The big questions from the Game of Thrones finale

SPOILER ALERT: This story discusses the Game of Thrones season five finale. If you don’t want to know what happened, stop reading now.

1. IS JON REALLY GONE?
You have to admit, he looked pretty dead in that final shot, lying in an expanding pool of his own blood. But don’t despair yet. There’s reason to believe this isn’t the end for Jon.
Think all the way back to season three, when most of the Starks were still alive and we still approached this show with a skerrick of optimism. As part of Arya’s storyline, we were introduced to the characters Thoros and Beric. Thoros was a Red Priest, like Melisandre, and he demonstrated an ability to bring Beric back from the dead.
It’s curious that Melisandre returned to Castle Black just before Jon was murdered, particularly when the writers have previously gone out of their way to show a Red Priest resurrecting someone.
Along that line of thought, it should be noted that we spent a good chunk of time this season exploring Melisandre’s fascination with Jon. She asked about his virginity (awkward), tried to seduce him, and threw more than a few prolonged stares his way. Those scenes are bolstered by even more detail in the books. Why would Martin, Benioff and Weiss expend such time and energy on that sort of subtext if Jon were just going to die anyway?
Book readers have had years to come up with other, somewhat crazy Jon resurrection theories. Of course, it could be that we’re all in denial, and
Kit Harington isn’t fibbing when he says he’s gone for good. Much like Jon himself, we know nothing ... for sure.

2. IS STANNIS REALLY DEAD?
It’s hard to be fully convinced, since we never actually saw his noggin’ get lopped off. But director David Nutter and HBO writer Dan Weiss have both confirmed that yes, Stannis is indeed dead.
If you don’t trust their word, remember that Brienne — who swore to avenge the death of her king, Renly — is hardly one to back away from her word or duty.
What would be the point of leaving Stannis alive? He sacrificed his lovely daughter for nothing, half his army deserted, the rest of it was slaughtered by the Boltons, his wife hanged herself, and even Melisandre abandoned him in the end. Brienne did the guy a favour. Stannis’s storyline has been squared off very tidily.
Unless, at the penultimate millisecond, Brienne thought of a good use for the hapless sap ... to help her save Sansa, perhaps? That would make sense, particularly since she’d just abandoned her post to pursue him ... nah, we’re talking nonsense here.

3. DID SANSA AND THEON SURVIVE THEIR LEAP OF FAITH?
The former childhood friends, both victims of circumstance, held hands and jumped from a scarily great height off the battlements of Winterfell. You could interpret this in one of two ways: either they wanted to escape, or they wanted to die.
According to the books, Theon and his companion do survive the fall, albeit with a few bruises. In A Dance with Dragons, it’s a young woman called Jeyne Poole — not Sansa — who marries Ramsay and is subjected to his sadistic whims, and it is Jeyne who leaps off the battlements with Theon.
If the onscreen storyline mirrors the books, the pair will land in a deep pit of soft snow and will be free — at least for a while.

4. WHAT WILL HAPPEN TO THE NORTH NOW?
Stannis is dead, the Boltons still control Winterfell and now Alliser Thorne will presumably take charge of the Night’s Watch. None of that bodes well for Westeros’s long-suffering northerners, whose future is intertwined with that of the remaining Stark children.
At the moment, none of those kids are in a position to do anything of great consequence. Not even close. Sansa is on the run, Arya is training across the Narrow Sea, Bran is training to become a tree and Rickon has disappeared altogether.
The one wildcard here is Littlefinger, who told Cersei he would let Stannis and the Boltons fight each other before taking Winterfell from the survivor. The man lives to accumulate power, so expect him to keep his promise in season six.
The north will also have to deal with an influx of wildling refugees, potentially followed by an invasion of the undead. So there’s that. You’re better off living in Dorne, really.

5. WHAT WILL HAPPEN IN KING’S LANDING?
The unholy trio in King’s Landing — Cersei, Margaery and Loras — are yet to face trial for their crimes. Their fate will be determined by the Faith of the Seven, as the High Sparrow continues to promote his creepy, dogmatic new world order in the capital.
In the finale, however, we caught a glimpse of Cersei’s plan to strike back, as Qyburn introduced a newly appointed member of the Kingsguard. The pale, mute behemoth, who’s referred to as Ser Robert Strong in the books, is almost undoubtedly the reanimated corpse of Cersei’s pet brute, Gregor “The Mountain” Clegane. We can expect him to play an important role of some variety.
Another plot thread complicates matters for Cersei: the death of her daughter Myrcella, at the hands of the Sand Snakes. Will the crown take up arms against Dorne in pursuit of vengeance? Another war would certainly make things interesting.
Meanwhile, there’s a strong fan theory floating around that suggests Cersei will burn King’s Landing to the ground with wildfire, just like the Mad King, Aerys, intended to do. Cersei has made three separate, verbal threats about burning down cities and houses in the past three seasons, and right now she’s almost aggrieved enough to follow through.

6. WHY DID ARYA GO BLIND?
In the books, Arya’s blindness is simply part of her training as a Faceless Man, and it helps improve her other senses. There’s nothing particularly sinister about it, and it’s a temporary condition.
Arya’s lack of sight will probably end up serving a similar purpose in the show, but it’s also doubling as a punishment for the rogue murder of Meryn Trant, which she committed to satisfy her own vengeful desires instead of the Many-Faced God’s.
“It was a violation of the rules of the House of Black and White, and she pays for it,” writer Dan Weiss says .
That doesn’t mean Arya is permanently blind, but it does suggest she won’t regain her vision until she learns her lesson.

7. WHAT’S GOING ON IN ESSOS?
A caretaker government comprised of Tyrion, Grey Worm and Missandei, and backed up by the Unsullied, will continue the struggle to restore peace in socially turbulent Meereen.
Varys’s unexpected arrival is interesting — he’s fooling around in King’s Landing in the books — but his mastery of secrets and Tyrion’s political savvy could help stamp out any resistance from the Sons of the Harpy.
Somewhere to the north, Daenerys has left behind her moody, wounded dragon and been captured by a Dothraki khalasar, led by one of Khal Drogo’s former lieutenants, Jhaqo. He and Daenerys have a colourful history, and not in a good way.
Before Daenerys was captured, she dropped her ring on the ground. Was that to hide the fact that she remarried, or to leave a trail of breadcrumbs for someone to follow? Either way, she’d better hope Daario and Jorah find her fast.