have the run of King's Landing would have been disastrous. Tyrion sadly notes that by the time of the last dragons, the Dragonpit wasn't even needed, as the dragons had been reduced to weak creatures that weren't even as large as your average dog; but when Aegon had it built as a home for his dragon Balerion just after the Conquest, there was no place more dangerous on the planet than the Dragonpit. Davos sees a Lannister force head toward them, and snarks that the Dragonpit might still be that dangerous.

Bronn, with Brienne and Podrick in tow, greets the Targaryen contingent, and says he was sent to see them the rest of the way to the Dragonpit. Sandor and Brienne stare at each other, then the Lannister group parts and all gathered continue onward. Tyrion and Pod reunite, with Pod saying he thought he'd never see Tyrion again. When Tyrion notes that he's supporting the crown's enemy, Pod points out he can't blame Tyrion for doing so, causing Tyrion to snark that Cersei will blame him anyway. Bronn sees them lingering and beckons them on, joking there will be time for Tyrion to suck Pod's "magic cock" later, to which Tyrion just gives a small shake of his head.

One Lannister soldier asks Sandor what's in the wagon-mounted box they brought, but only receives a bored "Fuck off" in return. Brienne slows her pace to walk beside him, saying that she thought he was dead, which Sandor replies that he nearly was thanks to her. Brienne calmly rejoins that she was just trying to protect Arya, which Sandor says was his intention as well. She surprises him by saying that Arya is alive and back in Winterfell; when Sandor asks who will protect her there if Brienne is here, Brienne says that he should worry more about whoever opposes Arya, which Sandor says won't be him.

As they walk, Tyrion talks about him, Pod and Bronn being "the heroes of Blackwater Bay", but when Pod calls him 'my lord', Tyrion dryly advises him to save that title for Ser Bronn of The Blackwater. Bronn assures Tyrion that if his side is victorious Dany will restore his title, which Tyrion takes as an opportunity to test Bronn's committment to the Lannister cause, reminding Bronn of the long-ago offer to double whatever he's being paid. Varys wonders what that would be double of, but Bronn brushes them off, saying that he's just fine, still working to advance his own interests above all else. When Tyrion points out that it doesn't seem like arranging a meeting between groups of people who are at war did much in that area, the sellsword points out that that he has now personally helped arrange said meeting, and after all, it's not his head that Cersei wants, but Tyrion's and Jon's, and should she wish to have them killed, she'll have him to thank. Tyrion seems mildly impressed by this, and they both admit they're glad they met again. Sandor stops at the path leading under the Pit, warning a Lannister guard that if he (the guard) allows anyone to so much as touch the box, he'll kill him first. The others are escorted into the Dragonpit proper, where several chairs have been set out under tarps. Bronn motions them to their seats, while Tyrion looks around, trying to see if Cersei has laid any obvious traps. Bronn asks Pod to join him for a drink while matters of state are discussed; after a nod from Brienne, they leave.

Sandor walks over to Tyrion, grousing that he left King's Landing in the first place because he didn't want to die there, but now they're back and he might die there anyway. He points out that most of the worst ideas of the past few years have been thought up by Lannisters, while Tyrion shoots back that most of those Lannister plans had the aid of a Clegane to execute them. Cersei's group shows up at this point: she, Qyburn, Jaime and Euron, accompanied by Gregor and her Queensguard. Several looks are exchanged — disappointment and resignation between Brienne and Jaime, distaste and defiance between Euron and Theon, and mutually open resentment between Cersei and Tyrion. Sandor approaches Cersei's seated group, causing Gregor to step forward and intercept him. Sandor questions the silent giant about what he remembers and what was done to him, noting that Gregor is now the uglier of the two. Receiving no response, Sandor admits the answers to those questions don't even matter; Gregor knows that Sandor will come for him eventually, and he stalks off to the basement of the Pit.

Cersei asks Tyrion where Dany is, but Tyrion only replies that she will soon arrive. An uncomfortable silence sets in while they wait, then a dragon's scream is heard and Jaime looks up in alarm. Cersei seems dismissive of his attitude for a moment until she hears the flap of wings and becomes visibly anxious herself. Everyone looks to the sky, Euron's eyes widen in shock, and Drogon circles the Pit before landing on the edge with another roar, causing the nearby Lannister guards to move away. Tyrion takes this opportunity to look at Cersei, who's never seen a dragon before, but she's mastered herself and only stares on impassively, while in the background Qyburn seems openly amazed. Drogon clambers down into the Pit and Dany dismounts before he flies off to join Rhaegal in the air, and the dragon queen approaches the meeting. Cersei tersely accuses Dany of intentionally making her wait, and Dany apologizes for the delay. She signals Tyrion, and he begins to talk about the "unique threat" they all face...then Euron cuts him off, telling Theon that Yara is still his prisoner, and if Theon doesn't swear fealty, he'll kill her. Thrown by this, Tyrion looks to Jaime, who just shakes his head. He resets and tries to talk of "larger concerns", causing Euron to interject again and wonder why the smallest person there wants to talk about that. Tyrion and Theon talk about how, as dwarf jokes go, that was a poor one, made worse by Euron's explaining it. Euron tells Tyrion that dwarfs born on the Iron Islands are killed at birth, saying it's merciful to the parents. Angered by this, Jaime says Euron should sit down and Euron asks why, Cersei orders him to, Gregor stepping forward to make sure he gets the message. Euron retakes his seat and Tyrion begins again, saying that none of the gathered groups like each other, and have inflicted harm on each other as well; if that was all they wanted to do, there would have been no reason for him to ask that they meet. Cersei dryly asks if instead they should declare an end to the war and live peacefully, which Tyrion admits has no chance of happening; when she challenges him as to why he wanted them all to meet in the first place, Jon rises to his feet and says the meeting isn't about them living in harmony, it's about them just living. "The same thing is coming for all of us," he tells her; "A general you can't negotiate with, an army that doesn't leave corpses on the battlefield."; he goes on to say that the one million people in King's Landing will only become another million wights, to which Cersei snarks that might be better for most of them. Jon, angered by her flippancy, says that he never would have come to this meeting if it wasn't a serious matter, while Cersei dismisses the entire gathering as a bad jest. She questions Dany about wanting a truce, and when Dany says that's all they're asking for, Cersei asks if they really expect her to withdraw her armies from the field, thinking they just want to gather more allies without having to worry about being attacked by the Lannisters. Dany says that her forces won't attack until the Army of the Dead is defeated and offers Cersei her word as to that, which Cersei dismisses as worthless.

Before things can get any worse, Tyrion interrupts and rightly points out that there's nothing they can say which will convince anyone...so they'll show them instead. Sandor brings the box up from the basement, then sets it down, unlatches it, and pulls off the lid. He peers inside and still seems unsettled by what he sees; this visibly worries Jaime, who after all knows Sandor is no coward. Long moments pass and the box is still silent, while Cersei sits confidently, a smug grin on her face. Then Sandor kicks the box over — and the wight barrels out, screaming and running right towards the Crown group, causing Cersei to draw back in alarm. Even Jaime is disturbed by this development. The wight reaches out for the Queen, her face a mask of terror...when as only inches seperate the shrieking monster's fingers from the Lannister queen's throat, Sandor jerks on the chain around its body and stops it, pulling it away even as Cersei's face sets into a new expression: realization of the truth. Jaime finally gets up, while Gregor advances as well, but the wight now has its eyes on Sandor, who draws his sword and cuts it in half when it charges at him. But the wight isn't dead; far from it, and tries to drag itself toward him with just its arms. Cersei's eyes are still wide as she absorbs this development, an intrigued Qyburn rises for a closer look, and Jaime just looks disgusted. The wight reaches for Sandor and he cuts off its left forearm, which Qyburn picks up and stares at in amazement before handing it to Jon. Davos has also risen, an unlit torch in his hand, which he passes to Jon, who holds it as Davos lights it. Jon tells Cersei the wights can be killed by burning them and lights the hand on fire, then drops it and the torch to draw his dragonglass dagger, which he tells her is the only other way to kill them, "If we don't win this fight, then that is the fate of every person in the world.", he warns her. Jon kills the wight as a shocked Cersei looks on while Dany watches her. Jon approaches Cersei and tells her the only war that matters is the Great War, which has now come. Dany admits that she herself didn't believe it until she saw them, and when Jaime quietly asks how many she did see, Dany says there were at least a hundred thousand, which causes Jaime to blanch.

Euron walks over and examines the wight, asking if they can swim — when Jon says they can't, Euron says he's heading back to the Iron Islands. He tells Cersei that he's been everywhere in the world and seen things people can't even imagine, but now even he is scared. He approaches Dany and advises her to retreat to Dragonstone, which will leave their kingdoms as the only ones after winter ends, then leaves. Cersei says that Euron should be scared, but that running also makes him a coward; having accepted the truth about the Army of the Dead, she realizes that if they don't join forces, it will be the end for everyone, and nothing they've sacrificed will have meant a thing. She accepts the terms of Dany's truce, saying that their war will have to wait until the Night King is defeated. Everyone breathes a sigh of relief at having secured this alliance... And then once again, Cersei pours a bucket of ice water on the proceedings by saying that Jon will also declare a truce that extends even after the White Walkers are dealt with, which means he will remain neutral as King in the North, without supporting either her or Dany. Dany questions why Cersei didn't ask for an extension of their own truce, and Cersei rightly points out that if she had, Dany never would have agreed to it; and if she had agreed, Cersei never would have believed her. Jon, on the other hand, is the son of Ned Stark, a man Cersei knows to have been honest to a fault, and if Jon makes a vow, he will not break it... and Jon proves just this by admitting he tries to live up to his word, but that he has already sworn himself and the North to Dany, and therefore he can't do what Cersei is asking. Cersei says that means they have nothing left to talk about — she accepts the Army of the Dead will invade, but they'll have to go through the North first, and her forces will fight whoever wins that war. As she and her group begin to leave, Brienne catches up to Jaime and argues with him about what just happened; to which Jaime replies that he is loyal to Cersei and she to Sansa, Jon and the Starks. "Oh, fuck loyalty!" Brienne counters, saying that this is the war that needs to be fought and isn't about houses — he has to talk to Cersei. Jaime just asks what he's supposed to say, then walks off.

Davos tells the despairing Jon, "I wish you hadn't have done that," while Dany tells him that though she's grateful, Viserion died for them to be there at this gathering and if it's all for nothing, then he died for nothing. Tyrion says he's glad Jon pledged himself to Dany, but this would have been a perfect time for him to lie and tell Cersei what she wanted to hear. Jon explains himself by saying that he won't make a promise he knows he can't keep; while honor might have gotten his father killed, it's only honor that makes someone's oath worthwhile, and that if everyone is lying, then no one can be trusted. Tyrion admits that's true, but says there is another concern right now; that they're fucked. Davos asks if he has a plan to change that, and Tyrion says the only thing he can think of is to speak with Cersei alone. Dany says she hasn't gone through everything just to let Cersei kill him, which Tyrion says, "I don't want Cersei to murder me either. I could have stayed in my cell and saved myself a great deal of trouble." When Jon tries to offer himself, saying the situation is his fault, Tyrion irritably tells him, "She'll definitely murder you." Tyrion says this is their last chance: either he and Cersei talk, or they return to Dragonstone and square one; Dany finally acquiesces.

Back at The Red Keep, Gregor accompanies Tyrion to Cersei's solar. They meet Jaime on the way, and Jaime admits his words fell on deaf ears. He says she called him an idiot for trusting Tyrion, and Tyrion points out that Cersei has already tried to kill him at least twice, and he's about to walk into a room with just her and Gregor; which probably makes him the bigger idiot. Jaime observes they may not meet again and should probably say good-bye to each other, but neither brother speaks and after a moment Jaime steps aside to allow Tyrion's passage. With the attitude of a condemned man approaching the block, Tyrion walks through the doors, which Gregor closes behind him, then he's face to face with his sister. Cersei snarks that Dany is just the type of woman Tyrion prefers, "a foreign whore who doesn't know her place", which Tyrion counters by saying that she's also someone Cersei can't bully or harm. Cersei begins to lose her temper and rants about Dany and Jon's allegiance, talking over Tyrion's protestations of ignorance, and accuses him of trying to destroy House Lannister. Tyrion counters by saying that's exactly what he's trying to prevent; Dany wanted to attack King's Landing and he convinced her otherwise. Cersei points out even if that's true he still murdered Tywin, which Tyrion admits, though trying to defend himself by saying that Tywin intended to execute him for something he didn't do, and that Tywin mistreated him all his life. Cersei mocks Tyrion for his self-pitying, saying that when Tyrion killed Tywin, it left House Lannister vulnerable to their enemies; maybe he didn't kill Joffrey, but she's pinning the blame for Myrcella and Tommen's deaths on him, saying no one would have dared harm them had Tywin been alive. Tyrion protests that he loved Tommen and Myrcella, but Cersei loses her temper for the first time, telling him that she doesn't want to hear that from him. Tyrion accepts that there's nothing he can do to disprove her fear that he's a threat to House Lannister; by her lights he's responsible for Joanna, Tywin, Myrcella and Tommen's deaths, and he in turn has fantasized about killing her so often that he's lost count. He challenges her to have Gregor kill him if that's how things stand, but Cersei backs down. Tyrion pours himself some wine, then fills another goblet and offers it to Cersei, who ignores it, before refilling his own. He again says how sorry he is for Myrcella and Tommen's deaths, but when Cersei repeats that she doesn't want his sympathy, he talks over her, saying that she knows he loved them. Cersei replies that his feelings don't matter, only what he did, and the damage it caused to their family: the loss of their future. Tyrion asks if that's true, then why did she allow this meeting; what did she hope to gain? She counter by asking what he wants to gain, was it just Jon Snow accepting Dany as Queen? Tyrion admits that was one of his goals, but when pressed says that he wants Dany to be Queen because he thinks she will improve the world. Cersei points out that she wanted to destroy King's Landing, and Tyrion admits this is true, but that Dany appointed him as Hand to advise her against things like that, while Cersei has no one like that on her side. Cersei says she doesn't worry about her own impulses or improving the world; she lays a hand on her belly and tells Tyrion she knows what it meant when the wight charged her: she wasn't thinking about anyone except the people she cares about. She wonders if perhaps Euron didn't do the right thing — sailing away, safe from the Army of the Dead. Tyrion realizes she's pregnant.

In The Dragonpit, Jon picks up the stunted jawbone of one of the later dragons. He apologizes to Dany for what he said to Cersei, and she tells him that she respects his conviction, even if she agrees with him in wishing he hadn't said it. Dany takes the jawbone from him and says that the Dragonpit was where the Targaryen dynasty began to lose its way, then she repeats what she said when buying the Unsullied: a dragon is not a slave. But the Targaryens treated them as such, reducing creatures that invoked feelings of awe and wonder to mere animals, in the process reducing their own stature in the process, until they were no different than any other noble house. Jon counters that she is different, and House Targaryen hasn't ended yet. Dany again says that she can't have children, but when questioned admits that the person who told her this was the woman who killed Khal Drogo, leading Jon to teasingly ask if she might not have been the most impartial source, getting a smile from Dany. She tells him that if she had just trusted him from the beginning, their situation would be much better, but now they're stuck between a rock and a hard place: the Army of the Dead can't be ignored, but if the Targaryen forces move north to battle it, that lets Cersei regain everything the Crown has lost. Jon snarks that in that case, Tyrion was right: they're fucked. At this moment, Tyrion rejoins them, with Cersei and her contingent following. Cersei tells them that she will not be recalling her armies; instead, she'll send them north to fight the Army of the Dead alongside the Targaryen/Northern armies. She says they must band together, and if they're victorious, maybe her aiding them without any assurance of safety in return will make them think better of her, though she doesn't think it will, and she orders Jaime to call the banners.

A raven approaches Winterfell, and after its message of Jon's swearing fealty to Dany is delivered, Littlefinger notes it's not easy for them to fly in the wind and cold. He says that perhaps Jon sent an earlier raven that was lost, but Sansa thinks not. She tells Littlefinger that Jon may have made her Lady of Winterfell, but he's always decided what to do without asking her advice, and this time is no different. Littlefinger again protests that he can't believe Jon would submit, but Sansa points out that she knows Jon's handwriting and signature, the message is genuine. Littlefinger points out that Dany is said to be beautiful, and perhaps Jon submitted to her in hopes of securing a military alliance through marriage — the King in the North and the Dragon Queen are both young and single and would make a formidable team. He then points out that if there really is an impending marriage, Jon can't rule in two places at once; ergo the North would need someone else to rule. Sansa shakes her head in negation; Arya would never accede to a coup without trying to stop her, since she's always been closer to Jon than to Sansa. Littlefinger asks if Arya would really kill her own sister, and an incredulous Sansa asks if he has ever heard of the Faceless Men; Arya has become one of them. She asks Littlefinger what he thinks Arya could possibly be after, and he points out that Sansa knows her better than he ever will. He advises Sansa that a tactic which has served him well is to imagine the worst possible thing someone could want, and then ponder how well that explains their actions. In this case, Sansa says the worst thing Arya could want is to kill her for betraying House Stark, the letter would give her proof of Sansa's treachery, and with Bran rejecting the lordship, this would make Arya the Lady of Winterfell.

Back in the chamber of the painted table at Dragonstone, Jon and Dany are planning the defence of the North; the Dothraki will ride up the Kingsroad and arrive at Winterfell within the fortnight, while the Unsullied will sail to White Harbor and then join them on the way. Jorah advises Dany to fly to Winterfell, since the memory of the Mad King's vendetta against the Starks is still well-remembered; she's safer hundreds of feet in the air than on horseback riding through potentially hostile territory, since she might be viewed as another conquering Targaryen. Jon says it's her choice, but sailing with him to Winterfell together would cement their alliance to everyone. Dany states that she has no intention of conquering the North, she's helping to save it, and that she will sail together with Jon.

As Jon and Davos walk out through the throne room, Theon asks to speak with Jon alone. He points out that Jon could have lied about having sworn his allegiance to Dany but instead chose to tell their common enemy the truth. Jon points out that if there was any chance of gaining an alliance with Cersei, they had to be honest with each other. Theon says that Jon always knew the right thing to do, even when they were boys, Jon always did the right thing. Jon counters that isn't so; it may look like he's always done the right thing, but he's made plenty of mistakes. Theon says that even if that's so, it's nothing compared to what he's done, which Jon — bitterly remembering how Theon betrayed his family back in Season 2 — agrees is true. Theon says he always wanted to do the right thing, but was always faced with a choice between doing what was expected of him as a Greyjoy versus what was expected of him as a Stark. Jon angrily tells Theon, "Our father was more of a father to you than yours ever was and you betrayed him. Betrayed his memory." Shamed, Theon agrees he did and Jon softens, "But you never lost him. He's a part of you, just like he's a part of me." Theon protests that the things he's done may outweigh that. Jon says he can't forgive Theon for everything he's done, but that he can forgive him for the wrongs he did directly or indirectly to Jon. He then tells Theon, "You don't need to choose. You're a Greyjoy and you're a Stark." Theon says that Yara tried to save him from the Boltons, but he failed her and needs to save her. "So why are you still talking to me?" Jon asks, and Theon leaves to save his sister.

On the beach, Theon's Ironborn are getting ready to head back out to their ship when Theon approaches. He says that Yara was the reason they left the Iron Islands in the first place, and they're going to rescue her. Captain Harrag says that she's probably already dead, and argues with Theon that even if she isn't dead, he left her to die, which is no different. Theon admits this, saying he was a coward, and the man asks why they should follow a coward. They intend to find an eastern island to claim, killing the men and taking the women as salt wives. Theon points out that Yara pledged the Ironborn would stop their reaving, and that they're going to free her. Harrag spits in Theon's face and advises him to run, but when Theon won't back down the pirate sucker-punches him and they begin to fight. The bigger man gets the better of Theon initially, dodging all Theon's attacks while landing all of his own and knocking Theon down repeatedly. Theon won't stay down however, and the portly bastard begins to tire. They grapple again and the exhausted sailor tries to end the fight by kneeing Theon in the balls — but Theon no longer has any balls, and the man's confusion allows Theon to gain the upper hand, knocking him down and out. Theon staggers to his feet in the aftermath and declares they won't be doing this for him, but for Yara, which the other Ironborn cheer, and he stumbles into the surf to wash the blood off his face.

Sansa stands on the parapets at Winterfell, staring at the snowy expanse before her. She leaves, ordering one of her men to bring Arya to the Great Hall. He does so, and Arya looks around indifferently at the gathered Northern lords and guardsmen, while Sansa and Bran are seated at the head of the room and Littlefinger stands in a corner, smirking in satisfaction. Arya asks Sansa if she really wants to do this, with Sansa saying it doesn't matter what she wants; this is about honor, and honor demands that she defend House Stark against the people who would harm and betray them. Arya tells Sansa she should proceed, and Sansa does.

Sansa: You stand accused of murder, you stand accused of treason. How do you answer these charges... Lord Baelish?

It takes Littlefinger a moment to realize what she said, and when he does, he clearly has no idea what to say. Arya snarks that he needs to respond, and Littlefinger says that he's confused by what's going on. Sansa asks why, as the charges are simple: firstly, he murdered Lysa Arryn. Littlefinger protests that he did that to protect Sansa, which she counters by saying he did it to have control over the Vale. He arranged the murder of Jon Arryn by convincing Lysa to poison him; Littlefinger claims that Lysa was insanely paranoid, seeing enemies everywhere and therefore her word can't be taken at face value, but Sansa counters this by bringing up the letter Lysa sent to Catelyn which blamed the Lannisters for Jon Arryn's death, ultimately leading to the conflict between Lannister and Stark and the War of Five Kings. He claims there was no such letter, and Sansa accuses him of conspiring with Cersei and Joffrey to imprison Ned, which later led to his execution. Littlefinger outright denies this one, saying that no one in the room was there, but then Bran speaks of him holding a knife to Ned's throat, saying that he warned Ned not to trust him. Arya speaks up, saying that he told Catelyn the catspaw dagger belonged to Tyrion, when it really belonged to Littlefinger himself. Littlefinger approaches Sansa at table and says that he's tried to protect her, to which Sansa retorts if that's the case, he did a fine job of it selling her to Ramsay. Littlefinger asks to speak with her alone, saying that he can explain it all. Sansa replies that sometimes, she will imagine the worst possible thing someone could want, and then ponder how well that explains their actions. In this case, the explanation is rather simple: he was trying to turn Arya and Sansa against each other, just like he did to Catelyn and Lysa; Sansa says that while she may be a slow learner, she does learn. Littlefinger protests that she owes him a chance to defend himself, but Sansa sits back, indicating that her word is final; Littlefinger turns to Bronze Yohn Royce and orders Royce to escort him back to the Vale, which Royce refuses to do. Littlefinger then falls to his knees and begins to weep, claiming that he loved Catelyn, though Sansa points out this didn't stop him from betraying her. He then says he also loves Sansa, though she points out this didn't stop him from betraying her as well. She tells Littlefinger that when they retook Winterfell, he warned her that if she wanted justice, she would have to make it herself, and thanks him for her education before Arya steps forward and slits his throat with the catspaw dagger. After a few moments of struggle, the Lord Protector of the Vale of Arryn falls forward onto the floor, a pool of blood slowly growing beneath him.

In The Red Keep, Cersei walks into the map yard to see Jaime giving the other commanders their orders for the march north, in three days time. When one protests that they would need at least a fortnight to gather sufficient supplies, Jaime replies that they don't have a fortnight, they have three days, because if the North is conquered, they're next. Cersei asks the lords to give her and Jaime a minute alone, then asks what he thinks he's doing. Confused, he says he's preparing their armies to go north, and Cersei complains that she always knew he was the least intelligent of all the Lannisters. She tells him that the Targaryens and Starks have allied against the Crown, and if he wants to join them, that makes him either a traitor or an idiot. Jaime protests that she pledged to join them, but Cersei cuts him off by saying that she lied; she had no intention of honoring Tyrion's request or of ordering Westerosi soldiers to join a fight with Unsullied and Dothraki. Jaime can't believe what he's hearing, and points out that they saw the same thing, a dead man that walked and tried to kill them, and Cersei counters that yes she saw that, but she also saw that fire could destroy it; and if dragons, Unsullied, Dothraki and Northmen can't stop them, what difference would the Crown's army make? Jaime says this is no longer about any House or family, it's a matter of living or dead, and Cersei says that she intends to live; to that end, they will remain in King's Landing. Jaime angrily says that he made a promise, but Cersei says their child will rule all of Westeros, which Jaime counters by saying that if the Army of the Dead reach them, their child won't even have a chance to be born, much less rule. Cersei says that she now believes the stories they heard as children about the White Walkers, about dragons, about the Dothraki... So she's content to let them kill each other while the Crown's forces retake the territory they've lost. Jaime then points out that once the war in the North ends, someone will march south to kill them, either just to kill them (the Army of the Dead) or because they were betrayed (the Targaryen/Stark forces). Cersei shrugs that the Starks and Targaryens already want them dead, and Jaime again says that their forces can't beat Dany and the dragons. Cersei asks why there were only two dragons visible at the meeting. When Jaime snarks that maybe the third was guarding the Targaryen fleet, Cersei correctly points out that Dany brought all of the Unsullied and Dothraki within sight of King's Landing as a show of power; she never would have brought only two dragons if she still had three. Cersei concludes Dany must have lost one of her dragons, which means they are vulnerable. Jaime protests that they don't have enough manpower to defeat the Dothraki, much less the support of the other noble houses, but Cersei counters that she's obtained a new loan from the Iron Bank and hired the twenty thousand men, horses and elephants of the Golden Company. Jaime snarks that the Golden Company might be the most feared mercenary group in Essos, but they are in Essos, causing Cersei to give him a pitying glance and ask if he really thought Euron would give up the opportunity to marry her; no one walks away from her- Euron has taken the Iron Fleet to ferry the Golden Company to Westeros. Jaime is insulted that she arranged this without telling him, but Cersei points out that he met with Tyrion without telling her, and accuses him of promoting the interests of Dany and Jon above the Iron Throne's. He tells her that he made a vow to fight alongside the Targaryen/Stark army, and that he intends to do so, which Cersei tells him will be treason. Disgusted by her shortsightedness, Jaime turns to leave, but Gregor blocks him; "I told you no one walks away from me", Cersei says angrily. Incredulous, Jaime asks if she's going to order his death; the only person left who's on her side, even if she can't see it, but Cersei points out there will be one more person on her side when their child is born. Jaime challenges her to give the command, and Cersei nods to Gregor, who draws his sword; then Jaime declares that he doesn't believe she'll do it and stalks out of the room unchallenged.

Riding toward the Kingsroad, Jaime stops to pull a glove on over his golden hand, aware that it makes him too recognizable even in the nondescript garments he's now wearing. As he sits, a snowflake lands on the glove and he looks up to see snow beginning to fall; after a moment, he gallops on his way as snow begins to blanket King's Landing. Winter has come.

Back at Winterfell, Sam, Gilly and Little Sam have finally arrived from Oldtown. Sam goes up to Bran's room, saying he wasn't sure Bran would remember him, but Bran creeps him out a little when he says he remembers everything. Bran talks about how Sam helped him, Meera, Jojen, Hodor and Summer go beyond The Wall and tells Sam he's a good man, which Sam says he isn't certain he is. He asks Bran what happened, but when Bran says now he's the Three-Eyed Raven, Sam feigns awe for a moment before admitting has no idea what Bran's talking about. Bran tells him that he can see everything that happened in the past and anything that's happening in the present, then asks Sam why he came to Winterfell. Sam says that he believes Jon must lead the fight against the Army of the Dead, but he'll need help, and Sam's come to offer what little he can. Bran says that Jon is returning to Winterfell at that moment, with Dany accompanying him; when Sam nervously asks if Bran saw this in a vision, Bran holds up a raven scroll. Bran says that Jon needs to know the truth about who he is; that he is not the bastard son of Eddard Stark, but the bastard son of Rhaegar Targaryen and Lyanna Stark (Bran still being under the impression that Rhaegar abducted and raped Lyanna). Sam reveals he did catch that Wham Line from Gilly a few episodes ago — if Jon is the son of Rhaegar and Lyanna, then he is trueborn, and not a bastard son after all; the High Septon at the time annulled Rhaegar's marriage to Elia and remarried him to Lyanna. Bran asks if Sam is certain of this, and though Sam says he can't see why the High Septon would lie in his private journal, perhaps Bran could "see" and find out the truth. So Bran does, and sees the wedding ceremony. He realizes that Lyanna was not kidnapped by Rhaegar Targaryen, as Robert Baratheon believed; she went willingly. The spark that ignited Robert's Rebellion was based on an untruth.

The visions are intercut with a scene of Jon on the Narrow Sea, hesitating before he knocks on the door of Dany's cabin. She opens the door and they share a silent gaze before she invites him in and he closes the door behind him. In the corridor outside, Tyrion observes this and realizes what it means. In the trance, Bran sees Ned by Lyanna's bed at the Tower of Joy with her baby — the son Ned will name 'Jon' and raise as his own child to protect him — but this time, Bran can hear Lyanna whisper to her brother her son's true name: Aegon Targaryen. As Jon and Daenerys finally act on their mutual attraction, Bran notes that Rhaegar and Lyanna's marriage means that Jon, as the trueborn son of Lyanna and Rhaegar, is the true heir to the Iron Throne. "He needs to know," Bran says. "We need to tell him."

Sansa and Arya are standing on the parapet of Winterfell. Arya asks if Sansa is alright, and she answers that she thinks Littlefinger did love her in his own way. Arya assures her she did the right thing; when Sansa points out that Arya killed him, Arya rightly notes that she's just an executioner, Sansa passed the sentence, she's the Lady of Winterfell. Sansa asks Arya if that bothers her, and Arya replies that she never could have been good at it as Sansa is, so she had to find something else to do. She hesitates and says she never could have lived through Sansa's torment at Ramsay's hands, which Sansa protests by saying that Arya is the strongest person she knows. Arya tells Sansa that's the nicest thing she's ever said to her, causing Sansa to grin and say it won't become a habit, teasing her little sister by saying she's still "strange and annoying." Arya recites Ned's warning that, "In winter, we must protect ourselves. Look after one another," which Sansa completes with the second line, "When the snows fall and the white winds blow, the lone wolf dies, but the pack survives." Arya says that she misses him, and Sansa replies that she does as well as they look toward the North.

In the Godswood, Bran is in another trance, this time using ravens to monitor Eastwatch-By-The-Sea. Beric and Tormund are patrolling the top of the Wall. They reach one of the observation platforms and Tormund grouses that he's still not used to looking down from such a height. Suddenly, they see a wight come out of the treeline... followed by another... followed by a White Walker... followed by more wights. A watchman blows the signal horn, while a stunned Tormund looks on as the entire Army of the Dead files out of the forest — Dany's earlier estimate of "100,000, at least", seems accurate.

Then a dragon roars. Tormund and Beric look up in horror. Through the mist and snow, Viserion is flying toward The Wall, wings tattered, but with the Night King on his back. Blue flames shoot from his mouth like a blowtorch and begin to burn through the Wall. Tormund immediately orders his men to escape. Viserion makes passes back and forth, each gout of fire cutting deeper and deeper into the ice, while tremors from the Wall's destabilization knock the scaffolding of the stairs from its mounting and send men plunging to their deaths. Tormund and Beric run west along the path on top of the Wall, then just as they seemingly reach safety the entire eastern edge of the wall loses integrity and crashes to the ground and into the ocean. Their path now clear, the Army of the Dead march south, a stream of wights slowly heading into the realms of men. Above, Viserion continues to fly over the crumbling Wall as the Night King observes his forces' progress.

The undead invasion of the realms of men has begun.

Tropes:

• Abhorrent Admirer: Invoked. Sansa speculates that Littlefinger certainly had something resembling love for her, but it was too twisted for him to do something healthy or virtuous about it.
• Absence of Evidence: Daenerys brings her dragons to the meeting, but since she's down to two, Cersei immediately notices and deduces that something must have happened to the third, since Daenerys brought the entire rest of her army as a show of strength and would have brought all three if she could.
• Accidental Innuendo: From the Kingslayer.
  Jaime: Maybe it is all about cocks in the end. ^noteanal
• Adaptation-Induced Plot Hole:
  • In the books, Littlefinger is not the person who hired Bran's assassin (see "Pragmatic Adaptation" below). For it to be Littlefinger in the show raises the logistical question of how Baelish got word of Bran's crippling, made the decision to have him assassinated, and somehow got blade and/or assassin from King's Landing to Winterfell before King Robert had managed to travel two-thirds of that distance (and, for that matter, before Petyr himself had even appeared on the show). It's not impossible, but the timescale is questionable, especially since Offscreen Teleportation and Instant Messenger Ravens have only been introduced this season.
  • A minor one. Bran states that Jon's surname should be Sand just because he was born in Dorne, when it's already known that Jon wasn't born in the North in the first place. As such, naming rights are up to the lord recognizing his bastard, which is what Ned did when he brought Jon from the south; Jon can still be a Snow even when he was born in Dorne, as it was up to Ned to name him. While it's a case of Entertainingly Wrong (as explained farther below in said trope's entry), naming rights were up to Jon's father, Rhaegar, and in his absence (due to his demise) they were up to Lyanna; technically, and under Bran's impression that Jon is a bastard, there is a greater possibility that Jon would have been surnamed Waters (the Crownlands' bastard surname) as per Rhaegar's preference. Still, it's revealed by Sam Tarly that Jon is not a bastard in the first place, a fact that Bran confirms once he pays closer attention to Lyanna's deathbed request to Ned.
• Admiring the Abomination: Qyburn seems both horrified and awed by the wight Jon presents, picking up its severed, still-twitching arm and staring raptly at it until Jon takes it off him. And while they're not "abominations", he's fascinated by Daenerys's dragons rather than intimidated by them.
  Anton Lesser (Qyburn): That's where [Qyburn's] head is, you know? The world could end in five minutes, but he is absolutely, one-pointed focused on, "I have never seen [wights] before. This is amazing. I could really do things with this."
• Ain't Too Proud to Beg: Littlefinger cries like a child and falls to his knees begging for mercy when it becomes clear he can't conventionally talk Sansa out of having him executed. She ignores it.
• Alas, Poor Yorick: Played With. While waiting for Tyrion to return to the Dragonpit, Jon picks up a miniscule dragon's jawbone and observes this sad reminder of the Targaryen legacy.
• Ambiguous Situation: In a series that's known for showing almost every single death onscreen, it's deliberately made unclear if Beric and Tormund were killed when part of the wall collapsed.
• Anguished Declaration of Love: After all other tactics fail, Littlefinger attempts to sway sympathy from Sansa by giving these regarding her and Catelyn. It doesn't work, not least because he also said he loved her mother; she reminds him that he betrayed both her mother and her, so tough luck.
• Appeal to Authority: In desperation for his life, Littlefinger tries to rely on Lord Royce on the argument of being the Lord Protector of the Vale, Royce being a man he's consistently belittled ever since they met. Royce succinctly and proverbially tells him to shove it.
• Asshole Victim:
  • Lord Petyr "Littlefinger" Baelish's many, many crimes are brought before Winterfell's court, and he's exposed as the man that kicked off the War of the Five Kings and caused so much suffering to Westeros. Absolutely nobody intercedes for him, nor are tears shed when he dies.
  • The Ironborn Theon beat seemingly to death planned on sailing in a distant island, killing the men and take the women for himself and his men.
• Authority in Name Only: As Baelish finds out, his title as Lord Protector of the Vale means jack all when the Knights of the Vale pledged their loyalty to the King in the North and the Lady of Winterfell, not to him. Not to mention it's revealed to them that he conspired to murder their previous lord, Jon Arryn. He has no more leverage to use against Sansa in case she ever decided to turn on him, nor is anyone willing to help him even if he had it. Another aspect lies in the fact that Littlefinger attained his position of power through the Crown, which both the North and the Targaryens are actively trying to undermine, meaning that he had considerably less leverage than he thought. In other words, Littlefinger was undone the moment his men pledged themselves to the Starks.
• Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: For all their past history and bad blood between them, at the end of the day, Sansa and Arya are sisters, and will always look out for each other, as proved by their ability to see through Littlefinger's attempts to pit them against each other and the compliments and good-natured joking they share on Winterfell's battlements afterwards.
• Bait-and-Switch Comment: After a session with Littlefinger speculating on Arya's motives, Arya is brought before the court. Sansa lays out the charges, then asks Littlefinger how he pleads.
• Beat Them at Their Own Game: For the whole season, Littlefinger has been teaching Sansa to think and plan and anticipate others the way he does. This comes back to bite him in the ass hard when she uses his own methods to conclude that he is her true enemy.
• Big Brother Instinct: Jaime loses it when Euron tells Tyrion that he would have been drowned at birth in the Iron Isles out of mercy for the parents, angrily telling him to sit down.
• Black-and-White Insanity: Cersei accuses Jaime of treachery when he passes out orders for the Lannister army to ride for the North, even though she never told him that she never planned to honor her word.
• Bleed 'Em and Weep: Easy to miss if you're not paying much attention or, alternatively, too much attention, but Sansa is crying while she thanks Littlefinger for his lessons and sentences him to death.
• Book Ends:
  • Sansa alone on the battlements of Winterfell, to Sansa and Arya together on the battlements of Winterfell.
  • Petyr Baelish's life as player in the game of thrones. It started when Brandon Stark beat him in a duel, inspiring his start of darkness, and it ends at the hands of another Brandon Stark.
• Breaching the Wall: Riding an undead Viserion, the Night's King uses its dragonbreath to tear a massive hole in the Wall, causing the easternmost section to completely collapse and giving his zombie army free passage into the Seven Kingdoms.
• Brains and Brawn: As a Proper Lady, Sansa was not raised or trained to perform executions herself, but has no problem letting Arya act as The Lady of Winterfell's Justice. Afterwards Arya lampshades how she'd never be as good a Lady as Sansa, so she had to become something else.
• Broken Aesop: Jon telling Theon that "You don't have to choose" and that he can be both Greyjoy and Stark breaks Maester Aemon's famous aesop that "a day must come when a man must choose" and likewise the overall theme of Conflicting Loyalty and difficult choices in the series (as echoed in the Story Arc of Ned, Stannis, Jaime, Davos and others). It also breaks what he told Cersei earlier, that he can't serve two queens.
• Cain and Abel:
  • Cersei to both her brothers. When Tyrion tries to negotiate with her alone, his friends are certain he is walking into certain death and so does he. He actually goads Cersei to kill him on the spot if it makes her feel better. Later on, when Jaime learns that she lied about helping Daenerys and the North and decides to desert Cersei, she almost orders the Mountain to execute him, but Jaime simply walks away.
  • The Hound and the Mountain meet once again with Sandor vowing to one day kill his brother.
  • Subverted with Arya and Sansa, who see through Littlefinger's attempt to turn the sisters against each other.
• Came Back Strong: Viserion's status as a wight (or potentially a White Walker dragon) has given him power even Drogon can't match — he streams powerful blue fire at the Wall for far longer than any other dragon has been demonstrated doing so and undermines a millenia-old wall of magical ice. By himself. He is also shown to be a tremendously fast flier, especially compared to his living brothers.
• Call-Back:
  • Littlefinger's comeuppance has many visual call backs to Sansa's time in King's Landing, from him standing in the corner, to falling on his knees begging, much like how Sansa did before Joffrey and Cersei. Likewise, the sudden reversal from a gambit where Littlefinger thought he was in control to realizing he was the victim mirrors how Ned thought the Goldcloaks were with him before their Face–Heel Turn.
  • Littlefinger dies in a way closely resembling his betrayal of Ned Stark; throat slit from behind, as everything he had trust in crashes down around him. What's more, his begging for mercy resembles his original Start of Darkness, where he fought Brandon Stark for Catelyn Tully's hand, was soundly defeated and was spared only because Catelyn interceded on his behalf. Well, due to Littlefinger's own actions, Catelyn's no longer here...
  • Once again, someone pleads for mercy to his daughter figure/love interest by saying "If we could speak alone..."
  • Arya echoes Brienne's line informing Littlefinger that Sansa asked him a question.
  • Sam confirms that he was actually paying attention to Gilly when she told him in episode 5 that Rhaegar had annulled his marriage to Elia to marry Lyanna, even though Sam, at that moment, was ranting in frustration for the Maesters' inaction towards the threat from the North, though he states that he had translated the book where he read it.
  • Rhaegar and Lyanna's wedding echoes Talisa and Robb's (which was also a case of Love Ruins the Realm). Both couples happened to marry under the rites of the Seven... and both couples happened to die bloody, violent deaths.
  • Euron tries to bully Theon, and makes a dwarf joke when Tyrion intercedes. Tyrion and Theon confer briefly — calling back to their reunion in Meereen — and decide that it's a lame joke, made worse by the fact that Euron explained it afterwards.
  • As Jaime leaves King's Landing to join up with the Stark and Targaryen forces it begins to snow and we get several shots of the Red Keep being covered with snowflakes — echoing Daenerys's vision in the House of the Undying, of the Iron Throne covered in snow.
  • Cersei says that Dany is Tyrion's type; "a foreign whore who doesn't know her place", an obvious taunt about Shae. Tyrion retorts Daenerys is also "a foreign whore you can't beat, abduct or intimidate", referring to her previous attempt to undermine him by holding Ros (whom Cersei mistakenly believed was Tyrion's mistress) hostage.
  • In the past, Jaime and Cersei have talked about the pair of them being 'the only two people in the world'. Now Jaime points out that he is all Cersei has left — and she retorts that their child will soon be born, flatly implying that she doesn't need him any longer.
  • Jaime once again rejects to go with the flow for the sake of honor when he abandons Cersei; he had previously refused his father's wishes to succeed him as heir to Casterly Rock, as Jaime intended to honor the oath he made as a Kingsguard. Both instances lead to his eventual separation from his office at the time, as he is first dismissed as a Kingsguard by Tommen, and now he abandons his office as Commander of Cersei's armies.
  • A lighter example; midway when they're making love, Jon and Daenerys look into each other's eyes. Throughout this season, they have been getting lots of build up to them falling in love. Now, what did Doreah say when she was giving Dany advice on making love?
    Doreah: You must look in his eyes always. Love comes in the eyes.
• Characters Dropping Like Flies: Unusually inverted by a finale/climax episode, which tends to feature deaths of loads of important characters. This episode has one certain onscreen death: Littlefinger. The Eastwatch garrison is destroyed by the Night King and Viserion, which claimed the lives of many Red Shirts but left the fate of Beric, Tormund, and possibly Gendry up in the air.
• Chekhov's Gun: Bran telling Sam that Jon is really Rhaegar's son causes Sam's mind to snap back to when Gilly told him about Rhaegar's annulment and provides Bran with the chance to witness Jon's real origin as the true heir to the Iron Throne.
• Children Are Innocent: Tyrion shows genuine regret over the deaths of Tommen and Myrcella when Cersei accuses his actions of having brought about their deaths.
  Tyrion: I am more sorry about the children than you can ever know.
  Cersei: I will not...
  Tyrion: I DON'T CARE! I loved them. You know I did. You know it in your heart, if there's anything left of it.
• Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: True to her nature, Cersei lies her ass off to Dany, Jon and Tyrion, as she has no intentions of helping them fight the White Walkers. It's so bad that she even offended Jaime, her supposed closest confidant, as she left him out of the lie altogether.
• Comedic Sociopathy: Arya is immediately delighted and cracking a smile when Littlefinger starts stumbling upon his words after he is surreptitiously accused by Sansa of conspiracy and treason against House Stark.
• Continuity Nod: After Sandor cuts it off, Qyburn stares at the severed but still clearly animated arm with clear interest. Back in season one, Alliser Thorne was sent to King's Landing with a similar "living" arm, but never had a chance to present it to the court.
• "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot: When Sansa is trying Petyr, she is outright disgusted when she tells him that she knows that he caused the feud between the Starks and the Lannisters, by attempting to kill her brother Bran. If not for Littlefinger, as she puts it, her father wouldn't have been captured and executed, and her family wouldn't have gone to war, with Catelyn, Rob, and Lysa as casualties. The Stark children's Trauma Conga Line never would have started and they could have avoided seven seasons of pain.
• Cowardly Lion: Invoked. Gwendoline Christie states in a featurette that Brienne is dreading having to meet Cersei and Jaime at the same time, explaining her unnerved expression during their glimpse exchange at the Dragonpit. Curiously, and true to this trope's name, she's at a beast's den, facing proverbial Lannister "lions".
• Cruel and Unusual Death: Several Night's Watch men and Wildlings can be seen getting caught in the collapsing Wall.
• Cutting the Knot: Sandor's vision implied that Night King planned on walking around the Wall, but with Viserion he simply destroys the Wall.
• Dare to Be Badass: Jon to Theon.
  Theon: She [Yara] needs my help.
  Jon: So why are you still talking to me?
• Dark Reprise: As in previous White Walker scenes, the main Game of Thrones theme gets this treatment as the Army of the Dead marches through the ruins of Eastwatch into the Seven Kingdoms.
• Deadly Lunge: The wight snarls and rattles its crate when Sandor raps on it on the boat, but when he takes off the lid in the dragonpit, nothing happens. Has it all been for nothing? Sandor then kicks over the crate...and the wight goes straight for Cersei, only to be stopped at the last moment by Sandor pulling on its chain.
• Death by Irony: Littlefinger dies pretty much the same way Ned Stark did: he was caught in an extremely weak position which he mistook for one of strength; on foreign soil with no real allies, and executed by an authority he failed to subvert. For added points, the same dagger he gifted to Bran is what does him in.
• Death Glare:
  • Used in abundance during the Dragonpit meeting to express the animosity between the participants. Cersei in particular is trying to maintain her composure after witnessing Daenerys's triumphant entrance and is visibly irked when she admonishes Dany for being late.
  • Throughout the meeting at the Great Hall, Sansa gives Littlefinger the most serene look of disgust she can muster while he stumbles upon his words to defend himself.
• Defeat Means Respect:
  • The Hound and Brienne meet again during the negotiations between Daenerys and Cersei. They both acknowledge that they only wanted to protect Arya and neither seems to hold any further grudge.
  • Similarly, the remaining Ironborn under Yara's command fall in line behind Theon when he defeats (and possibly kills) one of them.
• Despotism Justifies the Means: If she wasn't in this territory before, Cersei is firmly in it now. She knows the Night King is a real threat and she doesn't care. She is willing to let darkness consume Westeros and watch her enemies die from the safe distance of her throne. As long as she remains in power, nothing else matters.
• Determinator: Despite facing an Ironborn raider who utterly dominates him in their fight, Theon refuses to stay down, getting up every time even though he's getting soundly beaten. Then the raider makes the mistake of attempting a Groin Attack and Theon is able to turn the tables.
• Didn't See That Coming:
  • The Ironborn raider is quite shocked when Theon No Sells several Groin Attacks.
  • It's implied that Littlefinger had somewhat started easing on his machinations and becoming overconfident due to the fact that his endgame was nearing, never once considering that Sansa might turn against him, which could have happened save for the fact that Sansa and Arya had an omniscient Bran to explain everything to them as it happened. He would have been successful had Sansa indeed executed Arya like he planned, proving that he had the Lady of Winterfell dancing on his beat. Littlefinger should have followed his own advice — view every friend as a potential enemy and plan for every contingency so nothing will surprise you.
  • Even though it turns out they planned it, Arya was still mildly surprised that Sansa actually goes through with the plan to put Littlefinger to trial and execute him. She hasn't been there for Ramsay Snow's death, after all.
• Didn't Think This Through:
  • Jaime's opinion of Cersei's plans to leave the Starks and Targaryens to fight the war with the undead alone. Whoever wins that war will turn their attention to the Lannisters afterwards; the undead to simply kill them, or the Starks and Targaryens over the fact Cersei betrayed and left them to die. He also dismisses Cersei's plans to bring in the Golden Company, given that he's already seen firsthand their soldiers won't stand up to Dothraki, Unsullied and dragons.
    Cersei Lannister: The monsters are real. The White Walkers, the dragons, the Dothraki screamers. All the frightening stories we heard when we were young, they're all real, so be it. Let the monsters kill each other, and while they battle in the North we take back the lands that belong to us.
    Jaime Lannister: And Then What??
    Cersei Lannister: And then we rule.
    Jaime Lannister: When the fighting in the North is over, someone wins — you understand that, don't you? If the dead win, they march south and kill us all. If the living win, and we've betrayed them, they march south and kill us all!
    Cersei Lannister: The Targaryens and the Starks already want to kill us all. Most of them will die and...
    Jaime Lannister: I faced them in the field. We can't beat them!
  • Littlefinger underestimated Sansa's scheming and overestimated his own bannermen's loyalty, as well as Arya's intentions. He never truly entertained the possibility of Sansa backstabbing him since he used his resources as a bargaining chip to make her dependent on him. He never had a back up plan in case she ever turned on him, he merely hoped she wouldn't do it so to not lose any support. Turns out the Vale lords didn't like him very much and Sansa could have spoken the truth about Baelish at any time and they would have dropped him without hesitation. He also presumed that Arya wanted to replace Sansa as the new Lady of Winterfell, but he couldn't grasp that Arya didn't want anything like power or control.
• Digging Yourself Deeper: Baelish actually asks for a chance to defend himself from his charges and the very first thing he does is demand his bannermen to escort him back to the Eyrie, making himself look even more guilty in their eyes by trying to flee the charges against him.
  • There's also the fact that he admits killing Lysa to save Sansa, seemingly forgetting the fact he'd previously told Royce and the other nobility of the Vale Lysa's death had been suicide.
• Dirty Coward: Littlefinger. When the shit hits the fan, he tries to hightail it out of Winterfell and is reduced to begging for his life. It doesn't save him.
• Disability Immunity: Thanks to his castration, Theon is more or less immune to Groin Attacks. The Ironborn raider attacking Theon is shocked when three shots to the non-existent nuts fail to drop Theon, and it gives Theon the opening he needs to knock the stronger man down and beat him until he stops moving.
• Divide and Conquer: Cersei intends to pit the Stark-Targaryen forces against the Army of the Dead in the hopes that the Lannisters will be able to beat whoever wins. Jaime has to point out to her that it's a lose-lose situation for them — no matter who comes out on top.
• The Dog Bites Back:
  • After being manipulated and subjected to abuse and humiliation thanks to his machinations, Sansa throws it all back to Petyr Baelish's face just before she has him executed.
  • Bran, the child that Baelish used as a pawn to start the Lannister-Stark feud, reveals the crucial testimony that Petyr betrayed their father.
• Don't Explain the Joke: Tyrion and Theon mock Euron for making a lame height joke about the former and then explaining it. Euron just moves on to more personal insults in response, until Jaime and Cersei force him to sit down for disrupting the proceedings.
• Double Meaning: When Arya is brought before Sansa and says, "Are you sure you want to do this?" it sounds like Arya's asking if Sansa is willing to take her on. She's actually asking if Sansa is willing to go through with the trial and execution of Littlefinger. After all, Arya is more familiar with girly-Sansa than feed-Ramsay-to-his-own-dogs-Sansa.
• Dragon Rider: The Night King has become one, thanks to the undead Viserion.
• Dramatic Irony:
  • Jon and Daenerys have fallen in love with each other... unaware that not only is he her nephew but his claim to the Iron Throne trumps hers, since he's the legitimate son of her eldest brother.
  • Euron believes he is safe on Iron Islands because the undead are unable to swim or cross water as far as they know; however, wights can walk underwater just fine, and they have a undead dragon with them, which makes the point of hiding on isles moot. Not only that, but they have no problem operating machinery under direction from the White Walkers, so could easily "man" a fleet of ships.
  • After everyone gets on his case about how he Will Not Tell a Lie, Jon acknowledges that his father's Honor Before Reason got him killed. He doesn't know that Ned Stark was prepared to forsake his honor and tell a lie, but was executed anyway.
  • Tied to the above, Jon is blamed for nearly putting everything at risk because he wasn't willing to lie about his oaths — except the person they are trying to convince will lie about any and every oath so long as it benefits her to do so.
• Dramatically Missing the Point:
  • Cersei is noted to be attempting to buy herself out the extinction of mankind. Jaime immediately raises a voice in protest, but this falls on deaf ears. After witnessing the absurdity of Cersei's plans and how she planned these moves behind his back, Jaime chooses to finally leave her for good.
  • The coalition of Targaryens and Starks misjudge the crown's motives to join in to fight alongside them; it's not that Cersei doesn't believe in the supernatural stories of old, it's that she doesn't care. They try to appeal to her sense of self-preservation by bringing the wight to her, but it's later revealed that she intends to wage the war against the coalition like she had planned from the start.
• Dude, Not Funny!: This is Jon's furious reaction to Cersei flippantly dismissing the threat of the army of the dead by snidely remarking becoming wights would likely improve the quality of most of King's Landing's inhabitants.
• Enemy Mine: Subverted. The whole point of the meeting between Cersei and Daenerys is to get all factions to set aside their differences and join forces in the new war against the White Walkers. Cersei pretends to agree and pledges her army to the cause, but is really aiming to pit her enemies against each other while staying out of any real fighting.
• Entertainingly Wrong: Bran tells Sam that Jon is actually the son of Ned's sister Lyanna and Rhaegar Targaryen born in Dorne, making his real name Jon Sand.^{From the books} Naming rights of bastards are up to the lord who sired them and the place they were born/raised. As such, a recognized bastard born in the Stormlands to a Westerland lord will more likely be surnamed Hill, but can be surnamed Storm instead if (s)he lived in the Stormlands. For instance, Robert Baratheon recognized some of his bastards in the books, but none of them lived with him in the Crownlands, so the recognized bastards have the surnames of the places they live at and/or were conceived at (Edric Storm, Mya Stone) and not the surname of the Crownlands (Waters); in contrast, Gendry was born and raised in the Crownlands, but he wasn't recognized, so he has no region-specific surname. Sam tells him that isn't his name to which Bran points out that's the proper nomenclature. Sam then tells Bran about the annulment of Rhaegar's first marriage and his marriage to Lyanna. Jon's real name isn't Sand because those events made his last name Targaryen.
• "Eureka!" Moment: When Bran mentions that Jon is the child of Rhaegar and Lyanna, born in a tower at Dorne, Sam suddenly remembers what Gilly mentioned about the High Septon's private diary and realizes that Rhaegar annulled his marriage to Elia. After witnessing Rhaegar and Lyanna's wedding in a vision, Bran realizes Jon is the true heir to the Iron Throne.
• Even Evil Has Standards:
  • For all his many faults, Jaime recognizes that the undead are a far greater problem and intends to honour the pledge to fight against them with Daenerys and Jon. When he realizes Cersei has no intention of honouring the bargain, he leaves her for good and heads north to join the fight.
  • Cersei herself considers having Ser Gregor cut Jaime in half for his disloyalty, but ultimately can't bring herself to give the order and lets him walk away.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good:
  • While trying to convince Sansa that Arya is trying to usurp her as the Lady of Winterfell, Littlefinger doesn't consider the fact that Arya doesn't want to be the Lady of Winterfell... and that Sansa knows Arya doesn't want it, and therefore any rumor that Arya's staging a coup would be unbelievable to Sansa. He miscalculates both Arya's madness and Sansa's cold chessmastery, and pays for it with his life.
  • "Evil" might be pushing it, but the pragmatic and cynical Bronn can't get his head around why the Unsullied fight for Daenerys. Money, status, and women motivate him, and these are of no use or interest to the Unsullied. The concept of following a leader because you believe in them or what they're trying to build is completely alien to him.
• Evil Is Petty:
  • Cersei bothers with referring to Daenerys as the "silver-haired bitch", even though she has only allies around her within earshot.
  • Cersei accepts the truce under the condition that the King in the North agrees to remain neutral in the war in perpetuity, despite all his justified grievances of all degrees against her. When Jon rejects her condition, as he has already vouched for Daenerys's cause, she rejects the truce altogether, though she later pretends that Tyrion convinced her to accept while planning to back-stab them yet again.
  • Euron taunts Theon about Yara while interrupting the meeting, and later starts taunting Tyrion for his height and condition until Cersei and Jaime get fed up with him and force him to sit down and shut up.
• Failed a Spot Check: Littlefinger tries to turn Sansa against Arya, arguing that the younger sister wants to become Lady Stark. Had he been able to get close to Arya, which is certainly life-threatening at the moment, he'd know that being a "Lady" is not something that Arya had ever wanted at all, making it a lie one too many. Arya might be all sorts of twisted stuff, but she's not ambitious in that respect.
• Family Title: With a mix of Double-Meaning Title. The title can refer to a married Targaryen and Stark (Rhaegar and Lyanna respectively), or an aunt and nephew of the same families who might be married in the future (Dany and Jon).
• Fanservice: The sex scene between Daenerys and Jon, most notably rather generous shots of Kit Harington's ass.
  • A bit of Fan Disservice as well given their relation to each other.
• Fatal Flaw: Littlefinger's infatuation with Sansa and his belief she was his pawn proves to be his undoing. He believed that despite everything Sansa went through (and her not truly reciprocating his feelings), she was still dependent on him no matter what and could be manipulated for his own ends. His attraction to her blinded him to the real possibility that she could turn on him at anytime, and when that eventually happens, he is caught completely off-guard and out of cards to play. Not only that Littlefinger suffers from a belief that he is the smartest man in the room, as well as letting his ambition blind him to his limits. It never occurred that he was dealing with people who can see right through him, especially someone he trained himself.
• Foil: Jon Snow, the king who Will Not Tell a Lie, versus Cersei, the queen who lies through her teeth.
• Freud Was Right: Bronn and Jaime don't see the point of the Unsullied army. If you're not fighting to impress women, get the money to buy women, or protect your family which requires having sex with women, then why fight? They conclude that war is all about cocks after all.
• Funny Background Event: The Lannister mooks hastily running for cover as Drogon comes in to land at the Dragonpit.
• Gallows Humor: Jaime shares some with Bronn (as they ponder the huge army of Unsullied) and Tyrion (as he's about to face near-certain death from Cersei).
• Get It Over With:
  • When Tyrion gives Cersei a blatant invitation to kill her hated brother, Cersei's eyes move irresistibly to the Mountain. Tyrion responds by walking right up to the undead killing machine and goading her to give the order.
  • Jaime does the same when Cersei threatens to execute him for treason. It's only when Clegane draws his sword in response to an unseen signal that Jaime realises My God, You Are Serious!.
  • Subverted when Arya says the same thing after Sansa summons her for a trial, after Arya asks if her sister is sure that she wants to proceed. It is later revealed that they were talking about executing Lord Bailish, not Arya.
• Good Is Not Soft: Sansa is clearly holding herself together as she tries Littlefinger, a man she trusted for so long, with treason. Arya even asks her if it's what she wants. Sansa isn't lying when she says that it isn't about what she wants, and executing a traitor is no small deal.
• Godzilla Threshold: Jon invokes this by pointing out the same thing will destroy them all if they don't put their differences aside.
  Jon Snow: The same thing is coming for us all; a general you can't negotiate with, an army that doesn't leave corpses behind on the battlefield.
• Gone Horribly Right: Due to societal mores against incest and the political standing of them being heirs to Robert Baratheon, Jaime could not claim that Joffrey, Myrcella and Tommen were his offspring with Cersei. In a twisted turn of destiny, Cersei is effectively leaving him out of their yet-to-be-born child's future — the child that they were trying to finally have as a couple unimpeded and her presumptive heir as Queen — as she alienates Jaime with her treacherous actions. They can't have their cake and eat it, too.
  • Littlefinger sought to train Sansa is his ways and make her a player in the game. He succeeded.
• Groin Attack: An Ironborn attempts this on Theon, but since Ramsay removed his nuts long ago, he shrugs it off and it allows him to gain the advantage on his larger opponent. Ironically this is the scene where Theon regains his metaphorical balls.
• Hand on Womb: Done deliberately by Cersei for Tyrion to infer that, including the fact that she's not drinking the wine he offered, she's currently pregnant.
• Half the Man He Used to Be: Just to show the wight isn't some trick, the Hound cuts it in half, showing that it can still crawl after you while its legs keep kicking. Then he cuts off its forearm for good measure.
• Heir Club for Men: Westeros practices "male-preference cognatic primogeniture," which is a fancy way of saying "eldest sons first." This includes going down the generations: if some king were to have two sons and a daughter, and the eldest son were to have his own son, that grandson would get the crown before his aunts and uncles did. That's why Aegon "Jon Snow" Targaryen (the grandson) has a claim which trumps that of Daenerys. It would even have trumped Viserys's, were he still around. There could be contentious loose ends because when Aerys II and Rhaegar died, Viserys was alive and able to get the crown before Rhaegar's posthumous son was even born away from the royal court and family. This practice exists though in a more liberal way in Dorne, where women are allowed to inherit, as long as they are the eldest child.
• Hell Is That Noise: The screeching, deathly roar of an undead Viserion heralds the long-feared White Walker invasion of the Seven Kingdoms. It's a terrifying contrast to the deep, guttural roar of the living dragons.
• Helping Hands: The Wight brought to King's Landing is cut up by Sandor but still keeps moving. A curious Qyburn picks up a moving arm before Jon takes it from him to demonstrate you can Burn the Undead.
• Heroic Second Wind: Theon is repeatedly beaten down by Harrag during their fist fight. After Harrag's Groin Attack against Theon fails, Theon gains the upper hand and knocks him down, then proceeds to repeatedly beat him until he is unconscious or dead.
• He's Back!: After a years-long Humiliation Conga, Theon finally reasserts himself by beating up an Ironborn man who refuses to help Yara and savagely beats up Theon when Theon wouldn't back down. The other Ironborn are so impressed by this that they agree to help Theon rescue Yara.
• History Repeats Itself:
  • The meeting takes place in the Dragonpit, built by Maegor the Cruel in the very place where the previous Great Sept stood, a place that he blew up himself during his conflicts with the Faith of the Seven that arose due to similar grievances related to incest. Much like Cersei, Maegor was needlessly destructive and self-sabotaging. As far as History Repeats goes, Maegor died childless in the middle of the unresolved conflict, pierced to death by the blades of Iron Throne itself; only time will tell if Cersei will suffer a similar fate.
  • As mentioned in earlier pages this Season, King Torrhen Stark chose to give up rule of the North in exchange for Wardenship of it under Aegon I Targaryen — all in the name of saving the Northern host from a fate like the Field of Fire. Jon Snow, King in the North, chose Wardenship once again under the invading Daenerys Targaryen. The key difference, however, is that the motivation is a bit more benevolent: it is a) due to the political wisdom of an alliance, b) the urgency of having dragons against the Night King, and c) the recently-developed Rescue Romance.
  • Once again, a Dragon falls in love with a Wolf; Jon and Dany's love scene is preceded by Bran's vision of Rhaegar and Lyanna's marriage.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Littlefinger tries to turn Sansa against Arya by teaching her a "game" where she assumes the worst about someone's motivations. Sansa uses this technique to analyze Littlefinger and realizes he's the real enemy.
• Honor Before Reason: When Cersei pressures Jon to swear neutrality, he refuses due to having previously sworn his allegiance to Daenerys. Tyrion chews him out for not even bothering to try lying, but Jon stands by his decision because words don't mean anything if they aren't sincere.
• Horrible Judge of Character: Suprisingly Tyrion. He earlier claimed he was an excellent judge of character but he made a terrible error this episode. He should have known that Cersei would lie to get what she wants but he fell for her lie. He didn't even consider the possibility that Cersei would lie just to keep herself safe and in power.
• How the Mighty Have Fallen: Tyrion invokes this about the Dragonpit, musing that it went from being perhaps the most dangerous place in the world when Balerion the Black Dread made his lair there to something of a sad joke, when it was used to house the last Targaryen dragons, a group of sickly, stunted creatures no bigger than dogs.
• Hypocrite: Cersei, three different times.
  • Cersei insists she wouldn't ask Daenerys to be neutral in the conflict and wouldn't believe her even if she agreed to it. Cersei then pledges her army, only to reveal to Jaime she has no intention of actually helping, showing that it's her word no one should trust.
  • Cersei tells Tyrion that he led their family to ruin by killing Tywin. She's right to an extent, but she ignores her own part in it and forgets that she was perfectly willing to sacrifice her family's future just to get out of a marriage to Loras Tyrell which would have separated her from Tommen, not to mention her own role in driving Tyrion to the extremes he took.
  • Cersei also has repeatedly insulted Dany for bringing foreign soldiers in an invasion of Westeros, yet now she's making Euron go to Essos and bring over a foreign army of her own to bolster her numbers against Dany.
• Idiot Ball: Jaime accuses Cersei of holding it when she reveals she has no intention of honoring her pledge to join the war in the north. While following it gave them a possible out, now whichever side wins will definitely kill them. He's also obviously contemptuous of her plan to bring in foreign mercenaries.
• I Can Explain: Littlefinger to Sansa during his trial.
• If Only You Knew:
  • Euron taunts Tyrion by stating that physically stunted babies are just disposed of in the Iron Islands. In a previous episode, Tywin precisely tells Tyrion that this is what he had wanted to do to him when Tyrion was born, but societal rules prevented him from doing so.
  • Littlefinger tells Sansa that Jon might want to secure an alliance with Daenerys through marriage, as Daenerys is said to be very beautiful and both Jon and Daenerys are young and unwed. Though Jon submitted to Dany for more noble reasons, they do develop deep feelings for each other when they get to know one another and hook up later in the episode. This is, of course, not including the fact that they're blood-related and that Jon, as the legitimate son of Rhaegar, comes before Daenerys in the line of succession for the Iron Throne. So Littlefinger was basically right, but there are a lot more layers to that cake.
• If You Thought That Was Bad...: Cersei doesn't consider the fact that if the coalition of Dany and Jon fails, that's more numbers for the Army of the Dead. They're one hundred thousand strong now, but if they kill the Stark-Targaryen alliance, that's a legion of Unsullied and horse-riding Dothraki, not to mention an untold amount of Northmen and two more dragons added to their ranks.
• Ignored Expert: Jaime keeps explaining why the Lannisters can't win any of the wars to come, citing some of his first-hand experiences with the enemy. Cersei smugly brushes him off. ^{From the books}The Golden Company are noted in the books for using Westerosi-style war tactics as the basis for their success in Essos. If they use similar tactics to the Lannisters or other historic houses that fell to Aegon the Conqueror, the Golden Company are not bound to fare any better when facing dragons either, as they were founded a good fifty years after the death of the last Targaryen dragon.
• "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: Sandor puts a unique twist on this trope, as he wants some aspect of his brother to remember who is going to kill him permanently, and why.
• I Lied: Cersei has to spell out to Jaime that she has no intention of honoring her truce with Jon and Dany.
• I Need a Freaking Drink: After Cersei overcomes the urge to have the Mountain turn him into a quarter-man, Tyrion heads for the nearest goblet and pours himself a glass. He offers one to Cersei as well, but she does not drink because she is pregnant.
• Inferred Holocaust: Given the size of the Night King's undead army, it's pretty safe to assume that there's not a living human soul left Beyond The Wall, and that Tormund's followers are the last of the Free Folk in all the world. As a people and a culture, the Free Folk are now effectively extinct.
• Insane Troll Logic:
  • Just because Cersei can sense weakness in Daenerys (having correctly deduced one of her dragons has been hurt or killed), she believes she can win and it will be just that easy by replenishing her forces with a sellsword company. She doesn't factor that something powerful enough to kill a dragon would be a concern in itself, not to mention the fact that her own scorpion balista failed to injure Drogon permanently, let alone kill him. Never mind that even without dragons and/or if Cersei had the sellsword company to her side, she is, according to Jaime, still outnumbered, with no support from other houses and if a few episodes ago is anything to go by, no food.
  • Cersei finds a way to rationalize Myrcella and Tommen's deaths as having happened entirely due to Tyrion killing Tywin, the Lannister patriarch having been a figure imposing enough to prevent outsiders from reaching them. Myrcella was killed specifically because the Mountain killed Oberyn, and Tywin was alive when he did it. Tommen's death is directly her fault, as she drove him to commit suicide when she killed everyone in the Great Sept. If anything, it's her lack of authority and insight that caused most of her troubles.
• Internal Reveal: Bran tells Sam the truth about Jon's birth, namely that he's the son of Rhaegar Targaryen and Lyanna Stark, making him Jon Sand. Then Sam reveals to Bran that Jon isn't actually a bastard. Rhaegar's first marriage was annulled and he wed Lyanna, making Jon a legitimate Targaryen. Bran realizes this means Jon is the true heir to the Iron Throne.
• ...In That Order: If the upcoming parley gets bloody, Cersei orders Ser Gregor to kill first Queen Daenerys (as the greatest threat), then Tyrion, then King Jon Snow (commanding the other major Houses opposing her). As for the others, Ser Gregor can kill in whatever order he wants.
• Ironic Echo: Sansa to Littlefinger, about his game where he will "imagine the worst possible thing someone could want, and then ponder how well that explains their actions."
• Irony:
  • Ned kept Jon's true parentage to his grave, especially from his best friend Robert. Bran wasted no time in telling this to Sam, Jon's best friend. Bonus points for the two both being Fat Best Friends.
  • In his note to Sansa, Jon informs her that he accepted the Wardenship of the North under Dany's rule, unaware that he has a greater claim to the throne of Westeros than Dany does.

• It's All About Me:
  • Cersei's first thought after seeing the threat the dead pose is to try to remove Jon Snow and the North from the conflict permanently, hoping that he's honorable and desperate enough to do it. He probably would have been, too, but she asked too late.
  • Cersei actually admits this to Tyrion, telling him that she doesn't care about the threat the Army of the Dead poses to Westeros, only what it poses to her personally. Even then, she goes back on her word to aid in the conflict because she knows Daenerys will depose her after everything is said and done, while doing nothing leaves the chance that both sides weaken each other and she can come out on top after that happens.
  • During a later conversation with Jaime, it's revealed she arranged with Euron in private to set sail for Essos and was never planning to ally with Daenerys and Jon even if Jon had sworn neutrality like she demanded. She was merely trying to sow dissent between Jon and Daenerys.
• I've Heard of That — What Is It?: When Bran tells Sam he's now the Three-Eyed Raven, Sam is awed for a moment before admitting has no idea what that means.
• Justice Will Prevail: Played with. Bran aids Sansa and Arya in their accusations towards Littlefinger and provides them with key eyewitness evidence against him, even though he had previously stated in episode 4 that he doesn't quite care about that stuff anymore and that his priorities now lie elsewhere. In a big picture, stability in Winterfell would be optimal in the war against the White Walkers. Isaac Hempstead-Wright, who plays Bran in the show, stated in an interview that Sansa went to Bran for help in a scene that was cut from the episode.
• Kangaroo Court: Played with. All the evidence against Littlefinger is eyewitness testimony from the Stark children, one of whom is presiding over the trial. There aren't any letters to produce, or any other witnesses, nor is he allowed the traditional option of Trial By Combat^note (while few people like Littlefinger, he could have almost certainly paid someone to fight for him, though the odds of him finding someone willing to take his money and be capable of defeating Arya Stark in single combat is vanishingly small. Also, Trial By Combat is rooted in the tradition of the Faith of the Seven, so it's not likely that it would be valid to bring it up in a Northern court; and even if it were in the past, it was outlawed by King Tommen back when Ramsay Bolton was still in control of Winterfell, and chances are that restoring it wasn't on Jon's or Sansa's list of priorities after retaking the North). Littlefinger tries to appeal to reason when he faces Sansa's accusations of treason and murder, but it's not like the court's audience don't believe him even if the accusing party doesn't have any proof; as Lord Royce succinctly puts it with his denial for Littlefinger's pleas, they don't quite care about the slimy bastard. Littlefinger didn't bother with making friends, nor garnered allies to vouch for him, a fact that led to his downfall. It bears noting that when questioned by Sansa on whether or not he killed Lysa Tully, he admits it (with the excuse to protect Sansa) in front of everyone including Lord Royce, even though he denied to his face way back in "The Mountain and the Viper". This is considered enough evidence for the Vale Lords to not help him. ^{From the books} House Royce is a Vale house of First Man origin, and it's one of the main houses that the Arryns defeated to establish the Kingdom of Mountain and Vale. It's noted that they have a historic relationship with House Stark going back many centuries, noting that one of Brandon Stark's companions when he faced the Mad King was Kyle Royce. Lord Yohn, unlike what's presented in the show, is the main opponent to Littlefinger's role as Lord Protector of the Vale, and bar none other, is the most important Valeman leader after the demise of Jon and Lysa Arryn.
• Karmic Death:
  • The thing that truly cemented Littlefinger as a back-stabbing Manipulative Bastard was when he held his knife to Eddard Stark's throat. He is ultimately killed by having his throat slit by Arya Stark, the daughter of Eddard, who was forced to witness her father be executed, thanks in part to Littlefinger's influence. Additionally, Littlefinger is killed by the same dagger that would have been used to murder Bran at the beginning of the series, an event which escalated the War of the Five Kings. And, this all only happens because Littlefinger made Sansa his Bastard Understudy, giving her the skills to OutGambit him. Lastly, Littlefinger was always known for being a conniving weasel who would always find some means of talking his way out of trouble. Arya ensures that he can never again manipulate anyone, by silencing him. Forever. (Finally, a layer that was Adapted Out: in the books, Littlefinger didn't just wield any old knife on Ned, he use the self-same Valyrian-steel-and-dragonbone dagger that was sent to open Bran's throat and which, in this episode, opened his.)
  • On another level, Petyr Baelish's Start of Darkness was when he was sliced by then-Catelyn Tully's original betrothed, warrior Brandon Stark. His demise comes... by being sliced by a Stark. Catelyn's warrior daughter Arya Stark at that. Both came when Baelish got a little too ahead of himself scheming to win the hand of the woman he loves, which would also put him near the front of the line for lordship over a major kingdom (the Riverlands with Catelyn, the North with Sansa).
• Karma Houdini Warranty: Sansa's trial makes sure all of Littlefinger's crimes are brought up, from the more recent like selling her to Ramsay, to those as early as his betrayal of Ned and murder of Jon Arryn.
• Kick the Dog:
  • Euron wastes no time in the truce meeting by telling Tyrion that if he was born in the Iron Islands, he would have been killed at birth, which strikes something fierce in Jaime.
  • When Jaime comes asking about plans to follow through on their promise to fight in the North, Cersei tells him that she always knew he was the stupidest Lannister. She continues to insult him later when explaining her plan to use the Golden Company to replenish their army.
    Cersei: You should've listened more when father spoke about the importance of gold. Oh, I know it's boring for you. You just wanted to hunt and ride and fight. But I listened, I learned.
• Killed Mid-Sentence: Baelish attempts one last time to appeal to Sansa but Arya cuts his throat right as he says her name.
• Know When to Fold Them:
  • When the Night King descends upon Eastwatch atop Viserion, Tormund and Beric realise they have no chance against such an enemy and immediately call a retreat.
  • Subverted with Littlefinger, who is far too late to tuck-tail and run back to the Vale so he can weasel his way out of being executed by Sansa and Arya. His own bannermen are more loyal to Sansa than him.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: When Daenerys finally arrives in the Dragonpit, Cersei bemoans that the former made all of them wait for a while. In-Universe, it's because Dany was late for the parley as she did not ride with the rest of her allies. Out of it, it refers to Dany's six-season journey back to Westeros.
• Left Hanging: When Littlefinger discusses the subject of Lyanna Stark with Sansa on season 6, he smiles at Sansa's statement that Lyanna was kidnapped and raped by Rhaegar, lending to the possibility that he was somewhat aware of what had transpired. Whether he knew or not was rendered irrelevant with his demise in this episode.
• Like Father, Unlike Son:
  • Jon keeps his pledge to Daenerys and refuses to lie for his own gain, this contrasts with his biological father's actions, who dishonorably went back on his vows and spurned Elia Martel to elope with Lyanna Stark.
  • Sansa delegates the execution of Baelish to Arya, thus failing to uphold the literality of Ned's "The man who passes the sentence should swing the sword," while keeping most of the spirit by splitting it into a close Sibling Team.
  • Ned kept Jon's true parentage, especially from his best friend, to his grave. Bran tells this immediately to Jon's best friend upon meeting him again.
• Look on My Works, Ye Mighty, and Despair: Daenerys invokes this when talking to Jon about the Dragonpit, stating that when the Targaryens built such a place and treated their dragons as little more than glorified animals to ride into battle and from place to place, it started the decline of their power.
  Daenerys:This place was the beginning of the end for my family. A dragon is not a slave. They were terrifying. Extraordinary. They filled people with wonder and awe, and we locked them in here. They wasted away. They grew small. And we grew small as well. We weren't extraordinary without them. We were just like everyone else.
• Love Makes You Dumb:
  • While he was willing to sell her out to her enemies and placed her through great torment, Littlefinger did love Sansa in his own sick and twisted way as she herself admits to Arya later on. For a guy who backstabs anyone and everyone to get ahead of the curve, he always sought Sansa to rule by his side if he managed to sit on the Iron Throne. It's because of this that he never saw Sansa's own set-up coming and never had a real contingency plan in case she decided to turn on him other than invoking his precious resources and advantages he could have offered her without realizing that he was basically undone when his knights pledged their allegiance to the Starks.
  • Westeros owes its current state to Rhaegar and Lyanna eloping in secret without caring about the long term consequences if their true relationship was ever revealed. It was bad enough with everyone else being in the dark about it; things would have likely been worse. For example, there's no way Dorne would have let the insult to Princess Elia go unchallenged.
• Love Ruins the Realm:
  • Played straight with Bran's realization that Lyanna loved Rhaegar back, meaning Robert's Rebellion was ignited on a partial lie and millions died based on it.
  • Word of God says that this is what Tyrion is thinking when he sees Jon enter Dany's cabin, hence his apprehensive look.
• Manipulative Bitch: While Cersei has always been this, she really goes up a level by promising Daenerys, Jon, and everyone else present at the Dragonpit that she will send the Iron Throne's forces to the North to help fend off the White Walker invasion. Privately, however, she tells Jaime that she has no intention of keeping her word, and instead wants Daenerys to exhaust her army so that she's no longer a threat to Cersei.
• Mass "Oh, Crap!":
  • Everyone on the Lannister side, first when Daenerys comes riding in on Drogon, and second when the wight gets out of its crate and charges straight at them.
  • Jon refusing to swear an oath to Cersei makes all of his allies bite their tongues.
  • Tormund, Beric and the Night's Watch get two: first when the army of the dead emerges from the treeline, and then again when the Night King, mounted on the back of Viserion descends upon them.
• Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: Played with. The fact that Rhaegar married Lyanna out of love implies that he might not have done it out of the prophecy of the Prince that was Promised, like many theories suggest, or at the very least, not entirely. It's important to remember that Book!Rhaegar is said to have been considerably more into mysticism than what's shown of Show!Rhaegar, and one of the main reasons he might have run away with Lyanna is precisely because of said prophecy.
• Meaningful Echo:
  • Like Queen Daenerys, Lady Sansa thanks someone she's about to execute for their treachery for the lessons they have given her.
  • "When the snows fall and the white winds blow, the lone wolf dies, but the pack survives." Ned Stark's advice to his wayward daughter Arya over The Glorious War of Sisterly Rivalry with Sansa is repeated after the two women form a Sibling Team in the face of Winter rather than fight as Littlefinger intended.
• Metaphorically True: So Rhaegar didn't kidnap Lyanna, but the fact remains that the married crown prince ran away with the betrothed of one of the Warden Lords without an explanation, Lyanna being the daughter of another Warden Lord, his father the Mad King killed Lyanna's family when they came asking about her whereabouts, and then demanded the heads of Ned Stark and Robert Baratheon for the crimes of potentially being concerned about her well-being. Jon Arryn's rebellious refusal is what finally started the war. In broad terms, it was not the only aspect that sparked the war, but rather, one of the many and final straws that broke the camel's back. The civil war was based on the dismal mistreatment of key lords of the Realm after a personal crisis snowballed, but Bran centers on the origin rather than on the core of the conflict, the subsequent political mismanagement and gross break of the feudal contract, and proclaims it was based on a lie.
• Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal:
  • Cersei lies to Jaime, throws away her alliance against the Night's King, keeps him in the dark about her military strategy, and threatens to have the Mountain kill him when he attempts to leave. This does not shore up their shaky relationship.
  • It's a small moment, but when Littlefinger demands that Lord Yohn Royce escort him safely out of Winterfell and back to the Vale, Royce — who was Locked Out of the Loop when Baelish delivered Sansa to Ramsay and subjected to an Implied Death Threat when he objected afterwards — gleefully refuses to offer any sort of aid.
    Littlefinger: [panicking] I am the Lord Protector of the Vale and I command you to escort me safely back to the Eyrie!
    Yohn Royce: [smugly] I think not.
• Moral Event Horizon: An In-Universe one for Jaime is Cersei and Euron pulling out from the War for the Dawn in favor of letting Daenerys and Jon's forces weaken. The fact she also hired the Golden Company without him knowing as payback for him and Tyrion arranging the truce meeting in the first place also stung even more for him. The disgust proves too much and he finally leaves her for good.
• Morton's Fork: Cersei's situation at the end of the season:
  • As Jaime points out, if she withdraws from the Great War, whoever wins the conflict in the North will come after her instead: if the Army of the Dead win (which is the worst case scenario), they will go South and kill everyone indiscriminately with their forces replenished from the defeated Stark-Targaryen alliance; if the Stark-Targaryen alliance win, they will march south demanding revenge against the Lannisters for deserting them (though Cersei points out they would wage war either way).
  • If she joins the war effort, there won't be enough time for her to fortify her position and replenish her forces, and as such she will be even more vulnerable to Daenerys's forces when the White Walkers are beaten and the truce ends.
  • Even in the best possible scenario, if the White Walkers are defeated and the Stark-Targaryen forces are too weak to resist the Golden Company, there is the matter of the long winter, the lack of sufficient resources to survive through this period and the crown being yet again indebted to the Iron Bank thanks to their Golden Company loan, one which they now cannot repay because Cersei raided the only other source of gold on the continent.
• Multi-Character Title: The title refers to Dany and Jon, and Rhaegar and Lyanna. Overlaps with Family Title.
• Named After Somebody Famous: Jon's true name is finally revealed; Aegon, after the famous conqueror of the Seven Kingdoms. Of course, there have been five King Aegons throughout Targaryen history who with the exception of the first one were either a Sketchy Successor (Aegon II, Aegon IV) considered among the worst kings or an Unexpected Successor who had tragic lives (Aegon III, Aegon V) but who were considered decent competent rulers. At the very least, Jon is in good standing of being the first decent even-numbered Aegon king-claimant.
  • Another, less famous Aegon Targaryen includes Jon's own half-brother, whom Rhaegar sired with his wife Elia and then (as Gilly discovered) potentially disinherited. The babe was killed during the Sack of King's Landing by Ser Gregor Clegane (he of the Red Viper's litany of "You raped her, you murdered her, you killed her children"), but whether Lyanna chose to name Jon in honor of his deceased elder half-brother or in replacement of him, it still comes across as pretty tone-deaf, in addition to violating the One-Steve Limit to anyone who's really paying attention.
• Negated Moment of Awesome: Theon's rallying of the Ironborn is awesome... until Cersei reveals to Jaime that he's sailing in the wrong direction.^note Which makes little sense saying, because, independently of whether the Ironborn were going to Essos (following Euron Greyjoy) or to the Iron Islands, the way they would follow would be the same — across Blackwater Bay, and passing between Dragonstone and Massey's Hook.
• Never Heard That One Before: Euron makes a dwarf joke at Tyrion's expense, who is quite unimpressed. Theon notes that Euron's wasn't even that good.
• Never My Fault:
  • Cersei now blames Tyrion for the death of her children. While Myrcella could be blamed on him at a stretch (since Oberyn's death in Tyrion's trial by combat led to Ellaria pursuing a Revenge by Proxy on Myrcella and Tyrion was the one who arranged for her to be sent to Dorne in the first place), doing so with Tommen is Cersei just further showing zero willingness to acknowledge her own misdeeds.
  • Tyrion himself engages in this behavior somewhat, albeit to much less of an extent than his sister. He tries to justify murdering their father on the grounds that Tywin intended to have him sentenced to death — ignoring the fact that Tywin's actual plan was to have Tyrion Reassigned to Antarctica as part of a plea bargain, and that Tyrion himself screwed up said plan by insisting on trial by combat in an attempt to win a full acquittal.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain:
  • Littlefinger himself provides Sansa with the perspective and methods to look his way with wary eyes and finally dig up all the shit he pulled against her and House Stark.
  • Cersei cracked open her own treacherous plan by allowing Jaime to abandon her; now her beloved twin has all the leeway in the world to tell her enemies what she's planning. It's made even worse by the fact that she's putting her trust in Euron, the dodgiest piece of shit in Game of Thrones other than herself (this is, of course, because Littlefinger — the previous dodgiest piece of shit in the series — had his comeuppance finally delivered with a dagger slash to the throat in this same episode). On top of that, promising support to Daenerys and Jon and then stabbing them in the back will likely have worse consequences than if she'd just stuck with her initial refusal to help them, considering how seriously a matter oath-breaking is considered to be in the Seven Kingdoms.
• "No. Just… No" Reaction: Balanced between this trope and This Is Wrong on So Many Levels!. Jaime is flabbergasted at Cersei's ludicrous plan to back-stab the Stark-Targaryen alliance in spite of swearing to help them, but tries to reason with her until she lets her know that she plotted behind his back too; offended, Jaime intends to leave, but is blocked by the Mountain, whom Cersei uses to threaten him. This last offense, when he calls her out on her bluff, makes Jaime leave her for good.
• No-Sell: Turns out a Groin Attack doesn't work on someone without genitals. It would still hurt, of course, but Theon's been through a lot worse.
• No Sympathy: Cersei chides Tyrion for killing Tywin in spite of Tywin trying to execute him under false accusations (to say nothing of the decades of psychological and emotional abuse he inflicted on Tyrion from birth) because, by killing Tywin, Tyrion effectively removed the shield that protected the family from external influence; this blame towards Tyrion, she extends to paint him as guilty for the deaths of Tommen and Myrcella. Cersei, of course, is making some Olympic mental gymnastics to be able to accuse Tyrion, seeing that the death of Tommen is her fault and Myrcella's death was retribution for Tywin's actions.
• Not So Omniscient After All:
  • Littlefinger always operates on the assumption that he had thought out every possible outcome to the events surrounding him, and arrives at the Great Hall confident in his calculations. He certainly isn't expecting to be toppled when the Stark children form a coalition against him.
  • Being the Three-Eyed Raven has seemingly made Bran all-knowing, but it takes Sam telling him that Lyanna and Rhaegar were formally married for Bran to actually confirm it via vision.
• Now What?: Played with. Due to his much deserved demise, it's not known what Littlefinger would have done had Arya killed Sansa instead, as he had little to no leverage with or control over Arya, nor was Arya a person that would have trusted him in any measure.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • Jaime's reaction when Daenerys tells him an army of the undead at least a hundred thousand strong are heading south with the intention of killing every living person in their path.
  • Tyrion a couple of times: first, when he realizes that Cersei is pregnant, and later, when he notices that Jon and Dany went ahead and shared a room.
  • Littlefinger, once he realizes that his fate is sealed; he sinks to his knees and begs for mercy, proclaiming love for Catelyn and Sansa. Too bad that he betrayed them all the same.
  • Just before that, this is his reaction when, after declaring no one has any proof he was behind Ned Stark's downfall, Bran quotes his infamous line "I did warn you not to trust me" back at him; Littlefinger's look of dumbstruck horror at this is as good as a confession.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business:
  • An in-universe example that is also a Freeze-Frame Bonus. Jaime Lannister knows Sandor Clegane is one of the meanest, toughest, and nastiest SO Bs on the entire continent. So when Clegane not only locks up and hesitates for a long moment after opening the crate, but starts reaching for his sword, Jaime's entire body posture changes, because he knows that whatever is in that box has to be bad news if it creeps out THE HOUND.
  • Cersei and Euron upon eyeing a wight look absolutely terrified for the first time in their lives.
  Euron: I've been around the world. I've seen everything, things you couldn't imagine and this [[points at the wight]''...this is the only thing I've ever seen that terrifies me.
  • Cersei, who is rarely seen without a goblet of wine in hand, outright refuses when Tyrion pours her a glass. This is his first clue that she's pregnant, which he deduces moments later on seeing Cersei cradle her belly.
  • Bran's demeanor after his transformation has been generally stoic, but even he is visibly surprised when Sam tells him about Rhaegar's secret annulment and marriage.
  • When Jaime dismisses Brienne's concerns due to her loyalty to the Stark children, Brienne's response of "Oh, fuck loyalty!" hammers home just how terrifying Brienne finds the threat of the White Walkers, and how it trumps everything else for the previously oath-obsessed woman.
  • One instance that gets subverted later is that Cersei actually doesn't kill Tyrion when she finally has a chance to, implying she might actually be coming around and appreciates the threat the Night King poses. Only, it turns out she doesn't get it at all and is trying to play the long game, presumably killing Tyrion later, since doing it now would get her city burned to the ground (as Tyrion points out in that meeting, the only reason Dany hasn't done it already is because he convinced her not to).
  • In hindsight, this was Arya's reaction when she asks Sansa if she's sure that Sansa wants to go through with the trial. Arya is normally fine with going for instant vengeance, but it turns out she was surprised that Sansa was onboard with her on this.
  • In turn, Arya was surprised that the High Queen Sansa was willing to commit an execution. After all, she hasn't seen Sansa executing Ramsay.
• One Drink Will Kill the Baby: Despite her reputation as a Lady Drunk, the pregnant Cersei refuses Tyrion's offer of a goblet of wine. This is one of the things that clues him in that she's with child again.
• One-Steve Limit: Averted. Lyanna named her and Rhaegar's son (his second) Aegon Targaryen, the same as his son with Elia Martell, whom he set aside as his wife for some reason.
• Out-Gambitted: Littlefinger thought he had Sansa wrapped around his little finger... Only for him to learn she was never on his side.
• Politically Incorrect Villain:
  • Euron antagonizes Tyrion for being a dwarf, stating that he would have been killed at birth in the Iron Islands. Which, ironically, is something that almost did happen to Tyrion but his father wouldn't do it because Tyrion was still a Lannister — and considered it a great personal sacrifice not killing him. This is in direct contrast to Euron's book counterpart, who is derided by other Ironborn for his affinity for "freaks" and other deformed individuals.
  • Cersei chides Jaime for wanting to ride North and aid the "foreign scum". Curiously in the same conversation where she intends to bring a "foreign scum" to replenish her forces. She also calls Dany "a foreign whore who doesn't know her place", just like Shae.
  • Cersei muses that the common folk would fare better being part of the Army of the Dead, as if that were an improvement on their mundane base-born lives. Disgusted and unamused, Jon tells her that it's a serious situation.
• Please Kill Me if It Satisfies You: During their private conversation in the Red Keep, Tyrion challenges Cersei to have him killed for all the misery he's brought on their family (killing their father and being indirectly responsible for the death of two of her children). Cersei would very much like to, but relents since she knows Daenerys would probably burn the whole castle down if Cersei killed her Hand during a parley.
• The Plot Reaper: This is what knocks off Lord Baelish in the end. With the next and final season dealing with the coming war with the white walkers and their army of the dead, even the B-plot of Daenerys versus Cersei has to be put aside. There simply is no place anymore for Littlefinger and his schemes.
• Poor Communication Kills: Bran realizes that Robert's belief that Rhaegar kidnapped Lyanna and raped her was incorrect and the two were actually in love. Apparently Robert was too infatuated with her to ever wonder what Lyanna really wanted, though this was pointed out to him by Ned way back in season 1, saying that Robert never saw "the iron underneath" in Lyanna.
• Pragmatic Adaptation: The dragonbone-hilted Valyrian steel blade used in the assassination attempt against Bran turns out to have been Littlefinger's, implying that he hired the assassin to further plant strife between the Starks and the Lannisters. In the books, Tyrion and Cersei come to the conclusion that Joffrey hired the assassin and gave him the knife, which belonged to King Robert and came north with him, in a very Joffrey-like attempt to win Robert's approval because Robert had remarked the boy would be better off dead. While the book version makes more sense logistically given the short time Littlefinger would have had to get the assassin and dagger up north after Bran's fall, Littlefinger's Karmic Death in the show cannot be described as anything other than intensely satisfying.
• Precision F-Strike: Brienne's "Oh, fuck loyalty!" when speaking with Jaime.
• Protagonist Title: The title covers both Jon and Daenerys, unambiguously the two most important characters in the entire series.
• Pyrrhic Victory: This season ends with Cersei still in power thanks to the truce she made with her enemies, which she has no intention of honoring and she intends to replenish her forces while her rivals exhaust themselves against the White Walkers. However, she managed to completely alienate Jaime, the only man she had loved and whose battle strategies were the only reason the Lannisters were able to put up a decent fight against Dany's forces, and it's made clear that she cannot outlast her foes.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Sansa delivers one to Littlefinger, saying that he destroys families by setting siblings against each other just like what he did with Cat and Lysa, and he would have done to her and Arya. And to twist the knife further, she congratulates him all the scheming lessons he gave her just before she decides to make him pay.
• Relationship Upgrade: After several episodes of Ship Tease, Jon and Daenerys have sex for the first time.
• The Reveal:
  • Lyanna Stark wasn't kidnapped and raped by Rhaegar Targaryen. They were in love with each other and ran off to elope after his first marriage was annulled, making Jon's conception completely consensual and legitimate.
  • We finally get to hear what Bran heard Lyanna whisper to Ned as she was dying: Jon's real name, Aegon Targaryen.
  • The Stark children finally become aware of the party responsible for causing them tremendous amounts of pain and grief, exacting just revenge for the sins committed against them.
• Run or Die: When the Army of the Dead emerges from the forest, Tormund is apprehensive but holds his ground. Then he sees the undead dragon and starts screaming for everyone to run.
• Scenery Gorn: The magnificent work of architecture that is the Wall looks just as magnificent as it collapses from Viserion's fire.
• Surprise Incest: While on the boat to White Harbor, Jon and Dany finally consummate their mutual love and have sex. Unaware that they are biologically aunt and nephew.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: Cersei hires the Golden Company with the gold stolen from the Tyrells to battle the people that are trying to fight the extinction of mankind. When Jaime protests that this won't make a difference to the Army of the Dead, Cersei argues that there wasn't a difference in the first place regardless of any oaths, and that sending Lannister forces is a waste. As such, she's effectively casting pearls before swine, trying to buy herself out of the apocalypse.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here:
  • Subverted. Upon seeing the wight and learning that they can't swim, Euron decides to take his fleet back to the Iron Islands and save his own skin. Except he really didn't, as he was working behind Jaime's back to go back and hire the Golden Company for Cersei.^{From the books} The Golden Company is mainly composed of descendants of lords exiled from Westeros due to their siding with the Blackfyre Prentenders that opposed the Targaryens, or currently exiled former lords (like former member Ser Jorah Mormont). First created to topple the Targaryens in favor of the Blackfyres, members of the Golden Company currently have a vested interest in returning to Westeros to recover what once was lost to them and their ancestors, and are backing Aegon Targaryen (son of Rhaegar and Elia Martell) in his effort to claim his birthright. They are noted to be extremely dutiful and successful due to their employment of Westerosi warfare tactics in Essos. It's currently not known whether the show will go beyond the Golden Company being just hired troops for the crown, or whether they will include their Aegon, or the prominent member and former Targaryen ally Jon Connington, who personally raised their Aegon. It's also important to note that it's assumed that the Golden Company currently hold Aegon The Conqueror's Valyrian Steel sword Blackfyre, the Sword of Kings, as it was purportedly stolen by their founder Aegor "Bittersteel" Rivers after their defeat during the First Blackfyre Rebellion. Just as a side note, the First Blackfyre Rebellion was quenched by none other than Brynden "Bloodraven" Rivers, who would become the Three-Eyed Raven.
  • Played straight when Cersei reveals this to Jaime and he realizes she doesn't care about the threat of the Army of the Dead or protecting the people of the kingdom as long as she stays on the Iron Throne. He abandons her on the spot and heads north to join the fight.
  • Theon's crew intends to desert him, find some eastern isle to hide from the White Walkers, kill all their men and rape their women. Theon beats their leader up to remind them that reaving and raping is not their way anymore and forces them to go back to his plan to rescue Yara.
  • Tormund and Beric immediately call for a retreat when the Night King shows up atop an undead Viserion, knowing they don't have any means of stopping such a threat.
• Season Finale: The seventh and penultimate one.
• Second Love: Both Jon and Daenerys are this each other. Jon could be said to the second after Khal Drogo's death while Daenerys is certainly the first girl Jon has cared for since Ygritte's death.
• Self-Serving Memory: Cersei gloating to Jaime that he should have listened when their father told them the importance of gold and money. The problem is that Tywin told Cersei that the Lannister mines had run dry and they needed to maintain political alliances even with those whom they dislike (citing the Tyrells and Martells). And Tywin Lannister's own personal belief as per Histories and Lore is that Money Is Not Power, at least not without strong leadership backing it up.
• "Shaggy Dog" Story: Everything that Jon and his allies went through to capture the wight and bring it to King's Landing is essentially pointless; even when presented with evidence of the army of the dead, Cersei still chooses to stab her enemies in the back and wait for the dead to wipe them out. It actually made things worse, since the death of Viserion means Cersei now knows that the dragons can be killed, Euron has gone off to hire foreign mercenaries and the White Walkers managed to breach the Wall thanks to a now-undead Viserion in their ranks, arriving much sooner than they would have previously without him. About the only positive thing that's been accomplished is that Jaime finally cuts ties with Cersei and goes to join forces with Jon and Daenerys — all one of him.
• Sherlock Scan:
  • Tyrion takes one look at Cersei grasping her belly while discussing with her and quickly deduces she is pregnant.
  • Cersei notices that Dany only brought two of her dragons instead of her usual three. Jaime assumes that the other dragon is guarding Dany's fleet, but Cersei points out that Dany brought the entire Unsullied and Dothraki army to King's Landing to show off her power so it wouldn't make sense if she left one of the dragons out unless something bad happened to it.
• Shoo Out the Clowns: Bronn takes Pod out for a drink before the meeting starts. (Conveniently, this stops Jerome Flynn from having to be in the same scene as Lena Headey.)
• Sibling Team: Sansa and Arya display it in their ploy to finally expose Littlefinger and execute him (with some help from their brother Bran's clairvoyance as well). Afterwards, they even imply that they shall be doing together (ruling and passing judgment) what their father Ned Stark chose to do on his own:
  (From the very first episode)
  Ned: The man who passes the sentence should swing the sword.
  (in this episode)
  Arya: You did the right thing.
  Sansa: You did it.
  Arya: I'm just the executioner. You pass the sentence. You're the Lady of Winterfell.
  Sansa: Does that bother you?
  Arya: I was never going to be as good a Lady as you. So I had to be something else.
• Significant Wardrobe Shift: After Jaime leaves Cersei to head North to fight along with Dany and Jon, he's wearing brown leather clothing instead of his Lannister armor, showing that he has cut ties with Cersei and wants nothing to do with her. Apart from the color, it almost looks like a standard outfit of a member of the Night's Watch (save the heavy pelt cloaks) — which is basically what Jaime plans on doing from now on: "guarding the realms of men" (albeit there's no reason to assume he's actually joining either the Watch or Jon Snow's forces).
• Skewed Priorities: Brienne warns Jaime that what they're facing goes beyond loyalties and noble houses. With her treacherous plot, Cersei demonstrates that she's not past those aspects herself, and she's intending to act on those against who she perceives to be her enemies still, even though she swore to fight at their side.
• Slashed Throat: Arya kills Littlefinger by cutting his throat with her Valyrian dagger, the same one he gave to Bran as a gift.
• Slasher Smile: Blink and you will miss it, but Theon before he beats the crap out of that Ironborn.
• Snark-to-Snark Combat:
  • Bronn shows once again that he can dish it out as well as Tyrion can. When the latter tries to test his loyalty, Bronn casually points out that Tyrion could just as easily be marching to a spike on the wall. Tyrion, for once devoid of a sardonic response, can only admit that it's good to see him again. The feeling is mutual.
  • When Sandor makes a comment to Tyrion about all the Lannister cunts giving the orders, Tyrion snarks back that there's always a Clegane to help carry them out. Enter Cersei and the Mountain.
• Spanner in the Works: Bran for Littlefinger, as he can see and recount every treacherous thing Littlefinger has done even if he wasn't there, like holding a knife to Ned's throat.
• Spotting the Thread: Coaching Sansa on this backfires on Littlefinger. He advises her to try and figure out what Arya's doing by extrapolating the end result of her actions. When the extrapolation leads to an end result that Sansa knows Arya doesn't want — she has no interest in becoming Lady of Winterfell — Sansa realizes that it's a trap.
• The Starscream: Littlefinger tries to maneuver Sansa into believing Arya wants to usurp her position as Lady of Winterfell. Sansa instead realizes that Littlefinger is the one who wants all the power for himself.
• Strong Family Resemblance: Rhaegar looks almost identical to his brother Viserys. To that matter, and to illustrate the point, Jon looks nothing like Rhaegar. He looks just like his mother and likewise shares her height unlike the Dragon Prince who is very tall.^{From the books}In A Clash of Kings, Daenerys has a vision showing Rhaegar with Elia and their son Aegon, and Dany initially had mistaken Rhaegar for Viserys as well before noting other differences, so the resemblances and similarities between the actors do mirror the books. In fact, you could say that the two juxtaposed couples of Dany/Jon and Rhaegar/Lyanna, both of which the episode title "The Dragon and the Wolf" can refer to, look like gender-flipped versions of each other.
• Stupid Evil: Even if Cersei's plan of letting the White Walkers and the Stark-Targaryen alliance destroy each other and then fight the remnant would make sense if the living side wins, she's completely ignoring the fact that if the dead win they will convert the people they kill to their side, and she will have zero chances of holding them back.
• Surprise Incest: Aegon "Jon Snow" Targaryen makes love to his aunt Daenerys, though neither one is aware of it. Should be a fun conversation with Bran once they arrive at Winterfell.^{From the books} We're first introduced to the Targaryen practice of incest when Dany muses that she always assumed she'd wed Viserys when she came of age, and while contemplating what life would be like if Robert's Rebellion hadn't happened, she notes she would most likely have married Rhaegar and Elia's son Aegon, since he would have been closer to her age than Viserys. So in fact, Jon and Dany would be a perfect match by Targaryen standards.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
  • It turns out you can't negotiate in good faith with an malignant narcissist (meaning Cersei).
  • After years of forced separation, missing their family, and thinking that the other might be dead, of course Arya and Sansa aren't going to immediately turn against each other after some manipulation from Littlefinger. Also, taking a daughter of the man you betrayed (and who has suffered numerous horrors as a result, including an incredibly abusive marriage) as a Bastard Understudy is a terrible idea and probably isn't going to end very well for you.
  • If you no longer have any external genitalia, a Groin Attack is still going to hurt but won't be nearly as crippling.
  • After years of being a sniveling, backstabbing traitor, Littlefinger is finally faced with the consequences. And his reputation means that no one has any interest whatsoever in trying to help him.
  • When you're a highborn lady with a betrothed, you can't just run off with someone you love and expect no one will do anything, especially if you don't let anyone know you left with him willingly.
• Technicolor Fire: The now-undead Viserion has blue fire as opposed to his original colors.
• Tempting Fate: Littlefinger attempts to defend himself by claiming there were no witnesses to the crimes he's been accused of. He says this in front of Bran, who he knows sees things he couldn't have been present for. Bran repeats Littlefinger's exact words from when he betrayed Ned on cue.
• This Cannot Be!: Cersei's reaction to Jaime calling her bluff and storming out comes across as this somewhat; she clearly didn't expect that threatening him would fail to make Jaime fall back into line.
• Token Good Teammate: Subverted. One of the reasons Jaime abandons Cersei is because her methods and his drive to be a true knight are incompatible. He cannot be a Knight in Shining Armor for a person like Cersei, who belittles his efforts to do something right for once in his lifetime. As such, Cersei alienates her one "good" teammate.
• Too Clever by Half: At last, Littlefinger's scheming catches up with him. He's so busy trying to pit the sisters against each other that it never enters his head that neither one will believe the other wants to harm her. It also means he's so busy that he doesn't bother trying to befriend anyone or gain allies in the North. He pays for that when the tables are turned and Littlefinger realizes too late he was failing to see the larger picture in his desire to split the sisters.
• Trash the Set: The undead Viserion obliterates Eastwatch, allowing the undead army to march towards the land of the living.
• Traveling at the Speed of Plot: Sam finally shows up at Winterfell because he's needed with Bran, even though Jon has sailed the same distance at least twice^note From Dragonstone to Eastwatch-By-The-Sea for the Great Wight Hunt; back down to King's Landing for the opening of this episode; and now north again on the Love Boat in the meantime.
• Trying Not to Cry: Sansa is visibly restraining herself from looking too emotional, but ultimately sheds a tear when she's about to sentence Littlefinger to death.
• Two Girls and a Guy: Three of the Stark siblings — Sansa, Bran, and Arya — against Littlefinger when he is put on trial for his crimes.
• Undignified Death: Littlefinger is crying his eyes out, pleading on his knees, swearing love for Sansa and Catelyn. Arya takes a couple of steps and cuts his throat mid-sentence in the blink of an eye. He isn't even allowed the recourse of trial by combat.
• Undying Loyalty:
  • Jon proclaims this towards Dany, though he does it at the most disadvantageous moment possible.
  • Arya and Sansa towards one another, once they realize that their sisterly bond is stronger than whatever flimsy doubts are thrown at them. They love each other, warts and all.
• Uncertain Doom: Tormund, Beric, and pretty much everyone who survives Viserion chopping off the east end of the Wall are now surrounded on at least three sides by the entire undead horde.
• Understatement: Tyrion begins the truce negotiations with: "We are a group of people who do not like one another..."
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom:
  • Rhaegar and Lyanna married without thinking about the consequences that this union brought to the realm. He never would have wanted his family destroyed root and stem, and she wouldn't have wanted her father and brother murdered because they sought answers for her disappearance. Even if the nature of their union was revealed, the consequences would have been no less disastrous.
  • The White Walkers would have invaded Westeros sooner or later, but the wight hunt made matters considerably worse for basically no gain. Had Tyrion not suggested it in the first place, had Jon not agreed to what everyone lampshaded was an extremely foolish idea, and had Daenerys not decided to rescue them using her dragons against Tyrion's advice, things would have been objectively better in almost every respect. The White Walkers would not have an undead dragon in their ranks and would have taken a longer route around Eastwatch over the frozen Bay of Seals, Thoros would still be alive, and the two major powers south of the Wall would be in largely the same position as they are now.
• Victory by Endurance:
  • Theon's Ironborn opponent is much stronger than him and mercilessly beats him bloody, but he's out of breath in less than a minute while Theon isn't. Add in Theon's immunity to groin attacks and Theon outlasts and defeats him.
  • Cersei wants to do this by having the Stark and Targaryen armies fight the Army of the Dead while the Lannisters stay south and wait for foreign reinforcements, then, once that battle is over, defeat whoever is left and solidify her rule. Jaime angrily tells her that's a lose-lose situation. If the Starks/Targaryens win, they'll be pissed at Cersei for breaking her vow and use whatever of their many valuable resources they have left to slaughter them. If the Army of the Dead wins, they'll add all of the human corpses and dragons to their already massive army and come down south to slaughter them.
• Villainous Breakdown: Littlefinger suffers one when he is exposed before everyone: he falls to his knees and begs for his life just before Arya slits his throat.
• Villainous BSoD: Littlefinger goes into one when Sansa calls his name as the accused. He goes a good ten seconds before Arya tells him to answer Sansa's question.
• Villains Want Mercy: After causing the War of Five Kings and backstabbing nearly everyone he could in his rise to power, Littlefinger is reduced to begging Sansa for mercy when she sentences him to death. It doesn't work. At all.
• Visual Pun: Jon and Dany's season-long Ship Tease is finally consummated... on a literal ship.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: When Tyrion questions Bronn's seemingly selfless actions, namely in helping to arrange this truce, Bronn points out that he could easily leverage this into delivering Tyrion's head to Cersei. Tyrion simply responds that he missed Bronn, and the feeling's mutual for Bronn.
• Voluntary Vassal: Jon Snow's letter to Sansa has his signature as "Warden of the North":
  Sansa,
  Cersei Lannister has pledged her forces to our cause, as has Daenerys Targaryen. And if we survive this war, I have pledged our forces to Daenerys as the rightful Queen of the Seven Kingdoms. We are both coming to organise the defence of the realm.
  Jon Snow. Warden of the North.
• We Have Reserves: When Jaime retorts to Cersei's claim that she wants to protect her family while simultaneously implying she will execute him, her only living relative, she says that, considering she's pregnant, she has another Lannister on the way. Even though he's right about how she wasn't going to go through with the execution, the comment shows just how far into her It's All About Me attitude she has gone, and demonstrates without a doubt to Jaime that she doesn't care about anyone but herself.
• Wham Episode: Jaime finally leaves Cersei, winter arrives in King's Landing, Jon and Dany consummate their relationship, Theon leaves to save Yara, Littlefinger is exposed for all the crap he put on the Starks, Arya executes Littlefinger on Sansa's order, Bran and Sam realize the truth of Jon's origins and the most important one of all; Viserion brings down the wall giving the White Walkers passage into the Seven Kingdoms.
• Wham Line: Two of them.
  • When Arya is brought before the court in Winterfell:
    Sansa: You stand accused of murder, you stand accused of treason. How do you answer these charges... Lord Baelish?
  • Then...
    Bran: Robert's Rebellion was built on a lie. [Rhaegar] didn't kidnap my aunt or rape her. He loved her. And she loved him.
• Wham Shot:
  • As Jaime is leaving King's Landing, he puts a glove on his Golden Hand to hide his identity. When he finishes, he notices a snowflake land on the glove. Winter has come to the south.
  • Oh, and what about Viserion freaking destroying the Wall, finally allowing the White Walkers to invade Westeros?
• What Happened to the Mouse?:
  • Bronn and Pod make themselves scarce before the meeting, and then neither is seen again. Given the political shakeups that follow, Bronn could basically have ended up anywhere. The next episode reveals that Bronn effectively pissed off in a failed attempt to sit the whole thing out.
  • Robin Arryn — remember, Littlefinger's stepson by marriage? — has not been seen since 6x04. The idea that Baelish wouldn't give a (etc) about the kid is believable... but if winter has come to King's Landing, it's definitely come to the Vale of Arryn (which is farther north), and in theory the show cares about every remaining living character in Westeros.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Tyrion, Davos and Daenerys all get stuck into Jon Snow for not lying to Cersei. Jon on the other hand points out why Honor Before Reason is not unreasonable.
• What Would X Do?: Skillfully invoked by Cersei, who says that she knows the "Son of Ned Stark" would keep his word.
• Who Needs Their Whole Body?: Sandor Clegane cuts the Wight they brought with them in half. It still keeps crawling after him with both its legs missing.
• We Are Not Going Through That Again: Sansa is presumably put in a difficult position of choosing between her family or between her leadership being threatened. As a child, she was once asked to take a side when Arya had attacked Joffrey to protect her friend Micah. Sansa took Joffrey's side and called Arya a fool for preparing to stab him. Obviously both sisters regretted how things turned out, especially after being separated for such a long time. Petyr suggests to Sansa that Arya wouldn't allow her sister to become Lady of Winterfell if Jon marries Dany and becomes another claimant for the Iron Throne. Then when Sansa ostensibly charges Arya for treason, she reveals that she's actually charging Petyr, since she knows that while Arya's treason is presumed, Baelish's treason is certain. It ends up subverted, as the whole time Sansa and Arya had resumed their childhood bickering to make Petyr think that the girls hadn't learned a thing, while playing him like a fiddle.
• We ARE Struggling Together: Subverted. Though Cersei swears an oath to become allies with Dany and Jon to fight the White Walkers, there's not even an in-fight before she decides to sit her butt out of the big conflict and wait to fight whomever prevails with the mercenary army that she bought.
• Will Not Tell a Lie: Jon explains why being honest isn't always a bad thing.
  Jon: I'm not going to swear an oath I can't uphold. Talk about my father if you want, tell me that's the attitude that got him killed. But when enough people make false promises, words stop meaning anything. Then there are no more answers, only better and better lies. And lies wont help us in this fight.
• Writers Cannot Do Math:
  • King's Landing was stated to have a population of half a million by Jaime Lannister to Qyburn when Aerys II was killed, some twenty years before the actual events. Now it has been upgraded to a population of a million, which Jon claims to be bigger than the population of the entire North. Historically speaking, a medieval city having a population of a million is a huge stretch. The likes of Paris and London never saw a population of that size until the 19th Century, and before that, you had to go back to Republican and Imperial Rome to find a city with that many people. ^{From the Books} While the North is stated to not boast a large population relative to the size, it is by no means so thinly populated as the show implies. The World of Ice & Fire states that the population is 3 to 4 million. The region with the smallest population in Westeros is Dorne, while the North is probably more populated than the Stormlands, putting it in the median of Westeros.
  • Tyrion mentions in his speech at the parley that the groups gathered there have many grudges and family feuds, and that no matter how they wish, they can't wish away the last fifty years of bad blood. This number is a huge stretch because there were only 17 years between Robert's Rebellion and Season 1. Said Rebellion only lasted a year (taking place between Rhaegar and Lyanna's elopement and Jon and Dany's birth at the very end), and between Season 1 and Season 7, at best around six years have passed (assuming 1 Season=1 year)^note Which is likely; In season 2 Tyrion mentions that Cersei became queen at 19 meaning she and Jaime were 36 in season 1, and Joffery mentions that Jaime is 40 in season 4, showing four years had passed.. So it should be 23-25 years of bad blood and grudges. ^{From the books...}The time frame on page is even shorter. They start during the year 298 AL, and the Purple Wedding is on New Year's Day 300 AL.
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are:
  • Arya tells Sansa that she wouldn't have survived what Sansa went through,^note It's assumed that Bran might have filled her in on the details of Sansa's ordeals though Sansa disagrees, as she states that Arya is the strongest person she's ever met. Arya tells her that this was the nicest thing Sansa's ever said to her.
  • Arya admits that Sansa is better at being a Lady than she is.
• You Killed My Father: Cersei brings up Tywin's death, as well as those of Myrcella and Tommen while arguing with Tyrion. He replies that the former was fully justified even if he would rather he hadn't, but he does mourn the children.
• You Wouldn't Shoot Me:
  • Played with. Tyrion dares Cersei to finally end him by using the Mountain, but he's fully aware that she has little compunction with following through with her threat. She is apparently unable to order his death, instead using Tyrion to convince Dany and Jon that the crown will help them.
  • In contrast to the previous point, when Jaime finally decides to leave Cersei, she has the Mountain block his path, insisting no one leaves her. He considers it for a moment, then says he doesn't believe her and walks right past, confident she won't stop him.

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