Welcome to Game of Theories, your weekly glimpse into tinfoil hat predictions for Game of Thrones.

So in this week’s Game of Theories, I will start with a retraction from last week. I’ve pinned my sails to the mast of King’s Landing being destroyed in previous weeks, and while I still think that’s the only solution to ‘breaking the wheel’ I have to admit my idea of who could do this is looking very wrong. Last week I predicted that Tyrion may well do something bad to stop Dany from having to burn down Kings Landing. However, after this week’s episode, where Tyrion seems to be doing all he can to stop KL from being destroyed, I think I got that very wrong.

I didn’t think Dany was capable of doing something like this now, and yet, within the course of one episode, we are seeing her grow more and more paranoid and unhinged. Saying that, I also don’t see how one dragon is going to be able to destroy King’s Landing with all those scorpions set up to stop it. We have Euron (William Tell) Greyjoy firing the devices, which made short work of Rhaegal in the last episode.

Honestly, the turn of Dany is all happening too quickly for me right now, I guess that’s the price for having fewer episodes to really develop the characters. Instead, it’s all become visuals and shock factor. However, my LRM colleague Seth McDonald has been predicting Dany going a bit mad for around two seasons now. Whilst I could also see the signs, I felt like that wasn’t developed enough yet to come to fruition in such a short space of time. I guess I was wrong, so I will be including some of Seth’s theories in this week’s edition also.

So, will King’s Landing be destroyed along with the Iron Throne? Honestly, it’s looking less likely right now to me, so let’ stick to the things we can predict for now.

Cleganebowl

 

This is something we as fans have been wanting since season 1. Sandor Clegane aka The Hound, versus his older brother Gregor Clegane aka The Mountain aka Robert Strong the half-dead monster. Clearly, The Hound is heading to Kings Landing for some unfinished business as he told Arya in the last episode, well, we have to assume that unfinished business is with his brother. Gregor disfigured his younger brother when they were children by holding his face into a fire over a toy, so there’s no love lost there, and it’s more Sandor having an issue with Gregor than the other way around.

How will this epic battle end up? That’s harder to predict because I don’t think it’s obvious at this point that The Hound will beat The Mountain. Though, if The Hound does lose, I could definitely see Arya having to step in and kill him instead, or vice-versa. I would guess this will happen next episode, but it could be the final episode as well.

Seth, on the other hand, thinks that The Mountain will kill Arya or fatally wound her before she can get to Cersei and then the Cleganebowl will result in the death of all three of them. Yep, I could see it as a possibility for sure.

Arya The Assassin And The Valonqar

Arya has already killed the Night King and clearly, she is now off to King’s Landing to deal with one of the first names on her little list. In fact, other than the Cleganes, I think Cersei is the only person still alive from that list. She could have killed The Hound several times, so that’s a name probably not on her list anymore. However, both The Mountain and Cersei are.

Actually, if the survivors of Winterfell had been smart, they would have just asked Arya to go kill Cersei anyway, but Arya doesn’t really need anyone to tell her what to do any longer, so she just did it herself. Will Arya actually kill Cersei? Actually, I don’t think she will, and this is one of the first areas where Seth and I differ on opinion.

I feel like the Valonqar prophecy has to come into play, even though it’s books-only at this point. Valonqar is high Valyrian for “younger brother,” and therefore I see four possible characters who could kill Cersei and fulfilll this prophecy. Those four are Jaime Lannister, Tyrion Lannister, Sandor Clegane, and Euron Greyjoy, all who have older siblings, even if Jaime is a matter of minutes younger than Cersei.

I’ll rule out Euron right now, because he thinks Cersei is carrying his child, though if he finds out it’s Jaime’s, all bets are off. Tyrion seems to be signposted for this role for so long I just don’t see any drama in him being the one. I also don’t see how he ever gets access to Cersei again, so that leaves Jaime and Clegane. Either are possible and both are on their way to King’s Landing right now. Personally, I have always been a fan of Jaime being the one to kill Cersei, because it’s the perfect end to frankly the best character arc since Walter White in Breaking Bad. I feel like they purposely planted a false flag of Jaime returning to Cersei because he loves her last episode. However, I think he said all that to stop Brienne following him or trying to stop him leaving. He seemed happy enough to stay in the North until he heard that Cersei was waging war again. But, could Jaime kill Cersei when he knows that she is carrying his child?

Now, Seth feels that Jaime will be killed and that Arya will wear his face to kill Cersei herself, thus sort of fulfilling the prophecy. It’s a nice twist, but as we have spoken about ourselves I feel it cheats the Valonqar thing a little. But it’s certainly a possibility, I just cannot work out how Jaime dies without Cersei knowing he is dead beforehand?

Dany, Jon, And The Throne

Last week, I predicted who will rule their own corners of Westeros by the end of the show, I won’t list it all out here, but two of these predictions have already come to pass for me. Gendry has been made a Baratheon and lord of Storm’s End (got the Arya as his wife part wrong though) and Sansa is effectively ruler of the North in Jon’s absence.

RELATED: Game of Theories: Bad Tyrion, What Have you Done?

It seems like they are driving Dany into madness right now, something I personally don’t feel is fully earned as I said above, but clearly Jon and Dany are going to come into conflict. If they do, I see only one victor at this point and that’s Jon Snow, aka Aegon Targaryen. I don’t want there to be an Iron Throne by the end, as I’ve said, but I still see Jon left as the top man in Westeros by the end of the show now. Will Dany possibly try and have Jon killed in her paranoia?

I could see a situation here Dany commands Drogon to Dracarys Jon and he refuses, which essentially would be like Dany’s own favourite child rebelling against her. That would be a really powerful scene, and would surely result in Jon having to execute Dany for her betrayal. I also see Varys being executed by Dany for treason also, and if this does happen, what will Tyrion do? I do have a hard time seeing Tyrion survive at the end, though I do feel that at least one Lannister needs to survive, so if Tyrion dies I think Jaime will live and vice versa.

If Tyrion is killed by Bronn though, as seemingly shoehorned into this season so far, I am going to be completely pissed at the writers, more than I already am at this point, but that’s a discussion outside of a theories piece.

Seth feels that both Jon and Dany will perish by the end of the series and that perhaps Sansa with Tyrion will rule the Seven Kingdoms. Of course, we disagree on this because for me if the Iron Throne remains, then the same problems will all happen again.

I do think that if Tyrion lives, he and Sansa could be wed in the end, they trust one another and would be a strong alliance. Whether that be in Kings Landing, Winterfell, or even Casterly Rock.

Final Sethisms

So for a bit of fun, we have a couple of interesting theories by Seth. Firstly, that Jon will be almost about to die to someone and Ghost will appear out of nowhere, save Jon and get himself killed as a result.

I did point out to Seth that Ghost is currently still in Winterfell and heading back North, beyond the wall with Tormund. So he’d need a teleportation device to suddenly appear in the South to rescue Jon. Sooo…..Nice theory Seth ha (although, Euron used one in the last episode I am sure)

Oh, and he envisions a climactic death match between Cersei and Dany, womano, womano where they wrestle and both fall off the walls of Kings Landing to their deaths. I also pointed out this goes against his other theories, but he doesn’t care. I think he might be just taking the piss out me now actually.

What do you think of this week’s Game of Theories, where do you see things progressing in these last two episodes, and which of Seth and I are most full of sh**. Leave your thoughts below in our Watchers chat, or just let Bran do it for you.

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