When winter finally comes to the HBO epic with one last batch of episodes, it has a lot to answer for.
In the Season 7 finale
of “Game of Thrones,” Jon Snow and Daenerys Targaryen hooked up,
Viserion demolished the Wall, Arya killed Littlefinger and Jaime finally
left Cersei. By the end the show had boiled the roughly 9,000 subplots
it introduced over seven seasons down to two: Jon and Dany’s coalition
of the willing vs. Cersei and Euron the mad pirate. And the White
Walkers vs. everyone.
But things
are far from settled. When “Game of Thrones” returns for its eighth and
final season on April 14, here are a few of the questions it will need
to answer:
Emilia Clarke and Kit Harington as Daenerys Targaryen and Jon Snow.Photo by: HBO
Will Jon and Dany have their happily ever after?
Don’t
count on it. In the Season 8 premiere the new couple, last seen
entwined in their love boat, arrives at Winterfell (as seen in the trailer).
And who else is at Winterfell? Bran, who knows Jon is Dany’s nephew,
and Samwell Tarly, who knows that this gives Jon a better claim on the
Iron Throne than Dany. It’s enough to complicate any new romance.
Another
thing about Sam: His best friend Jon is now dating the same woman who
torched his father and brother last season. So that should be fun.
Lena Headey as Cersei Lannister.Photo by: Macall B. Polay/HBO
Who’s actually pregnant?
Cersei
spent so much time talking about her pregnancy, it started to seem
unlikely. Dany spent so much time saying she couldn’t get pregnant, she
started to seem pretty destined to get pregnant. Both would presumably
be incest babies, because somehow we’ve all been tricked into obsessing
over a big ol’ incest story.
Peter Dinklage as Tyrion Lannister.Photo by: Macall B. Polay/HBO
What’s Tyrion’s deal?
Long
one of the sharpest operators in this story, Tyrion has made one bad
decision after another since joining Team Targaryen. Is he just not cut
out for revolutionary leadership? Or is his apparent love for Dany
clouding his judgment? We saw him creeping outside Jon and Dany’s door
as they consummated their affection. What problems could that lead to
this season?
Nikolaj Coster-Waldau as Jaime Lannister.Photo by: Macall B. Polay/HBO
Whose side is Jaime on?
He finally left Cersei as the snow fell on King’s Landing, and the trailer
showed him in Northern garb and promising to “fight for the living.”
But he will almost certainly have another date with his sister before
this thing is over. Will she sway him to return? Or die by his (golden)
hand?
Maisie Williams and Sophie Turner as Arya and Sansa Stark in the Season 7 finale.Photo by: HBO
Who will live? Who will die?
Few
people of note died last season, presumably to leave room for plenty of
slaughter this time around. Everyone’s fate is up for grabs.
“Game
of Thrones” is broadly about the evolution from a dynastic, tribal
world defined by cycles of violence and revenge toward a more
humanistic, cooperative one equipped to confront big existential
challenges. So characters who have themselves become more enlightened
over the course of the story (Jon, Sansa, maybe even Jaime) seem safer
than those still nursing old grudges (Cersei, Arya, Dany).
Clarke as Daenerys Targaryen, with a friend.Photo by: HBO
Will Dany break mad?
Dany
tells everyone that she is not like her father, the Mad King. But she’s
largely defined by her messianic streak, a quality that in its most
extreme form can — much like Targaryens, we’re repeatedly reminded — go
either way. And while she has shown plenty of compassion (freeing
slaves, forgiving Jorah), she responds to slights with often shocking
cruelty (crucifying masters in Meereen, locking her handmaiden Doreah in
the vault, torching the Tarlys).
So considering the revelations awaiting her in Winterfell, this thing could be a powder keg.
Vladimir Furdik as the Night King.Photo by: HBO
Which big battle will happen first? The one for the Iron Throne or the one for the fate of humanity?
Now
that the Night King and friends have breached the Wall, they would seem
to be the more pressing concern. Jon, at least, is focused on the White
Walkers and seems to have convinced Dany’s camp and Sansa to go along
with this plan. Jaime seems to be on board, too.
Also,
all we’ve heard in the run-up to the final season is about the 55
nights of shooting and the unprecedented scale of the White Walker
clash, and according to HBO, the longest episode of the season is
actually the third one. (One hour, 22 minutes!)
So
maybe Night King first, then Cersei. Of course, a persistent theory has
the Night King being the one to win the whole thing, which is
technically possible but seems too cynical for a story that, while dark
and full of terrors, seems to be generally about moving into the light.
Viserion destroying the Wall.Photo by: HBO
If a living fire dragon and a zombie ice dragon blast each other, who wins?
I
believe it was the maester Cleatus the Melancholy who first postulated
in “Ice Magick and Dragon Fyre” that the heat generated by an adult
dragon is honestly who in the seven hells could possibly know? The clash
should be fun to watch, at any rate, until dragons start dying (or
re-dying, in Viserion’s case). And then it will be sad, because the
beasts didn’t ask to be born into this cruel and stupid world.
Will anyone actually win the Game of Thrones?
It’s right there in the title: This show is about a pan-global contest to win ultimate power.
But
is it really though? Hasn’t everything we’ve learned over the past
seven seasons — as this fevered pursuit has inspired all manner of
butchery and abuse, and destroyed families and relationships, and
empowered sadists, and turned the most magnificent creatures in the land
into nuclear weapons and led at least one formerly decent man to literally burn his daughter alive
(I’ll never forgive you HBO) — suggested that this contest is, in fact,
irredeemably toxic? Vegas will give you odds on the various contenders
(we had our own fun with this). But are we really supposed to root for
one of this story’s heroes to eventually sit upon the symbol of all that
is terrible?
Given this show’s defining knack for
upending expectations, the long-promised battle for control of the
kingdom seems sure to veer from the usual “good guys meet bad guys, blow
stuff up, suffer losses but prevail in the end” script. Wouldn’t the
ultimate swerve for “Game of Thrones” be to blow up the throne itself?
Maybe.
Or maybe Jon and Dany will be the beloved king and queen, and Tyrion,
Jaime and Arya will all get flowers and medals as in the ends of “Star
Wars” or “Lord of the Rings” or any number of more conventional fantasy
tales. Either way, game on.
Another thing about Sam: His best friend Jon is now dating the same woman who torched his father and brother last season. So that should be fun.
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