The Spoils of War (Game of Thrones)

"The Spoils of War" is the fourth episode of the seventh season of HBO's fantasy television series Game of Thrones, and the 64th overall.

In King's Landing, Cersei Lannister seeks further investment from the Iron Bank, after reassuring them that their debt will soon be paid.

Jon shows Daenerys cave drawings depicting the Children and the First Men fighting together against the White Walkers.

Jon confronts Theon, declaring that his role in saving Sansa from Ramsay is the only reason he will not kill him for betraying Robb.

[4] In writing the battle between the Lannister army, and Daenerys' Dothraki and Drogon, Weiss stated that one of the most exciting elements of the fight involved the fact that two main characters were on opposite sides of the battlefield, and that it is "impossible to really want any one of them to win, and impossible to want any one of them to lose," according to Weiss.

[4] According to Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, in an interview with Entertainment Weekly following the airing of the episode, the script stated that "One of our main characters is about to die."

'"[7] In addition to the regular recurring guest cast, Major League Baseball player Noah Syndergaard, then a pitcher for the New York Mets, made a brief uncredited cameo appearance as a spear-throwing Lannister soldier during the battle between Lannister and Tarly forces and Daenerys Targaryen and the Dothraki.

[8] In an interview prior to the season conducted by Sports Illustrated, Syndergaard spoke about his appearance in the series by saying "It's a dream come true.

This was Shakman's first episode of Game of Thrones, but he had previously served as a director for several other television series, including Fargo, The Good Wife, Mad Men and It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, among others.

[14] Shakman's first step in directing the battle was choosing to focus on a specific perspective, with Shakman choosing Jaime as the main point of view, noting "To see it from a traditional fighter like Jaime to see what happens when you introduce something like napalm or the atom bomb into battle and all of a sudden traditional fighting goes out the window.

"[12] Shakman also noted that Tyrion was another important perspective for the battle, as he watches from afar, saying "We talked through every beat of what he was seeing, and then he imagined that in his mind and brought it to life.

Shakman filmed Peter Dinklage as Tyrion about a mile from the battlefield, and most of his shots involved "staring at lots of different tennis balls" for eye line.

[12] Shakman also revealed that he used the volcanic destruction of Pompeii as a reference, which led to the idea of some of the army being turned to ash.

[11] For the beginning of the "Loot Train Attack," with the Dothraki approaching, Shakman stated that he wanted it to feel like a Western, saying in the interview, "I wanted that feeling of a Western — this savage attack coming at this more formalized line of men, that tension of circling the wagons and trying to protect them from the chaos and the onslaught.

[10] Shakman also spoke about the difficulty in shooting the dragon sequence and the safety of the performers, saying "The most difficult was safety because you're dealing with fire, horses and actors — and those things don't do well in close proximity yet the nature of it was to create this Bosch-like nightmare where, as the scene progresses, it becomes increasingly like you're in the pit of hell.

In an interview conducted by The Verge, McLachlan revealed that the production team received the script for the episode more than a year in advance.

Going into filming, one of McLachlan's most desired effects was the amount of smoke on the battlefield, saying "we wanted to block the sun out so the shots would have some consistency.

They're all terrific, and they're amazing actors, and it was fun to see them come together now as adults and navigate these much more complicated scenes than they had to do with each other years ago.

[18] In the United Kingdom, the episode was viewed by 3.015 million viewers on Sky Atlantic, making it the highest-rated broadcast that week on its channel.

The site's consensus reads "'The Spoils of War' delivers arguably the greatest battle sequence of the series so far, in exciting, epic, fiery spectacle.

On top of that, Arya, after seven years, made her way home to Winterfell and managed to best Brienne of Tarth in a friendly training session.

He also compared the episode to the previous episode, "The Queen's Justice", which had two battles that largely took place off-screen, writing "Here, the battle is told through multiple perspectives, each vested with meaning and purpose: our point-of-view shifts between Dany and Drogon and Jaime and Bronn, before eventually adding Tyrion watching from afar, and the direction from first-time Thrones director Matt Shakman uses those POV very carefully."

[25] James Hibberd of Entertainment Weekly gave the episode an A, writing in his review, "All the leaks in the world couldn't wreck 'The Spoils of War'.

Game of Thrones' shortest episode ever — and part of the show's fastest-paced season ever — didn’t feel rushed at all, and the story's impact remained incredibly strong no matter what you knew ahead of time.

"[22] On August 4, 2017, it was reported that, two days before its original broadcast, the episode was leaked online from Star India, one of HBO's international network partners.