Game Of Thrones Season 7 Premiere: 9 Ups And 3 Downs From 'Dragonstone'

Downs...

3. Sam's Storyline Continues To Frustrate

Samwell Tarly's story has been consistently stunted since Season 5, with the character missing large chunks of episodes at a time and making annoyingly little progression.

Season 7, and the sudden approach of the end, means it needs added agency. Sam can't be just hanging around at the Citadel while everyone else battles an army of White Walkers and wights, which in turn means there's no time for him to properly become a Maester, so things need to get a bit of a move on.

His scenes in this episode do have some strong elements - Jim Broadbent, that jump scare with Jorah (again, another moment we knew of from the trailers, but interesting nonetheless), and the montage (even if it was a bit too long) - but it's still hard to shake the feeling of being frustated.

We're all waiting for him to make a big discovery about the White Walkers, and in this episode he learns... the Dragonstone has lots of dragonglass. Something we already knew, and something he did too, as he admits right after his initial excitement. This could be what helps spur Jon to Dragonstone, though he'd likely go to meet Daenerys anyway, but even if so it's a frustrating (lack of) development given how little he did in Season 6 too.