Spoiler Warning: This article contains details of the latest Game of Thrones episodes, the books and plenty of tinfoil hat forum theories.
Season 6 of Game of Thrones kicked off Sunday night with, if nothing else, a bloody start. We saw basically all of House Martell brutally murdered and a group of Bolton goons wrecked by Brienne et al.
You think you’re prepared for the levels of violence in the show until, POW, a spear goes right through a dude’s face. We also learned the dark side of gratuitous nudity with Melisandre’s shocking transformation from smoke show to what looked like a female Emperor Palpatine.
MORE: Game of Thrones Faces Fan Backlash Over Refugee Lobbying
While the first episode acted more as a tease for the rest of a season, it did give us enough details to predict how the rest of the series will look. Here’s my predictions for some key events in Season 6.
1. Jon Snow will be brought back from the dead.
This one’s a no brainer. You can’t just set up a character as the chosen one, ‘the prince that was promised’ and Azor Ahai and then just kill him off. It’s just madness.
Plus he’s already been spotted on set during filming for this season, looking very much alive.
SPOILER ALERT: This Game of Thrones character might not be dead after all https://t.co/wnmju55SS8 pic.twitter.com/sqoZJnKtj6
— Daily Mail Celebrity (@DailyMailCeleb) September 25, 2015
Exactly how he will be revived is unclear. Odds are Melisandre does it with that breathing fire in the mouth trick we saw in Season 4.
MORE: Who Is the Mysterious Spaniard Leaking Game of Thrones Plots?
2. The Clegane Bowl
So Cersei has her own ‘trial by combat’ coming up with The Faith and we already know who her champion will be, the reanimated Gregor Clegane (The Mountain). But we do not know who The Faith will pick.
There’s a long running fan theory that Sandor Clegane (The Hound) will be their champion. Just think about it. You never see him die at the end of Season 4 and fighting his brother to the death would be the perfect ending of his character arc.
There is also some subtle clues in the book, mainly a reference to a large silent gravedigger working at a monastery who many fans believe is Sandor Clegane.
While this theory remains a little tinfoilly, there’s a huge amount of hype for this theory with obsessive devotees.
3. We’ll find out who Jon Snow’s parents are.
This one’s all but confirmed, it’s just a matter of the timing. Dutiful internet detectives have pieced together a pretty solid theory based on evidence in the books and the show.
The theory goes that Jon’s father is not Ned Stark but Rhaegar Targaryen and his mother is Lyanna Stark (Ned’s dead sister).
It’s also been confirmed that a certain flashback scene will be included in this season, one where Ned Stark finds his sister lying in a pool of blood before her death. It can only be assumed that her death was the result of Jon’s birth and the scene may be used to reveal this information.
Could this be the Tower of joy in the #GameofThrones trailer? #rpluslequalsj ???????????????? pic.twitter.com/DcGW1Aqf17
— Nicholas MacDonald (@TweetWithNick) April 24, 2016
4. There will be a shake up on the Iron Islands.
We haven’t heard from the Iron Islands in quite some time in the show. The current King of the Islands, Balon Greyjoy, is slated to die and his brother Euron will take over. Balon died pretty early in the books, so book readers have been impatiently waiting for his demise for the last few seasons.
Game of Thrones was, as usual, totally awesome. The Balon Greyjoy death watch continues, will what is dead ever die?#GameOfThrones #Nyff
— Jesse Nyffenegger (@WordOfNyff) April 13, 2015
Euron, has not yet made an appearance in the show, but will be played by Danish actor Pilou Asbæk. The future leader of the islands is a mysterious travelling pirate, who has sailed across the world killing and looting, and apparently has the hots for Daenerys. With him in charge, the Iron Islands will start playing a much more active role in the series.
5. A ton of people will die.
Here’s my list of people I believe will die from most likely to least.
- Balon Greyjoy- He’s a total goner
- Tommen Baratheon- You heard the witch. All Cersei’s kids are done for.
- Grand Maester Pycelle- That blathering sycophant’s had it coming for awhile.
- Alliser Thorne- Once Ed comes back with the Wildlings, giants and co, Thorne’s there to first person they’ll off.
- Daario- Daenarys’ eye candy just doesn’t have the plot armor to see this season through.
- Kevan Lannister- Jamie and Cersei’s uncle is just too cool and competent to survive King’s Landing.
- Ollie- I hate that little shit. In all honesty his addition is just wishful thinking.
- Ramsey Bolton- Assuming the plot picks up and we get a sweet battle between Jon and his army vs. the Boltons, Ramsey’s going to finally get his just desserts.
- Theon Greyjoy- Someone seriously just needs to put that poor man out of his misery.
- 1 or 2 Sand Snakes- For the crime of delivering some of the worst lines of dialogue in Season 5, at least one of them deserves to die this season.
