“Game of Thrones” season 7's "Eastwatch" episode may lack the explosive battle of last week’s "The Loot Train Attack," but it dropped a bombshell the magnitude of which will reverberate wider than the devastation of the Reach. In terms of scale, the revelation was a blaze that makes Drogon’s fire merely a spark.
Of annulment and bowel movements
In the last episode, we became aware through Missandei that there is no concept of marriage in Naath, her home island in the Summer Sea.
This week, another marriage-related detail was nonchalantly revealed through Gilly reading Samwell Tarly's homework.
It was the annulment issued by Maester Maynard for “a Prince Rhaegar” and remarried him to someone else at the same time. The marriage was done in a secret ceremony in Dorne.
Who would have expected that to be hidden in a maester’s excrements?
Sam exploded, not for the obvious reason we expected, but for being subjected to the indignity of preserving the records of “that man’s bowel movements for all eternity.”
We would be apoplectic too. There are only two episodes left in "Game of Thrones" season 7 and still Sam had to deal with other people’s poop. He would have rather fought a White Walker and off he went. But not after he raided the Citadel’s library and obtained a very limited edition of the "Art of War" to read on the long trip back North.
Jon Snow not a bastard?
The big revelation that Jon Snow is the son of Prince Rhaegar Targaryen and Lyanna Stark was all but confirmed in the "Game of Thrones" finale last season. But he is still a bastard. Not a Stark but a Targaryen bastard.
But what has been revealed in the "Eastwatch" episode may prove that Jon Snow is no bastard at all.
He could be the legitimate son and surviving heir of Prince Rhaegar Targaryen. However, there was no mention in Maester Maynard’s meticulous record who the prince married after and what the grounds were for the annulment.
For somebody who was very thorough, his record was obviously lacking in some key details. Maybe the maester was more interested in his bowel movements instead of giving "Game of Thrones" viewers a Westeros-style spoiler.
Drogon sensed something
Finally, Drogon is becoming a key player in the continuing mystery of Jon Snow’s real identity. That petting Drogon scene was obviously another hint. The “glorious beast” surely sensed something fiery about the King of the North. Unfortunately, Jon Snow still knows nothing. Not yet.
