What is Melisandre up to, and how will she meet Arya again?
The last we saw of Melisandre, she was headed off to Volantis back to the Red Priestess HQ for unspecified reasons, banned from the North by Jon Snow (with vehement backing by Davos Seaworth) for the murder of Shireen Baratheon. But she says she will return to Westeros—and we know that, when she does, she will meet Arya Stark.
After all, Melisandre herself promised that they would meet again all the way back in season 3, when the two met after the Red Priestess tracked down the Brotherhood Without Banners to get her hands on King Robert Baratheon’s bastard son Gendry for sacrificial lamb purposes. In stealing away Arya’s second favorite bastard (admittedly, Jon isn’t technically a bastard, but she doesn’t know that yet), Melisandre made it on her kill list. Considering Melisandre also mentions in that last meeting with Varys “I will return […] one last time” in order to “die in this strange country,” adding up 1 + 1 suggests that Melisandre will return to Westeros, see Arya again, and the young Stark might very well be the one to kill her. But where will they meet? And under what circumstances? This is one prophecy I anxiously await seeing fulfilled.
Where did Bronn go?
Bronn likes to pretend that he’s still the same uncaring, ego-centric sellsword he was when we first met him back in season 1, but we all know better. He went well above the call of duty in the Battle of the Goldroad, throwing himself into the line of fire, quite literally, to save Jaime Lannister from himself after the knight charges straight for Daenerys and Drogon—hardly the actions of a man only looking to save his own skin. But thus far Bronn’s plotline has featured a series of quests in service of the Lannister brothers, whether that be his brief tenure as commander of the City Watch during Tyrion’s stint as Joffrey’s Hand of the King or his Dornish rescue mission with Jaime. But by the end of season 7, there’s no clear mission ahead for our favorite sellsword, who hasn’t been since the Dragonspit summit disbanded, and Bronn hasn’t featured in any of the promotional images or footage released for season 8. He’s too beloved a character to just disappear into the ether like Salladhor Saan, but as far as what his season 8 path will be, right now it seems like anybody’s guess.
If Jon is a Targaryen, why does he burn?
Not to sound like Karen from Mean Girls, but it’s a pretty important question. After all, Daenerys lives by the motto that fire cannot kill a dragon, but Jon’s flesh sure did sizzle pretty loudly when he grabbed that burning-hot lantern to kill a wight back in season 1. Fingers crossed Dany doesn’t welcome her lover-cousin into the family with her favorite power move, or the prospective Prince-who-was-Promised might be reduced to some bones-that-are-charred. And on that note:
Who is the prince(ss) who was promised? Azor Ahai? Are they the same person?
Admittedly, this is three questions, not one, but they are too tightly interwoven to separate. For those who need a refresher, Azor Ahai was a legendary hero and “chosen one” of a bygone age. A warrior and presumably a smith, he worked ceaselessly for thirty days and thirty nights to forge a sword to defeat the “darkness,” only for the blade to break when he tried to temper it in water. The second time, he worked instead for fifty days and nights and drove the sword into the heart of a lion to temper it, but it still shattered (where he managed to find a lion is unspecified). The third time, he worked for a hundred days and nights, and then stabbed the sword into the heart of his wife, Nissa Nissa, creating Lightbringer, “a sword of living fire.” According to an ancient prophecy from Asshai, Azor Ahai will be reborn to face another great darkness following a long summer (check), wielding Lightbringer once more.
Melisandre uses “the prince who was promised” and “Azor Ahai” interchangeably, but in the books, others speak of the “prince who was promised,” who would be “born amidst salt and smoke, beneath a bleeding star,” without mention of any details from the Azor Ahai prophecy, which suggests at the very least the possibility that the two might prove to be different people. Regardless of the prophecy in question, Daenerys Targaryen and Jon Snow are the frontrunners. Maybe they get one each? Time will tell.
