Now that Game of Thrones Season 6 is over, we’ve got a long offseason ahead of us before Season 7 begins (longer than usual, according to showrunner Dan Weiss). However shall we fill this time? Speculation can help.
There’s a theory floating around the internet right now about the hurdles our heroes will face come next year. When last we left her, Daenerys was sailing for Westeros with what looked like a pretty unstoppable army. She has Dothraki cavalry, Unsullied infantry, and allies waiting for her across the Narrow Sea, not to mention three battle-ready dragons. How can the newly crowned Queen Cersei possibly stand against all this? She’ll need allies, and there may be one waiting in the wings: Euron Greyjoy. Let’s look at how likely a team-up between these two is.
WARNING: THIS POST CONTAINS SPOILERS FROM A FEAST FOR CROWS AND A DANCE WITH DRAGONS
(But it’s anyone’s guess as to whether they turn up on the show.)
Game of Thrones introduced Euron in Episode 2 of Season 6, “Home.” He showed up again in “The Door,” when he was elected King of the Iron Islands over his niece Yara. He ordered his subjects to build him a thousand ships, promised them “the world,” and then…we didn’t hear from him again for the remainder of the season.
This is probably a good thing. If Euron had shown up with 1000 ships in the finale, it would have stretched credibility close to the breaking point. But there’s no way the show is done with him. In “The Door,” he announced his plan to sail to Meereen, wed Daenerys, and use her military might and her dragons to claim Westeros for the Ironborn. But in “Battle of the Bastards,” Daenerys promised to support Yara’s claim to the Iron Islands over Euron’s. It was always very unlikely that Daenerys was going to throw in with Euron, but her alliance with Yara officially makes them enemies.
Daenerys and Cersei are also natural enemies. Cersei sits the Iron Throne. Daenerys wants to sit the Iron Throne, and Cersei doesn’t want to give it up. Conflict is inevitable. And in any case, Varys forged an alliance with the Tyrells and the Ellaria Sand of Dorne, both of whom have grudges against Cersei, on Daenerys’ behalf. The enemy of Daenerys’ friends is Daenerys’ enemy.
That means that Cersei and Euron have an enemy in common: Daenerys. It behooves both of them to make an alliance, and as we’ve seen, in this world, alliances are often sealed with marriage. I think Euron would be up for it. True, he wanted to marry Daenerys, but now that there’s no chance of that, he’ll need to look at other options, and marrying the Queen of the Seven Kingdoms would still give him access to a lot of power. Cersei will probably hate the idea—remember that she was adamant about not marrying again after Robert’s death in Season 3—but if she wants a chance of holding on to her throne, she’ll see the wisdom in marrying Euron.
Now, I grant you that Cersei and wisdom aren’t exactly great friends, but I’m willing to bet that these two will at least form an alliance, if not a marriage pact, in Season 7.
The next question is: so what? Even if these two team up, how can they hope to stop Daenerys and her allies and her army and her dragons? It seems impossible, but together, they may have more of a chance than you think.
Next: Euron's got a way with dragons
Cersei may be queen, but she’s ruling over a broken realm. The Reach (aka Tyrell country) and Dorne stand firmly against her. The North, too, has rebelled, and elected Jon Snow its king. If Cersei is lucky, the Northerners will be too preoccupied, possibly with White Walkers, to enter the fray, because if they did, they would certainly oppose her.
But Cersei is not without resources. She has the King’s Landing gold cloaks under her command, and the armies of the Westerlands. The Riverlands remain loyal to the crown, although they may be distracted in the wake of Walder Frey’s death. It’s unclear where the Stormlands stand, but it’s plausible that they could join with Cersei. In the books, many of the storm lords who fought with Stannis at the Battle of the Blackwater received pardons afterward. Plus, with all the Baratheons dead, the storm lords might as well follow the wife of the last trueborn Baratheon king, and the mother of the last two iffily born ones.
The Knights of the Vale, currently under Littlefinger’s charge, are a wildcard. The last time Littlefinger and Cersei met, Littlefinger claimed to be on her side. He’s now claimed to be on Sansa’s. You can never tell with that guy. He’s as likely to stay in the North and help Sansa as he is to ride to Cersei’s aid as he is to kill everyone and claim power for himself. I’m taking a wait-and-see approach with him.
The point is that Cersei has some troops under her command. Will it be enough to counter the combined weight of Daenerys, the Tyrells, and Dorne? Probably not, but with Euron’s help, it may not have to be.
Daenerys’ coalition is pretty unstoppable…on land. Dothraki, Unsullied, dragons, Tyrell and Dornish knights…there’s just no fighting that. Her fleet of ships, however, is more vulnerable. The Dothraki’s prowess on horseback and the Unsullied’s nigh-invincibility on the ground count for little at sea. Even her dragons might be neutered. Although the show hasn’t gone into this, it stands to reason that the dragons may not be able to follow the fleet over open water for long periods of time. I’m not sure the ships in the final shot of Season 6 are big enough for Drogon to sleep on, and unless the dragons can fly indefinitely, they may have to retreat to the mainland for the occasional rest, and cross into Westeros where the Narrow Sea is narrowest. (Admittedly, this might not apply to Rhaegal and Viserion, who are smaller.)
The Ironborn, on the other hand, are experts at fighting at sea. If Euron, with his 1000 ships, can meet Daenerys’ fleet on the open water, he could have an advantage, and he may have yet another trick up his sleeve.
Again, the show hasn’t mentioned this and may well not go into it, but in the novels, Euron found something important during his visit to Old Valyria: a dragon horn, an ancient artifact used to control dragons in the days before Valyria fell. The one Euron found is named Dragonbinder.
Does he have it on the show? It’s unknown, but if he does, it’s pretty obvious the kind of damage he could do with it. Dany’s dragons being neutered would be bad; one or more switching sides would be far, far worse. And with Daenerys tied up at sea, Cersei should have enough troops to crush the Tyrell and Dornish rebellions.
The Winds of Winter, George R.R. Martin’s as-yet-unreleased Song of Ice and Fire book, has a horn on the cover. If this is Dragonbinder, it’s bound to play a big role in the story.
But even without his horn, Euron and Cersei stand a chance of stopping Daenerys, or at least dealing a blow to her, if they work together. Personally, I think we’ll see some kind of naval clash in Season 7, in part because of the reasons I’ve outlined above and in part because the show hasn’t depicted a proper naval battle yet, and we know the producers like to try new things.
What do you think will happen? We’ve got months to speculate, so get to it.