Season 7&8 theory *Spoilers from TV&books*

[Storm God]

Season 7
Jon, Sansa and Littlefinger go to the Riverlands

Why? Jon needs men to stop the WW, Littlefinger is ruler of the Riverlands in name, Sansa is the last of Tully blood who isn't a Frey puppet, and the Riverlands is in disarray following the Frey war of succession after Old Walder Frey's death.

Arya meets Melisandre, The Hound and tBwB, some drama before the remaining ones help Jon's alliance secure the Riverlands. 

 

Dany might use the first two episodes to sack Volantis or visit Valyria. Then her alliance makes landfall at Dragonstone and in the Stormlands, mimicking Aegon in the books and essentially eradicating the last Baratheon support in Westeros whilst concolidating her domain in southern Westeros. 

Jorah arrives at the Citadel, meets Sam, and creates a plotlink between Jon and Dany. Suddenly EURON GREYHOY. Who sack Old Town with his huge member. Sam and Jorah flee north-east towards Dany because Sam knows that dragonsteel and dragons will stop the WW.

Reachmen are agitated by Ironborn raid on the coast of The Reach. Dany forced to send her fleet led by Yara and Theon south to deal with Euron, and thereafter conquering the Iron Islands. Her army marches towards King's Landing from the Stormlands. 

Huge sea battle where Yara/Theon emerges victorious, but with the death of both Yara and Euron. Theon, now no longer a broken man assumes the role of Lord of the Iron Isles. Hears about Jon's alliance and decides to support them instead as he wants to repay his debts to Robb.

Jamie is stuck in King's Landing tending to Cercei's madness, leaving the Westerlands leaderless. Jon, Littlefinger, Sansa and Theon assume de facto control of the Westerlands. 

Dany closes in on King's Landing just as it goes up in flames. Cercei goes completly mad king with wildfire. One dragon dies and Jamie kills Cercei in despair before he himself are consumed by flames and the crumbling Red Keep.

Sansa betrays Littlefinger by taking control of the Riverlands and turning Sweetrobin against him. Littlefinger dies. Sansa and Sweetrobin pledge their support to Jon. 

Westeros is now divided in two. 
Dany's alliance controls Dorne, Reach, Stormlands and Crownlands.
Jon's alliance controls North, Vale, Riverlands, Iron Islands.
Westerlands is disputed. Claimed by Tyrion, controlled by Jon's crew.

Suddenly BRAN STARK who drops the R+L=J bomb to Jon.

And then the wall collapses, and WW begin their invasion.

Credits roll

Season 8

Dany finds out Jon is her last family, and they go into dialogue about dragons, politics and the white walkers. 

Jon becomes a dragonrider along with Dany.

Jon and Tyrion have some banter conserning cripples, bastards and broken things. Tyrion may recieve the Westerlands from Jon.

1 of 4 things will happen

1. The white walkers are defeated, Jon and Dany marries, everyone is happy.

2. White walkers defeated by Jon&Dany alliance. Dany turns out to be a FIRE & BLOOD type of queen, and in essence becomes the bad guy with a badass backstory. Her wild Khalassar makes her despised by the common folk. She burns some commoners or pisses Jon off in another way. Jon and Dany have a dance of dragons, their two dragons die, Jon assumes the Iron Throne, but she survives. Jorah saves her, and together they travel to Essos and finally she finds the house with the red door and comes to term that she should never rule, as she would be a mad queen.

3. Same as above, BUT; She and Jon have a dance of dragons, Jon wins and forfeits the throne. All realms become independent. 

4. Jon sacrifices himself to stop white walkers, Dany becomes queen. 

PS: In 2 and 3 Dany could simply die instead.

I believe 3 or 4. Jon will either be "the last hero" and die valiantly, or balkanize the realm. Since R+L=J then he is of ice and fire, and thus this song is about him. Why am I so cynical? GRRM have promised a bittersweet ending. 

[MoreOrLess]

I simply don't think there's been the ground work to have Dany as fundamentally unsuitable to rule, if there going that direction I think it would need to be either madness(which hasn't been setup either) or a conversion by the Red Preists(although not sure Mel would work as she seems more moral now).

You could well be correct that the Riverlands become a large part of the plot in season 7, not sure if I see Jon going that far south but I could definitely see Sansa and LF going there with the Vale forces and perhaps LF plotting to use that combined force to take the Throne or ally with Dany and betray Sansa.

Ayra will I suspect either go south after Cersei or have an extended plot in the Riverlands where she finally overcomes her revenge focus, if its the latter I wouldn't be supprised to see her take out LF.

I do think that the climax of the Wakers/Long Night story might well not need THAT along to cover and indeed I wouldn't discount us ending up with 20 more episodes afterall but still I suspect were not going to see that many more diversions from things moving forward in a more expected fashion, Sansa and LF definitely seems like the most likely souce of this to me.

[Byfort of Corfe]

Just my 2 pennies worth but I'm guessing that Jon and Dany will both have to ally to stop the White Walkers, which they will do but it will cost both their lives, either that or they will be magicked away somehow, think Arthur in the isle of Avalon.  I agree that Jaime kills Cersei or maybe she kills him but either way they both wind up dead.  Sansa winds up on the throne without LF but having lost everyone that she has loved, and it is up to her to rebuild Westeros.  Of course your theory is much more extensive but I do think that the war against the other will be the big thing in Season 8.

[JonSnowed]

There are spoilers out there already that contradict some of your predictions.

There will be a big naval battle and it seems Euron will win capturing one of Theon/Yara and will kill at least one sand snake, he's also teaming up with Cersei which looks like a spoiler from WoW).

[Storm God]

On 19.9.2016 at 4:36 PM, MoreOrLess said:

I simply don't think there's been the ground work to have Dany as fundamentally unsuitable to rule, if there going that direction I think it would need to be either madness(which hasn't been setup either) or a conversion by the Red Preists(although not sure Mel would work as she seems more moral now).

~~

I do think that the climax of the Wakers/Long Night story might well not need THAT along to cover and indeed I wouldn't discount us ending up with 20 more episodes afterall but still I suspect were not going to see that many more diversions from things moving forward in a more expected fashion, Sansa and LF definitely seems like the most likely souce of this to me.

I kept out most details, opting to focus on the major points in order to keep it short and readable. And of course because both the details and season 8 is going to be a lot harder to predict. Not to mention that D&D will have to simplify a lot for the occasional viewers, and to save time (remember, two short seasons :)).

With that being said, I don't believe that the WW plot will drag out all of season 8. I also doubt that they will be stopped just south of the wall. Not really GRRMesque, and very anti-climatic. How much must fall for they to really feel like a true doomsday threat? I dare guess they will vanquish a huge chunk of the north before they are stopped either in the Riverlands, at Moat Cailin or, most likely, at Winterfell (The place where (the forces of) "winter" fell).

And with Dany's transformation, that won't occur before she makes landfall in Westeros. She have tried and failed making peace and compromise in Meereen, only to find out that dragons and Dothraki are more efficient at keeping the people in line. What is there to stop her from doing the same in Westeros? After all, if my theory is correct, she's just seen a woman so mad with power that she'll kill herself and hundreds of thousands of innocent civillians to avoid anyone else getting that power. "Breaking the wheel" doesn't mean sitting around a table and talking things out.

[boojam]

Not sure how any of this meshes with the books going forward. , I think we have only THREE verified spoilers from the books by way of the show one from season 5 and two from season 6. The broad strokes may be being followed but the show is now an alternate universe based on the book's 'alternate universe'. Only thing we know is that S8 will land on a big show down with the White(Others)Walkers-whatever.

[TheKitttenGuard]

3 hours ago, boojam said:

Not sure how any of this meshes with the books going forward. , I think we have only THREE verified spoilers from the books by way of the show one from season 5 and two from season 6. The broad strokes may be being followed but the show is now an alternate universe based on the book's 'alternate universe'. Only thing we know is that S8 will land on a big show down with the White(Others)Walkers-whatever.

Of the 3 big moments D&D stated Martin told them, the last one will be at series end.  

 

[boojam]

3 hours ago, TheKitttenGuard said:

Of the 3 big moments D&D stated Martin told them, the last one will be at series end.  

 

That seems true. Of the two we got this season the first was tacit since GRRM has implied it was true, D&D have only given two explicit ones. (That is ones due to GRRM.)

I don't know if Jon Snow's parentage is also consider another tacit reveal ... since that still has some mystery around it.

That there is a showdown with the Others is more kind of a deduction from a ton of foreboding book evidence , if George has something else happen I will be cow kicked.

(There might , in fact, be many spoilers that D&D know that will never be used on the show.)

 

 

[TheKitttenGuard]

1 hour ago, boojam said:

That seems true. Of the two we got this season the first was tacit since GRRM has implied it was true, D&D have only given two explicit ones. (That is ones due to GRRM.)

I don't know if Jon Snow's parentage is also consider another tacit reveal ... since that still has some mystery around it.

That there is a showdown with the Others is more kind of a deduction from a ton of foreboding book evidence , if George has something else happen I will be cow kicked.

(There might , in fact, be many spoilers that D&D know that will never be used on the show.)

 

 

I do not think Jon Snow parentage is not one of the moments that D&D stated were shocking since they knew.  Also, I think it is clear who will be the father and those who state there is some mystery are looking for one IMO.  Yes nothing definitive, and I been wrong before, but I think it is settle.  I think since the North was a major focus on S6 is why they focused on Lyanna.  I think next year with Daenerys arrival we will get more focus on Rhaeger. 

[MoreOrLess]

17 hours ago, boojam said:

That seems true. Of the two we got this season the first was tacit since GRRM has implied it was true, D&D have only given two explicit ones. (That is ones due to GRRM.)

I don't know if Jon Snow's parentage is also consider another tacit reveal ... since that still has some mystery around it.

That there is a showdown with the Others is more kind of a deduction from a ton of foreboding book evidence , if George has something else happen I will be cow kicked.

(There might , in fact, be many spoilers that D&D know that will never be used on the show.)

The reveal of the nature of the Others/Walkers to me makes the bridge between the political/character focused story and the supernatural confrontation much easier to imagine as well. The implication seems to me that any complexity in the situation will be less about the Walkers background and intensions and more about those opposing them.

[JonSnowed]

I think it's clear D&D are following the outline GRRM game them and incorporating a lot of what is to come in the books but they are also taking short cuts and having to fill in a lot of blanks. For example R+L=J, Jon Snow coming back, origin of Hodor, origin of the others, Dany heading to Westeros using the Ironborn fleet, the return of the Hound, death of Tommen, Sansa/Littlefinger going North all very clear future book spoilers to me.

Cersei rising to power also another likely spoiler but I suspect it goes down a bit differently in the books, I can see the alliance with Euron happening also in both mediums although not sure how Young Griff fits into this (doubt he will last past the next book regardless though).  Likewise the Jon ressurection scene may be different in the books but clear Melisandre is involved now.

[the tower of albion]

Do you think the Jon Snow King in the North scene will play out in the book as White Harbor - Rickon King in the North? It would make an interesting Davos chapter. (probably late in the book) I don't think Rickon will die in the book he'll be a totem figure head for northmen to rally to safe behind the walls of White Harbor and of course a quandary for Stannis is he's still around and Petyr Baelish with his plans to put Sansa in power in the north. Jon Snow if up and around by then will remain true to the nights watch and declare for Rickon.

[Larger than Average Finger]

I strongly believe that there will be a point where Dannie have to abandon her attack to get the throne, to join he fight against the WW.

[JonSnowed]

I think it's pretty clear that GRRM had Jon stabbed to death to free him of his nights watch title, I'm pretty sure also he's going to be King in the North in the books as in the show, I'd say that's almost certain in fact.  Now how it happens may well and most probably will be different.

Somehow Rickon will die (differently from the show) but the Sansa/Littlefinger is heading in the same direction as the show too though.  As for Stannis, I think some people need to accept he's not long for this world.

[Karmarni]

38 minutes ago, JonSnowed said:

As for Stannis, I think some people need to accept he's not long for this world.

Hmm, probably, but I think I like the 'rumors of my death' aspect of Stannis from the books more than the very obvious revenge kill from Brienne the Brute. I'm pretty positive she will not be killing him.

[JonSnowed]

I'd agree with that Brienne is not killing him but I am guessing he ultimately loses to the Freys/Boltons.

[JonSnow4President]

On 10/2/2016 at 5:57 PM, JonSnowed said:

As for Stannis, I think some people need to accept he's not long for this world.

There's a fair number of people who think he takes over the Night's Watch at the end of it all, as penitence for burning Shireen.  Which he has to live awhile longer if he is going to be the one to do that.

[Ruhail]

Most Stannis fans don't think he's living to the end. It's the utter nonsense and warped situation they used to kill him on the show being absurdly applied to book 6 because people think d&d couldn't have possibly changed it that gets people annoyed.

[JonSnowed]

The show certainly changed it but there is no way they kill him if he's got a significant role to play moving forward even including leading the Nights Watch. I'd guess he will fall in the first half of Winds of Winter most likely to the Freys and Boltons.  Not sure where else he could die given where Dance with Dragons ends.

[Iron Mother]

On 9/18/2016 at 8:09 AM, Storm God said:

Season 7
Jon, Sansa and Littlefinger go to the Riverlands

Why? Jon needs men to stop the WW, Littlefinger is ruler of the Riverlands in name, Sansa is the last of Tully blood who isn't a Frey puppet, and the Riverlands is in disarray following the Frey war of succession after Old Walder Frey's death.

Arya meets Melisandre, The Hound and tBwB, some drama before the remaining ones help Jon's alliance secure the Riverlands. 

 

Dany might use the first two episodes to sack Volantis or visit Valyria. Then her alliance makes landfall at Dragonstone and in the Stormlands, mimicking Aegon in the books and essentially eradicating the last Baratheon support in Westeros whilst concolidating her domain in southern Westeros. 

Jorah arrives at the Citadel, meets Sam, and creates a plotlink between Jon and Dany. Suddenly EURON GREYHOY. Who sack Old Town with his huge member. Sam and Jorah flee north-east towards Dany because Sam knows that dragonsteel and dragons will stop the WW.

Reachmen are agitated by Ironborn raid on the coast of The Reach. Dany forced to send her fleet led by Yara and Theon south to deal with Euron, and thereafter conquering the Iron Islands. Her army marches towards King's Landing from the Stormlands. 

Huge sea battle where Yara/Theon emerges victorious, but with the death of both Yara and Euron. Theon, now no longer a broken man assumes the role of Lord of the Iron Isles. Hears about Jon's alliance and decides to support them instead as he wants to repay his debts to Robb.

Jamie is stuck in King's Landing tending to Cercei's madness, leaving the Westerlands leaderless. Jon, Littlefinger, Sansa and Theon assume de facto control of the Westerlands. 

Dany closes in on King's Landing just as it goes up in flames. Cercei goes completly mad king with wildfire. One dragon dies and Jamie kills Cercei in despair before he himself are consumed by flames and the crumbling Red Keep.

Sansa betrays Littlefinger by taking control of the Riverlands and turning Sweetrobin against him. Littlefinger dies. Sansa and Sweetrobin pledge their support to Jon. 

Westeros is now divided in two. 
Dany's alliance controls Dorne, Reach, Stormlands and Crownlands.
Jon's alliance controls North, Vale, Riverlands, Iron Islands.
Westerlands is disputed. Claimed by Tyrion, controlled by Jon's crew.

Suddenly BRAN STARK who drops the R+L=J bomb to Jon.

And then the wall collapses, and WW begin their invasion.

Credits roll

Season 8

Dany finds out Jon is her last family, and they go into dialogue about dragons, politics and the white walkers. 

Jon becomes a dragonrider along with Dany.

Jon and Tyrion have some banter conserning cripples, bastards and broken things. Tyrion may recieve the Westerlands from Jon.

1 of 4 things will happen

1. The white walkers are defeated, Jon and Dany marries, everyone is happy.

2. White walkers defeated by Jon&Dany alliance. Dany turns out to be a FIRE & BLOOD type of queen, and in essence becomes the bad guy with a badass backstory. Her wild Khalassar makes her despised by the common folk. She burns some commoners or pisses Jon off in another way. Jon and Dany have a dance of dragons, their two dragons die, Jon assumes the Iron Throne, but she survives. Jorah saves her, and together they travel to Essos and finally she finds the house with the red door and comes to term that she should never rule, as she would be a mad queen.

3. Same as above, BUT; She and Jon have a dance of dragons, Jon wins and forfeits the throne. All realms become independent. 

4. Jon sacrifices himself to stop white walkers, Dany becomes queen. 

PS: In 2 and 3 Dany could simply die instead.

I believe 3 or 4. Jon will either be "the last hero" and die valiantly, or balkanize the realm. Since R+L=J then he is of ice and fire, and thus this song is about him. Why am I so cynical? GRRM have promised a bittersweet ending. 

Thanks for formulating a decent and well-thought-out scenario.  Lots of thought went in this.  I like the idea (in any sense) that Dany goes through a self infliction about her nature and that she believes in her heart she is a danger while in power - her "father's daughter".  Though I like it, the show hasn't visited that theme ENOUGH to keep it close in the eyes of the show watchers.  They pepper it in now and then but They haven't really busted it out into clear and pleasant danger... not since I think it was beginning of season 5(?) whith the public beheading of that guy who avenged on sons of the harpy.  They made a real poignant and compelling scene with the "hissssssss" by the people watching.