Warning: The mother of all “Game of Thrones” spoilers may or may not follow.
The much-promised cold snap is arriving on “Game of Thrones” in its upcoming seventh season, and there’s a mounting pile of speculation on how the series will itself be put on ice.
It’s been announced that Season 8 will be the last for the epic HBO series, one of the greatest dramas ever to grace the screen and the world’s biggest supporter of the medieval-costume industry.
Speculation swirls around Nan, the oldest servant in House Stark. She has only appeared in four episodes of the series, but she may turn out to be the linchpin of the entire show.
In the “Game of Thrones” books, Nan tells stories about life beyond the wall. Many stories. To her young charge, Bran, irritating stories. But one story appears to be prophetic: She related the tale of the “Rat Cook,” who killed the son of a visiting king, then served the monarch his boy in a pie.
Which is almost exactly what one character did to another last season as revenge for the bloody Red Wedding.
So is Nan a psychic presence? The books seem to hint as much. To the young, paralyzed, complaining Bran, she says, “My stories? No, my little lord, not mine. The stories are before me and after me, before you too.”
Whaaaat?!
One story Nan tells involves Bran the Builder, a man from long ago who “raised Winterfell, and some said the wall.” Some fans theorize that the current Bran (the little ingrate Nan is nursing) will travel back in time at the end of the show and build the wall. They point to a flashback scene in the last season’s DVD extras, where Bran the Builder is being wheeled around and seems to be paralyzed, just like Nan’s Bran.
So have Nan and Bran spilled the plan? The answer is coming.
