Opinion / What do we know about ‘Game of Thrones’ final season?
- HBO’s sprawling epic about dragons, monarchy and the gratuitous nudity they inspire, returns to our screens on April 14, writes Steve Johnson
In the end, the Night King will reign supreme over Westeros, and all the humans who tried to resist him will be converted into those proto-zombies known as White Walkers. Sad trombone.
Sorry, no, that’s wrong. When it is all over, when the epic battle of battles has been fought, Sansa Stark will be left occupying the Iron Throne, saddened over the loss of so many friends, family members and even worthy enemies but nonetheless determined to rule what remains of humankind with compassion and resolve, moderately triumphal bugle cry.
Or, wait: it’s the Clegane brothers, the Hound and the Mountain, once mortal enemies, who will emerge from the coming test of tactical mettle as survivors and co-sovereigns on this side of the Narrow Sea. Their champion at tournaments – and commercial sponsor – will, of course, be the Bud Knight, no trumpet notes necessary.
What I’m trying to say here is that (a) everything sounds better with a horn section and (b) almost anything could happen when Game of Thrones, HBO’s sprawling epic about dragons, monarchy and the gratuitous nudity they inspire, comes back to our screens on April 14 and then, five weeks and six episodes later, goes away again forever.
Put another way, I’m saying: spoiler not alert, at least regarding Season 8 (Seasons 1-7 are fair game). Like Jon Snow back in the early years of GoT, when he was but a handsome illegitimate lad on a frosty inter-tribal carnal lark, I know nothing.
And I can give away nothing in these coming paragraphs that will taint your viewing of the wrap-up of this eight-year sword opera splayed across an imaginary Middle Ages.
But like any decent GoT follower, I suspect things. I hope for things. I have to, as the Chicago Tribune writer who does the Game of Thrones recaps each Sunday night, staying up late to offer a crystalline distillation of what just happened on screen, or at least coherent sentences.
And I have followed the scant news that the Thrones team has allowed to dribble out of their kitchen like one-bite appetisers for a late-afternoon cocktail party. But I do not know.
