It is highly recommended to have watched “Game of Thrones” Season 1-6 in order to fully understand the contextual opinions and topics in this review. For those just getting to Season 7, the show feels less like its previous iterations now than it ever has. It is filled with an abundance of truly epic and truly mundane plots. This review is a personal synopsis that gears towards over viewing the season in general rather than each individual episode. It is highly recommended to watch the season before coming back and reading this review.

    After a year of waiting, Season 7 of “Game of Thrones” began. This time, it was only a seven episode season compared to lengthy ones before. This is due to everything and everyone finally coming together, but it may not be for the better. This is the first time the show has surpassed the books in the timeline. No new material has been written by George R.R.Martin since his last book A Dance with Dragons, so the writers were given liberty on how they wanted the story to continue.“Game of Thrones” no longer has the books for its famous dialogue. It really shows too. For six seasons “Game of Thrones” was a show about medieval politics with a background of a upcoming fantasy epic. The reason why the show succeeded was because it was not another dime a dozen fantasy epic. When it made sense for characters to die, they did. In Season 7, it feels as though the writers killed off enough the past six seasons, so now everyone gets plot armor for the sake of plot armor. In Season 7 Episode 6, many characters of the “suicide squad” Jon Snow put together should have died, especially Tormund (no matter how much of a following he has). Daenerys did lose a dragon only for it to be awesomely resurrected as a White Dragon. Not only this, the Winterfell subplot with Arya and Sansa was a misuse of both characters. Even though we get to see Sansa play the game, it conflicted too much with Arya’s character. When it was revealed both knew of  Littlefinger’s strategy, it was underwhelming. Speaking of Littlefinger, his death felt like the only real “death” during the entire season. Finally, another major character bites the valyrian blade.

    The show starts playing out like a fanfiction. Everyone lives because everyone must live. One of the worst scenes in all of “Game of Thrones” also occurred in the next episode. In Season 7 Episode 7, Theon Greyjoy attempts to gain control over the remaining loyalist forces. Which culminates is a poorly thought out scene resulting in a very cliche “King of the North” moment. It just felt like Theon was handed it after getting kicked in the groin when he had none. To contrast this two of the best scenes of the entire show also played out. The now famous Loot Train Attack showed the devastating power of Dragons in this universe. The entire scene played out like the Normandy landing from “Saving Private Ryan.” Jamie witnesses the destructive power of this new warfare as his men burn around him, roasting in their iconic Lannister armor. Jamie now fully understands that his sister/lover/queen Cersei must give up her arms in order to save the invaded Westeros.

    The second astonishing scene comes with Daenerys attacking the fully fledged White Army. Jon’s “suicide squad” is trapped with their captured white, the scene is tense and everyone knows that Daenerys is the only one who can possibly save them. So she comes, and displays some of the best use of both practical and computer generated effects in all of television. This scene also saw the Night King flexing some of that unused ice muscle. Throwing a ice lance, it ripped through Dany’s dragon. A brutal scene showing the power gap between human, dragon and Night King. Scenes like this is what makes the meta villain feel like a true enemy. Much like an unstoppable army such as Napoleon, Wehrmacht and the Soviet Union, it just demonstrates that the Night King is the most powerful entity during this time in the show. Then, he brings down the wall in the next episode.

This season was abundant with epic moments and dull moments. Personally, waiting for two years till Season 8 feels worth it. If they can figure out with George on how to improve the writing of the subplots, which build context and add texture to the story, Season 8 will be the best yet.