The most googled question regarding Game of Thrones is apparently “How are Jon and Daenerys related?” Allow me to help: Daenerys is his aunt. Her eldest brother, Rhaegar Targaryen, is his father; Lyanna Stark, Ned’s sister, is Jon’s mother. They were secretly married, making Jon the legitimate Targaryen heir over Daenerys because Westeros be sexist.
If you have any other questions regarding the series, or have any theories you want to throw out there, please put them in the comments and I will try to answer them the best I can. Think of it like a mini Lost-chat (until I can figure out how to do a chat on this platform…).
Wait, Gwendoline Christie just said on Live with Kelly and Ryan that the show ends with “someone taking their rightful place on the Iron Throne,” COMPLETELY DESTROYING ONE OF MY LONGEST-HELD THEORIES. Well, shit. I don’t have video, but this honestly, might be the biggest spoiler any actor has revealed to date.
I’ve told this story a thousand times, but when the original novel first came out, I was working at Bantam Books, the publisher of A Song of Ice and Fire novels, and my pal Andrew tried to give me a first edition hardcover copy of Game of Thrones, insisting that I would love it. I sneered at him that I didn’t read books about dragons and warlocks because I was A GODDAMNED IDIOT. And I can not tell you how many people I’ve talked to who, like me, can’t believe how much they love a fantasy series. The trick, this article posits, is that the show’s creators hid the magic and supernatural elements of the series for most of the first season and focused on the interpersonal character drama. Sure, it begins with zombies, but the next most supernatural element — Daenerys emerging unscathed from Khal Drogo’s funeral pyre with her dragons — comes at the season finale, a fact that I hadn’t really given a lot of thought to.
Here is an argument that the family dynamics are what makes the show tick.
Meanwhile, other networks wanted their own epic/fantasy series, and came up with these seven series. Arguably, Vikings was the most successful, but none of them came close to being the cultural phenomena that Game of Thrones is. (Also, they argue that The CW’s Mary Queen of Scots series, Reign, didn’t have any supernatural elements. As someone who watched every episode of that nonsense: WRONG.)
Warming Glow goes over the Game of Thrones relationships we ship the hardest. A few thoughts: 1. Tormund and Brienne FOREVER, 2. I had never even CONSIDERED Sansa and Pod, but color me intrigued and 3. Sansa and Tyrion divorced? I am not sure that Sansa and Tyrion ever divorced, y’all.
They also rank the “best” deaths and I would rank these VERY differently. I mean, yes, Joffrey’s death was very satisfying, but if that’s how we’re going to rank them, I think the Frey massacre or Ramsay’s comeuppance rank even higher. If we’re ranking them based on sheer horror, the Red Wedding and the Viper are the highest. And if we’re ranking them based on saddest, Hodor takes it by a landslide. I still get emotional thinking about that one.
Related: here’s a death quiz on who killed who on the show. Tip: they are looking for who actually did the killing not who directed the killing. You’re welcome.
PLEASE MAKE WESTEROS WORLD A REAL PLACE BECAUSE I WANT TO GO TO THERE. (This is a genuinely remarkable and beautiful piece of fan art.)
This is just a very basic list of things to know going into the final season, like episode dates and what we can guess will happen from the trailers.
Here’s a travel guide to some of the most memorable locations in the series. But be gentle with Dubrovnik, guys. The cruise ship business is dumping up to 10,000 visitors A DAY on this delicate UNESCO site, and while you might think the tourist boom would help the town, the truth is visitors tend to eat and sleep on their cruises, depriving local businesses and wrecking the place in the process.
Here’s some Game of Thrones crap you can buy to help soothe the pain of your favorite show coming to an end. I’m not saying that I could successfully rock the Daenerys coat, I’m just saying I’d like to try.
I will give anything to see the original “unbelievably bad” pilot for Game of Thrones. And speaking of, here are all the ways Game of Thrones could have been a disaster.
Anderson Cooper, the White Walker of cable news, gets the White Walker treatment and he reveals his crush on Kit Harington:
We received shit-ton news about the Disney+ streaming service yesterday:
- First of all, we know how much it is going to cost and when it is going to launch: $6.99 a month or $69.99 for a year and it will launch on November 1.
- The Mandalorian will be available immediately, and all of the Star Wars movies will be available within the year.
- In Marvel programming news, the Scarlett Witch/Vision series has received a title: Wandavision. People are having very What the Fuck feelings about it. There is also going to be a Falcon and Winter Soldier series. Also newly announced, a Marvel animated series called What If?
- The Simpsons will make Disney+ their new exclusive home for streaming video.
- Jeff Goldblum is getting his own docuseries called The World According to Jeff Goldblum, because why the hell not?
- As Vanity Fair reports, it’s designed to be a “Netflix-Zapping Death Star:”
At launch, T.H.R. reports, Disney+’s library will include—deep breath—18 Pixar films, 13 Disney classics that have been locked away in the so-called Disney vault, nearly every Star Wars film, Marvel tentpoles like Black Panther and this year’s Captain Marvel, 250 hours of National Geographic programming (not to mention NatGeo’s Oscar-winning documentary Free Solo), 100 Disney Channel Original Movies, and nine exclusive originals. Also, it bears repeating, all of The Simpsons—including TV episodes and movies.
There will, of course, also be scores of original content. The New York Times reports that in its first year, Disney+ will be home to 10 original films and 25 original series.
In total, the Times reports, Disney+ will feature roughly 500 films from the Disney library, and 7,500 episodes of Disney TV shows including Hannah Montana—and that’s not even counting all of the new and Fox-owned content.
Jussie Smollett has officially been sued by Chicago.
Interesting and somewhat unexpected: The Act has been bringing in a record number of subscribers to Hulu. Are you watching it?
Veronica Mars, One Day at a Time, and In the Dark are joining the ATX Television Festival this year.
The WGA and the talent agencies are edging closer to making a deal, it sounds like.
That time Jackée and Eartha Kitt were feuding. PAGING RYAN MURPHY.
Time’s Up
Sterling Van Wagenen, a co-founder of Sundance, has been charged with sexually abusing a child.
Ashley Judd reveals a very personal reason she is opposed to these heartbeat abortion bills that are suddenly flying out of state legislatures. It’s a scary time to be a woman, y’all.
Tanya Simon has been named as the new Executive Producer of 60 Minutes in the wake of the whole Jeff Fager mess.
In Development
- The Confession of Frannie Langton is being developed into a television series.
Casting News
- Glenn Close is joining Hillbilly Elegy on Netflix.
- Iain Glen will join Titans on DC Universe as an older Bruce Wayne.
- Walton Goggins is joining The Righteous Gemstones on HBO.
- Noel Fisher is returning to Shameless.
- Cynthia Watros, whom we all know and love from Lost, is going to replace Michelle Stafford on General Hospital.
- Keegan-Michael Key, Phylicia Rashad, Anika Noni Rose, and Madalen Mills are joining the Netflix musical Jingle Jangle. Not to be confused with the drugs on Riverdale.
- Kate Mulvany is joining the cast of The Hunt on Amazon.
Mark Your Calendar
- Euphoria will debut on HBO on June 16.
- The CMT Music Awards will air on CMT on June 5.
- Selection Day returns on Netflix on April 19.
WATCH THIS
FRIDAY
Special: A young gay man with cerebral palsy breaks out of his insular life in this new series. Series premiere. Netflix
Fresh Off the Boat: Season finale. 7 p.m., ABC
Speechless: Season finale. 7:30 p.m., ABC
Game of Thrones marathon: Season five. 12 p.m., HBO2
SATURDAY
Saturday Night Live: Emma Stone & BTS 10:30 p.m., NBC
Crazy Rich Asians: Last year’s breakout hit finally arrives on cable. 7 p.m., HBO
Game of Thrones marathon: Season six. 12 p.m., HBO2
SUNDAY
Game of Thrones marathon: Season seven — the first five episodes. 12 p.m., HBO2
Game of Thrones marathon: Season seven — the last two episodes. 5:20 p.m., HBO2
60 Minutes: Anderson Cooper does a Game of Thrones segment tonight, kids. 6 p.m., CBS
Game of Thrones: IT’S FINALLY HERE AND I AM SO SAD BECAUSE IT IS ENDING. ~sob~ Season premiere. 8 p.m., HBO
Les Misérables: If dragons and zombies aren’t your jam, this is on. Series premiere. 8 p.m., PBS
God Friended Me: Season finale. 7 p.m., CBS
Late Night:
- Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon (Friday): Ethan Hawke, Kate del Castillo, Ronny Chieng
- Watch What Happens Live (Sunday): Eva Marcille, Miss Lawrence
| FRI. | 7:00 | 7:30 | 8:00 | 8:30 | 9:00 | 9:30 |
| ABC | Fresh Off the Boat (new) |
Speechless (new) |
20/20 (new) |
| CBS | MacGyver (new) |
Hawaii Five-0 (new) |
Blue Bloods (new) |
| CW | Whose Line Is It Anyway? (repeat) |
Whose Line Is It Anyway? (repeat) |
Penn & Teller: Fools Us (repeat) |
Local |
| FOX | Last Man Standing (repeat) |
The Cool Kids (repeat) |
Proven Innocent (new) |
Local |
| NBC | Blindspot (new) |
The Blacklist (new) |
Dateline (new) |
—
| SAT. | 7:00 | 7:30 | 8:00 | 8:30 | 9:00 | 9:30 | 10:00 | 10:30 | 11:00 | 11:30 |
| ABC | NBA Basketball (live) |
News/Local |
| CBS | Ransom (new) |
The Code (repeat) |
48 Hours (new) |
News/Local |
| FOX | NASCAR (live) |
News/Local |
| NBC | Stanley Cup Playoff (life) |
News/Local | Saturday Night Live (Emma Stone and BTS) |
—
| SUN. | 6:00 | 6:30 | 7:00 | 7:30 | 8:00 | 8:30 | 9:00 | 9:30 |
| ABC | America’s Funniest Home Videos (repeat) |
American Idol (new) |
Shark Tank (repeat) |
| CBS | 60 Minutes (new) |
God Friended Me (new) |
NCIS: Los Angeles (new) |
Madam Secretary (new) |
| The CW | Local | Supergirl (repeat) |
Charmed (repeat) |
Local |
| FOX | The Simpsons (repeat) |
Bob’s Burgers (repeat) |
The Simpsons (repeat) |
Bob’s Burgers (repeat) |
Family Guy (repeat) |
Family Guy (repeat) |
Local/News |
| NBC | Ellen’s Game of Games (repeat) |
World of Dance (new) |
Good Girls (new) |
I assume WandaVision will be a cooking show a la NPR-via-SNL.
This has probably been ‘splained elsewhere, but does GoT-world have a family / group of characters analogous to the Tudors?
Excellent question — and to be perfectly honest, I am not well versed in my War of the Roses history. But from what I’ve read, the names Lannister and Stark are supposed to be analogous to Lancaster and York. But it isn’t exactly a direct comparison: the Starks suffer more of the Lancasters’ fate, essentially wiped out by the Lannisters/Yorks. There is the argument that Jon Snow is somewhat based on Henry VII whose claim to the throne was through his mother, as Jon’s claim to be King in the North is through his mother, Lyanna. They also point to the fact that Henry, who wore the red rose of the Lancasters, married the best remaining York claimant, Elizabeth, which essentially ended the war — and wonder if Jon’s relationship with Dany will yield a similar result. https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/FantasyCounterpartCulture/GameOfThrones
There are others who say a character who is in the books but not in the series, a man running around claiming that he is Rhaegar’s son (Jon’s dad), Aegon, who was not, in fact, killed by The Mountain but was swapped out with an imposter baby serves as a better Henry VII. But since he’s not even in the show, it’s not really worth mentioning. Unless you want to read more about that theory here: https://asoiaf.westeros.org/index.php?/topic/109036-henry-tudor-parallel-its-not-jon-snow/
Again! Great question!
-T
I could be way off base, but I thought that that Sansa and Tyrion were never legally married in the show world because they didn’t consummate the marriage. No need for divorce at that point.
Fair point. But they certainly weren’t divorced.
-T
Not a direct question about the show, but I’m curious what you think of this:
https://slate.com/culture/2019/04/game-of-thrones-final-season-dread.html
Also, do you read other people’s recaps of GoT?
(Still working my way through Season 7 and resigned to being massively spoiled before I get to Season 8…)
OK, I am not here for that Slate piece. At all. If you don’t want to watch, don’t watch, but don’t pre-bitch about something that you haven’t seen. This just feels like contrarian click-bait to me.
As for reading other people’s blogs, I don’t. It’s not that I think that mine is so great that I don’t need to read other perspectives, it’s that I don’t want to co-opt someone else’s ideas or jokes and unwittingly present them as my own. That said, I do check out some forums and see what theories are floating around out there.
-T
What do you think of the theory that Tyrion is Targaryen? Tyrion was able to stand in front of the dragons in the dungeon, Tywin always said “You’re no son of mine.”, for starters.
It’s my very favorite theory, and I doubt it will make an appearance before the finale. For one, we only have 6 episodes left and there’s not a lot of time to unload on the audience that he has been a half-Targaryen this whole time. And unlike with the Jon Snow reveal, they haven’t been establishing the need to even ask the question. Also, I think that with so little time left, they aren’t going to complicate the tension over who has the most claim to the throne, Jon or Dany, with a third claimant, Tyrion.
And it just right now occurred to me that one of the clues that he is a Targaryen — that he was born with a tail, which allegedly many stillborn Targaryens were born with — was disproved in the conversation he has with the Viper when the Viper agrees to be his champion. The Viper tells him how as a child he was told about the Lannister monster baby, that he was born with claws and a tail, but when he actually saw him, there were no claws, and there was no tail, “just a tiny pink cock.” (Now I find myself needing to go to the books to see if that was in the text, too, or if this was something the show writers added.)
THAT SAID, I’ve been banging the Tyrion is a secret Targaryen theory for a long while now. There is a lot of evidence that he could be a Targaryen aside from the tension between him and his father — but most of it is in the books and ancillary materials. In “The World of Ice and Fire,” they put Tyrion’s mother, Lady Joanna, in King’s Landing for a visit the year before Tyrion is born, so the timing for her to be impregnated by the Mad King works out. And there is some light suggestion that he might have raped her to punish Tywin for his perceived arrogance. I addressed it more this entry from season 6 (it’s towards the bottom of the post if you don’t want to read the whole thing): https://foolishwatcher.com/2016/05/03/game-of-thrones-what-is-dead-may-never-die/
And here I mentioned a theory that was floating around that all three Lannister children are actually secret Targaryens, which would help explain the Cersei/Jaime incest thing, and make rich irony of the fact that while Cersei was pissed that Tyrion killed their father, in fact, Jaime had killed him: https://foolishwatcher.com/2017/07/20/game-of-thrones-a-wolf-in-sheeps-clothing/
And finally, Peter Dinklage said something about Tyrion being in love with Daenerys that made me go HMMMM again: https://foolishwatcher.com/2018/09/07/in-which-i-way-overthink-this-bit-of-game-of-thrones-insight-that-peter-dinklage-just-gave-us/
So yeah: Tyrion is a Targaryen but I’ll be shocked if it’s ever confirmed on the show.
Okay, here’s my crazy theory that just hit me this morning: Jon is going to die again. Why else tell Melisandre not to bring him back. Except, he’s going to die at the hands of the White Walkers or the Night King (who wants him badly.) But, before he can be fully reanimated and under Night King’s control, the Children of the Forest stab him in the heart with dragon glass just like Benjen (there has to be a reason for him) and he and Dany rule side by side as Ice and Fire.
INTERESTING.
-T
Pseudo theory – this is all a climate change allegory. The game of thrones is irrelevant, the white walkers will ultimately be irrelevant, favorites will fall. In the end, winter is still coming and winter will last long. Whatever sand snake orphans remain will rebuild under whatever Magna Carta / Parliament Varys and Tyrion convince Dany to establish.
A friend of mine posed a theory this morning that I really like. The Valonqar that we all assume is Jaime or Tyrion killing Cersei is actually Arya killing her wearing Jaime’s face. I really want this thing that I never thought of until today to happen now.
This is a theory that has been bouncing around for a while now, and it’s entirely possible. It certainly works: It would be a good way to get Arya close enough to Cersei to kill her and allow Arya to cross a major name off of her list. That said, I’m sticking with Jaime being the one to do it — he kills Cersei to prevent her from doing something Mad Kingish once cornered by Daenerys and her dragons, and thus the Kingslayer becomes the Queenslayer.
-T
Also: while Arya might be able to wear faces, she can’t manipulate her height (as far as I know) so it would be kinda hard to explain to Cersei why Jaime lost a foot in height since the last time she saw him …
-T
While I like it in theory, brute force strangulation doesn’t seem like Arya’s brand.