9 key predictions for how 'Game of Thrones' Season 6 will end
Warning: Contains spoilers for Game of Thrones Season 6, Episode eight, and George R. R. Martin's A Dance with Dragons.
LONDON -- With two more episodes of Game of Thrones Season 6 left to go, the fan theories and speculation has reached a fever-pitch.
Who will triumph in Bastardbowl? How will Cersei get out of her sticky sparrow situation? Will Arya finally get to Westeros so we can put that whole waif storyline behind us once and for all?
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In the run-up to the final two episodes, we've made a bunch of predictions -- based on interviews, theories and clues we've had in previous episodes -- of all the big things that we think will happen before Season 6 reaches its conclusion.
1. Jon Snow will win the Battle of the Bastards.
We know George R. R. Martin is cruel, but surely he's not cruel enough to bring back everyone's favourite bastard only to have him be ultimately out-bastarded by the biggest damn bastard in the whole show. If you believe the R + L = J theory (and it just so happens that we do), Jon still has big stuff ahead of him. He may not last right until the end of the show, but we think he'll stick around for awhile yet.
2. Ramsay will die.
This isn't just wishful thinking on our part. There's evidence. In an interview last month Sophie Turner (a.k.a. Sansa) played a game of "two truths and a lie", in which she gave two true statements and one false statement about what will happen in the rest of Season Six. We argued why her statement about Lady Stoneheart returning is the false one, which means her remaining statements -- that Ramsay will die and Arya will tick three people off her list -- should be true.
And it makes sense, doesn't it? The Game of Thrones world may be harsh, but it's also fair... sometimes. As Joffrey proved back in Season 4, you can't be a power-hungry sadist and get away with it forever.
If we had to guess, we'd say Ramsay will be killed by Jon Snow's direwolf -- given his predilection for feeding people to the dogs, this would have a nice irony to it.
3. Rickon will die.
Game of Thrones gives, but it also takes away. Rickon is in a very bad place at the moment, and we can't imagine the Battle of the Bastards is going to have a completely happy ending. This theory argues that Rickon will be killed by Littlefinger -- which, if Littlefinger is the one who helps the Starks win their battle, would certainly have a bitter irony -- but we think it's just as likely that Jon & Co. will arrive at Winterfell to discover him dead in Ramsay's dungeon. We don't want it to happen, but we can't imagine the Starks escaping this one unscathed.
4. Arya will return to Westeros.
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After many long hours of watching her train and get repeatedly hit with a stick, Arya Stark looks like she's finally about to re-enter the fray. This prediction is pretty much a guarantee -- actress Maisie Williams tweeted about it, her final line in episode eight is "A girl is Arya Stark of Winterfell, and I'm going home" and it was heavily hinted at last month in this interview.
We'll probably have to wait for the final episode for this one, but we think Arya will get at least one scene back on Westerosi turf before the season's out.
5. Arya will tick three names off her list.
Speaking of Arya returning to Westeros, remember that truth-telling game played by the cast that we mentioned earlier on? Aside from what she said about Ramsay and Lady Stoneheart, Sophie Turner's other statement -- which should, by our previous logic, also be true -- was that Arya will tick three names off her list.
This doesn't necessarily mean she'll be the one to kill them, of course, but characters like Beric Dondarrion, Thoros of Myr, Melisandre, Walder Frey, Ilyn Payne, the Mountain and Cersei are all potential targets.
6. The Greyjoys will arrive in slaver's bay to help Daenerys.
Theon and Yara have essentially taken Victarion Greyjoy's storyline from the books, and are currently en-route to Slaver's Bay. And their timing couldn't be better really, could it? Not only would their arrival in Episode 10 help Daenerys fend off the invading slave masters, but it would also give her a handy fleet of ships -- perfect for transporting an ever-growing army to the shores of Westeros next season.
7. Cersei will burn down the Great Sept.
After episode eight, this seems inevitable. Cersei has been backed into a corner by the High Sparrows and the Tyrells; she's head-strong, angry and uber-protective of her children. When provoked, she lashes out. Her recent comments to Qyburn made it sound very much as though she was looking into the "old rumour" of wildfire being stored beneath King's Landing. When you couple this with Bran's visions from episode six, the hints dropped in this interview with High Sparrow actor Jonathan Pryce and the parallels to the Mad King Aerys II Targaryen discussed in this theory, it seems like like the whole thing is written in stone.
8. Tommen (and a bunch of other characters) will die.
Every word of the grim prophecy Maggy the Frog gave a young Cersei has come true so far. Joffrey is dead, Myrcella is dead and it seems highly likely that poor old Tommen will be next to go. People have different theories about how this might happen, but death-by-Mountain or death-by-wildfire seem to be the two most likely contenders.
At this point it's worth noting that in George R. R. Martin's books, Ser Kevan and Grand Maester Pycelle are already dead (and Loras Tyrell has been badly disfigured in a fire during a previous battle). A massive fire at the Great Sept in the season finale seems like a suitable place to kill off the first two and disfigure the latter -- it would make for a dramatic finale and put the show back in line with Martin's novels.
9. Varys will make sure Cersei does maximum damage.
A Dance with Dragons ends with Varys returning to King's Landing to dispatch Ser Kevan and Pycelle, thereby helping give Cersei the best possible chance of messing everything up (keeping King's Landing in turmoil to make a future Targaryen invasion nice and straight-forward, in other words).
In episode eight we saw him leaving Tyrion to set off on a "secret mission." He mentions needing friends in Westeros and ships, but while he's there it's highly likely he'll also try to act as a catalyst for any King's Landing-based chaos.
He won't help Cersei out in the open, of course, but he'll no doubt be behind the scenes to ensure there's as much destruction caused as humanly possible. The more chaos there is in King's Landing, the easier it will be for the Mother of Dragons when she finally comes home.
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Topics Game Of Thrones
