Game of Thrones Season 7 (P)Recap

As a fan of the books and the HBO TV series, I’m one of the many millions of others looking forward to the new season of Game of Thrones kicking off this coming Sunday. Before the season starts I wanted to give my own humble predictions of what will occur over these final two seasons. I am in no way affiliated with HBO or GRRM, and as such have not seen any script or screening from the upcoming season. Any similarities to what ends up happening are based strictly upon my reading of the books, watching of the shows, and ardent debate with friends and other fans. As this article will be going over predictions for Season’s 7 and 8, it goes without saying that if you have not seen through Season 6, there are SPOILERS ahead.

At long last the new season is finally here! As there are (allegedly per HBO) only two seasons left, this 7th season will begin winding up for the final showdown in the grand saga of Ice and Fire.

Setup from Season 6

As Season 7 ended we were treated with the fantastic view of Daenerys, Mother of Dragon’s massive and formidable army. She, her Unsullied super-soldiers, dragons, Ironmen defectors, and the Dothraki horde are finally on their way to Westeros to take back the Iron Throne from the current sovereign of Westeros, the newly crowned Queen Cersei Lannister.

Meanwhile in the North, Jon Snow, himself newly crowned as the King in the North, will consolidate his forces in preparation for repulsing the White Walker menace. He will have a secondary objective of attacking the South to avenge the murder of nearly his entire family at the hands of the Lannisters and their allies.

Based on clips from the trailer, he spends quite a bit of time in the North, and likely, north of the wall. This is probably the result of hearing news that his young brother Bran is still alive. Jon will encounter the diabolically fiendish White Walkers along the way.

R+L=J Confirmed

The massive (and long theorized) revelation at the end of last season, that R+L=J, will begin to play out. At long last, it is now fully confirmed that Jon Snow is really Jon Targaryan, son of Prince Rhaegar Targaryan and Lady Lyanna Stark, and one of the last living ‘legitimate’ claimants to the Iron Throne. Howland Reed, the man with Eddard Stark when he went to rescue Lyanna from the Tower of Joy, will resurface as he is the last living evidence that Jon Snow is really Jon Targaryan. This revelation to the characters of the story will shake the very foundation of all Westeros. It will cause schisms in his own ranks yet bring other forces to his support.

When the Mother of Dragons arrives in Westeros, she will soon learn of the current political situation. She and Jon Snow will meet and form an alliance, with the objective of invading the South, defeating the Lannisters and taking back the Iron Throne. The scene in which they meet and strike the deal will be one of the more memorable scenes of the season. However, knowing Jon and his humble Stark blood, he will likely defer the Iron Throne to Danny in return for her allowing him to continue to be Lord (or even King) in the North. “I’m just a Stark, just let me live out my days in peace in Winterfell”.

Whether this alliance is made before or after they learn that Jon is really Daenerys’ nephew is not yet known, although for dramatic purposes I predict that neither will know of this when they first meet. This will however become a major bone of contention later in the story. Once they defeat the Lannisters, Jon’s true identity will be revealed, and suddenly another major decision will need to be made: will Jon decide to turn on Daenerys to take his ‘rightful’ place atop the Iron Throne? Or alternately, will Danny feel pressured to kill Jon Targaryan to eliminate this remaining threat to her place atop the Iron Throne? Either way, this plot point will be utilized to great dramatic effect.

Daenerys and Jon will then continue to consolidate their forces in preparation for the final assault on the Lannisters.

Meanwhile, Queen Cersei and the Lannister forces will spend time consolidating their forces. After they hear of the landing of the Grand Targaryan Dragon Army in Westeros, panic will set in. There will be revolts that she will have to put down. This is likely much of the military action we see Jamie Lannister involved in during the trailer.

They will also work towards building their own grand coalition of forces to fight off the invaders. This will include the forces of King Euron Greyjoy, the brother murdering, newly minted King of the Iron Islands, as we can also see from the trailer as their armada arrive at Kings Landing.

Meanwhile the White Walkers will continue their rampage southward.

Two potential outcomes

Outcome 1: the Grand Alliance

The great Targaryan-Lannister War will be put on hold when news reaches them that the White Walkers are south of the Wall. The Targaryans and Lannisters will sign a temporary armistice and fight together to defeat the zombies, with the understanding that if/when they are defeated, their own war will once again continue. The Lannisters will position themselves to have their new allies take the brunt of the fighting and feel the majority of the casualties so that once the war is over, they will be strongly positioned to defeat them. Similar to how the Allies in WWII allowed the Germans and Russians to kill each other off in massive numbers before stepping in to help finish the job. This is a likely outcome due to the heavy foreshadowing that has taken place over the books and previous seasons; that the only way for mere humans to defeat the White Walker psychos is to all work together. If the Targaryan army has suffered heavy casualties from fighting the Lannister Army, they would be too weakened to fight off the WWs and would not have the Lannister forces to help them in this Herculean task.

However, to fulfill the prophecy that Cersei would be killed by her brother, watch for Cersei to betray the alliance, taking advantage of the White Walker invasion to stab the Targaryan forces in the back in a last ditch (and short sighted) attempt to secure herself atop the Iron Throne. This will eventually result in Jamie Lannister doing the unthinkable, killing her, his twin beloved sister, in order to save all of Westeros from the White Walkers. This will also give him the rather poetic and dubious distinction of being both Kingslayer and Queenslayer, as well as to fulfill GRRM’s promise to fans that the series will end “bittersweet”.

Outcome 2: Vengeance First!

Alternately, the Targaryan-Lannister War will then take place. The Lannisters, far outmatched with having to contend with multiple dragons, rampaging Dothraki, Unsullied, and the forces of the North, will be handily defeated. The season would end with them having won back the Iron Throne, but then getting word that WINTER IS HERE and the White Walker invasion from the North has begun. Sesaon 8 will then be centered on defeating the White Walkers.

Either way Season 7 ends, Season 8 will center around the cleanup. If we see outcome 1, then Season 8 will focus on the resolution of the Targaryan-Lannister War. If we see outcome 2, then Season 8 will focus on the Targaryans fighting the final battle against the White Walkers. I see the former being slightly more likely.

Individual characters and plotlines not mentioned above

• Due to popular demand, D&D will give us Clegane Bowl, which will stand as one of the most grandiose pieces of fan service in the history of television. The Hound shall face off against his long lost (and long dead) brother, the reanimated Ser Robert “The Mountain” Strong. Time to GET HYPE.

• Arya will continue killing those on her list. She will finally be reunited with Jon and Salsa.

• Comic relief Podrick Payne will bumble his way through yet another season, hopefully surviving to provide us with a few more light hearted moments.

• Littlefinger will continue his trickster ways. He will likely continue to try to turn Sansa against her brother. However, his many betrayals are catching up to him and will be his eventual undoing. The Lannisters must at this point realize his treachery. And although he helped the Starks win the Battle of Winterfell, no one needs to be reminded that he still simply cannot be trusted.

• The Unsullied appear to be involved in a ‘Trojan Horse’ like infiltration of a city, with a small contingent of them gaining access and then letting in the remainder of their forces in order to sack the city. Which city remains a mystery, but is likely one of the first cities in Westeros that Daenery’s forces sack.

• Bran Stark will continue wandering about up North in the snow. It’s possible he is eventually rescued by Jon. He and his powers will play an- if not the- instrumental role in the face-off against the White Walkers, ensuring Hodor’s noble sacrifice was not for naught.

• For some reason, the show’s writers have avoided the Lady Stoneheart storyline like the plague, but perhaps the appearance of the six-times resurrected Beric Dondarrion in the trailer signals her (re)introduction.

• Ser Jorah (aka Ser Friendzone) will return to Westeros to nobly and selflessly sacrifice himself, providing crucial aide to his beloved liege Queen Daenerys.

• Yara Greyjoy will end up Ward/Queen of the Iron Islands for her loyal support of the Mother of Dragons during the war.

• Theon Greyjoy will die, likely at the hands of Jon Stark in an execution scene similar to that in Episode 1 with Ned Stark executing the deserter. Although they grew up as brothers, duty to the North will demand it, and Jon will have no choice but to execute the man who treacherously betrayed his adopted family and doomed Winterfell to years of chaos and bloodshed.

• Brienne of Tarth will be faced with a difficult decision: should she side with her new crush Jamie Lannister, or should she join the forces of the Targaryan Army? Either way, she will live and will be celebrated as perhaps the greatest warrior and honorable knight of her generation. No one else having accomplished the feats of single combat that she did; including defeating the great Jamie Lannister, the Hound Sandor Clegane, as well as surviving countless other deadly skirmishes.

• Tyrion Lannister will at some point meet face to face with his brother and/or sister for a powerful scene where they discuss all that has happened since they last saw each other. One of them may die during this exchange.

Prediction for how the show will end

The Mother of Dragons will end up atop the Iron Throne, with Jon being her Ward/King in the North, very similar to the result at the end of Robert’s Rebellion, with Robert Baratheon as the king and Ned Stark his Ward in the North. This will begin a new Targaryan Dynasty, and close the loop of prophecy of history repeating itself with a Targaryan crossing over to Westeros with Dragons to take control of all of Westeros, with a Stark kneeling in submission before them.

The writers will likely leave several loose ends showing frays in the alliance, allowing plenty of room for the many spinoffs and sequels already being planned. Perhaps the show will end with a shot of the young Aegon sailing towards Westeros with his own forces.

There is a chance that, in keeping with historical 'behavior' within the Targaryan family, Daenerys and Jon are married in order to unite the kingdom and prevent any possibility of war between them in the future. This will also explain the tag-line of the story, A Song of Fire and Ice; Fire being the Targaryans and Ice being the Starks. United they represent the impossible- yet seemingly inevitable- forging together of Fire and Ice.