(Spoilers, and potential spoilers, below.)
At this rate, every Game of Thrones character will be dead by Episode 8. In the first half of this season, we’ve lost over a dozen reasonably important characters, as the showrunners prune George R.R. Martin’s overstuffed plots and cut a swelling budget. For the last two weeks, I’ve said that this will be the episode where major(-ish) characters stop dying, and I have been incredibly wrong. So I will offer no such prediction this time. Characters you love will die, because that is what Game of Thrones is now: A show where beloved characters die every week.
But before we predict who will die next, we must remember the fallen.
Last week’s casualties, in order of how good they were as characters: Summer, Hodor, The Three-Eyed Raven, unnamed Children of the Forest, Leaf, who sucked.
Who will die next, in order of how likely it is that they will die:
1. Lyanna Stark: This is the week of the Tower of Joy.
2. Lady Crane: I’d like to see Essie Davis stick around, so this would be a bummer if it happens. But the Faceless Men have more or less told Arya that she can either kill Crane or be killed herself, which makes this one seem like a no-brainer. Though I could also see Bianca being given to the Many-Faced God.
3. Loras Tyrell: My man was in rough shape the last time out. Yes, killing him would mean that Margaery would be less likely to sacrifice herself and do the whole walk of shame bit, but I could see Benioff and Weiss going all O. Henry with this one.
4. Walder Frey: Walder’s getting his in the next two, maybe three episodes. It’s just a question of who does it. With Brienne heading to the Riverlands, the Blackfish seems like a very good possibility.
5. Lancel Lannister: So help me god, if this twerp doesn’t die soon, I’m going to lose it.