hhh

7.5. This is my first time watching having read all the books and it makes a big difference to my position as a viewer. I definitely agree the exposition could've been a lot more subtle for its purposes, though it did a great recap job. Some character moments were quite stiff like Sansa/Dontos + Tywin/Jaime. Wall stuff was good but the way they presented the Thenns was soo heavy-handed. It kinda takes away from Jon's tolerant relations with the wildings, would've been more precise to scrap the 'evil' aspect for a menacing feeling to the in-group tensions. However really nice highlights with callbacks to Arthur Dayne, Rhaegar&Elia, Dunk and even a blue rose appearance. Oberyn, Arya and the Hound had awesome dynamics as well!

Someone's probably brought this up already but I always thought Dany's inner monologues are really similar to Scarlett O'Hara's pov in Gone with the Wind. They both have a similar catchphrase about not looking back which they use to empower their actions. Both of them have to prevail through challenging circumstances that require them to do assertive actions for survival and later on self-profit. And, last and most annoyingly, they are attracted to 'bad boy' types like Rhett and Daario and constantly discount their moral similarities to them.