Game of Thrones season 8 spoilers: Narrowing things down a bit
If this fan’s theory is correct, we have a few guesses as to where specifically Game of Thrones season 8 will show off what we know to be a huge setpiece.
Note: Game of Thrones spoilers are below, as well as discussion of big plot spoilers for season 8.
Game of Thrones, as you may already know, will be returning to King’s Landing in season 8. In fact, we already know at least one of the reasons the show will visit the seat of the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros: to see it burn down, possibly done by dragons.
Now, our sister site, Winter is Coming, has fresh photos of the set slated for burning, thanks to a fan on Twitter going by the handle of A Red Priestess.
Most interesting of all, since the photos themselves basically show that construction is continuing, is their proposed layout for the set:
I have some pictures for you!
— A Red Priestess (@a_red_priestess) January 3, 2018
Pic 1 taken from a plane. The quality is low because of the window and distance.
Pic 2 shows battlements on the sides of the archway.
Pic 3 taken from the Titanic Museum.
Pic 4. In my opinion, this is the general layout of the set.#GameofThrones pic.twitter.com/gOAhpfDIaW
The tower in question is set a bit further back than we might expect, but its presence still suggests that we’re seeing an entrance to somewhere — either the city itself or perhaps even the Red Keep, as I’ve posited before.
As for the city, King’s Landing canonically (at least in the books) has seven gates or entry points. If this burning is just the introductory part of this sequence, then it’s possible that we could follow a path of destruction through the city and all the way to the Keep. (Hey, the show’s not premiering season 8 until 2019. There’s time to do all these visual effects.)
Looking at the above-linked article, which shows a map, there are a couple different gates that seem likely: the Gate of the Gods, which offers the straightest shot to the Red Keep; the Dragon Gate, which comes from the north (and would make the Dragonpit and, perhaps, Flea Bottom likely to appear); or even the Lion Gate, which would be an impressive metaphor considering who currently sits on the Iron Throne, although it’d be a bit more boring in terms of what it covers (it’s closer to the ruins of the Great Sept of Baelor).
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Ultimately, this could also be one of the gates into the Red Keep — but it doesn’t seem quite as large and impressive as it could be if that were the case.
What do you think, Game of Thrones fans?