There are threads left dangling, prophecies unanswered, and portentous warnings that now
seem strange and pointless.
Were these questions intentionally unanswered?
Did the Game of Thrones writers simply forget about them or purposefully shunt them to the
side when the show took unexpected turns?
From the White Walkers' introduction in the first episode to the moment Arya Stark dispatched
them all with a well-aimed strike, they were a terrifying mystery.
Here and there, Game of Thrones dropped tantalizing hints about the White Walkers' culture that
we never saw brought to any sort of coherent conclusion.
We know that the Children of the Forest created them from human men, and that they needed
healthy human babies to continue their line.
We know that they took these babies to a place in their home in the Lands of Always Winter,
which looked an awful lot like a civilized settlement.
We heard them emit what sounded like screeches, but to them seemed to be a sort of language.
Had they succeeded in tightening their frigid grip upon the world, they might have had plans
beyond mayhem and death.
Perhaps, as in the books, there were female White Walkers hidden away up north, and a
mysterious and unique brand of ice magic unknown to any other race.
Early on in the show, Bran Stark was soothed by the stories Old Nan told of the Children
of the Forest.
They were the stuff of fantasy.
Then, magic, myth, and monsters became very real indeed.
The Children, it was revealed, lived in the far north, wielding magic in defense of the
Three-Eyed Raven.
After the Walkers attacked, the Children we'd met perished in their efforts to protect Bran
and his momentous future.
Now their fate is one big question mark.
Were those Children we met the last to exist?
Are there more, and can we really believe they'll be content to keep their powerful
magic to themselves for eternity?
What does their place in the balance of power mean for the future?
Their magic nearly brought about the end of the world in their creation of the White Walkers,
and they are tied to the man who is now the king of their continent, who is one of only
two people, along with Meera Reed, to know they exist at all.
It seems safe to assume they won't stay silent forever.
In the final shot of the series, Jon Snow marches into the woods, Ghost at this side,
leading the Wildlings home.
This is a bittersweet ending, meant as punishment yet also as something of a spiritual reward.
Jon was always at home in the true North, unbound by Westerosi custom.
He'll live on as...
"I am the sword in the darkness.
I am the watcher on the walls.
I am the shield that guards the realm of men."
But what does any of that mean?
The finale surrounded Jon's fate with a lot of portentous talk but little of it presented
the audience with any concrete plans.
Will they rebuild the Wall if there aren't any White Walkers?
Will he become a new sort of King Beyond the Wall?
Will the new Watch root out the cruelty that flourished in isolation, like Craster's Keep
and the cannibalistic Thenns?
All we know is that Jon has returned to the Night's Watch, just as he began the series.
It's just that now, we have no clue what that means.
Religion runs wild in the world of Game of Thrones.
There's the Faith of the Seven most of Westeros follows.
There is the Many-Faced God, better known as Death.
There is the Great Stallion worshiped by the Dothraki, who they believe will mount the
world in the form of a favored follower.
And there's the Drowned God of the Iron Islanders, who demands devotees ritually drown.
So why does the Lord of Light seem to matter more than the rest?
From reanimating Jon Snow's dead body to lighting the swords of thousands of Dothraki with a
single chanted prayer, the followers of the enigmatic fire god wielded actual power in
a way no other religion ever seemed to muster.
Some, like the Undying, were able to summon illusions through their mystic practices,
while groups like the Faceless Men could assume the forms of those they killed.
But the Lord of Light proved, repeatedly, that he could turn the tide of history with
enough sacrifice, devotion, and king's blood.
Why did we only ever see miracles performed in his name?
After seeing incredible feats performed by his followers, will his religion gain favor
in Westeros?
Daenerys spent multiple seasons in Slaver's Bay, and ended up mired in Meereen for three
seasons.
Ruling, roasting the powerful, and chopping the collars off the oppressed turned out to
be complicated.
Word came from Yunkai and Astapor that what she had set right had quickly gone wrong again.
Ultimately, after compromise, naval warfare, and the installment of ruling councils and
fighting pits, Daenerys left Daario Naharis in charge when she left for Westeros, tasking
him with keeping the peace in the region she renamed Dragon's Bay.
Grey Worm and his compatriots are set to return to Essos, but are they going to do anything
in the cities they helped conquer?
Has a leader emerged from the native culture, as Daenerys hoped?
Did the Sons of the Harpy regroup?
The Greyjoys promised to help in exchange for an alliance against Euron.
Are any of their forces still there?
For an area that took up such a chunk of screentime, the audience has been left with startlingly
few answers as to its fate.
The sparrows were a pretty big deal for a while.
They were the only true, sustained threat commoners managed to present over the course
of the series.
Led by the High Sparrow, they were the dissatisfaction of the public given flesh and voice, so powerful
that they brought the Tyrells to their knees and pushed Cersei into reviving the Faith
Militant, forcing her into her walk of penance.
She had to blow up the Sept of Baelor with the High Sparrow inside just to make them
pause.
After that explosive season finale, however, they were never heard from again.
Did they just stop?
This seems unlikely, as they were portrayed as having a massive grassroots movement supporting
them, one that seemed to sprawl beyond the confines of King's Landing.
Their figurehead perished in the flames, but did people really just accept the loss of
the soup kitchens the sparrows ran?
Did the Faith Militant, so fanatically devoted they carved the seven-pointed star into their
foreheads, truly shrug and lay down their arms?
There's a new prince of Dorne, apparently.
Varys mentions him in "The Last of the Starks."
"The new prince of Dorne pledges his support."
He later showed up in Dornish yellow to vote for Bran the Broken.
That's all we know about him.
So we're basically left to wonder: What on earth has happened to Dorne?
After Oberyn's death, his daughters, the Sand Snakes, led by his grieving lover Ellaria
Sand, led the country in rebellion.
They murdered Oberyn's brother Doran, the reigning Prince of Dorne, his son and heir
Trystane, and Myrcella Baratheon, both Cersei Lannister's only daughter and Trystane's betrothed.
This brutal coup petered out almost immediately: Nymeria, Obara, and Tyene Sand were all killed,
and Ellaria was left to die in prison.
The royal family was wiped out, then those who wiped them out were wiped out, and then
the first prince to emerge pledged fealty to a queen who lost.
What happens in Dorne has country-wide implications, and we've ended up having absolutely no idea
what they are.
Game of Thrones characters married for prophecies, built religions out of them, and burned others
at the stake to make them turn their way.
The line between organized faith, heretical magic, folk belief, and mainstream culture
was intentionally blurred.
Everyone from Melisandre to Maester Aemon gave some level of credence to the concept
of the Prince who was Promised.
"Daenerys Stormborn is the one who was promised."
What isn't clear is how much any of the prophecies mattered, if at all.
This might have been a purposeful choice, since Game of Thrones often subverted expectations
and fantasy cliches.
But the sheer scope and story investment in the concept of figures like Azor Ahai, and
others begs for more clarity.
Did Arya fulfill them, though she wasn't, quote, "born amid salt and smoke?"
Did Melisandre wield the power she did because she was part of the prophecy?
Was Daenerys on the way to carrying the prophecy out until she went off the rails?
Quaithe was the mysterious lady in the metal mask who offered Daenerys a bunch of cryptic
advice in Qarth.
We learned that she was from the shadow lands, and she pointed Daenerys towards Pyat Pree
when he stole her dragons.
She seemed to know things no one else did, and was seen painting symbols on a sailor's
back to protect him from the doom surrounding Old Valyria.
She appears more often in the books, where she pops up to impart truly opaque warnings.
But in the show, she never showed up again.
With her unique costume and rarefied knowledge, not to mention her importance in the books,
she seemed to be the kind of character we'd absolutely see again.
But we never did, and her strange words ended up, like the prophecies, not seeming to have
much of a place in the final few episodes.
Where did her knowledge come from?
Why did she care so much about Daenerys?
Like the rest of Qarth, she receded into the background, confined to season 2.
One of the most interesting aspects of the Game of Thrones world is the bizarre seasons.
Winters and summers can last for years, a fact elderly characters use to chide young
people ignorant of the difficulties of winter.
"Oh, my sweet summer child.
What do you know about fear?"
House Stark warns everyone that "Winter is Coming," a signal of their inevitable strength,
but also a reminder that the summer can end at any time.
Ned Stark remarked towards the beginning of the series that their current summer had then
lasted for nine years, and its end was a big enough deal to end season 6 with an episode
titled "The Winds of Winter."
The biggest reason for the long seasons seemed to be the White Walkers, who "brought the
storm" as Jon Snow liked to warn, and indeed, a sprig of grass peeking through the northern
snow in the series finale seemed to signify that their defeat meant the end of winter.
If that's so, why did the winters and summers last so long in the centuries before their
return?
Was it metaphorical or literal or just bizarre for the sake of it?
George R.R. Martin has gone on record as saying there is a supernatural reason for the seasons
he will reveal in the books, but it didn't make its way into the television series.
Bran Stark began the series as a little boy who loved to climb, and ended as Bran the
Broken, first of his name, King of the Andals and the First Men.
In between, he had the most conventionally magical journey of any major character.
Much was made of his ability to "warg," or see through the eyes of people and animals,
bending them to his will.
Yet this power faded in favor of his ability to perceive all events, past and present.
Now that he's king, one wonders if warging even mattered.
He didn't use it to turn the tide in battle; he used it for reconnaissance at most.
He didn't use it to become King.
It didn't much matter at all, for all the time spent on it.
Tyrion makes much of Bran's underdog story, but he's also placed someone capable of mind
control at the top of the Westerosi hierarchy.
Doesn't that give anyone pause, especially given how little Bran cares for everyday human
concerns?
"You don't want it."
"I don't really want anymore."
Check out one of our newest videos right here!
Plus, even more Looper videos about Game of Thrones are coming soon.
Subscribe to our YouTube channel and hit the bell so you don't miss a single one.