Oh good lord and maester almighty, do these new Game of Thrones images make us uneasy. Queasy, even. Because though innocuous at first glance, they spell dread for most of the storylines heading our way in “Oathbreaker.” And after everything that happened during “Home” last Sunday, are you really all that surprised?
Please note: there are some mild and/or speculatory spoilers ahead!
Sure, there’s plenty to be excited about coming to us in “Oathbreaker,” like the long-awaited, hotly anticipated, holy-cats-I-cann0t-believe-this-is-happening flashback to the Tower of Joy, which may or may not confirm a long-held fan theory about Jon Snow’s true parentage. And if you want to know more about that, feel free to watch our recent Nerdist News on the subject:
But why are we nervous? Well, just look at some of the all-too-vague details from the episodic description: “Daenerys meets her future. Bran meets the past. Tommen confronts the High Sparrow. Arya trains to be No One. Varys finds an answer. Ramsay gets a gift.”
(Could that Ramsay “gift” be Rickon? Or Reek? I AM SO NERVOUS OH GOD.)
First off, there’s Daenerys, who is clearly heading to Vaes Dothrak and meeting “her future,” a.k.a. the Temple of the Dosh Khaleen. The home of widowed khaleesis is known for the reverence held for it by the Dothraki community, but they’re also considered “seers” who can tell the future. In fact, when the Dosh Khaleen met Dany (a requirement for all future khaleesis), they said the son of Daenerys and Khal Drogo will be The Stallion Who Mounts the World, a great conqueror whose arrival has been a longheld Dothraki prophecy/belief for ages.
So: is Dany going to meet these women and have them reject her? Or will she find out that she IS/ISN’T the rightful heir to the Iron Throne? Will they realize that maybe it was she who was reborn when her child was born/died and is actually the one set to mount the world? The temperamental Dothraki may have the potential to be handy bedfellows in the future for Dany, but they’re also passionate and reactionary—which means all bets are off and anything could happen.
For what it’s worth, that photo of Tyrion, coupled with the “Varys finds an answer,” leads us to believe that they’ve figured out who’s running the Sons of the Harpy. Given that this is Thrones, our money is on a big betrayal by someone close to Dany, probably Daario Naharis. After all, the man is and was and always will be a sellsword first and foremost. Man, it’s gonna be hard for Dany to come to terms with that. If she ever does become queen, we’re betting it’ll be a real Queen Elizabeth situation.
Of course the most terrifying image of all is certainly the one of Maester Qyburn and the children. Because, um, homeboy should definitely not be allowed anywhere near children, at all, ever, full stop. He’s a necromancer, not a babysitter!
Naturally, there are still a few more photos we’ve yet to discuss, and we’ve got more details about the images in the gallery below, so make sure to check them out!
What do you think of the new images? Let us know in the comments below.
Images: HBO
Alicia Lutes is the Managing Editor of Nerdist and co-host of Fangirling. Find her on Twitter (@alicialutes).
