This week’s question is pegged to the showdown on everyone’s mind: Who do you want to die in tomorrow’s Game Of Thrones?
Danette Chavez
Call it an act of mercy, but I’m going with Theon Greyjoy, who basically signed his own death warrant (assuming they have those in Westeros) when he betrayed the Starks. I admire his rescue of Yara as much as I appreciate her response—a headbutt—and sure, he helped Sansa get away from Ramsay. Despite a stray act of bravery here and there, Theon’s been shuffling his way off the mortal coil for several seasons now, eager for the sweet oblivion of death and for everyone but the North to forget what he did. I say we give it to him.
Myles McNutt
I’ve been resistant to “Death Pools,” because I don’t want to pin myself into a certain idea of the show’s endgame and end up disappointed, but when faced with this question I realized I really want to see how they’re going to kill Ghost. That seems morbid, I know, but they’ve exhausted so many potential direwolf deaths: You had the execution of Lady, the defiling of Grey Wind, the heroic sacrifice of Summer, and the performative off-screen beheading of Shaggydog. If Ghost is going to die, and I certainly believe he will, I want to see what kind of end the writers have cooked up that manages to avoid feeling like a retread of one of his siblings’ fates. If they didn’t get fed up dealing with the logistics of his survival and kill him at earlier opportunities, I truly feel they must have something especially tragic, heroic, or brutal in mind, and I’m going to focus my curiosity there to avoid confronting the sheer volume of lives hanging in the balance at the moment.
Caitlin PenzeyMoog
I know my heartstrings are going to be torn to shreds after the Battle Of Winterfell is over. There are too many characters I love and have grown to love—Ser Brienne, Samwell Tarly, The Hound, Arya—who are all going into battle that has a potentially small survival rate. But one thing I would like to see happen is the death of Daenerys’ two remaining dragons, Drogon and Rhaegal. I’m thinking ahead: Assuming Daenerys survives the battle with the White Walkers, she’ll go on to challenge Cersei for the Iron Throne. I’d like to see her do that without the advantage of her dragons. It would put her and Cersei on more equal footing. Dragons make Daenerys formidable and frightening; without them, she’d have to use only her cunning to advance in the game of thrones.
Katie Rife
If one of the Starks has to go—and it’s been a while since this show engaged in some good old-fashioned Starkicide, so at least one of them is probably going to go—I suppose we could kill off Bran Stark. He was absent for all of season five, so I’m not as attached to him as I am to the other Starks, for one. And he’s been spending the majority of this season in the courtyard at Winterfell staring at people, so it might actually be kind of a relief for whatever common folk are left after the battle to not have him sitting there watching them forge weapons and cart grain all day. His siblings would miss him, of course. But, as sick as it feels to even say it, there’s an upside to Bran dying: his warging powers. If Bran sends his consciousness into an animal right before his human body dies, he can live on inside that animal, meaning that if Myles is right and Ghost dies in the Battle Of Winterfell, Arya, Sansa, and/or Jon can have a new pet Bran instead.
Sam Barsanti
Off the top of my head, how about Grey Worm? I think he’s cool, I’ve enjoyed his arc, and I always like it when fictional characters choose their path rather than just blindly embrace their destiny (What’s up, Daenerys?), but he sealed his own fate in that last episode. Everybody was finding ways to spend what they thought could be their last night alive, but Grey Worm and Missandei were one of the few pairings to talk about what they were planning to do after the war to win Westeros. Haven’t they ever seen a big battle like this in pop culture? Making romantic plans for later is no different than putting a big target on your chest that says “Hey White Walkers, kill me first.” It seemed like foreshadowing that one of them would die was kind of the whole point of their conversation (and the whole episode), but if they’re going to risk it anyway, they might as well pay the price of such apparent disregard for storytelling tropes.
William Hughes
As someone whose love for Game Of Thrones has been decidedly hit-or-miss over the years, I’m going to plunge straight into the heart of purest, most bitter schadenfreude with my pick: Daenerys Stormborn doesn’t deserve Tyrion Lannister, the series barely deserves Peter Dinklage, and so I say we watch both of them try to get by without either of their individual aces in the hole. Killing Tyrion—guys, you know those crypts aren’t safe, right?—would blow a hole right through large parts of the dramatic heart of the series, leaving little more than a bunch of addled teenagers fumbling around while trying to keep humanity alive, a.k.a. exactly the sort of chaos that I crave. And hey, I know I said in a previous Q&A that Tyrion would make a perfect final claimant to the Iron Throne, but, then, when has anyone in Westeros ever gotten, or deserved, perfect rulership? Meanwhile, as a firm believer that the only fitting end for the series is a win for Team Night King, finally wiping out this planet full of crappy, fractious people once and for all, taking out one of the last Smart People standing can only move the needle a little further along.
Alex McLevy
It’s been a long time since this show really shocked me with one of those awful, unexpected deaths that used to happen at least once or twice a season. Which is why I would like it to do so one last time—and the only way I can think of it really doing that is a gruesome, violent death for Lyanna Mormont, a.k.a. Tiny Mormont. True, the show has already proven it’s not above killing kids in the most horrifying ways (R.I.P. Shireen), but can you imagine the sheer fortitude it would take to murder arguably one of the only universally liked characters on the series? The howls of despair that would likely greet such a death would be matched only by the admissions of acknowledgment that Game Of Thrones managed, one last time, to craft a disturbing surprise. Of course, this would destroy my hopes for a Tiny Mormont spin-off series, but I genuinely can’t imagine a more startling death on the next episode than the cold-blooded murder of Winterfell’s pint-size badass.
Randall Colburn
I’m on the same wavelength as Alex, as all I want is for my jaw to drop like it did during the Red Wedding or, well, the Purple Wedding. Basically, I want another capital-W wedding but since the impending death of Grey Worm—one-half of the show’s only healthy relationship—ensures that won’t happen, give me Samwell Tarly’s drooping head on a spear. Gilly, too, and turn that baby into ice, White Walker-style. I have reckoned with the deaths of Davos and Tormund, of Brienne and Arya, of Jon and Dany, of Jaime and Cersei. But, while I can see George R.R. Martin having the stones to kill one of Westeros’ most sweet, innocent characters, I simply can’t imagine David Benioff and D.B. Weiss doing it. I say it’s high time to remember that, in this world, good people can die in horrible ways. Give me chaos. Give me futility. Give me the old Game Of Thrones.
Nick Wanserski
The death I always envisioned for Jaime Lannister was that he would meet his sister face to face on the final battlefield and the two would stab each other in a murderous embrace like Arthur and Mordred at the end of Excalibur. They were closest in life, so it only makes sense that they would also be closest in death. It would be a perfectly operatic death for those two incestuous glam rockers. But Game Of Thrones isn’t really about those operatic moments. It’s about small cruelties and lethal unfairness and muck and mud. So it really makes the most sense for him to die at Winterfell so that Cersei, who has already had her children taken from her, will also be without her brother and lover and at the end of her reign, be truly alone. She has the throne, she has the Iron Fleet and the Golden Company (sans elephants), but she has driven away everyone who she has ever loved into the arms of death. So, sorry, Jaime. But you have to die so that another may feel even worse.
188 Comments
Gendry. I just want his storyline over with. I don’t want a, “He’s Robert Baratheon’s son. He should be on the throne,” plot. I just want him gone.I would also be amenable to Tyrion dying so that Sansa can become Daenarys’ Hand.Also, Theon. I want him and his presence gone.
I think the question should be flipped and we should ask, who shouldn’t die. Because unless this is a huge tease by the showrunners, there will be a ton of deaths and likely some fan favorites going.
Brienne makes it through this battle, so she can sacrifice herself for Sansa. So as long as Sansa stays out of the fight, she’ll make it.
GoT has always had one villain that’s so unrelatable that they’re just fucking boring and the show partially becomes a dreary exercise in waiting for them to die already (Ramsey/Joffrey etc). Cersei’s “spoilt rich kid that overestimates her intelligence” shit grew tired seasons ago, and although she won’t die until the last episode (if at all) I would love for the show to just be done with her. There’s still enough characters that are valid primary antagonists that she’s not necessary.
I believe Cersei should have died by the end of season 5 or the very first episode of season 6, and would have if the actress weren’t so popular, and the show pared down from the books, so they don’t have established characters to take the antagonist slots needed. Her succession to the throne is ridiculous, but she will definitely be dead by the end, even if it is 3 seasons too late.
The problem is that st this point Cersei has good motivation. I too would murder everyone in the institution that forced me to walk the streets naked, and also those who took pleasure in harming and humiliating me. It’s complicsted motivation for sure (the Faith took advantage of the power Cersei gave them when she thought she could manipulate them) but given cersei’s Overall life experiences I’m not surprised that she doesn’t give a shit about people. But I guess it’s more fun to make her rotten and incompetent.
Cersei armed the Faith militant and used them to attack her enemies on morals charges to undermine the legitimate succession of power in the realm. She deserved everything that happened to her and worse. She is petty, cruel, vindictive, and a hypocrite, and would have laughed her ass off if the Faith did to Margaery what they did to her. An evil person attacking the enemies she created isn’t “good motivation,” and the bombing of the Sept was more about killing Margaery so she could stay Queen, which she isn’t by any reasonable interpretation of the laws of succession.
Maybe you just underestimate Cersei? I love that mad betch.
If Tywin/Weseteros weren’t misogynists she would have taken her rightful place as the Lannister heir. She was the firstborn, but could inherit nothing because she’s a woman. Now that she has the throne she is not letting it go until someone kills her.
She’s all that’s keeping this show going. Without her it’s just Dany and a bunch of hairy LOTR cosplayers torturing each other.
Dany and a bunch of hairy LOTR cosplayers torturing each other
^hawt
Lots of people underestimated Cersei. They’re all dead.
Yes! This! I can’t believe she’s still above ground after all the people’s she’s screwed over and had killed….Westros is Still Not Ready For Cersei.
I feel like Cersei is the human equivalent of the media narrative about Vladimir Putin – great on tactics, balls on strategy.
Myles, you are cruel. I think I dread Ghost dying more than any remaining character. I want to put Brienne, Sam, and Ghost in a rowboat now. Also, you forgot Nymeria who I hope is going to growl “not today” to some folks at some point. I kind of can’t wait to see Lil’ Mormont die. The first speech was impressive but after the fourth or so, it’s too much. She’s an arrogant child who would last :10 on a battlefield yet she walks around like she’s fucking Arthur Dayne or something. We can’t kill Bran yet. “The Night King wants to kill me to erase the memory of history” or whatever nonsense is not sufficient exposition for the most important storyline of the entire show.
Bran’s conviction that he can’t die only paints a bigger target on his back. Westeros could fall into an eternal winter, or it might scrape by like it did after the extinction of dragons or the vanishing of the Children of the Forest, just with a bit less magic.
Seriously killing Ghost would be upsetting and I feel like it will just occur nonchalantly. Like when Hedwig gets killed in Harry Potter.
What is the glam rocker from East Berlin doing in a Harry Potter movie?
I’m amazed that anyone who sat through Joffrey and Tommen can be a fan of Li’l Mormont. Haven’t we all learned by now that child rulers are a bad idea?
Tommen wasn’t so bad.
Yeah the whole point of Tommen is that he might have become a good ruler (especially with Marg by his side) but it was too late.
It is when they are Lannisters.
In short, Ghost is the coolest.
The article is a bit misleading. Remember that this is the battle of the walkers at winterfell. Maybe they should have asked “ who do you want to see most turned into a walker?” ghost would be awesome
The whole direwolf thing has always felt like some kind of cool unifying symbol for the Stark kids that GRR Martin abandoned almost immediately, probably after he was browing TV Tropes one day and saw:
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/NobleWolfWhich at the end says “bonus points if the wolf is white” and links to: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/WhiteWolvesAreSpecialOuch.
Did he? I didn’t read the books but I know their relationships are much more intense and I thought they play a larger role in general. I guess we don’t yet know if/how Summer, Shaggydog, Ghost, or Nymeria die in his version.
Well I was careful to say “felt like” because I couldn’t get through even the first book and everyone told me the rest of them are just incredibly detailed descriptions of feasts and how Arya’s nipples feel in a linen shirt.So yeah let me amend: the TV show made the direwolves feel like [see above]…
Are you really surprised that a small child who was given entire power of a large group of adults would be foolishly cocky?I mean, look what happens when you give them a mic, anonymity an a COD account. Imagine giving them literal veto powers and swords and shit.
For those wanting a shocking death, how about this? Arya is almost killed by a White Walker, but at the last moment Nymeria runs up out of nowhere to save her. Arya lives, but Nymeria dies.
Theon can definitely go
honestly anyone but Cersei can go. Just let her keep the throne already.
No! DEATH TO CERSEI!
I honestly don’t want any of them to die to the white walkers, because the white walkers and the night king are easily the least developed and least interesting adversaries in the series. I mean, I suppose if you are going to cull the cast, I wouldn’t mind if obvious third stringers like Yon Royce and Beric Dondarrion went down, but I’d prefer to see most of the existing Winterfell cast relatively intact after the battle for Winterfell because the battle for the Iron Throne is far more interesting narratively than ‘who becomes zombies.’
I’m so with you on this one. It didn’t help that GoT just happened to coincide with television’s maximum zombie saturation point, but the white walkers are boring, and I don’t care about this battle with them at all. Let’s get back to the Machiavellian power schemes and the throne.I think Team Winterfell is going to lose, though. So that the white walkers continue on south towards Cersei. And so it matters that Yara went home to secure the Iron Islands in case of retreat. Pretty sure we’re going to be stuck with the stupid zombies until the end.
Can they lose without getting wiped out to a person, minus those flying in first class on a dragon? I do not see how they could ever escape the dead army on land, with the latter being slower but I presume never stopping to rest/eat/etc. How could you retreat anywhere without getting caught?
You know, where the rules of the speed of travel do not change from season to season.
You have some people sacrifice themselves to hold the white walkers off while everyone else escapes. I mean, realistically, I have no idea, but from a storytelling standpoint, that’s what you do. Especially now, when you’ve got eight hours of time left in your show, and roughly 2300 named characters still running around.
Concur; if they do that, it is how it would proceed. I suspect there would then be a cut scene and everyone who escaped is at the Iron Islands.
I agree that the zombies are pretty boring, but will probably make it to King’s Landing at some point. So either Winterfell will fall, and the next episodes are about the survivors escaping and regrouping for the final stand (which, yeah, boring), or Winterfell will be successfully defended, but the victory is not as conclusive as one might think, nurturing a false sense of security that will give the characters some time and leisure to get in another round of plotting and scheming, before it comes back to bit them in the ass. They’ll plot and scheme and turn against each other, and we’ll get some business with Varys and the Golden Company, and we’re all set to believe the endgame will be Jon vs Dany or something – and then it turns out that the Night King they killed at Winterfell was just a decoy, used to bait Bran (two can play at this), and the real one is marching towards King’s Landing.
And Westeros politics over the last few years have been helpfully supplying NK with tens of thousands of relatively fresh corpses to bolster his ranks on the march to King’s Landing. It’s probably too much to hope that Zombie Stannis and Zombie Shireen team up to do Melisandre in though.
So true. I still don’t know what we are supposed to think their motivation is. Are they mindless hungry zombies like on TWD? Clearly not. Is TNK our for revenge on the COTF for making him? Is that why he throws up their symbol? Then why is he after humans and/or Bran at all? Is he just after Bran as we all of a sudden are told? Why? Then what the hell was he after before Bran was TER? Was he after the TER this entire time for…some reason? Then why were they even interested in moving south in the first place? Are they just nihilists? There is so much thrown out about them that is still not resolved. It’s going to be very interesting to see if they do spend more time on the backstory or just accept that they’re here and scary so it’s a fight for survival for some reason.
Given how tiresome Sam’s short-but-already-too-long monologue on the subject was, I hope they’re like “Yep. Fuck it, memory or whatever, that’s what they want. Done talking about that. Now we fight.” These show writers are clearly not capable of coming up with a compelling motivation or explanation for anyone, much less a horde of immortal ice zombies.GRRM’s explanation for the White Walkers, I’m sure, comprises three hundred extra pages of backstory notes and genealogy trees. And we’ll see it sometime in 2037.
I think it would be funny if the Night King succeeded in killing Bran, and then just went home because that really was the only thing he cared about.
I would love that so much.
At this point I think GRRM is withholding the WW backstory so he has something left for the remaining books.
If Bran develops a stronger bond with the Weirwoods, the Weirwoods get the ability to warg humans and probably destroy the human race. Night King probably doesn’t want that to happen as the others can’t survive without humanity.
The show is trash though so who cares. Night King dead now, lol. Even though the others were established as independent beings with their own emotions, just gotta kill head Vampire to end the threat. D&D suck at their job
I love the Night King (but I watch a lot fewer zombie shows than y’all). I love that JVN calls him “Approachable Karl Lagerfeld.” It’s so spot-on.
I am willing to sacrifice both Stark boys (or all 3, if we count Theon) if it means the Stark girls live. Also I would be devastated if Davos bit it so I’m starting a prayer circlr for him. Honestly as long as Arya and Sansa make it I’ll be okay.
I don’t want anyone to die. I’m hoping to bring everyone back for the musical adaption, WESTEROS FOLLIESI am offering to AV Club members first, an opportunity for a 30% stake in the production until I reach 360%. We can’t lose
I even have the opening number, Alien Jesus – “Springtime For Cersei”!
…and Westerossss!”
“Win-ter/Is Coming/For the Starrrkssss!”
If Bran doesn’t die before warging into a dragon then I’m a three-eyed Hodor. I’m still taking the OG three-eyed raven’s word that Bran will fly as a dragon prediction (crows/eagles don’t count obviously)
…the mediator wrote as he waited anxiously for his comment to be published from last week’s GOT discussion.
Dany and Jon. The show and the books have danced too long around the obvious — the Targaryens are trash and their line needs to end. They are like the damn Germans who kept getting grafted onto the English monarchy in the 1700s and 1800s, or the Normans earlier. It’s not that they’re foreigners, it’s that they are so unrelentingly dull and prissy.
The dragons are cool. They can stay. But get rid of their owners.
If you really don’t like the idea of German monarchs usurping the English crown, then do yourself a favor and don’t look into the history of the current royal family.
i think that’s what he/she was referencing.
I think the rebellion among the Faith after Aegon the Conqueror (and to a lesser extent during the Dance of the Dragons) had it right: they’re a bunch of demented incest wackos only in charge because they have WMDs. Get rid of them.
I object to the presence of Ghost in the header picture. I’m ready to be rid of Tyrion, he’s been kind of an awkward vestigial limb of the show ever since he killed Tywin. His plans are always bad, his advice rarely works, he’s not as entertaining as he used to be. If they were really ballsy, killing Dany here would be interesting. The situation vs. Cersei becomes more complex when there isn’t an obvious rival standing there to challenge her for the throne. Yes there’s Jon, but he would be reluctant at best to actually go for it. Then maybe the door is opened for Sansa, and the show has certainly been building up Sansa as one of, if not the most capable rulers remaining. You’d also have the question of Dany’s remaining forces in her absence. Who would they turn to?
You’d also have the question of Dany’s remaining forces in her absence. Who would they turn to?Not to mention the dragons. What do they do if Dany dies? Burn it all down? Latch on to the only other Targaryen? Or just fly off into the sunset?
I got the feeling when Jon first met the dragons that they smelled the Targaryen on him, and that’s why they let him ride them (and bang their mother). If Dany died, I bet they’d latch onto Jon.
Totally agree with all of this. I think they should kill either Dany of Jon in this one.“If they were really ballsy, killing Dany here would be interesting. The situation vs. Cersei becomes more complex when there isn’t an obvious rival standing there to challenge her for the throne. Yes there’s Jon, but he would be reluctant at best to actually go for it. Then maybe the door is opened for Sansa, and the show has certainly been building up Sansa as one of, if not the most capable rulers remaining.”
Daenerys. I just don’t want to see any more aunt fucking.
Without aunt-fucking, we wouldn’t have cousins.
There’s a difference between aunt fucking and aunts fucking
“But one thing I would like to see happen is the death of Daenerys’ two remaining dragons, Drogon and Rhaegal”You’re a monster. I’d rather see Daenerys and Jon Snow get thrown off and burned alive by the dragons and have Ghost eat their innards.
Kinja.
Okay, so I’m the first person to say it, but fuck it –
Beric Godsdamned Dondarrion.
Dude has outlasted his literary counterpart by several years now for seemingly no real explanation beyond the showrunners choosing to use him as an exposition express.
Give the Red God back his due and punch that fucking ticket already.
Agreed. I also think Grey Worm is toast. Or a popsicle. And, sadly, Brienne. Some wildlings might die, and Dolorous Edd, but not Samwell (and I hope not Gilly and Sam). Possibly Theon, but he will die saving a main character or characters. The Starks, Lannisters, Baratheon, and Targaryens will all survive, as will the dragons and direwolves. Nimeria and Ghost may end up together in the Targaryen tradition.
Theon dying protecting Bran would be the pinnacle of his redemption arc. I don’t think GRRM would do that. I do think Benioff and Weiss would.
The reason is that they didn’t feel like bringing back Michelle Fairley as a zombie.
Fair point. Even then, they could have found other reasons to get rid of him sooner, a la their decision to feed Thoros to an undead bear.
But for some reason, they still keep him around and let him do things, despite the fact that he takes the prize for ‘I’m Not Even Supposed to Be Here Today’Do D&D just like his actor THAT much? I mean, I know that tends to do a lot for explaining which characters they favor, but really?
I think Beric is a stand in for the 800 other characters GRRM will use to talk about the lord of light.
There’s Melisandre, but she’s on the outs with Jon & Davos.
Yeah we just haven’t seen her enough, plus Beric is more grounded and easier to hear that stuff from. Also, we needed him around to pull the Hound back into the game.
Counterpoint, Beric has the best damned voice in the seven kingdoms. He should narrate the GoT books on tape.
Ant Man!No. Wait….
I don’t want anyone to go, per se, but I am extremely curious to see what happens to Melisandre and Varys. They seem unlikely to die on a battlefield.
There is literally no one on the show I want to live. I hope some of my favorites, like Jaime and Brienne, get good deaths, but I’ll be happiest if there are three or fewer named characters still alive by the end of the series.
They should go out like Hamlet in the final episode, just clear the field.
Jon, Sansa, Theon, Robin, and Euron. Yes, I know the last two aren’t likely to even be there, but those 5 have been the worst and most annoying parts of the show for me. If we could reanimate Robb, Catelyn, Joffrey, Lysa, and Ramsay then I’d happily see all them killed again too.
I kind of want to see Dany go full Mad Queen and use the chaos of the battle and its aftermath to murder Jon and Sansa and subjugate the remaining forces (minus Arya who slips away and adds another name to her list) at Winterfell with her dragons before turning her attention south towards Kings Landings.But I know they’re probably saving that confrontation for the last episode
The problem with the plot not having consequences is that you can feel the hand on the tiller when it suddenly does. (Regardless I forgive this sin when watching. See: Buffy.)Next episode and beyond, I want a coherent point made, I want a feeling created. I hope the point isn’t: Jon/Tyrion/Daenerys is cool (and/or they’re also suddenly terrible), but a strong dramatic scene that lays out whatever the fuck they were going for with those characters the past three seasons.I have my fingers crossed for Miguel Sapochnik. The Battle of the Bastards told the story of how much it sucks to be in a battle without the writing being there. He says this is a survival horror, told from a multiplicity of viewpoints, and that he looked at Assault on District 13 and The Battle of Helm’s Deep, breaking the battle into different smaller battles.Going by the District 13 reference, the theme of season 8 mirroring season 1 (and its initial wight kid in the opening scene), I suspect Lyanna Mormont will be killed for effect, along with the girl that reminded Davos of Shireen.Also, if we are all right about the crypts and the heavy foreshadowing, why did no one consider that the crypts were full of dead people? Why didn’t Jon think of that? Is it just a blind spot in reverence for his family? I feel like some other person like Tormund or Edd would also point this out.Though at this point it will be a letdown if the dead don’t rise down there. I love the idea of headless skeleton Ned Stark back to fuck people up. They fucked with the wrong guy. All we need to see is a hand break out of the ground at the bottom of his statue, leave the rest to the imagination.
Which part of Buffy are you referring to?
I feel the rules of the combat/bad guys only matter when Whedon wants them to. Vamps were as deadly as they needed to be for the plot. It didn’t make the deaths hurt less, but they felt sometimes arbitrary. (For example Larry the minor gay character who dies in S3, and Anya’s death. Likewise Angelus had many opportunities to be lethal, but only gets Jenny Calendar. Spike and Drusilla for all their scariness are a bit toothless.)
Hmmm, I get what you mean. I still remember how in “I Only Have Eyes For You,” Angelus had an easy opportunity to kill Buffy (I don’t think she had the inner strength yet to kill him) and instead he conveniently ran away after the possession wore off.
I prefer the idea that the wights will sneak into the crypt by some secret passage and the dead Starks will rise to oppose them.
The Night King. Make the last three eps about the game of thrones instead of supernatural mumbo jumbo.
I don’t really believe he’ll win, but if he did it would be the ultimate in narrative nihilism.
I don’t think there’s any chance he’ll win, which is why the show should kill him off tomorrow and get it out of the way.
I kind-of like the theory that the attack on Winterfell is a diversion, while the Night King rides the ice dragon to an unprepared Knight’s Landing (or “Night’s” Landing, if you will) and takes the iron throne, forcing Dany and the North to fight him for it. I don’t think it’s likely…but I like it.
Only some of the people on the surface, away from the crypts, who have a chance to run away, should survive. Missandei, Gilly, Little Sam, Tyrion, Sansa down in the crypts, where they keep the dead people, should die. On the surface, all the weak should die. That’s Arya (that ninja crap is useless here,) Jaime, Lyanna Mormont, Sam, Bran (although as pointed out above his mind will be elsewhere, I think in the past.) Jon, Daenerys, Grey Worm, Brienne, Theon may have a chance of surviving depending on where and how the undead Viseryon dies the true death. The dragon of course if why so many characters should die on the surface. The extermination of House Stark is actually a good thing.
Arya is definitely not weak.
Arya isn’t weak but she’s a ninja, not a battlefield warrior.
I think characters like Tyrion and Sam and that random little girl with face scars, who thought they would be fighting but got sent to the crypts are going to end up fighting and saving the people they’re sequestered with. Or they’ll all die, who knows. Sam probably should have kept that sword.
How I would feel about people dying next episode:
Sad, but resigned: Beric, Jorah, Jaime, Theon, Bran
Honestly pretty surprised: Jon, Dany, Tyrion, Sansa, Arya, Sam, Gendry, Varys, the Hound,
Not suprised, but devastated: Brienne, Tormund, Pod, Greyworm, Missandei, Gilly, Davos
Brienne and Tormund survive; he shaves the beard and gets a dashing makeover; Brienne says what the hell and nails him.
And thus a race of giants is born that will eventually slay the night king.
I will be devastated if Sandor dies, he is the only person I absolutely need to survive til the end, but I suspect he is going to die, and Beric will resurrect him, losing his life in the process. Beric has been resurrected by the grace of the Lord of Light at least 6 times, yet lost to the Hound in a trial by combat under the judgement of R’hllor. He believes his god has a purpose for Sandor, so if he goes down, Beric will give his life to him. Thoros died saving Sandor.I don’t want him to die at all, not even temporarily, but I think there’s a better than even chance it happens this way.
I was thinking Beric might revive Bran (or Jon/Dany), but you make a decent case.
Interesting theory. I think too that there’s such fan demand for Cleganebowl—it would be a fitting arc for the Hound, to go up against his brother at the very end, and I kind of can’t imagine anyone else being able to dispatch the Zombie Mountain (Arya being too small). Or is that too cliché for Game of Thrones?
Samwell Tarly is probably the character I’m most certain will live at the end. He’s the author avatar and likely the author of the in-universe books. The character I think is most likely not to make it to the last episode is Brienne. The character I’m most worried about dying is Gendry. The character I would kill off is ….that’s tough…but Bran is a good choice.
Regarding dragon deaths, do we have any clues that there is a fresh clutch of dragon eggs somewhere? I do not recall the sexes of the dragons being stated, although they were all named for men.
My initial reaction was that I don’t know if I really want anyone to die in that battle. Then I realized that I was wrong and I absolutely want Jon to die.The reason for that isn’t that I hate Jon, even if the character himself is almost painfully boring, It’s rather that thinking about storylines going forward, Jon being there at the helm feels like the most underwhelming chocie.
What, you’re tired of pained looks and giant fur coats?
I want Jon to die because I do hate Jon. God he’s annoying.
https://kolompc.com/
I think Randall hits the nail on the head with Benioff and Weiss not having the same stones as Martin to kill off beloved characters (but then, even Martin had a habit of bringing them back, as he did with Caitlin, and as he’s going to do with Jon). I stand to be surprised, but I think this season my have fewer beloved characters suffering grisly deaths than everyone is fearing. I think B&W have already said that they’ll deviate from Martin on the fates of some more peripheral characters. I, in particular, can’t see them killing Arya. I don’t know how they couldn’t be sentimental about her. It’d be like killing your own child.It’s so obvious that Grey Worm and Missy won’t have the happy ending they’ve planned, that I’m actually expecting them to have a happy ending. This show loves to subvert expectations. It ended S01 by subverting an expectation that its main character couldn’t possibly die. I don’t put it past them to subvert an an expectation that someone will certainly die.
He brought back Cat as a vengeance monster who tried to hang some of the most sympathetic characters in the series. Very different from the effect death+resurrection had on Jon in the show (which is to say, none at all).
What I want to see die: Northern Pride.The North are a bunch of prideful rednecks who think they are superior for no real reason, have practically no armies remaining after the war of the five kings, are at the front line of the coming winter with no farms or supplies, and still have the nerve to undermine and threaten to rebel against the woman who has brought the biggest army the world has ever seen to save their worthless hides.Fuck the North.Ultimately, I think the wedge drawn between Sansa/Dany and Dany/Jon is writer bullshit, like the infighting between Arya and Sansa last season which was there for Littlefinger’s benefit, even when he wasn’t there but we were, which was a cheap trick to play on the audience.
this is the best possible take
I initially read that as “winter bullshit,” which also works I guess.
I buy Dany’s paranoia, even if the show isn’t selling it well. She abandoned her cause for a man and isn’t being rewarded for it. Sure, it’s the humanistic thing to do….which is why most rulers wouldn’t have gone that route.
She isn’t there to ‘save the North’ though; she’s there to take them over, just like the Night King. Only difference is that she (hopefully) won’t kill as many of them to do it. The people of Winterfell are caught between two shit choices, so yeah, they are totally justified in being snotty about it.
The best thing she could have done was to handle Cersei first and take the forces she conquered North to see the threat for themselves and to aid in the defense of humanity. Now she has been decimated by the white walkers and has next to nothing for her conquest of the throne, making Cersei’s forces a legitimate threat when they would have been easily overtaken if she went there first. Instead she chose to spend the lives of thousands of her own people, Dothraki and Unsullied who love her like family, and her own dragon children, to save the North, who at this point offer nothing in return but a bad attitude. No one in the south will even know or care what happened at Winterfell, but she did it to save lives.
Wouldn’t it be the biggest surprise if the Lannister army showed up and saved the battle? It is what they have sold the opposite of. Also follows (spoiler) how Helm’s Deep went down.
NO ONE. I think I’m in a bit of “old man yells at cloud” territory with people talking about deaths on Game of Thrones. I know character death has played a big part in the arc of this story, but I feel like it’s all people fucking talk about any more. I mean…there are other compelling ways to advance narrative. The show uses a lot of them. Can we maybe talk for five seconds about something other than who’s gonna fuckin’ die?I still maintain that the most punk rock thing the producers of this show could do is kill no recognizable character for the entire season. Defy people’s expectations. I’d find that much more exciting than a bunch of deaths just for the sake of satisfying the audience’s Pavlovian blood lust.
So, a massive battle with just redshirts dying?
Like the Wight Hunt last season! Redshirts basically appeared out of nowhere to die.
It’s not a bloodlust thing, it’s a basic storytelling thing. Named characters that the viewer has invested time in dying raises the stakes and heightens the tenseness of battle. Game of Thrones where no one dies is a deeply boring show.
Game of Thrones has always been a battle royale. A complex, convoluted battle royale, compared to dropping a bunch of high school students on an island, but a battle royale nonetheless. It’s the DNA of this whole series.
I’d find that much more exciting than a bunch of deaths just for the sake of satisfying the audience’s Pavlovian blood lust.
You sound like the typical American t.v. viewer where no one dies, especially the lead actors. The first time I saw a lead character die a horrible death was in the British series, Spooks. She had her head jammed into a deep fryer. Ooof. That was rough.
Nah – I go way back with character death, fam. The first time I saw a lead character die a horrible death was on Robotech back in 1985, and given that my other options at the time were the likes of Transformers and G.I. Joe, in which no one died, ever, it was a breath of fresh freakin’ air. I’m just not a fan of institutions. I feel like shock and plot progression through character death has become an institution when it comes to this show. It’s literally all anyone is talking about this season. Who’s going to die? Who’s going to die? Who’s going to die? Enough, already.
I prefer mine cooked in a waffle iron.
I kind of agree. There are still too many plot threads dangling, and while GRRM likes to subvert expectations, he doesn’t often leave story footnotes unaddressed.
This is basically my Hot Take on the show, I really think that less main characters are gonna die than everyone’s been saying. Like there are people convinced that everyone other than Jon, Dany or Cersei is gonna die horribly right now and I’m not 100% on that. Like it’s entirely possible for only third tier characters like, say Beric, Tormund, or the Hound to die and there still be a satisfying ending.
– There’s a 100% chance that Theon and Grey Worm die (especially after Grey Worm’s “ a cop two days from retirement” speech).- Jaime will die saving Brienne, or vice versa- Lyanna Mormont gets killed off screen and her cousin Jorah finds her corpse shortly before he gets killed himself.
– Tyrion survives because Bronn has to shoot at someone with the crossbow and it would make a lot more sense if this were him instead of Jaime.
I’m kind of hoping Bronn will catch up with them just in time to get killed by the zombies himself. That would be a nice undercutting of expectations.
I expect Bronn was sent North because on his way there he will see the Night King flying south overhead, so he’ll be able to tell them to go to expect him at King’s Landing instead of near Winterfell.
Missandei: I’d like to see the beaches again.Grey Worm: We’ll take my boat! It’s called the SS Live-4-Eva.
Jaime will die saving Brienne, or vice versaSurely he has to kill Cersei? Queenslayer, all that? While she pulls heavily on a glass of wine and says something bitter about how she only did it all for her family? Etc?
I have not been able to bring myself to watch this yet. But everyone seems to really like Arya.So, everyone but Arya?
ARYA AND SANSA. MAKE IT SO!
My potential ‘red shirts’ for tomorrow are Grey Worm, Brienne, Davos, Theon, Jorah. These people were featured in the preview for this week in almost blacked out screens. Sigh.
This column is a prime example of why TV critics are the worst.Douchebags of the highest order.
Dany, Jon, Sam, Jorah, Bran, Varys, The Mountain, The Hound, The Night King, Pod, Brienne, Arya, Sansa, Tormund, Ghost, Nymeria, Gendry, Cersei, Jamie, Davos, Tyrion, the Unsullied, The Golden Company, Euron, and Theon.Is that what it would take for Lady Mormont to take the Iron Throne?
Cerci – cause well fuck her; Grey Worm – should be renamed “red shirt nipple shield guy”; Ghost – can’t kill CGI so he lives – not in the budget; Bran – he’ll die but will do some Obi-wan shit where he still lives as a ghost – maybe as Ghost!Jorah – “here have my +5 cursed sword of instant death” – Samwell Tarly
Brienne and Jamie – “I knight thee and since you are the first woman to have this honor and we cant have that” – secondary death – Jamie – dies by his own hand at Briennes side – because he only has one hand…
I think it’ll be Bran, Bronn, Brienne, Brun, Braun, Bruan, Brin, Bren and Brian, in that order.
I call them all Bruce, to avoid confusion.
I call them all Batsy because i like to Hamill it up.
O’Brian doesn’t like this
Jon SnowBring on the Long Night
I want the word “endgame” to die in tomorrow’s episode of Game of Thrones.
Can’t they just kill the Night King and just spend the rest of the episodes having a nice time?
Whatch The Bold Type if you want a show about nice people who get along.
Good show that one – though if they had a battle to the death it’s be done with words & everybody would look fabulous.
Jane is totally Stannis. She would lose but then try to argue that she only lost on a technicality.
Kat is like Brienne – a skilled fighter & fiercely loyal but an inner vulnerability beneath that tough exterior that makes the viewer melt.
I might. I’ve seen ads for that and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t at least a bit interested.
It’s a delightful show in my book (I call it comfort viewing). Explores 21st century issues whilst creating a world & characters you want to be around, whilst never losing sight of its core – the power of female friendship & support.
I really want Daenerys to die, I have since she betrayed her brother. Let’s be honest here.. he sold her fair and square to Kyle Drogo, and he never gave him the army that he promised. Then Daenerys let the drogo kill him, instead of insisting that he have honor and pay his debt.
The Grey Worm/Missandei scene was so exactly what happens before a character dies that I can only hope it was a fake-out and they’ll both be fine.Beyond that, I agree that Theon is a likely death. Also one or more of: Gilly and Little Sam, Brienne (sniff), Gendry, Tormund and Jorah Mormont. Tyrion is probably the most likely to die of the main characters, but that’s still not all that likely — I can’t see the show giving him up with three episodes left.The only deaths that would actually surprise me would be Dany, Jon, Sansa and Jaime. They all seem necessary to the endgame.
WHY NOT KILL CERSEI?!?!?!?!?She’s had her appointment at the business end of a pike coming throughout the entire run, and it would be some delicious form of victory just to see her go all the way down like she so richly deserves…
…And – the fight for who succeeds her would remind us all that no story really “ends”, just particular characters. The same folk would be doing the same scheming as they always did, and any chance at most of the Westros population surviving the Long Winter will vanish along with all the petty plotting and reversals of noble fortune.But mostly – if anybody deserves to die horribly? It’s Cersei Lannister.
I’ve wanted Samwell Tarly to die since Season 1. We get it, there’s more than one way to be a man. Also, his love story with Wilding Girl is the epic black hole in this series, sucking all the joy and wonder out of it every time it appears on screen. Dear Old Gods and New: please kill Sam, Gilly, and her incest baby. Amen.
Well, ideally, you should just quickly kill-off any and all boring characters. That’s the ticket. So, you know, John Snow.
The show is trash now. Who cares who dies? None of the characters even remember their own pasts accurately and they are trying to humanize someone who butchered innocents and baked them into pies.
We get it, you don’t like the show but at least try to make accurate complaints. Here are “innocents” Black Walder and Lothar, respectively, in action being innocent:
Here are “innocents” Black Walder and Lothar, respectively, in action being innocentExcellent point, and anyone paying attention would note that while Arya destroyed House Frey, she DID indeed “spare the innocents;” all those oppressed Frey sister/wives.
She only killed the Frey men, who all broke Guest-Right by killing Arya’s family at the Red Wedding, at their patriarch’s behest.
Why do you assume all of the men are guilty? We see Walder oppressing his sons and grandsons in season 2. Black Walder and Walder made sure to scare everyone into playing along.
Why do you assume all of the women are innocent? Many of them had to have known of the plot and Roslin Frey knew for sure. None of them sounded the alarm and acted in their own way to make sure everything was carried out.
Shit is sexist, my dude
I notice you didn’t address the lack of characters having any memory of their own past. Solid move as it is not refutable.“Innocents” may have been a strong term to use. Tricking someone into cannibalism and murdering all of the men of house Frey is still a bit extreme. The show doesn’t care about succession so leaving women around means the house is not extinguished, assuming that was Wolverine’s goal. I find it hard to believe that some of Walder’s male children didn’t feel trapped in following through with the plot and as though they had no way out. At the same time, plenty of the women had to know of the plot or at least that something was up. Edmure’s wife knew. But they women so they are just innocent bystanders like we living in the 1990s AMIRITE?
And for the record, I used to love the show before it became rushed fan fiction grimdark LotR.
Missandei, although I’m betting even her death will be underwritten and performed as blandly as possible.Incredibly boring character.
Y’all need Jesus.
From the pictures on the top I guess the choices are Doggo, Fat Baker, or Probably Not?
Hot Pie left the show a while back, although atypically by retiring to bake bread rather than dying.
The White Walkers via the dead of Winterfell.The more I’ve thought about it, the more the dead rising in defense of Winterfell fits. There are all sorts of hints in the books that something funky is going on in the crypts, and in terms of the remaining ‘holy crap’ moment that might be a good candidate if Winterfell is getting overrun, beloved characters die, and Jon Snow’s battleplan (as usual) fails.While I’ve been critical at times of D&D’s showrunning since they ran out of source material in Season 6, even they generally wouldn’t be this unsubtle in letting the audience know far in advance of the characters that disaster awaits. (That, plus I don’t think they’d do something like this without GRRM being the source of the plot twist, which would mean this is in some form coming up in the books.) Also, there’s the matter of Sean Bean flown over to NYC for the premiere; there were certainly a number of other long dead characters who were there, but I wonder at him in particular. It makes me think back to the appearance of the BSG cast in-character on Letterman when Saul Tigh suggested for the next season he was getting it on with Six, and 99.9% of viewers thought it was just a good throwaway line followup to someone else saying they were getting it on with other characters.The one downside to this theory is that the show hasn’t hinted at all about this aspect of Winterfell since the early seasons.I’m not the only one who thinks this is a possibility.
Ned was beheaded, so if his corpse comes back it won’t look that much like Sean Bean.
Not his corpse; I was more thinking 3ER style.If the Winterfell dead follow this path, Bran is probably going to be involved.
I don’t know who is going to die, but I’m thinking Edmure Tully might make a surprise appearance somewhere over the remaining episodes. Or, maybe they really just chose to forget him.
His name is literally a minimal anagram for “demure”. GRRM never planned for him to do anything heroic. Or interesting, apparently.
I think I read that Tobias Menzies popped up on a few call sheets.
Do I want nearly everyone but Jon and Dany to get clipped? No, but something tells me that’s what happens.I’ve been telling people I’m putting it that Winterfell gets 99% fucked. Only a skeleton crew maybe runs, and it ends up the absolute main heroes have to abandon it and escape away on a dragon again.4 or 5 of the people we know make it, tops. That preview scene of Arya just makes it look too clear to me that everything gets fucked. She’s turned into the most (rightly so) confident and bloodthirsty soldier out there. If she’s in the crypt looking scared shitless, me thinks most of Winterfell is gone by that point.
That preview scene of Arya just makes it look too clear to me that
everything gets fucked. She’s turned into the most (rightly so)
confident and bloodthirsty soldier out there. If she’s in the crypt looking scared shitless, me thinks most of Winterfell is gone by that point.
Yeah, it seems very few things would scare Arya. The only thing I can think of is that her weapon doesn’t work (weapons; she has more than one) or she loses her weapons or someone or something breaks it (both her new weapon and her dagger).
Her dagger is Valyrian steel, which shatters White Walkers. What on earth would break it?
Ghost, Tiny Mormont, Grey Worm, Missandei, Podrick, Brienne: they will die and get Wight’d. Theon and Melisandre will die, but their corpses will be burnt.
Jaime, Tyrion, Dany, Sam, Jon, Bran will survive this episode:
If Bran dies, there is no more Three-eyed Raven, and we just found out that the world needs one or else it falls into heat death.
If Jon or Dany die, there’s no space for inter-protagonist conflict in the last three episodes.If Tyrion or Jamie die, it takes the air out of Cersei’s drapatic potential.
If Sam dies, he can’t be the secret author.
For me the only question is, which Stark daughter will die? One of them will, i suspect it’s Sansa chasing Arya.
Per the second law of thermodynamics, everything dies of heat death eventually no matter what.
I am disappointed in all of you, and myself. I’m disappointed in myself because I don’t have the internet skills to find or piece together a gif of Gary Oldman yelling “EVERYONE!” in the movie Leon and post it here. I’m disappointed in all of you that this story was posted almost sixteen hours ago, and no one else thought of it.
You want freakin’ Ghost to die, when he just finally popped back up?!?
YOU BASTARD!
I only hope those deaths won’t happen very fast. They put plot armor on all those character 3-4 season ago and if they are going to die every 5 minutes, emotions will be too overwhelming and some of them will be lost in a battle of million crazy things that are happening at once.
Gendry lives: the Baratheon info bomb is prime drama. Brienne will probably live: we need to keep a fan fave fringe character around, and we’ll need someone around to mourn jaime’s death. I still think Theon may live, just like Andrew survived on Buffy. It’s powerful when a coward has to grapple with survivor’s guilt. Beric is a goner. He is a link to the mythology portion of the story, which will end in this episode. Jorah will die without having been able to fully redeem himself in the eyes of his people. What if bran dies and wargs into a dragon?
Yes, Lyanna. Mormont. Do it!
Jon Snow. Unless this is going to give a standard fantasy ending to the series that made its bones subverting fantasy tropes he has to die. Right now the only way to avoid an ending that is ‘And the Good King Jon ruled them wisely and well for 50 years’ is for him to die. GRRM hates that ending, where the secret heir who lived with the commoners is a good king. We know this because he has said it and written it with the Duncan and Egg series. Why on Earth should this show end with a whiny, unlikeable character being elevated to good king in the most blatant bowing to tradition possible.
I know it messes with the whole arc, but I want to see all dragons and targaryens dead ASAP. Jon and Dany are both insufferable. My GoTs bracket sees Cersei kill Tyrion and/or Jon, Jamie kill Cercei in a fit of rage, and the King Slayer x2 reluctantly sitting on the throne.
Ranking the characters from guaranteed dead to guaranteed to survive:BericVarysGendryPodrickTormondGrey WormTheonMissandeiBrienneJorahDavosGhostEddLyannaRhaegalSandorJamieBranNight KingGillyLittle SamBig SamTyrionAryaDrogonSansaDanyJonApologies if I forgot anyone.
The Facebook programmer for the algorithm which chooses which hilariously inappropriate ads to put on my page. I don’t read Arabic, I’m not looking to buy real estate in Paris, and FFS Heineken?
This IS fantasy, right?
I think Brienne is a gonner. Her story is pretty much done. I can see Varys making a noble sacrifice. I can also see Gendry dying to piss off Arya even more. I do wish they would so something with him being the bastard of king but I don’t think they will. The other minor Nights Watch and Wildlings can good too.
I say just bump off the Night King. And then focus the rest of the season on getting rid of Queen Failed Pixie-Cut herself.
Not sure killing Mormont would rank in anyway on the scale of shocking deaths the final season deserves. Not saying it’ll be this week but my thinking is that the shows final social media cum shot will be the death of either John or Dany. The death itself might not be a shock but the fact one will kill the other would certainly do it.
For sure Greyworm. Probably his lady as well. Brienne for sure. Jaime probably. Hopefully Theon old aggravating ass, can’t wait to get rid of him. Davos probably. The Wildling. Ghost, most likely. Maybe Arya or Santa, not both. And it’s possible they both could make it. And I think Jon Snow will die, possibly sacrificing himself for Dany or one of her dragons. The one that will hurt will be later on when Tyrion survives the battle at Winterfell, only to die at the hands of Cersei, who will wind up as the last player standing left in the Game of Thrones.