The last season of Game of Thrones will begin in Australia on Monday, July 17th. Albeit, Season 7 will be split into two and probably wrap in 2019. However, we are beginning the final leg of what has been a remarkable television journey. To celebrate, we thought we’d cast a look back to ten of our favourite moments from the show in the lead up to the season premiere.
WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD.
The very first scene of the HBO hit showed us a White Walker out beyond The Wall. As the game of thrones has played out, that earliest threat has been growing and growing. In Episode 8 of Season 5, Jon Snow (Kit Harrington) set forth to collect the Free Folk beyond the wall at Hardhome and bring them back to relative safety. Arriving just as they were attacked by an army of White Walkers, Jon heroically did battle with one; discovering that Valyrian steel, like dragonglass, is able to parlay the White Walkers’ weapons and kill the undead. After discovering this new knowledge, Jon Snow and certain fan favourites were able to get away leaving the fishing village on boats in the nick of time.
The Night King (Richard Brake), having seen his comrade killed and Snow’s discovery, did not seem perturbed. As Snow and his compatriots floated away across the water – safe from the wights – the sound of battle and the few left dying gave way to silence as the Night King strode up onto the pier, eyeballing Jon. The Night King then raised his arms, and the countless victims of the attack that Jon and his crew failed to save rose as new soldiers in the army of the dead. The Night King has a pretty good poker face, but there is a hint of a grin here.
Lesser shows would let the audience rejoice in Snow and his comrades’ narrow escape, clinging to the hope of them now knowing how they can defeat the White Walkers. In Game of Thrones, the message is clear: the White Walkers are the big bads of this show, and the threat they pose doesn’t come bigger or worse. A tantalising glimpse of what all the human characters are up against and the conflict that will close out this season, even if only in the second part of it.
