Winter is here and us viewers’ version of the long night is over as the first episode of ultimate season of Game of Thrones aired last Sunday 595 days after the final episode of the prior season.

In the moment, I thought the episode was good not great filled with character reunions, a cheesy love scene in front of a waterfall (more on this later), and some good ole Cersei scheming. I left my couch that night feeling giddy that Thrones was finally back.

Later in the week, I was able to rewatch the episode and realized it was a pretty big waste considering there’s only five remaining episodes left to tie all the loose ends together. I guess all the character reunions were necessary in setting the scene; however, more needed to happen in the opener of a season that is already condensed. With the wights marching on Winterfell and the ultimate question of who will end up on the iron throne still unanswered, I was expecting more from this episode. On the bright side, the remaining five episodes will be action packed since everything remaining is now condensed to even fewer episodes. All in all: 6.4/10.

Enough with the incest now:

The incest part of Game of Thrones is one of the weirder things that we’ve all just become numb too. Not sure if it was up to the showrunners or George RR Martin but we have now seen two separate scenes with an aunt and a nephew getting intimate in the last two episodes. Also, both scenes have been realllllly weird.

The first one not only shows Jon and Daenerys having sex, but while it’s happening, Bran is narrating the whole thing while he’s telling Samwell Tarly that they’re related. Both definitely didn’t need to happen at the same time but… They did… And we all watched without blinking.

As if that one wasn’t weird enough, we had the one in the latest episode where Jon and Dany go fly on a dragon to a remote part of the north and just start making out. This one was a little less graphic than the first except for one part when the camera panned to one of the dragons just starring at the two.

Since the beginning of the show, Dany has referred to the dragons as her “children” and now Jon and Dany (nephew and aunt) are doing it in front of the kids. It’s starting to get pretty f***** up. At lease this scene ended right there but it’s hard to imagine Dany and Jon stopped at making out. As weird as it was, it did result in some solid meme material which is something I can support.

I ❤ Cersei:

The Cersei story is the one I find most compelling. Up north, Jon Snow’s army is going to fight the army of the dead and either win or lose. That’s pretty much it. A few characters will die here and there (and it’ll be exciting viewing),but either the humans or the dead are going to survive. One thing that does add a little to this story is Yara taking over the Iron Islands. This now gives Jon and Dany a place to retreat across an ocean in the event they start to lose but doesn’t add a whole lot to the possible outcomes. Now, Jon and Dany can lose the first battle, retreat to the Iron Islands, then regroup to fight a second battle and either win or lose that one.

For Cersei, her story is a little more complex. We learned last season that she was pregnant presumably with Jamie’s baby. This season, we see that Jamie has abandoned her to join the army up north leaving her alone in King’s Landing with not much company. Cersei seems to me to be someone you do not want to leave alone. Loneliness for her will get the mind wandering and Cersei’s mind wandering cannot be good for anyone.

One thing Cersei has absolutely been thinking about by herself is the prophecy from Maggy the Frog she heard when she was young. As a reminder, the prophecy said she would be queen, have three kids who would die, and then ultimately be killed by a Valonqar which is Valyrian for little brother (not necessarily her’s).

For the most part, this prophecy has held true throughout Cersei’s life except for now. Since she is pregnant with what would be a fourth child, she is realizing the prophecy is not as set in stone as she thought. To me, the theme to Cersei’s story in the final episodes of Game of Thrones will be her attempting to buck this prophecy anyway she can.

Season 8 wasted no time in showing this with a scene where Cyburn offers Bronn two chests of gold to kill her two brothers. Cersei has long believed that the Valonqar would be one of her own brothers, and Bronn killing them before one of them killed her would squash the third part of the prophecy. Throughout the series, Bronn has said he’d be loyal to whoever pays the most and Cersei seems to be the highest bidder at the moment. I doubt he follows through but will definitely initially act and make his way up north reuniting Bronn with the rest of the dream team currently in Winterfell.

The second main Cersei scene in Episode 1 of Season 8 was her finally letting Euron in her bed for a bangsesh. It’s been no secret that Euron has wanted to “f*** the queen” and now he finally has. Little does he know, this was just some classic Cersei scheming.

Before she became pregnant, Cersei seemed to make decisions without the future in mind. She really had no incentive to letting Euron have a bangsesh when she believed the prophecy to be ironclad and was just waiting to be killed by her little brother. But now she’s about to have a fourth child and needs to start acting with the future in mind. Her letting Euron in for the bangsesh was protecting her future child so that the public will think the baby is Euron’s instead of her brothers. Poor Euron is getting played again like Robert Baratheon.

One thing about Game of Thrones though is that you never quite can be sure what will happen. Theories existed last season that Cersei wasn’t actually pregnant and she was just acting like it to gain influence over her two brothers. This theory still could hold true and the baby in the current pregnancy could could actually be Euron’s and Jamie will think it’s his and all the sudden Jamie’s the one getting played (spinzoneeeee!).

For the record, I do not think this will happen and believe Cersei to actually be pregnant and that the baby is Jamie’s. I love the Cersei story and how many directions it could possibly go. I tend to lean toward thinking the Valonqar will be a little brother but not her own. Possibly even her fourth child who is a little brother who kills her in the same way Cersei’s mother died in labor with Tyrion. While I like this theory, technically the prophecy stated “the valonqar shall wrap his hands about your pale white throat and choke the life from you” which I’d imagine it’d be pretty difficult for a newborn to wrap his hands around her throat. Whatever happens, I am excited.