It’s hard to believe we’ve already enjoyed another entire season of Game of Thrones but in the timeline of the show we are, at long last, in late autumn. Last week’s episode, Battle of the Bastards, reminds us that this is a level of storytelling we crave on TV; we’re all loathe to think there are only a handful of episodes left.
The original promise of the show was that winter is coming – which we now interpret to mean an epic showdown for earth with the white walkers. This Sunday’s season 6 finale titled The Winds of Winter will assumedly set things up for season 7’s shortened run to move that story forward.
It’s easy to see the pieces moving across the board. Side stories like Ramsey Bolton (yay!), the Night’s Watch, and the Khals have effectively concluded. Daenerys is riding the dragons and has proclaimed her intention to take the Dothraki to Westeros. Arya is heading back to Westeros and there are Starks again in Winterfell. The brotherhood without banners is back and with them, possibly, will come Lady Stoneheart. Theon, Yara, Tyrion, and Daenerys are aligning. There’s a second red priestess in the mix. We now know where the walkers came from and a little more about their motivation. Bran is…well, we don’t really know what to think of Bran yet.
It’s kind of nice that Cersei was one of the least interesting characters this season.
Before we start speculating about next season though we’ve got one more, supersized episode to enjoy this week. HBO released this trailer and these promo images that give us a glimpse of a few scenes we can expect.
Bran (Isaac Hempstead-Wright) will be dealing with the loss of Hodor and the three-eyed raven.
Last week Ser Davos (Liam Cunningham) found Shireen’s toy at the site of the fire. He will wring the truth from Melisandre.
Jamie (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) and Bronn (Jerome Flynn) set out with the troops, perhaps on their way to…
…a meeting with Walder Frey (David Bradley) who, now lacking Ramsay Bolton, may be the second-ickiest character.
Tyrion (Peter Dinklage) as Daenerys (Emilia Clarke) advisor is one of the best moves Martin made. Now they have to pick apart her alliance with Yara. And drink, of course.
Ser Loras Tyrell (Finn Jones) kneels before the High Sparrow (Jonathan Pryce). Tommen has abolished trial by combat and instituted trial by faith.
From this preview we know Littlefinger (Aiden Gillen) and Sansa (Sophie Turner) will also have a moment. No doubt when he reminds her that he wants her as his wife.