It's a small Westeros after all. It's a small Westeros after all! [Extremely obnoxious Disneyland ride voice.] Maybe it's fate or maybe it's coincidence that brings these people, their family members, their friends, and companions together in different battles and adventures across the world of Game of Thrones. Jon Snow met Samwell Tarly at The Wall. Samuel Tarly met Jorah Mormont at the Citadel where he cured his greyscale. Jorah Mormont met Jon Snow at Dragonstone where they set off on a mission to The Wall. But even though we're in this serendipitous fantasy soap opera, none of these six degrees of Stark connections ever seem to be noticed. In fact, it's getting to a point where it feels like more of a plot hole or an oversight that these characters wouldn't discuss their mutual friends.
Let's consider a few of the reunions.
Gendry met Jon in Episode Five, and it would seem only natural that he would tell him that he's pretty close friends with Arya. The Hound, who met Jon at the end of the same episode, could tell him that he saw Littlefinger betray Ned Stark and also that he hung out with Sansa and Arya for a while. Why wouldn't Jon Snow tell Daenerys that he was pretty tight with Maester Aemon Targaryen, who cast the tie-breaking vote for him to become Lord Commander of the Night's Watch?
Jorah knows who Sam's family was and where he came from, so why didn't he tell Jon Snow that the two of them met at the Citadel and Sam cured his greyscale? Arya and Sansa literally just need to talk. They've both been through hell, and just filling each other in on the last few years would clear up most of the animosity between them. And Bran, of course, could tell everyone everything.
Bran I'm willing to forgive, because his withholding of information can be explained by it being part of the Three-Eyed Raven's plan (and his awkward magic teenage years). And I can understand why Jon doesn't tell Daenerys or Beric that he's died and come back to life. That's personal information!
But what the hell is going on with the rest of these? If we're to believe that these characters are traveling thousands of miles together between scenes, are we also supposed to believe that they sit in silence? During the long journey north to The Wall, did Gendry never think to point out that he knew Jon's sister? Did Jorah not feel the need to explain how he cured his horrible disease and why he was banished by Dany in the first place? Why couldn't Sansa explain to Arya that the reason she sleeps in Catelyn and Ned's room is because Jon insisted that she did?
These are all important relationships and meetings that are detailed furiously in both the books and the show. But they're just left as dead ends when these characters pretend they never happened. The problem is this show is moving too quickly for characters to have any sort of meaningful interaction. Consider the reunion of Tyrion and Jaime, one of the best relationships in the entire series. It was a brief, down-to-business interaction that did exactly what it needed to do and nothing more. No emotion, no small talk. But because this season has been cut down to seven episodes, writers can only include the bare minimum dialogue into episodes. That means most of the nuance, backstory, and characterization this show was known for gets cut for time.
In a lot of ways, it's a disservice to the characters and story that George R.R. Martin built to have the conclusion crammed into an abbreviated timeline. It's also a disservice to fans who remember these small meetings and who assume that a storyteller would tie together these fine threads. And sure, it's a lot to ask for realism from a show on which dragons exist and the main character was resurrected from the dead, but this is about crafting believable characters. Although these characters might exist in a fantasy world, they interacted with it and each other in a believable way.
I don't expect any of this to be resolved in the show, but this should make any fan more excited for Martin's eventual final books, where he'll take the time to finish this story the way it was meant to be told.
