We only have four episodes left before Game of Thrones is officially over, and I'm sure I'm not the only one wondering how all the loose ends are going to be tied up. One thing we'll have for sure, however, is the "largest, longest battle sequence in TV history" on Sunday's episode.
See if you can spot the clues in the teaser for episode three:Now, the episode's director, Miguel Sapochnik, has opened up about the filming of the epic battle sequence. "This is survival horror," he said in his interview with Entertainment Weekly, revealing that he had been working on the Battle of Winterfell since the summer of 2017.
"I’m shooting for seven and a half months, which is like 130 days, which is longer than most of the big movies that get made," Sapochnik told the publication. "So in terms of the amount of work, it’s been six- and seven-day weeks, 16-to-18-hour days, and, yeah, it’s a lot."
His main concern, however, was to avoid viewers getting what he referred to as "battle fatigue".
"After 20 minutes of watching a battle, you’re over it,” Sapochnik asserted. "So how do you stop it from being a battle in that sense? It feels like the only way to really approach it properly is take every sequence and ask yourself: 'why would I care to keep watching?' One thing I found is the less action—the less fighting—you can have in a sequence, the better."
In other news, it may just transpire that our Game of Thrones heroes won't be facing the ultimate villain in this weekend's episode - at least according to a popular fan theory.
As people were quick to point out, the Night King and Viserion were noticeably absent from the shot of the White Walker army approaching Winterfell. And accordingly, people began to speculate that they may be heading down to King's Landing instead to wrest the Iron Throne from Cersei Lannister and her cronies.
"When the night king shows up to kings landing with the dragon and takes out Cersei while his army take out the north," wrote one Twitter user, while another added "The living win The Battle of Winterfell. Night King isn't there. Why, you ask? He took Viserion south to torch Kings Landing. Bronn sees him on his way north and tells everyone. Fulfilling Brans vision of dragon shadow over KL/destroyed throne room and Danys HOU visions."
Here's how Sophie Turner's reacted to her little sister's Game of Thrones sex scene:"What if the Night King doesn’t even show up to the battle at Winterfell? What if he’s on his way to Kings Landing as we speak to get started on turning them into Wights?! He should make me his hand," wrote a third.
If this theory is to be believed, it means that Bran's plan will prove futile.
To recap, when Winterfell's leaders were discussing the battle during Sunday's episode, Jon Snow said their best chance at victory was to defeat the Night King to wipe out the entire army. While Jaime counteracted this by saying the leader of the dead wouldn't risk exposing himself in battle, Bran interrupted, saying he was willing to be used as a pawn to lure him out.
"He'll come for me," he asserted. "He's tried before, many times with many Three-Eyed Ravens."
His plan is to sit in the Godswood and wait for the Night King to come for him, with Theon standing guard with the Ironborn soldiers.
But obviously, if Twitter has got it right, using Bran in this manner will all be in vain, as well as Jon's hope of ending the battle as quickly as possible.