The glaring problem with all of these Games of Thrones theories
The clock is ticking, and there's a million different sub-plots still to pay off
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Can Bran travel through time and change the past? Is he in fact the Three-Eyed Raven? Is Tyrion Lannister actually a Targaryen? Is Hodor a horse?
These theories, and many, many more are imaginative, sometimes very compelling, and good on the Game of Thrones fanbase for its diligent theorising, but there’s a problem with all of them: there's only 13 episodes left after this season.
Consider for a second, how many seasons it has taken Bran just to get to the Weirwood tree. How many episodes have been given over to Arya learning how to properly wield a staff. How bite-size the first Tower of Joy flashback was. How slowly the ‘Jorah has greyscale’ sub-plot has been parcelled out, a brief glimpse of a different part of his forearm coming each week. We’re fast approaching the midpoint of the assumed penultimate season, and Jon’s only just got rid of that crappy job on the Night’s Watch.
I’m on board with R+L=J, and potentially the whole Azor Ahai thing, but there just isn’t time for a lot more, at least in the show.
Jon is still yet to crush Ramsay and mount some sort of attack on the White Walkers and Daenerys has still to make it to Westeros. Maybe all of these missions won’t be completed, as is the way of Game of Thrones (and life), but they, along with dozens of other sub-plots and characters in the show, need to paid off properly, and that will take up a substantial number of episodes.
This isn’t to say that Game of Thrones’ eventual climax won’t be exciting and satisfying, but it might not be as plot twist-heavy as expected. I guess this is the downside of having such an engaged, dedicated fanbase in the internet age - as intricate as the plot you’ve created may be, when people have seven whole days to hypothesise in between broadcasts, they’re inevitably always going to be expecting more. Perhaps too much.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments