Dragonstone (episode)

"Dragonstone" is the upcoming first episode of the seventh season of Game of Thrones. It will be the sixty-first episode of the series overall. It will premiere on July 16, 2017. It was written by David Benioff & D.B. Weiss and directed by Jeremy Podeswa.

Plot
Jon organizes the defense of the North. Cersei tries to even the odds. Daenerys comes home.

Cast
Starring
 * Lena Headey as Queen Cersei Lannister
 * Kit Harington as King Jon Snow
 * Emilia Clarke as Queen Daenerys Targaryen

Guest Starring

General

 * As of the end of Season 6, all plotlines have surpassed the current novels in the A Song of Ice and Fire series. Though the TV series has also drastically changed several of them. Season 6 surpassed the novels on some plotlines when it began, such as Jon Snow's, but others were holdovers from prior books (the ironborn and Riverrun subplots). Whatever the case, from this point onwards, no one can know with certainty if any characters will survive from one episode to the next.
 * A question arises regarding the Title sequence in Season 7. The production department which creates its variants every week actually follows a formal set of rules, and the primary one is that it had to show at least four specific map locations in every episode, even if no scenes are actually set there in a specific episode: King's Landing, Winterfell, the Wall, and "wherever Daenerys is at the moment". For example, the second episode of Season 1, "The Kingsroad", doesn't actually contain any scenes set in King's Landing, but King's Landing still appears in the credits. The production team explained that they made this rule so that the opening map sequence can always show just how bit the fictional world is - specifically, showing "wherever Daenerys is" allows them to quickly show that the world is bigger than just the single continent of Westeros. For the first four TV seasons, Daenerys's storyline was the only major one in the eastern continent Essos, though in Season 5 both Tyrion and Arya's storylines moved to Essos as well. In Season 7, however, Daenerys is finally coming to Westeros, as are Tyrion and Arya, and for the first time there are no storylines set outside of Westeros at all. It remains to be seen if the opening sequence will still try to show the other continents somehow, or will drastically change to start showing more locations in Westeros itself. Another rule was that the opening sequence has a time limit, so the map has never actually shown more than six locations in a given episode: it would take too long for the camera to zoom from Dorne to the Wall then to Meereen and back to Volantis, so they don't all appear in the same title sequence in Seasons 5 and 6. No longer having to show Daenerys in the Dothraki Sea or in Meereen might thus free up time to show every on-screen location from Westeros.

At Dragonstone

 * "Dragonstone" is the name of both the large island and the eponymous castle which is its ruling seat.
 * Dragonstone is the ancestral homeland of House Targaryen, settled centuries ago as the westernmost outpost of the Valyrian Freehold. Due to its isolation, when the Doom of Valyria destroyed their vast empire in a single day, the Targaryens survived on Dragonstone with the world's only remaining dragons. One of the reasons they settled the isle is because it has an active volcano, a preferred nesting ground of dragons.
 * Dragonstone is one of the strongest fortresses in all of Westeros, because it was built by the ancient Valyrians themselves using advanced construction techniques which were lost after their empire collapsed. The Valyrians were fond of building vast mega-structures by having dragons literally melt down stone with their flames, then teasing out the black liquid stone into various fantastic shapes. he island is also decorated with numerous dragon-themed statues and gargoyles. Its architectural designs seem very strange and foreign to people from mainland Westeros.
 * The Targaryens spent a hundred years after the Doom building up their strength, then invaded Westeros in the Targaryen Conquest. Afterwards, Dragonstone remained their private domain and final redoubt. Traditionally, the heir to the Iron Throne would rule the island directly as "Prince of Dragonstone" (comparable to how the real-life heir to the British monarchy is known as the "Prince of Wales").
 * During their exile, Daenerys was the nominal heir of her brother Viserys Targaryen - who made the empty claim to be "King Viserys the Third" in exile. Thus, Daenerys nominally held the title "Princess of Dragonstone". Given that Viserys dies by the sixth episode of Season 1, this comes up more frequently in the first novel, i.e. when Illyrio Mopatis introduces Daenerys to Drogo for the first time, in the book version he lists off her formal title as "Princess of Dragonstone", but this was omitted from the TV version. The title was entirely academic of course, given that they were living in exile and upon Viserys's death she inherited his full title as the Targaryen claimant to the throne itself.
 * Daenerys Targaryen was actually born on Dragonstone, at the end of Robert's Rebellion. Right before the rebel army sacked King's Landing her father the Mad King sent his pregnant wife away to safety on Dragonstone, where she died in childbirth. Her brother Viserys fled with her into exile in the Free Cities a few weeks later, so she has no memory of it, but technically it is still her true home. Daenerys has spent her life living on the sufferance of others or as a foreign invader in Slaver's Bay, but on Viserys's death, Dragonstone became hers by right.
 * Of course, much like the Iron Throne, given that Jon Snow is actually the secret son of her older brother Rhaegar, Jon might have more claim to it than her...but even then, Daenerys is his closest Targaryen relative, so Dragonstone would still be hers as next in line to the throne.
 * Earlier episodes kept this point that Daenerys was technically born in Westeros, on Dragonstone. In Season 2, when the Spice King in Qarth directly asks her if she's ever even set foot in Westeros, she responds that she fled when she was just a baby. In Season 6, Tyrion also remarks to Jorah that Daenerys has never spent "one day of her adult life" in Westeros.
 * Targaryen shouder capes.jpg new costume style that Daenerys shifts to starting in this episode is actually not entirely new to the series - she has switched to the "old Targaryen style" that her brother Viserys was seen wearing back in Season 1 (as sort of a sign that she has embraced her inner Targaryen nature as a conqueror). Costume designer Michele Clapton explained at the time that because Viserys was older than Daenerys when the Targaryens were deposed (he was a child), he still remembers what the fashions at the old Targaryen royal court looked like and dresses in them - thus even though his one costume didn't appear very often, it was meant to be a window into what the old Targaryen style looked like: asymmetric cut, peaked shoulder cuffs that are separate from the undercoat, long form-fitting sleeves, high collar, and a short cape asymmetrically pinned to one shoulder (as Viserys was seen wearing at her wedding to Drogo in the first episode). Finally, of course, she has also dramatically shifted from her prior blue or white color palettes to finally dressing in Targaryen red and black, the colors of their heraldry. For more information, see "Costumes: King's Landing - Under the Targaryens"
 * As for the new Costumes of many characters in Season 7 shifting to darker colors, the reason behind this is simple: the costuming department felt that because "winter" has officially descended across Westeros, characters should now be wearing dark colors i.e. the time for wearing brighter colors would have been Renly's camp in Season 2 when they were "the knights of summer".
 * Dragonstone island was last held by Stannis Baratheon as his main seat during the war. In the books, when Stannis took his main force north to save the Night's Watch at the Battle of Castle Black, he left a small skeleton defense force behind to hold the castle. Given how strong the fortress is even this small garrison was enough to deter a direct attack by the Lannisters: as a result much of the remaining Lannister/Tyrell fleet was pinned down encircling and besieging Dragonstone, trying to wait them out through starvation over time. This prevented the Lannisters or Tyrells from dealing with the rise of Euron Greyjoy on the west coast. This spurred Cersei to force a quick end to the siege by storming the castle - and she intentionally sent Loras Tyrell to command the attack, in hopes he would die in the fighting. Loras takes the castle but with heavy losses, and after fighting through many defenders despite taking numerous wounds, he was doused with boiling oil and left clinging to life. Cersei then needlessly gloated to Margarey about Loras, breaking down the already fragile Lannister-Tyrell alliance. The TV series omitted all of this and just had Loras burn to death in the Destruction of the Great Sept of Baelor (in either version, he apparently burns to death - though there is some slim chance he might in fact survive in the books). As a result, as of the most current novel Dragonstone is weakly held by a remaining Lannister force after the siege.
 * Thus, it is unclear how the TV show will address this: no mention was made of the state Dragonstone was left in since it was last seen in Season 4. Whether it was taken by the Lannisters off-screen, or if a skeleton force of Stannis's men still hold it.
 * Dragonstone was Stannis's base of operations seen in Seasons 2 through 4, but several major locations on it weren't actually shown on screen at the time, probably due to budget constraints. Most interior scenes focused on the war planning room around the Painted Table - a large table painted as a large map of Westeros which Aegon I Targaryen himself used when he was planning his conquest of Westeros. Exterior shots focused on a generic beach with a large dragon statue in the background as a digital insert. Season 7 depicts all of Dragonstone's exteriors, and several new major internal locations, including a fully realized throne room, hewn from the volcanic rock. Stannis sat on this throne in several scenes from the books that were shifted to the council room. Historically, many prior Targaryens from Aegon I to Rhaenyra sat on the throne of Dragonstone.
 * Dragonstone was a major location in the Dance of the Dragons, the great Targaryen civil war fought 170 years ago. It was the initial headquarters of Rhaenyra Targaryen and her faction, while her half-brother Aegon II held King's Landing itself. Several prequel projects to follow the main series are being discussed, and it is possible that these Dragonstone sets were introduced with an eye towards being re-used for a prequel series.
 * As when Stannis held it, Dragonstone isn't worth much in and of itself to Daenerys, as a comparatively small island - but it has an excellent strategic location controlling the mouth of Blackwater Bay, and thus threatening all sea travel going to or from King's Landing. Additionally, of course, it is a strong symbolic move for Daenerys to go from being a foreign exile to directing her invasion of from the ancestral seat of the Targaryens themselves in Westeros.

In the books
[This section will be updated with comparisons after the sixth novel is released.]