It's finally here — the biggest episode in Game of Thrones' history. The Battle of Winterfell will last nearly an hour and a half and contain the longest battle sequence ever put on screen. It took 11 weeks of night shoots in grueling conditions and a crew of 750 people to make it. And it's going to be massive. It's going to be epic. And it's going to answer a lot of questions.
Here's what I'm predicting for Game of Thrones' biggest battle yet.
1. The episode is going to only follow a few characters closely.
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The Battle of Winterfell director Miguel Sapochnik told Entertainment Weekly: "The [Thrones battles] I've done previously were generally from Jon's perspective. Here I've got 20-some cast members and everyone would like it to be their scene. That's complicated because I find the best battle sequences are when you have a strong point of view. I keep thinking: 'Whose story am I telling right now?'"
While we don't know whose perspectives the battle will be told from, Sapochnik does appear to suggest he'll be limiting the scope of the episode. I personally suspect we'll be staying close to the newly-knighted Ser Brienne, Jon, Daenerys, Arya, and Bran based on some of the early footage.
2. The northerners are going to have a lot of tricks up their sleeves.
So far we've gotten glimpses of a dragonglass-studded trench around Winterfell, and Daenerys has mentioned that Ser Davos is going to throw a torch in it when the fighting begins, creating a literal firewall to protect the castle. We also see Grey Worm testing a booby-trapped bridge, suggesting that as a last defense the North is going to try to lure the dead near enough to send them tumbling into the fire.
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Knowing Game of Thrones, though, these will probably not be the only cool techniques we see deployed against the army of the dead. What else have the northerners thought up?
3. Daenerys' dragons might be too weak to be much help.
In the season eight premiere, Daenerys mentions that her dragons have been sick since getting to the North. Is this going to matter? Are they going to be much weaker than their reanimated brother? This could be bad news for Team Life.
4. Something particularly bad is going to happen to Rhaegal.
Some pretty concerning footage from the trailer shows a haggard-looking Jon Snow fighting on the ground, which is not exactly the preferred spot to be when you ran off at the end of the last episode presumably to go get Rhaegal. Does something happen to the dragon that prevents Jon from being able to ride him?
Another possibility: With the weirwood tree visible behind Jon in this still, it might be that he dismounted at some point to re-enforce Theon and Bron in the battle against the Night King.
5. Everyone outside of Winterfell's walls is in a lot of trouble.
During last Sunday's episode, Game of Thrones gave us a generous look at the war table for the Battle of Winterfell. The left flank, commanded by Ser Brienne, contains the Knights of the Vale as well as Jaime Lannister. The right flank holds the soldiers of Winterfell, potentially led by Jon Snow. A marker with the Mormont sigil on it stands in the Winterfell courtyard, representing Lyanna Mormont and her men, while the Godswood on the right will be holding Bran (protected by Theon and the Ironborn) as bait for the Night King.
Speaking of which:
Yeah, things don't look great! Especially for Daenerys' Dothraki, who are represented by those triangles at the front of the vanguard. It looks from the trailers like behind the Dothraki are fire-throwing trebuchets, and behind those are the ranks of the Unsullied:
All this is bad news for fans of Jorah Mormont. In the season eight teaser, Jorah is seen outside the Winterfell walls on horseback, indicating he is probably up in the front lines with the Dothraki calvary. I wouldn't want to take those odds.
6. The crypts are definitely not safe.
Everyone keeps claiming that the crypts are the safest place in Winterfell. Gonna go with a big nope because...
7. The Night King might raise the dead Stark ancestors to attack everyone.
It's unclear how long a person can be dead for and still be resurrected by the White Walkers; presumably they need to still have some flesh left holding them together, since we haven't seen any full skeletons staggering toward Winterfell. Still, it seems pretty foolish to stick all the vulnerable northerners in a room literally full of dead people when a magical necromancer is at your gates.
8. Ghost is going to be in the fight.
Ghost — a certified Very Good Boy — has made himself useful in battles before, having been unleashed on the wildlings during the Battle of Castle Black. We saw the direwolf in last week's episode, probably as a reminder that yes, he is still there, and so his appearance in the Battle of Winterfell won't feel totally out of the blue.
9. The fallen Winterfell troops will be turned into wights and start fighting against their brethren.
The Night King may have waited till the end of the battle of Hardhome to raise the dead, but you know the audience won't be spared from having to watch beloved characters die, come back to life, and then be killed again this time.
10. Bronn will make an appearance.
Last we saw, everyone's favorite sellsword had been tasked with traveling north to assassinate Tyrion and Jaime. Is he close? Could his timing possibly be that bad? Yes.
11. There is going to be a major scene after the battle.
An Entertainment Weekly article about the making of the Battle of Winterfell alludes to a "ridiculously sensitive scene" after the fighting has ended that would have "cause[d] an explosion in the entertainment universe" if it was seen from the air by, say, a helicopter with Game of Thrones-curious passengers on board. Presumably that means the scene involves something large in scale because if the spoiler was, say, that "Jon Snow turns into a wight," it would be hard to actually make that out from the air.
Which brings me to ...
12. Winterfell will burn to the ground.
An ominous teaser for Game of Thrones called "Aftermath" showed Winterfell abandoned, as if after battle, although HBO was careful to specify that it "[did] not contain show footage." Which leads me to wonder if Winterfell is, at some point, going to catch fire and burn to the ground.
My hunch comes from a brief glimpse of Arya in a teaser for the eighth season, where she can be seen wielding the dragonglass staff that Gendry made her. The background is smoky and red, as if she's fighting somewhere very near a raging fire:
Another shot gives us better perspective, showing that Arya is likely fighting on the Winterfell walls:
Separately, in a trailer for the third episode, there is a similar image of Jon in which the background is glowing slightly, as if ablaze. It doesn't look as if he is on the wall, indicating that perhaps the entire castle has gone up in flames.
Is it a dragon-related accident? The aftermath of a Viserion attack? Or a self-set, desperate hail Mary to repel the wights? Or is nothing on fire at all, and the light is just the glow of the flaming trenches?
13. The Night King is actually marching on King's Landing.
One pretty convincing theory that is going around is that the Night King isn't even going to be at the Battle of Winterfell. For one thing, none of the trailers have shown any footage of him. For another, we didn't see him with the other White Walkers at the end of the last episode. Showing the Night King on his ice dragon would have been a pretty juicy cliffhanger, so it's surprising he was MIA. Does it mean he isn't there at all?
The theory, which is explained at length over at Mashable, goes that the Night King might actually be marching on King's Landing, and the Battle of Winterfell is a distraction. Of course, that runs counter to Bran claiming that the Night King is coming for him, but Bran "could be lying, because he knows what needs to happen for the larger endgame," Mashable muses.
14. We will at last learn why the Lord of Light brought Beric back to life.
Beric has been brought back to life by the Lord of Light six different times, suggesting he has a major purpose to fulfill before he dies ... uh, for the last time. Is he going to put that gnarly flaming sword to use in a major way in the Battle of Winterfell?
A similar question goes for Jon Snow, although his purpose might be a little more obvious: To kill the Night King and/or to sit on the Iron Throne.
15. A lot of people are going to die. A lot.
In fact, maybe everyone? Last Sunday's episode sure felt like we were saying goodbye to a lot of beloved characters. I think Jorah, Brienne, Jaime, Grey Worm, Theon, and Arya are all on the chopping block, and I'm suddenly feeling a lot less secure about Sam surviving, too.
Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.
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