“The Spoils of War” is easily the best episode of Game of Thrones’ seventh season thus far, with a much more focused and engaging plot than previous episodes. It also delivers a battle sequence that stands alongside Season two’s Battle of the Blackwater and Season six’s Battle of the Bastards and makes up for the largely off-screen conflicts that capped off last week’s “The Queen’s Justice.”
More than any other episode this season though, “The Spoils of War” truly feels like the opening salvo in Game of Thrones’ final stages, many of the events that fans have been years for have now taken place (it’s still surreal to see Arya, Bran, and Sansa together in Winterfell). Now that things are coming full circle, we can look ahead to the end and there are still some big questions to ask as Game of Thrones enters its final ten episodes.
9. Where Were The Other Dragons?
Daenerys finally stopped messing around and decided to take care of things personally this week, routing the Lannister army outside the gates of King’s Landing with the help of the Dothraki and dragon’s fire. It was certainly epic to see Dany fly Drogon into battle and lay waste to her enemies, but where were Rhaegal and Viserion? For whatever reason, Dany chose to bring only one of her three dragons to the fight and while Drogon proved to be more dragon than the Lannisters could handle, would it not have been wise for Dany to have brought backup?
The only reason I can think of for Dany leaving her other two dragons at home is that neither Rhaegal or Viserion have a rider (yet), so perhaps Dany was worried that the pair would get carried away and attack the city if left unsupervised? Or maybe the show’s budget just couldn’t handle three dragons all burning thousands of CGI men, horses, and wagons to ash? It’s not a big deal, but it’s hard to deny that three dragons would have been better than one.
HBO