Whether you're a diehard Game of Thrones fan or a casual viewer, it's fun to hunt for any
clues you can find from episode to episode. And the eighth and final season is no exception.
Here's a look at many of the Game of Thrones details you missed in the last six episodes
of the series.
One of the most unexpected moments of the eighth season premiere actually came in the
show's opening credits, which features an entirely new sequence with plenty of Easter
eggs.
The most notable change came right at the start, with a reminder that the Wall that
once protected the Seven Kingdoms from the threat of the White Walkers has been breached,
thanks to the Night King's brand-new zombie dragon at the end of last season. The introduction
also added Last Hearth, an abandoned Northern castle formerly home to the Umber family,
who were loyal to the Starks…right up until they were all slaughtered by wights.
The map even shows us the path that the White Walkers took to the climactic battle of Winterfell,
with the white tiles that made up the snowy ground flipping to black to represent their
movement. After the climactic battle in "The Long Night," though, those tiles stopped flipping,
indicating that the White Walkers are actually finished after all. It's not just the events
of Season Eight that have left their mark on Westeros, either. Images displayed on the
bands around the model sun depict past events like the third season's infamous Red Wedding.
There's also an image of three dragons looking at a comet, which represents the Red Comet,
said to fall when dragons appear, and which made its own appearance in season two of the
show:
"That comet means one thing, boy: dragons."
Finally, in one of the coolest tweaks to the opening sequence, the final episode shows
the damage that's been done to both Winterfell and King's Landing. Like the actual city it
represents, the intricate clockworks that raise the towers of the Red Keep on the map
have been broken, leaving the machinery stuttering as it tries to raise them one last time.
The last time we saw Tormund Giantsbane and Beric Dondarrion at the end of Season 7, they
were caught up in the Night King's first strike, watching as he brought down the Wall. When
we finally get to check in with them in Season 8, they're tracking the destruction that the
White Walkers have left in their wake as they traveled beyond the Wall, and they find a
pretty disturbing message left by the Night King. The young Ned Umber, turned into a wight
and pinned to a wall amidst severed limbs, provides the season's best jump scare when
he reawakens and has to be set aflame. It's one of the most distressing images in the
series' recent memory, with Umber's dead body at the center of a spiral pattern made up
of body parts, but it's not the first time audiences have seen this pattern.
Since the very first episode of the show, the White Walkers have long been associated
with spirals and circles, from arranging the body parts of their victims to their sacred
place in the North and the cave drawings that Jon showed Daenerys in the seventh season.
Perhaps most crucially, the spirals can be seen in the scene that showed the Children
of the Forest creating the first Walker, suggesting that these shapes have more to do with the
lore of the Walkers than viewers fully understand.
When audiences first met Theon Greyjoy, he was arrogant and dismissive, especially to
Jon Snow, letting audiences know that perhaps Theon needed to be taken down a peg.
"Right, give it here."
"I take orders from your father, not you."
Eight seasons later, and Theon's been brought about as low as any character possibly could.
He's been psychologically broken from emotional and physical torture, leaving him a beaten
man struggling to reclaim himself and fight for a cause he believes in. After several
years of terrible behavior, Theon has fully redeemed himself by saving Sansa's life and
proving that he's willing to sacrifice himself to do the right thing.
Now, in the show's final season, Theon returned to Winterfell to fight for the Starks, even
though his sister, Yara, set off to retake the Iron Islands. In doing this, Theon's journey
has come full circle. After starting out with the Starks before abandoning them, he has
finally come home to stand with them one last time, completing the arc of one of the show's
most troubled characters.
"You're a good man."
Before she used it to put a permanent end to the army of the dead, Arya's Valyrian steel
dagger already had a pretty notable history. It was first seen in the show's second episode,
when it was used in an attempt to murder Bran Stark after his fall from the tower, but it
really belonged to Littlefinger himself, Lord Petyr Baelish. From there, it stayed with
Littlefinger until he gave it back to Bran, who gave it to Arya, who, naturally, used
it to execute Littlefinger during his season 7 trial.
During the episode's big climax, as the Night King makes his way towards Bran, Arya's training
helps her silently moves through the Godswood until she gets to the Night King himself,
destroying him with Littlefinger's dagger to save the brother who gave it to her. This
knife has had quite the journey where Bran is concerned, so it seems oddly fitting that
the weapon once intended to kill him is what saved not just him, but every human fighting
at Winterfell.
Cersei spent the Battle of Winterfell waiting out her enemies, so when they finally arrive
at King's Landing to try to force her surrender, she was ready to strike.
"Maybe Cersei will win and kill us all. That would solve our problems."
Before the fight began, though, she had one last brutal insult to hand down to Daenerys
and her forces. After her assault on Daenerys' ships near Dragonstone, Cersei captures Missandei,
Daenerys' translator, confidante, and best friend, and it's immediately clear that Cersei
will use her hostage however she has to in order to achieve her bottom line.
"If you have any last words, now is the time."
In a brutal display of power, Cersei orders the beheading of poor Missandei, who gives
her life willingly for her chosen queen, bravely standing in support the woman who freed her
from her chains. However, Cersei's decision to decapitate Missandei wound up having much
larger consequences than she realized. It was one of the final things that drove Daenerys
over the edge, leading directly to the destruction of King's Landing, and to Cersei having a
couple tons of bricks dropped on her head. She shouldn't have been surprised, though:
the last time a blonde Lannister ruler vindictively cut off someone's head to prove a point, it
was Joffrey ordering Ned Stark's execution, the act that kicked off seven long years of
warfare and prestige television. In the final days before her death, Cersei became as sadistic
as her terrible son.
As one of the only substances that can destroy a White Walker, Valyrian steel can be tough
to come by. As a result, only a small handful of characters on Thrones are in possession
of weapons made out of it. One of those characters was Ned Stark, longtime Warden of the North
and Lord of Winterfell and unfortunately short-lived Hand of the King to Robert Baratheon, whose
family sword was a massive piece of Valyrian steel called Ice. After the honorable but
naïve Ned figured out that Prince Joffrey wasn't Robert's biological son, he ended up
losing his head, and Ice was melted down and remade into two new blades.
The first, christened Widow's Wail by Joffrey, was barely used before Joffrey met his own
untimely end. It ended up with Jaime, his uncle-slash-father.
"You said my father was my father, but my uncle is my father. My father is my uncle!"
The second sword, Oathkeeper, was gifted to Brienne of Tarth. Though Jaime and Brienne
spent some time on opposing sides of the conflict between the Lannisters and the North, they
joined forces again during the Battle of Winterfell. As they fought side by side, the two parts
of Ned's sword came together once again to defend House Stark, which feels perfectly
fitting.
"It's reforged from Ned Stark's sword. You will use it to defend Ned Stark's daughter."
Davos Seaworth might seem prickly at times, but his soft side always showed around Shireen
Baratheon, daughter of the late Stannis Baratheon. Shireen was afflicted by greyscale as a baby,
and while healers were able to stop the progression of the disease, she still bore its scars on
her face, making her somewhat of an outcast. This bonds her to Davos, especially when he's
imprisoned by Stannis for turning against his king. While he's in captivity, Shireen
teaches Davos how to read, and the two end up forming a real bond. When Davos discovers
later that Shireen has been sacrificed by Melisandre to help Stannis' cause, he's understandably
devastated.
With that in mind, it's easy to see why Davos and Gilly, who also learned to read thanks
to Shireen, were particularly struck by a young, brave girl with a scarred face who
says she wants to fight alongside the soldiers in Winterfell. To drive the emotional point
home, music associated with Shireen even plays over the scene, reminding viewers of the young
princess and her tragic, untimely end.
Considering that he held the position of Master of Whispers, it's no surprise that Lord Varys,
also known as "the Spider," trafficks in secrets. It's what he's best at, and what he continued
to do right up until the very end of his life. Having spent time with Daenerys' father, the
Mad King, he was understandably wary of the Dragon Queen's quick temper and stubborn attitude,
something that he brought up with Tyrion in a conversation that led to him being executed
as a traitor.
"Each of us has a choice to make. I pray we choose wisely."
Varys doesn't plot against Daenerys for long before he's taken to the beaches of Dragonstone
and executed by her last living dragon, Drogon, during the penultimate episode of the series.
It shouldn't come as a surprise, however, that he had a backup plan in place to stop
Dany himself. Before he's hauled off by the guards, he has a a cryptic conversation with
a servant girl about the fact that Daenerys isn't eating. In hindsight, it's easy to look
at this as the subtle indication of a last-ditch effort by Varys to stop Dany before she can
launch her attack on King's Landing. It's possible that he was using one of the show's
favorite methods of assassination, trying to poison Daenerys before she can follow in
her father's footsteps. In the end, her grief over Missandei and one of her dragons kept
Daenerys safe from eating anything that Varys may have meddled with, and King's Landing
paid the price.
One of the most shocking moments on the series came when Gregor Clegane, better known as
"The Mountain," faced off in trial by combat against Oberyn Martell. Despite being stabbed
repeatedly, the Mountain ended that fight by knocking Oberyn down one last time and
squeezing his head until it exploded. Oberyn's spear was poisoned, however, and the Mountain
was given what should've been a fatal dose of Manticore Venom.
"That's not how it ends for you, brother. You know who's coming for you. You've always
known."
Fortunately for the Mountain, and unfortunately for almost everyone else, he managed to stick
around thanks to Cersei's personal Dr. Frankenstein, Qyburn. He didn't just become a mindless reanimated
corpse, though. If you need any evidence that there was still at least a little bit of the
Mountain in that massive, horrifying body, it's that, like all the best fighters, he
still uses his patented finishing move.
When he finally showed up for the long-anticipated showdown that fans called "CleganeBowl," it
seemed like the Mountain's little brother Sandor, nicknamed the Hound, was going to
meet a similar fate. No sword wound could take down the Mountain, and sure enough, the
Hound got locked into the elder Clegane's skull-crushing finale. This time, however,
that signature move doesn't guarantee victory. The Hound overcomes his fear of fire and sends
them both tumbling over the ramparts of the Red Keep, finally getting an appropriate revenge
for when the Mountain, as a child, shoved the Hound into a fire and left him scarred
for life.
Check out one of our newest videos right here! Plus, even more Looper videos about your favorite
stuff are coming soon. Subscribe to our YouTube channel and hit the bell so you don't miss
a single one.