Today’s entire Nerdist News will be devoted to last night’s epic Game of Thrones finale “The Winds of Winter” so if you’re still living in a magical universe episodes ago with Hodor, turn back now, because we’re spoiling the whole thing! Winter is HERE and boy is it action-packed. Last night’s extended episode showed us Dany on her way to Westeros, Cersei taking her place on the Iron Throne, Jon Snow: King of the North, and King’s Landing doused in wildfire. But there was also a heck of a lot of stuff not doused in wildfire you might have missed from “The Winds of Winter.”
For brevity’s sake, we’re going to skip all the obvious stuff and jump right into the hot goss! And no family screams gossip quite like the Starks. Did anyone else notice the Direwolf sigil return to Winterfell in the opening credits? That’s right, the Starks are back, baby! Bye bye Boltons and hello tears in my eyes before the title sequence is even finished. (There’s no crying in Westeros!) Next up, sweet sweet Samwell Tarly finally found his calling at the library. And in this library, we saw a familiar little whirligig known as an orrery hanging like a Sia-approved Chandelier, illuminating the books and what appears to be sigils for every house.
Next up on the list: Holy TimeJumps, George! I’m sure we weren’t the only ones confused by the seeming teleportation of some of our faves, but it felt like two seconds before we caught up with Lady Olenna comfortably mourning the loss of her family that blew up in the Sept …all the way in Dorne. Our best guess is a few weeks have passed? In fact, it’s possible months have gone by, as we see Lord Varys travel all the way from Meereen to Dorne, have a nice long chat with Lady Olenna, and then still make it across the sea to join Dany on her ship.
Speaking of Dany’s fleet, as her ships sailed the sea, ever-present dragons looming in the sky, eagle-eyed fans caught a glimpse of several family sigils present on the sails. Among them? None other than the Martell’s sun and the Tyrell’s flower alongside the Greyjoy’s kraken—making for one hell of a team to beat. Let’s just hope all these timejumps didn’t give Euron Greyjoy enough time to build a stronger navy…
Of course, no list would be complete without mentioning the Lannister clan. On Westeros’ favorite reality show in the making, this week’s Keeping Up with the Lannisters saw poor King Tommen biting the bullet, and not in the way we originally predicted! We saw a nice little throwback to Bran’s plummet out of the tower at the end of the pilot with Tommen’s fall to his own death, joining him with Joffrey and Myrcella in the long line of death Cersei can’t seem to escape. And why exactly can’t she escape this? Oh, just a little thing called the prophecy Maggy the Frog gave to her in the season 5 premiere flashback, stating that her children would all die before her, “gold shall be their crowns and gold their shrouds.” Once we saw Tommen appear in that funeral chic gold, we knew he was on his way out just like his siblings. Maybe try more of a chartreuse next time?
The prophecy also foretold Cersei’s death at the hands of the “valonqar,” which roughly translates to “little brother” in High Valyrian. One popular fan theory says Tyrion, but our money’s on her also-technically-younger-brother Jaime. Especially after that last look between him and his now sister-queen on the throne, if looks could kill, she’d be joining Tommen right… about… now.
Which brings us to the Starks! Though sadly, the vengeance-happy Lady Stoneheart was a no-show this season, it looks like newly minted Faceless assassin Arya Stark just might be taking her vengeful place next season. After the murder of Walder Frey (the same way Catelyn was murdered) and her newfound love for all things bloody, Arya went full demon barber of Fleet Street, baking two of Walder’s sons into a meat pie, and forcing him to eat it. If this pie sounds familiar, it’s not just Sweeney Todd ringing in your ears, it’s also a nice mirror to Bran’s “rat cook” story from season three.
And finally… that iconic Tower of Joy scene: We finally got to see Jon Snow‘s birth! And did you notice the close-up on Arthur Dayne’s sword?? Buckle up because this one’s a doozy. Throughout the show and books, we’ve heard musings from Melisandre about the prophecy of a hero that would rise up against the darkness. This hero, also called the prince that was promised was a hero born under a bleeding star. We see Jon being protected by Arthur Dayne in Bran’s vision. The legend surrounds Dayne, whose house sigil is a comet with a sword, saying his sword, Dawn, was forged from the “heart of a fallen star.” Though Arthur gets cut down with Dawn when Ned Stark arrives at the Tower to rescue Lyanna, giving us the “bleeding star” from the prophecy, Ned takes the bloodied-up Dawn and places it against Lyanna’s bed. The imagery suggests that Jon was born under the protection, wait for it, of… a bleeding star! Boom! Whaaaaat? Your prince who was promised, also known as the son of fire and the warrior of light. Makes sense for a Targaryen to me!
But what do you guys think? Did we miss anything epic? Which brother do you think will force Cersei to bite the bullet? Is Arya about to become the Lady Stoneheart we’ve all been waiting for? Let’s discuss!
