To a franchise that was once characterized by dragons, epic battles, and outrageous killings, it is strangely poetic that ‘Game of Thrones’ has achieved a new peak not by spectacle, but by belief.
Episode 4 of ‘A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms’ season, titled “Seven”, became the highest-rated episode of the franchise after nine years, and it did not feature a single army clash. The HBO spinoff has never been the same. Smaller. Warmer. More grounded. However, episode 4 demonstrates that it was never about scale.
A Quiet Episode Just Became The Most Celebrated ‘Game Of Thrones’ Chapter In Years
IMDb rates “Seven” at 9.7 user rating, which is equal to the most acclaimed episodes of the franchise and higher than anything that has been released since ‘Game of Thrones‘ season 7 in 2017. It is no small accomplishment for a show that is based on a hedge knight and his young squire rather than kings and queens. What is even more impressive about this accomplishment is the way the episode wins its acclaim.
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No dragons are ripping armies apart, no cities are burning. Rather, the conflict is based on ethical decision-making. When Dunk decides to protect Tanselle against Prince Aerion, he is on a head-on collision with the very system that knighthood purports to defend. The episode poses an awkward question: what is honor when power does not want to acknowledge it?
Fans clearly responded. Watching allies step forward, and one betray him, builds a quiet dread that feels deeply ‘Game of Thrones‘, even without bloodshed. By the time the trial by seven is scheduled, the stakes are enormous. And it’s not due to the number of people who may die, but because of what Westeros stands to reveal about itself.
Why “Seven” Is A Turning Point For The Show
It is the last moments of the episode that justify the really high ratings. The knighting of Raymun Fossoway in the field is a reminder to the audience of the oaths that knights take to defend the innocent, and Prince Baelor Targaryen’s decision to fight with Dunk against his own family has an emotional impact that is hard to forget.
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Dunk’s speech to the crowd, in which he speaks about the hypocrisy of the nobles who treat honor like a costume, is almost radical in the world of Westeros.
And when the usual ‘Game of Thrones’ theme is played, it does not seem like nostalgia bait. It is as though the franchise was reminiscing about what made it strong in the first place. That is why “Seven” is on the same level as such episodes as “Blackwater” or “The Winds of Winter”. Not because it’s louder, but because it’s truer.
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