Game of Thrones Season 8 is coming very soon. The first episode shall be aired on April 14, 2019. While we wait to see who will rule the Iron Throne let’s remind ourselves of a two great Game of Thrones-related stamp series (and what happened in the season 7).
Before we start the story, I’ll tell a few words about these stamps. Northern Ireland served as a headquarters for shooting the series so it’s no wonder that the Tourism Ireland in collaboration with the Royal Mail issued Game of Thrones related stamp series. Each stamp is tied to one episode of the 6th season. It’s important to mention that these stamps were issued in very limited editions and their sale was mostly limited to Northern Ireland.
Season 7 was very deadly. That’s not so unexpected if you look at what happened in previous seasons. George R.R. Martin proved to be really good at murdering characters as soon as you start to love or hate them. While this could be frustrating, it definitely adds the tempo to the whole story. Personally, I felt very surprised a few times. And just “normally” surprised a few more times 🙂
With that said, the season 7 took many lives. Some had a major role in the whole story, while others had a smaller impact. George decided that season 7 will be the final season for House Frey, Obara Sand, Nymeria Sand, Tyene Sand, Olenna Tyrell, Randyll Tarly, Dickon Tarly, Thoros of Myr, Benjen Stark, Viserion (?), Lord Petyr Baelish (Littlefinger). Let’s now take a look what happened to those who survived the season 7.
So, Daenerys sailed to Westeros at the end of the season 6. It was just a matter of time when she would meet Jon Snow.
Daenerys (Dany, Daenerys Stormborn, Daenerys Stormborn of House Targaryen, rightful heir to the Iron Throne, rightful Queen of the Andals and the First Men, Protector of the Seven Kingdoms, the Mother of Dragons, the Khaleesi of the Great Grass Sea, the Unburnt, the Breaker of Chains) is mostly interested in reclaiming the throne that belonged to her father, Aerys II Targaryen, commonly called "the Mad King".
On the other hand, Jon Snow is more concerned about the threat coming from the North and the Night King’s invasion. At the beginning, Dany and others don’t take that threat too seriously, but things change after the expedition captures a wight beyond the Wall and presents it in front of the others.
It all ends with an alliance between Jon and Daenerys. And the alliance was sealed with a kiss. While we know the nature of a family relation between Jon and Daenerys, they still need to find that out. Of course, the most interesting part here will be how they will react and how that will affect their current relationship. And all that, of course, if they survive.
The other major event is the reunification of the Stark kids. Sansa Stark is now the Lady of Winterfell and Brann is Three-Eyed Raven. Arya Stark, after a few seasons, finally found her way to Winterfell. While Littlefinger did his best to turn Arya and Sansa against each other, in the end he was the one who was manipulated and ended up executed.
And this is how the Royal Mail explained the motivation to issue these stamps:
"The Game of Thrones production involves a very significant British contribution. Principal filming of the series is at Titanic Studios in Belfast, at the Linen Hill Film Studio in Banbridge and on location elsewhere in Northern Ireland, with additional filming in Scotland and European locations including Malta, Croatia, Iceland, Morocco, and Spain.
Additionally, the acclaimed cast is predominantly British and Irish, and British expertise is to the fore in many areas of the production, including award-winning costume design and prosthetic special effects."
While houses south of the Wall fought for supremacy and the Iron Throne, the Night King, slowly but steadily gathered his army and is finally ready to move south to conquer the whole of Westeros. Killing Viserion, one of Daenerys’ dragons, and resurrecting him, turned his army even stronger and we saw them crossing the Wall. While in previous seasons he was more of a myth, now he’s here and almost nobody has any doubts if he really exists. Still, one important question needs to be answered and that is who he really is and how he’s related to other characters.
Cersei Lannister & Euron Greyjoy
Cersei is ready the exploit the current situation and is relying on Euron to bring her more troops and help her stay on the Iron Throne. She simply wants to be aside while other armies crush each other and to deal with what is left on the battlefield afterwards. That is not a bad tactic at all. You could use it in many multiplayer strategy games, either board or computer games. But that’s not the topic here. Besides that, we know that Cersei is pregnant.
Samwell Tarly, Tyrion Lannister, Jaime Lannister
There are a lot of “smaller” threads that could play an important role in the history of Westeros. Maybe the most important one is the story of Samwell Tarly. He did some great things from the first time we met him and I somehow have a feeling that he’ll play a very important role in the last 6 episodes of season 8.
Putting Tyrion and Jaime after everyone previously mentioned is maybe not fair because they have really complex stories and will have a crucial impact on the whole story. While we can expect that Tyrion will pull one more trick, it will be interesting to see what is Jaime’s destiny.
There are numerous theories on how it will all end and I don’t want to go into that. To be completely honest, I’ve watched a number of videos with different theories and I simply don’t want to know. I want to be surprised and I believe that will happen. No matter what happens, these stamps give us the ability to store the part of this Westeros history in our albums.
Author: E. Drkušić / https://stamp.ninja
