Winterfell Under Major Reconstruction for Game of Thrones Season 8 Pre-Production!

707 - Winterfell - Sansa, Arya 1

Game of Thrones season seven might be over, but pre-production for the eighth season has been underway for over a month now, as filming is slated begin next month. We previously reported on the mysterious construction work going on at the Winterfell set, and today we bring you an update — it’s fair to say the remodeling is extensive.

While many Game of Thrones sets are housed in their Belfast studios, the Winterfell one is located in Moneyglass, so shots from fans are a relatively common occurrence. Today, Alina Stark was one such fan, sharing photos with a hell of a good zoom:


A closer look makes it clear that the crew isn’t just sprucing up the place:

Winterfell Moneyglass Season 8 Pre-Production

Apparently, the towers that guard the Winterfell gate, along with a large portion of the outer walls, have been reconstructed from the ground up or, at the very least, remodeled extensively. The work obviously isn’t done — don’t worry, Winterfell isn’t being infected by the Red Keep; the reddish-brown is just naked wood.

Granted, construction work at Moneyglass is par for the course for Game of Thrones. Even after the much more elaborate set that stands today was built for the fifth season, it still had to be fixed up for season six, presumably because the building suffered deterioration in winter. If the damage this year was particularly extensive, that would explain why they had to rebuild the entire outer section. However, there could be story and production reasons for this: the battlements of the outer walls are in good order, while in the story they have been dilapidated since the very first season, so the Starks may have been shoring up their defenses; and, in terms of production, the towers now reach to the very top, to the battlements — previously, that was achieved through VFX.

It may follow, then, that next season the story may require characters, or at least extras, to stand on the battlements of the walls and towers. Will Winterfell face an attack?

Winterfell 703 Arya Arrival Zoom

No prudent explanation will stop the frenzied speculation about why they’re rebuilding part of Winterfell, especially now that the White Walkers might head to attack the ancient stronghold. Considering the Night King has an undead fire-breathing dragon under his thrall now, let’s just be content that the fictional Winterfell isn’t made of wood.

91 Comments

  1. It wouldn’t be out of line to assume that Stark, Inc. would begin improving fortifications and fixing up the last of the damage done when the Boltons attacked.

  2. The whole set appears to have been completely restructured and extended- those square towers at the gate were never fully kitted with crenelations before, and in fact were at the other side of the Moneyglass set. Looks like there’ll be extensive filming there as we’d expect, with scenes (battles?) filmed outside the walls of Winterfell Will try and sneak back on site again once filming starts 😝

  3. Apollo,

    Yes, maybe the battlements on top of the gate towers will be an active part of the set now, so that’s why they built them completely this time.

  4. Let’s hope we see more of WF than:

    (A) The great hall.
    (B) Some chamber
    (C) The crypt.
    (D) The Godswood.
    (E) A court yard.
    (F) The gate.
    (G) The battlements.
    (H) A walkway.
    (I) Another walkway.
    (J) One more walk way.

  5. With almost the principals characters heading there is obvious they have to show more of the castle 🙂 that makes me happy 🙂 I’m pretty sure Dany would need a nice chamber etc…

  6. Glass gardens would be ace but being realistic, they’ll need a much larger set as almost all of the cast will be based there. Not to mention all of the armies camped outside. Either that, or we’ll have even more scenes on those damn catwalks- and they’re not designed for multi character scenes 😝

  7. I’m thrilled that it’s looking like lots of S8 will be set at WF. My inner fanboy is looking forward to the following scenes:

    (1) The Squee Heard ‘Round the World:
    Jon reunites with Arya. Hopefully, Jon rides in, is pleased to see young girls honing their fighting skills as he instructed, and sees an especially capable young woman kicking ass with lightning fast ninja warrior techniques.
    He comments out loud: “Impressive.”
    The young woman turns around. It’s Arya. 😭. She jumps into his arms like in S1…or the S7 EW magazine photograph.

    2. Mutual Admiration Society:
    Arya meets Dragon Queen Dany, the great Targaryan warrior. Along with Brienne, they bond over war stories.

    3. Surrogate Daughter/Surrogate Dad Reunite:
    The Hound + Arya. I don’t care if the scene is three seconds long and consists solely of Sandor looking at her and saying, “Bring me one of those chickens.”

    4. Monster Babies?
    Tormund gets to impress Brienne. Maybe even talk to her instead of ogling her.

  8. Well we least if most of the action happens in WF this season we can avoid people teleporting all over the place.

  9. Violator,

    But Qyburn’s Jetpack Teleporter 3.0 ™ will be the big reveal of S8! 🚀

    Seriously, there’s not enough time in ~6 hours to waste minutes explaining travel times and distances. Inserting subtitles like “3 days later..” would be cheesy and jarring at this point.

    (Though I remain curious how the Army of the Dead will make any progress if they keep shuffling along like they’ve overdosed on Valium.)

  10. Ten Bears,
    My fanfic outline of the next season has Winterfell falling within two episodes 😀 .

    Seriously, if the Dead don’t at least threaten the South (cross the Neck and enter the Riverlands), I’ll be so disappointed! #winterfellinruins

  11. Yaga:
    Ten Bears,
    My fanfic outline of the next season has Winterfell falling within two episodes 😀 .

    Scenario #1: Night King ambles up to WF….stops, looks around, and tells his undead army:

    “On second thought, let’s not go to Winterfell. ‘Tis a silly place.”

  12. I have a bad feeling about this.

    Shuck, wrong franchise.

    I guess the Night King goes where Bran is (he should go to Essos).

    The Kings of Winter will rise from the tombs and fight the Night King.

  13. I would love to see a proper battle in Wintefell.
    Or maybe they need different places for people to talk, we always see the same battlement 😛

  14. I still don’t see the finale of all this happening at WF. There are strategic reasons for this as I’ve explained.

    Moreover, it’s a bit restricting in terms of plot. Either the NK will just pass by WF and head south, quickly take WF and move south (the rest of the season could follow the refugees and survivors as they struggle to regroup), or the North will finish the Great War by half way through by the beginning of episode 4 and then the final three episodes will focus on the battle to remove Cersei in the south.

  15. Strategically speaking, the whole North should just send their old, sick and young children to Bear island and gather up at the Neck. Moat Cailin seems like the the perfect Thermopylae. Plus, I don’t think any man would show a secret passage to the WW. And we would get to meet Howland Reed.
    But then again, there is that ice dragon. So things look tough.

  16. Ten Bears:
    I’m thrilled that it’s looking like lots of S8 will be set at WF. My inner fanboy is looking forward to the following scenes:

    (1) The Squee Heard ‘Round the World:
    Jon reunites with Arya. Hopefully, Jon rides in, is pleased to see young girls honing their fighting skills as he instructed, and sees an especially capable young woman kicking ass with lightning fast ninja warrior techniques.He comments out loud: “Impressive.” The young woman turns around. It’s Arya. . She jumps into his arms like in S1…or the S7 EW magazine photograph.

    2. Mutual Admiration Society:
    Arya meets Dragon Queen Dany, the great Targaryan warrior. Along with Brienne, they bond over war stories.

    3. Surrogate Daughter/Surrogate Dad Reunite:The Hound + Arya. I don’t care if the scene is three seconds long and consists solely of Sandor looking at her and saying, “Bring me one of those chickens.”

    4. Monster Babies?Tormund gets to impress Brienne. Maybe even talk to her instead of ogling her.

    (1) will happen, but not as fluffy;
    (2) doubtful;
    (3) is a sure thing; you may even get the dialogue right;
    (4) sorry baby, this ship will never sail; by ep 1 Jaime Lannister will have travelled all the way up to Winterfell (in that thin cloak he was wearing, even).

  17. Mr Derp: Hopefully Ghost

    Har! And the ghost of Ned Stark would be nice. We probably also need to see the forge (which we saw briefly in season one), The stables, the library, and lots of temporary housing. There will also probably be battle stations prepared on the ramparts, and other things that would aid fighting off a besieging enemy, like we saw at Castle Black. I hope that Jaime tells them about the scorpion, so they can build one of their own to use against the ice dragon.
    Probably Jon and Dany’s retinue will arrive first thing in the premiere, and Jon will delegate the preparations of Winterfell to various lords. I wonder if Bran will have told Sansa and Arya about the Others marching south towards them. Unfortunately, he comes from a family that doesn’t share vital information well. 🙂

  18. Sou,
    My preferred outcome would be for Moat Cailin to be occupied from the South, by Cersei, thus trapping the North between the Army of the Dead and her troops.

    I just want Dany and Jon’s position to be desperate, episode after episode, the entire season.

  19. Sou,

    #4: Well, how about Tormund and Alys Karstark then? I hope they didn’t bring in a tall redheaded young actress with a sword for one brief scene and five words of dialogue in S7.

    “Gingers are beautiful. Kissed by fire.” – Tormund, S7e6.

  20. Stark Raven’ Rad,

    “Unfortunately, he [Bran] comes from a family that doesn’t share vital information well.”
    ———————–

    RoboBran is the worst. Coincidentally, I was rewatching S7e4, Arya’s return to WF, including the scene outside by the heart tree with Bran, Arya and Sansa.
    Bran mentioned to Arya that he “saw” her at the Inn at the Crossroads. He wasn’t really surprised to see her; he merely thought she might follow through on her initial plan to go to KL because “Cersei’s on her list of names.”

    Anyway, I thought to myself: “If you knew your little sister was alive and traveling in Westeros, why didn’t you tell Sansa?”

    Nobody had heard anything about Arya’s whereabouts since Brienne + Pod encountered Sandor + Arya in S4e10 (as conveyed by Brienne to Sansa in S6e2).
    Apparently, people at WF assumed “Arya Stark is dead”, going by the doofus WF guards’ refusal to let her in, and Jon’s reaction to the later ravengram he received at Dragonstone informing him that Arya and Bran were alive. (“I thought she was dead.”)

    Knowing your little sister is alive and where she is – but not bothering to tell any of your siblings who presume she is dead????
    What’s up with that???

  21. Ten Bears:
    I’m thrilled that it’s looking like lots of S8 will be set at WF. My inner fanboy is looking forward to the following scenes:

    (1) The Squee Heard ‘Round the World:
    Jon reunites with Arya. Hopefully, Jon rides in, is pleased to see young girls honing their fighting skills as he instructed, and sees an especially capable young woman kicking ass with lightning fast ninja warrior techniques.He comments out loud: “Impressive.” The young woman turns around. It’s Arya. 😭. She jumps into his arms like in S1…or the S7 EW magazine photograph.

    2. Mutual Admiration Society:
    Arya meets Dragon Queen Dany, the great Targaryan warrior. Along with Brienne, they bond over war stories.

    3. Surrogate Daughter/Surrogate Dad Reunite:The Hound + Arya. I don’t care if the scene is three seconds long and consists solely of Sandor looking at her and saying, “Bring me one of those chickens.”

    4. Monster Babies?Tormund gets to impress Brienne. Maybe even talk to her instead of ogling her.

    1. Jon and Co.’s arrival at Winterfell will be expected. They’ll be out waiting for him, even in the snow. It’s highly unlikely he’ll casually stroll in and take anyone by surprise.

    2. I think Arya will be more impressed by Daenerys’s dragons at first, before she concerns herself with Daenerys the queen. I think the Stark sisters will give Dany a long side-eye in the beginning. But with Dany having command of two great fighting forces, and being able to ride a dragon, things should smooth over pretty quickly.

    3. Seeing the Hound alive again could be more of a shock to Arya than the combined effect of seeing Jon, and Dany’s dragons.

    4. They might finally talk to each other, even train together. IF they both make it back to Winterfell, (which it seems they will). But once Jaime arrives, that’s over. And IF Jaime dies, and Brienne lives, I can’t see her being able to love anyone else.

  22. Ten Bears,
    The actor’s real wife has red hair. There are a lot of pictures with her on his Instagram. I think that was the reason for that line.

    Arya likes Visenya. And at the Inn with Hotpie someone talked about Dany and her dragons. And Arya seemed to be impressed. So I think she will like Dany. Sansa won’t like her.

  23. Yaga,

    oh, no, they have to reach to a point the become the threat on King’s Landing. THat HAS to happen. THe fear of wights making to KL, has to be the the drive in Jon’s fight.

  24. Flora Linden,

    Why does Tormund’s line predict his own death?

    • I figure at least one “representative” of the Free Folk has to make it to the end. Who else is there?

    • If Tormund survives the collapse of the Wall, shouldn’t he make it through S8?

    • If Tormund was going to be killed off, getting clawed at and pulled down by wights in the frozen lake would’ve been the time. Instead, he was saved by The Warrior of Light aka AA.

  25. Yaga:
    Ten Bears,
    My fanfic outline of the next season has Winterfell falling within two episodes 😀 .

    My boy the Night King is a sharp cookie. Wouldn’t it make sense to head straight down south to densely packed KL to increase the Army of the Dead by a factor of ten, rather than wander around the sparsely populated North, “recruiting” a few soldiers here and there? [See rough estimates below.]
    Or will the Northerners congregate in a few major castles and holdfasts, “now that winter has come”? If so, how far apart geographically are they?
    And so far it’s looked like the Army of the Dead has been ambling along like senior citizens window shopping at a mall; how fast can the undead troops travel?
    I am not a military strategist, and don’t have a map.* Perhaps someone with military experience or a statistics background could weigh in. What strategy would NK pursue? Bypass WF and make a beeline to target-rich KL, or strike WF (or the Last Hearth) first?

    Killing humans (= recruiting new wights) in KL would be like shooting fish in a barrel:

    From S7e7 (Jon Snow to Tyrion, off the coast of KL, looking at the city)

    Jon: How many people live here?
    Tyrion: A million, give or take.
    Jon: That’s more than the entire North, crammed into that [the city].

    (Note: In S3e7, Jaime told Qyburn he once saved half a million lives: “the population of King’s Landing.” Presumably, the city’s population has doubled since Jaime killed the Mad King 16-20 (?) years earlier.)

    From S4e8 (Roose with Ramsay on a hill, showing him the North, after Ramsay has taken Moat Caillen from the Ironborn)

    Roose: The North: 700 miles that way…400 miles that way. 300 miles that way.

    By my rough calculations, that means in the North there are less than 2 people per square mile [ 490,000 square miles].

    However large or small KL is, there are approximately 1,000,000 people “crammed” into it. In fact, I wonder if the best Northern strategy would be “spread out.”

    *Yes, yes, I know. I can hear the voices of Arya and Sandor from S4e3:

    “You don’t have a map?”
    “No, I don’t gave a map.”
    “Maybe we should get one.”
    “Just point out the next map shop you see and I’ll buy you one.”

  26. Chilli:
    Ten Bears,
    The actor’s real wife has red hair. There are a lot of pictures with her on his Instagram. I think that was the reason for that line.

    Arya likes Visenya. And at the Inn with Hotpie someone talked about Dany and her dragons. And Arya seemed to be impressed. So I think she will like Dany. Sansa won’t like her.

    Why wouldn’t Sansa like her? They would both get along like a house on fire. Arya and Sansa will BOTH be wary of the woman their brother “bent” the knee to when Jon was isolated and on his own, but both will easily get along with her once they get to know her.

    No more stupid conflicts between characters who should be getting along, Sansa and Dany have no reason to dislike each other.

  27. Chilli,

    I don’t think that Arya will like Dany (at least in the beginning): no women will be good enough for her beloved Jon, especially the one who “forced” him to bend the knee (Arya will think that Dany forced him, because Jon cannot do anything disputable). Moreover, when Jon is revealled to be Aegon Targerian both Arya and Sansa may start thinking that they could make eligible brides to him: after all, Dany is his aunt, and they are his cousins, so why not? Dany will have to do something really heroic to get the blessing from the Stark girls, otherwise Arya may start threatening to cut off her pretty face with her Valyrian dagger.

  28. Ten Bears,
    It would absolutely make sense to do a strike directly on KL, behind enemy lines, *if* increasing your army was your prime objective.

    But for the NK, it’s not. He’s slow and methodical and patient and meticulous and his main objective is the total subjugation of Westeros. He’ll move North to South.

    One of my favourite theories is that the NK was some sort of an ancestor Stark. I’d love this to be true; if it were, surely Winterfell would be an additional magnet for him.

  29. Bearded Onion,

    “No more stupid conflicts between characters who should be getting along, Sansa and Dany have no reason to dislike each other.”
    ___________________
    —————————-

    I agree. Sansa vs. Jon + Sansa vs. Arya exceeded the manufactured conflict quota. No S8 catfights please. The story’s more engrossing
    when the women work together and complement each other.

    Poor Jon’s been punctured with arrows, stabbed to death, pulled underwater by wights, nearly suffocated by piles of bodies, and frozen his ass off for years. He deserves a love life.

    His sisters should be happy their brooding brother’s got a red hot girlfriend.

  30. Inga,

    Nah. Arya’s going to be a Dany fangirl.
    Remember how starry-eyed Arya was when telling Tywin, “Visenya Targaryan was a great warrior”?

  31. Yaga:
    Sou,
    My preferred outcome would be for Moat Cailin to be occupied from the South, by Cersei, thus trapping the North between the Army of the Dead and her troops.

    I just want Dany and Jon’s position to be desperate, episode after episode, the entire season.

    Masochistic tendencies… Dramatically it could be thrilling, but seriously, I do not want to see that!!

  32. Ten Bears:
    Sou,

    #4: Well, how about Tormund and Alys Karstark then? I hope they didn’t bring in a tall redheaded young actress with a sword for one brief scene and five words of dialogue in S7.

    “Gingers are beautiful. Kissed by fire.” – Tormund, S7e6.

    I can totally ship that! Anchors aweigh!

  33. Bearded Onion,

    Why would Sansa necessarily like her?

    Daenerys has rendered Sansa more powerless in her own kingdom than she already was.

    And she doesn’t exactly have fond memories of having to bow and scrape to royalty. I doubt she ever wanted or expected to have to have to bow to anybody other than Jon ever again.

    No doubt she’ll be courteous, like Cat was to Cersei. Perhaps she’ll even adopt some of the Margaery Tyrell approach of flattery and familiarity.

    But I don’t see why they should particularly get along, especially considering Sansa now has to compete with her for Jon’s ear.

    Plus, depending on how the Northerners react to Daenerys and her armies, it might not be politically expedient to be seen to be cosying up to her. Especially if the relationship between Daenerys and Jon becomes apparent. Somebody in House Stark should appear to maintain their objectivity.

    Anyway, I don’t see why every character on this show should have to love Daenerys. Surely somebody aside from Cersei must be able to resist falling at her feet.

  34. Yaga,

    The thing is, the North is better prepared and armed with dragonglass.

    Wouldn’t it be delightful if after Cersei double-crosses the Dany-Jon Alliance, figuring she could let them get decimated by the NK, that she gets surprised by the 100,000 strong Army of the Dead heading straight for her – without stopping at WF first? She’s got no dragonglass, does she? And lemme think: Aren’t all known VS weapons in the possession of Jon + Friends? Maybe Cersei’s got wildfire left over, or Qyburn can invent something – but not if they’re taken by surprise.

  35. VS Weapon Directory

    Longclaw: Jon Snow
    Assassin’s Dagger: Arya Stark
    Heartsbane: Sam the Slayer
    Widow’s Wail: Jaime L.
    Oathkeeper: Brienne of Tarth

    Did I miss any?

  36. Ten Bears,

    I do remember what Arya admires Visenya and that may influence her attitudes towards Dany. However, if Arya decides that Dany disrespects Jon, that won’t help.

    As for that the Night King hitting KL, I totally agree with you but I don’t see why he should drag his harmy along with him, when he can simply fly to NK on his dragon, kill half of it’s citizens (or the Golden Company with all the elephants) and then resurrect them in seconds. Meanwhile, the existing army of the dead could be used to block the best-prepared forces of the living in the North (namely in Winterfell). Sure, sometimes (in fact, quite often) the showrunners force the characters to make unsound military decisions for the sake of shock value etc., but the siege of Winterfell combined with a surprise attack on KL should also produce a good drama. So, I go with this scenario at least as long as filming spoilers or leaks prove otherwise.

  37. Ramsay’s 20th Good Man,

    Well, from a purely self-interest standpoint you could argue that these developments are a good thing for Sansa, as Jon pledging to Dany and becoming either consort or co-monarch means he’s going to be moving south on a long-term basis and Sansa’s temporary status running the North would become either de facto or de jure permanent.

    On a personality level, I don’t know how they’d get along, though I suspect Sansa would have given the Tarly BBQ the thumbs up, unlike Dany’s actual top advisors.

  38. Ramsay’s 20th Good Man:
    Bearded Onion,

    But I don’t see why they should particularly get along, especially considering Sansa now has to compete with her for Jon’s ear.

    Sansa has never had Jon’s ear and he has never taken her advice. Why should she be bothered that he is not taking her advice now? And considering that Sam and Bran are in Winterfell along with Davos, Tyrion, Varys, Jorah, Torumund, Beric etc. why would Jon take advice from Sansa of all people? Dany does not know the North, so I doubt that she is going to be advising Jon on what to do.

    I really hope that Sansa stops being petty and selfish at this point and stops sulking about Jon not listening to her. It’s become annoying after two seasons. Instead of hating on Dany for helping the North, Sansa should do her best to cooperate and help – that would be some much required character development for her character – let her be diplomatic and courteous like the book version is supposed to be.

    Sean C.:
    Ramsay’s 20th Good Man,

    Well, from a purely self-interest standpoint you could argue that these developments are a good thing for Sansa, as Jon pledging to Dany and becoming either consort or co-monarch means he’s going to be moving south on a long-term basis and Sansa’s temporary status running the North would become either de facto or de jure permanent.

    Jon pledging to Dany does not mean he will become consort or co-monarch – if that happens that will be towards the end of the show. He is still Warden of the North and still makes the decisions up North – much to Sansa’s annoyance no doubt.

    It would actually play up Sansa’s supposed game player skills if she is the one who suggests a political match between Jon and Dany – LF gives her a hint about a possible marriage and it would get Jon out of her hair and give her control of the North.

    Sean C.:
    Ramsay’s 20th Good Man,

    Well, from a purely self-interest standpoint you could argue that these developments are a good thing for Sansa, as Jon pledging to Dany and becoming either consort or co-monarch means he’s going to be moving south on a long-term basis and Sansa’s temporary status running the North would become either de facto or de jure permanent.

    Jon pledging to Dany does not mean he will become consort or co-monarch – if that happens that will be towards the end of the show. He is still Warden of the North and still makes the decisions up North – much to Sansa’s annoyance no doubt.

    It would actually play up Sansa’s supposed game player skills if she is the one who suggests a political match between Jon and Dany – LF gives her a hint about a possible marriage and it would get Jon out of her hair and give her control of the North.

  39. Ramsay’s 20th Good Man,

    Why would Sansa necessarily like her?

    Daenerys has rendered Sansa more powerless in her own kingdom than she already was.

    And she doesn’t exactly have fond memories of having to bow and scrape to royalty. I doubt she ever wanted or expected to have to have to bow to anybody other than Jon ever again.

    That’s a consistent characteristic of Sansa. She’s always been keen to have obeisance, and deference, and power, and control…but oh so intolerant of giving it to anyone else. (She’s even worse in the books.) She pleads understanding for being impotent to say no when she was a kid, but she’s willing to visit punishment on the Umber and Karstark children for the deeds of their fathers. And she was dismayed that Jon was leaving for Dragonstone…until he said she had the North. And while she’s certainly had a rough time, she’s in ‘woe is me’ mode rather than realising that most of her suffering was caused by her dreadful decisions. Blimey, she even demanded Jon take her advice before the BoB, but didn’t give him the one piece of vital military intelligence he actually needed. Ned would be appalled at her hypocrisy.

  40. Sean C.,

    Well, if Jon decides to bugger off down south post-war and she’s left in charge then perhaps she’ll consider that a positive.

    But in the meantime what she’s got is a Queen she didn’t ask for; a rival for Jon’s counsel and loyalty; and potential for unrest and resentment among the Northerners.

    It’s hard to imagine her being eager to become Dany’s bestie under those circumstances.

    With Littlefinger’s words about planning for all possible eventualities likely still ringing in her ears, I would expect her to continue to view Daenerys as much as a potential threat/obstacle as she would a potential ally.

  41. Ramsay’s 20th Good Man:
    But in the meantime what she’s got is a Queen she didn’t ask for; a rival for Jon’s counsel and loyalty; and potential for unrest and resentment among the Northerners.

    It’s hard to imagine her being eager to become Dany’s bestie under those circumstances.

    Well, strictly speaking, as Jon’s not king now, whether Jon listens to her or not is no longer her main concern. Dany’s the decision-maker, so from an influence perspective she would focus on swaying her, not Jon.

  42. Ten Bears,
    “The thing is, the North is better prepared and armed with dragonglass.”

    You’re absolutely correct. But you’re not taking into account the character, if it may be called such, of the NK.

    Thinking about strikes and strategy would mean, for one thing, that he’s treating the war, and the human resistance, seriously. That he’s seeing them as worthy opponents. He’s not; he’s Death, and Death always wins. Thus, the NK’s one defining characteristic so far has been his *smugness*. At Hardhome, and at the Frozen Lake.

    He intends to steamroll humanity into obedience, not fight a war.

    And, no, I don’t really want to see the NK strike the KL to punish Cersei for her short-sightedness. I want her to be on the attack the majority of the season, a danger to Dany and co.. I want the North’s position to be absolutely desperate.

  43. Ten Bears:
    VS Weapon Directory

    Longclaw:Jon Snow
    Assassin’s Dagger:Arya Stark
    Heartsbane:Sam the Slayer
    Widow’s Wail: Jaime L.
    Oathkeeper:Brienne of Tarth

    Did I miss any?

    Do you think Blackfyre may make an appearance by the Golden Company and be presented to Aegon Targaryen?

  44. Ten Bears: 4. Monster Babies?
    Tormund gets to impress Brienne. Maybe even talk to her instead of ogling her.

    Aye. What I would have given to overhear their conversation down in the courtyard that day!

  45. Ramsay’s 20th Good Man: With Littlefinger’s words about planning for all possible eventualities likely still ringing in her ears, I would expect her to continue to view Daenerys as much as a potential threat/obstacle as she would a potential ally.

    But who really knows what Sansa wants? All she does is walk around muttering about wheat, in an utterly joyless tenure as Lady of Winterfell. And, oh yeah, she burns things….she burns papers in the fireplace. What is Sansa getting rid of? Is she wiping the Bolton’s history from the record?

    To know if Dany is an ‘obstacle’, you have to first know exactly what Sansa wants.

  46. All the main characters will be in Winterfell so renovate! Renovate!

    When Jon returns, Sansa won’t be in charge anymore. What they’ll be discussing are battle plans, and Sansa isn’t needed for that.

    Im gonna be annoyed if Sansa and/or is hostile to Daenerys. Like the north needed an allie to help save their as*es and they got it.

  47. Stark RAven’ Rad: She pleads understanding for being impotent to say no when she was a kid, but she’s willing to visit punishment on the Umber and Karstark children for the deeds of their fathers. And she was dismayed that Jon was leaving for Dragonstone…until he said she had the North.

    Glad you pointed out Sansa’s duality. One that stood out to me was when the late Littlefinger said he knows Cersai more than anyone at Winterfell. Sansa’s reply to him was a variation of Jon’s own reply to her when she told him not to do what Ramsay wanted. So, is she being deceptive, or is she being imprinted upon by the people she is in close contact with – first Cersai, then Jon?

  48. Abbie: Im gonna be annoyed if Sansa and/or is hostile to Daenerys. Like the north needed an allie to help save their as*es and they got it.

    Amen. The Wights are through the wall. The North has run out of time. Even if the Night King attacks Winterfell while wearing a dress and a silver wig and mounted on Viserion. They have no time to blame Dany for her dragon being used to attack them.

  49. Carole H: Do you think Blackfyre may make an appearance by the Golden Company and be presented to Aegon Targaryen?

    I guess Blackfyre is a book thing?

    Unless I’m wrong, the only VS weapon mentioned on the show that’s unaccounted for is Dark Sister. (Arya identified it when telling Tywin: “Visenya Targaryan was a great warrior. She had a Valaryan steel sword she called Dark Sister.”)

  50. Ten Bears,

    Yes it is from the books and I’m not sure it has been mentioned but it was the Targaryen sword, perhaps we will find out what happened to Dawn. OT can I just say I am star struck you have replied. I have read your comments for about a year and whilst I don’t always agree I have found them very interesting. There I’ve said it lol

  51. Are people seriously STILL trying to orchestrate some form of tension/rivalry/betrayal around Sansa? We have no indication at all that this is the case. Seems that some folks really haven’t learned any lessons over the past couple of seasons.

  52. Carole H,

    Awww, thanks!
    But now you’ve got me wondering which of my comments you haven’t agreed with. I haven’t even rolled out my tinfoil theories about the White Walkers as victims, or a hypothetical grammatical dissection of the Valanqar prophecy by King Stannis showing that Sandor Clegane is the likeliest candidate on paper, though it’ll probably turn out to be Jaime, Euron or Tyrion.
    (Don’t mind me: I’m still hanging on to my farfetched Sandor Clegane = Warrior of Light = Azor Ahai theory, probably because he’s my favorite character, along with Arya.)

  53. Yaga,

    Aside from the time, distance and relatively nominal targets per square mile in the vast, sparsely populated North, whose inhabitants are armed with Dragonglass and whose best fighters have VS wespons (and now, two dragons), there’s another, thematic reason why the NK might bypass WF and head straight south with his undead army:

    The show has consistently presented its characters with parallel or recurrent quandaries. In S5, Jon had to make the unpopular but necessary decision to try to save the Wildlings, lest they be added to the Army of the Undead.

    Jon may find himself facing the same dilemma again, but on a much greater order of magnitude. If he realizes that one million unprepared citizens in KL alone, plus 20,000 Golden Company fighters + herds of elephants, are about to be added to the Army of the Dead, what would he do? Do nothing, and soon face a 1,100,000 strong unstoppable zombie army capable of swarming all over the North? Or mobilize his Northern Stark/Targ alliance to defend KL?

  54. Sean C.,
    Yes, and that’s what I want to see. Cersei taking over the Moat Cailin chokehold and Dany melting it with dragonfire.

    Ten Bears,
    OK, see, now that doesn’t even make sense. You’re assuming that the NK will leave his slow shambling army in the North for a quick surgical Viserion strike-and-resurrect on KL, but Jon (well, actually Dany, she’s the commander) will be able to get her *army* over to KL in the same time? No matter fast travel, an army does NOT travel as fast as a dragon.

    If the NK does a fly-and-strike, the only people who can match his speed are Dany and (presuming she teaches him to ride) Jon, on dragonback, by themselves.

  55. Yaga,

    The show maybe hasn’t made it clear but in the books Moat Cailin cannot be taken from the south (it sits at the end of the causeway through impenetrable swamps) but can be taken from the north, it can be held against the south by a relatively small force of archers. So unless Jon left it unattended, it’s unlikely that Cersei’s troops could take it. I like the idea of the North being sandwiched between two threats, though.

    I also like the idea of the NK making a beeline for KL on his ice dragon (take that, Cersei! hahaha!) but how exactly is he going to kill one million people alone?

  56. Yaga,

    Nope. I wasn’t assuming NK and unViserion would strike KL by themselves. I’m presupposing he’ll take his army with him. So Jon’s decision will be whether to muster his forces and head south to intercept the undead army before it reaches KL. (If NK flew down by himself, my money would be on Qyburn to rig a bunch of Scorpions to take him down, esoecially if sharpshooter Bronn of the F*cking Blackwater is still there.)

    A lot depends on how fast the undead can travel. Sometimes it looks like the zombies shuffle along like drunkards; at other times they scurry along like rodents on meth.

    I’ll have to rewatch the frozen lake sequence and check it out.

  57. talvikorppi,

    If the Night King launches a surprise attack on KL, he wouldn’t need to kill all the living at once: he can kill, say, one thousand, resurrect them, then use them to kill two thousands more, and then in progression. Potentially he could rise dead bodies from the graveyards too, though I’m not quite sure about that. One way or another, the citizens of KL are totally unprepared to face the wights. Fire would be the only available anti-wight weapon, but hardly they even know that it works. Cersei and her generals know that but, if the NK hits KL, they will have no time to communicate this to the smallfolk and blowing the city with the remaining wild-fire… Well, something tells me that Cersei should be willing to treat with the NK instead of blowing him up. She said that being turned into wights would be an improvement for most of the citizens of KL, she was highley interested in the fate of the third dragon and what killed it and in general she positioned herself as the NK’s potential ally. If she finds out that the NK can be propitiated with child sacrifices, she might accept such settlement gladly even if she had to sacrifice her own unborn child. So, to sum up: if the NK hited KL with a dragon, he wouldn’t be able turn one million people into wights all at once – many would flee, some would hide, but, using the surprise effect and panic, he would be able to rise a mighty army nonetheless and also find some potential collaborants.

    However, if the NK went south with his army, things would get more complicated: Targarians could hit him from the rear and more importantly Jaime would make it back to KL before the attack and arm every citizen of KL with a torch; he could arrange dragonglass shipments too. So, it wouldn’t be a good plan.

    As for Moat Cailin, the swamps freeze in winter, so IDK but it seems like the stronhold may become completely useless in wintertime.

  58. Ten Bears,

    Ha ha you are welcome. I can’t even remember which I didn’t agree with. This site is full of intelligent and articulate posters I don’t go on any other site to find something out, all I need is usually on here.

  59. Ten Bears,
    But in this case, I really don’t understand. I could accept a surgical strike – essentially opening a second front and creating a second army. But if you don’t think that will happen… Winterfell is a major plot center squarely in the Army of the Dead’s way. Most of the remaining named characters will be there. There’s no way the AotD will just go around it. This would be deeply dissatisfying.

  60. Yaga,

    I would probably agree, although The Army of the Dead could attack everything around Winterfell, compelling those holed up in Winterfell to come out and fight instead of staying behind the walls to wait for a siege.

  61. Yaga,

    Oh, they’ll get to WF…eventually. I was just thinking KL would be a great recruiting station to visit first. But we’ll see, won’t we?

    Somehow, the plot has to get NK and Arya in the same place at the same time within six episodes so she can slash him in the neck with her VS dagger. (Just kidding.)

  62. Ten Bears,

    I concur that the plot has to get the NK and Arya in the same place – KL most probably. And that’s also true in regard to Sandor, Jaime, etc. However, there would be no contradiction: if the AotD lays the siege on WF in ep2 and Jaime lifts in in ep3, Cersei’s betrayal will be revealed in ep 4, then Arya (and the Hound) can go to KL under Sansa’s command and run into the NK. Meanwhile Jaime and Jon could arrive there for the final battle in ep 5. And yes, Jon would be facing the uneasy decision to go and help Cersei, you want so much (I want it too).

  63. In the new “The Game Revealed” episode, someone mentions that the Winterfell set got bigger this last year, since so many more characters were based there, and “that will only continue.” Looks like this could be part of that expansion trend.

    The episode also contains some really fun scenes of Maisie and Sophie goofing off on set.

  64. Inga,
    I think you’re very wrong on this one. I’m 100% sure Arya is going to like Dany pretty fast. Arya and Dany are like all those soldiers and fighters out there. They go to the war. They don’t need to be in the castles waiting for someone to saving them. They save themselves. Also, they are survivers. They are very alike on this. I think they will get along pretty fast.

  65. Ten Bears:
    Inga,

    Nah. Arya’s going to be a Dany fangirl.
    Remember how starry-eyed Arya was when telling Tywin, “Visenya Targaryan was a great warrior”?

    Also, i can’t wait to see Arya’s reaction when she sees Drogon. he will be even bigger on season 8. haha.

  66. Inga:
    Chilli,

    I don’t think that Arya will like Dany (at least in the beginning): no women will be good enough for her beloved Jon, especially the one who “forced” him to bend the knee (Arya will think that Dany forced him, because Jon cannot do anything disputable). Moreover, when Jon is revealled to be Aegon Targerian both Arya and Sansa may start thinking that they could make eligible brides to him: after all, Dany is his aunt, and they are his cousins, so why not? Dany will have to do something really heroic to get the blessing from the Stark girls, otherwise Arya may start threatening to cut off her pretty face with her Valyrian dagger.

    Dany don’t have to prove anything for them. or do something heroic.
    Dany is coming with Jon to protect the north and if they don’t see that, then the problem is them. NK is coming in full force to attack. Season 8 won’t have time to focus on stupid fights. I’m pretty sure Arya will get along with Dany pretty fast. I don’t know about Sansa (because sansa is usually very annoying, so..).

  67. thi targaryen,

    Well, stupid fights tend to occur at the most inappropriate moments and it would be too simple to turn the show into the good guys united vs the dead fantasy, not to mention that we are to get the revelation of Jon’s true status and all the reactions to that. I can’t imagine Dany being thrilled about that at least in the beginning and I can’t imagine Arya not protecting her beloved cousin’s legitimate interests and seeking justice for him, so the conflict between the two women looks to be pre-programmed, though its extent and outcome is yet to be seen.
    On the other hand, I can fully imagine Arya admiring Dany as a new incarnation of Vysennia and eventually finding her worthy of Jon, so there is no major contradiction in our predictions.

  68. thi targaryen,

    Dany not really a soldier. She simply have dragons. never hand to hand combat. Arya only can do this because of magic from the many face god and much training she is excellent with sword yes but she does have a higher power protects her same as with Jon now.

  69. Of course Winterfell will most likely face an attack! In any case, it will be the nerve centre of the defence team Jonaereys against the walkers.

    Curious about other/new locations that will get featured-
    * White Harbour was mentioned as the landing/meeting point so will likely be seen in S8 Ep1,
    * Theon will venture on to Pyke for some Ep1 action,
    * Will the walkers attack another Northern stronghold early (Umbers, Karstarks). I think so!
    * The Viserion – Drogon battle somewhere in an icy barren or over a main location Winterfell / King’s landing- this will have to be early too. I can’t see undead Viserion hanging around for too long since his main purpose of bringing down the wall is achieved.

  70. I’m wondering if the final battle will happen at Winterfell rather than the trident (as in Dany’s dream from the books). The show could make such a change without really impacting the story or the ending in my opinion.

    Seems like there will at least be a battle at Winterfell, presumably after some Northern strong holds have fallen to the White Walkers.

  71. Legolas:
    Of course Winterfell will most likely face an attack! In any case, it will be the nerve centre of the defence team Jonaereys against the walkers.

    Curious about other/new locations that will get featured-
    * White Harbour was mentioned as the landing/meeting point so will likely be seen in S8 Ep1,
    * Theon will venture on to Pyke for some Ep1 action,
    * Will the walkers attack another Northern stronghold early (Umbers, Karstarks). I think so!
    * The Viserion – Drogon battle somewhere in an icy barren or over a main location Winterfell / King’s landing- this will have to be early too. I can’t see undead Viserion hanging around for too long since his main purpose of bringing down the wall is achieved.

    I think you are correct with most of this especially Karhold being attacked however I don’t see Theon going to Pike, he’ll find out Euron has gone East I suspect but not sure what he will do with one ship against an Armada and 20,000 Golden company…

  72. I expect Euron is holding Yara in a dungeon and not carrying her prisoner to Essos and back. I doubt Theon is going to face Euron in a battle alone. He’ll be able to free Yara and they will defeat their uncle together later, or he’ll perish and Yara will avenge him.

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