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Game Of Thrones Season 8 Episode One Winterfell Breakdown!

It's finally here: The final season of Game of Thrones. Join Lucy, Ryan, Tamoor, and Dave as they discuss all the reunions in the season opener, theorise about Tyrion's true motivations, and go through all the surprise cameos.

After a wait that lasted almost as long as the Long Night, the first of the final episodes of Game of Thrones is upon us. The premiere of Season 8 is full of reunions as major players gather at Winterfell in anticipation of the Night King and his army of the dead marching across the realms of men. There's a whole lot to break down and unpack in the Season 8 premiere, and Lucy, Ryan, Tamoor, and Dave have you well-covered in the video above.

The premiere episode, "Winterfell," is mostly setup for the final five episodes of the series, but it also sees characters coming together who haven't seen each other from as far back as Season 1. The episode is also full of parallels to the first episode of the series, "Winter is Coming," and is littered with callbacks and Easter eggs as well. The return to Winterfell is a major moment for everyone involved, and shows the long, twisting journeys, both literal and personal, that each character has taken to arrive at the final moments.

Of course, it wouldn't be Game of Thrones without some distrust and possible betrayal looming. The Northerners aren't super happy about the arrival of Jon Snow, their King in the North, and the Targaryen queen for whom he has bent the knee. But while not everybody's happy about seeing Daenerys, this is the first time the surviving Stark kids have all been together since Season 1. The Stark family bonds are powerful, but who knows how things will be now that all of the Starks have endured so much.

And there's the looming threat of Cersei Lannister, who is scheming as ever. The Night King might be the biggest threat Westeros has ever seen, but the queen in the south is still potentially the scariest, and she has plans she hasn't executed yet. We go through it all in the video above.

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GameSpot of Thrones

GameSpot of Thrones

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Game of Thrones superfans Lucy, Ryan, Dave, and Tamoor have your weekly Westeros fix right here on GameSpot Universe. All men must subscribe.

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mdinger

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My favourite post-GoT episode show is back! Looking forward to the all the hot takes over the next five weeks.

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gotrekfabian

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Edited By gotrekfabian

Just two comments? I'm disappointed to say the least, this used to be a great place to do so and see what others were thinking and brainstorm the next occurences on the show.

Is it due to not putting GameSpot of Thrones in the title of this video that people aren't gracing us with the usual banter or are people becoming tired of GoT before it has even ended?

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jsprunk

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Episode had markedly bad dialog and character advancement. I felt like I was watching a spinoff rather than the real Game of Thrones.

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dr_derogatory

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Edited By dr_derogatory

@jsprunk: Yes. So much this. It really felt like amateur writing hour for me. I get that they needed to put people into their places for the episodes to come, so I forgive it a little, but there were some just flat out cringe moments. I wanted to throat punch the writer that had Daenerys say "We could live here for a thousand years and no one would find us." So you mean to tell me the woman who has sought nothing but reclaiming the Iron Throne for 7 seasons is suddenly now a giddy ass school girl that wants to run away with a boy? Like did that writer actually watch or read the scripts from any of the previous seasons?

Overall, it was okay. I still enjoyed the show, and I'm highly invested and will see it through to the end because I want to see the conclusion. The writing, however, has been on a steady downturn since they ran out of source material. Sunday nights was probably the most noticeable episode for this. After 2 years, I expected a little bit better, and therein lies the issue. My hype probably left me feeling slightly let down, which is entirely my fault.

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jsprunk

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@dr_derogatory: 100% agree with you.

I was disappointed most of all with Tyrion's dialogue. His jokes were lame, he gets outwitted by Sansa of all people in their pseudo-argument, and his regular conversations are just empty and dead. Definitely not the Tyrion of seasons past where his jokes were multidimensional and his dialogue was full of Easter eggs and eloquently clever quips.

Bronn was pretty cool though.

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gotrekfabian

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Sterling work, as ever, GameSpot of Thrones, 'great to see you back again.

So....

Arya's prototype weapon: Two components but how big is it? Initially I thought it was a dagger due to the similar length of handle to "blade" but the dragonglass element looks too bulbous to be that. The fact that it seperates suggests that it is some form of launcher but, again, how big? Is it from the tip of a weapon or even the hilt of one? Could it be that it is smaller than we are surmising and it is perhaps brooch sized and intended for Sansa as a last defence item? Could it be what Arya uses against whatever is chasing her in the Winterfell crypt (I still say that it is Lady Stoneheart).

The whitewalker spiral: I've long thought that the spiral was similar to the Targaryen dragon logo/symbol and also have wondered whether the Night King was a Targaryen. He has already ridden a dragon and, whilst this could be due to him simply commanding any of the undead, it also seems to fit with the theory "the dragon has three heads".

Cersei's pregnancy: She would have no qualms about lying to Jaime in order to keep him loyal but he has already left her for the Long Night battle so is she weeping after her liaison with Euron due to her thought of betraying Jaime, selling her body to get what she wants from Euron or does she know, as you suggested, that she can no longer bare children after already having three children? It could still be that she is pregnant and not give birth and that the Maggy's blood reading prophecy be true in that Jaime is the Valonqar and kills her via impregnating her incestuously and the child being deformed resulting in a mirroring of her mother's death albeit with the child also dying as well. If a boy then perhaps the baby could be considered the Valonqar.

Jaime and Bran's meeting was thick with tension yet I feel that Bran's evolution into the Three Eyed Raven means that he will not have issues with Jaime as he knows that without that occurrence he never would have become what he is now. Forget that for awkward though, it will be the meeting between Jaime and Daenerys which will be the one to spark fire and ice (sorry!). Daenerys will not be one to lie down where her father's memory is concerned but will she listen to Jaime's story on why he did it? There will likely be a charged intercourse with them and someone will likely need to intervene.

My fun moment for the show: Drogon giving Jon/Aegon the eyeball as if to say (in my mind) "Dragon's don't do incest". Hilarious.

Best death: Little Lord Umber on the Night King's symbol. Okay, it was an undead death but it was one of the best moments of the opening episode for me.

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