William Goodall's Blog Occasional mutterings

My predictions for the Game of Thrones finale were pretty accurate. There are many popular fan theories about what happens next and it seems certain that we will find out the truth of these early next season. I’m not hugely invested in any of them myself but I do think the most obvious is that Melisandre revives Jon Snow. The timing of having her arrive at Castle Black could be a tease of course. Jon Snow as a warged dire-wolf for the last two seasons seems unlikely.

Just one episode to go in Game of Thrones season five and some of my predictions have been correct. What’s left for the final episode?

Dany did fly on Drogon in ep 9 so I called that OK. It now looks like Arya’s killing Meryn Trant and blinding is still going to be included but in ep 10 rather than ep 9 as I previously predicted. It looks like my other two predictions (Cersei’s shaming and Jon Snow’s stabbing) are definitely on for ep 10 as well. It looks like they have some other stuff with Sansa/Boltons/Brienne lined up too. That will be a crowded episode.

Shireen’s immolation wasn’t something I had predicted and I expect there will be other major events in the final episode that I also didn’t predict. With Jorah surviving the coliseum battle but doomed by greyscale he could die anytime. And next season – well that will be all unknown all the time!

I previously made some predictions about major book storylines that might make it into this season of the TV show. With just two episodes remaining it looks like I wasn’t too far off.

From the published details of the final two episodes it appears that the betrayal and stabbing of Jon Snow will be in the final episode as will Cersei’s walk of shame. Daenerys’ flight on Drogon will be either in ep 9 or 10 and Arya’s blinding (if it happens this season) will be in ep 9.

So after ep 9 it will be pretty clear what is left for the finale!

With four episodes left in season five I count at least three major events from the books that could make it into this season, maybe four. I’m pretty sure at least two of them will. Spoilers ahead.

So what are these events?

• The betrayal and stabbing of Jon Snow
• The blinding of Arya
• Cersei’s shaming
• Daenerys flying on Drogon

It seems certain that the third of these has been filmed and so will definitely appear. It seems very likely that the betrayal of Jon Snow will feature in episode 10 and that more than one major event will feature in that episode. It seems likely that at least one of the events on the list will appear in an earlier episode leaving one or more of the others to also appear in episode 10. Given that the series has moved past and deviated from the books to some extent there is scope for at least one other major event that isn’t in the books. I won’t have to wait long to find out if I’m right.

I just finished watching the blu-ray of season 4 and have of course been reading the rumours and such. As I mentioned in a previous post the stuff that Benioff and Weiss are leaving out is a huge clue itself since that can be taken to mean that those plot lines don’t really matter to the culmination of the story (which we assume is the same as planned for the books). Not every character who dies before the end has to die at the same time and place or way but (presumably) every character who survives to play some role in the ending of the story has to live and get there somehow.

Lady coldhands is out. The Iron Islands/dragons plot appears to be out. A character who is still alive in the books dies in season five indicating that their story line ultimately fizzles out anyway.

Then we have characters who don’t appear to be crucially important but whose story lines have been kept alive in the TV series indicating that they must be after all (although maybe one such story line is a red herring several would be too much).

Sansa Stark
Theon Greyjoy
Brienne
Jorah Mormont

Characters who might die in season five

Brienne of Tarth
Samwell Tarly
Littlefinger
Jorah Mormont

That was the best season so far. I was pleased that they included the final scene with Arya as I was wondering if they were going to get that far along with her story this season. It seems like Benioff and Weiss are closer to my view on which are the most important characters and plot-lines than some other viewers. Since they are adapting with the collaboration of GRRM it’s canonical – they are paring it down to the essential story lines. This is a bit spoilerish for readers since we now know which plot lines in the forthcoming books aren’t important.

As a reader I think the three main characters are Tyrion, Arya and Daenerys. Several other characters are crucial to the plot of course, such as Jon Snow and Brandon Stark, but I could never get that interested in their stories in the books.

Next season should be very interesting with Arya in Braavos and scenes in Dorne as well it seems. Just ten months to wait… I got the Blu-ray of the first three seasons and season four is saved on my DVR so I can re-watch one episode a week just in time for the start of season five!