‘Game of Thrones’: 11 Questions We Still Have
Game of Thrones has a lot of ‘splainin’ to do. The hit HBO show’s fifth season ended on a whole mountain range of cliffhangers, from Jon Snow stabbed by his own men to Daenerys Targaryen and her dragon running into a horde of Dothraki warriors. Meanwhile, Sansa Stark and Theon Greyjoy are running for their lives and political powder kegs everywhere are waiting to go boom. Since the show is now moving past the point where author George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series left off, nobody really except the showrunners knows where any of this is headed.
As anticipation builds for Sunday’s season premiere, get psyched — or go crazy — by reading up on the 11 biggest unanswered questions awaiting us in Westeros this year. Winter? Definitely coming. Everything else? Your guess is as good as ours ….
1. Is Jon Snow dead? Like, dead dead?
When everyone involved with Game of Thrones swears up and down that Jon Snow is dead, they’re probably not lying. Last season’s final shot — Jon in the snow, blood gushing out from multiple stab wounds, with the unblinking eyes that are cinematic shorthand for “yeah, this dude’s a corpse” — doesn’t leave a whole lot of wiggle room. Nor do the clips from the trailers that show him lying in state, surrounded by Ser Davos and various Night’s Watch loyalists.
So does this mean Jon is following his father Ned, his half-brother Robb, and his stepmother Catelyn into Shocking Stark Death Oblivion? Since the most recent volume of the novels, A Dance with Dragons, ends on this exact same cliffhanger, nobody knows for sure — but don’t count the boy in black out just yet. For one thing, he has a special connection to his direwolf Ghost, and may be able to “warg” his consciousness into his animal companion. For another, the red priestess Melisandre is hanging around, and her religion has serious resurrection powers. Readers have long speculated that a combination of these two kinds of magic — ice and fire, if you will, perhaps with an assist from his psychic brother Bran — will give Lord Snow his ticket back to the land of the living, and leave him much more whole than other resurrectees have been in the past.
‘Game of Thrones’ actor Kit Harington discussed his original audition for the show and filming his reincarnation scene. Watch here.
2. What the hell’s going to happen at the Wall?
Nothing good! Ser Alliser Thorne has led a mutiny against Jon Snow for allowing the wildlings through the Wall, which means more bloodshed between rival factions is sure to follow. The feral tribe from the outlands may not have been the late Lord Commander’s biggest fans, but they’re not likely to take kindly to his murder by a pack of bigots, whom they outnumber by an order of magnitude. The late Stannis Baratheon’s two most devoted followers, Davos and Melisandre, are still in the mix as well — and so is at least one giant, whom Jon helped rescue from the besieged fishing village of Hardhome. To the south, the Boltons are in charge, and they could well send forces to slay the few remaining Stark and Stannis loyalists at Castle Black. And to the north, of course, the White Walkers are coming, with their army of the dead in tow. It’s an explosive situation, and the whole Wall could fall if it blows up.
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