The Endgame of Game of Thrones

With only two episodes left, “The Last of the Starks” has set up the endgame of Game of Thrones. Here are my thoughts on where the show seems to be heading.

Cersei Is Winning … For Now

Last week I predicted that some of the characters who survived “The Long Night” won’t survive Cersei Lannister. But I never would have guessed the first two to go would be Rhaegal and Missandei. And while I question whether it should be that easy to fell a dragon with giant crossbows mounted on swaying ships, Dany is down to one dragon and almost zero friends, so you have to give Cersei the edge going into the final two episodes. Right now, Smaug of Middle Earth must be laughing at these vulnerable Game of Thrones dragons. It took a magic arrow shot in the one place where his iron-hard scales had gone missing to kill Tolkien’s dragon. Yet a GRRM wyrm apparently has no body armor of any note, whether it’s against a White Walker’s dirty claws or one of Qyburn’s scorpions. Also, Dany needs to learn to fly higher next time. Although none of this changes the fact that she’s down to Drogon, and unless she finds a way to defeat those giant crossbows, things are not looking good for the Mother of Dragons.

Once the Night King died and Cersei became the new Big Bad, you knew she’d gain the upper hand, at least for a while. I never imagined it would come so quickly, however. But with only two episodes remaining, the showrunners are moving the story along at a breakneck pace. (Which makes you wonder why we couldn’t have had at least eight episodes in this final season. There appears to have been enough material to go around.)

But Dany Still Has Drogon

One of the plotlines for the final season concerns whether Daenerys can overcome her ruthless desire to seize the Iron Throne. Though after what Cersei did to Rhaegal and Missandei, any thought of a merciful Dany appears gone. She is about to go full Targaryen on King’s Landing, Fire & Blood style. Which brings me back to George R.R. Martin’s latest book in A Song of Ice and Fire not named The Winds of Winter. Using a dragon to annihilate an entire castle is as old as Aegon the Conqueror.

According to Fire & Blood, Martin’s history of the early Targaryen kings, Aegon used dragonfire to forge the Seven Kingdoms. When Harren the Black refused to bend the knee and holed up in his mighty castle at Harrenhal, Aegon flew his dragon Balerion through the clouds “until the dragon was no bigger than a fly on the moon.” Then he plunged down upon Harrenhall “on wings as black as night” and bathed the castle in fire, killing everyone inside it. Soon the “towers of Harrenhal glowed red against the night like five great candles … and like candles, they began to twist and melt as tunnels of molten stone ran down their sides.”

If Daenerys can find a way to avoid the scorpions, perhaps by stealing a page out of Aegon’s Harrenhal playbook, this sounds exactly like what she plans to do—unless someone stops her. Maybe that someone is Cersei, who outwits Dany once again. But I don’t see Cersei being the one to lead to Daenerys’ demise. But could it be Varys or Tyrion? Or even Jon Snow?

Jon Set The Endgame In Motion

Early in the episode, Daenerys predicted what would happen if Jon told anyone about his true heritage.“You won’t be able to control it or what it does to people,” she tells him. “No matter how many times you bend the knee.” And she was right. Jon appears to suffer the same fatal flaw as Ned Stark: he’s too damn honest (though Ned did take the secret of Jon’s parentage to his grave; Jon couldn’t keep the secret for even a few days. As Ygritte would say, “You know nothing, Jon Snow.”). Once Sansa knew the truth, she told Tyrion, who told Varys, and now Dany’s most trusted advisors may be plotting ways to put Jon on the throne. But first, they may have to stop Dany from killing every soul in King’s Landing.

For a few seasons now, the show has been playing up Danaerys’ worst Targaryen instincts. With her lust to rule Westeros and make every lord bend the knee, she has become a lot like Aegon the Conqueror. And maybe she’s even taking after her father, the Mad King. Stopping Dany from becoming the Mad Queen and putting a more worthy ruler on the Iron Throne may very well be the series’ endgame. But does that mean Daenerys will become the ultimate antagonist on Game of Thrones?

Don’t Forget, Death Is Coming

Whether Cersei knows it or not, her greatest threat may not be Daenerys and her dragon. No, Cersei’s greatest danger is likely with the Hound. And I mean, the hero of Westeros: Arya Stark, first of her name, the most skilled assassin in the Seven Kingdoms and slayer of the Night King. You know she’s going for Cersei, and I don’t think anything short of Daenerys burning King’s Landing to the ground will stop Arya from getting inside the Red Keep. In fact, Dany and Jon could have kept partying in the North while Arya went South, and I have little doubt the problem of Cersei would have become a distant memory. Even more, Cersei has never paid attention to Arya, so she has no idea the Goddess of Death is heading her way.

Of course, being Game of Thrones this won’t be as easy as it seems. Also, Tyrion and Jaime still have roles to play when it comes to Cersei and the endgame. But that scene with Arya and the Hound carried two clear signals. The first is that the Cleganebowl is indeed happening! The second is that Arya has one last name on her list—and she’s determined to cross it off.

* Images courtesy of HBO.