Notes & Nuggets: "Game of Thrones" Season 8, Episode 1

When you were growing up, did you ever guess that as an adult you’d be glued to a TV show about dragons and ice zombies? Because I sure did! Here’s my thoughts on the last season of Game of Thrones. Um, spoilers!

· We’ve only got something like six episodes to go this season, a hundred storylines to wrap up, the army of the night only just breached the wall…and the first episode is only an hour. I guess we’re not getting that Hot Pie origin story this season after all.

· The new opening sequence really threw me for a loop, which I guess is the point now that we’ve only got a few episodes to go. We’ve got no time to go to Braavos or Mereen or anything the rest of this season, so we might as well go in-depth in the areas we’ll be focusing on. Still, bold choice.

· The march of Daenerys’ army into Winterfell reminded me of book 3 of the Iliad

· I love how 75% of the latest trailer all detailed stuff that happened in the first five minutes of episode one

· Reunions ranked in order of satisfaction: Jon/Sam, Jon/Arya, Sam/Jorah (which I never thought about before the season – great idea!), Bran/Jaime (duh-duh-DUHHHH!!!!), Arya/Hound, Arya/Podrick (I think there’s a little something going on there – outside chance of Queen Arya????), Cersei/wine. In 1,000th place, Theon/Yara.

· Speaking of Theon, anyone else have the problem in season 1 of getting Jon, Robb, and Theon all mixed up? I had so much trouble telling the characters apart. Eight seasons in, can you even imagine getting Jon and Theon confused?

· We have a Varys. We have a Tyrion. We have a Melissandre. We had a Stannis. And now the leader of the Golden Company is named Harry. HARRY!?!? Did we just run out of names?

· Speaking of which, my favorite social media moment of the episode is when Harry explains that they couldn’t bring elephants because of the long sea voyage, and then the internet (just like Cersei) complained about not seeing them. Folks, we’ve seen ice zombies, dragons, ice zombie dragons, ice zombie giants, and medieval Ed Sheeran. AND YOU’RE COMPLAINING ABOUT NOT SEEING ELEPHANTS!?!? Go to the freaking zoo!!!

· Look, I know it’s not TV – it’s HBO. And one of the things that made this show as great as it is is that they were able to show all the gore, all the blood, and all the bonin’ necessary to make you a part of this world. That being said, as funny as it was, the scene with Bran (my man) “making whoopee” with three prostitutes while they discussed the horrible injuries and disfigurements from the Loot Train Battle, as funny as it was, was a little too much. Did they really have to go full Skinemax?

· That being said, the friendship, even from afar, of Bran and Tyrion was always one of my favorite parts of the show – I loved it when they were able to reconnect in the Dragon Pit last season. I know the point of all storytelling is to build up your characters enough to have the audience hang with them through hard times; with that said, Bran being hired to kill Tyrion (and Jaime as well) is heartbreaking. I can’t think of any ending to this that doesn’t leave me distraught.

· It’s good to see happy Arya!

· Jon’s dragon ride was the low point of the episode, and possibly the series. It feels like it was directed by Stephen Spielberg for Amblin Entertainment. Jon’s path has led him from bastard to king of the north to potential savior of all of Westeros – I think it’s way too late in the game to see him stumbling to fly a dragon. “Whoa!...Whoa!....”

· One of the things I love about all the separate adventures all these characters have had over the years is that you can’t really fault any of their developed motivations, even when they are at loggerheads with each other. You can’t fault Sansa for making Daenerys feel unwelcome in Winterfell – given her experience with royalty, why should she trust another queen? You can’t fault Daenerys for having killed Sam’s family – she had to scrap for every inch of her power, and she had given them every opportunity to bend the knee – they had to know there would be consequences. And you can’t fault Jon for stammering through an answer on what he would have done if he was in that situation – he’s just trying to keep everyone together to defeat the army of the dead that he has seen first-hand plenty of times – he can’t challenge that by taking one side or another.

· I feel like the stage direction for playing late-season Bran is “Pretend you’re stoned. And…action!”

· What I loved about the inevitable revelation of Jon’s parentage is that Sam learned about his family’s fate right before it – what could have been imagined as an uplifting moment instead came off as a desperate plea for division. It was also pretty apparent that, while we “know” what Sam was saying was true, he really doesn’t have all that much proof. Great storytelling moment.

· However, why would that of all times be the time Bran says “You have to tell Jon about his parentage right now!” Way to read the moment, Bran.

· HOW THE HELL IS THE ARMY WITHOUT BANNERS STILL ALIVE!?!? They either got burned by ice zombie dragon fire or fell off the damned wall! Not even a “Thank the God of Light we crawled into an escape pod!” thrown in – we just catch them in action!

· How rich a world is it when Beric can light fire to his sword at will and that’s not even a top-5 spectacle?

· The symbol with the kid in it was way creepy. If you rewatch, you can see the kid’s eyes open in the background while the camera is focused on Beric – I knew what was going to happen, and it still shocked me!

· Good (not great) episode, but I don’t know how much closer we are to a fully wrapped-up ending. Seven out of ten hot dogs.