Dead Pool: Game of Thrones Season 7, Episode 1
Because someone is going to die and it most likely, definitely, probably going to be a character you’re now emotionally attached to.
Rejoice, for Game of Thrones is back. And while the joy of a favourite show returning after a prolonged absence (pour one out for Rick & Morty fans) is immense, for many it was quickly replaced by the realization that some of our favourite characters are going to die, some quicker than others. Over the years we tried to train ourselves to create an emotional distance from any Thrones characters that may be ripe to meet the maker, with “redeemable qualities” being a good indicator of impending death. As the game narrows, the players get closer, and even more characters become likable and redeemable (including a myriad of some truly badass women) You can’t help but worry for your favourite’s well being. To emotionally prepare you for these eventualities me and Cam are here to talk about who will die soon and why.
As a neat trick, I actually started to hope that my favourite characters die, mostly because the Universe has taught me that if you love something a lot in the GRRM Universe and put that love out there, that something will die. So I keep my emotion’s at arms length. Although, here are the deaths me and Cameron think are likely in the near future.
Jaime Lannister
Serge: Jaime Lannister has the most complete character arc out of anyone so far. From incest to betrayal to actually becoming and not so bad human being by Season 7. He’s been one of the more complex players in the whole series and last season he became one of the more likable ones. Which is precisely why he is going to die. If you run a Twitter poll on “do you want this character to die” and if No gets over 65% of the vote, GRRM is going to kill them. It’s law. I think Jaime hovers roughly around 68–72% right now. He’s done.
Despite all of the redemption, Jaime still has one tragic flaw and that is the love for his sister. I am not sure if he considered going through some serious psychological evaluation with her, but it’s clearly past time. With Cersei against the wall and her making it pretty clear she doesn’t care about anything now that her children are gone the scene is set for Jaime’s tragic sacrifice and being the last piece of her soul the “Queen” loses, and what’s more, does so of her own volition.
Bet: 100$
Cam: there are two common themes in Martin’s writing in Game of Thrones: people are trapped by their pasts, and everything will end up being far worse than you think.
There’s a growing Reddit and Twitter consensus that the prophecy given to Cersei — and particularly the final line about the hands of her younger brother being her death — refers to Jaime, rather than Cersei. We also know from several seasons ago that Jaime is consumed by the paradox of his actions in the dying days of Aerys the Mad’s reign, where he is remembered for his betrayal of his king, rather than for sparing Westeros’ largest city from a fiery inferno of death. He has also repeatedly insisted that his loyalty to Cersei is the one bond that he will never break.
Which means that the scene is set for all the tragedies of history to repeat themselves. Rather than a heroic sacrifice, I think Jaime’s end is far more likely to play out like a tribute act to King Lear: as enemies advance from all sides, Cersei will demand that the remaining wildfyre caches be ignited to deny King’s Landing to any enemy. At this point, Jaime will repeat his fateful decision from Robert’s Rebellion and save the remaining citizens of the capital; but in doing so, he will break his oath a second time and violate the one bond he swore he would never break. His oaths broken, his sister and their children dead, the stage is set for tragic suicide.
Death is never heroic in Westeros. Especially not for the characters it most conditions us to empathize with.
That being said, this kind of death doesn’t strike me as one that will happen this season. If anything, Jaime will go this way in the final few episodes of the final season, so I’ll be betting on the particulars.
Bet: $100 on death next season in this specific manner.
Littlefinger
Cam: Petyr Baelish is a man playing six-dimensional chess in a world of checkers players. For the past six seasons, he’s consistently remained ahead of the curve, and played a decisive role in: Eddard Stark’s arrest and execution, Staanis Baratheon’s defeat at Blackwater, Joffrey and Maergary Tyrell’s marriage arrangement, Joffrey’s poisoning at said marriage, Sansa’s escape from Kings Landing, Sansa’s subsequent marriage to Ramsey “more psychopathic than Joffrey” Bolton; and Ramsey’s eventual defeat in Bastardbowl 2016. We know from last season’s finale that he has designs on the Iron Throne, and on putting Sansa at his side, and is already trying to undermine Jon Stark/Snow’s hold on the North to do it.
But here’s the thing: I think Littlefinger may run into the problem of being a little bit too clever for his own good. He’s like the Diplomacy player who becomes too powerful and starts trying to take on all six players at once. And it’s become increasingly clear that, rather than being their pawn, Sansa has learned from her time with Cersei and Littlefinger (not to mention her own family’s strategic blunders that resulted in their bodies being a head lighter) and become adept at playing the game in her own right. Littlefinger caused her immeasurable pain in her shotgun marriage to Ramsey. It would be sweet poetic justice for the lessons he taught Sansa to be his own undoing.
Bet: $50
Serge: I think it is markedly more poetic for Littlefinger to become the pawn in Sansa’s games and flip it all around, whether or not that means he will actually die, I am not entirely sure. I think he has an almost Trumpian skill of doing truly despicable things and yet somehow retaining his position. I’m not high on Lord Baelish biting the dust this season.
Bet: 10$
Ser Davos
Serge: If you want to get into conspiracy theory land and unspool your yarn of doubt, now is the time. Many have speculated that the Onion Knight might turn out to be one of the biggest players by the time the Song of Ice and Fire reaches its conclusion. Some even took a mental gymnastics leap to stick the landing on the conclusion that he may be the Prince that Was Promised. To which I say, have you and I not been reading the same book.
Davos has been the most endearing and morally unbent character throughout the entire series. He basically hordes all of the qualities that are guaranteed to get you killed and Westeros; just ask Ned Stark how loyalty, honesty and morals worked out for him. Oh wait, you can’t.
Bet: 200$
Cam: Look, I’ve delved into a lot of deep corners of ASOIAF reddit, but “Davos is the Prince that was Promised” is not one that I’ve heard before. Also it’s definitely Ser Pounce.
That being said, this seems like a decent bet — he’s not one of the big seven (Jon, Sansa, Jaime, Cersei, Daenerys, Tyrion, Arya) but you’d feel a pang of sorrow if he tragically died onscreen. His life has also been unending misery since he showed up in the series: fingerbones taken by Staanis after Robert’s Rebellion, a son killed at Blackwater, Shereen torched in the world’s worst Take Your Kid to Work Day ever, and his king’s army crushed in front of Winterfell (and his king very probably dead). Misery loves company in this series.
Bet: $100
One of the Dragons
Cam: We know that there’s an undead ice dragon at some point this season — they put it in all the promotional material, so it would be madness not to use it. My roommate also has a working theory that Daenerys and one of her dragons will be dead by the end of this season: in A Feast for Crows, we know that Euron Greyjoy possesses the horn that enables its owner to control dragons, and it would be the perfect “holy shit!” cliffhanger twist to end the seventh season. I won’t go as far as to say Daenerys dies, but I’ll take a punt on one of her dragons going to join that big poker game in the sky.
Bet: $80
Serge: I think it might just be given the speculation around how Euron Greyjoy has the Dragonhorn, which is totally great aside from the fact that it’s cool to call a dragon, but it’s hard to parlay given that your lungs are basically burned alive. I don’t think all the dragons make it through, the question is which one.
Bet: 125$
Lyanna Mormont
Serge: I know, I hate myself too, but as George R.R. Martin has taught me, that “if you love something a lot, he will eventually find a way to kill it in the most emotionally crippling way.”
Bet: 40$
Cam: If Lyanna Mormont had three dragons, this show would have ended three seasons ago with the Lady of Bear Island sitting atop a throne of White Walker skulls. There’s no way she kicks the bucket. But I’m also a cautious gambler, so I’ll hedge so that I get money if I’m wrong.
Bet: $20 and the case of beer I’ll have to consume to get over my grief if this happens.
Cersei Lannister
Let’s get this one out of the proverbial way. There is a prophecy and even though it might all be malarkey at this point, George RR Martin tends to deliver with the pay-off deaths. In a sense that even though you might have to wait for them for longer than the next novel, they come in the most excruciating way.
Most of Game of Thrones, in particular the last three seasons feels like a build up to Cersei’s death. It’s a cascading build up to something truly terrifying given the compounding interest on her misdeeds. But it’s 2017, Tim Duncan is retired, Durant went to the Warriors and Trump is in office. So of course Cersei survives the whole damn series.
Bet: $200
Cam: I’m not touching this one. I agree that a reckoning is coming for Cersei’s crimes, and (as mentioned above) I can probably sketch the outlines of how it will happen. As to the question of when it will happen? I have no freaking idea. I could see B&W wrapping the Lannisters up by the end of this season; I could see Cersei hanging on to the last vestiges of power until the bitter end.
Serge: I feel like at this point Cersei could fire a special prosecutor assigned specifically to investigate her and still be okay. Oh wait, she blew them up.
Ed Sheeran
Serge: Not since the Migos filming the video to T-Shirt just south of the Wall have I see a worse cameo. This one could be a cruel joke to dangle in front of all of us before we never see him again. Although, I do want him to meet the Hound.
Bet: 20$ (probably off-screen too).
Cam: Not since the Adoring Fan in The Elder Scrolls IV have I wanted a trivial and unimportant character to die this much. He basically plays himself in Westeros — crappy ballads with uncomfortable messaging and all. I don’t understand this cameo; I don’t understand this character. He’ll probably live on in obscurity and never be seen again, but optimism and wishful thinking play an outsized role in my gambling habits.
Bet: my entire bank account.
