Game of Thrones' weapon master says Arya Stark is getting a “showstopper” weapon from Gendry this season

Arya Stark finally reunited with her old buddy Gendry in the premiere episode of Game of Thrones Season 8. While the heartwarming reunion did show us the ‘friendly’ and ‘flirty’ part of the faceless assassin, it also revealed that she is undergoing a major weapon upgrade in the coming episode. Let’s dive in.

Well, you might be familiar with the weapons (Needle and Valyrian Steel dagger) that Arya Stark carries with her and especially the last the season showed us what she is capable of doing with them. But, the premiere episode has confirmed that she is getting a brand new weapon from her pal Gendry. The scene began with Sandor Clegane coming to ask Gendry for the new weapon he had forged for him. After Gendry got the Hound his new Dragonglass axe, Arya checked in and we saw their much-expected reunion.

We only got to see some small talks between Arya and Sandor and memorable remarks like “First, I robbed you“, Gendry and Arya had a much longer conversation that was centred on the weapon blueprint she had brought with her. Upon taking a closer look, you can infer that the new weapon looks like a spear with two pointy ends. While one extreme end of the weapon will clearly have a dragonglass tip,  as the blueprint showed us, I have no clues on what purpose the other end will serve.

Yet, Vanity Fair did manage to get some insights of the same in their latest conversation with Tommy Dunne – the weapons master for Game of Thrones. Dunne in VF’s podcast “Still Watching” revealed that;

“There is one creation in Season 8 that is absolutely phenomenal. It’ll be a showstopper. That was great to finish. It was great to make, great to design in that it was able to be reverse-engineered and made into two different items.”

The description that Dunne gives here exactly matches the design we see on the blueprint, thus confirming that Arya’s new weapon will not only be splendid but that she will do some hardcore action on the wights during the Battle of Winterfell. Yet, we don’t have any clue on what the other end of the weapon will be composed of? Perhaps it can be Arya’ dagger or a torch that can be ignited to kill wights.

What were your thoughts on Arya Stark’s reunion with Gendry and how effective will be her new weapon against the White Walkers? Tell us in the comments.

You know the drill, there will be spoilers. The premiere of the final episode of Game of Thrones saw several reunions. Most made us happy. Jon and Arya meeting was #adorbs. The last time they met, Ned Stark was still alive. We’re allowed to be flippant about that now, it was eight years ago. The “reunion” that did raise some eyebrows was the one between Cersei Lannister and Euron Greyjoy.

For those of you who haven’t watched the episode yet, Euron and Cersei got down and dirty.

After Euron shows up at King’s Landing with the mercenaries of the Golden Company at his back, along with their troops and horses (alas, no elephants), Euron, the cad that he is, hints at wanting something more from Cersei. Sex, to be precise.

Cersei isn’t initially too sold on the idea. However, after hearing Euron’s veiled threats of reneging on his deal, Cersei has a change of heart mind.

She wasn’t the only one with misgivings. Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, actress Lena Headey who plays Cersei Lannister said that she too had hesitations about that happening between the two.

“I kept saying, ‘She wouldn’t, she wouldn’t, that she would keep fighting,” Headey told EW. “But [showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss] obviously know what they’re doing and were adamant Cersei would do what she had to do.”

Pilou Asbaek, who plays Euron Greyjoy said that the topic was pondered upon quite a lot before it made the cut.

“We had a lot of discussions,” Pilou said. “Would it be out of character for her to be with Greyjoy for power? We discussed it so much that we almost ended up going, ‘Maybe it’s too much.’ Then we decided to try it out and see if it works. Sometimes you have to show different sides of a character. You have to surprise yourself as an actor but you also have to surprise yourself as a character.”

Considering that Cersei has always been above all, a survivalist, it stands to reason that she’d sleep with somebody purely for power, even if that somebody was as unhinged as Euron.

What did you think about Cersei’s decision? Let us know in the comments!

Jon Snow may have moved on from the memories of Ygritte and fallen for the Dragon Queen, but Kit Harington sure hasn’t. In a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly, the British star confessed that some of his most favourite scenes to shoot in Game of Thrones were the ones involving wife Rose Leslie.

Harington has had several stunning and crucial scenes to his credit with Jon Snow’s increasing importance in the show. But the initial scenes of Jon and Ygritte were also when the romance between him and Leslie was blooming, so naturally, those are extra special. Harington elaborates,

“I’ll always be proud of seasons 2 and 3 with [his wife Rose Leslie as Ygritte]. While I think there were storylines people enjoyed more, just when Rose and I are walking through the wilderness — those are some of the favourite shots I’ve done.”

But that’s not to say he isn’t equally proud of his other achievements, especially the superbly shot Battle of the Bastards. In his own words,

“I’m very proud of ‘The Battle of the Bastards,” the one [long continuous take of Jon Snow fighting] through the horses.

It is a stunning shot indeed. But Harington had also directly contributed to the conceptualization of one crucial feature in that sequence – the stampede scene. The writers had incorporated Harington’s real-life phobia of being trampled by many people in the script to create the extraordinary emotional impact that scene delivers.

But Season 8 is a different ball game altogether. The amount of care, precision, and time put into each and every scene have been unprecedented, says Harington.

“Every episode is big … it’s just more exhausting than it’s ever been. It’s relentless. What would have been a one-day shoot two years ago is now a five-day shoot. We’ve had walk-and-talks that would have been a half day end up being 3 or 4 days. That’s the scale of it. They really want to get it right. They want to shoot [every scene] every single way so they have options [during editing].”

That sure explains the long wait. But all this just makes us more excited for Sunday, April 14. What’s your favourite scene/s in Game of Thrones? Tell us in the comments below!

Game of Thrones is one of the most popular franchises in the world right now, and it has been, for a while now. Now, any modern popular franchise, especially one of a TV show, simply cannot escape memes. Game of Thrones memes are popular across all social media platforms (except maybe LinkedIn, but honestly, we haven’t checked.) Gendry rowing memes are a large subset of Game of Thrones memes, and the subject was also one of the longest lasting one. Now, actor Joe Dempsie, who plays Gendry, has said that he thinks they’re all his fault. Read on!

Joe Dempsie recently had an interview with Entertainment Weekly, as a part of their intense promotion for Game of Thrones Season 8. For those who might have skimmed through the show, Gendry is Robert Baratheon‘s bastard son, who was sent rowing by Ser Davos Seaworth for his own safety from Melisandre, back in Season 3. He only returned from his ‘cruise’ in Season 7. In the meantime, as his fate hung in the balance, Gendry was the subject of a lot of memes, kicked off by this tweet by Joe:

Still rowin’…#GoT

— Joe Dempsie (@joedempsie) June 18, 2014

About the memes that spun off from this tweet, Joe said with a laugh:

“It became my daily life. There was no escaping it.”

Gendry….still rowin’ pic.twitter.com/lInqgZpBag

— Lena Headey Gang (@lenaheadeygang) May 12, 2015

Joe said he wasn’t even sure of returning until he got the call:

“It almost felt like a new job because the influence and the impact of the show changed so much over those years. It was like getting a call out of the blue, saying, ‘Hey, so do you fancy stepping into the biggest TV show on the planet?’”

Still Rowin’ @joedempsie @GameOfThrones #GoT #GameofThrones pic.twitter.com/QEsPtvd8f3

— Catrina @ SWCC ?? (@ohcatrina) June 20, 2014

The memes were also sort of acknowledged by the show, with a meta joke about it, coming from Ser Davos:

Joe also talked about preparing for his return with a new sledgehammer as his weapon of choice:

“I spent probably three months like a psychopath in my garden, swinging a sledgehammer around. So I was the strongest I’ve ever been, trying to make a foam hammer look heavy.” 

Well, we surely are looking forward to where Gendry heads in Season 8, especially with his teeny tiny claim to the Iron Throne. What about you? Talk to us in the comments, down below!