The Atlantic

<em>Game of Thrones</em>: About That Cameo

<em>Wait, is that—?</em>
Source: Helen Sloan / HBO

Warning: Game of Thrones Season 7 spoilers ahead.

It starts with a song. Arya Stark, having just taken her revenge on the men who had slaughtered her relatives at the Red Wedding, is riding her horse through a tranquil forest in the Riverlands. The setting is idyllic: Sunshine streams through a light mist. There’s a babbling brook. There’s also, in the near distance, music: a man, dulcet of voice, singing. “And a chain and a keep are nothing,” the balladeer croons, “compared to a woman’s kiss, for hands of gold are always cold, but a woman’s hands are warm.”

Arya, intrigued, follows the strains of the song. She finds their source in a group of Lannister bannermen, clad in their armor and mail, gathered?

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