10 Predictions For The Game Of Thrones Season 5 Finale
Deep breath, it's about to get even worse...
Recovered from "The Dance of Dragons" yet?
This past Sunday's penultimate instalment of the fifth season of HBO's Game Of Thrones contained arguably the most disturbing scene in the show's 5-year run, as Stannis sacrificed his own daughter Shireen to the Lord of Light in order to ensure victory over the Boltons. But as awful as that was to witness, there's a very good chance fans are in for some even bigger shocks next week.
Obviously the events of the most recent of George R.R. Martin's books are a very good indication of what's going to go down in this last episode, but at this point the show has diverged so much from the source material that, really, anything can happen. Plus, some character's arcs have caught up with where we leave them in A Dance With Dragons, making their season 5 finale fates that much harder to predict.
Will Stannis march to victory? How can Arya seek revenge and still become "someone else"? Will Jon manage to settle the Wildlings in without causing a mutiny? Where in seven Hells did Dany go on the back of that dragon?
Here are 10 predictions for next Sunday's season finale, "Mother's Mercy". Book spoilers ahead...
10. Cersei's Walk Of Penance
Given the title of this episode, what we know from the books, and some pretty revealing leaked set images... yeah, this is happening.
Expect the appalling prison conditions to finally break Cersei, and the once proud Queen to beg for the "mother's mercy." This involves her having her head shaved, being stripped naked and forced to walk from the Great Sept of Baelor to the Red Keep while the jeering denizens of King's Landing surround her. In the book Cersei's inner monologue makes it clear that she remains proud and adamant that she won't be broken, but there's no doubt it causes most of her power to be stripped away along with everything else.
But what of Loras and Margaery Tyrell? In A Dance With Dragons the latter is released into the custody of Randyll Tarly to await her trial, but Loras suffers horrific injuries when he attempts to end the Ironborn's siege of Dragonstone.
Obviously that siege hasn't occurred on the show (yet?), but a similar fate may well await him in King's Landing if he attempts to free himself or his sister.