Another season of Game of Thrones has come and passed. While most of us will be entering our hibernation chambers as to not bear the pain of waiting a whole year for more Thrones, those of you with jobs and families will just have to wait.
Season 7 is expected to air next April and will only be 7 episodes long, the first part of a two part season spanning two years.
Unfortunately Miguel Sapochnik, director of the masterpiece episodes 9 and 10, won’t be a part of the next season.
But while we chew our nails and pace the room waiting, here’s a few predictions to think about.
1. The Wall will come crumbling down.
If the White Walkers ever want to cross into Westeros, they will have to get past the wall somehow. In the last episode Benjen told Bran that he cannot cross the Wall with Bran because of its magic and Benjen is part White Walker.
So the most likely way for the Night King and his army to circumvent this magic is to knock down the wall with the Horn of Joramun.
Mance Rayder claimed he had the horn and threatened Jon saying he’d tear the Wall down. But later after Mance’s death, Tormund told Jon it was a fake.
In the legends of Westeros, it was Jormund who rallied the wildlings to defeat the Night’s King during his first rise to power. So it is not unlikely that the Night’s King somehow has the horn currently and is waiting for the right time to knock down the Wall.
2. Bran will meet up with Jon and tell him about his parents.
Bran could be Jon’s greatest asset in the battles to come. Having a dude on your side that can travel through space and time and even possibly influence the past is any battle strategist’s dream. Plus Bran can drop the deets about Jon’s Targaryen father and Stark mother.
But will Bran have some complications crossing the Wall as he was touched by the Night’s King in his vision? Some speculate that this will weaken the Wall if Bran crosses or, more unlikely, bring the whole thing crashing down.
3. Gendry will return and make claim to the throne.
So all we know of Gendry, King Robert’s Bastard, is that he’s been rowing around the Narrow Sea since the end of Season 3.
When he returns to Westeros, not only will his arms be the size of tree trunks, but he will have one of the best claims as anyone to the Iron Throne. Although he was never legitimized he at least has some Baratheon blood in his veins, which is a lot more than Cersei can claim.
If he is to do it right, he will reemerge in Flea’s Bottom and wrest control of the same populist sentiment as the High Sparrow and continue the revolution.
4. Sam will learn an important secret at the Citadel.
The showrunners probably aren’t wasting precious screen time on Sam and Gilly just so Sam can putz around learning about history and how to care for ravens. He’s probably going to uncover some crazy stuff deep in that library.
Some possible theories are that he will find Jon’s parents marriage certificate. Jon’s father (Rhaegar Targaryen) may have sent a letter to Maester Aemon or another maester officiating the marriage of himself and Lyanna Stark. This would be important in proving that Jon is not a bastard but instead a trueborn Targaryen. The marriage would be legit, as Targaryens historically took more than one wife.
Another could be that Sam finds out how to reverse engineer Valyrian steel. He is arriving at the Citadel with one of the few Valyrian swords in the entire world. Perhaps he will find the secret to this elusive metal and find a way to manufacture more in order to fight the White Walkers.
5. Arya will meet up with Melisandre.
In Season 3 when Melisandre met with Arya while she a captive of the Brotherhood Without Banners, Mel looked into Arya’s eyes and told her they’d meet again. So unless D&D are okay with leaving a minor plothole (like, what was the point of the Iron Bank) they are definitely going to have a reunion.
But what will this mean? It seems that Arya is taking on the role of Lady Stoneheart (the reanimated zombie Catelyn Stark). In the books, Lady Stoneheart roams around the riverlands hanging Freys as vengeance for her son’s murder, but in the show it seems that Arya is taking on the mantle of Frey killer.
If she teams up with the Red Witch, we can only expect a monumental murder spree involving gratuitous use of shadow babies and removable faces.
6. Jaime will kill Cersei.
Part of the old witch’s prophecy to Cersei, besides the bit about her seeing all her children die and being replaced by a new queen, is that she will be killed by a valonqar. Valonqar in Valyrian is “little brother.” Cersei always assumes that the valonqar would be Tyrion – and she tried everything to destroy him, yet failed. But will Tyrion be in the position to kill her?
More likely this valonqar will be Jaime. Cersei’s actions led to the suicide of their last child. Jaime will probably have a falling out with Cersei and may even repeat a “kingslayer” style assassination of her.
Whether or not Jaime kills her, Cersei is screwed. The Tyrells and Dorne are allying themselves with Daenerys’ massive army heading straight to King’s Landing. The Lannisters are almost finished. All that will be surprising is how many people Cersei takes down with her. It just depends how much more wildfire she can ignite.
7. Daenerys and Yara are definitely happening.
The sexual tension in that throne room scene between Yara and Daenerys was palpable. Palpable, dammit!
Two badass women at the top of their game meeting eye to eye while their wimpy little man servants sycophantically grin. There’s only one way this could end.
Daenerys dumped her stale boy toy and got on a new ship. It’s 2016, people, and there has not been nearly enough lady-on-lady loving in the Game of Thrones series.
Emilia Clarke already dropped a hint to Sky Atlantic about the budding love affair.
“There’s mild flirtation which is exciting to say the least, get rid of Daario bring on the ladies, why not?” she said.
“We’re two strong women, who have had very evil fathers and we just want what’s rightfully ours and I think she respects that.” In other words, it’s totally happening!
It’s a long trip between Slaver’s Bay (I mean Dragon’s Bay) and Westeros. Plenty of time for a saucy new relationship.
8. Sansa will kill Littlefinger.
Sansa killing Ramsay by feeding him to his own dogs proves once and for all that she’s a straight-up savage.
So who’s going to be next in her streak of beautifully ironic murders? Why not the little-fingered creep, Lord Petyr Baelish.
It seems like Littlefinger is going to make some kind of power play for helping her and Jon win the Battle of the Bastards. He will probably try to ask her hand in marriage while simultaneously plotting against Jon. He has already made it clear he wants the job as Warden of the North, and Jon being king clearly stands in the way of that.
Sansa and Littlefinger will likely have a falling out. Maybe she will learn of Littlefinger’s betrayal of Ned, or maybe there was just one unwarranted sexual advance too many, but sooner or later Sansa will snap.
But what ironic death could Littlefinger suffer? Getting pushed off a high ledge? Smothered to death in a brothel? Suffocating from a tiny finger jammed down his throat? I’ll let the writers think this one up.
9. The Hound will finally fight the Mountain AKA CLEGANE BOWL!!!
King Tommen the hype-slayer bore a huge blow to the fandom by canceling Cersei’s trial by combat. It was expected that the back-from-the-dead Hound would fight the back-from-the-dead Mountain in a brutally awesome fight to the death.
Next season we may finally have that moment. While the odds don’t seem great as the Hound marches north with the Brotherhood Without Banners, hype will find a way.
These star-crossed brothers are destined to smash their faces into a bloody pulp one way or the other. Bonus hype if Sandor overcomes his fear of fire to win the battle.
10. Arya will head to King’s Landing.
Arya’s kill list is getting short. After the incredibly satisfying murder of Walder Frey, Arya needs new blood on her needle. The only name left of note is Cersei Lannister. Arya needs to get to King’s Landing stat, before Olenna Tyrell, the Sand Snakes, Jaime, Daenerys, Tyrion and all the other people who want to kill Cersei get to her first.
The next season will be defined mostly by a bunch of competing interests trying to kill Cersei first.