Power-Ranking the 25 Most Anticipated Reunions in ‘Game of Thrones’ Season 8
From Arya and Jon to Jaime and Bran to everyone who wants to kill Melisandre, the impending gatherings are bound to delight and torment in equal measurePower-Ranking the 25 Most Anticipated Reunions in ‘Game of Thrones’ Season 8
From Arya and Jon to Jaime and Bran to everyone who wants to kill Melisandre, the impending gatherings are bound to delight and torment in equal measure
Even after countless deaths over seven seasons, Game of Thrones as it enters Season 8 is still a sprawling epic featuring dozens of characters crisscrossing a continent that is supposed to be the size of South America. And even as many of those characters have converged on a few key locations, many others still have not been reunited with long-lost friends, allies, rivals, family members, or enemies. Before the great war gets underway, there will be some catching up to do.
Reunions have been a beautiful thing for Thrones. Last season, we saw long-awaited reunions between Arya and Sansa, Jorah and Daenerys, Jaime and Tyrion, Tyrion and Bronn, the Hound and the Mountain, Gendry and Davos, and myriad others. Sometimes, these reunions can be delightful reintroductions for characters who have warmed up to each other with time apart, like Arya and Brienne’s practice fight in the Winterfell yard. Other times, these meetings can be heavy with history and subtext, like Tyrion and Cersei’s tense exchange last season. No matter what, they’re captivating television—something only a show as big and ambitious as Thrones can produce.
As characters join forces in the final episodes, this season could feature more reunions than any other. Some will center on potential homecomings we’ve been waiting all series for, others will feature characters viewers may have forgotten even have a history. To prepare for Season 8, let’s break down the most anticipated possible reunions.
But first, what counts as a reunion? There are two ground rules:
- The two characters need to have interacted on screen at some point in the series. There are some characters who were in close proximity to each other but who never did anything more than stand in the same general vicinity; that means any future interaction between them will fall short of a reunion. Sorry, Arya and Jaime.
- The two characters need to have been separated for at least one season. We want to highlight long-awaited reunions, not instances of one character having been gone for a week or two. So if they saw each other in Season 7, I’m not considering it as a reunion for the purposes of this list. Sorry, Brienne and Jaime (and everyone else at the Dragonpit).
Even with those rules, there are dozens of potential reunions worth exploring. Let’s dive deep into the top 25, ordered by how anticipated each reunion is:
1. Arya and Jon
Last shared screen time: Season 1, Episode 2, “The Kingsroad”
Episodes apart: 65
Then: Of all the Stark siblings—or characters who thought they were siblings, at least—Arya and Jon are the most alike. In the books, they both have the long faces and dark hair of the Starks, while the other children favor the Tully look of their mother. Both possess a rebellious streak and see themselves as outsiders in the Stark clan: Jon for his status as a bastard, Arya for her tomboy habits. So of course they were best friends growing up.
Before Arya leaves for King’s Landing and Jon for the Wall, Jon gives Arya Needle, setting off a domino effect that changes the young girl’s life. Needle leads to Arya’s training with Syrio Forel, which leads to her escaping King’s Landing when Ned is arrested, which in turn sets her on the path to becoming the Faceless Man assassin we know today.
Jon doesn’t have any such memento from his sister, but Arya is the closest relationship he has with the Starks—and Jon had thought her dead until news of her arrival in Winterfell reached him on Dragonstone last season. Jon’s reunion with Sansa is emotional, and his homecoming with Arya should have 10 times the impact.
Now: Both characters need this reunion. Jon, with the weight of an entire continent on his shoulders and the burden of being chosen by the Lord of Light, is wound as tight as anyone on the show; he can’t stop brooding or thinking about the Night King. Arya, after nearly two seasons training as a Faceless Man, still sometimes slips into being “no one.” We have glimpses of her old fire and compassion—her tough outer shell cracks the instant she learned that Jon had taken Winterfell, for example—but after an emotional reunion with Sansa and Bran, she acts more like a detached, cold assassin for most of the rest of Season 7.
The Arya-Jon reunion will be a potent reminder for both characters of the life they left behind so long ago, what they are fighting for now, and how far each has come.
Chance of reunion: Confirmed—a promo showed the two together.
2. Sansa and Tyrion
Last shared screen time: Season 4, Episode 2, “The Lion and the Rose”
Episodes apart: 35
Then: The two were married, of course, and while Sansa could never fully trust her husband, Tyrion always treated her with kindness. As Tyrion tells Jon in Season 7, their marriage was a “sham,” and the two were as awkward around each other as middle schoolers at a dance. But by the standard of most Stark-Lannister relations in this series, “awkward” is almost as good as you can hope for.
Now: Both of these characters have grown immensely since they last saw each other. The two were put into their marriage like actors in a play, manipulated and controlled by those around them. Now, both are free. Tyrion no longer has to act as a Lannister and be a pawn in his father’s plots, while Sansa is no longer a child, and is rapidly developing her talents for leadership and diplomacy.
The two clearly respect each other too. In Season 7, when Jon and Sansa receive a letter from Tyrion asking Jon to come to Dragonstone and meet Daenerys, Sansa remarks how Tyrion isn’t like the other Lannisters. And when Jon arrives on Dragonstone, Tyrion asks about Sansa, saying he always thought that she was smarter than she let on.
When they meet again, some of the stiffness from their marriage may remain, but the two could finally interact as equals and allies. One is hand to the Mother of Dragons, the other is the Lady of Winterfell … hell, at this point they’d even make a strong match.
Chance of reunion: Confirmed—a promo showed Tyrion in Winterfell with Sansa.
3. Bran and Jaime
Last shared screen time: Season 1, Episode 1, “Winter Is Coming”
Episodes apart: 66
Then: Jaime pushes Bran out of a tower, hoping to kill the 10-year-old boy so he can’t tell the realm that Jaime is in a sexual relationship with his twin, Cersei, which would eventually lead people to start asking why all of Robert Baratheon’s children have blond hair.
Wow, that sounds bad when written out. No wonder we hated the Kingslayer so much in the first couple of seasons.
Now: Both Jaime and Bran are virtually unrecognizable as characters compared with where they were during their fateful encounter in Season 1. In the years since, Jaime has discovered the conscience buried inside him and finally left Cersei, while Bran has traveled north of the Wall and become the Three-Eyed Raven. They have even transformed physically: Jaime loses a hand. Bran undergoes puberty. They both get haircuts.
Jaime will surely apologize to Bran for his actions upon trying to gain entrance to Winterfell. Yet Bran said last season that he doesn’t even consider himself to be “Bran Stark” anymore, and he may see that push out the window as nothing more than ancient history. Bran now understands that becoming the Three-Eyed Raven was his destiny—and that may be both good and bad for Jaime. On the one hand, Bran may be able to vouch for Jaime when Sansa and Arya inevitably show skepticism. But he also may not be able to give Jaime the closure he may be seeking.
Chance of reunion: Jaime’s in Winterfell in the trailer. There is no chance that he’ll fail to try to make amends with Bran.
4. Arya and the Hound
Last shared screen time: Season 4, Episode 10, “The Children”
Episodes apart: 27
Then: Arya and the Hound’s history begins roughly: Sandor Clegane kills Mycah, the butcher’s boy Arya plays with in Season 1, then takes Arya captive in Season 3, hoping to ransom her to her family. But then their relationship shifts, with—apologies to Jaime and Bronn—the two forming the best buddy-cop duo Westeros has seen.
Sandor saves Arya from the worst of the Red Wedding and helps teach her how to be a killer. Arya stops the Hound from killing an innocent farmer and gets him to open up, prompting him to confirm how he got his facial burns. Arya had added the Hound to her kill list, but when the time comes to do it—and the Hound, believing himself mortally wounded, begs for death—Arya leaves him alive.
Now: At the House of Black and White, Arya, when playing the game of faces, says she “hated” the Hound. Jaqen slaps her—“a lie,” he says. She insists—he slaps her again. “That’s not a lie!”—another slap, and Jaqen tells Arya that she is lying to herself.
Meanwhile in Season 7, Brienne and the Hound discuss Arya, and the Hound is surprised to hear that Arya is alive, safe, and at Winterfell. “Who is protecting her if you’re here?” he asks. When Brienne informs him that the only person who needs protecting will be the one who gets in Arya’s way, the Hound smiles, saying, “It won’t be me.”
The Hound and Arya may have hated each other at first (and then pretended to hate each other), but they came to bring out the very best in each other. Once they’re reunited, they’ll finally see the fruits of that influence: The Hound has embraced his empathy and joined the heroes, while Arya has become a true warrior. Their respective pride in each other will be something to behold.
Chance of reunion: 100 percent—they’re both in the Battle of Winterfell.
5. Arya and Gendry
Last shared screen time: Season 3, Episode 6, “The Climb”
Episodes apart: 41
Then: In seasons 2 and 3, Arya and Gendry are both on the run from the Lannisters and bond over their shared fugitive status. They become so close that when Gendry tells Arya he wants to stay with the Brotherhood Without Banners because he has no family and nowhere to go, Arya chokes up and tells him that she could be his family. Gendry responds that she’d be “m’lady.”
Then they have to say their goodbyes earlier than either expects. When Melisandre comes to take Gendry away from the Brotherhood, Arya is irate. Hot Pie has already decided to stay at the Inn at the Crossroads, so when Gendry is taken, Arya essentially loses her only friend.
Now: Like the Jon-Arya reunion, the presumptive meetup with Gendry will hopefully do wonders for Arya’s character, bringing out some of the camaraderie she’s missed for the last few seasons.
And oh yeah, Arya-Gendry shippers, it’s now or never. Robert Baratheon once told Ned, “I have a son. You have a daughter. We’ll join our houses.” Gendry’s not technically a Baratheon (yet!), but this pairing would nearly fulfill Robert’s words.
Chance of reunion: 100 percent—Gendry is in Winterfell in the trailer.
6. Jon and Sam
Last shared screen time: Season 5, Episode 10, “Mother’s Mercy”
Episodes apart: 17
Then: Never forget that the last thing Jon and Sam talk about is Sam having sex. Iconic.
Now: Sam sends Jon a scroll in Season 7 informing him of the cache of dragonglass on Dragonstone, which helps convince Jon to travel to Daenerys. But that’s their only contact since Sam leaves for Oldtown to become a Maester in the Season 5 finale. Sam is absent for Jon’s death, his resurrection, his leaving the Night’s Watch, his taking of Winterfell, his being crowned King in the North—all of it. The two have a lot of catching up to do.
Once more for emphasis: They have a lot of catching up to do. Sam and Bran are the only two people who know about Jon’s true parentage—Bran through his Tower of Joy visions, and Sam thanks to the High Septon’s record of annulling Rhaegar and Elia Martell’s marriage and remarrying Rhaegar to another—Lyanna. Given how close Sam and Jon are, Sam seems like the person who will break the news to his former Night’s Watch brother.
Chance of reunion: 100 percent—they’re both at the Winterfell to begin the season.
7. Bran and Jon
Last shared screen time: Season 1, Episode 2, “The Kingsroad”
Episodes apart: 65
Then: Jon has always been closest with Arya, but it’s clear he loves Bran as well. Despite Catelyn’s protests, Jon says an emotional goodbye to a still-comatose Bran in the second episode of the series. “I wish I could be here when you wake up,” he tells him, promising that Bran can come visit him at the Wall when he wakes, then kissing his forehead.
Now: Like Sam, Bran has a lot to share with Jon, but this interaction will be interesting for more than just the reveal of Jon’s parentage. In a way, Bran and Jon’s stories have flipped: Bran always wanted to be a knight, and at one point was the true Lord of Winterfell before renouncing the title last season. Jon was once the outcast, but has become one of the most accomplished fighters in Westeros and is King in the North.
Chance of reunion: 100 percent—they’re both at the Winterfell to begin the season.
8. The Hound and Sansa
Last shared screen time: Season 2, Episode 9, “Blackwater”
Episodes apart: 48
Then: Something about Sansa brings out a different side of Sandor Clegane. While Joffrey’s dog follows the orders the boy king barked at him, the Hound often protects Sansa. He wipes her bloodied lip, saves her during the mob in King’s Landing, and refuses one of Joffrey’s orders to hit her.
During the Battle of the Blackwater, Sandor tucks tail and ditches the Lannisters. But before he leaves the city, he heads up to Sansa’s chambers, drunk, and offers to take her to Winterfell. It’s a creepy scene, and it’s no wonder that Sansa declines his offer, but the Hound seems genuine. Though Sandor is a killer by the time of the show, he was famously the victim of his brother when Gregor pushed him into a fire—and he sees that same kind of helplessness in Sansa and wants to protect her. Sandor’s interactions with Sansa are some of the first clear signs that he isn’t just another Lannister brute.
Now: After years when Sansa has grown into a woman and the Hound has embraced his empathy, the two can now interact on more equal footing. Sansa is no longer a “little bird.” The Hound is no longer, well, a dog.
Chance of reunion: 100 percent—the trailer shows the Hound at the Battle of Winterfell.
9. Bran and Tyrion
Last shared screen time: Season 1, Episode 4, “Cripples, Bastards, and Broken Things”
Episodes apart: 63
Then: On Tyrion’s way down from the Wall in Season 1, he stops by Winterfell to give Bran the design for a saddle that will let the paralyzed boy ride a horse again. It’s the origin of the “cripples, bastards, and broken things” quote that has hung over so much of the rest of this story. It’s also a rare act of kindness between a Lannister and a Stark that adds a wrinkle to their ensuing conflict. Catelyn takes Tyrion captive later in this episode, believing he sent the catspaw dagger to kill Bran, but the Starks can’t figure out why Tyrion stopped by Winterfell to help the boy.
Now: Any reunion with Bran is a little tempered by Bran’s new identity as the Three-Eyed Raven, and he may be a little awkward with everyone he interacts with. Still, he should remember the kindness Tyrion showed him. Plus, there is the chance that Tyrion could tap into Bran’s Three-Eyed Raven powers. Tyrion is one of Westeros’s most avid readers, he and Bran (and Sam) could put their heads together and solve the White Walker threat.
Chance of reunion: 100 percent—they’re both in Winterfell to begin the season.
10. Arya and Cersei
Last shared screen time: Season 1, Episode 9, “Baelor”
Episodes apart: 58
Then: Arya and Cersei are both present for Ned’s beheading, though Cersei doesn’t even see that the Stark girl is there.
In fact, the two have never really had a conversation with each other, and their only real interaction comes after Arya and Joffrey get into a fight in the second episode of the series. Arya has to tell her side of the story in front of the queen, and after that the two never speak. Not that they don’t try: Cersei is on Arya’s kill list, and Littlefinger tries to find Arya for Cersei. They don’t have a friendly relationship.
Now: Cersei is one of only two people left on Arya’s kill list (the other being Gregor Clegane). Arya is on her way to kill the queen in Season 7 when she runs into Hot Pie and learns that Jon had retaken Winterfell. Arya reroutes her trip north, choosing family over revenge, but it’s safe to say that she still is out for Cersei’s blood. In fact, that could be one way Arya is used in Season 8: Once Jon and Dany discover that Cersei intends to betray them, they could send their Faceless Man assassin south to take care of the Queen with one quick poke from Needle.
Arya’s Faceless Man skills haven’t been put to use since she killed the Freys at the start of Season 7. Cersei could be the perfect target for Arya.
Chance of reunion: 50 percent. Cersei has never left King’s Landing, so Arya would probably need to travel there—or there would need to be a White Walker apocalypse pushing all the humans to one location. At any rate, there are a number of other candidates who could kill Cersei before Arya.
11. Cersei and Sansa
Last shared screen time: Season 4, Episode 2, “The Lion and the Rose”
Episodes apart: 35
Then: Sansa suffers through much more time with Cersei than Arya does. Sansa, then a naive teenager, trusts the queen at first—after all, she’s to be queen to Cersei’s son someday. But Sansa soon opens her eyes to who Cersei really is as the queen torments her while Sansa is essentially a prisoner of the Lannisters, in near isolation for more than two seasons before she escapes.
Now: When Sansa describes how Cersei will do anything to crush her enemies in the Season 7 premiere, Jon responds: “It almost sounds like you admire her.” Sansa pauses before admitting she “learned a great deal” from the queen.
There’s a sense of unfinished business between these two. Sansa has matured since she fled King’s Landing, and now she is thriving as the Lady of Winterfell. The two are in some ways more alike than ever, ruling and leading and pursuing the courage of their convictions, but they’re diametrically opposed in terms of the contents of their character. Cersei once told Sansa to “love no one but your children,” yet Cersei has lost all her children save the one she is carrying, while Sansa is back with her family.
Chance of reunion: It seems low—call it 30 percent. Like a potential Arya-Cersei reunion, this would likely have to happen in King’s Landing. It’s easier to see Arya making that journey on a mission, while Sansa would likely leave the North only for an emergency evacuation.
12. Davos and Melisandre
Last shared screen time: Season 6, Episode 10, “The Winds of Winter”
Episodes apart: 7
Then: Davos always despised the Red Woman, and he has a deep hatred for her now. The last time the two saw each other, the Onion Knight asked Jon for permission to execute Melisandre for the crime of burning Shireen at the stake.
Now: It’s hard to see how Davos could move past Shireen’s death when he already has so much animosity toward Melisandre. This is one of the more interesting wrinkles in Season 8: Melisandre may be essential to the endgame, yet Jon’s most trusted adviser believes her to be absolute evil.
Chance of reunion: Melisandre has been featured heavily in promotional materials (thought not the trailer), so a reunion with the Onion Knight feels likely. I’d give it a 90 percent chance.
13. Jon and Melisandre
Last shared screen time: Season 6, Episode 10, “The Winds of Winter
Episodes apart: 7
Then: Jon doesn’t have the same raging hatred for Melisandre that Davos has, but he is the one who banished her from the kingdom, promising to execute her if she ever returns.
Let’s also not forget how weird Mel has always been around Jon—she once had him feel her skin to show that she never gets cold, asked him whether he was a virgin, tried to seduce him, and hit him with a stunning “You know nothing, Jon Snow.” She also believes he’s the Prince Who Was Promised—or at least, one half of it along with Daenerys. Oh yeah, and she raised him from the dead. They have a complicated dynamic, to say the least.
Now: Jon once said he knew that Sandor, Beric, and Thoros were on the same side as him because “we’re all breathing.” Is there any chance he could feel the same way about Melisandre?
The Red Woman may have brought Jon back from the dead (or, as Mel would say, simply did as the Lord of Light bid), but the King in the North has always seemed like he’d rather have remained a corpse. The only way Jon will welcome Melisandre is if he believes she’s absolutely necessary in the war against the White Walkers. She’ll have to convince the White Wolf that she’s changed. That won’t be easy—especially since Davos will be out for blood.
Chance of reunion: As with Davos, I’d put this reunion in the 90 percent range.
14. Ghost and Nymeria
Last shared screen time: Season 1, Episode 1, “Winter Is Coming”
Episodes apart: 66
Then: Ghost and Nymeria haven’t shared a scene together since they were pups.
Now: Ghost and Nymeria are the only two direwolves left. It may be that Arya’s encounter with Nymeria last season was also a send-off for her wolf, but it’s just as likely that Nymeria will return, and she and Ghost could be important players in the war with the White Walkers. Plus, it would be cathartic for a Ghost-Nymeria reunion that mirrors a Jon-Arya one.
Chance of reunion: Let’s call it 40 percent—it did feel like that Arya-Nymeria scene in Season 7 may have been it for Nym.
15. Ghost and Jon
Last shared screen time: Season 6, Episode 2, “Home”
Episodes apart: 15
Then: Ghost is the last character to stick by Jon’s side before he rises from the dead, and that may be more than just an expression of the direwolf’s loyalty. In the books, Jon and the other Stark children show the ability to warg into their wolves the same way that Bran can with Summer, though none has fully harnessed the power the way the future Three-Eyed Raven has. This may be crucial for Jon’s resurrection in the books, which hasn’t yet happened. In the books, when Beric is resurrected, he changes—his memory is scattershot and he’s lost most of his motivation to continue living. But Jon may have an easier revival if he’s able to warg into Ghost and remain in his direwolf’s head for a time before his body is brought back.
Now: Ghost presumably came with Jon to Winterfell and was there in Season 7, so this isn’t really a reunion of long-separated friends. But since we didn’t see it in Season 7, we’re counting it.
Where the hell is the direwolf? In the wildling attack on Castle Black in Season 4, Jon tells Sam to go get Ghost—that he needs his direwolf more than he needs Sam. Ghost, once unlocked from his kennel, does massive damage to the wildling force. He even has experience fighting wights from seasons 1 and 3! It’s always been frustrating that the direwolf was sidelined for the Battle of the Bastards and that Jon didn’t bring his own magical companion to meet with the Mother of Dragons. Ghost cannot be similarly benched in Season 8.
Chance of reunion: The special effects supervisor said Ghost would return.
16. Arya and Melisandre
Last shared screen time: Season 3, Episode 6, “The Climb”
Episodes apart: 41
Then: Arya and Melisandre shared only one scene and a couple of lines, but the words she spoke to Arya are a rich text. The Red Woman had traveled to the Riverlands to take Gendry from the Brotherhood Without Banners—paying a handsome sum to do so—so that she could have access to the bastard’s magical king’s blood. But she didn’t leave without delivering something of a prophecy to young Arya:
Arya: You’re a witch. You’re going to hurt him.
Melisandre: I see a darkness in you. And in that darkness, eyes staring back at me—brown eyes, blue eyes, green eyes. Eyes you’ll shut forever. We will meet again.
This move earned the Red Woman a spot on Arya’s kill list, though Arya has since removed Melisandre without explanation.
Now: Mel has misinterpreted a great many of her visions, but she’s generally not completely wrong about the things she sees in the flames (or in this case, in Arya’s eyes). “We will meet again,” then, feels like a promise for a future interaction, which could be dicey. Arya isn’t totally up to speed on Melisandre’s burning of Shireen and subsequent banishment from the North, but she surely won’t have warm feelings toward Mel since Gendry’s kidnapping. Gendry will be in Winterfell and could tell Arya about what happened to him. Once these gaps are filled in, Arya may add Mel’s name back to her list.
Chance of reunion: Well, she said it would happen!
17. Gendry and Melisandre
Last shared screen time: Season 3, Episode 8, “Second Sons”
Episodes apart: 39
Then: Gendry probably feels even worse about the Red Woman than Arya does. First, she bought him, ripping him away from the Brotherhood Without Banners just as he was finding a sense of belonging. Then, she seduced him, only to strap him to a bed and leech out his blood. Finally, she was ready to burn him at the stake until Davos intervened. So yeah, they don’t have a great history together.
Now: If Melisandre comes back and starts talking about king’s blood again, her options will be limited. Among our heroes, those with king’s blood are Jon, Daenerys, and Gendry (unless Daenerys is pregnant and Mel targets the baby, which is too dark to think about). Who do you think would get burned first out of that trio?
The good news is that Jon, Davos, and Arya would never allow that to happen. But Gendry will probably not take kindly to the Red Woman’s return.
Chance of reunion: It depends on when Melisandre makes it back to Westeros. If that’s before the Battle of Winterfell, a reunion is likely. If it’s after, it depends on Gendry’s survival in that fight.
18. Brienne and Melisandre
Last shared screen time: Season 6, Episode 4, “Book of the Stranger”
Episodes apart: 13
Then: When Brienne arrives at Castle Black in Season 6, she knows exactly who Melisandre is. She comes up to Davos and the Red Woman and tells them that she was kingsguard to Renly Baratheon, “before Renly was assassinated with blood magic,” she adds with a glare toward Melisandre. “Yes it’s in the past. That doesn’t mean I forget … or forgive.”
She then informs Davos and Melisandre that she executed Stannis, and walks away. Not exactly the warmest of introductions!
Now: There really is no shortage of characters who hate Melisandre, and this list doesn’t even include Varys, who hates magic and all who practice it. Though Brienne has no further conversations with the Red Woman, there is no doubt that Brienne was glad to see Melisandre banished from the North. There is equally little doubt that she will be hostile toward a Melisandre return—though at this point, she’ll have to get in line before she can act on those hostilities.
Chance of reunion: As with Gendry, it all depends on when Melisandre re-enters the story.
19. Arya and Beric
Last shared screen time: Season 3, Episode 7, “The Bear and the Maiden Fair”
Episodes apart: 40
Then: Arya ditches Beric and the Brotherhood Without Banners in Season 3, an episode after they sell Gendry to Melisandre. The Brotherhood promised to take Arya to Riverrun, but when they decide to head south to raid a Lannister camp, Arya has enough. She doesn’t have time to wait another two days, so she makes off on her own. She gets as far as a few hundred yards before the Hound kidnaps her.
Now: Beric actually earns a spot on Arya’s kill list, though like Melisandre, Arya has removed him without explanation. Since Arya left the Brotherhood, Beric has aligned himself with people Arya trusts in Jon and the Hound, so even if Arya and Beric still have some things they need to work out, they shouldn’t have too hostile of a relationship in the present day. Beric could even help Arya understand Jon’s resurrection once that news gets out.
Chance of reunion: Beric appears to be at the Battle of Winterfell in a promo, making this reunion highly likely.
20. Robin and Sansa
Last shared screen time: Season 5, Episode 1, “The Wars to Come”
Episodes apart: 26
Then: The cousins have a pretty unremarkable relationship during their shared time in the Eyrie save for one moment: When Sansa tries to slap some sense into Robin.
Now: Though it’s mostly Littlefinger’s doing, Robin signs off on the plan to send the armies of the Vale north to help Sansa and Co. win the Battle of the Bastards. Perhaps Robin has matured some, too, without Lysa and/or Littlefinger poisoning his mind for a full season.
There is one other thing these two have to talk about: Lysa Arryn’s death. After Littlefinger’s death, Sansa is one of the few people in Westeros who knows how Lysa died, along with the Northern lords (and Arryn bannerman Yohn Royce) who were present for Littlefinger’s execution. Soon, Robin will discover that Sansa helped Petyr Baelish cover for the murder, corroborating Littlefinger’s story that it was a suicide.
Robin may be insufferable and have a gross taste for breast milk, but he deserves to know the truth about his mother’s death. Sansa could uncover that for him, but not without revealing her own role in the cover-up. Robin isn’t exactly known for keeping his temper in check, so this reunion could get awkward.
Chance of reunion: Lino Facioli, the actor who plays Robin, is on Thrones’ Season 8 cast list. If he does return, he’ll likely run into Sansa at some point.
21. Robin and Tyrion
Last shared screen time: Season 1, Episode 6, “A Golden Crown”
Episodes apart: 61
Then: Once upon a time, Robin wanted to see “the bad man fly” as badly as he wanted some more of his mother’s breast milk. Both Tyrion and Robin have come a long way since Season 1.
Now: At this point, the whole Moon Door thing should be water under the bridge for these two. Robin was a child then, and was being manipulated by his delusional mother. Tyrion, meanwhile, has been through countless worse threats to his life since. It’s hard to see these two harboring ill will over an encounter that now might as well be ancient history.
But there is something Robin and Tyrion could address if they meet again: The ending to Tyrion’s “honeycomb and a jackass” quote. Robin wants to hear the end of it when Tyrion is cut off telling it at the Eyrie in Season 1, and Tyrion again tries to tell it in Season 6 before being interrupted. We still don’t know the punch line. Robin could do us all a favor and follow up on it.
Chance of reunion: If it’s true that the actor is coming back, it’s a natural assumption he’ll meet Tyrion again.
22. Bran and Theon
Last shared screen time: Season 2, Episode 6, “The Old Gods and the New”
Episodes apart: 51
Then: The last time Theon and Bran saw each other, Theon had taken Winterfell and was botching his execution of Rodrik Cassel. After that, Bran, Rickon, Osha, Hodor, Summer, and Shaggydog escaped.
Theon betrayed Bran, but their relationship isn’t purely antagonistic. Theon saves Bran’s life from a group of wildlings in Season 1, and when Bran asks Theon, “Did you hate us the whole time?” when the Greyjoy prince is taking Winterfell in Season 2, Theon has no response. There are layers to this.
Now: As with any reunion involving Bran, there’s always the question of how much the Three-Eyed Raven even thinks about his past life. Does he still care that Theon betrayed him?
That makes this potential reunion more meaningful for Theon. Like Jaime, he may seek out a conversation with Bran in an attempt to make some sort of apology for his past crimes—yet Jon gave him a version of that conversation last season. A Bran-Theon interaction could be redundant.
Chance of reunion: Entering Season 8, Theon is on a mission to save Yara, so his path is leading him away from Winterfell and the Starks for the time being.
23. Sansa and Theon
Last shared screen time: Season 6, Episode 2, “Home”
Episodes apart: 15
Then: Once Sansa and Theon meet up with Brienne and Pod, Theon decides to go back to Pyke and begin rebuilding his life. (Though he’s also worried Jon will have him killed when they arrive at Castle Black.) Sansa wants Theon to take the black and join the Night’s Watch, but Theon declines. “I don’t want to be forgiven,” he says. “I can’t even begin to make amends to your family for the things I’ve done.”
Now: Sansa is the only Stark who saw Theon as Reek, and she may be impressed with the way he’s chosen to help his sister. But any reaction from Sansa would always be tempered by Theon’s own rightful observation that he can never be fully forgiven for what he’s done.
Chance of reunion: Sansa and Bran are together to begin the season, so if Theon meets with one of these two, he’ll likely meet with both.
24. Daario and Daenerys
Last shared screen time: Season 6, Episode 10, “The Winds of Winter”
Episodes apart: 7
Then: Daario was Dany’s lover before the Mother of Dragons left him in Essos to attend to Meereen, Yunkai, and Astapor while all the cool kids headed west looking for adventure. As Dany explains to him, she can’t take a lover to Westeros, and she has to leave someone in charge of the Bay of Dragons. That means Daario, despite his protests, has to stay.
Now: Daenerys has a new lover now, so a Daario return would be … complicated. At least now he and Jorah would have something in common!
Chance of reunion: There’s been no indication whether Daario will return to the show this season, but if he does, he’ll definitely have some face-to-face time with Daenerys.
25. Edmure and Jaime
Last shared screen time: Season 6, Episode 8, “No One”
Episodes apart: 9
Then: The last time Jaime and Edmure speak, the Kingslayer tells the Lord of Riverrun that if he does not surrender the castle, Jaime will catapult Edmure’s infant son into it. Edmure capitulates, and Jaime sends him to the castle, where he orders his men to lay down their arms and surrender to the Lannisters.
Now: A couple episodes later, Walder Frey mentions that Edmure is back in his cell, though he doesn’t specify where that cell is. When Arya kills all the Freys at the beginning of Season 7, she doesn’t go find her uncle—so either she unknowingly leaves him to rot or he wasn’t being held at the Twins.
When Jaime leaves King’s Landing at the end of Season 7 to head north, he does so alone. Jon and the North expect the entire Lannister army to be coming, so Jaime’s arrival without an army at his back will raise questions. But returning the Starks’ formerly imprisoned uncle to safety could quickly prove his intentions are pure. At the very least, it could also help Jaime’s slow path to redemption: The Kingslayer has been morphing into a good guy for nearly the entire series, but leaving Edmure locked in a cell wouldn’t exactly fit into his hero’s arc.
It’s difficult to imagine Edmure liking Jaime after the Lannisters kept him locked up for years on end, but he’ll probably accept the Kingslayer’s help. Edmure has never met any of the Stark children currently alive on the show, so, as odd as it sounds, Jaime is his closest connection with his nieces and nephews.
Chance of reunion: Tobias Menzies, the actor who plays Edmure, appeared on a cast list for Season 8. That doesn’t guarantee he’ll return, but if he does, a reunion with Jaime feels likely.
BONUS: Edmure and Roslin
Last shared screen time: Season 3, Episode 9, “The Rains of Castamere”
Episodes apart: 38
Then: Imagine having your wedding be THE RED WEDDING. What a way to begin a marriage.
Now: Edmure and Roslin haven’t seen each other since their wedding night, yet the two have a son together. The seed is strong!
It’s been years since the Red Wedding. Let the former Lord of Riverrun see his family!
Chance of reunion: Edmure may be making a comeback, but who the hell knows where Roslin is at this point?
Disclosure: HBO is an initial investor in The Ringer.
