Game of thrones season 7 episode 4: Showrunners discuss those mysterious cave paintings

'We learn from these cave painting that the White Walkers didn’t come up with those images'

Game of Thrones’ fourth episode this season was arguably the best hour of television seen this year, featuring everything we Watchers love: dragons, battles and awkward reunions.

** Spoilers for ‘The Spoils of War’ ahead **

Following the episode, the showrunners discussed the paintings seen in the Dragonstone cave by Jon and Danny, detailing where the idea for the symbols came from.

“It's supposed to be something that’s very evocative of the thousands of years that have passed since those caves were first explored and the paintings were first made,” David Benioff said.

“And it’s quite relevant to the current storyline about how these two disparate peoples united to defeat a common enemy.”

Speaking about how the messages link with what we’ve seen before, Benioff explained how one of the geometric shapes was seen at the very beginning of season one when an array of bodies was seen, placed into a certain shape by the White Walkers.

“One of the things we learn from these cave painting is that the White Walkers didn’t come up with those images, they derived them from their creators, the Children of the Forrest.

“These are patterns that have mystical significance for the Children of the Forrest, but we’re not sure exactly what they signify. Spiral patterns have a lot of significance in our world, and it makes sense that they would in that world as well.”

During the same episode we saw two Starks finally reunite, one person almost drown, and some major callbacks in Winterfell.