Cersei will have one more chance to avert her inevitable death. A meeting with Jon Snow, revealed by Game of Thrones costumer Michele Clapton to Uproxx, will offer her a chance to save her skin. But she won’t take it.
Cersei is doomed. By hook and by crook, she has clung to power, killing and conniving her way to the Iron Throne, but we all know it won’t last. Not only does prophecy stand against her — a witch predicted the death of her children and that she’d lose the throne to a younger queen — but audience expectation. Just like her son Joffrey, her comeuppance is eagerly awaited by millions. She will not and cannot defeat the forces arrayed against her — Jon Snow, Daenerys, the Sand Snakes and Arya, the faceless assassin. Or maybe it’s her own brother Jaime, king killer and soulmate, who will deliver the killing blow. Even if she survives the seven episodes of Season 7, we all know it won’t be her on the Iron Throne at the end.
In Season 7, Jon Snow will journey south for the first time. Free of his oath to the Night’s Watch, but determined to fight back the threat beyond the Wall, Snow will treat with whatever powerful ear will listen. Clapton revealed, through Snow’s sartorial choices, two of those meetings and how Snow will approach them. The first we’ve known about and suspected for a long while. And while it’s only implied in the Season 7 trailer, Clapton confirms that Snow will be meeting with Daenerys.
“We had a lot of discussions about, does the cape give him presence, or is it better to not have that presence?” Clapton said. “There are times when we removed it because we wanted him to be more vulnerable. Especially, I think, when he saw Dany and he went to see her for the first time in her chamber. We decided to remove it.”
While Jon feels comfortable enough to decloak for Dany, he’ll be approaching Cersei in full regalia. “When he went to see Cersei, we put it on.”
There are many shared assumptions about what’s going to unfurl when Game of Thrones Season 7 premieres July 16 on HBO. Everyone “knows,” for example, that Jon Snow will team up with Daenerys. This partially thanks to extrapolations from Game of Thrones trailers and TV spots, partially from set leaks and partially from a sense of narrative inevitability. Daenerys and Jon are, despite the grounded, “realistic” GoT vibe, our two hero characters. It’s only with their combined powers that the White Walkers and the long winter they bring could possibly be defeated. And if they weren’t to meet up, it would spoil all those nice “three heads of the dragon” fan theories.
It’s intriguing new plot lines like a Cersei and Snow face-to-face that suggest Game of Thrones still has a few twists before fulfilling our overwhelming sense that Daenerys and Jon Snow will beat back the White Walkers and take the Iron Throne. Could Jon Snow try to play both sides for resources and aide against the White Walkers while Cersei and Daenerys war for the crownlands, King’s Landing and the Iron Throne? Or will Cersei refuse Snow outright?
We don’t know how Jon Snow’s meeting with Queen Cersei will go, but we probably have a good idea of the outcome. Offered an olive branch, Cersei will always choose to keep her dagger in hand. It won’t end well for her.
- Fully realized, intricate world
- Compelling characters
- Plot twists you won't see coming
- Lots of ground to cover if you're new to the series
- Don't get too attached to anyone
- Two words: Sand Snakes
