Ow, my neck. GoT Season Finale Preview

 

 

Someone get the Neosporin. 

After digesting last weekend's GoT insanity (with a story that curved like this Manu Ginobili pass),   I am ready to approach the season finale with lucidity.  Obviously, the impact of the Red Wedding will cut across the Westeros-based storylines (meaning all but Khaleesi).  In the episode trailer, we see Tyrion saying "the northerners will never forget".  He is right.  What will their memory comport in the short-term?  Probably not too much.  The Stark army seems to be rudderless and leaderless, and the remaining Stark children are scattered and unable to mount a challenge to the Lannisters at this point. 

With Roos Bolton and Walder Frey seemingly in the Lannister camp now (based on Bolton telling Robb that the Lannisters send their regards, as well as Tyrion's quote in the season finale trailer), and Sansa Stark wed to Tyrion, the Lannisters appear to be ready to try to tame the north, which Cersei Lannister advised Geoffrey was impossible in an earlier episode.  Winterfell is burned to the ground, and there is a clear power vacuum. 

Meanwhile in the capital, what will Sansa's reaction be to the death of her brother and mother?  She seems to have grown up more this season, so we can only hope that she takes revenge and kills Tyrion (as likeable as he is), as well as Tywin and of course the despicable Joffrey and Cersei.  This is not likely to happen for storyline reasons.  Hopefully she stabs at least one of them though. 

What of Little Finger?  As despicable as his betrayal of Ned was, he has always loved Catelyn Stark and who knows what his response will be to her murder at the hands of the Lannisters.  There is no longer anything out of bounds on this show; anyone can be killed at any time; ideas of honor and respect are long gone at this point.  Robb Stark tried to make amends honorably, and ended up watching his wife and unborn child stabbed to death and his mother pierced with arrows before meeting his end. 

Speaking of Robb, it is hard not to look back on his mistakes (and those of his mother) and not see that this was entirely preventable.  Had he been able to keep his dick in his pants, had he made the responsible choice, he would have been allied with Walder Frey, and the Red Wedding would not have occurred.  Further, had he not so pigheadedly killed Lord Carstark for murdering 2 Lannister teenagers, Robb's army would have had an additional 10,000 men, and he would not have needed to go to Walder Frey anyway.  As for his mother, had she not freed Jamie, the entire chain of events would have unfolded differently; the Lannisters would not have dared to kill Robb and Catelyn Stark with Jamie still in Stark control.  Sigh. 

As for Khaleesi, after her man servants and former-slave army conquered Yunkai, she seems to be in a good position.  As I predicted in my season preview, Khaleesi seems to be on her way up (well, I predicted she had a 50% chance of taking the iron throne, which clearly is not going to happen in this season, but that is neither here nor there).  I assume many of the slaves she freed will join her cause; between them, the Second Sons, the Unsullied, and the gold of Yunkis (and the dragons), it appears that her reign is inevitable.  We know that Joffrey is aware of her rise, but Tywin believes that she doesn't pose a big threat (in the season finale trailer, there was some teased dissent between Joffrey and Tywin, which could be about Khaleesi and her dragons).

To conclude, I have no idea what will happen, and I like it that way.  All I know for sure is that the show has taken a more sinister, more morally repugnant tone after the Red Wedding, and that there is no going back.