A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms

"A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms" is the second episode of the eighth season of Game of Thrones. It is the sixty-ninth episode of the series overall. It premiered on April 21, 2019. It was written by Bryan Cogman and directed by David Nutter.

Plot
The battle at Winterfell is approaching. Jaime is confronted with the consequences of the past. A tense interaction between Sansa and Daenerys follows.

At Winterfell
Jaime stands still while Daenerys speaks. She begins by saying that when she was a child, her brother would tell her a bedtime story - about the man who murdered their father. He told her other stories as well, about all the things they would do to that man, once they took back the Seven Kingdoms and had him in their grasp. Dany remarks to him that Cersei had pledged to send her army north, but that all she sees is one man with one hand, and it appears Cersei lied. Jaime makes it clear that she lied to him as well, and that she never had any intention of sending her army north. Jaime tells her that Cersei has Euron Greyjoy's fleet and 20,000 fresh troops, that the Golden Company from Essos paid for. Even if they defeat the Army of the Dead, she'll have plenty of men to kill the survivors. Jaime states he promised to fight for the living and he intends to keep that promise. Tyrion tries to step in but Dany quickly shuts him down, knowing that Tyrion was wrong about his sister too. Sansa also says they are right, that they can't trust him, that Jaime attacked their father in the streets and tried to destroy her house and family the same as he did Dany's. Jaime quickly retorts asking if it's an apology they are seeking and that he won't. He says they were at war, and that everything he did, he did for his house and his family and would do it all again. Bran interjects: "The things we do for love".

Brienne of Tarth stands and steps forward on Jaime's behalf. She tells Dany that Jaime is indeed a man of honor. That as they were traveling a group of men attempted to rape her, and Jaime defended her. For trying to do so, he lost his hand as punishment. She then looks to Sansa and adds, that without Jaime she wouldn't be alive. Jaime armed and armored her, and sent her to find Sansa and bring her home - because he swore an oath to her mother. Sansa eventually agrees that they should let Jaime stay. Without seeking approval for this from Dany first, Dany looks at Jon and asks his advice on the matter. Jon says they need every man they can get. Dany eventually says 'very well', and Tyrion gives an audible sigh of relief. Grey Worm walks over and gives Jaime back his sword. After Jaime says 'Thank you your Grace', Sansa walks away and Jon follows soon after, not even looking in Dany's direction - leaving it slightly awkward for the Queen, who is then left to walk off in her own direction. Once out of view from everyone, she, Tyrion, Jorah and Varys are walking down a corridor where Dany can vent her anger at the matter to her Hand. Both Dany and Tyrion agree he was a fool in this matter, and that if he cannot help get Dany on the Iron Throne, she'll find another Hand who can.

At the Forge
At the Forge, the men are hard at work with the Dragonglass forging weapons. Gendry is busy working, not seeing Arya watching him at first. She is watching him with high interest. He asks her if she has something better to do, for which she replies 'have you made my weapon yet?'. He remarks he'll get to it after he's done making a few 1000 more arrowhead style weapons first. She says he needs to make hers first, and that it should be stronger than the weapon he's currently working on. Gendry says it'll be safer down in the crypt anyway. Arya asks if he'll be in the crypt, and he says no. She then questions, 'but you're a fighter?'. Gendry says he's done his share and even fought a few. He even describes the Army of the Dead as best as possible to Arya. He tells her that he knows she wants to fight, but that they are much different than rapers or murderers, that they are simply put 'death'.

Arya says coyly that she knows 'death', and lifts one of the dragonglass arrowhead weapons and throws it like a dagger, hitting a door frame in the near distance. She adds 'he's got many faces', before throwing another and have it landing right beside the first dagger she threw. Gendry is stunned by what all he is seeing. Lastly Arya adds, 'I look forward to seeing this one', and throws the last dagger, it landing exactly beside the other two weapons. She walks past Gendry and asks one last time for her weapon, for which he hastily replies "I'll right on it."

The Godswood Tree
Bran is in his wheelchair out in snow, just beneath the red leaves of the Godswood tree. Jaime slowly nears. The first thing Jaime says is that he is sorry for what he did to him. Bran replies: "You weren't sorry then." He adds that he was protecting his family. Jaime says he isn't that person anymore. Bran states that he still would be if he hadn't pushed him out of that window, and that he'd still be Brandon Stark. Curious, Jaime simply asks, 'your not?'. Bran replies that he isn't, and that he is something else now. Jaime is curious why Bran isn't angry at him, and Bran says he isn't angry at anyone. Jaime asks why Bran didn't tell anyone the truth. He replies that Jaime wouldn't have been able to help them in this war if they had been able to murder him first. When he asks about 'afterwards', Bran says, 'how do you know there is an afterwards?'.

At Winterfell
While Tyrion is walking about the castle grounds inspecting everything, Jaime approaches him. The brothers are back together, saying a quick 'here we are' to one another. Up on a staircase one of the military men spit down near the Lannister brothers, where Tyrion replies "and the masses rejoice". Jaime asks Tyrion what they think of their new Queen Daenerys. After reminding Jaime that she's now his new queen as well, he remarks the people remember what happened the last time Targaryen's brought Dragons north. He also states they'll come around once they see Daenery's is different. Jaime asks his brother if he is sure about her, and Tyrion says yes. And when Jaime states that Dany didn't seem to sure of his brother, Tyrion agreed saying he didn't blame her. During their conversation, Tyrion finds out through Jaime that Cersei's pregnancy wasn't a lie. Jaime says for Tyrion to not be too hard on himself, that Cersei fooled him more than anybody. Tyrion states that Cersei never fooled him, that Jaime always knew exactly what she was and he loved her anyway. Tyrion tells Jaime he never imagined he'd die at Winterfell, bringing a past joke between the two of exactly how Tyrion pictured himself dying. As Tyrion is talking, Jaime is distracted and walks away to look out in the distance at Brienne, who is overseeing sword practicing.

Jaime walks out of the castle gate where moats are being built with traps and men, like Podrick Payne are practicing with their swords. He eventually reaches Brienne and they greet one another. Jaime tells her that he has been told she is commanding the left flank during battle. She states it is great ground and with the rise it would give good advantage. Quickly, she finally turns to him and asks what he's doing, knowing they've never had a conversation this long without him insulting her. He finally admits that he came to Winterfell because he's not the fighter he use to be, and that he'd be honored to serve under her command, if she'd have him.

Appearances

 * Main: A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms/Appearances

Deaths

 * (None)

Cast
Starring
 * Peter Dinklage as Lord Tyrion Lannister
 * Nikolaj Coster-Waldau as Ser Jaime Lannister
 * Emilia Clarke as Queen Daenerys Targaryen
 * Kit Harington as Jon Snow
 * Sophie Turner as Lady Sansa Stark
 * Maisie Williams as Arya Stark
 * Liam Cunningham as Ser Davos Seaworth
 * Nathalie Emmanuel as Missandei
 * Alfie Allen as Theon Greyjoy
 * Joe Dempsie as Gendry
 * Isaac Hempstead-Wright as Bran Stark
 * John Bradley as Samwell Tarly
 * Hannah Murray as Gilly
 * Gwendoline Christie as Brienne of Tarth
 * Conleth Hill as Varys
 * Rory McCann as Sandor "the Hound" Clegane
 * Kristofer Hivju as Tormund
 * Jacob Anderson as Commander Grey Worm
 * Iain Glen as Ser Jorah Mormont

Guest Starring
 * Richard Dormer as Lord Beric Dondarrion
 * Ben Crompton as Lord Commander Eddison Tollett
 * Daniel Portman as Podrick Payne
 * Bella Ramsey as Lady Lyanna Mormont
 * Rupert Vansittart as Lord Yohn Royce
 * Richard Rycroft as Maester Wolkan
 * Megan Parkinson as Lady Alys Karstark
 * Seamus O'Hara
 * Staz Nair as Qhono
 * Bea Glancy
 * Lucy McConnell
 * Conor Maguire
 * Thomas Finnegan
 * Logan Watson as Sam
 * Finn Watson as Sam
 * Fionnuala Murphy
 * Rosa Frazer as Girl with Scarred Face

Cast notes

 * Nick Chopping, Rob Hayns, Rowley Irlam, Jason Oettle, and Sam Stefan were stunt performers in this episode.

General

 * The episode title refers to the hardcover collection of the first three short stories in the Tales of Dunk and Egg prequels, itself titled A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms (2015). Within the episode it is the phrase that Jaime uses when he knights Brienne: rather than say she is sworn to a specific part of it, he just says she is an knight of the whole realm.
 * The connection that the title makes between Brienne and Ser Duncan the Tall is perhaps a reference to the prominent hints in the novels that Brienne is actually Duncan's descendant.
 * The King's Landing storylines do not appear in this episode, instead focusing entirely on the various storylines at Winterfell. This has only happened a few other times, usually major battle episodes such as "Blackwater" and "The Watchers on the Wall".
 * The Title sequence has been updated slightly since the preceding episode: the same locations appear, but the ice which covered the landscape down to the Wall has now extended south to cover Last Hearth, showing the advance of the Army of the Dead.  The Winterfell map animation also now includes more of the entrenchments being constructed around the castle in this episode.
 * The end credits version of Jenny's Song was performed by major music group Florence and the Machine. Lead singer Florence Welch subsequently gave an interview with The New York Times about it. The showrunners are fans of her work and had actually been trying to get her to be one of their soundtrack cameos since Season 2 - indeed, one of the Season 2 trailers famously licensed and used her song "Seven Hells".  For Season 2, the showrunners had originally hoped she could be the one to record a cover of The Rains of Castamere, but at the time she hadn't watched the show and declined.
 * As Benioff acknowledged in the Inside the Episode featurette, while Jenny's Song is famous in the books, only the first lines have actually been presented in the text, so they had to invent the next few lines to fit with it. The full importance of the song hasn't been revealed, but it was about Jenny of Oldstones - a commoner that the Targaryen crown prince abdicated to marry.  The crown then passed to his younger brother, and then to Aerys II Targaryen, the Mad King, setting in motion the events surrounding Rhaegar, Lyanna, Jon, and Daenerys's lives.  There is some speculation that Jenny's Song might have even been the specific one that Rhaegar performed during the great Tourney at Harrenhal, singing and harping the mournful song so beautifully that Lyanna Stark wept and fell in love with him.
 * Vanity Fair noted that Podrick singing a mournful song before a hopeful battle may have been an homage to Pippin Took doing the same thing in the 2003 film adaptation of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.
 * This is one of the few episodes in which absolutely no one has died. Not even magical creatures (wights) or simply animals (from hunting, etc.).

Callbacks
This episode includes numerous callbacks to prior episodes and events:


 * Jaime and Bran of course discuss how he threw Bran out a tower window in the first episode of the TV series.
 * Sansa initially distrusts Jaime, specifically recalling how he attacked her father Ned in the streets of King's Landing in Season 1's "The Wolf and the Lion", resulting in one of his men badly injuring Ned's leg.
 * Tyrion calls Jaime a war hero from the Siege of Pyke, but Jaime points out that he also lost the Battle of Whispering Wood, at the end of Season 1, resulting in his army's destruction and his capture.
 * Tyrion recounts that he always thought he'd die at the age of 80, in his own bed, with a belly full of wine, and a girl's mouth around his cock. This is what he said to Shagga and the Hill Tribes back in Season 1.  Jaime joins in saying the last lines in this episode, implying that it is an old joke Tyrion has been saying for years.
 * When Brienne tells Podrick to only have half a cup of wine, Tyrion fills his cup until it overflows and spills. This recalls Podrick's first scene, back in Season 2, when as a new squire he accidentally overfilled Tyrion's wine glass until it spilled.
 * Sandor asks Arya if Beric Dondarrion is still on her kill list, that she recites as a prayer every night, but she confirms he was on briefly but she took him off. In the books, the Brotherhood never took Gendry the way they did in Season 3, thus he remained with them, and Arya never added Beric or Melisandre to her list.  In the TV series, she added them in Season 3 after they took Gendry away, but then she simply stopped mentioning them again when she recited her list in later TV seasons.  She had bigger problems with the Freys and Boltons after the Red Wedding, and Gendry ultimately came to no lasting harm.  The exchange in this episode acknowledges that this change to her list relative to the books was later simply removed.
 * At this point, the only people left on Arya's kill list in the TV series are Cersei and Gregor Clegane. Ilyn Payne, the executioner who personally beheaded Ned at Joffrey's order, was also on the list, but after his actor developed near-terminal cancer he was simply phased out of being mentioned on the show.

At Winterfell

 * This episode is the first time that the four surviving Stark children have shared the same scene since the first episode of the TV series, when the assembled Stark household welcomed King Robert to Winterfell. Even then, they didn't exchange speaking lines with each other as they do during the war room scene in this episode.  Jon didn't attend the feast afterwards, then left to join the Night's Watch, only returning last episode - but then Arya wasn't there with Sansa and Bran to greet him, because she had gone ahead to the winter town to see him.  So this is really the first time all four have been part of the same conversation.
 * Ghost the direwolf finally returns in this episode, having missed all of Season 7. Originally he was going to briefly appear in "Stormborn" but this was cut due to time and budget. There are often trade-off decisions that need to be made with CGI budget (i.e. faced with having a giant or a direwolf in the same episode, but not both). Moreover, the direwolves have been particularly difficult to work into scenes, as they are actually played by live animals, who are then digitally scaled-up.
 * Tyrion incongruously says that the Northerners aren't warming up to Daenerys because they remember "what happened the last time Targaryens took dragons to the North". This line is vague and doesn't really apply well to any specific context:
 * Most recently, the Targaryens went to war with the Starks during Robert's Rebellion - when the Starks marched south to fight them after the Mad King killed their lord, Rickard Stark. Moreover, the last Targaryen dragon died about a century and a half before Robert's Rebellion, so they couldn't have "taken dragons north".
 * During the reign of the Targaryen dynasty before that, they did sometimes fly dragons to the North on royal processions, or rarely, as messengers. One of Rhaenyra's sons, Jacaerys Velaryon, flew to Winterfell as a messenger during the Dance of the Dragons.
 * Before that, King Jaehaerys I Targaryen made a famous royal visit to Winterfell with his sister-wife Alysanne - during which they did much to win over the support of the Starks, including giving generous donations to the Night's Watch.
 * The only context this line might loosely apply to was already explained in Season 7 dialogue, when Jon first met Daenerys: during the Targaryen Conquest, King Torrhen Stark marched his army south to the Trident River, after the Targaryens had already conquered all of the other southern kingdoms, adding their surviving forces to their own, which marched "north" - in the sense that they were heading to the North, but were still in the Riverlands at the time. But when Torrhen saw their now much larger army, and in addition, their three live dragons, he realized he had no real hope of victory, so he peacefully surrendered without a fight. In return, Aegon treated him generously, confirming his position as ruler of the North under the Targaryens.
 * Therefore, other than "losing their sovereignty" by voluntarily joining a larger regional union of realms - and thus benefiting in various improvements to infrastructure, trade, and internal borders - nothing particularly bad happened "the last time Targaryens took dragons to the North".
 * Tyrion's remark that "almost everyone" there had fought the Starks, but was now defending Winterfell, is somewhat odd: this is true of those who fought for the Lannisters or the wildlings, but not of Baratheon followers like Brienne and Davos, or Beric. Of course, he did say "almost" everyone.
 * This episode is the first time that Missandei has given any specific details about her homeland, Naath, and its culture, in the five years she has been on the TV show. Naath is a large island of the northwest coast of Sothoryos, the third continent, which is loosely their Fantasy world's version of Africa.  Missandei explains here that the people of Naath are peaceful, and cannot defend themselves.  The books give more detail: the Naathi "cannot" defend themselves due to their religious beliefs, which command utter pacifism.  Their religion forbids them from taking any life, to the point that they will not eat the flesh of animals, and are strict vegetarians.  So great is their devotion to pacifism that they are forbidden to resort to violence even to directly defend their life.  Unfortunately, this has made them a favored target for slaver-raids from foreign lands.
 * As has been pointed out, in the books, the reason the Naathi have survived so long despite their extreme pacifism is that the island is home to a terrible plague, carried by butterflies, which causes the flesh to literally slough off a man's bones like wet paper. The Naathi themselves are immune to this disease, but a drawback is that outsiders cannot survive on the isle for more than a few hours.  This episode doesn't really take into account how Grey Worm or the Unsullied could even survive on Naath island, without their natural immunity.
 * According to leaked script reports for Season 7, which turned out to be mostly accurate, Bryan Cogman originally intended to have this exchange between Missandei and Grey Worm about Naath island right before their sex scene in "Stormborn", the second episode of Season 7 - but it was cut for time, and pushed back here to the second episode of Season 8.
 * This is the first time that Jorah Mormont and Lyanna Mormont have shared dialogue in a scene together. As they state in dialogue, Jorah is indeed Lyanna's "cousin", specifically her first cousin. When Lyanna was introduced in Season 6, Jon prominently explained in dialogue that she is the niece of Lord Commander Jeor Mormont through his sister, and Jeor was Jorah's father. When Jorah was exiled rule passed to his aunt Maege Mormont, and after she died (off-screen) to Lyanna. Jorah makes absolutely no attempt to have his rank and title restored, openly saying that Lyanna is "the future of our House".
 * Every Valyrian steel sword introduced in the TV series is now present at Winterfell - there are more in the books and animated featurettes that haven't appeared in live-action. The books have not yet explicitly confirmed that Valyrian steel can kill White Walkers, though Samwell suspects that references in ancient texts to "dragon-steel" killing White Walkers refers to Valyrian steel, forged in dragon-flame and imbued with magical spells.  The swords and their current wields are:
 * Longclaw - wielded by Jon Snow, a gift from Jeor Mormont
 * Heartsbane - wielded by Jorah Mormont, ancestral blade of House Tarly, lent to Jorah as a gift by Samwell Tarly in memory of his father Jeor
 * Oathkeeper - wielded by Brienne of Tarth, one of two new swords made by melting down the ancestral Stark sword, Ice.
 * Widow's Wail - wielded by Jaime Lannister, the second of two swords made by melting down Ned Stark's sword Ice.
 * A Valyrian steel dagger - wielded by Arya Stark. Not a full sword, originally belonging to Littlefinger, acquired by Arya after Littlefinger's death.
 * As Jaime says, any knight can dub another man a knight - though the prestige varies, much like how a college degree from a major university versus a local college is technically the same. The full knight dubbing ceremony has not yet been presented in the texts, for what the new knight is charged with in the name of each of The Seven.  Jaime gives the first three here, though the fourth one is also known: "In the name of the Maiden, I charge you to defend women".  It is still unknown what the Smith, the Crone, and the Stranger charge knights with.
 * Tormund's tall-tale about being nursed by a female giant is actually from the books, although slightly revised. In the books, he claimed that he slit open the belly of a sleeping giant for warmth on a freezing night, only for her to mistake him for her baby when he came out of her.  The TV version is not quite as blatantly made-up, with Tormund claiming he killed a giant, and the giant's wife mistook him for her baby.
 * Jon, Sam, and Dolorous Edd remark that only the three of them are left from the Night's Watch members who were together in the beginning, mentioning Grenn and Pyp by name. Actually, while this is true in-universe, Edd wasn't introduced until the second novel, and thus second TV season.  Retroactively, it was established that he was always there, but in the background.  Pyp didn't go beyond the Wall with the rest of them, and Jon left soon after they reached the Fist of the First Men in Season 2.  All five of them were only on-screen for the first time when Edd and Grenn made their way back to Castle Black, in Season 4's "Breaker of Chains", but then Grenn and Pyp died six episodes later in "The Watchers on the Wall".
 * Jon Snow isn't just the rightful "male heir" to the Iron Throne, ahead of Daenerys. Even under gender-blind inheritance law, Rhaegar was simply Daenerys's older sibling, thus any child of Rhaegar's would rank ahead of her.

Arya Stark and Gendry

 * Arya Stark has sex with Gendry in this episode.
 * As for Arya Stark's age, she is at most 18 years old, possibly 17 by this point (as explained in detail in the "Timeline" section below) . Characters younger than this have sex in the books, and have had sex even in the TV show.  By this point she is roughly around as old as her brother Robb Stark was when he had sex with and married Talisa in Season 2.
 * Maisie Williams, the actor, is actually older than Arya, and she filmed this episode when she was 22 years old. Joe Dempsie, the actor playing Gendry, was a bit uncomfortable with the scene - citing that he is actually almost ten years older than Maisie (Dempsie is around 5 to 6 years older than Gendry is in-universe).
 * When she undresses, Arya has large scars on her right side - from when the Waif stabbed her deeply (matching how she was stabbed on her right side on-screen in Season 6).
 * Gendry also shares with Arya the information he learned from Melisandre, that he is in fact the bastard son of King Robert Baratheon.
 * Gendry's revelation of his father's real identity now mirrors how Arya herself, in Season 2's "The Night Lands", revealed that her own father was a powerful lord, Eddard Stark. In both cases, they actually met their partner's parent before meeting them:  Ned came to Gendry's forge before Gendry met Arya, and Arya met King Robert before she met Gendry.
 * The way Arya eyes Gendry while he works in the forge in this episode directly mirrors how she previously eyed him while he was blacksmithing, in Season 2's "The Ghost of Harrenhal".
 * In the books, it is said that Gendry greatly resembles King Robert in his handsome youth, so much so that it is blatantly obvious to anyone who meets him that also knew young Robert (Eddard, Stannis) that he is Robert's son. Somewhat similarly, Arya is also said to greatly resemble her aunt Lyanna Stark in her youth - in that while Lyanna grew into a great beauty, she had rougher features like Arya when she was younger, leading Ned to assure her that she's growing up to look just like her aunt.  The irony of all this is that Robert Baratheon was originally betrothed to Lyanna Stark, and if Rhaegar Targaryen hadn't "stolen" her away, they would have married:  Arya and Gendry being together are like a ghost of the Robert/Lyanna match which almost happened.
 * Of course, back in the first episode of the TV series, King Robert said his hope was to marry his "son" (Joffrey) to Eddard Stark's "daughter" (Sansa) to formally cement the alliance between the Starks and Baratheons and maintain stability over Westeros - and ultimately a different son and daughter ended up together. In the books, Robert specifically remarked that pairing his son with Ned's daughter would be an attempt to re-create the union of their families that should have happened if Lyanna had lived to marry him.
 * It has gone unstated so far in the TV series that Gendry's parentage means he also has Targaryen blood: one of King Robert's grandmothers was a younger Targaryen princess, which after he won the rebellion was used as a token pretext for his claim to the Iron Throne.  Renly and Stannis thus also had Targaryen blood, and Stannis's daughter Shireen Baratheon was even known to have "dragon dreams" - prophetic dreams about dragons that often affect members of their bloodline.  Robert was, of course, a usurper, as his younger branch of the Targaryen family tree ranked behind Aerys II Targaryen, or his children Rhaegar and Daenerys.  So far, moreover, so far no one has pointed out that if nothing else, Gendry is the last remaining heir to Storm's End and rule of House Baratheon (albeit as a bastard).
 * We have no idea if Arya and Gendry will begin a relationship in the books, as the TV series has surpassed the current novels. As of the fifth and most recent novel, Arya is still in Braavos, while Gendry is still in the Riverlands hiding from the Lannisters (and in some friendly contact with the Brotherhood Without Banners).  The TV show streamlined this to have Gendry hiding out in King's Landing itself.  From a "glass half full" perspective, they may indeed develop a relationship in later novels - though the context will be somewhat different - but this remains to be seen.

Timeline and Character Ages
Gilly's son Sam appears again in this episode, bringing up the question of just how much time has passed since the beginning of the TV series, and how old all of the younger characters are supposed to be.

The short answer is that the TV writers did not thoroughly keep track of the internal timeline. Particularly, travel time stops following established information, so that journeys that should have taken weeks or months could take plays in days - or even a few hours, as was the case with the Wight Hunt at the end of Season 7. Nonetheless the number of calendar years that have passed can more or less be worked out. The early TV seasons clearly followed the rule that one TV season equaled one year of internal time: Robert's Rebellion was "17 years ago" in Season 1, but then said to be "18 years ago" in Season 2. Characters in Season 3 directly stated that the War of the Five Kings had been going on for "two years", when it began at the end of Season 1. Afterwards, story time expanded or contracted depending on the storyline - and this is not necessarily an error. The writers did accurately point out that every storyline seen in a given week isn't in synch with all the others, but presented due to dramatic pacing: i.e. Arya's storyline in Braavos wasn't physically tied to events at the Wall or King's Landing, and could have taken up entirely different spans of time. What matters is when storylines intersect.


 * It generally seems that the TV show continued to follow the rule that one TV season equals one year, though somewhat more loosely, and as more of an average in the later seasons.
 * An internal event which can be timed is that Gilly's son was born on-screen in Season 3. This puts an upper limit on how much time has passed in the TV series: something like "ten years" can't have passed between Seasons 3 and 8 due to unstated, off-screen time skips, otherwise Gilly's son would look like a ten year old.

Thus, the major characters still alive at this point are all, at most, seven years older than they were stated to be in Season 1, five years older than stated in Season 3. Possibly a year younger if the half-seasons of Seasons 7 and 8 combined take up a single year. Their maximum ages, assuming one season to one year through Season 8, are:


 * Daenerys Targaryen: 23 - stated to be 16 in Season 1, born after her father died at the end of Robert's Rebellion, 17 years before Season 1.
 * Jon Snow: 23 - stated to be 16 in Season 1, born after Robert's Rebellion.
 * Robb Stark was also roughly the same age as Jon Snow - meaning that in late Season 2, when he had sex with and then married Talisa, he was at least 17 years old, possibly verging on 18 years old.
 * Sansa Stark: 20 - stated she was 13 years old in Season 1.
 * Sansa stated on her wedding night to Tyrion in Season 3 that she was 14 years old, but this may have been in error, as it contradicted several other lines also in Season 3 which said that 2 years had passed since Season 1. This also means that at the time of her rape by Ramsay Bolton in Season 5, she was 17 years old (possibly 16 to 17 if the Season 4 line during her wedding to Tyrion was somehow not an error).
 * Arya Stark: 18 - Arya stated during Season 1 that she was 11 years old, thus she is at most 18 years old by Season 8 - possibly 17 if Seasons 7 and 8 cover a single year.
 * By the transitive property, it was well established that two years passed by Season 3, at which point Arya was 13 and Gilly's son was born. Thus Arya is "13 plus however old Gilly's son is".
 * Gendry: 23 - In the books, Gendry is stated to be around the same age as Jon Snow (and thus around the same age as Robb and Daenerys). King Robert fathered him on a whore in Flea Bottom, apparently not long after the war ended and he moved to King's Landing.
 * Bran Stark: 17 - Stated on-screen to be 10 years old in Season 1.
 * Theon Greyjoy: 24 - In Season 1, Theon said he came to Winterfell when he was eight years old, and other characters said the Greyjoy Rebellion was nine years ago: thus he was 17 years old in Season 1. This means that as in the novels, he is one year older than Robb and Jon Snow.  Yara Greyjoy is Theon's older sister, old enough to remember when he was a baby, but her exact age may have been changed around in the TV continuity (in the books, she is three years older than him).

In the books, the age of legal adulthood in Westeros is 16 years old - though the TV series apparently made a tacit retcon of this up to 18 years, due to legal restrictions on depicting very young characters having sex: specifically due to Daenerys's sex scenes in Season 1). Because Daenerys's birth is tied to the end of Robert's Rebellion (being born after her father died at the end of it), Robert's Rebellion had to be pushed back from 15 years before the beginning of the narrative in the first book, to 17 years before Season 1.  Most younger characters were then aged-up by two years to match this.  Daenerys was still, fundamentally, a 16 year old having sex with Drogo throughout Season 1 - but depicting her as 13 years old as she was at that time in the novels would not have worked due to U.K. television filming laws.

In the books
[This section will be updated with comparisons when the sixth and seventh novels are released.]

Memorable quotes
Daenerys Targaryen: "When I was a child, my brother would tell me a bedtime story about the man who murdered our father, about all the things we would do to that man."

Daenerys Targaryen: "He never should've trusted Cersei." Sansa Stark: "You never should've either."

Arya Stark: "I know Death. He's got many faces. I look forward to seeing this one."

Jon Snow: "How long do we have?" Tormund: "Before the sun comes up tomorrow."

 Jaime Lannister: "Arise Brienne of Tarth a Knight of the Seven Kingdoms."

Image gallery

 * ''Main - Gallery: A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms

There is a range of promotional images and screen captures featuring 'Episode 2, "A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms" of 'Season 8' in the gallery.