Game of Thrones Season 7 was chock full of battle sequences that the show had been building to for many years, ranging from the loot train massacre when Dany unleashed her dragons on Westeros to Jon and Co.'s desperate fight against the wights north of the Wall. One battle came as something of a surprise. The siege at Casterly Rock in which the Unsullied were duped by Lannister forces came to a definitive conclusion, but one Game of Thrones star revealed to CinemaBlend how that particular conflict changed how the Unsullied fight now that winter has come. Jacob Anderson plays Unsullied leader Grey Worm, and he had this to say:
I think there's definitely a sense in the Casterly Rock siege when the Unsullied take Casterly Rock. Well, they think they take Casterly Rock. I think that there was definitely a thing about it being more improvisational, because they haven't really fought these sort of armored soldiers before. So I think it was a lot tougher for them to maneuver a castle and maneuver people that are wearing metal and steel and all these things. They're pretty diverse in terms of their fighting styles, the Unsullied, because it's all they've ever known. So I think they're kind of ready to fight any sort of type of soldier that they can, but they need a bit of an readjustment period. They've got sleeves now! So that's good. We didn't have sleeves before, so maybe that helps.
Jacob Anderson spoke with CinemaBlend ahead of the Blu-ray and DVD release of the complete seventh season of Game of Thrones, which will be available at the HBO Shop and retailers everywhere starting on December 12. As Grey Worm, Anderson was part of one of the most unexpected battles of the entire seventh season. Viewers had become accustomed to seeing the Unsullied destroying their opponents, and Dany's defeat had been difficult to imagine so long as she had the Unsullied on her side. In the Casterly Rock conflict, Grey Worm and the Unsullied expected to face thousands and thousands of Lannister soldiers. Instead, they found themselves challenged by a meager number of fighters, as Casterly Rock had been used as a distraction by Jamie, who instead led the bulk of the Lannister forces into the Reach to take out Highgarden.
Euron Greyjoy had a part to play as well, sailing his fleet into the bay outside of Casterly Rock and burning what remained of Dany's fleet, more or less stranding the Unsullied at a stronghold that they couldn't possible hold. Fierce as the Unsullied are, they were simply not prepared for the ways of fighting and strategizing in Westeros, and they paid the price. The good news for Grey Worm (and Dany) as the Great War approaches from the North and Cersei prepares for a sneak attack from the south is that the Unsullied just needed a "readjustment period" after Casterly Rock to recover.
Jacob Anderson went on to tell me how Grey Worm and the other Unsullied will have needed to change after the siege of Casterly Rock:
It's not very often that you see Grey Worm get angry, per se. He definitely has moments of frustration, but he's always quite a measured person... and so that's one of the few times that you see him getting angry. Definitely that thing of having to think on the spot because they're used to just being... They're like the greatest fighters in the world. So to suddenly be met with that was a shock. The way I see it is that they weren't necessarily outsmarted, it's just that period wasn't thinking far enough ahead. That's definitely I think the way Grey Worm was seeing that.
The years of intense training that prepared the Unsullied for all the fighting that Essos had to offer was not enough for what they were to face in Westeros. Their skills are still almost certainly unparalleled in the world of Game of Thrones, but they can't just rely on those skills in Westeros. Thinking on their feet could help avoid any other crushing defeats in what remains of the series. The stakes have never been higher than now that everybody on Team Dany will be facing enemies on two fronts, and she'll need the Unsullied at their best. Something tells me Grey Worm won't allow himself or the other Unsullied to be as shocked as they were at Casterly Rock ever again. Then again, they are facing a horde of ice zombies... we'll have to wait and see.
We may be waiting quite a while for what happens next on Game of Thrones, but you can rewatch everything that happened in Season 7 and check out some killer special features in the complete seventh season of Game of Thrones on Blu-ray and DVD on December 12. Isaac Hempstead Wright, who plays Bran Stark, also spoke to CinemaBlend about Game of Thrones, so be sure to check out what he had to say about that big Jon Snow reveal.
For what else you can watch in the coming weeks, take a look at our fall TV guide and our 2018 midseason TV premiere schedule. Not all series are lucky enough to enjoy the ratings that Game of Thrones has over the years, and our breakdown of 2017 TV cancellations can show some of the projects that got the axe over the past year.
