Games Of Thrones Season 7: What 'Eastwatch' Really Means

9. The White Army Is STILL Miles Away (And Jon Knows Bran's Gifts)

Apparently, in the world of the frozen North, far beyond the Wall, you can walk solidly for like 5 years and not really get anywhere. Even though we've had increasingly ominous warnings that Winter Is Coming, the Night King's army has thus far proved to be significantly slower in progress than a crippled boy on a sled being pulled by young lady.

And despite them being at the Three-Eyed Raven's cave (approximately due North of Craster's Keep) last season, which really isn't very far from the Wall (even though they've had to double-back on themselves to go towards Eastwatch after they were at Hardhome in season 5), the White Army are still miles away from the Eastern most point of the Wall.

That much was confirmed by Bran's vision, which saw his ravens flying a pretty major distance over mountains from Eastwatch out to where the wights are. Nobody has yet come up with a reasonable enough explanation of why they don't just run. They aren't exactly in danger of running out of breath.

That sequence - and the end with the Night King noticing the warged ravens - suggests that there's a very definite link between Bran and the big bad.

Very importantly, Bran finally picked up a pen and sent ravens South to tell Jon he's alive and that he now has lots of new powers (as well as announcing that Arya is still alive). Presumably that was more important to tell Jon than the very useful fact that he's a Targaryen). He's pretty lucky Jon just accepted his new powers as a matter of fact.