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After seven weeks, Game of Thrones’ penultimate season is about to come to an end.
[Warning: The following will contain spoilers for Game of Thrones seventh season.]
Much has happened these past seven weeks. Jaime Lannister tried to fight a dragon, Daenerys Targaryen lost one of her children in a reckless decision and Jon Snow finally bent the knee. It’s been an exciting season, albeit full of fan service moments that often feel a little forced and eye-roll inducing. With the exception of Viserion’s death, there still hasn’t been a gasp-inspiring, hands clamped over mouth in horror scene, and it feels like we’re long overdue for a memorable, catastrophic act.
We’ve already broken down who we think is going to bite the dust in the finale, but what about other predictions? With so many storylines finally intertwining, with characters meeting each other for the first time or being reunited, there’s bound to be an explosion of actions, remarks and decisions that catch us off-guard. For now, all we can do is predict what’s about to happen, using the information we’ve been given and the abundance of theories available at our fingertips.
Here are five predictions for Game of Thrones’ season seven finale.
Daenerys and Jon’s relationship will be explained
We’ve known for a while that Jon and Daenerys are related. HBO confirmed the familial connection in a graphic released after the show had it’s season six finale last year. Still, the show hasn’t informed Daenerys that she’s Jon’s aunt — making their inevitable night of passionate love making a little more cringe-worthy, but giving Dany and Cersei a common similarity to bond over.
Game of Thrones has anticipated this moment for some time, with fans theorizing about Jon Snow’s true parentage long before it was confirmed in a graphic and in a vision Bran had as the Three-Eyed Raven. We’ve been waiting for this conversation for what seems like an absurd amount of time. It’s about time Jon and Danaerys find out; there’s no reason for showrunners D.B. Weiss and David Benioff to continue withholding this information. Look at the number of wink-wink-nudge-nudge lines of dialogue we’ve been endured episode after episode this season. Tell them already!
Still, one factor makes me concerned this conversation won’t happen: Bran. Bran is all the way in Winterfell, and he may very well still be hanging out under the tree where we saw him last, chilling out and keeping an eye on all of Westeros. Although Game of Thrones has picked up the pace this season and distances are being traveled at unprecedented speeds, how would Jon and Bran have time to meet up, talk about what the younger Stark saw in his vision at the Tower of Joy, and still have time for Jon to rendezvous with Daenerys and Cersei to discuss the horde of bloodthirsty White Walkers making their way south? We know that Jon and Daenerys went south to join Cersei, Jaime and their King’s Landing army, but we haven’t been given any hint that Jon goes home to Winterfell this episode.
There is hope that Cersei will side with Jon and Daenerys, leading the King in the North to make his way back to Winterfell and have a conversation with Bran. My anxiety over this secret won’t go away until this conversation is had. My only hope is that it happens before Jon and Daenerys cave in to their sexual needs and intimate desires. One incestuous couple is more than enough for Game of Thrones.
Littlefinger will die
Of all these predictions, Littlefinger’s death seems the most inevitable, second to the White Walkers becoming an actual threat to the people of Westeros south of the Wall.
Littlefinger may have been able to keep Sansa under his spell and worm his way into an important role in Winterfell, but Arya is a different story. He’s been trying to convince the sisters they can’t trust each other, and to an extent, it’s worked. Arya and Sansa are a bickering pair, each quick to point out the flaws in the other’s character. Being apart for six seasons and morphing into different versions of themselves (or in Arya’s case, transforming into whoever’s face she’s wearing) has made them strangers to each other. It seemed like Littlefinger’s plan had worked.
Then last week’s episode changed everything. Arya gave Sansa the Catspaw dagger, a piece of Valyrian weaponry that we’ve been keeping an eye on all season. Remember, this was the dagger that an assassin used in the attempt on Bran’s life that Littlefinger claimed belonged to Tyrion. Littlefinger took the weapon and then returned it to Bran this season. Bran, having no use for it, gave it to Arya, who handed it over to Sansa. The dagger has made its way through the Stark family, but the intention Arya seems to have for it is clear: kill Littlefinger.
After all of the suffering that Littlefinger put Sansa through, both directly and indirectly, nothing would be sweeter than allowing her the revenge of plunging the dagger through Littlefinger’s ice cold heart. Arya, a skilled assassin, would watch from the shadows, gleaming with pride at her sister’s ability to defend herself and the Stark name.
Littlefinger’s death has been a long time coming and, being killed with the same dagger he gifted the Stark family, is a slice of poetic justice that Game of Thrones could use this season.
The White Walkers will break through the Wall
I think this .gif sums it up best.
The White Walkers have been making their way south for years. When they took on Jon Snow, his band of misfits and Daenerys’ dragons, they were already close to the Wall. We know Gendry ran about 60 miles to send raven to Daenerys rather quickly after Jon dispatched him from the group. Without Jon or anyone else to slow the Walkers’ advance, there’s nothing to stop them from breaking through.
They were almost unstoppable before, but with an ice dragon on their team, the Night King may be able to do something now that Jon and the Night’s Watch never thought possible beforehand: control a freaking dragon.
The Wall will come crashing down in the finale and all hell will break loose.
Cleganebowl
The Cleganebowl is going to happen. Remember in June when HBO released a new trailer for Game of Thrones’ seventh season and this shot was included?
Three things about this scene: We know that’s the Hound getting ready to fight. We know it takes place in the South, an area the Hound hasn’t visited this season and, most importantly, we know the Hound is heading south with Daenerys and Jon to meet Cersei.
Cersei will be accompanied by her brother Jaime, of course. But as the Queen enters dangerous territory with Daenerys and Jon, she’ll also have the Mountain ready to jump into battle if need be. The Mountain and the Hound, brothers who have been waiting decades for a reason to fight, will finally have the arena and opportunity to do so.
Benioff and Weiss have leaned hard into fan service this season, leading me to believe Cleganebowl is upon us. They’re not afraid to sacrifice elements of the story to ensure viewers are happy and nothing would make us happier than seeing these two warriors fight. It’s not just us, either. Cersei would find some sadistic glee in watching the Mountain chop his brother to bits.
Cersei will have a miscarriage
Cersei’s revelation from two weeks back that she’s pregnant put some the show’s theory testers to work.
“I’ve come to believe that an accommodation with the dragon queen may be in our immediate interest,” Cersei told Jaime after his impromptu meeting with Tyrion. “Whatever stands in our way, we will defeat it. For ourselves, for our house ... for this.”
As Cersei rubs her flat stomach, Jaime gets the message: her sister and his lover is pregnant with their fourth child. Unlike his first three children, all of which perished from terrible, sudden deaths, there was no Baratheon to hide the identity of the child behind. Those in King’s Landing — and the echoes of the child’s birth heard throughout Westeros — would know this was Jaime’s child; a baby conceived by incest.
Jaime isn’t as comfortable with the world knowing about their relationship as his sister is and, as he learns more about the tyrannical leader Cersei has become, is growing more wary of her as a person. This isn’t a joyful occasion. With war just around the corner, it’s also not the best time to be welcoming a child. Everything about this pregnancy is shrouded in ominous tones and negativity. This child shouldn’t exist — and based on the prophecy we’ve heard time and again — it probably won’t.
“The king will have 20 children and you will have three,” the witch told a young Cersei. “Gold will be their crowns ... gold their shrouds.”
If the baby is real (I’m making this prediction assuming it is), it will not be born. Cersei will have a miscarriage and I have a feeling we’ll see that miscarriage on Sunday. It would be dramatic enough to satisfy viewers looking for a shock and yet not so severe to make it the episode’s most talked-about moment. Benioff and Weiss could give Cersei a miscarriage and still have someone else die while the Wall comes crashing down.
Cersei has had it too good this season. She’s lived a privileged, safe season. Something awful needs to happen and it needs to happen in the finale.
Game of Thrones airs on Sunday at 9 p.m. ET. It’s slated to run almost 80 minutes.
