In one of the show’s few cold opens, the season premiere starts with a bang when Arya Stark (disguised as Walder Frey) poisons all the men in the Frey family that were responsible for slaughtering the Starks at Red Wedding. Arya had me beating on the sofa because I knew it was her in disguise (as Lord Frey) and I knew what was coming. After 32 episodes, Rob and Catelyn’s murder was finally avenged by the one Stark forced to watch helplessly at the gates. After all the men had fallen, Arya looks to the women she allows to survive and says, “When people ask you what happened here, tell them the North remembers. Tell them winter came for house Frey.”
CUE INTRO MUSIC. CUE MY VICTORY LAP AROUND MY HOUSE.
The next day I was shocked when I saw article after article about how Arya had taken a savage turn for the worst; each piece lamenting over her brutality and ruthlessness.
The character that received the most praise in the season opener was the Hound — which struck me as glaringly hypocritical. In this episode, the Hound revisits a home where he previously had robbed the man living there with his daughter — knowingly leaving them to die a slow, painful death. When the Hound happens upon their remains, he buries the bodies out of delayed remorse over his actions. The Hound, who essentially killed them for convenience, is a hero — while Arya, who avenged her mother and brother while eliminating a threat to her existing family, is a dangerous, hopeless case?
In the North, Jon Snow struggles to keep Sansa’s misdirected sass under wraps with Peter Baelish lurking in the background. Sansa behaves as though she is the only one that has gone through some hard times when Jon was literally murdered. All of that, however, is secondary to the resurgence of my favorite character on Game of Thrones: Lady Mormont of Bear Island. That tiny package packs a huge punch and every episode she goes toe-to-toe with the every man in the Great Hall.
Jon suggests they should start training the girls for battle, insisting “we can’t defend the North if only half the population is fighting,” which seems to make sense given the audience just saw Bran’s vision of the White Walkers advancing on green grass (which would put them south of the wall). As some of the older Lords voice their concerns over girls in battle, Lady Mormont steps up to the plate again saying, “I don’t plan on knitting by the fire while men fight for me. I might be small… and I might be a girl, but I am every bit as much a Northerner as you, and I don’t need your permission to defend the North.”
I’m not much of a fighter, but I would follow her into battle.
Cersei (longstanding baddest bitch in the seven kingdoms) has a much different disposition after the death of her son, Tommen, at the end of last season. In the premiere, her and Jamie literally walk over a map and get a visual of how bleak their position has become. Despite enemies surrounding and little support from the realm, Cersei is still hell-bent on domination; Jamie can't understand for what purpose; with their children gone, what do they have to fight for besides protecting each other?
After talking about it since the first episode, the show ends with Daenerys finally making it to Westeros and taking up residence in Dragonstone. Even though Daenerys is not always my favorite, it is sincerely satisfying to have all our pieces on the same board at long last. As Tyrion told her last season, “You’re in the great game now. And the great game is terrifying.”
I’m ready to play — and with this many strong female forces in the game, it’s more exciting than ever.
This article appears in Jul 20-27, 2017.