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

Alternative Character Interpretation:
- When did Sansa and Arya's gambit to take down Littlefinger begin? Had the two of them planned this from the start, in which case, was their earlier bickering a case of the two being Properly Paranoid in order to throw Baelish off in case he was spying on them? Or was the conflict the two had in the previous two episodes legitimate, in which case what led to the two of them joining forces to take down Baelish? Was it when Littlefinger gave his lesson about assuming the worst in others or did the revelation happen off-screen? Finally, was Bran in the know from the start about the plan to take down Baelish or was his presence at the council meeting just a convenient way for his Three Eyed Raven powers to drop some extra incriminating testimony on Baelish's lap? A few days after the episode aired, Isaac Hempstead-Wright revealed there was a brief scene cut where Sansa knocks on Bran's door and says "I need your help," implying that she's just become suspicious after Littlefinger's talk about the "game," and realized Bran can give her all the facts.
- Why did Tyrion look so angered by Jon and Dany consummating their relationship? Does he harbor a never shown-before secret crush on Daenerys himself? The eavesdropping surely is a bit creepy. Does he think it's a bad political move? If so, why? He personally stressed the importance of a possible marriage alliance with a Westerosi noble a season ago, and the other party is her Warden of the North. Or is Tyrion just gaming to become the sole successor to Daenerys like she pretty much accused him of? Word of God says that he was thinking along the lines of Love Ruins the Realm.
- Did Lyanna and Rhaegar plan all along to name their baby Aegon if it was male, displacing Rhaegar's first son of the same name, or did Lyanna choose it when Jon was born to honor his murdered half-brother? Or perhaps considering the names of the other two children and the books making it clear Rhaegar has an interest in prophecy, they were expecting a girl with the plan to name her Visenya and when Lyanna had a boy instead, she just pulled the first Targaryen name she thought of in the heat of the moment.
Anticlimax Boss: Even viewers who felt Baelish's demise was deserved have lamented that the story arc leading up to it was disappointing. Being one of the major antagonists of the show, he falls behind his nation-wide goal of ruling Westeros and isn't even treated as menace by others like Cersei and the Night King, and gets limited to driving an wedge between Stark siblings during Season 7. For a guy that was ultimately responsible for kicking off the series' events in the first place, he turned out to be a Big Bad Wannabe at the end.
Ass Pull:
- The show goes to such lengths to hide Sansa and Arya's plan against Littlefinger that The Reveal arguably doesn't make much sense. All their confrontations in the past episode happened without any witnesses, so they wouldn't have been acting. There's also some confusion about whether they were actually meant to always be pulling the scheme or just started it at some later point. Maybe Bran told them off-screen recently? Or did Littlefinger's lesson about assuming the worst earlier in the episode cause Sansa to rethink events and figure it out, with the trap thrown together at the last minute? Many fans were incensed and outright confused when Isaac Hempstead-Wright revealed that a scene confirming it was the latter was cut from the episode despite being just a few seconds long.
- The idea that Rhaegar could have gotten an annulment of his marriage to Elia just because he wanted one. Annulments haven't been featured in the books at all and the rules around them in the show haven't been discussed, but in real life in order to obtain an annulment one has to present a legitimate reason why the marriage should never have been considered valid in the first place. There is no such reason for Rhaegar and Elia's marriage, which was properly consummated and produced two healthy children - including a male heir, so Rhaegar can't have claimed that he needed to remarry for dynastic reasons. This seems like a plot contrivance to make Jon unambiguously legitimate and therefore ahead of Daenerys in the line of succession without having characters spend time questioning whether he really is, as opposed to if Rhaegar had been an attempted bigamist, which is frowned on by the Faith of the Seven and thus could have caused Jon to still be held a bastard even if his parents did have a wedding ceremony. Furthermore, the High Septon apparently took a trip from King's Landing to Dorne to perform Rhaegar and Lyanna's wedding without all the people who were very interested in the couple's whereabouts at that time noticing, and was willing to risk Aerys's wrath by annulling a marriage that the Mad King himself had brokered, without his permission.
Captain Obvious Reveal: That Jon is Rhaegar's son as well as Lyanna's. Although the showrunners tried to be cagey about it in interviews and said that technically Bran's vision in "The Winds of Winter" had only confirmed that Lyanna was Jon's mother, the fact that Jon was born a little over a year after Rhaegar "abducted" Lyanna meant there were no other candidates. If Jon had been fathered by, say, Robert, he would have been born sooner. Bran had only the information in the prior vision to go on, too, and states clearly to Sam that Rhaegar was Jon's father, confirming that it was obvious.
Catharsis Factor:
- After seven seasons of getting away with everything and being the the instigator of death and destruction across the continent by kicking off the War of Five Kings, Littlefinger finally pays for his crimes with a public Karmic Death at Sansa and Arya's hands.
- After the whole season appeared to more or less ignore Jaime's withering Death Glare to Cersei at the end of Season 6, he's finally driven to leave her completely here.
- Theon engages in a fight with a member of the Ironborn fleet who defies his plan to save Yara and spits in Theon's face. Theon, through sheer perseverance, wins, finally coming out on top in a confrontation with somebody else after suffering nearly the entire series from regular verbal and physical abuse by allies and enemies alike. It's enough to rally the rest of the fleet into following him, and unlike previous times where he tried to give a big pep talk to a crowd of followers, it's allowed to stick this time.
Character Rerailment: Jaime's current storyline in the books ends with him being fed up with Cersei's madness and abandoning her, as snow begins to fall in his area, indicating that winter has finally come. Season 6 finale teased it with a Death Glare he gave Cersei in the end, but then he spent all Season 7 firmly at her side. Here, he finally does the same decision as in the books, just as the snow begins to fall.
Cry for the Devil: Despite the horrible things he's done, the way Petyr starts collapsing and crying as he begs for his life recalls that he was once just an innocent little boy who wanted to win the hand of the girl he loved, only to be humiliated, nearly killed, and then made a mockery of for years later. It's hard not to feel sympathy for the child he was, if not the man he became.
He's Just Hiding:
- Fans are desperately hopeful that Tormund and Berric survived the destruction of the Wall overlooking Eastwatch since they are not seen perishing onscreen. It's not out of the question, assuming they made it far enough west to avoid the collapsing section. For what it's worth, the last shot of them is them watching the Wall collapse just short of where they're at. The Season 8 trailer confirmed they did survive.
- Some fans think that Littlefinger faked his death, and that Arya killed a Faceless Man posing off as him.
He Really Can Act: Aidan Gillen's performance in his final scene where he breaks down and cries shamelessly impressed many as a surprisingly deft and convincing range of emotions especially since his character had been a little caricaturish in earlier seasons.
Memetic Mutation:
- "Littlefinger got littlefingered."
- Bran telling Jon that he "saw him on the night he slept with his aunt and that he looked beautiful".
- Viserion destroying Eastwatch being fitted with Chris Jericho's WWE theme music (BREAK THE WALLS DOWN!).
Questionable Casting: Plenty took issue with Rhaegar Targaryen's brief appearance. While the actor playing him is a good looking young man, the scene doesn't convey his famous supposedly incomparably gorgeous Pretty Boy appearance, and the wig he is given serves only to conjure memories of whiny, unhinged Viserys. The appearance follows the letter of the source text, where Daenerys almost confuses Rhaegar with Viserys in the House of the Undying, and the problem is compounded by the Medium Two-Shot, side camera angle featuring him, with the lighting and wig covering most of his face. An on-set still shot, shown here, has him looking very unlike Harry Lloyd's Viserys, showing him having softer and more elegant bearing, which is reminiscent of the artwork◊ in The World of Ice & Fire and a better close-up would have settled the issue for most.
Shocking Moments:
- Sansa and Arya's Batman Gambit to defeat Littlefinger, finally showing that Starks can play dirty too.
- After seven seasons, the Night King brings The Wall down while riding on an undead Viserion, breathing blue flames, and the Army of the Dead crosses.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
- Having a Stark-meets-Targaryen name would be even more fitting for the man who is Ice and Fire. Instead the writers look lazy for choosing a name that was already used for one of Rhaegar's children, and Rhaegar himself looks even more petty and nasty for essentially replacing his firstborn son with his second.
- Cersei joining the alliance against the Army of the Dead would have opened the door to some interesting character interactions, political maneuvering, and Teeth-Clenched Teamwork. Instead, she just engages in pointless villainy by promising to help and then reneging.
- A more minor example: many fans were disappointed that Varys was not present to witness his rival Littlefinger's execution, nor do we see what his reaction was. Varys's actor Conleth Hill too expressed disappointment at the wasted opportunity once the show had ended.
Unintentionally Sympathetic: Robert Baratheon, in retrospect. Back in Season 1, he's portrayed as a pathetic man who is stuck in the past, particularly for how he's unable to let go of Lyanna. However, The Reveal of the true nature of her and Rhaegar's relationship through this episode painted Robert in a more sympathetic light in the eyes of fans. Also, for all misunderstandings of Rhaegar's motives, he still saved the realm from the Mad King.
Unintentionally Unsympathetic: Lyanna and, especially, Rhaegar. The reveal here about the truth of their love story neglects to dwell on certain facts that would take the sheen off of it. Rhaegar was a married man, with royal titles and a responsibility to the kingdom and his family, and yet he apparently abandoned it all for simple love/lust. He also still fought on his mad father's side, despite knowing what a monster he was and what he had done to Lyanna's beloved father and brother. It's unknown if he had another reason or a plan for what was to come, ^note but even if he had, Elia would still have been cast aside and humiliated by having their marriage annulled without her knowledge or consent, and her children would possibly have been stripped of their birthrights, all of which would have been great insults to his Dornish allies ^{From the books}. Not to mention it would be idiotic not to foresee that running away with the daughter of a Great Lord, who was also the fiancée of another Great Lord, would create turmoil one way or another. Lyanna was also apparently okay with Rhaegar treating his first wife and their children in this way. Though Rhaegar bears the brunt of responsibility since he was older than Lyanna and should have been wiser (she was 16 or 17, he was 24).

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

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