Game of Thrones: 10 questions the finale needs to answer
The most action-packed Game of Thrones season yet rumbles to an conclusion this weekend. Can the finale possibly outdo a run of episodes that has featured skewered dragons, burning armies and allegedly-sizzling chemistry between Jon Snow and Daenerys Targaryen?
Judging by HBO’s teaser trailer, the forthcoming instalment will dial down the blockbuster freneticism that has been a controversial new component of the saga. Jon Snow travels for the first time to King’s Landing hoping to convince Cersei of the White Walker threat. At Winterfell, Sansa continues to look deeply mopey – suggesting her slow-boil estrangement from Arya is no closer to a resolution
But few clues are otherwise offered as to what lies in store. We don’t know, for instance, if the Night King will get to try out his spiffy new zombie dragon for the first time or whether he has opted to keep it in cold storage until series eight. As we countdown to the big-sign off, here are the burning questions fans will want answered.
1. Do Jon and Daenerys get together?
A boat-based assignation appears all but inevitable, with Daenerys (Emilia Clarke) mooning all over the stricken King in the North (Kit Harington) in the most recent episode and actually smiling when he cringefully addressed her as "Dany".
Plot-wise, it is apparently of utmost importance that the pair become romantically entangled, and script leaks identify their leisure cruise from the Wall as the moment the magic happens. Game of Thrones wouldn't leave us guessing until next season surely ?
2: Will we learn the truth of Jon’s parentage?
Bran’s flashback last year confirmed Snow as the son of Lyanna Stark, rescued as an infant from the clutches of the Targaryens by his adoptive dad (and Lyanna’s brother) Ned. But what of the father? In both books and TV series, Game of Thrones has dropped enough bread-crumbs to feed an entire Dothraki horde and it appears inevitable that Daenerys’s older sibling, Rhaegar Targaryen, will be revealed as Jon’s pater.
The broadest hint thus far arrived just two weeks ago, with Gilly stumbling upon a chronicling of the annulment of a Prince "Raggar’s" first marriage (to Elia Martell of Dorne). So it really is a question of "when" rather than "if" light is shed on this crucial aspect of Snow’s backstory. Amid fan speculation that an actor has been cast as Rhaegar, the consensus is that Snow’s parentage will be established sooner rather than later (and, yes, this will mean loverboy is Daenerys’s nephew).
3: Will the folly of Tyrion’s kidnap-a-walker ploy be exposed?
The guffaws among viewers were deafening as Tyrion (Peter Dinklage) suggested capturing an undead Wight would convince his power-crazed sister Cersei (Lena Headey) to set aside her tyrannical ambitions and throw her lot in with Jon and Daenerys. It seemed a bonkers plan – when last have logic and Cersei been on speaking terms? – yet one to which the Imp’s allies immediately assented.
Is Cersei as reasonable as Tyrion believes? Or will her deranged streak win out as Jon seeks to persuade her of the threat posed by the Night King’s legions? In the latter case, Tyrion’s position as Daenerys's chief advisor is surely be untenable.
4. Where’s Arya?
Sansa (Sophie Turner) and Arya (Maisie Williams) are engaged in a sisterly tiff for the ages. Should we read anything into the absence from the finale teaser of the dead-eyed younger Stark sibling? Has she wisely taken her leave of Winterfell before falling foul of Littlefinger’s machinations. Or is her conflict with Sansa over how best to rule the North in Jon’s absence about to boil bloodily over?
Episode reviews | Game of Thrones season 7
5. What is Littlefinger’s play, anyway?
What a jolly time Lord Baelish (Aidan Gillen) has had driving a wedge between Sansa and Arya. He recognised the latter’s paranoid tendencies as soon as she set foot in Winterfell and, by planting Sansa’s incriminating letter from season one, has set sister against sister. Littlefinger clearly has feelings – albeit creepy, predatory feelings – for Sansa. Is his goal to conquer the North with Lady Stark as his queen? Or are his ambitions even more scurrilous than that?
6: What is the status of Jaime and Cersei’s relationship?
With three (sorry two) dragons in the opposing corner, Jaime (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) understands war against Daenerys is futile. He is also clearly dubious about his sister-lover’s fitness for office. On the other hand, he’s in far too deep to abandon Cersei. And if she is, as she claims, pregnant once more, the ties between them are surely shatterproof. Is the Kingslayer’s loyalty unbreakable? Or, will Cersei’s increasingly extreme behaviour, drive even loyal Jaime away?
7. Does anyone die this season?
An impressive bodycount has long been Game of Thrones’s unique selling point. As the show approaches the finish line with its penultimate season, however, its willingness to plunge the dagger is much diminished. Thus far, the victims this year – Lady Olenna, Thoros of Myr, the Tarlys – have been strictly b-list. Will GoT rediscover its backbone and send at least one major player to the chopping block?
8. Are Tormund and Brienne ever going to get together?
Forget Daenerys, Jon and their non-existent spark. Tormund (Kristofer Hivju) and Brienne (Gwendoline Christie) is the relationship fans really want to see catch fire. But with the Lady of Tarth bound for King’s Landing and the Wildling leader last spotted hundreds of miles away at Eastwatch, are our hopes for love in a cold climate to be dashed once again?
9. How did Grey Worm escape Casterly Rock?
The Unsullied were last seen surrounded by Euron’s fleet at the old Lannister family home. But the new trailer confirms that their leader (Jacob Anderson), at least, lives. How did Daenerys’s shock-troops break free?
10. Where are Sam and Gilly bound?
The last surviving Tarly (John Bradley West) has had enough of the Citadel and its fogey-ish ways. But where, exactly, are he and Gilly (and their collection of purloined books) headed? And of what use will they be to Jon?
The Game of Thrones season 7 finale will be shown at 2am on Sky Atlantic,
Monday August 27, and repeated at 9pmCatch up now with a 14 day free trial with NOW TV
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