Game of Thrones episode 4 season 7: Dagger takes on new importance after Littlefinger gives it to Bran

*WARNING* This article contains spoilers for Game of Thrones season seven episode four

Roisin O'Connor
Monday 07 August 2017 09:12 BST
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Game of Thrones showrunners are messing with us, big time.

In episode four of season seven we see Petyr Baelish, AKA Littlefinger, give Bran a Valyrian dagger - the same one an assassin tried to kill him with in season one.

After fighting the assassin off (with the help of Bran's direwolf) Catelyn Stark brought the weapon with her to King's Landing where she gave it to Ned. After Ned's downfall, Littlefinger apparently picked it up and has been waiting for the moment he would be able to hand it over to Bran. He seems to trying to curry favour since the youngest Stark boy is basically the new Lord of Winterfell (as much as he insists he's the three-eyed raven).

Littlefinger explained that the dagger was essentially what started the War of the Five Kings, which isn't completely off the mark. After Littlefinger named Tryion as the dagger's owner, Catelyn was quick to take him prisoner. This led to Tywin's invasion of the Riverlands. Jump to a couple of year's later and look at the mess everyone has on their hands.

Of course this is far too simple an explanation, especially for Game of Thrones, but there's enough weight to the theory to give the dagger this much importance.

Bran has now given it to Arya, claiming a "cripple" has no use for it, and we saw her putting it to the test in a tense training session with Brienne of Tarth.

Remember Chekhov's gun, as well (if you have a loaded rifle on the stage you'd better damn well use it). Given the amount of screentime it was given in the latest episode, it seems impossible that it won't be used in the next few episodes.

Valyrian steel is one of two materials that can kill White Walkers, so it's likely that Arya may find it useful in future. It also seems that she may have added a new name to her 'list', after we saw her giving Littlefinger a very chilly glare towards the end of episode four.

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