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Do we know the in-show reason for Lucas' exit yet? It seems to be coming at a bit of a strange time since he has had the Bonnie / Baby Bonnie story for the past month and his relationship with Chloe is still going. The only thing that would really makes sense would be if the whole Baby Bonnie thing made him realise he didn't want to be so far away from Allie anymore so he goes to live where she is, or takes her on an around-the-world trip etc. so they can spend an extended period of time together. It better not be something lame like he just decides to go back and live in Hong Kong out of the blue.

The coat is amazing!! It was awesome in s7 but this is next level fabulous. Sansa being displeased about Jon's "fancy Targaryen girlfriend" is funny, although not unexpected. Poor Jon, 4 years of celibacy and now he can't even date his aunt without it turning into a whole family squabble lol.

I think Howland Reed is pretty pointless to the story now that Bran has essentially taken over his role as 'person who knows Jon is really Rhaegar and Lyanna's kid'. Especially since the s7 scripts made it clear Meera isn't coming back.

Also, if KL has 500k people living there, J/D might feel like the only chance they have is to go to KL before the NK does. Given J/D will presumably find out Cersei betrayed them and likely has no strategy for dealing with the NK, they cannot risk the NK growing his army by 500k while they hide out somewhere else. If the NK gets all of KL as his wights then J/D would surely have zero chance of defeating him.

I agree. I think D&D and GRRM are both flawed in different ways. GRRM introduces way too many characters and is too lazy to finish the series, probably partly because he let it grow out of control and can't work out how to actually get the characters to their endgame (D&D's solution to blow everyone up in the sept was a good one!). D&D have a tendency to rush thins and favour plot over charcters. The WInterfell plot in s7 was absolutely terrible, and the annoying thing is D&D had all the pieces there to make it so much better but IMO went about things in the stupidest way possible. They set things up pretty well in the first 2 episodes, showing that Jon and Sansa had completely different ideas about ruling and that Jon had no desire to take suggestions from Sansa. But it was ruined with that ludicrous letter plot with Arya, Sansa and LF (which Sansa should not have been worried about if she was actually a master player- a quick meting with the Lords where she sobs and talks about how she was trying to save Ned and Joffrey/Cersei tortured her etc. would have gotten her sympathy in 2 seconds flat), Arya being an incompetent spy and their unwillingness to have Sansa be overtly conflicted about LF's idea for her to be Queen. Arya should have used one of her faces to follow LF without his knowledge, and she should have observed him badmouthing Jon and trying to gain support with the Vale and Glover etc. for Sansa to overthrow Jon. I think they should have also been way more overt and shown Sansa be truly tempted to go along wth LF's plan to get the Lords to name her Queen. LF should have also done a bit more to try and convince Sansa by talking about how Jon doesn't listen to her and how Cat would be horrified that he was stealing Sansa's birthright etc., and they should have had Sansa examine her childhood prejudices about Jon being "less than" because he was a bastard. The Arya/Sansa confrontation was also pretty stupid and they tried to go for a weird horror movie vibe. Plus, after all the jabbering between them Sansa never answered any of Arya's questions so it was pointless. I also hated the "gotcha" fake out with LF's death scene and would have much preferred that we actually see Sansa and Arya come together, bond a little bit, and decide they need to kill LF for their family etc.

I definitely feel like with Jon specifically there is a big element of people who wrong him eventually getting karmic payback. Thorne hassles him for years and Jon ultimately gets to kill him (with the added secret bonus that Thorne is a big Targ lover and has inadvertently been bullying the Targ heir all these years). Cat refuses to treat Jon as part of the family and gets murdered after watching her son be killed. Sansa always looked down on Jon for being a bastard and she ends up pretending to be a bastard in the Vale. That Wildling warg is a dick to Jon and Jon sleeps with this guy’s crush and kills him. I think the whole karma thing is pretty common with the main hero though. Like, usually all the hero’s foes are either killed or humbled.

March????? OMG I cannot handle another 5 months of people debating whether Friki's info is correct, without even a trailer to give us something new to focus on!

That doesn't seem likely to me because, as has been discussed above, I can't imagine we are going to get a time jump of say 50 years where we see Sansa die of old age and get a statue, or like Kit and Emilia in geriatric makeup hobbling around with canes as J/D sit with their grandkids etc. And I would have thought there would be heaps of matters in the months after the war ends much more pressing than building statues in people's honour, such as rebuilding Winterfell and presumably Kings Landing etc. Plus, Sansa is unlikely to actually be fighting in the battle so I can't see why anyone would be calling for a statue of her. Unless she is going to claim that she defeated the Night King by writing another letter, and demand that people get down on their knees and thank her with a statue lol. A crypt statue seems to make the most sense based on the extremely limited information we have, but I must admit I never really got a "Sansa dies" vibe from any of Sophie's other interviews. After the Sansa/Arya convo from last season where they discuss Ned's statue not looking anything like him, perhaps Sansa thinks it's a sensible investment to get a statue made now so she can have control over how she is rendered lol?

Haha maybe Robin makes a life size statue of Sansa in an attempt to woo her?

If Sansa is supposed to end up with Robin, I wonder if they will continue to portray him as a joke or if his puberty glow up will include a more pleasing personality lol? Maybe poor Bran will be able to magically cease being a tree when the NK and his army are defeated, and can resume the role as Lord of Winterfell? Or perhaps he will be Winterfells fir Tree Lord ;p? He proved extremely capable back in the early seasons when he was a tiny kiddo.

Can I just say how stupid it is that every time Sami comes to town she leaves her kids behind. I can understand the show not wanting to cast 3 kids, but at the very least Ali should be in town visiting Lucas. Poor Ali must be so confused as to why her mother keeps going to Salem but Ali herself is never allowed to visit her own father!

The spoilers about Jaimie dying seem pretty solid, so I think most people are assuming he bites it and thus won't have anymore kids. I guess Brienne could get pregnant if she and Jaime hook up prior to his death, although I wouldn't be shocked if we only get a dying-in-the -arms kiss between them.

Perhaps Ghost and Nymeria will give us direwolf restoration lol.

Bran: Your sperm also looked beautiful as it fertilised the egg of your aunt Daenerys, ensuring Targaryen restoration.

If they are going to have Bran continue to be a robot, then they at least better use it for maximum drama by having him drop Jon's parentage bomb in the most awkward, painful and public way possible lol. Like: [Jon, Dany and their arrive at Winterfell and a crowd gather to greet them] Jon: I would like to introduce Dan... Bran (interrupts): That is Daenerys Targaryen, your aunt and lover Everyone: ...???... Or: [Jon, Dany and the Starks are gathered in the great hall for a meeting with the idiot Northern Lords] Glover: Daenerys Targaryen is an evil foreign whore who can't be trusted. Her brother kidnapped and raped Lyanna Stark and we can't abide rape, unless Ramsey is raping Sansa Stark. When a Northern Bastard Lord is raping a Stark daughter we totally let that slide. Bran: Lyanna wasn't raped, she and Rhaegar were in love and ran away together. Jon is their secret baby and heir to the throne, bow to your new king. Everyone:...???...

Yeah, turning Bran into a robot was very weird. As you said, the old 3ER had been isolated in a tree for 1000 years and he seemed able to have normal interactions with people and was able to feel empathy (i.e. "you won't end up an old man in a tree"). It seems like the only reason they turned Bran into a robot was as an excuse to have Sansa be Lady of Winterfell instead of Bran resuming the title of Lord of Winterfell. I hope they let poor Bran go back to being a person next season, I won't even complain if they just retcon his s7 robot persona and pretend he's been the same old Bran all along.

Yeah, if Jon does ride a dragon I could see it being a spur of the moment thing that happens because Dany is in trouble. This is probably the easiest way for them to hand wave dragons needing to bond with someone before accepting a rider, because I doubt there is going to be time next season for Jon and Rhaegal to be shown extensively bonding. One assumes Rhaegal would be willing to just go with it to save his family.

Also, I’d guess the chances of a DJ child marrying a child of Sansa, Arya or Bran would be pretty high, thus tying the Starks and Targs even closer together.

Last season at the dragon pit Jon was practically giddy at the throught of impregnating Dany. I think it speaks for his thoughts on fatherhood when his idea of flirting is to tell his crush she’s not barren and imply he’d be happy to put a baby in her if she’s willing lol. Unless Jon suddenly turns into a cowardly deadbeat in s8, I don’t see anything other than death preventing him from raising his kid.

Does that mean DJ reject the throne by leaving Westeros, or they reject the throne itself but are still basically ruling Westeros?

Aren't there a dedicated group of Targ loyalists, hence why Robert was also so paranoid about Targs and wanted to take them all out? Also, the main reason he was accepted as King was because he played up his Targ heritage. Hell, Thorne hated Jon because Thorne was a Targ lover and he resented Ned's role in the Rebellion, which is of course the ultimate irony because he made life hell for the secret Targ heir. There are plenty of people in Westeros who might not care for Targs because of Aery's legacy, but there are also plenty of people who would be supportive if Targs with no mental health issues (i.e. Jon and Dany) wanted to reclaim the throne. Not long ago we saw that the leaders of the Reach, Iron Islands and Dorne were supportive of a Targ queen. The North is the only place that seems to be 100% anti Targ, because of the Aerys/Stark thing and the incorrect "Rhaegar kidnapped and raped Lyanna" story. But the North is pretty much irrelevant in respect of the IT because they purposely stayed away from Southern politics in the past. Even if Dany and Jon, or their child, were insane megalomaniac terrorists with a penchant for torture, the past season of GoT seems to suggest it wouldn't prevent the Lords from accepting them as leaders. Joffrey was a sadistic creep and no one was trying to rise up and get him off the throne. Olenna only killed him to ensure Marg's personal safety. Cersei blew up the sept and killed hundreds of lords and ladies and no one was prepared to try and overthrow her. Ramsey tortured and raped his way across the North and Northern lords did nothing, then told the Starks to go fuck themselves when they asked for assistance to try and stop Ramsey's reign of terror.

Great, one person who will probably turn out to be a random nobody lol! I would be much more impressed if Friki would explain: the exact details of Tyrion's alleged betrayal; and where Jon and Dany are (i.e. dead, dealing with the birth of baby Tag, have absconded to somewhere warm with a stash of cash etc.)

Maybe the super shocking twist is Dany and Jon ruling together lol? Obviously this is a pretty popular fandom theory but so far the show has not raised the possibility of two people ruling jointly from the current crop of heroes. Perhaps we are supposed to be surprised beyond belief when Sansa comes up with the shocking and novel idea for D/J to marry, unite their claims and rule jointly lol?

Lol apparently Friki is going to drop more info this weekend according to Freefolk.

If HBO was going so far as to use fake extras and leave lights on to try and fool people, wouldn't it have been easier just to film the whole trial/death thing in their normal studio to ensure secrecy? I guess if D&D were attached to the dragon pit maybe not, although could they use VFX magic to shoot scenes inside and "photoshop" them to the dragon pit? Maybe the whole Seville thing was a fakeout and none of the scenes were real lol. The most convincing reason I have seen for the alleged Tyrion betrayal is the "rule of three" theory, which people have been bringing up since Friki's leaks. Tyrion previously being tried for two crimes he was innocent of, and then having a third trial for crimes he is actually guilty of does seem kind of GoT-ish. This could be a possibility. For Bran's sake, I would be cool with him losing his 3ER emotionless zombie persona and reverting back to his usual self. The poor kid didn't want to be stuck in a tree for life and living out the rest of his days in that zombie state seems just as bad. Plus, Bran was pretty damn good as Lord of Winterfell back when he was a tiny kiddo in the early seasons.