25 Game of Thrones theories fans need to know for season 8

Episode 67 (season 7, episode 7), debut 8/27/17: Rory McCann, Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson.

photo: Macall B. Polay/courtesy of HBO

Cleganebowl will finally happen

Many Game of Thrones fans have been waiting for “Cleganebowl” to take place for the past several seasons of the show. Cleganebowl refers to a battle between the two Clegane brothers, Sandor and Gregor—better known as the Hound and the Mountain.

During the first season of the show, we learn that Gregor is the one who burnt the side of Sandor’s face, all because his younger brother decided to play with one of his toys. This isn’t the last instance of Gregor’s cruelty, a cruelty that Sandor seems frequently disgusted by, even if he never says it outright.

And Gregor has only gotten worse after Maester Qyburn’s experiments on him. Though he never showed much in the way of human emotion, he now appears inhuman beneath his helmet. In fact, given that he was “beyond saving” when Qyburn began working on him, Gregor could be the walking dead—an entity much closer to the White Walkers than fans expect.

Fans believed that Sandor would need to fight this new version of Gregor during season 7, when Sandor accompanies Jon and Daenerys to the Red Keep. However, the two merely have an intense interaction, during which Sandor tells his brother, “This is not how it ends for you, brother. You know who’s coming for you. You’ve always known.”

Sandor’s words definitely ring as threatening, suggesting that the long-awaited battle might occur during the final season of the show instead. It’s the last chance for Sandor to confront his brother, and it makes sense that it could happen when Cersei is planning on going back on her promise to help Jon and Daenerys.