Monday means Game of Thrones hangovers, for which there is only one remedy: talking about Game of Thrones! Today’s Nerdist News Talks Back has hatched from an egg into the beautiful dragon known as All Kings Considered. Joining Mother of Dragons Jessica Chobot are Kyle “Chaos is a ladder” Anderson, Alicia “I don’t need a bigger sword” Lutes, and Amy “Where’s Ed Sheeran?” Vorpahl. Even with 8 minutes less runtime than most episodes, this week was insane, so let’s get straight into it.
Because Thrones has been playing so much with time this season, we’re going to start at the end. Holy Mother of Dragons was that insane. The Dothraki Horde has finally met the Lannister army on the field of battle. Oh yeah, also a dragon. Drogon wrecked house last night by roasting the red and gold (minus Bronn and Jaime). Other than Drogon, though, Bronn was the star of this skirmish. Featured in a tracking shot akin to last season’s “Battle of the Bastards,” Bronn braved the bloody burning battle and barely managed to batter Drogon with a big bow. I’m so sorry. Jaime had his moment of bravery, too, when he attempted to charge Dany, but his was short-lived. Jaime underestimated how quickly a wounded dragon could move, but Bronn was there to save the day once again. We’re waiting for the Game of Bronns spinoff.
Moving north, all the trueborn, living Stark children are back in Winterfell for the first time since early Season 1, though the kids have changed. Bran is an all-seeing, Charles Xavier-type, Arya is one of the best swordsmen in the realm, and Sansa has more political savvy than most rulers. What hasn’t changed is Littlefinger’s scheming. We don’t know why he gave Bran the Valyrian Steel dagger that was meant for his throat, but we do know that Arya’s got it now, which might spell trouble for little Petyr Baelish.
While the Starks had a happy, albeit strained, reunion, the Lannisters didn’t have a great few days. The Iron Bank will only help Cersei as long as they expect her to win, which is up in the air after this episode. That may leave the Golden Company, a mercenary army across the seas, as her best hope. On the other side of the war, Tyrion’s advice hasn’t been working, and he just watched his brother face down a dragon. Jaime will most likely survive and be used as a political prisoner, as long as Tyrion can convince Dany not to execute him.
Some of our friends got a little bit less love this week. Jon showed Dany the startlingly accurate cave drawings of the White Walkers (even though the other drawings were stick figures) and met up with Theon, who he hasn’t seen since he betrayed Robb back in season two. Unseen this week were The Hound and the Brotherhood Without Banners, Euron “I’m everywhere at once but not here for some reason” Greyjoy, and Sam Tarly’s gross-out moment, but we’ll probably see them next week.
You can watch and interact live with Nerdist News Talks Back every weekday at 1:00pm PST and All Kings Considered on Mondays on YouTube and Alpha, and catch up with the archives just after the show!
Image: HBO
