Who survived the second to last episode of the series? See how people reacted to the fates of Arya, Jon Snow, Cersei, Jaime, and more WARNING: The following story contains spoilers from the latest episode of Game of Thrones. The penultimate episode Game of Thrones, did not waste any time tying up loose ends — and unsurprisingly, contained several emotional goodbyes and a whole lotta bloodshed. Get push notifications with news, features and more. So who all died? Well, if you’re looking for a cheat sheet, here you go: Lord Varys (Conleth Hill), Euron Greyjoy (Pilou Asbæk), The Hound aka Sandor Clegane (Rory McCann), The Mountain aka Gregor Clegane (Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson), Qyburn (Anton Lesser), Jaime Lannister (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau), and Cersei Lannister (Lena Headey). The episode, called “The Bells,” opened with an early exit for a favorite player — Lord Varys aka Master of Whisperers, was killed by Dany’s (Emilia Clarke) last dragon Drogon for essentially trying to convince Jon Snow (Kit Harington) to take his rightful place on the Iron Throne. Snow refuses to waver in his loyalty to his Queen, but Dany herself seems overcome with suspicion and fear, and showing more and more signs she’s becoming the “Mad Queen.” Tyrion (Peter Dinklage) participates in two acts of betrayal — one toward Varys and one toward Dany when he frees his brother Jaime from where he was captured by her Unsullied army. “You were the only one who didn’t treat me like a monster,” Tyrion says to Jaime as he helps him escape, telling him that he hopes Jaime will find Cersei and whisk her away from King’s Landing before the war between Dany and Cersei’s armies takes place. (5)-Courtesy-of-HBO A scene from Game of Thrones‘ “The Last War,” the fifth episode of season eight War in King’s Landing is not averted, of course. The next day sees Dany and Drogon lay waste to Euron Greyjoy’s Iron Fleet of ships, their “dragon killer” Scorpion weapons, as well as much of the Gold Company who came in to assist Cersei, courtesy the fearsome Unsullied. There is a brief moment of peace when the bells ring and the audience is made to think Cersei might surrender, but it turns to full-on war between the two sides — with Dany leaning fully into the suspicions about her mental health as she and Drogon go about killing countless innocent citizens in King’s Landing. Meanwhile Euron Greyjoy and Jaime engage in bloody hand-to-hand combat that results in Euron’s death. He dies believing he’s mortally wounded Jaime. “I’m the man who killed Jaime Lannister,” he says, dying, with a smile on his face. Cut to Arya and The Hound, who are on a mission to kill Cersei and The Hound’s undead brother Ser Gregor “The Mountain” Clegane. The Hound convinces Arya to temporarily turn away from her hunt for Cersei. They part ways, in search of separate targets, and The Hound is finally able to confront the one and only person he wants to kill. With The Hound and The Mountain fighting to very bloody deaths, Cersei flees and almost literally runs into Jaime’s arms. “You’re hurt,” she says. “Doesn’t matter,” he responds. They wander off together as the walls around them continue to crumble and burn. Of the major players still living and in the fight, Jon calls for the army to fall back and head to safety; Arya gets jostled around and struck by debris as she’s trying to flee the Red Keep. She’s nearly crushed when a tower falls, but helps a group of survivors keep moving away from danger. They are stopped short when Drogon’s fire blasts through the scene. Back with still-bleeding Jaime and Cersei, who are trapped in an underground passageway, emotional but resigned to accept their doomed fate. “Nothing else matters, only us,” Jaime says to Cersei as the walls collapse on top of them. The episode ends with Arya, bloodied, dusty with ash from the city burning around her, coming upon a white horse, and riding away from the death and debris around her.<doc-sep>Enlarge Image HBO It goes without saying, but massive Game of Thrones spoilers below. Sunday night's episode of Game of Thrones gave us the Battle of King's Landing, the second huge-scale battle in the final season after the Battle of Winterfell. We've got good news and bad news for you. The good news is the battle took place during the day, meaning no lighting issues this time. The bad news is that lots of people died. We got our first major character kill before Daenerys Targaryen and Jon Snow left Dragonstone, which in more ways than one was an omen of things to come. In this Song of Fire and Ice, it turns out we should have been more worried about the fire than the ice. Varys In episode 4, The Last of the Starks, Varys confided in Tyrion Lannister his concerns about Daenerys' temperament. Jon is a more able ruler, he said, and Daenerys is proving herself less stable. They should replace her, he argued. Episode 5 opens with a followup to this thread. The gang is all back at Dragonstone following last week's unproductive King's Landing confrontation with Cersei, which ended zero wars and left one Missandei dead, and Varys tries to tell Jon that he, not Daenerys, should sit on the Iron Throne. Tyrion tells Daenerys about Varys' betrayal. We see Daenerys is in a bad state; bags under her eyes, frazzled hair, looking sickly. Times are bad. Daenerys says Jon and Tyrion are both also at fault. Jon, against Daenerys' orders, told Sansa about his true identity, and Tyrion, once hearing it from Sansa, told Varys. Thankfully for Tyrion, the punishment wasn't doled out evenly. He got a stern talking to ("the next time you fail me will be the last time you fail me") while Varys got execution by fire. He was led from his quarters by the Unsullied to Dragonstone's shores, where he was sentenced to die. Varys tells Tyrion he hopes he's wrong about Daenerys, then Drogon gets his dracarys on. The realm will miss you, Varys. Varys’s reaction when he was sentenced to death after years of being a snake #GameofThrones pic.twitter.com/EfDqsoZvU4 — Sandra jones (@thebigwhopper2) May 13, 2019 RIP Varys. The Master of Whispers. The Spider. The man of great facial expressions. #GameofThrones pic.twitter.com/RmORQVl7xO — Cress (@capricress) May 13, 2019 Euron Greyjoy We went quite a while between character deaths. Between Varys and Euron Greyjoy, though, there was a whole lot of miscellaneous soldier deaths. The point of last episode was to make you ask, "Will Daenerys be the Mad Queen or will she turn out OK?" She did not turn out OK. Drogon destroyed the Iron Fleet and overpowered the Lannister Army. Bells were ringing the sweet sound of surrender. Daenerys had previously told Tyrion she wouldn't raze the city if the city surrendered early enough. The surrender came early enough, but wow did Daenerys burn everything down anyway. As the city was falling, Jaime Lannister was racing to find Cersei. On his way he's confronted by Euron, whose fleet had just been Drogon'd. He asks Jaime if he wants to try and kill another king before they all die, but Jaime isn't interested. Then Euron mentioned that he slept with Cersei and it was immediately on. The two scuffled, and Euron stabbed Jaime twice in the ribs. It looked like ye' ol' Kingslayer was a goner, but he got his second wind and impaled Euron against a rock. Me replaying Euron’s death on repeat for the next week #GameofThrones pic.twitter.com/CkSZUfgY3r — space cowboy (@ItsAllens) May 13, 2019 in what world does it make sense that jaime gets to kill euron when YARA STILL EXISTS — osha (@oshawildling) May 13, 2019 Qyburn Qyburn, the disgraced ex-maester and (now former) Hand of the Queen to Cersei was killed by his own creation. As defeat became obvious, Qyburn tried to rush Cersei to safety. The Red Keep was crumbling. Their party, containing Cersei, Qyburn, Ser Gregor Clegane and a bunch of guards, was running down a staircase as the walls and ceilings were falling. It's around this time that they're confronted by Sandor Clegane. It. Is. Clegane. Bowl. Time. Sandor wants Gregor. Gregor wants Sandor. Gregor advances. Qyburn tries to restrain him, telling him to stay by the Queen. Gregor grabs him and, with little more than a flick of the wrist, flings him several feet. Qyburns head smashes against a wall and then smashes open against some jagged stairs. Cersei promptly exited as inconspicuously as possible. The mountain when qyburn tried to stop him #GameofThrones pic.twitter.com/q74rw581IV — ㅤㅤㅤ (@strainful) May 13, 2019 The mountain after Qyburn said “obey your queen” #GameofThrones pic.twitter.com/S3fQZOlGQy — Here comes the son (@asianscump) May 13, 2019 Sandor Clegane, Gregor Clegane Cleganebowl finally happened, and it was glorious. With The Red Keep crumbling in flames, and with Gregor removing his helmet and armor to reveal what can only be described as a Vader-esque look, this battle was reminiscent of Obi-Wan versus Anakin Skywalker in Star Wars Episode 3. Gregor started with the high ground, but it was an even match. The two clung swords together. Gregor was stronger but Sandor faster. Our sweet Hound looked to have won when he stabbed The Mountain clean in the gut, but Gregor was unperturbed. Did we mention that Gregor is literally invincible? HBO Gregor beats down Sandor with his massive, genetically-enhanced fists. He strangles his little brother against the wall. Sandor pulls out a dagger and pokes holes into Gregor to no avail. Nothing hurts The Big Guy. Gregor lifts Sandor and tries to split his skull Oberyn Martell-style. Before he can manage it, though, Sandor puts his dagger through Gregor's right eye. Gregor stumbles back and seems to be injured. But he then stabilizes himself and starts pulling the dagger out like it's nothing. The Hound isn't having it, and tackles his older brother through the wall. The two fall several hundred feet into a pit of Drogon fire. Rest in power, Hound. Rest in power.<doc-sep>The Game of Thrones finale is almost here, and there’s no shortage of theories and speculation around Season 8, Episode 6. However, there’s one GoT leak out there that could actually reveal what happens in the show’s final episode before it even airs. Warning: HUGE Game of Thrones finale spoilers below. This leak comes to us from redditor u/afraidpart, who shared several posts full of Game of Thrones spoilers roughly nine months ago. At the time, they were ignored, but midway through Season 8, those claims started to come true. Subscribe for free to Multiverse and get Game of Thrones coverage delivered to your inbox the night the episode airs. Here’s a list of Game of Thrones Season 8 leaks from u/afraidpart that already happened: The Mountain kills Missandei. The Night King dies in Episode 3. The Hound and the Mountain both die in Cleganebowl. Jaime and Cersei Lannister die together in a somewhat unsatisfying way. So what’s next? Redditor u/afraidpart’s intel on Game of Thrones Season 8, Episode 6 was a little bit less clear, but we do have a few juicy details. Also read: Who lived and who died in Game of Thrones Season 8, Episode 5. Here’s my personal favorite: “The Iron Throne gets melted by the dragon.” Actually, it’s possible that already happened. Daenerys and Drogon basically leveled King’s Landing in Episode 5, and that may have included the Iron Throne. We never got a look into the throne room during last night’s episode. Could the Game of Thrones finale open on an image of the throne melted or destroyed? We wouldn’t be surprised if that’s exactly what happens. On a similar note, the Season 8 leak claims that “Jon Snow finally sees Arya after they get to the throne.” We’re guessing this means Jon will see his sister using her Faceless Man training, possibly right after she assassinates someone else (Dany? ). As for Tyrion, it looks like he’ll do exactly what we expect and turn on Daenerys in the Game of Thrones finale: When Daenerys is making her speech everyone is mad at her. Tyrion makes some comment (he doesn’t get sound) and throws his pin (?) on the ground and she sends him to the prison? Idk what was going on here. Finally, when it comes to Jon and Dany, it’s unclear exactly how Game of Thrones Season 8 will end. Based on this leak, it seems HBO might have actually filmed multiple different versions of the finale. However, we do get one pretty awesome description of how Daenerys could die: Danaerys actually DOES die, she’s killed (stabbed I think) by Jon Snow. She goes back to the throne room and touches the throne. Has no idea WHY he kills her, there’s a missing chunk. But it happens in the throne room. I asked him why and he said he doesn’t know and I don’t even think they saw the actual death scene, just the fact that she’s dead. So he’s only assuming she gets murdered, otherwise she commits suicide but that doesn’t make much sense. Then the dragon flies away with her body but doesn’t kill Snow. Either way, she dies. That’s a lot to pack into a single episode of television, but with an 80-minute runtime, it’s possible that Game of Thrones Season 8, Episode 6 will be able to get the job done. The Game of Thrones finale airs Sunday, May 19 at 9 p.m. Eastern on HBO.<doc-sep>David Benioff and D.B. Weiss have spent almost a decade making Game of Thrones. The show, never a stranger to controversy, has become more divisive the closer it gets to a finale. Benioff and Weiss’s next project is Star Wars; how might the chronicles of Westeros influence a galaxy far, far away? (Note: Given that Game of Thrones has not yet concluded as of this writing, and not all readers will be caught up with the latest episodes, this article will remain spoiler-free for GoT. Elements of Star Wars will be discussed) After Rian Johnson’s The Last Jedi came out in 2017, social media regarding Star Wars became, shall we say, somewhat controversial. The film seemed to polarize its viewers into two camps despite being a huge box office and U.S. home video success. Online, things were heated across various social media outlets with some rather ugly comments driving some stars away from fan interaction. Star Wars fans may have nothing on fans of the HBO show Game of Thrones. The fantasy show is in its eighth and final season, and reaction to the direction the show is taking as it approaches its end has its own share of heated responses. From comments about “character assassination” to fans being just disappointed in what happened, each episode of this final season seems to have engendered stronger responses from people who think the showrunners, David Benioff and D.B. Weiss either don’t understand the source material, have paced the story oddly, or are making characters meant to be heroes act in decidedly unheroic ways. Sounds a bit familiar if anyone kept up with the reactions to The Last Jedi. It becomes more relevant considering that Benioff and Weiss are working on a new series of Star Wars films. The similarities in complaints seem to center around one particular truth: Some fans did not get what they wanted. Many TLJ complaints centered around Luke Skywalker not playing a more traditional fantasy hero role in the film, as there was an expectation that he would “walk out with a laser sword and face down the whole first order.” When Snoke is presented as the “big bad” and instead proves to be just the catalyst for the rise of Kylo Ren as the villain, some audience members felt it was a bait and switch. Photo Credit: [Star Wars: The Last Jedi] Lucasfilm(Please keep in mind, there is nothing wrong with having those opinions about the film; attacking artists, actors, and fellow fans personally about these things is where fandom gets toxic.) Very similar complaints are all along social media right now as characters expected to be heroes are proving to be less than that, and characters who were on redemptive arcs are instead choosing to revert to their old ways. Whether one likes this direction, it is something that defies the expectations the audience has come to have from formula and narrative rules and tropes. Both The Last Jedi and Game of Thrones have done that; broken from expectation and norm to tell their stories while not necessarily giving members of the audience what they wanted. With the upcoming slate of Disney–and therefore Star Wars–films announced and knowing Benioff and Weiss are on deck to create new material, there is bound to be apprehension regarding what they will do given the controversy surrounding the end of Game of Thrones. The audience should expect however that whatever they get will probably have a lot in common with The Last Jedi in its defiance of expectation. Depending on your opinion of The Last Jedi or of Game of Thrones that could be very good news, or very bad. The first untitled Star Wars film that could be Benioff and Weiss’ project will debut in December of 2022. The final episode of Game of Thrones airs May 19th, 2019. Comment below to discuss your take on what Benioff and Weiss might bring from Westeros into the wider Galaxy!<doc-sep>
[Editor’s note: The following contains spoilers for “Game of Thrones” Season 8, Episode 5, “The Bells.”] For many, there was a feeling of distance that came over us as we watched “The Bells,” the penultimate episode of “Game of Thrones” — the same distance, it could be said, that the camera kept away from the woman whose importance to this show cannot be understated, but whose journey has become painfully underdeveloped at the exact moment when it would be crucial for us to understand what’s happening inside Daenerys Targaryen’s head. Related stories George R.R. Martin Denies 'Thrones' Books Are Finished and Waiting for Release After Show Ends 'Game of Thrones: The Last Watch' Trailer: Say Goodbye to Westeros In the episode, at about the midway point — before Daenerys goes full-tilt fire crazy — there’s a shot of her sitting astride Drogon. The camera only catches her face in profile, before rotating around to focus on the back of her head. Aside from an earlier close-up right after the ringing of the bells, that’s the extent to which her inner journey is put on screen for the second half of the episode, even as she reduces to ash the city that she previously claimed she did not want to reduce to ash, with innocents burned to a crisp before our very eyes. (The anonymous mother and child that Arya tries to rescue got more face time during the episode than Daenerys did.) “The Bells” loves the back of Daenerys’ head (and in fairness, the show’s wig game remains on point) but that’s not enough to justify her actions, especially given that, as showrunners D.B. Weiss and David Benioff “explained” during the post-show Inside the Episode featurette, her decision to burn the joint down was basically a spontaneous one. “I don’t think she decided ahead of time that she was going to do what she did. And then she sees the Red Keep, which is, to her, the home that her family built when they first came over to this country 300 years ago,” Weiss said. “It’s in that moment, on the walls of King’s Landing, when she’s looking at that symbol of everything that was taken from her, when she makes the decision to make this personal.” Story continues This decision to “make this personal” was done in the most impersonal manner possible — just one shot of Daenerys’ face, inserted into the rampage, would have done wonders to let the character’s choice feel even vaguely realized. Instead, the sequence is just a character-free orgy of destruction, with a way-overpowered dragon raining down death from above. And it’s all the more upsetting when one considers that, as many have pointed out (though no one has done it better than the below Tweet), Daenerys’ actions directly contradict the scene in “Stormborn,” Season 7, Episode 2, when she promised “I will not attack King’s Landing. We will not attack King’s Landing.” #GameofThrones just out here making jokes now. SPOILERS pic.twitter.com/SaznNtRpKG — Albert Hise (@AlbertHise) May 13, 2019 That said, Daenerys did make good on another promise from that episode, as she told Varys at that point that “If you ever betray me, I’ll burn you alive.” To which he replied, “I would expect nothing less from the Mother of Dragons” — so really, can’t say he wasn’t warned. That sequence did make sense for the character, because she not only used her words, but we saw her face as she gave the order to kill. It was a harsh choice, but one that fit with Daenerys’ past actions as she took action against a threat. Daenerys has killed plenty, but typically with cause — slavers and traitors. The common people of King’s Landing, meanwhile, cannot be categorized as such. And maybe that’s why the camera stayed off her face in the long run; maybe there was no possible look that would explain her choices. But even the attempt to bring a human element to the scene would have gone a long way towards helping the audience understand that there was still some humanity left in this show. The “Game of Thrones” series finale airs Sunday, May 19 at 9 p.m. EST on HBO. Launch Gallery: 'Game of Thrones': Looking Back at Season 1 (When Everyone Was So Young) Sign up for Indiewire's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.