The first episode of Game of Thrones Season 7 saw two major power players arrive in Westeros: Euron Greyjoy and Daenerys Targaryen. While both are exciting shake-ups to the plot, since they traveled by sea, many fans are confused about why two giant fleets didn’t meet in the water.
It’s a valid question. Daenerys arrived at Dragonstone, an ancient Targaryen stronghold and the one-time site of Stannis and Melisandre’s table sex (Hopefully, they wiped it off before Daenerys tenderly ran her hand along it in Season 7.) For his part, Euron Greyjoy visited Queen Cersei Lannister at King’s Landing.
The thing is, Dragonstone and King’s Landing are not that far away, and both areas overlook Blackwater Bay — the site of the famous Season 2 battle between Lannister forces and Stannis and his men. And, it’s not as if Dany and Euron could have easily been ships passing in the night. Each was traveling with a giant fleet.
Here’s a map of the region:
A map of Dragonstone and King's Landing
There are three possibilities about why Dany and Euron didn’t meet in the Gullet or Blackwater Bay. The first is the fluidity of the Game of Thrones timeline. It’s vague how old the characters are. Between Season 6 and Season 7, Sam’s seventh season plot line showed that Little Sam went from baby to toddler. Arya, for her part, was at the Twins murdering Freys for the duration of that time. Does this mean that Arya stayed there for years with Walder Frey’s face on ice? Nope. The timeline for different Game of Thrones storylines has alway been fudged, even within individual episodes. Dany and Euron probably weren’t sailing at exactly the same time.
The second is that Daenerys and Euron avoided each other on purpose. Euron doesn’t look like the kind of guy who would back down from a fight. Dany, on the other hand, could have spotted Euron’s fleet, and perhaps Tyrion advised her to hang back while he sailed ahead, saving the fight for a more advantageous occasion. And, if Dany had already landed at Dragonstone, it wouldn’t necessarily have been the best course of action for Euron to attack without chatting with Cersei first.
The third possibility is that it was indeed a story goof. But if that’s the case, don’t worry about it. Game of Thrones has a big Greyjoy naval battle coming up, most likely in the second episode.
Game of Thrones Season 7 is currently airing Sunday nights on HBO.
