Winter is Coming (GoT is back)

[mvd10]

Spoilers alert


'Hey Dave the Dorne plotline sucked last year so I have an idea'
'I am listening Dan'
'Let's just kill all Dorne characters!'
'You mean all of them?!'
'No, only the ones that were well received'
'Great I'll shot it today'

Well I suppose everyone has always suspected the Melisandre thing, but to see it...

[mvd10]

Do you guys think that Tyrion's "there are other ways to determine succession" talk with Dany is meant to foreshadow some kind of new post-war political arrangement that will emerge at the end of the story, whereby Westeros (or whatever's left of it) ditches the current power structure in favor of some more egalitarian method of choosing leadership?  It came off to me as a clumsy attempt at such foreshadowing.

Or maybe it's meant to make us remember than Daenerys can't have children, so we're even more surprised when she gets children after banging someone (cough Jon cough). Then again, if she bangs Jon in episode 7 (cmon, that's just too obvious) we'll only know whether she is pregnant in season 8. So it would have made more sense to include the succession talk in season 8 if it's a red herring.

Back the first episode of this season -does anyone think Tyrion (for personal reasons) deliberately sent the Greyjoys and the Martells to their doom in full knowledge that Euron and his ships were waiting for them?  I find it hard to believe that he proved to be so incompetent in light of how well he conducted the defense of Kings Landing during the Battle of Blackwater.  What he did only makes sense if he held a grudge against Theon for betraying the Starks and sending Bran and Rickon to their deaths (he didn't yet know that Bran survived), and Ellaria and her Sand Snakes for poisoning Myrcella. 

In the books Euron very likely has some magical abilities, so maybe that explains why he's able to catch everyone by surprise. The show never mentioned anything about Euron's dragonhorn though, so maybe they took away all of his magical abilities in the show and changed him into viking Ramsey. But the first time we met Euron Balon said that Euron lost his mind during a storm at the jade sea. The jade sea is really far away (Asshai is somewhere there) and apparently all the magical stuff happens there. And perhaps something supernatural caused Euron to lose his mind because I can't really see an Ironborn losing his mind during a storm.

[mvd10]

Now that we know for certain that Jamie Lannister isn't going to be the Valonqar snuffing the life from Queen Cersei, that leaves two possibilities:

1. Sandor 'the Hound' Clegane (someone has to kill the Mountain to get at the Queen)

2. Arya Stark (Winterfell is admittedly a long ways away from Kings Landing, but it's the show....)

Which of the two do you think is more likely to do the deed? Or do they act together as a team once they meet up again?

And of course, one also has to factor in that Kings Landing is likely to be an active war zone as betrayal is met with betrayal, and the Golden Company (secretly already in alliance with Daenerys and Aegon Targaryen -assuming it is anything like the book version) turns on Cersei.  

It also could be Euron betraying Cersei. Maybe he hires the faceless men to kill Cersei (it could be someone with Arya's face or perhaps Jaqen will show up at Winterfell and try to convince Arya to do it). Euron is Balon's younger brother.

But I still think it will be Jaime who kills Cersei, it would be a good end to his arc. I do hope they have bigger plans for Jaime though. Perhaps Bran is the Night King after all and Jaime negotiates a peace with the White Walkers (people think Jaime ending the Riverrun conflict peacefully instead of charging the castle like he would have done before he lost his land hinted at this). Jaime and Bran negotiating the final peace would be amazing, and it would also be interesting to see how far the characters have come (Jaime started out as a huge villain and Bran as an innocent child, but perhaps the roles are reversed after Jaime's redemption and the reveal that Bran is the Night King). It would be poetic. I read this theory once on Reddit btw.

The Lord of Light apparently is Aeksio Onos in Valyrian (the show released some Valyrian words) while Aeksion Ondos means ... Golden Hand! Jaime = Lord of Light confirmed . Anyway, I really like Jaime's redemption story in the books and I hope the show and the final books do justice to it (this is another reason why I HATE the Tormund-Brienne romance, it should be Jaime and Brienne ).

[mvd10]

There are various minor characters who are still alive but who could, conceivably, not be shown again, depending on what the endgame focuses on.  What do you think is the probability that we'll ever again see the following characters?:

1) Daario
2) Meera Reed
3) Howland Reed (have still only seen him in a flashback)
4) Robin Arryn
5) Edmure Tully
6) Gendry
7) Dolorous Edd
8 ) Sam's mother
9) Hot Pie
10) Nymeria

1) Daario 10%
2) Meera Reed 90%
3) Howland Reed 90%
4) Robin Arryn 50%
5) Edmure Tully 50%
6) Gendry 100%
7) Dolorous Edd 100%
8 ) Sam's mother 10%
9) Hot Pie 5%
10) Nymeria 25%