Game of Thrones Season 7 Episode 4 Part 1 of a 2 part Analysis

Knock Knock, who's there? Arya Stark. Are ye a Stark who? *face to palm*

So yes, Arya finally returned to her childhood home yet she was not exactly welcomed with open arms. Imagine if you came home after being a foreign exchange student only to find two strange men at the door telling you to scram. Just goes to show there’s a jerk around every corner no matter the situation. She practically confirms her association with Winterfell by mentioning Luwin and Rodrick but so much has changed since then.

After Jon’s army & the Vale army retook WF they probably installed all new staff to replace the dead ones. She could have given them any other intimate piece of info about WF or the Starks to confirm her identity but, she could tell these bozos have no clue. Why are Bouncers always so dense?

She slips past the 2 bumbling guards, and makes her way to the crypt to visit her father’s grave. There she reunites with Sansa and after a warm hug and some brief, and some what awkward catching up they visit Bran.

It doesn’t take long for them to remember how strikingly different they are from each other, despite this they still manage to share fondness. Even though they have strong differences they do have in common that they are both guarded when it comes to talking about their past. It appears that either the writers despise conversations about continuity, or they are just lazy when it comes to character relation. IE: you would think they would at least mention Rickon, or Benjen but this show never gave 2 shits about Rickon.

We get a peculiar and revealing scene when Bran is given the valyrian steel dagger from Littlefinger, and reminded that it was the very dagger that caused the war of the 5 king’s when it was used to try and murder him. At the end of this scene Bran quotes LF by saying “Chaos is a ladder” which LF aptly put when describing social / political maneuvering to Varys, a conversation in which no one was privy to except them.

So in order for Bran to have heard that, he would have to of traveled back in time, which means he would have most likely seen / heard LF’s betrayal of Ned & Catelyn as well.

We know that Bran has seen pretty much everything which explains his current emotional withdraw, but, we do not know which events are significant to him or which he will act upon. So the fact that Bran has all the dirt on LF doesn’t necessarily mean that he will out LF as a backstabber, but it does mean that LF is now paranoid of Bran doing so. As to why exactly LF gave Bran the dagger; as Sansa says LF doesn’t just give people things unless he intends to manipulate them, me thinks it was to remind Bran that Cersei and/or Jaime tried to kill him (a 2nd time), even though LF originally pinned the blame on Tyrion by telling Cat that it was Tyrion's dagger.

LF’s plan is to get Sansa to make a move against Cersei, which he needs chaos to trigger her to do so, and Bran revealing to Arya & Sansa that Jaime and /or Cersei tried to kill Bran, might be enough to prompt Arya to go after the Lannisters. Afterall, Bran seemed curious as to why Arya didn’t go after Cersei instead of coming to WF.

It might be that Bran was/is anticipating her to kill the queen. As for LF, he sees first hand Arya’s skill, and will no doubt try to motivate her to take action against Cersei, especially now that Arya has an every thing piercing dagger. Furthermore, the remaining members on Arya’s list are all in King’s Landing, which she could knock off 3 birds with 1 stone in Ilyn Payne, the Mountain, and Cersei.

Now that Arya has mastered some slick moves, and displayed to us that she can best people much much larger than her, she could possibly take out a certain undead 8ft juggernaut I mentioned in the last review. That is, if only she were tall enough to stab’em with the pointy end directly in the brain. Otherwise, a zombie won’t just quit from taking wounds. Ehh, but I digress, that’s not the only way to end a zombie, so it’s doable for her, but she would have to think outside the box.

However, if Bran does spill the beans on LF, I imagine that LF won’t be able to talk his way out of it, as Sansa has had enough of his games, and was probably only keeping him around for the Vale army. If that happens, look for LF to take the Vale army with him back east and align with Cersei, who will be pretty desperate for troops.

The only other alternative would be for LF to take the black & go to the wall, in which case Nestor Royce would assume control of the Vale army & probably remain with Sansa.

In any case I believe it is too soon for LF to fail and his biggest laid plan is yet to be hatched.

Near the coastline of the small western island, Mine crafting is about to begin but before spelunking, Jon Snow shows Daenerys the intricate cave paintings of the Children of the forest (CotF) & the 1st Men, which display their unity and separately depict the White Walkers. Jon suddenly has proof that other people have seen the WWs but does Dany really believe him that they still exist after all this time? I believe she does believe him as she seems to think of him as an honest and genuine humanitarian, and even though she agrees to help fight the WWs, she still insists that he “bend the knee”. Jon is in quite the pickle as he fears that bending the knee will lose him all respect in the eyes of his men. What is a bastard king to do?

Dany takes to scolding Tyrion in front of everyone, yet he shouldn’t really be blamed for Euron, and Randyll Tarly’s actions. He had no way of predicting Euron would show up and capture/kill their troops. By the way isn’t that Varys job as spymaster? All this failure makes her want to go all mad queen and burn cities to the ground, but Tyrion & Jon both gave strong arguments against. The fact that she was able to maintain composure & not go to KL with vengeance, was admirable. It shows that unlike Cersei, Dany does not let her emotions solely dictate her actions.

It seemed like Jon’s speech to her about how people believe that she can make the impossible happen, really struck accord with her and she now sees him in a more favorable light. People are claiming that a romantic relationship between them is brewing but there is really very little evidence of this so far, and I don’t see it happening anytime soon unless out of the blue. Both of them are quite focused on their enemy, and nothing else, but romance in fiction has a way of sneaking into situations when you least expect it. I am fine with this as long as it doesn’t seem rushed, forced, or half assed. No, it definitely needs to be full assed.

Instead of potentially harming innocent people, Dany opts for a different strategy. After Dany leaves, Theon arrives asking for help to rescue Yara from Euron. Jon intercepts Theon and reminds him of his past transgressions (the sack of WF, betraying Robb) but let's him go for for when he saved Sansa from Ramsay. Luckily Theon had Sansa vouch for him or else Jon would have cleaned his clock. However, now that Dany is off island, Jon is basically the highest rank and could decide to repay the favor as in a sister for a sister. If Jon decides to help rescue Yara, it would be a sure fire way to impress Dany and solidify an alliance, not to mention brighten Theon's day. When someone's life is at risk Jon never turns his back and Jon might even be remembering what Tyrion told him last episode, with regards to scratching each others back. So with that said I am 99% sure Jon will aid Theon. However, is the Snow king a match for the Drowned king?

Next up is an article on my perspective on Dany’s assault of the Lannister/ Tarly army from this very same episode.

Let me know in the comments what you thought LF would have done after learning that Bran knows his misdeeds. Was Arya on his recruiting list?