One of the most visually striking scenes from Game of Thrones season seven had nothing to do with dragons or explosions — but it might, eventually.
In episode four, “The Spoils of War,” Cersei Lannister invites Tycho Nestoris of the Iron Bank of Braavos to King’s Landing, where she hosts him in the courtyard. It’s there we see a giant map of Westeros painted on the ground. The “Map Room,” as fans have taken to calling it, also showed up in the season premiere, when Cersei tells brother Jaime, “It’s ours now, we just have to take it,” but its appearance in “The Spoils of War” is of particular importance.
In the DVD/Blu-ray commentary for the episode, producer Chris Newman, visual effects supervisor Joe Bauer, and visual effects producer Steve Kullback discussed co-showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss’ requirements for the Map Room, including how even though the scene was shot indoors, in Belfast, they needed to “make it an exterior location in an upcoming episode, but I can’t tell you why,” Kullback said. “But that’ll pay off.” Bauer also teased, “[The courtyard] used to be at least a story taller, but there was a need to see the sky in this coverage.”
The sky? Why is the sky important? Well, like every question about Game of Thrones, the answer is, of course, dragons.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gh0-4hOzyw
Game of Thrones has been teasing dragons flying over King’s Landing since season four, in one of Bran’s context-less visions, and with only six episodes of the series left, now’s the time for an ol’ fashioned sacking. But the real question is: whose dragon is it, Daenerys’ (Drogon and Rhaegal) or the Night King’s (Viserion)? There’s a reason we only see the shadow, not the dragon itself. In another prophecy, this one from season two inside the House of the Undying, Daenerys walks across the destroyed Throne Room, which is both crispy and snowy. It certainly looks like winter isn’t coming for King’s Landing — it came.
And so did the Night King.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7VuGknEfQY
Either way, between Bran and Dany’s visions and the hints on the commentary, Cersei better start looking up from the map and towards the sky.
(Via Winter Is Coming)
