Game of Thrones is back! We're two episodes into the seventh season and, with only a dozen episodes or less remaining, why not make a few crazy, off-the-wall predictions that will inevitably look rather foolish in hindsight. Here's your spoiler warning if you haven't watched the series through this past Sunday's episode, "Stormborn." Let's dig in! Right, so the fun in this is that I'm gonna throw out wild, off-the-wall predictions that will in all likelihood be crazy wrong in hindsight. That's what I love most about GRRM's writing and D&D's adaptation into the Game of Thrones HBO series -- anything can happen and they're all constantly pulling the rug out from under us. Anyway, I've heard (and argued) a bunch of other theories with friends and fans of both the books and show. Here's a few of the popular theories we've discussed/thrown out there:
(Note: I still believe The Red Keep will take heavy damage from Cersei's efforts, providing us with this payoff from Dany's vision in Qarth). But most of those are longstanding theories that super-fans have argued over for awhile now. I mean to go big or go home, so here goes: 1) Ser Jorah Mormont is Azor AhaiThe popular (and likely accurate) theory is Azor Ahai is Jon Snow, or possibly a combination of Jon + Dany. One thing GRRM proves over and over is his ability to mislead us with prophecy. Here is what that specific prophecy says, according to Thoros of Myr: "According to prophecy, our champion will be reborn to wake dragons from stone and reforge the great sword Lightbringer that defeated the darkness those thousands of years ago. If the old tales are true, a terrible weapon forged with a loving wife's heart. Part of me thinks man was well rid of it, but great power requires great sacrifice. That much at least the Lord of Light is clear on." Here's my argument for why this prophecy points to Jorah: 1) Our champion will be reborn to wake dragons from stone. Jorah is an anointed knight and we've seen him become a champion in the fighting pits. Not a massive point, I grant you, but he is still a champion in the literal sense of the word. Last season, Dany (again) sent Jorah from her service, commanding him to find a cure to heal his greyscale affliction. Cue last week's episode, we saw Sam begin his treatment(?) to heal Jorah so he doesn't turn into a stone-man. Methinks as soon as this is cleared up, Jorah and Sam will skedaddle on over to Dragonstone and speak sense to Dany -- (hey, maybe listen to Sam (and Jon Snow?) -- after her endeavors to takeover Westeros from Cersei fail. 2) Reforge the great sword Lightbringer that defeated the darkness those thousands of years ago. In Season 1, Jorah's father, Jeor Mormont, the Lord Commander of the Night's Watch, gave their family sword, Longclaw, to Jon Snow with a new wolf's head pommel. Jeor also told Jon, Kinda feel like when Jorah and Jon eventually are introduced that Jon Snow, standup guy that he is, will gift Longclaw back to Jorah. I get that just changing out the pommels doesn't entail reforging the sword, but, as we've seen in the past, the prophecies aren't always so cut and dry. 3) If the old tales are true, a terrible weapon forged with a loving wife's heart. Part of me thinks man was well rid of it, but great power requires great sacrifice. That much at least the Lord of Light is clear on. Here's where I think Jorah's really greyscale could come into play. As the story of Azor Ahai goes, he tried and failed at tempering his hero’s sword twice (once with water, the second time by driving into a lion’s heart (a Lannister, perhaps?). Finally, he realized what he needed to do and asked his wife to bear her breast, then drove the sword into her heart and drew forth the flaming sword, Lightbringer. While I can’t see Dany + Jorah tying the knot, it’s been made abundantly clear that Jorah loves Dany. Wouldn’t it be just amazingly tragic if, in the final battle, Jorah had to kill Dany in order to save the world from the Others? Here’s how I could see that scenario playing out: The Night’s King uses some dark magic to takeover Dany and drive her mad (possibly like some fans, myself included, theorize Bran drove her father, Aerys, mad). By using Dany, the Night’s King also takes the loyalty of whatever dragons remain to Dany and unleashes them instead on those we know and love. Cue Jorah, his greyscale fully taken over now and his newly stony skin granting him a kind of mostly dragonfire-proof armor that allows him alone to approach his beloved Khaleesi. In his final moments, he kills her, breaking the Night’s King hold over the remaining dragons, which allows Jon to rally the remaining forces to defeat the Others. *Note: While I think the above scenario could be awesome and turn the tables on us fans, I think almost all of the above points are more applicable to Jon being Azor Ahai and that my above points could be tailored to also fit Jon, as in:
2) ICE DRAGONS AT WINTERFELLOh, yeah. I said it. This is kind of doubling down on the Jon as Azor Ahai prophecy, specifically the point of waking dragons from stone. In the books, Bran hears stories of ice dragons. If you believe (as I do) that Bran is all the Brandon Starks throughout Westerosi history, then you know Bran the Builder also built/raised the Wall, Winterfell and, more importantly, the crypts beneath Winterfell. We haven’t fully seen the scope of the crypts yet in the show, but it’s hinted at in the books that they’re massive and hold secrets. In both books and show, the Three-Eyed Raven tells Bran “you will never walk again, but you will fly.” What if a Bran in the past (or the Children of the Forest) used magic to lull a few ice dragons to sleep in the crypts beneath Winterfell for the Great War to come? We know Jon is now confirmed as a Targaryen and that he, Bran, and Arya are all capable of warging, so woundn’t it be epic if during the Stark family reunion, Bran were to lead them into the crypts where Jon, with his Targaryen blood, wake the ice dragons from the stony crypts and then the three Starks warg the minds of the ice dragons to combat the Others and/or Dany and her dragons when she continues to be a terrible ruler and comes North to again demand Jon’s fealty rather than listen to her advisors? Also, wouldn’t the sight of Jon and Bran discovering the sleeping ice dragons be an insane cliffhanger to end Season 7? Want another crazy out there prediction -- What if the Horn of Joramun is also in the crypts and Jon’s sounding of it to wake the dragons is also what brings down the Wall? Mwahahaha. 3) ARYA DIES...AND YET LIVES ONUgh. I hated even writing the above headline…but that’s why this would be both awesome and a heartbreaker. Here’s how I could see this playing out. Arya and Sansa discover Littlefinger has been behind everything that brought their family to the brink of extinction. Arya takes on the task of assassinating him, but, schemer that he is, Littlefinger thwarts this. Stabbing her, he offers some parting snide remark and then leaves her to bleed out. Except she doesn’t. Arya wargs into Nymeria, thus literally becoming “no one”, and leads her wolf pack in the battle against the Others. The last we’ll see of “her” after the Great War ends is Arya/Nymeria leading what remains of her wolf pack North of where the Wall once existed to live out her days running wild and free. *** So there you have it, friends. My crazy predictions on what could happen, but likely won’t.
Still…ice dragons. What do you think, GOT fans? Have any crazy predictions of your own?
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AARON GALVIN
Author. Actor. Rascal. Archives
December 2020
SELF PUBLISHING
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