Game of Thrones 8.1: All Together Now

A very fitting beginning of the end for Game of Thrones tonight - 8.1, first episode of the final season - in which nearly every crucial, living human player in the grand narrative is on hand.  Not altogether in terms of being truly united against the menace from the north, but at least in evidence in one or  another scene or conversation or plot or intense worry.

Cersei, of course, is in it for herself.   Bran is no longer a Stark, but at least is still loyal to them and humanity.  Tyrion's as witty as ever.  Jamie - the Kingslayer - shows up at Winterfell, where Daenerys is by and large ruling as Queen, even though the King slain by Jamie was her father.  Everyone except Cersei is willing to risk almost everything to fight the coming onslaught of the Night King, accompanied by one of Daenerys's dragons, now worse than ice cold.   (By the way, who was the Night King when he was living?  He seems to have a lot of smarts.)

Daenerys gets Jon Snow to ride a dragon, but what he learns near the end of this episode about his real lineage means that riding a dragon should indeed come naturally to him.  It's a nice twist.  We thought he was Ned's son and Catelyn accepted him and raised him and loved him, but Jon was really Lyanna Stark's son and a Targaryen was his father.   This is not only a good twist but stunning news since, as Sam tells him, this makes Jon a true king of all the kingdoms.   It also means he's a blood relative to Daenerys.   That's no big deal as far as their romance - incest, as we know from Cersei and Jamie, has run far wilder in Game of Thrones - but it does mean that, at some point, Jon may request Daenerys to bend a knee to him.  (Nah, I can't really see that - Jon's more likely to cap the knee bendings than require them.)

So we have an excellent,  simmering kettle of fish for the start of this final season, and I'm looking forward to more.

See also Game of Thrones 7.1: Library Redux ... Game of Thrones 7.2: Vikings and Strategies ... Game of Thrones 7.3: Alliances ... Game of Thrones 7.4: Dragon vs. Byzantium ... Game of Thrones 7.5: Reason Breaking Out All Over ... Game of Thrones 7.6: Two to One ... Game of Thrones 7.7: End Wall

And see also Game of Thrones 6.1: Where Are the Dragons ... Game of Thrones 6.2: The Waking ... Game of Thrones 6.5: Origin of a Name ... Game of Thrones 6.6: The Exhortation ... Game of Thrones 6.7: Giveth and Taketh ... Game of Thrones 6.8: Strategic Advantage ... Game of Thrones 6.9: A Night for the Light ... Game of Thrones Season 6 Finale: That Library

And see also Game of Thrones 5.1: Unsetting the Table ... Game of Thrones 5.8: The Power of Frigid Death ... Game of Thrones 5.9: Dragon in Action; Sickening Scene with Stannis ... Game of Thrones Season 5 Finale: Punishment

And see also Games of Thrones Season 4 Premiere: Salient Points ... Game of Thrones 4.2: Whodunnit? ... Game of Thrones 4.3: Who Will Save Tyrion ...Game of Thrones 4.4: Glimpse of the Ultimate Battle ... Game of Thrones 4.6: Tyrion on Trial ... Game of Thrones 4.8: Beetles and Battle ...Game of Thrones 4.9: The Fight for Castle Black ... Games of Thrones Season 4 Finale: Woven Threads

And see also  Game of Thrones Season 3 Premiere ... Game of Thrones 3.3: The Heart of Jaime Lannister ... Game of Thrones 3.6: Extraordinary Cinematography ...Game of Thrones 3.7: Heroic Jaime ...  Game of Thrones 3.9: A Critique 

And see also Game of Thrones Back in Play for Season 2 ... Game of Thrones 2.2: Cersei vs. Tyrion

And see also A Game of Thrones: My 1996 Review of the First Novel ... Game of Thrones Begins Greatly on HBO ... Game of Thrones 1.2: Prince, Wolf, Bastard, Dwarf ... Games of Thrones 1.3: Genuine Demons ... Game of Thrones 1.4: Broken Things  ... Game of Thrones 1.5: Ned Under Seige ... Game of Thrones 1.6: Molten Ever After ... Games of Thrones 1.7: Swiveling Pieces ... Game of Thrones 1.8: Star Wars of the Realms ... Game of Thrones 1.9: Is Ned Really Dead? ... Game of Thrones 1.10 Meets True Blood

And here's a Spanish article in Semana, the leading news magazine in Colombia, in which I'm quoted about explicit sex on television, including on Game of Thrones.

And see "'Game of Thrones': Why the Buzz is So Big" article in The Christian Science Monitor, 8 April 2014, with my quotes.

Also: CNN article, "How 'Game of Thrones' Is Like America," with quote from me



"I was here, in Carthage, three months from now ..."