Editor’s Note: the following post contains potential spoilers and tons of speculation about Game of Thrones. Don’t read on if you don’t want to know and don’t say we didn’t warn you (because we did! Just now)!

The night is dark and full of terrors — but what if the worst has yet to come? Sure, Game of Thrones has revealed its Big Bad to the rest of the Realm, and now the game is truly on. However epic and menacing the Night King and his horde may be, it doesn’t mean things aren’t going to get much, much worse in the final six episodes of the series. But how much worse? We’re talking evil lady walker worse. Like Cersei as the Night Queen worse.

It would take a lot to get there but, frankly, not that much and if it happened it not only would be batshit insane, it would elevate Cersei and the evil of the series further than ever before. But how? And who the heck is the Night Queen?

First thing’s first, the Night Queen is a legendary figure, which makes the legitimacy (and literalness) of her existence sketchy at best. According to lore, the Night Queen was an alleged White Walker or reanimated corpse that, after capturing the heart of the 13th Lord Commander of the Night’s Watch (the man who would become the Night King, an alleged Brandon of House Stark), ruled the North alongside her lover at the Nightfort for 13 years before being defeated in the Long Night. But if you follow the bran-is-all-brans theory—meaning most legends are more likely warnings Bran sent forward before getting trapped in the body of the Night King, reverberating through time—the existence of the Night Queen in legend could mean she’s not something from the past, but something that will happen in the future.

After all, as the legend goes, it wasn’t until Brandon the Breaker, the King of Winter—another Brandon of House Stark, ahem—and Joramun, the King-Beyond-the-Wall (which sure does sound a LOT like Tormund, doesn’t it? Just saying…), joined forces to take down the Night King and his undead queen and ultimately end the Long Night.

To accomplish this, Cersei needs to die—or at least be captured by the Night King and reanimated with ice blue eyes, meaning Cersei must either head north to the Wall or, gulp, ol’ King Blue Eyes will need to make it to King’s Landing. Based on Dany’s vision of the Red Keep decimated and covered in snow (back in season 2), it feels safe to assume that he will make it farther south than we ever anticipated.

And honestly, if this is the plan, it would make sense that Game of Thrones never did the Lady Stoneheart storyline; it would diminish the impact of an undead Cersei being raised from the dead to wreak havoc upon the realm of the living. Lady Stoneheart, filled with vengeance and violence, is certainly scary, but you know what’s scarier? If Cersei was the one doing it, her lust for power and protection of her family at all costs is MUCH stronger and more nefarious than Catelyn Stark ever was, upping the ante that much further—a dread that looms far larger, elevated by the mind of a viciously undead person with a vendetta-and-a-half to motivate her to lay waste to Westeros and beyond.

Which is exactly why we need it to happen. Because, you know what’s scarier than Cersei and/or the Night King separately? THOSE TWO TEAMING UP AND BECOMING A DOUBLE-HEADED UNDEAD MONSTER RIDING ATOP AN ICE DRAGON, that’s what.

The stakes need to be raised after this largely exciting but also not terribly great season. The stakes are gone, and even with the dread of The Wall coming down, we now know the easy way to solve the problem of the dead: destroy the Night King and everyone falls. But if Cersei gets reanimated by the Night King after the valonqar (Jaime, we’re lookin’ at you, kid) murders her, it could be even more impactful than Lady Stoneheart (and a great reason as to why they never used that trick). Because she’ll have her dead kids, Ned Stark, and everyone else who’s died in King’s Landing (and elsewhere) at her side with vengeance in their undead hearts — with an ice dragon to help her end the Realm of the living.

And that would be truly the most terrifying level-up of all.

But what do you think? Let us know in the comments below.

WHAT ELSE IS GOING ON IN GAME OF THRONES?

• Conleth Hill insists that Varys is not a merman.
• Every question we need answered by the Game of Thrones finale.
• No, Jon Snow’s Longclaw did not blink!

Images: HBO

Alicia Lutes is the managing editor, host of Fangirling, and chief khaleesi of House Nerdist. Find her on Twitter!