After a year-and-a-half long hiatus, ‘Game of Thrones’ makes its long-awaited return to HBO this Sunday for its final season. The TV powerhouse’s showrunners, David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, partnered with Netflix to create a 50-song playlist to go along with the show’s final season. Benioff and Weiss went so far as to say, “The answer to the ending of the show is one hundred percent hidden in the playlist choices. No one will believe us, but it’s true.”
That quote could mean any number of things. With a show this big, I doubt they would give away the answer in any obvious way, so that tells me it’s probably some random line in one of these songs that contains the answer. Since I don’t have the time to sit and analyze every lyric to a 50-song playlist, I’m going to look at the title of every song, assign it to a character (or multiple characters, since some songs have pretty broad titles) and see who comes out on top.
The Rules: I took 15 characters that are still standing on the show and assigned the appropriate songs to them. The more songs that can apply to them, the higher up on the list they go. Songs that apply to everyone (pretty much just the ones about war) count for half a song. Let’s do this thing.
15. Beric Dondarrion
Lord Beric, aka “The Guy with the Eyepatch and the Flaming Sword Who Keeps Getting Resurrected,” is not at all likely to end up on the Iron Throne. The song on the playlist that made him come to mind is “Let Me Live / Let Me Die” by Des Rocs, since he’s one of the few characters on the show to do both.
14 & 13. Tormund Giantsbane & Davos Seaworth
Davos and Tormund are both fan favorites and allies of Jon Snow. The song that reminded me of them was “War Pigs” by Black Sabbath, since they’re both military figures in the show that, in all likelihood, won’t end up as king of Westeros.
12. Missandei
Missandei is Daenerys Targaryen’s translator and personal assistant of sorts. I have no idea what “Flugufrelsarinn” (song by Sigur Ros) means, but she could probably tell me.
11. Theon Greyjoy
Theon (AKA The Dickless Wonder), has four songs about him on the playlist, including “Wave of Mutilation” by Pixies (Ramsay Bolton mutilated the hell out of him, even though it was more constant rather than in waves).
10. The Hound
Sandor Clegane (AKA The Hound) is one of the most physically intimidating characters in the show. He has four songs on the playlist, including “Fire” by Barns Courtney (The Hound is deathly afraid of fire ever since his brother Gregor “The Mountain” Clegane put his face in a fire when they were children).
9. Tyrion Lannister
Tyrion, the silver-tongued Imp and the outcast of the Lannister family, has six songs on the list, including “Gold Lion” by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs (the lion is the symbol of House Lannister).
8. Jaime Lannister
Jaime is the leader of the Kingsguard (and an incestuous lover of his sister Cersei). He has seven songs on the playlist, including “Love is Blindness” by U2 (in the show’s first episode, he says “The things I do for love” before he pushes Bran out a window). Speaking of Bran…
7. Bran Stark
Bran has changed drastically throughout the course of the show, and he’s now taken the mantle of the Three-Eyed Raven. He has 11 songs on the playlist, including “Wolf Like Me” by TV On The Radio (the wolf is the symbol of House Stark).
6. Sansa Stark
Sansa, one of the most polarizing figures in the show*, has 12 songs on the playlist by my count, including “Sister” by Prince. She’s the most politically competent of the Stark children, and it wouldn’t surprise me to see her step into an advisory role to Jon or Dany in this season.
*by polarizing, I mean boring. Sansa has all the personality of a white crayon, and the only good argument her diehard fans have is that she’s now smarter than she was seven years ago.
5. Arya Stark
The Girl with Many Faces checks in with 13 songs, including “Dead Skin Mask” by Slayer. She’s tied with her half-brother/cousin Jon Snow and her sworn enemy Cersei Lannister for the third spot on the list.
4. Cersei Lannister
The queen regent (and baddest bitch in Game of Thrones) has 13 songs on the playlist, including “POWER” by Kanye West (she’s still technically the most powerful character in the show and she loves to show it off). She’s tied with Jon Snow and Arya Stark for the third spot on the list.
3. Jon Snow
After being named King in the North at the end of the show’s sixth season, Jon decided to bend the knee to Daenerys in season seven. He racked up 13 songs on this playlist, but “Sleep Now In The Fire” by Rage Against the Machine stood out to me because he slept in Daenerys’ fire, if you know what I mean.
2. The Night King
The Night King has overtaken Cersei and Euron as GoT’s main villain and as the dark horse candidate for winning the Iron Throne. I think 17 songs on the playlist go along with him, including “Winterlong” by Neil Young (Night King is trying to cause the longest winter in the history of the world).
1. Daenerys Targaryen
Based off these arbitrary rules based off a playlist that won’t be featured in the show, Daenerys is our queen. She has 19 songs on this playlist that I associated with her, including a lot about fire (e.g. “Fire” by Barnes Courtney), royalty (e.g. “Queen” by Perfume Genius), and dragons (“Her Black Wings” by Danzig). BEND THE KNEE!
ReJoyce 