By Teresa Naval
We’re still reeling two weeks after the Game of Thrones season finale. The sixth season was a lot to digest, especially since it was the first set of episodes that did not have a printed equivalent (the sixth book in the series, The Winds of Winter, still has no official release date). The Starks have reclaimed Winterfell, the Targaryen-Tyrell-Greyjoy-Martell forces are ready to bring hell, Jon Snow is alive (and so is R+L=J), and no one likes talking about holding doors.
Season seven is still far away, and while we continue dreaming of spring, there are some players that we wish we could see win (or lose, as they often do) the game of thrones. (Don’t know who any of these are? Go pick up the books while you have some time in this rainy weather.)
Lady Stoneheart
Who: Catelyn Stark was murdered at the Red Wedding (cue The Rains of Castamere and a bit of weeping) until she was brought back to life by red priest Beric Dondarrion. Unlike Jon Snow, whose resurrection in the show goes a bit too perfectly, Undead Cat can barely talk because of her slit throat and half-decayed body. She is now known as Lady Stoneheart (or The Silent Sister, the Hangwoman, or Mother Merciless), and leads the Brotherhood without Banners on a killing spree. #AllMenMustDie #AllFreysMustPie
Why We Want to See Her in the Show: With the Starks slowly regaining power and agency, it would be interesting to see how Stoneheart is exacting her revenge on screen.
Chances of Appearing: With the reappearance of the Brotherhood without Banners (and the strange lack of Brienne and Pod in the season finale), we can only hope to see our favorite undead matriarch. In the books, Brienne and Pod run into Stoneheart, who threatens to hang them for treason until Brienne screams a (yet unknown) word. However, Michelle Fairley mentioned in an interview that Cat is dead for good.
Jóhannes Haukur, who played Lem Lemoncloak this season, appeased the fans with a snippet of him introducing Lady Stoneheart.
Fine! As promised here’s Lem’s great line from A Storm of Swords we didn’t get in the show. #GoT #Lemoncloak ??? pic.twitter.com/VAyRpzAstB
— Jóhannes Haukur (@johanneshaukur) June 13, 2016
Arianne Martell
Who: Dorne doesn’t follow the Westerosi principle of primogeniture, and as the oldest child of Doran Martell, Arianne is set to inherit the throne. She wants to avenge Oberyn Martell (killed by Gregor Clegane in season four) and Elia Martell (killed by Gregor Clegane pre-show and pre-books) by crowning Myrcella Baratheon as Queen of the Seven Kingdoms under Dornish law. She will be a POV character in The Winds of Winter.
Why We Want to See Her in the Show: Season 6 (finally!!!) saw the rise of badass women, and Arianne Martell is the very definition of a badass woman. She knows what she wants, and will do anything to get it. Plus, with the poor treatment of Dorne in the show, it would make sense to shed some light on Dornish customs without the exotifying lens we’ve been seeing since Oberyn and Ellaria appeared in season four.
Chances of Appearing: The now dead Trystane Martell was named heir to Dorne in the show, so it’s highly unlikely that Arianne will ever show up. Plus, her convoluted revenge plot involves Myrcella, who died in season five. It seems that the remaining scraps of her narrative were given to Ellaria Sand and the Sand Snakes.
Young Griff/“Aegon”
Who: Prince Aegon Targaryen, the son of Prince Rhaegar Targaryen and Elia Martell, died during the Sack of King’s Landing. But a young man with blue hair claims to be him. If he truly is a Targaryen, his claim to the Iron Throne may be stronger than Daenerys’s. But what if he’s faking it?
Why We Want to See Him in the Show: What’s one more live Targaryen to add to the pot? Besides, we’ve been having more and more flashbacks to the events that led to Robert’s Rebellion – Lyanna in the Tower of Joy, Aerys threatening to burn King’s Landing. The Young Griff storyline could help bring together loose threads from the past and the present without us having to rely too heavily on Bran’s warging-slash-time-travel thing.
Chances of Appearing: The Targaryen-Martell-Tyrell-Greyjoy forces seem more than ready to strike Westeros. Is there really any room for a blue-haired kid claiming he deserves the Iron Throne, especially since season seven will be a lot shorter?
And, lastly…Where is Gendry?
Who: Blacksmith apprentice, Arya’s (more-than?) friend, go-to bastard for all of Robert Baratheon’s illegitimate children (a storyline in the books, in which Ser Davos places bastard Edric Storm on a boat to Essos to save him from Melisandre, was given to Gendry), current lost and has been rowing to Essos since season three. If found, send the boy some closure.
Why We Want to See Him in the Show: We’ve seen a lot of the children from the earlier seasons grow up and fulfill their necessary roles. With genealogy being an important motif in Game of Thrones (hello, Battle of the Bastards), we’re pretty sure the curtain hasn’t closed for Robert Baratheon’s most famous true (if not trueborn) son.
Chances of Appearing: Fans were hoping he would meet Arya Stark in Essos, but that clearly did not happen, now that A Girl is Arya Stark of Winterfell. Perhaps we’ll somehow see him with the Brotherhood without Banners, with whom he stayed with in the books?
Photo from iDigital Times