Game of Thrones S06E03: Who is the ‘Oathbreaker’ in the episode's title?

Theories are changing following the dramatic events of episode two

Jon Snow sits up in the episode 3 trailer (HBO)

Given the jaw-dropping, if entirely expected, ending to Game of Thrones season 6 episode 2 ‘Home’, there is already huge anticipation for the next episode.

It’s titled ‘Oathbreaker’, and before we get into what that might mean, here are the cold, hard facts.

Episode synopsis:

'Daenerys (Emilia Clarke) meets her future. Bran meets the past. Tommen confronts the High Sparrow (Jonathan Pryce). Arya (Maisie Williams) trains to be No One. Varys (Conleth Hill) finds an answer. Ramsay gets a gift.'

Episode teaser trailer:

So who will be the Oathbreaker? Here are the possibilities:

Brienne of Tarth

This is who everyone initially thought it referred to, given that her sword is called 'Oathkeeper'. It was so named by Jaime, who gave it to her in the hope that she would keep her oath to rescue Sansa, and indeed in episode 1 we saw Brienne find the Stark girl and pledge fealty to her.

As such, it’s hard to imagine Brienne breaking this oath as she guides Sansa to the Wall to find her brother. So who else?

Ser Alliser Thorne

He betrayed Jon in leading the revolt against him, and could find himself at the wrong end of the newly-resurrected Lord Commander’s sword in the next episode.

That said, Jon Snow doesn’t strike me as a very vengeful kind of guy, and I imagine he would sooner just let Thorne sit in a cell than concern himself with executing him publicly (that is, if Jon hasn’t been turned ruthless by coming back from the dead). This leads us nicely on to…

Jon Snow

In the eyes of many Night’s Watchmen, Jon is a traitor for helping the wildings, and if - as expected - he leaves the Wall to fight Ramsay or the White Walkers, he would be breaking his sacred oath to the Watch.

Except, this oath was sworn until death, and Jon died. Will he exploit this loophole?

Outside possibilities:

Jaime Lannister

The prophecy goes that Cersei will be killed by her little brother, and given the literary trope of misinterpreting prophecies, it is likely that she will die not at the hand of Tyrion, as she expects, but Jaime. He has promised time and time again to be by Cerise’s side, but is this the episode where he will turn on her?

Ned Stark

Bear with me. We know from the trailer that this episode will see Bran witness the Tower of Joy fight through flashback. I’ll skip the detail on this setup as we’d end up digressing, but ultimately it will see the late (and important in the books) Lyanna Stark make a young Ned, her brother, promise something to her on her death bed. The popular L+R=J theory goes that the promise is that he will raise her newborn son (Jon), who is a Targaryen heir. Is it possible though, that Lyanna wanted him to be raised as a Targ, but Ned chose to conceal him in Winterfell as a bastard? I guess that could amount to the breaking of an oath, albeit for noble reasons.

King Tommen

The episode synopsis tells us that ‘Tommen confronts the High Sparrow’ - will he defy the gods for the good of his family and the citadel?

The answer is probably ‘all of the above’

In the last episode, ‘Home’, we saw several characters searching for home, Bran…Theon…and it served as the spine of the episode. The same could well be true for ‘Oathbreaker’, which looks at the problem with promises, and the many different reasons they’re broken.