Game of Thrones season 8 might not address a Cersei plot point

Remember how Game of Thrones made a point of noting how much money Cersei and the crown owe the Iron Bank? Apparently, that might not come into play again.

The continent of Essos is more than just where Daenerys spent the bulk of the series. It’s also the home of Braavos, a city that has both the House of Black and White and the Iron Bank. Both places play major roles in individual characters’ storylines. For the House of Black and White, it’s Arya who spends the most time dealing with it all. The Iron Bank is a little less singular in terms of which characters interact with it, but it’s not wrong to call it a Lannister-connected institution.

Of course, there’s more than one living Lannister, but Cersei is the main link in Westeros as of late. However, Lena Headey apparently won’t share scenes with Mark Gatiss. Per an interview with ShortList, Gatiss doesn’t appear in season 8 at all. (There is potential for a season 5 of Sherlock, though, so hope lives in other respects.)

Watchers on the Wall, in its write-up, argues that this doesn’t mean the Iron Bank won’t affect season 8. That seems plausible, but with so much action shoved into the final season, and with Cersei mostly out of advisors, who can she bounce ideas off of when it comes to the Bank? We also know that there’s a lot of backstabbing in season 8, which yours truly discussed with Winter is Coming’s Dan Selcke on this week’s Take the Black Live, but defaulting on a loan isn’t really backstabbing so much as being bad with money.

Here’s a wild theory: Daenerys and Jon win the Iron Throne, only to receive a missive that they still owe the Iron Bank, since it’s the crown that borrowed all that money. That’s the kind of not-entirely-positive ending we almost expect from Game of Thrones at this point.