As previously mentioned in parts 1 and 2, I analyzed the fates of the Lannisters, the North, Arya, Dorne, the Reach, and the Greyjoys for Season 7 of ‘Game of Thrones’. With only so much more material to cover, part 3 will be dedicated to dissecting what role Essos will play in season 7 (if any), the fate of the Wall and the Night’s Watch, and what the White Walkers will be up to.

Essos

With the long-awaited departure of both Dany and Arya from Essos, it seems as though all the major characters and plotlines will be taking place in Westeros this season.

Because of this, it truly is a mystery if Essos, the continent neighboring Westeros, will play any sort of significant role this season. Considering how many important entities are based in Essos, specifically in Bravos with the Iron Bank and the Faceless Men, it would be naïve to think they would just simply vanish from the story altogether. Not to mention the fact that Essos also faces the prospect of dealing with winter and the fast approaching White Walker invasion.

Let’s start off with the Iron Bank of Bravos whom the Lannisters are still desperately in debt to. It has been mentioned that the Iron Throne has been in massive debt to the Iron Bank since season 1 in which even Tywin Lannister, who was perhaps the most powerful man in Westeros, feared the Iron Bank.

However, despite all this talk about them, the only time we’ve really seen them in action was when they gave Stannis Baratheon a loan to take back the Iron Throne from the Lannisters so that he could potentially pay back their debt. Since then, they’ve been relatively quiet.

Now the Dany is on a direct course for King’s Landing, there has never been a better time for the Iron Bank to finally get their money back from the Lannisters.

As mentioned in part 2 of my predictions, with the strong possibilities of both Cersei and Euron proving to be far more difficult to deal with than previously thought, Dany could very well find herself fighting a war of attrition, something that has historically proven to be both financially draining as well as time-consuming.

If such trouble should rear its ugly head, it seems more than likely that the Iron Bank will be willing to bankroll whatever money issues Dany finds herself in. After all, Olenna Tyrell did once tell Tywin, “Wars are rather expensive, the Iron Bank will have it’s due”.

While the Iron Bank could possibly play a substantial role this season, the Faceless Men are another story. The last time we saw them, they had essentially given Arya their blessing to leave them in order to fulfill her long-time wish to finally cross off everyone left on her list of people to kill. While it was originally speculated that the Faceless Men would be chasing after Arya if she would to ever leave them, that no longer seems to be the case.

However, it’s doubtful that the Faceless Men would just simply let Arya walk away without there being any sort of consequences, especially for an organization as strict as they are. While I don’t expect them to play much of a role this season, the eighth and final season is another story.

With all the talk about how devastating winter will be for Westeros, it’s surprising that there has been absolutely zero talk as to how winter affects Essos, if at all. Well according to ‘Game of Thrones’ lore, winter does indeed effect Essos, although some parts more than others. While no area in the world of ‘Game of Thrones’ is hit as hard as the North is in Westeros, the northern parts of Essos do experience snow while the south experiences some cooling but not really any snow, much like Dorne.

However, this winter could prove to be very different with the presence of the White Walkers. According to lore, the White Walkers have attacked Essos before, and since they seem to be the ones to bring winter, Essos could very well experience a winter every bit as harsh as the one Westeros will be facing. Because of this, it certainly brings to question as to how Essos will help fight off the White Walker invasion since they’re probably even less prepared for it than Westeros.

The Wall and the White Walkers

Last time we saw what was going in with the Wall and the Night’s Watch, Jon Snow had abandoned his duties as Lord Commander of the Night’s Watch, in order to take back Winterfell and the North from Ramsay Bolton, leaving Dolorous Edd as the acting Lord Commander.

Before Jon departed, he told Edd not to knock it down while he was gone (referring to the Wall), in which Edd replied he’ll do his best. While this originally came off as playful banter between two long-time friends, unfortunately for Edd and the Night’s Watch, there’s no doubt that this was also some pretty dark foreshadowing.

Now that Jon is King in the North, he’ll undoubtedly bolster up the defenses at the Wall, probably ordering most of the Northern houses to supply the Night’s Watch with plenty of men for the upcoming war with the White Walkers. Speaking of them, this season will without a doubt be the most we’ll see of them in the show considering the fact that the time has come for them to make their grand world ending move.

While it’s questionable if we’ll see the White Walkers laying waste to the North, or possibly even all of Westeros this season, the one thing that is certain is that the Wall is coming down at some point in season 7. Personally, I think it would be an incredible moment to see in the season finale, but for the sake of story progression, it’s probably going to happen sooner.

The question as to how the Wall will be coming down is ripe for speculation. The White Walkers can neither cross nor physically tear down the Wall thanks to ancient magic that was engraved into it when it was built roughly 8,000 years ago. However, when the Night King marked Bran last season, Benjen Stark supposedly got rid of it, but it could certainly be possible that Benjen didn’t manage to erase it from Bran entirely.

As we already saw last season, after Bran was marked, it allowed the White Walkers entrance into the lair of the Three-Eyed Raven which was previously protected against them with the use of magic. It’s possible that the very same magic used to keep the White Walkers out of the Three-Eyed Raven’s lair was also engraved into the Wall when it was initially built. What this means is that if Bran is still cursed, or if the Night King manages to mark him again while he’s warging on the other side of the Wall, the White Walkers will be able to both cross the Wall and tear it down. The destruction of the Wall would certainly mean the death of everyone there meaning this season will probably be the last we’ll see of Edd and the Night’s Watch.

Despite all of this, don’t count Jon and the rest of the North out just quite yet. With his likely allegiance to Dany happening this season, Dany will no doubt be able to supply the North, and her own army for that matter, with plenty of dragonglass based weapons. That, along with her dragons, will definitely give the North and the rest of Westeros a fighting chance against the White Walkers. Unfortunately, with the army of the White Walkers estimated to be in the millions, easily dwarfing the size of all the armies in ‘Game of Thrones’, not to mention the fact that there army only grows with each person that dies, the combined forces of all of Westeros most likely will not be enough to stop them.

This could possibly be where Melisandre, assuming Arya doesn’t kill her first, along with all the other priests’ and priestess’ of the Lord of Light step in. Seeing as how knowledgeable Melisandre is of the White Walkers, it’s quite possible that she, along with the other followers of R’hllor, have some sort of knowledge or know of certain magic that could potentially even the playing field a bit.

Part 4 Coming Soon

In the final segment of my predictions for season 7 of ‘Game of Thrones’, I will be analyzing the significance of certain character meetings and reunions coming up this season, as well as the prophecy of Azor Ahai.
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