This live blog is now concluded

03.37: But until then, I will take my leave of you, the icy spear of fatigue pircing my thick dragon hide of productivity as I gracefully slide into the frozen lake of endless slumber.

I guess the Night King is my alarm?

Anyway, see you next week for the very last season 7 live blog. But as you go, let us sing a song of remembrance for one taken too soon.

We'll miss you Viserion - I hope there are terrified baby goats for you to hunt in dragon heaven.

Game of Thrones Season 7 premieres on Mondays on Sky Atlantic and NOW TV at 2am, repeated at 9pm

03.35: Summing up time. I really enjoyed this week's episode - terrific action, some genuinely spine-chilling and emotional moments and great plot progression. But I do also take people's point about the plot seeming a little more rushed these days (it still feels quite random that this group of Westerosi Avengers would come together for no reason, especially someone like the Hound), and the Arya/Sansa storyline leaves me colder than Viserion's heart (too soon?)

Anyway, glad that it's finally out there officially and HBO can stop pretending nobody's seen it. Now there's only 7 days to wait until the finale - unless of course you watched this episode a few days ago, in which case your greed merely left you with a longer wait. That showed you.

03.31: Quick note: if you’d like to see Sansa and Arya getting on a little better, actors Sophie Turner and Maisie Williams are doing a Carpool Karaoke (that Apple spin-off of the James Corden thing), singing their hearts out and surprising fans.

See kids? Sisters can get along.

03.29: The Night King to Viserion be like...

03.25: Trailer for next week's episode is here - (pretty much) all the major players come together for the first time! Sansa walks around looking moody in a cloak! Jon wears entirely weather-inappropriate clothing! Looks great.

03.22: Suffice it to say, I am not too happy with my houseguest tonight...

You don't steal a person's dragon, man. That's just bad manners.

03.20: And that's the end of the episode! Wow, that was a pretty packed one. And now only one left. Sad.

03.19: Here's that moment again in case you missed it...

I got chills.

03.18: And by that I mean, he rose the dead dragon as a wight! Argh that's cool. So now he can ride it, and....presumably melt down the big icy wall? Or will it be an ice dragon instead of a fire dragon?

03.17: Ohhhh damn - he woke the dragon!

03.15: Back up north(er) and the wights are doing an impromptu recreation of the opening scene from the modern Les Mis film. You know, the one with Hugh Jackman? Dragging out Viserion's body....but why??

03.14: Dany pledged to help Jon, Jon called her....Dany! Which is cute, but possibly nonsensical given that literally nobody calls her that in-show any more.

Maybe he just heard her say "Ben DA-KNEE" so often it just slipped out.

Anyway he's pledging to bend the knee for reals now, calls her his queen and so on. Very nice.

03.12: Jon's awake and flirting, as per. What is he like.

Well, I say flirting. Commiserating with a grieving mother really, but in my experience that's usually more or less the same thing.

03.10: In fairness to Sansa, Arya is being weirdly creepy. I guess most of the people she's hung out with over the last few years have been like that, so maybe they rubbed off on her. Talking about living in Sansa's skin and whatnot.

03.09: Oh joy, back to the Sansa/Arya subplot. Sansa has now found Arya's bag of creepy faces.

03.08: But hey, at least it got him back to the Wall so he could show off his sculpted absIMEANSIGNIFICANTSTABWOUNDS to Daenerys.

03.06: Poor old Benjen, swamped by White Walkers. Fair to say that when it came to the Night King, he didn't...

OK, look, you try coming up with Benjen puns at short notice.

03.05: Benjen's come to save Jon! They haven't seen each other since season one, and now they're already apart! Blimey. Reunions coming thick and fast.

03.04: Jon is still alive though, in case there was any doubt of that. Just taggering around in full view of White Walkers. Surely the Night's Watch taught him better than that.

03.02: One of Dany's dragons is DEAD. The Night King took him out with a SINGLE SPEAR THROW. Oh my God. Now he's angling for Drogon...

Luckily, Drogon's been playing a lot of Starfox and knows how to do a barrel roll. But they left Jon behind! This was not a successful mission.

03.01

WHAT

03.00: Ooh-er, looks like the Night King has something planned here...

02.59: Dany and her dragons are here to save the day! Argh this is cool. Even cooler than the Lannister attack thing. Though it does make you wonder why they didn't just fly up there in the first place...

02.58: As another wildling dies, Jon has one of the quiet sad battle moments that he's so fond of. Concentrate on the fighting you goon.

02.57: Oh no, is Tormund a goner too? He needs to get back for Brienne!

Ah, the Hound has saved him. Finally Brienne owes him one.

02.56: There goes another wildling redshirt.

02.55: They have all powered up their supercool weapons, and battling for their lives. Frankly, it looks amazing.

02.54: The Hound is not making the best use of his time on the lake.

Ohhhh but he showed them the ice was frozen enough to cross! Ohhhh, ohhhh...

02.51: Pretty exciting episode so far lads. And feel like it's only gonna get better....unless there are way more Sansa/Arya scenes.

02.49: Now another advert break. Can tell this is a longer episode, there've normally been more by this point in the night. Apparently next week is the longest yet though, so something to look forward to there.

02.48: Blimey, Daenerys got that raven quick. Now she's found some lovely couture winter clothing and is saddling up her dragons to go and save Jon. Yaaaaay.

02.45: Seems like if the gang (I'm just gonna keep calling them that) take down the Night King, all the wights will drop dead. Maybe even the other White Walkers! Worth a punt.

But for now, back to Sansa, now sending Brienne away. Terrr-rific.

02.43: Poor old Thoros and his manbun. They were out of the series for a few years, but he wasn't forgotten.

02.42: Gendry's gone looking for Ravens and the gang are still surrounded by wights....but oh no! Thoros has died! Slept away in the frozen night. That's actually quite sad.

Also, no hope for Beric and Jon to be resurrected any more.

02.39: Hilariously, all the wights are collapsing through the ice. That's global warming for you.

Gendry keeps on going - run Rivers, run! If you keep going you just might save the...

(yes, I've been waiting for a while to shoehorn that in).

o2.38: Er so now Gendry is just....running....back to Eastwatch to send for help while the others go and hide on a frozen lake. Here comes the running from the trailer!

Love the running.

02.37: Go Jon! Killed another White Walker, and most of the wights dropped like battle droids.

One they do have just did a zombie scream to his pals though...oh dear oh dear.

02.36: The gang have come across a patrol of undead - finally, they might have caught a break. Not too many, probably the easiest way to get a handy portable wight as a conversation piece.

02.35: Thoros and Jorah reminiscing about their time together during the Greyjoy rebellion. Very romantic. Well, I think it's romantic.

02.33: Thoros is in a bad way, but carrying on. Now Sansa is worrying about Arya. Sigh.

Still, good to see SOMEONE call out the "wind-vane" loyalty of the northern lords.

Oh no, is Littlefinger turning Sansa against Brienne now? Ugh.

02.29: Are there two wight bears? Hopefully the guys can make it through anyway...

Ouch, Thoros is getting Revenant-ed!

02.28: We're back beyond the wall, bonny lads - and our heroes are faced by a scary, blue-eyed bear! Does that mean it's undead?

Oh damn! It grabbed someone right out!

02.25: Little does Daenerys know she has a handy nephew to turn to when it comes to the succession...

Shame he's so dreamy.

02.23: And now the first advert break!

02.22: Oh, now Tyrion's asking something I've always wondered - who does Dany intend to rule after she dies? Especially considering she doesn't think she can have kids any more.

Dany's gone a bit Elizabeth I and stormed out.

"We will discuss the succession when I wear the crown." Ooh-er.

02.21: Tyrion and Dany arguing over her temper tantrums. Dany seems to be about 6 seconds away from firing up the barbecue.

02.19: Ha, Daenerys was just making fun of Jon's height in front of Tyrion...awkward.

02.17: You could also call that conversation...

(This episode is running me through my memes rather quickly. I'll try to hold some back for the final straight).

02.16: Oh and now Jon and Beric are bonding. How lovely.

02.15: Haha, Tormund and the Hound chatting about Tormund's love....Brienne! Of course, the Hound has some rather different strong emotions about his old sparring partner...

02.14: Not a fan of the forced Arya/Sansa battling. It...

02.10: Now more of this "Arya vs Sansa" storyline, which really does feel a bit unlikely and story padding.

Both arguing about who's had the harder time. Arya giving Sansa a good telling-off about her part in her dad's death, which I actually forgot about - she told Cersei about his plans to flee!

02.07: Jon tries to give Jorah back his family sword, Jorah says no. Heartwarming, but feels like they could have chatted about this on the boat.

Also, weirdly, there are a LOAD of stylish promo shots of Jorah in the official episode images this week, and he's looking good. The MODEL of a good Knight, you might say...

02.06: "This one's been killed 6 times, you don't see him bitching about it." - the Hound's response to a whining Gendry.

Now Jorah and Jon are chatting. Everyone's pairing up tonight, how pleasant.

02.05: Tormund reminding Jon of how Mance Rayder's lack of knee-bending didn't do the wildlings much good. He must have noticed that subtle callback the other week as well...

02.04: Here they are, Beyond the Wall. Gendry, having never even seen snow, is struggling. Tormund's advice? Get, er, close to one another for warmth.

02.02: Still incredibly hyped to see Eastwatch in the opening credits.

02.00: All-new Game of Thrones with strong language! Here we gooooo

01.56: Can't believe I haven't included Kit Harington's dragon impression in this blog yet.

I mean, JEEEZE, one pet of a dragon and he thinks he's one of them. ?‍♀️ #youknownothingjonsnow #butyoudoknowhowtonotgetblownoffacliffingaleforsewindssotheresalwaysthat ? #everypunaboutwindicanthinkofinserthere ?

A post shared by @emilia_clarke on Aug 17, 2017 at 12:11pm PDT

Rectified.

01.52: Less than 10 minutes to go now!

01.47: Not long to go now - but if you want a more thorough recap of last week's episode before you watch the new one, here's our weekly post mortem of the latest Westerosi happenings.

I'm the one in the incredibly authentic black cloak.

01.35: Glad you stuck around through the suspense.

Basically my position on the travel time thing is that it doesn't really matter too much. The show has always had a slightly flexible relationship with travel times (that jetpack joke actually originates with how much Littlefinger zipped around in series two), and in the early years it stretched out journeys because they also functioned as storytelling journeys, changing the characters as we got to know them.

Now, the journeys can't all be action-packed, emotional affairs and most characters have already been through their major personal arcs anyway. All we'd see if the journeys were spaced out now is Jon and Jorah making smalltalk on a boat, and frankly I'd rather keep that on the fanfiction forums.

01.29: While we're chilling here, feels like I should bring up one of the biggest problems people have with this series - the uber-fast travel times that have made many viewers wonder whether everyone suddenly got their hands on medieval jetpacks.

After years of characters spending many episodes (if not whole seasons) travelling across the country, this year has seen the likes of Jon zip from one end of the continent to the other in the space of a scene break, and many fans aren't happy with this inconsistency.

Personally, though, I have a slightly different take. But what could it be???

01.18: Bored and looking for something to watch while the wait for Game of Thrones stretches on? This Westeros-themed musical rewriting of Bohemian rhapsody (presumably performed by Queen of the Andals and the First Men) is something I just discovered, and I'm already obsessed with it.

(sorry for any rude words)

01.10: I'll just leave this here.

1.07: Almost forgot to talk about Bronn after last week's episode! Gotta love Bronn, and his endless pursuit for his one true love - a castle to call his own.

Still a better love story than Twilight, as the saying goes.

1.00: Only an hour to go! Time to crack open a cold one with the lads and get settled in for the night.

00.57: This, but for staying up until 2am for it as well. The sacrifices I make for my art.

00.52: Apologies if the updates are a little slow this week gang. We have Grumkins and snarks in our wiring.

00.48: Happier times for Melisandre, there. Is she even going to be in the series again this year?

00.35: It's just hit me that after this week, we only have ONE episode left for this whole season. One! And it feels like it's going to be a very long wait for the final series.

00.32: Can't believe I forgot one of the greatest parts of last week's episode - the return of Gendry, last seen rowing off the show in season three and now back to join Jon on his wight hunt.

For years, fans had wondered where Gendry had rowed off to, and while it's good to see him back it's also sad to say goodbye to that top, top banter.

You will not be forgotten.

00.27: For tonight's special north of the Wall episode, I also have a special guest on my sofa - the Night King himself! Say hi to the folks at home.

Don't mind him, he's a little shy.

00.15: Oh, and there was ALSO of course the part where Daenerys decided to throw a few enemies on the Barbie, roasting the Tarlys (though she did have the good grace not to laugh at Dickon's name) much to the chagrin of Tyrion and Varys.

Here's a little recreation of that memorable moment I made at VERY short notice this time last week. You're welcome.

00.11: Still, before all that we should take a look back at last week's episode, which seems oh so long ago. We got a reunion between Jaime and Tyrion, Jon's first interaction with a dragon and perhaps the biggest revelation of the series yet - the fact that Jon may actually be the rightful king of all Westeros, instead of Dany.

We know, our minds are still reeling too.

00.04: Here's the trailer for tonight's episode, to give us a flavour of what to expect.

In short - loads of ice zombies, lots of running. Can't wait.

23.59: Still, if you're here with me tonight (I'm Huw by the way, not sure if I said that - hi) then I can only assume you're a fan who remained pure for tonight's episode, and for that I salute you. Adventure awaits!

23.58: Yes, I am of course referring to the latest in the year's HBO leak saga, which hit a new nadir today (or a new high, depending on your outlook) when HBO Spain accidentally aired tonight's episode about four days too early.

Nope, this wasn't the hackers who stole scripts or the Star India people who were previously in trouble for leaking episode four - this was HBO itself (or at least, one of its regional versions) that dropped the ball, allowing fans to rip the episode in full HD quality a big chunk of time before the episode was due to air.

Even episode four's leak, which only came out on the Friday before in poor quality, wasn't this bad - all over the internet people have been sharing the episode, talking about its major plot points and making jokes at the expense of HBO, even mocking them with characters from Game of Thrones itself.

23.50: Okay, campers, rise and shine and don't forget your booties 'cause it's cold out there today!

And by "out there" I (and indirectly Danny Rubin and Harold Ramis) am of COURSE talking about Beyond the Wall, the main setting for tonight's episode of Game of Thrones as well as its title. How convenient.

In this week's adventure we'll be joining Westeros' very own Suicide Squad Jon Snow, Jorah Mormont, Tormund Giantsbane, The Hound, Beric Dondarrian, Gendry River, Thoros of Myr and, er, a few unnamed wildlings (cough cannon fodder cough) as they head into the wilds to capture a wight - one of the White Walkers' reanimated zombie footsoldiers - and finally prove the army of the dead's existence to the rest of Westeros. Or as I like to call it, the Resteros.

Deadly dangers are sure to ensue - but before all that, it's fair to say that HBO (who make the series in the States) have faced a few horrors themselves this week...