‘Game of Thrones’ season 4, episode 8: HBO releases new Emilia Clarke photo

HBO is certainly doing a good job burying the lead when it comes to Sunday night’s “Game of Thrones” episode “The Mountain and the Viper.” After all, they just released a whole new heap of photos, and none of them feature either the Mountain or the Viper (a.k.a. Oberyn Martell).

What we do have, though, is a first-look photo of Emilia Clarke as Dany, presiding seemingly over her throne in Meereen. What sort of challenges are going to await her now? She is starting to learn more and more about what it means to be a real ruler, and that means at times making some hard decisions. She’s had to do some of that already, and part of that included sending Daario out with the Second Sons in order to secure her empire properly.

The only person that is with her in this photo is her trusted adviser Missandei, who really hasn’t had much to do at all this season. As a matter of fact, she has basically been a human paperweight. Hopefully that changes, given that she was at one point one of the more interesting people on the show and we were so excited to see her join Team Dany at the start of season 3.

Given that there are only two episodes on this season after this one, our personal hope is that season 4 will at least end with some sort of evidence that Dany is preparing to cross the sea, and take on the Lannisters in King’s Landing. After all, doesn’t that have to take place eventually?

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Photo: HBO