Game of Thrones Season 8 Speculation

I’ve been thinking about this for a while and something struck me. This is in relation to those leaked set images that show Jon kneeling to Cersei Lannister. Most people are assuming that he does this because she kidnaps Sansa and he’s forced to travel south and bend the knee to make sure that Sansa is safe.

However, this assumption throws up some questions, for instance, how did Cersei manage to kidnap Sansa from Winterfell? Sansa is the Lady of Winterfell and currently Queen in the North and furthermore, her people respect and admire her. Add to that, Arya is back at Winterfell, before long Brienne will reach her as well. And even though Jon is travelling with Dany, we know just how much he prizes Sansa’s safety. So when she’s surrounded by so many people who are more than capable of keeping her safe, how will Cersei manage to kidnap her?

I think this is where Tyrion will come into play. We’ve seen him get pushed to the sidelines by Dany now that she’s agreed to help Jon and his cause. We’ve also seen him look less-than-pleased by the turn of events (boatbang) Holding the camera on his expression was a deliberate choice and it lasts too long to not have some significance. Once their convoy reaches Winterfell, we will see Tyrion’s dissatisfaction grow even more. Most GA like Tyrion and ShowTyrion is way more likeable than BookTyrion (for the sake of clarity I will be only be talking about ShowTyrion in this post) Prior to joining Dany, Tyrion had hit rock bottom, he had just killed his father and Shae and was a fugitive on the run.

Tyrion also has a few very key weak spots. One is that he’s scared of being expendable and not being of any consequence, and he likes having power. Now, he’s not power-mad like Cersei and a certain other queen who loves titles, but he does have a taste for it. And despite being unwanted by his father, he’s grown up with power at his disposal. He won’t like that he’s been set aside in favour of someone else, someone he never imagined would come to have so much influence over Dany. And he resents that loss of power.

Tyrion also has a soft-spot for his family and unlike Cersei, he gets blind-sided by it. Cersei hates Tyrion and she embraces it, she makes no bones about it. But it’s not so clear cut for Tyrion. He may have hated Joffrey but he felt genuine affection for Tommen and Myrcella. And now that Cersei is pregnant again, she plays into his weak-spot. We don’t see how their conversation concludes and it was too important to have been just cut-off like that. If we didn’t see it conclude then we can safely assume that it will have some influence on future events.

So, resenting his loss of station and whatever it is that he and Cersei decided will lead him to kidnap Sansa. Also keep in mind, Sansa trusts him, she thinks that he won’t hurt her. But like her, he too has changed and is no longer as noble as he’d like to think. He is the only person I think who could kidnap Sansa and get her out of Winterfell.

Now, onto Jon bending the knee to Cersei in King’s Landing. That too looks like a misdirect. Sansa tells Jon time and again that Jon must make smarter choices. Their father’s honour will not help them in the wars to come and I think we can safely assume that Jon is following that advice (Political!Jon) The other thing she tries to stress is just how dangerous Cersei is and that they can’t afford to underestimate her. I think Jon believes her. When he realises that Sansa has been taken, his first impulse will be to ride south. But that’s precisely what he did when he saw Rickon on the battlefield (Battle of the Bastards) and almost died and lost his entire army. Sansa had told him then as well that they won’t get Rickon back, he ignored her and nearly died. He won’t make that same mistake again.

This is where Brienne and Jaime come in. Jaime has been trying to live a more honourable existence and season 7 finally saw breaking away from the toxic relationship he shares with Cersei. Brienne is sworn to protect Sansa and Jamie will not let her go into King’s Landing alone, considering that he knows that place far better than she does. I think the Hound will play some part in this as well, and this is how he will finally face his brother and kill him once and for all. I have a feeling that Arya will have to stay at Winterfell, they can’t have almost all the Starks so deep in enemy territory.

So while, Jon makes sure that all of Cersei’s attention is focused on him, Jaime, Brienne and the Hound will infiltrate King’s Landing and rescue Sansa.

Realising that Sansa has been taken could also be how Jon finally faces his feelings for her, accepts them for what they are and will act on them when he gets her back.