ABSTRACT
In the seventh season of Game of Thrones, Tyrion Lannister hatches a plot to convince his sister of the looming threat beyond the Wall. At his instigation, a resurrected Jon Snow assembles a team of Westerosi adventurers so reminiscent of The Seven Samurai that one must assume screenwriter Dave Hill drew inspiration, at least second-hand, from Kurosawa’s film (“an almost inescapable model for any group of volunteers who fight for the good” [Clute 853]). Jon leads his team beyond the Wall to capture a still-animate wight. Succeeding in this, they lock their captive in a crate and bring it to a parley in the Dragonpit. There Sandor Clegane (resurrected like Jon, and part of his team) releases the wight, which rushes homicidally at Cersei, held off her by a chain. Jon then dispatches the monster with dragonglass. The demonstration has, seemingly, the desired effect; a fragile, ostensible entente is formed between the living against the dead. Cersei later confesses to Tyrion that the moment she saw the creature everything “disappeared down its black throat” (“Eastwatch”; “Beyond the Wall”; “The Dragon and the Wolf”).
