SPOILER WARNING: This article talks about events at the end of Season 7 of Game Of Thrones. If you are not caught up, hie thee to a television screen and watch it. Or run. RUN! For the cold hand of the Spoiler King is reaching for you. Just kidding. But won't you be annoyed if you ruin it for yourself?
Season 7 of Game Of Thrones has come to a suitably epic ending — gathering most of the characters together for a chinwag/warning about the threat of the Night King and his chilly undead army, offing Littlefinger and thanks to his convenient ice-fire-breathing dragon, the not-so-mythical leader of the White Walkers is now advancing on the rest of Westeros. There were dangling plot threads left, and a 'revelation' about Jon Snow – sorry, Aegon Targaryen – that most people had figured out long before Bran Stark could whisper the name. So where does this all leave Season 8? What questions do we have, and what do we want to see? Read on...
When will Game Of Thrones Season 8 arrive?
The air date has yet to be announce by HBO but it's looking extremely possibly that it won't be next year. According to reports, an extended production schedule — not scheduled to start until October — means a longer hiatus for the show. We most likely won't get to see how it ends until 2019.
Will six episodes really be enough to finish everything off?
Who knows? Finales of shows as ambitious and sprawling as Thrones are incredibly difficult to pull off. And there are so many stories in play, even as the creators have started to collapse the universe down into the core battles, that surely you'd need a full-length season. Still, if many of the episodes are going to be as long as The Dragon And The Wolf, perhaps there will just be enough time to cover everything, even where the hell Ser Pounce has been up to all this time. Our guess? Marking the Iron Throne with cat wee so even he has a claim to it.
What will be the fallout from the revelations about Jon?
Now we know that the former bastard is actually the legitimate offspring of Rhaegar Targaryen and Lyanna Stark (Ned's younger sister), and the apparent real heir to the Iron Throne to boot, where does this leave newly mingling lovebirds Jon Snow and Daenerys "I thought I was the last" Targaryen? Obviously there will be plenty of huge consequences, even if everyone conveniently waves away the fact that an aunt is bedding her nephew (it's Westeros, these things happen). This changes the power dynamic, but is an expositional time bomb just waiting to go off in both their faces. This also puts Jon at the centre of a lot of prophecy. And with Dany's fertility a less-than-subtle topic of conversation in the finale, perhaps a new generation of Targaryens could be on the way?
What was with Tyrion's look at the end?
It's tough to tell with him. He could be distraught that someone else will have Dany's ear. He could be pining for the Mother Of Dragons. Or perhaps he's just concerned that they'll be too busy making doe eyes at each other to focus on battling the Night King. The other possibility is that he's already aware of Jon's parentage and his expression reflected the ick factor of Snow bedding Auntie Daenerys. It's unclear where he'd have uncovered that information, though, so let's just assume it was a portentous glower with no sinister motive attached.
When will Bran be more useful?
Good question. So far, his super powers of sight beyond sight (TM and copyright Lion-O from Thundercats) has amounted to a bit of scouting for the Night King's movements, and a lot of learning backstory that seems crucially important then not sharing it. It took Sam's arrival at Winterfell in the finale (partly prompted by what Gilly dug up in the Septon's diary) to have him actually spill useful info about Jon's past and potential future. Bit late there, Bran lad. Maybe he'll make up for it by showing off some other supernatural skills. After all, the Army of the Dead are about to start knocking on doors like the world's worst Jehovah's Witnesses.
What will happen with Cersei's plan to wait out the fighting?
The typically traitorous Lannister leader went back on her word, and is busy having a new army of mercenaries shipped across the sea by crafty Euron. So she'll be well armed when whoever wins the battle of the North comes a-calling.
And what of Jaime?
Cersei was in a surprisingly reticent mood when it came to killing her brothers in the finale, and both survived encounters with her. But as Jaime rode off to parts unknown, turning his back on her after she refused to fight with the rest of her living brethren against the Army of the Dead, his future was left more uncertain. Will he join Jon and co? What will he tell them? We'd guess she knows he could squeal on her, and is prepared for that eventuality. Or she just doesn't care as long as her unborn child is safe.
Will we get a dragon vs. dragon battle?
It seems almost inevitable. With the Night King commanding the zombified Viserion and Dany still possessing two dragons, the stage is surely set for a confrontation. And Jon has shown an affinity for the animals, likely thanks to his family connections, so perhaps they'll team up to take down the frosty bastard and his undead dragon mount.
Can other stories expect closure?
You mean such as Arya seeing the hound again? Brienne and Tormund finally going on a date? Seeing Ser Poun... (you've done this one – ed.) The answer to all of those smaller dangling thread questions is maybe at this point. We're sure there will be more reunions to come as the majority of the characters make their way north to battle the Night King. Thrones' writers have shown a knack for squeezing in small, character-laden moments into big episodes, so fingers crossed your favourite encounter is catered to in the rush to the end.
Can Theon hope to take on Euron?
We don't really know who to root for in that clash – okay, Theon by a whisker – but he's clearly out of for vengeance and on a quest to save his sis from the cockiest man in Westeros. All we really want is someone to wipe the smug look of Euron's face. If that's Theon — now among the least cocky men in Westeros — then we're fine with it.
Who is coming for The Mountain?
Sandor Clegane strode up to his brother, the dead-but-not-quite Gregor in The Dragon And The Wolf and informed him that he knows who's coming for him. Given Gregor's – AKA The Mountain – many crimes (rape, murder, assassination, skull-crushing etc.) the list of people looking to exact justice is near endless. Dany has reason to hate him for what he did to her brother, and then there is everyone he's encountered since... Side note: we hope it's Arya so we can sing, "she'll be coming for The Mountain when she comes..." We're silly like that.