Jennifer Vineyard

Of all the mini-battles within the great big battle on Sunday’s episode of “Game of Thrones,” the most David-and-Goliath-like was the one between 5-foot-tall Lyanna Mormont (Bella Ramsey) and a towering zombie giant (Ian Whyte). Little Lyanna — the spunky head of House Mormont — stood no real chance, but she went out on a rousing note, stabbing the wight in the eye with dragonglass and thereby saving countless compatriots.

In a phone interview Monday, we spoke with the 15-year-old actress about the Battle of Winterfell and what it was like to go down fighting. Following are edited excerpts.

Q: What was your reaction to the episode, and seeing your own magnificent death scene?

A: It was so intense! The tension of it all, your heart is just pounding. It was insane. It was amazing. I really love Arya’s bit, of course. What’s not to love, really? It’s empowering.

Q: Were you expecting to die?

A: I wasn’t expecting to even come back for Season 8, so the fact that I got to come back and die, and with the death I got, it was insane. I’m very, very grateful for that. I was shocked, in a good way.

Q: What kind of direction did Miguel Sapochnik give you for your fight scene?

A: We talked about how it was like someone had removed Lyanna’s fear gene. Like fear wasn’t even an option for her. Even though she’s being faced with possibly the most terrifying thing of her life, she’s not fazed by it. She knows what she has to do. She could have easily stayed on the floor, but she didn’t. She didn’t want to do that. She wanted to make a difference.

Q: It looked quite painful.

A: Oh, yes. When you watch it back, you can hear him crushing her ribs. But I think her adrenaline got her through it. She was in a lot of pain, but at that moment, her aim was to kill the giant. The way I thought about it, she was taking her last breath to do this. It was her final moment before he squeezed her to death.

Q: The behind-the-scenes footage suggested that you didn’t really get to interact with Ian Whyte, who played the giant. That you were held up by a clawlike crane?

A: Yeah, I was in a massive claw machine. The machine was like a robot, I guess. It had a series of moves, to shake me about and make it look like I was being lifted up by a giant. That was really cool. The dragonglass dagger, I had to stick it into this green polystyrene plastic ball, which would be the giant’s eye, and it was quite funny, because the dagger was quite floppy! (Laughs) Sometimes it just fell on the floor, and then we’d have to pick it up again. The polystyrene ball, too, had these little squares cut out, and I had to get it in between the squares, so it was quite technical, actually. But we got it there in the end. Ian and I didn’t interact, but I did meet him. He was very, very, very tall. I never felt that small in my whole life.

Q: Tormund Giantsbane told a story in the previous episode about how he got his nickname. If she had lived, Lyanna Mormont could have been Lyanna Giantsbane.

A: Or Lyanna Giantslayer! That would be cool. I feel like if she had another life, she’d come back as a giant. Why not?

Q: Well, it looked like she got to come back as a wight, at least for a moment. What was that like for you?

A: Oh, that was fun! But the contacts hurt a bit, because of the restricted views. That was a very strange experience. I had to lie on the floor for like four hours, shivering, because the floor was really cold. And I obviously had to be dead, so I couldn’t even twitch. But it was amazing. I never got to actually get up and fight as a wight, though. I just opened my eyes. And to shoot that, I had to open my eyes a lot, at all these different speeds. Slowly open. Slap them open. You wouldn’t believe all the time we spent shooting just me opening my eyes. It took a while, because they didn’t really know what they wanted to do.

Q: With the deaths of both Lyanna and Jorah, House Mormont is now extinct. But at least they got to make peace with each other before the battle.

A: Yeah, you saw a very rare thing for Lyanna, which is warmth. Usually she’s very cold, very blunt. But we saw a bit behind the tough mask. It’s not really a mask. She’s really a tough person. But she’s warm in that moment.

Q: People love how she isn’t afraid of being blunt, of telling people the truth.

A: There have been so many great things on the internet! I love it when people use her death stare on the horse. That’s one of my favorite ones. It’s surreal, really. Yeah, Lyanna’s courage and confidence is astounding. She isn’t afraid of telling people the truth, even when it’s a harsh reality sometimes. She knows that people need to know where they stand.

Q: If she had gotten a chance to talk to Cersei, what do you think she would say?

A: Oh, yes! They would have a bit of a standoff. And if Lyanna had a dragon, she might have taken her down. No, wait. I think she would actually make Cersei feel ashamed for what she’s done. Lyanna would have to tell her how she felt. She would tell her the truth. It would have been cool. And now she can’t. But that’s the beauty of the internet, isn’t it? If you’re feeling like you need a little dose of Lyanna in your day, you can YouTube her.

This article originally appeared in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/30/arts/television/game-of-thrones-lyanna-mormont.html" id="f568a97a-104b-38ad-a30f-528abcb13a88">The New York Times</a>.

This article contains spoilers for Season 8, Episode 3 of “Game of Thrones.”

Lyanna Mormont, Giant Slayer, Never Expected to Last This Long

It was really no surprise to see Melisandre (Carice van Houten) strolling up to the Battle of Winterfell in Sunday’s “Game of Thrones” episode, right before the fighting got started. This was, after all, the war she had been talking about since her first appearance — the conflict central to her entire belief system. There was no way she was going to sit this one out.

But what is it that she believes? Is it magic? Religion? Both?

Sometimes it’s hard to tell the difference, her High Valyrian words seeming to be both spells and prayers. It’s clear that Melisandre is a devout follower of one god, R’hllor, the Lord of Light, the Heart of Fire, the God of Flame and Shadow. That god is eternally at war with another one who is called the Great Other, the Lord of Darkness, the Soul of Ice, the God of Night and Terror — or not called anything at all.

Mel attempted to explain this dualistic belief system to Shireen in simple terms: “Septons speak of seven gods. There are but two. A god of light and love and joy, and a god of darkness, evil and fear.”

It would be a stretch to call the Night King a god, but he is probably the closest representative of the Great Other that Mel has encountered in her long life. And she foretold his coming during a prophecy she repeated during the rare beach barbecue in which she sacrificed not humans but effigies of another faith’s gods. The point of that ceremony was to anoint Stannis Baratheon as the messiah of her religion — the prince who was promised, Azor Ahai, a great warrior who would fight the Long Night and defend the realms of men in the Battle for the Dawn.

“After the long summer, the darkness will fall heavy on the world,” she said. “Stars will bleed. The cold breath of winter will freeze the seas, and the dead shall rise in the North.”

Melisandre explains this war to Davos in the books, telling him that the war has been waged since time began. Before it is done, she says, men must decide where they will stand: “Ours is not a choice between Baratheon and Lannister, between Greyjoy and Stark. It is death we choose, or life. Darkness, or light.”

Other important premonitions or prophecies arrived when Melisandre merely looked into someone’s eyes. In hindsight, one especially poignant one came when she first met Arya: “I see a darkness in you, and in that darkness, eyes staring back at me,” she said. “Brown eyes, blue eyes, green eyes. Eyes you’ll shut forever.” In Sunday’s episode, she pointedly reminded Arya about the “blue eyes” part — referring to the Night King — and told her that Beric Dondarrion’s multiple resurrections served their purpose: to save Arya.

The seat of Melisandre’s religion is the Red Temple, based in Volantis. It’s where children are sold and raised to become priests and priestesses, temple prostitutes and warriors. This might explain why Melisandre refers to having been “bought and sold, scourged and branded” as a slave.

It also might explain why seduction is one of her preferred methods of persuasion. Although she probably trained at the Red Temple, where she most likely learned to read visions in the flames, she wouldn’t have stopped there. Unlike other red priests and priestesses, Mel studied abroad, in Asshai, where she also learned shadowbinding and other dark magic. “It was an art, and like all arts, it demanded mastery, discipline, study,” she thought. “Pain. That too.”

Mel felt the weight of the world upon her shoulders; she had to ensure that Westeros united behind the Chosen One in time to keep the darkness at bay.

After her failure with Stannis, she began seeking a replacement. She thought it might be Jon Snow, but her exile from the North for killing Shireen (see: a different barbecue) made her consider other options. Perhaps a combination of Jon and Dany working in tandem?

Other red priestesses in Volantis and Meereen had preached that it was Dany all along. Melisandre encouraged the Khaleesi to meet with the King in the North. Afterward, she told Varys that she had done her part — she had brought ice and fire together. “My time whispering in the ears of kings has come to an end,” she said, before mentioning she was heading to Volantis before returning once more.

“I have to die in this strange country,” she also said, rather ominously.

How much did Melisandre know in advance?

She clearly knew the time and place to be for the battle. She knew that Arya had a key part to play. And she knew that she, herself, wouldn’t survive — she had served her purpose. She had called down the fire of her god, and her faith had been rewarded.

This article originally appeared in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/29/arts/television/melisandre-arya-winterfell-battle.html" id="11b1cebd-5e30-3ecd-aa83-b461f6824b0f">The New York Times</a>.

(This article contains spoilers for Season 8, Episode 3 of “Game of Thrones.”)

Melisandre Saw the Battle of Winterfell Coming All Along

With all the blades, projectiles, dragons and magic on hand to fight the Night King, it all came down to a single dagger.

Arya’s weapon of choice might have looked familiar, and it should have: Before it ended the Battle of Winterfell in Sunday night’s “Game of Thrones,” it appeared in several other important moments, starting way back at the very beginning.

Fuzzy on the history? Here’s the chain of custody for this key piece of evidence.

An Unnamed Catspaw

We first saw the dagger when a hired assassin attempted to kill a comatose Bran back in Season 1, Episode 2. “It’s a mercy,” the man said. “He’s dead already.” Both Bran’s mother, Catelyn Stark, who gripped the blade with her bare hands, and Bran’s direwolf, Summer, fought off the assassin, which is how the dagger ended up with …

Catelyn Stark

Bran’s mother started to suspect that Bran’s fall from the tower and the attempt on his life were connected. She started to investigate and convened a secret meeting of those she trusted — Robb, Theon, Ser Rodrik Cassel, Maester Luwin — to discuss her findings, which is how the dagger ended up with …

Ser Rodrik Cassel

The Stark’s master-at-arms pointed out that the weapon was “too fine” for a hired gun, being that the blade was Valryian steel, the handle dragonbone. “Someone gave it to him,” Cassel deduced. But who? The Starks assumed it was the Lannisters, and Theon offered to back up Robb. (“What, is there to be a battle in the godswood?” Maester Luwin quipped. Why, yes, and with this very dagger deciding the fight.) Not content to wait this one out, Catelyn set out for King’s Landing with Cassel to make further inquiries, which is how the dagger ended up with …

Petyr Baelish

Catelyn’s manipulative childhood friend Littlefinger, at least for a brief while, reclaimed custody of the dagger, which had once been his. He lost it, or so he claimed, betting during a tournament. (Littlefinger claimed he made a bet with Tyrion Lannister, in which he backed Jaime Lannister in a joust against Loras Tyrell, which Jaime lost.) This, of course, was a lie, but the Starks fell for the bait, as well as Littlefinger’s promise to help them get to the “truth,” which is how the dagger ended up with …

Ned Stark

Ned, who was by then the hand of the king, kept the blade in his office, and put it on his desk during a pivotal conversation with Littlefinger about what to do regarding the line of succession after King Robert died. This did not go unnoticed, which is how the dagger ended up with …

Lord Petyr Baelish

Whether he swiped it off Ned’s desk or took it off Ned’s belt in the throne room, Littlefinger proved he had sticky fingers. He held the blade to Ned’s throat while gloating about how untrustworthy he is. Years later, in an attempt to prove that he was trustworthy, he inexplicably decided to present it as a gift, which is how the dagger ended up with …

Bran Stark

Littlefinger claimed that the last man who wielded the blade was the assassin who attempted to take Bran’s life, and offered to do “anything” to help out the last surviving Stark male heir. Bran was nonplused. He didn’t seem to care about the gift, or its value, or Littlefinger’s empty promises, which is how the dagger ended up with …

Arya Stark

Bran handed the blade to his sister, claiming he didn’t want it and that it was wasted on him. But perhaps he knew all along that she could use it to protect him. He knew about her kill list and presumably about the people she had killed, so he made sure that an assassin’s dagger was in the hands of someone who could put it to good use. And that she did, not least by slicing Littlefinger’s throat and by stabbing the Night King with one of the few weapons that could kill him.

For anyone still wondering who had the blade before the assassination attempt on Bran — a mystery not quite resolved on the show — the books provide an answer. Together, Tyrion and Jaime figure out that it was King Robert who bet on the joust and won the dagger from Littlefinger, and that Joffrey “borrowed” his dad’s newly-won weapon when he hired the catspaw. In Joffrey’s twisted thinking, he was trying to provide Bran a mercy killing. In so doing, he gave the Starks the means to defeat the Night King.

This article originally appeared in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/29/arts/television/arya-dagger-bran-night-king.html" id="9af07498-d489-3fde-a3de-47e8e03e9fd2">The New York Times</a>.

Arya's Dagger Has a Complex History in 'Game of Thrones.' Here's a Look Back.

Now that this elite private army has been ferried over from Essos on Euron Greyjoy’s fleet, was this a good purchase on Cersei’s part? Should Daenerys Targaryen and Jon Snow be worried?

This isn’t the first time we’ve heard about the Golden Company in Westeros. Davos originally recommended that Stannis hire the mercenaries to beef up his armed forces. He probably thought of them first because of their stellar reputation, which he must have known would be useful in persuading his reluctant king. Unlike some sellsword companies, the Golden Company is said never to have broken a contract. Their motto: “Our word is good as gold.”

And unlike some feudal armies, the Golden Company is composed of highly disciplined soldiers. What’s more, they don’t think of themselves as mercenaries: They are a brotherhood of exiles and the sons of exiles. Even if they’re based in Essos, they consider themselves (mostly) to be Westerosi. “It’s home they want, as much as gold,” as one character explains. Perhaps this is the logic Cersei relies upon to avoid the argument that she, too, is using a foreign army.

As an example of the type of men the Golden Company attracts, Jorah Mormont revealed in Season 4 that as a disgraced knight in exile, he fought with them before signing up with Viserys and Dany. The Golden Company’s captain-general is Harry Strickland, who grew up in the Company, as did his father and grandfather after his great-grandfather signed up with the original outfit.

That speaks to another distinguishing feature for this squad: They raise their sons to join them. It’s part of their heritage.

The Golden Company was founded by a legitimized Targaryen bastard — Ser Aegor Rivers, known as Bittersteel — as a fighting force to support rebellions against the Iron Throne. Bittersteel’s dad, King Aegon IV, known as Aegon the Unworthy, had a whole litter of bastards that he legitimized on his deathbed a century ago. This led to a series of succession clashes known as the Blackfyre Rebellions, in which Aegor Rivers and the Golden Company supported the Blackfyre claims. This is why some see them as anti-Targaryen.

In the books, Dany’s brother, Viserys, tried to hire them once, and got laughed off. This might not have been simply because Viserys was a Targaryen: Later, on the Company supports a separate Targaryen claim to the throne and invades Westeros after breaking a contract for the first time in order to do so.

By Season 4, when Davos recommends them, the Golden Company has 10,000 men: 8,000 infantry, 1,000 archers and 1,000 cavalry. They also have two dozen war elephants. Their infantry are phalanx-style spearmen, like the Unsullied, but with more adaptability. Their archers have a variety of weapons and styles — crossbows, recurve-bows, longbows, and mounted archers. Together, they are a much better match than a Westerosi-trained army would be against the combined forces of an all-cavalry Dothraki and an 8,000-strong all-infantry Unsullied.

Of course, they’re still susceptible to dragons.

By the time Cersei hires the Company in Season 7, she says it has 20,000 men, indicating their numbers have grown. The elephants, however, are nowhere to be seen. Cersei is annoyed — fixated, even. “I wanted those elephants,” she says after sleeping with Euron. But it isn’t clear where they went.

(Perhaps it was simple logistics: The Golden Company aren’t seamen, and they aren’t equipped to travel overseas. Euron’s hastily-built fleet does well enough at transporting the soldiers, but dozens of elephants weigh a lot. Maybe his fleet simply didn’t have the right sized ships to carry them.)

But even without those great beasts, 20,000 men more than replenishes the Lannister soldiers lost during the loot-train attack. And Cersei is able to afford them because of gold stolen from Highgarden. Which is fitting: The men of the Golden Company like to wear their plunder — hence their name. They come resplendent with inlaid armor and golden arm rings (each ring signifies a year of service), wielding jeweled swords and decorating their tents with golden cloth. And pikes topped with gilded skulls.

But Cersei should be careful: The Golden Company turns on patrons who don’t pay up on time. The Lannister promise — that they always pay their debts — won’t be enough with these guys. They once sacked the city of Qohor when a client didn’t honor a contract.

Unlike most other mercenary companies we’ve seen, the Golden Company decides whom to back based not only on payment but also on whomever it thinks has the chances of claiming the throne. This is one army that could have a mind of its own.

This article originally appeared in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/15/arts/television/game-of-thrones-season-8-premiere-golden-company.html" id="9726fadb-112e-34e1-a028-ae48a2abeca8">The New York Times</a>.

When Cersei went shopping for a new ally, she found the biggest and best group of mercenaries she could buy with her latest loan from the Iron Bank: the Golden Company.

'Game of Thrones': What Is the Golden Company? And Where Are Those Elephants?

Since last season, when he first held out his hand to pet Drogon (and didn’t die), fans have been wondering if Jon would ever claim a mount of his own. The dragon Rhaegal always seemed to be the best choice for him — and Kit Harington agrees. And now with both Drogon and Viserion spoken for, Rhaegal really was the only choice.

But Dany may not realize the full import of going on a dragon-riding date with Jon. She didn’t share her dragon with him, as she did with those she rescued last season beyond the Wall. She gave it to him. And Rhaegal is now Jon’s for life.

Let’s back up. There is actually a lot that Dany doesn’t know about dragons. After all, she grew up in an era when the beasts were thought to have died out, when there were no longer experienced dragonlords to teach her how to bond, ride or battle with them. And since she thinks of dragons as her “children,” it probably didn’t occur to her that she might have to break them in.

Dany is lucky, though — she’s a natural. Jon clearly is not, probably because he hasn’t had the advantage of holding Rhaegal as an egg before it hatched, or knowing it all of its life. Dany had time to acclimate, to bond. And that bond is actually a form of imprinting, which enables Drogon to sense Dany’s distress in the fighting pits and come to her rescue. When Drogon is hit by a spear in the books, “Dany and Drogon screamed as one.”

The bond between a dragon and dragon rider runs so deep, some say, that the dragon will share its human’s feelings (the dragons of one royal couple also mated) and can sense when its human dies. Dreamfyre, for example, sensed when its rider, Helaena, died, even though she was far away.

Because of this bond, a dragon will accept only one rider, although it will accept a new one after the original rider dies. (None of these rules about bonding apply to Viserion, by the way, now that it’s a wight.) Maegor the Cruel had to wait until his father, Aegon, died before he could hope to claim Balerion the Black Dread.

The child of a rider, however, does not automatically inherit a deceased parent’s dragon. It’s not like borrowing the family car. Queen Rhaenyra’s son Joffrey tried to ride Syrax, and although he was a familiar presence to his mother’s dragon, the great beast fought to be free of him, twisting in the air until he fell off and plunged to his death. Joffrey might not have died if he had used the traditional saddle, chains or steel-tipped whip, but he was in a hurry, and he didn’t.

That’s another thing Dany didn’t realize — Jon might have had a slightly easier time if he had the proper tools. Or if Dany had taken him as a passenger first, letting him ride double with her before trying to ride solo on an untamed dragon. (She wouldn’t have been able to break in Rhaegal herself beforehand because a dragon won’t accept another dragon’s rider.)

Being Rhaegar’s son probably helped Jon a bit, but one shouldn’t take dragon riding as proof of a Targaryen bloodline. It’s a popular misconception that only Targaryens can ride — a misconception that was advantageous for Targaryens to perpetuate because it made them seem “closer to gods than the common run of men.” And not all Targaryens can ride.

Long ago, in a time when the Targaryens had more dragons than riders, they opened up the field to anyone willing to try winning over their own dragon. One of those who succeeded was a small, brown, bastard girl named Nettles, who figured out that feeding a dragon a freshly slaughtered sheep every morning was an excellent way to win its acceptance.

Some argue that Nettles must have had Targaryen blood herself. Perhaps. But her example is also useful for those who don’t: If you’re friendly and persistent, dragons will consider you. Tyrion himself might have had a chance of this when he unchained Viserion and Rhaegal. Alas …

As long as Dany and Jon stay on good terms, it shouldn’t be a problem for her that Rhaegal and Jon have bonded. But should Dany and Jon ever fall out — perhaps over an icky incest revelation? — this is one thing she can’t take back.

This article originally appeared in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/15/arts/television/game-of-thrones-season-8-premiere-dragon-jon-snow.html" id="ae25717d-0d81-3163-a5f6-5efca8799ab8">The New York Times</a>.

Finally, Jon Snow on dragonback!

'Game of Thrones': So Who's Able to Ride a Dragon?

Welcome back to our guide through an epic “Game of Thrones” re-watch.

Novices beware: This article is dark and full of spoilers. And now our watch continues.

— How Should I Re-Watch Season 7?

Concentrate on the installments that are central to the famously complicated plot and provide all the feels. Here are four must-watch episodes.

Episode 3, “The Queen’s Justice” — Jon and Dany finally meet, sparking a battle of royal titles. And it’s payback time for the murders of Joffrey and Myrcella. Bonus: Bran shows us how creepy he can be.

Episode 4, “The Spoils of War” — For spectacular action scenes both large (Dany, Drogon and the Dothraki taking on the Lannister loot train) and small (Arya sparring with Brienne). Also, what is wrong with Bran?! Poor Meera.

Episode 6, “Beyond the Wall” — Remember how thrilling it seemed the first time our magnificent seven raiding party risked everything to bring back proof of the wights for Cersei? Good times. Now revisit the despair of learning that their losses were for naught. Cry for Thoros. Cry for Viserion. Cry, cry.

Episode 7, “The Dragon and the Wolf” — Try to stir up some hope for the dragon-pit summit — a chance for Westeros’ best people to come together for the sake of humanity’s survival, even if the effort might be doomed and Viserion can still make short work of the Wall. Also: Stark powers activate! Goodbye, Littlefinger.

— 4 Things to Watch For in Season 7

All the key players are back in Westeros, but the place is in shambles as invasions are underway. Trying to pick apart the complex narrative? Thinking along these themes and schemes might help.

Food for Thought

Winter is here, and that means it’s already late to be stocking up on food supplies. But where is the food coming from, when the harvests have been so disrupted by war? At Dragonstone, Team Stannis left the larders empty before departing north. How are Dany’s armies and three dragons going to eat while they camp out there? What about when they travel?

At Winterfell, Sansa’s asking the local farmers to help build up the grain stores with regular shipments, planning ahead to feed both the armies of the North and local refugees. “If the entire North has to flee to Winterfell, they won’t have enough time to bring wagon loads of grain with them,” she reasons. At King’s Landing, the Lannisters aren’t asking the farmers for food — they’re stealing it. Part of Cersei and Jaime’s Highgarden scheme was to get the gold to repay the Iron Bank, but also to empty the granaries and collect the harvests from the farms in the Reach. Which in itself is a kind of warfare: The capital hopes to withstand a long siege, but the people in the Reach won’t be able to survive a long winter.

Listen to the background chatter at the Inn at the Crossroads before Arya reunites with Hot Pie. Two men speculate that “prices will triple” and what they mean are the prices of food in King’s Landing. Remember what Bronn explained to Tyrion and Varys in Season 2? “The thieves, they love a siege. Soon as the gates are sealed, they steal all the food. By the time it’s all over, they’re the richest men in town.” Noble women will sell their diamonds for a sack of potatoes. If it gets really bad, Bronn says, the poor will start to eat each other. “Food’s worth more than gold.”

Realizing that she won’t be able to feed her armies “because Cersei has taken all the food,” Dany decides to hit back. Instead of attacking King’s Landing, she attacks the loot train, though Drogon blasts the wagons containing grain and food supplies. Now no one has that precious resource. Starvation is one of the biggest threats to Westeros. This is partly why the farmer that the Hound revisits in Season 7 has killed himself and his daughter. When the Hound robbed them of their silver in Season 4, estimating they would be dead come winter, he ensured their fate. With or without war, food prices are about to skyrocket.

Clear and Present Danger

Jon Snow is trying to recruit allies in the fight against the army of the dead, but he’s having trouble rallying people to his cause. It might be because he’s not great at describing his own White Walker experiences or using other witnesses to corroborate.

Perhaps Jon needs to think back to the Night’s Watch back in Season 1, when they sent Alliser Thorne with a letter and a wight hand to show the Small Council. (The Small Council only saw the letter in Season 2 — no Thorne, no hand.) It’s curious Tyrion doesn’t bring this up, since he was the one who read the letter and tried to vouch for Lord Commander Jeor Mormont’s credibility. But perhaps this incident is what gives Tyrion the idea to go beyond the Wall and capture a wight in the first place.

Tyrion thinks this would provide proof for Cersei, but he should also remember from past dealings with her that she’s not going to care. It’s not Cersei who needs the information anyway — it’s the realm. Sam realizes this when he makes his case at the Citadel, and Archmaester Ebrose, while complacent, believes him. But the maesters aren’t moved to action when Sam tries to persuade them to spread the word. His mistake is telling the Citadel maesters that they should ask the various lords to send men to defend the Wall during a time of war.

There’s another option: Use the ravens as an Emergency Broadcast System to inform folks how to protect themselves. Tell them what works in their defense — fire, dragonglass, Valyrian steel (in case they have a spare ancestral sword). Urge them to burn, not bury, their dead, to clear out their crypts.

Perhaps the House maesters will disregard the information at first, but better that they know the basics. At the very least, time to repair the ravenries!

‘Robert’s Rebellion was built on a lie’

When Bran and Sam combine their respective intel from visions and old scrolls, they realize that Jon Snow is the legitimate son of Rhaegar Targaryen and Lyanna Stark. This leads Bran to a couple of conclusions: One, Jon is the heir to the throne, and two, that the war that put Robert Baratheon on the throne was built on a lie — which makes Jon’s claim seem even more legitimate.

But as good as Bran is at seeing things, he’s not so good at processing the information. For example, he seems to have forgotten about the Mad King. Robert’s Rebellion didn’t erupt only because Rhaegar and Lyanna ran off together (although that definitely was an instigating factor). If Rhaegar had wanted to abandon his wife, Elia Martell, and two kids to marry another woman, he should have informed a few people what he was up to — maybe send a raven to the bride’s family?

Instead, he disregarded customs, laws and Lyanna’s own betrothal, leaving everyone to assume the worst, which is why Brandon Stark — Lyanna and Ned’s older brother — went to court to protest and demand Lyanna’s release. That situation should have been simple to clear up, but instead, King Aerys had Brandon arrested, summoned his father and then publicly incinerated them both, an event that looms large over Jon and Dany’s first meeting. It also explains Sansa’s shock that Jon would even answer a Targaryen summons: “Have you forgotten what happened to our grandfather? The Mad King invited him to King’s Landing and roasted him alive.”

So it wasn’t Rhaeger’s supposed kidnapping as much as Aerys’ murdering of the nobles that convinced a coalition of several Houses that the king was unfit to rule, and that they had to remove him and end his royal line. “There have been few rulers in history as cruel as the Mad King,” Varys notes.

But Rhaegar was cruel, too. He could have married both women — the Targaryens had a history of polygamy. By annulling his marriage, Rhaegar delegitimized his first two children and took them out of the line of succession. Then, adding insult to injury, he married Lyanna in Elia Martell’s homeland of Dorne. Bran and Sam begin to frame the Rhaegar-and-Lyanna elopement as a romance, but that can only work if one ignores all the injured parties. How romantic is it that Rhaegar basically ensured the deaths of his abandoned wife and two kids (left unprotected, surrounded by enemies)? How romantic is it that Rhaegar actively supported and fought on the side of the man who murdered Lyanna’s father and brother? Oberyn Martell never bought the “romance” — he remembered the murdered children. And even if Ned Stark was late in realizing the relationship was consensual, he, too, remembered those dead kids.

Ned’s whole arc was about preventing the deaths of more innocent children — he committed treason to protect Jon, fought to save Dany from assassination and warned Cersei in order to give her a chance to save her three offspring. That’s the honor Cersei remembers, and even grudgingly respects, when she refers to Jon Snow as “Ned Stark’s son.” Rhaegar might be Jon’s bio-dad, but when it comes down to it, Jon will always be Ned Stark’s son.

Children in Charge

The Starks’ key allies — House Mormont, House Umber, House Karstark and House Arryn — are all led by minors now, even if they have adults influencing them. (Little Ned Umber doesn’t even look like he’s hit puberty, the poor thing.)

That doesn’t necessarily make them less fierce — Lyanna Mormont has plenty of spunk — but it does make them less experienced, especially when it comes to issues related to running their households, managing their lands or preparing for a siege, let alone all-out war. Sansa, who is a little older and wiser in some ways, less wise in others, observed a lot during her time in King’s Landing. Not all the lessons she learned in the court of an immature boy-king were good ones. Joffrey punished her for her father and brother’s alleged treasons, just to send a message, causing her to beg and plead for mercy. Now that Sansa’s in a position of power herself, she is far from merciful. She suggests that Ned Umber and Alys Karstark be punished for the actions of their relatives. Sansa is less violent about it, but her form of punishment would actually be crueler — she would cast them out of their ancestral homes and strip them of their lands just as winter has come. Where would these kids go?

But a better argument for Sansa to make — beyond feudal politics of loyalty versus treason — would be practical concerns. How are these kids going to know how to winter-proof their castles? Might it be better to put some adults in charge of these first lines of defense? Or at least make sure the kids are teamed up with some especially good maesters or other advisers? Don’t leave little Ned Umber to sort these issues out on his own.

— How Should Your Sweet Summer Child Watch Season 7?

Watching with younger viewers? Here are some scenes you might want to skip in Season 7.

Episode 1

About 30 minutes in, there are two scenes at the Citadel that might be hard to stomach, although mileage could vary — one is a poop-soup montage that may induce a gag reflex, lasting about two minutes, and following it is an autopsy with a naked male corpse, his genitals in full view. More disturbing might be the removal of his internal organs. The Hound comes across the corpses of a farmer and his daughter at about 45 minutes in — a murder-suicide to save themselves from starvation.

Episode 2

Grey Worm might be a eunuch, but that doesn’t mean he can’t have a sex life — as he demonstrates with Missandei. (About 29 minutes in.) Euron Greyjoy’s surprise attack on the rebel Greyjoy fleet is pretty vicious, with a couple dozen folks — including two Sand Snakes — getting killed within the space of five minutes. (About 53 minutes in.)

Episode 3

Cersei gets aroused by killing her enemies, so she offers sex to Jaime about 30 minutes into the episode. The siege of Casterly Rock is less violent than most battles but still includes about 20 soldiers dying in quick succession. (About 53 minutes in, lasting 2 1/2 minutes.)

Episode 4

The loot train sequence might be spectacular to watch, but it’s also horrific given the large number of people who die a fiery death. The action starts at about 41 minutes in, when Drogon starts to barbecue a line of Lannister soldiers. Skip until the end of the episode, around 49 minutes in, if you want to come back to see Jaime charge a grounded Drogon and nearly get hit by a fireball.

Episode 5

Dany tells Randyll and Dickon Tarly to bend the knee or die. When they refuse allegiance, Drogon burns them alive. (About 11 minutes in.) During a little smuggling operation, Gendry dispatches two guards with his war hammer. (About 40 minutes in.)

Episode 6

A zombie polar bear attacks our men beyond the Wall, mauling Thoros of Myr. (About 26 minutes in.) The big wight attack on the frozen lake kicks in around 48 minutes in, and Viserion is struck at 54 minutes in. If you want to come back to see Jon ride off to safety, that’s at 59 minutes in.

Episode 7

As punishment for his various crimes against the Stark family, Arya executes Littlefinger by slashing his throat. (About 60 minutes in.) Jon and Dany commit incest while Tyrion creepily hangs out in the corridor. (About 72 minutes in.)

This article originally appeared in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/08/arts/television/game-of-thrones-season-7.html" id="31f0cbda-c830-38c8-aff7-59522b13b7bb">The New York Times</a>.

I’ve done my part. I’ve brought ice and fire together. Oh, I will return, dear Watcher. One last time.

Re-watching 'Game of Thrones,' Season 7: Be a Dragon

The final season of “Game of Thrones” arrives April 14. Before then, we’re getting prepared by rewatching the first seven seasons.

This article contains spoilers for Seasons 1-7 of “Game of Thrones.”

I see a darkness in your binge, and in that darkness, eyes staring back at me. Brown eyes, blue eyes, green eyes. Eyes you’ll binge forever.

Welcome back to our guide through an epic “Game of Thrones” rewatch. If you’re just joining us, you can catch up on Season 1 or Season 2 first, or pray to the Lord of Light as we resurrect Season 3.

Novices beware: This newsletter is dark and full of spoilers. And now our watch continues.

— How Should I Rewatch ‘Game of Thrones’?

If you want to catch up fast, concentrate on the installments that are central to the famously complicated plot and the ones that provide all the facts and feels. These are four must-watch episodes of Season 3.

Episode 1, “Valar Dohaeris,” for the reset of where most of the characters are on the map and a demonstration of some new, necessary relationships (Tywin and his pen pals, Margaery and the people). Plus: our first giant. (Don’t stare too long; they’re shy.)

Episode 5, “Kissed by Fire,” a rather warm entry with heartwarming moments (Shireen) and romance (Jon and Ygritte), as several folks discover bath time and take the plunge. Also: smirk along with (or at?) Cersei as we sort through the tangled web of Lannister/Tyrell/Stark marriage-alliance plots.

Episode 8, “Second Sons,” to attend a royal wedding where no one dies, although Cersei does drop a death threat on a Tyrell in the Sept of Baelor. Foreshadowing! Bonus: Sam Tarly becomes Sam the Slayer.

Episode 9, “The Rains of Castamere,” because it’s a nice day for a Red Wedding. Scream, cry and say goodbye to some sadly unsuspecting Starks. Also try not to choke up when Bran wargs Hodor for the first time, or Rickon and Osha leave. The heartbreak!

— 5 Things to Watch for in Season 3

The War of the Five Kings has lost one king but remains in full swing, with three of the seven kingdoms in open rebellion. Plots are in place to remove another king from the board by the end of the season, but there are so many plots, counterplots, and untrustworthy types lurking about, it’s hard to keep track. Focusing on these might help:

Calling Child Protective Services

An awful lot of children in Westeros and Essos get mistreated — molested, murdered, sold or sacrificed (as we learn the daughter-raping Craster has done with his 99 sons, and would have done with his 100th, Gilly’s baby). Some 8,000 newborns were killed in Astapor because slave masters wanted to prove their eunuch soldiers had no sense of empathy. Other children are orphaned when their parents are killed in one or another war.

Few kids can fend for themselves — the Stark children survive primarily because they have guardians who step in and take care of them. (The Hound isn’t a bad baby sitter!) We don’t know yet what kind of parental substitutes the White Walkers are, but you’d figure they have to be better than Craster. (They at least show an interest.) No wonder Dany develops a savior complex — there are so many children in this brutal world who desperately need saving.

Spy vs. Spy

Spies are everywhere. Jon Snow goes undercover with the Free Folk as a defector (and doesn’t fully fool them). Varys convinces Ros to spy on Littlefinger (or perhaps she lured him in, looking to spill some valuable info about her boss’ travel plans). Varys then tries to thwart Littlefinger by plotting with the Tyrells, but Littlefinger’s prostitute Olyvar easily seduces Loras Tyrell and reports back. Key bit of intel: Loras is set to marry … someone. Littlefinger concludes that the someone is Sansa and alerts the Lannisters, leading to Tywin’s strategic matchmaking of Cersei with Loras and Tyrion with Sansa, which none of them are happy about. (Littlefinger gives Ros to Joffrey, which doesn’t end well.)

Even though Jorah Mormont is no longer a spy, he’s clearly worried that new Team Dany member Barristan Selmy knows he was, and could use that fact against him. And the ultimate spymaster in all of Westeros, of course, is the Three-Eyed Raven, who recruits Jojen Reed and Bran Stark for his mysterious purposes. At least Jon, Ros, Olyvar and Jorah know the risks of their espionage: Bran has no idea what’s in store for him. (“The raven is you” does not count.)

Red Wedding RSVPs

When did the plans for the Red Wedding coalesce? The Frey alliance with the Starks was in tatters by the end of Season 2, but they didn’t plan it alone.

When did Tywin Lannister get in on the action? Clues come early in Season 3, when he embarks on a correspondence spree. (Notice that when both Tyrion and Cersei come to visit him, he is preoccupied with writing letters). Tywin’s first missives would most likely be to the Freys, who want revenge on the Starks and an end to the war in the Riverlands.

What about Roose Bolton? The first dodgy sign comes when he doesn’t tell the Starks that Ramsay has captured Theon — with the Stark position weakening, Roose probably decided to start keeping his options open. When his hunters return with Jaime Lannister (and Brienne), those options become clearer: He can alert Robb and help resolve issues with Lord Karstark, or he can alert Tywin and gain a favor from the crown. So for the second time, Roose neglects to inform the Starks about a prisoner they seek.

While Jaime and Brienne are in Bolton’s custody, Tywin starts talking about Sansa being “the key to the North.” It would seem Tywin is more secure with his plans to remove Robb — perhaps because he now knows the whereabouts of his son. Only after this do the Freys bring new terms to the Starks, at which point Roose decides to free Jaime. Coincidence?

Save the Date

Joffrey’s nuptials won’t happen until Season 4, but the conspirators begin their conspiring here in Season 3. It takes a lot to plan a murder at a royal wedding — you have to order the flowers, the cake, the poison. . . .

Early on, Olenna Tyrell questions Sansa about what Joffrey’s really like, possibly to clarify her thoughts about a course of action. And with all the Sansa-swapping schemes being bandied about, it must have also occurred to the Queen of Thorns that a swap would be beneficial for Margaery’s sake as well — her granddaughter would still be able to marry Joff’s gentler brother Tommen, who would ascend to the throne, if say, Joffrey were removed from power before consummating any marriage. That is, if the Tyrell-Lannister alliance remains intact, and if the Lannisters still need the Tyrells more than the Tyrells need the Lannisters. And so Olenna offers a few concessions to Tyrion and Tywin — offering to pay for half the royal wedding (after Tyrion objects to its cost) and agreeing to a Loras-Cersei marriage alliance, for now at least.

We don’t see Olenna interact with Littlefinger at all this season — they’re careful, these two. But Varys does tell her that Littlefinger is “the most dangerous man in Westeros.” Who better to help plan a regicide?

White Walker Art Installations

“Always the artists,” Mance Rayder grumbles when he finds disassembled horse corpses at the First of the First Men. (Sam also finds a man with his head in his lap.) Either the White Walkers really have a lot of time on their hands, or they’re trying to send a message. But what is it? We’ll later see some of these same spirals and geometric patterns in cave paintings and stone circles made by the Children of the Forest, which underlines the connection between the two species. Are the White Walkers’ art pieces a memory or mockery of their creators? A warning to humans? A ritual form of worship? Yelp reviews? In order to defeat them, we’ll need to understand them.

— Are Your Kids Ready for ‘Game of Thrones’?

Crucifixion and torture, Episodes 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 10

If you don’t share Ramsay’s taste for sadism, skip his slicing, dicing and psychosexual mutilation of Theon, mostly while the poor devil is strapped to a saltire cross. Basically, any time you see Ramsay, fast forward and explain that he breaks Theon and turns him into a groveling slave called Reek. Done? Done.

Also potentially hard to take: the sight of the men crucified along Astapor’s Walk of Punishment. The shot comes about 30 minutes into Episode 3 and lasts a little over two minutes, with most of the miserable victims remaining in the background.

Twin rebellions beyond the Wall and in Essos, Episode 4

The Night’s Watch mutiny is sudden and brutal. (The first blow takes place around 41 minutes into the episode, and lasts two minutes.) Dany’s sack of Astapor, while empowering, is also quite violent — she incinerates a man and orders mass murder. (The incineration starts at around 51 minutes into the episode, and lasts about a minute).

Sexy times, Episodes 5, 7 and 8

Jon and Ygritte have a date night (the cave scene arrives about 11 minutes into Episode 5 and lasts about three minutes). Loras and Olyvar share some pillow talk (around 52 minutes into Episode 5, lasts about a minute). Robb and Talisa leave war behind for one night (about 7 minutes into Episode 7, lasts about four minutes). Melisandre gets Gendry’s blood up (she starts to seduce him about 30 minutes into Episode 8, and the leeches are clear of all private parts three and a half minutes later).

Red Wedding, Episodes 9, 10

Everything seems fine until the band plays the Lannister theme song. If you’d rather skip the slaughter, it starts at about 46 minutes into Episode 9 and goes until the end, picking up again for a couple of minutes more at the beginning of Episode 10.

What Else to Read

• How “Game of Thrones” became the most important show.

• Set-jetting to show locations.

• The first major premiere event.

This article originally appeared in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/11/arts/television/rewatching-game-of-thrones-season-3.html" id="3b37ae8b-9bb1-35cf-a97d-68aa49819527">The New York Times</a>.

(Game of Thrones)

Rewatching 'Game of Thrones,' Season 3: Say a Little Prayer

This article contains spoilers for Seasons 1-7 of “Game of Thrones.”

This binge has just begun. It will last for weeks. You will betray everything you once held dear. And it will all be worth it.

Welcome back to our guide through an epic “Game of Thrones” rewatch. If you have joined us now for the first time, you can catch up with Season 1, or plunge ahead with a look into the flames at Season 2.

How Should I Rewatch Season 2?

Jennifer Vineyard

Articles written by the author

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