‘Game of Thrones’ Season 7 predictions: part 2 [spoilers]

As mentioned previously in part 1 of my predictions for Season 7 of ‘Game of Thrones,’ the story for the smash hit show/book series is so massive and far-reaching that it’s essentially impossible to cover everything in one article. Considering how significant every remaining plotline and character arc is, I just simply wouldn’t be doing them justice if I tried to cram it all into a single piece.

In fact, it’ll still be impossible to analyze everything I didn’t mention in part 1 in this article, so expect parts 3 and 4 to cover the rest. As for part 2, I will be delving into the fates of Arya, Dorne, the Reach, and the Greyjoys.

Arya

Out of all the Stark children, Arya’s character arc has definitely been among the most interesting considering the fact that she’s been all over the place. While the rest of the Starks have more or less stayed in one place throughout the duration of the show and books, Arya has essentially traveled all over Westeros and even spent a good chunk of time in Bravos in order to become a Faceless Man -- all for the sake of becoming one of the greatest killers in the world so she can finally complete her list of people to kill. The only people left on her list now are Cersei Lannister, Sir Ilyn Payne, Sir Gregor Clegane (the Mountain), Melisandre, Beric Dondarrion, and Thoros of Myr.

When we last saw Arya, she had just finished crossing off Walder Frey from her list, one of the main people responsible for the Red Wedding. Based on what we’ve seen in the trailer, Arya seems to be taking a detour to the North. As far as she knows, no one on her list is in the North which could only mean one thing, she’s planning to reunite with the rest of the Starks.

However, as heartwarming and cathartic as this reunion will be, in all likelihood, it’ll be short lived.

While Arya clearly still has some of her humanity left intact, her experiences running away from the Lannisters, being the Hound's hostage, and training with the Faceless Men has without a doubt left her scarred one way or another.

She has become a determined cold blooded killer, and after finishing her training in Bravos, she now has the tools to finish her list. Her trip up North seems to indicate that she plans to say her final goodbyes to her family before she embarks on her journey to finish her list and then possibly travel west of Westeros as mentioned in season 6.

As for her list, it seems pretty likely she will run into the Brotherhood without Banners seeing as they’re heading North too. For those who don’t remember, the reason Arya put Beric and Thoros on her list, as well as Melisandre, was because of the fact that they sold Gendry away to Stannis Baratheon which Arya was not too happy about. However, this could prove to be complicated with the Hound, who Arya thought was dead, being with them.

In all honesty, this is the reunion I’m looking forward to seeing the most considering how Arya admitted that she cared about the Hound during her training with the Faceless Men and that her time spent with him was arguably one of the best parts of her arc in the show. It’s questionable if Arya will actually go through with killing Beric and Thoros after the Hound talks to her.

It’s far more likely that she’ll end up traveling with them since they both want to go North in order to meet up with Jon Snow. After all, the Brotherhood without Banners, as small as they may be, are one of the only groups in the show aware of the threat the White Walkers pose. Also don’t be too surprised to see Gendry with the Brotherhood.

Once Arya finishes her highly anticipated family reunion and possibly crossing Beric and Thoros off her list, one way or another, there’s no doubt she’ll embark South to finish the rest of it. The first and most likely person she’ll cross off is Sir Ilyn, the man who executed Ned Stark, especially since he doesn’t really hold any importance to the story what so ever.

Next will probably be the Mountain, which could prove to be rather difficult since he’s essentially Frankenstein. While a lot of fans have been hyping up “Clegane Bowl,” a theory that the Hound will have an epic fight with his brother the Mountain. Unfortunately for them, this doesn’t look like it’s going to happen with the Hound currently traveling in the opposite direction of him (sorry to kill the hype).

None of the great fighters left in Westeros can realistically beat the Mountain, leaving Arya, the ultimate killing machine, the most likely candidate to do so. As for Cersei, I already mentioned in part 1 of my predictions that I believe Jamie will be the one to kill her, meaning Arya will probably be a tad disappointed.

Last but not least is Melisandre who, as shown in the trailer, will most likely be a part of Dany’s entourage this season. Despite the fact that Melisandre really is trying to help everyone for the sake of the greater good, she has done plenty of horrible stuff in the name of the Lord of Light.

Even if Melisandre tries to reason with her, it’s doubtful that Arya will forgive her, especially if she hears about everything else she’s done since the last time they met (cough Shireen cough).

However, if Gendry isn’t with the Brotherhood without Banners, it's possible Melisandre could know where he is which she could use as leverage to keep Arya from killing her. All in all, Arya’s story this season is going to be full of long-awaited reunions and revenge killings.

Dorne and The Reach

When Cersei mentioned enemies to the South, she was referring to Dorne and the Reach. With Ellaria Sand and the Sand Snakes killing off the rest of House Martell at the beginning of last season, they have taken full control over Dorne and are out for revenge against the Lannisters after what happened to Oberyn Martell in Season 4 (I still have flashbacks of that scene).

Not to mention Olenna Tyrell, the last surviving member of House Tyrell, is also hungry for revenge after Cersei murdered her entire family when she blew up the Sept of Baelor last season.

With these two houses now aligned with Dany, it mirrors the old alliances of Westeros before Robert’s Rebellion in which Dorne and the Reach have historically been allies of House Targaryen.

With their forces combined with Dany’s army of Dothraki and Unsullied, Dany now has the largest army in the show numbering over 200,000 men, except for the White Walkers of course. Along with Theon and Yara Greyjoy, Dorne and the Reach have provided Dany with their ships as well, meaning Dany also most likely has the largest navy. However, this is debatable considering the fact that we still don’t know how many ships Euron Greyjoy has built, but I’ll get to that later. So with so many factors in their favor, what will become of Dorne and the Reach?

Well, one key factor in this is the weather, and when I say weather, what I’m really talking about is the very thing the Starks' have been warning about since the start of the show; winter. With the maesters in Oldtown confirming this will be the longest and most brutal winter to date, not to mention the inclusion of the White Walkers, there’s no doubt that Dorne and the Reach will struggle.

Dorne in all likelihood will be fine since they’ve stayed out of all of the conflicts that have been going on in Westeros since the start of the show, but the Reach is a different story. Although the Reach is considered to be the most fertile of all of the lands in Westeros, there’s a very good chance they’ll still find themselves in trouble.

House Tyrell have been allied with the Lannisters ever since Stannis murdered Renly, meaning that they have sacrificed a lot of food and money in order to help out the Lannisters with the incentive of Margaery Tyrell becoming the new queen. But after Cersei’s actions, House Tryell and the Reach find themselves in a difficult situation in which they have spent a significant amount of their resources for nothing.

As for the actual war with the Lannisters, while Dorne and the Reach will obviously deal with some losses, House Lannister will be the ones losing the most in this scenario. However, based on the trailer, it seems as though Cersei will have some sort of trump card up her sleeve to even the playing field a bit.

It’s difficult to speculate what this could be but there’s a pretty good chance it could involve weaponizing wildfire.

Considering the fact that Qyburn has essentially become Cersei’s mad scientist, it certainly wouldn’t be beyond his capabilities to find more effective ways to apply wildfire in their military strategy. After all, the man brought the Mountain back to life without using magic.

The Greyjoys

House Greyjoy has arguably been the most overlooked house in the show. Understandably so since they don’t really pose that much of a threat to any of the other great houses of Westeros on their own. However, with Theon and Yara taking a significant portion of the Iron Fleet to give to Dany in exchange for her help to usurp Euron Greyjoy from the Salt Throne, and the whole mystery as to how Euron plans to make the Iron Islands a force to be reckoned with, the Greyjoy story line has certainly become fairly interesting.

Last time we saw Euron, he was crowned king of the Iron Islands and proclaimed that if they managed to build him a thousand ships, he would give them the world. While this is most likely a Trump-esque promise, there would be no reason for the creators of the show to introduce him at this point in the story if he wasn’t going to play some sort of significant role.

It seems obvious that much like Cersei, Euron must have something else up his sleeve that’ll give him some sort of advantage considering the fact that he’s facing pretty insurmountable odds. In the books, Euron incorporates dark magic into his strategy which we’ve already seen to have a substantial impact before with Stannis and Melisandre. There hasn’t been any real indication in either the show or the latest trailer that suggests Euron will be doing this, but it’s certainly in the realm of possibility.

As Cersei mentions in the trailer, it looks like Euron will be attacking the western coast of Westeros meaning he’ll be giving both the Lannisters and the Tyrells plenty of trouble. With Euron essentially being the enemy of Theon, Yara, and the Tyrells in this scenario, there’s no doubt that he’ll become one of Dany’s biggest threats in the upcoming season.

The Greyjoys have historically been known to have the greatest navy in all of Westeros which means Euron could very well sabotage Dany’s plans with or without magic. In the books, Euron has a magical item known as a “dragon horn” in his possession which grants the user the ability to control a dragon, or possibly multiple dragons, when they blow into it. However, the one drawback is that the one who blows into it ends up having their lungs charred.

Considering the kind of destruction Dany’s dragons can do to naval fleets, and Euron’s initial plan to marry Dany, it’s certainly possible that he may have a dragon horn in the show and will use it to essentially steal one of Dany’s dragons.

If Euron manages to take control of one of Dany’s dragons, that could prove to be devastating for so many reasons. First off, if Dany can’t break the hex on whatever dragon Euron takes, it would mean that at least one of her dragons will have to die which is especially troublesome for Dany since the largest portion of her ability to influence any negotiations or major battles will most definitely derive from her possession of dragons.

Secondly, an event of this magnitude would easily shake up the power scales in Westeros in which what was initially an easy victory for Dany will become a much longer and drawn out war. Finally, this could very well mean the death of Theon or Yara.

Even if you were to take the dragon out of the equation, it’s difficult to imagine both Theon and Yara surviving this season with Euron specifically out to get them since they both have a claim to the Salt Throne. The most likely scenario and one many other fans have theorized, is that Theon will probably end up sacrificing himself to either save Yara or kill Euron, or possibly both.