The much-hyped final season of Game of Thrones is less than a month away, folks, and the sum total of what we know so far about season eight amounts to less than what Jon Snow knows.
Since HBO and the cast is refusing to divulge anything about the upcoming season and how GoT ends, let’s dive into some fan theory territory with whatever outstanding loose ends we know of and guess what could be in store for fans.
And folks, here’s our bold prediction for Thrones‘ last season: we’ll finally get the long-awaited Cleganebowl.
Okay, bear with me as this will need some explaining but I promise it will be good.
In case you haven’t caught up or seen anything, there will likely be SPOILERS AHEAD.
What in Seven Hells is Cleganebowl anyway?
Cast your mind way back to season one of Thrones. Ned Stark still had a head, the Wall was still standing, and the grim reaper had yet to be a main character in the show.
During the jousting tournament held early on in the season, Littlefinger tells Sansa Stark (and us) about the history between Sandor “The Hound” Clegane and his older brother Gregor “The Mountain” Clegane. To put it simply, the Mountain gave the Hound his trademark facial burn when they were children and the two have no love for each other. If it weren’t for their respective duties to their lords, they would’ve killed each other years ago.
Since that tournament skirmish, both men have changed dramatically. The Hound bailed on King’s Landing, wandered the countryside with Arya, lost a fight to Brienne, went AWOL, tried to find redemption, and joined Jon Snow in the fight against the Night King and its army of the dead. As for the Mountain, he got poisoned, died, and got resurrected to be Cersei’s creepy undead bodyguard.
Now here’s where the Cleganebowl fan theory originated: recall back in season six (A Dance With Dragons for book readers) when Cersei was forced to stand trial for her crimes against that religious cult, the Faith. To get out of it, she plans on having a trial by combat with Zombie Mountain as her champ. Fans got excited about Cercei’s plan and started speculating that the Faith would get the Hound as their champion, thus resulting in a big Hound vs Mountain showdown on the scale of the Super Bowl (hence Cleganebowl).
Now this little plot-line has yet to be resolved in the books as George R.R. Martin is still writing them, but the show has seemingly poured cold water on this much-hyped theory when Cersei got out of her trial with the Faith by literally blowing everything and everyone up.
Seven Hells, Cersei, this is why we can’t have anything nice.
Soooo, what does this mean for Cleganebowl then?
The theory is still kind of in play in the books as the show has deviated considerably from the source material but the only person who really knows is Martin and he sure as hell isn’t going to tell us.
As for the show, there are signs Cleganebowl could still happen. It’ll just be in a different way than what fans theorised.
Recall in the season seven finale when the Clegane brothers had a big reunion at King’s Landing and the Hound dropped this big dollop of foreshadowing:
“What did they do to you? It doesn’t matter. It’s not how it ends for you, brother. You know who’s coming for you. You’ve always known.”
Now this isn’t a guarantee that Cleganebowl will happen but it would be disappointing for the show to not pull the trigger on this little Chekhov’s promise, not to mention how it would be a neat conclusion to the Hound’s character arc.
Having grown from a sadistic and thoughtless killer to a reformed man trying to find peace and redemption, it seems fitting to have the Hound confront the man who tormented him since birth.
There’s only a few weeks before Game of Thrones’ big April return so we won’t have long to find out whether Cleganebowl will happen.
For what it’s worth, I have a feeling it will happen and it’ll take place during the show’s much-touted “biggest battle in TV/film history” because that’ll be a spectacle befitting of a showdown between the Hound and the Mountain.