TV

Every Important Thing You Need To Know Before Watching ‘Game Of Thrones’ Season 8

It's been a long time since season 7.

by Patrick Lenton  9 April 2019
Everything you need to watch before Game of Thrones season 8

Want more Junkee in your life? Sign up to our newsletter, and follow us on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook so you always know where to find us.

Can you even handle how close we are to the long awaited, slightly dreaded Game of Thrones season 8? I cannot. It’s so soon!

Related
Every Great House In 'Game Of Thrones' Ranked By How Fancy They Are

The final ever season of Game of Thrones — the most important TV show in the world — is gonna be a big deal. We’ve got six huge episodes which are rumoured to be extremely long, and are sure to be packed full of stuff. There’s so much that has to be resolved, so many characters still left to be slaughtered horribly.

Exciting.

But, it’s also been a really long time since we watched season 7, so it’s worth brushing up on what’s going on before we get dumped back into the action.

Everyone Is Going To Winterfell

It’s ALL happening at Winterfell — it’s the at once both the coolest and the hottest place in Westeros (because of the snow, get it?).

We know from an EW cover story that season 8 will open by mirroring the first episode of season 1, with a royal procession entering Winterfell. In season 1 it was Robert Baratheon and his Lannister bride, and we all remember how WONDERFULLY that all went.

Now, it will be both the royal entourage of Daenerys Targaryen, and also Winterfell’s King in the North, Jon Snow, who recently pledged fealty to Daenerys (and boned her!). More on both of those things later.

We’ve also got the majority of people left behind at The Wall probably fleeing ahead of the White Walkers to Winterfell, including The Hound and Beric Dondarrion. They were at Eastwatch-by-the-Sea, before it got very dragoned. They’ll either go to Castle Black or Winterfell. Of course, lumbering after them is the Night King and his gross army.

You know who else is heading to Winterfell? Jaime Lannister, who has finally gotten sick of his sexy sister! Also, Sam and Gilly and their bëbe.

Everyone’s going to Winterfell!

Bending The Knee

So, one of the big shifts in power in season 7 was Jon, the King in the North, bending the knee to Danaerys.

This essentially leaves Westeros split between three big power blocks — Cersei and the Lannisters in the south, Dany in the north, and the horde of the undead. Who will win? My money is on us, the audience.

However, it’s fairly certain that the North will NOT be happy with Jon pledging them to a foreign ruler without consultation — especially Sansa, who has taken over the mantle of Lady of Winterfell, and seems to be both good at the role, and enjoying it.

Sexy, Sexy Families

Of course, the other big thing to remember about Jon and Dany is that they’re not just pledging fealty — they’re pledging butts! (I don’t know if that worked, but whatever)

In the final episode of season 7, they decide to bone on a boat, which is good for them.

However, it was also finally confirmed by Samwell Tarly that Jon Snow is actually the son of Rhaegar Targaryen and Lyanna Stark, meaning he is 1. not a bastard and 2. related to Dany. Yucko!

This is definitely going to play out in a couple of interesting ways — in who deserves the Iron Throne, in who deserves to rule the North, in who gets to fly a dragon.

Probably the ethical ramifications of aunty/nephew sex is gonna be the least discussed, depressingly.

The Wall

We must remember that The Wall, the great barrier between the Seven Kingdoms and the Others has been knocked the fuck down.

Obviously the battle between the dead and humans is the most pressing matter as we go into season 8 — and we can’t forget how they finally managed to knock down that giant wall of ice. It was with their fancy new undead dragon, who is sure to keep on being a hazard.

What it can do to a big wall, it can do to a castle, as the old saying goes.

We have to wonder if they’ll stick around and destroy the other castle’s on the wall, or just keep pushing through.

The Winterfell Crypts

We had an entire teaser-trailer set in the crypts of Winterfell, a location which has definitely been overrepresented in the show.

This makes people believe that they are going to be extremely important in the upcoming season.

Some things that could be worth remembering — they hold the body of Jon Snow’s mother, Lyanna, which might help him prove his birthright. They’re also FULL of bodies, which might end up being reanimated by the Night King?

Or — the crypts were built by Stark ancestor Bran the Builder, who also famously built the wall. Perhaps they will protect Winterfell from the dead.

The Night King

It’s also extremely likely we’ll find out more about the Others and their horrible spiky Night King. We’ll also probably learn more about Bran and his weird Three Eye Raven nonsense.

So far, the most we’ve discovered is a flash-back scene that seems to imply that the Children of the Forest created the Night King, so that’s worth remembering.

The Lannisters

So, a huge part of season 7 was the proposed truce between Daenerys and Cersei, with the intended goal of defeating the White Walkers before turning on each other.

Cersei, however, is really that bitch, and after apparently pledging her armies to Tyrion, absolutely reneged on the deal and decided to leave her enemies to destroy each other. Classic Cersei. It will be interesting seeing what she does in the South while all this undead nonsense occurs. Will it give her the necessary advantage needed to keep a hold of the Iron Throne for good?

One consequence of this, as already mentioned, is that it finally lost her the support of her sex-brother, Jaime.

The other thing we have to remember is that she’s hired a huge army of sellswords called The Golden Company, who will definitely help her do Something Bad.

Oh, also, she still has Ellaria Sand watching her daughter rot in the dungeons of the Red Keep.

The Greyjoys

Ah yes, my least favourite family and my least favourite plot.

So, what’s going on with these assholes is that Euron Greyjoy, who is ostensibly still allied with Cersei, has Yara Greyjoy help captive. Theon has decided to rescue her.

Let us hope this gets a hot two minutes of screen time.

Melisandre

The red lady will definitely be back, because she has to “die in this strange country”, so that will be fun!

Game of Thrones season 8 premieres April 14th.

Like our Game of Thrones coverage? You can get it sent directly to you via Facebook Messenger. Just click the button below. 

Patrick Lenton is the Entertainment Editor of Junkee. He tweets @patricklenton.