If any criticism about the latest season of Game of Thrones rang the loudest, it was the inconsistency of the writing compared to years past. Some plot lines didn't appear to make much sense, and the audience was left to fill in the gaps on their own. The seven-episode limit of the season didn't help matters, even if a few of the episodes pushed well past 60 minutes.
Warning: Game of Thrones spoilers will follow.
The Winterfell story arc was particularly puzzling in season 7. Fans were left to believe Arya Stark's character had completely changed in the blink of an eye, and that her first major move after returning home would be to kill her sister. In the end, it was all revealed to be a cheap ruse to set up the audience, as the two sisters eventually teamed up to execute Littlefinger. They had some assistance from their brother, Bran, whose ability to see into the past was finally taken advantage of during Littlefinger's trial. The result of Littlefinger dying was fine, even if the process to get there was not.
If you believe the actor who plays Bran Stark, Isaac Hempstead Wright, things might have made a lot more sense if a scene left on the cutting room floor was included in the season finale, "The Dragon and the Wolf." Wright told Variety there was a brief scene that filled in some of the blanks heading into the gruesome death of Littlefinger, and it involved Bran and Sansa Stark.
We actually did a scene that clearly got cut, a short scene with Sansa where she knocks on Bran’s door and says, “I need your help,” or something along those lines. So basically, as far as I know, the story was that it suddenly occurred to Sansa that she had a huge CCTV department at her discretion and it might be a good idea to check with him first before she guts her own sister. So she goes to Bran, and Bran tells her everything she needs to know, and she’s like, “Oh, shit.”
It seems preposterous that Thrones would leave out something like this. Bran's absence for most of the season was inexplicable, and it was always obvious he had information that could help his sisters sort out their differences. Filming the scene in the first place indicates the writers knew that too, and makes it all the more curious that they kept him out of sight for most of season 7.
Though you could argue this scene's exclusion helped create tension in the execution scene, Thrones could have avoided explicit spoilers and still put together a more sensible plot line. The brief description of the scene mentioned by Wright is all the viewer really needs to see; Sansa asking her brother for help doesn't tip off any specific move, and it makes her seem like less of the struggling damsel she appeared to be up until the final moments of season 7.
The reason the plot was so infuriating to begin with is because it reversed course on the Sansa we'd come to know in season 6—the woman and leader who helped Jon Snow achieve victory in the Battle of the Bastards. For some reason, Thrones continues to bury a lot of her most important work off-screen, and it's not at all necessary. Through proper sequencing, they could have built the same suspense for Littlefinger's death, while not cheapening Sansa's character development or the overall story arc.
These are the sort of moments that get lost when you shorten the season down to just seven episodes. Season 8 promises to feature several movie-length episodes of Game of Thrones, but fans will just have to hope there's enough room for nuance in the final stretch of the show. Moments like these are important, even if some people are just tuning in for dragons and sword fights.
