It seems like this season of Game of Thrones just started, and somehow it's almost over. It's time to start digging in my heels and analyzing every last moment. Like what does the Game of Thrones episode title "Battle of the Bastards" mean, for example? That's the name that's been given to Episode 59, also known as Season 6, Episode 9, airing Jun. 19. Based on the title alone, I think that I can make some educated guesses as to what we should expect in the upcoming episode.
"Battle of the Bastards" likely indicates two people without solid parentage fighting. And this feels too easy, but the two who jump to mind immediately are Ramsay Bolton and Jon Snow. Obviously, at this point, Ramsay has been given the Bolton name by the very father he murdered, but he is technically a bastard: Roose Bolton raped his mother and killed his father, a miller who had married the woman without permission from his liege lord. And, since Jon still bears the Northern bastard name of "Snow," I don't need to tell you that he's officially a Snow and not a Stark, and thus also qualifies as a bastard.
Those are the two most prominent bastards on the show, although Gendry is still drifting around there somewhere, presumably, and they're already set up on opposite sides of an impending conflict. So, we can probably solve both portions of this mystery right now. The conflict I'm referring to is the battle over Winterfell, currently held by Ramsay Bolton and hotly desired by Jon Snow. The last few episodes have featured the latter building an army in hopes of reclaiming his ancestral home from the former, so it seems that Season 6, Episode 9 of Game of Thrones will feature the knock-down, drag-out battle that we've been building to.
And, since this is the ninth episode of the season after all, where the most momentous episodes are usually slotted in — anyone remember the Red Wedding? — everything checks out to suggest that that's what we'll be seeing on Jun. 19. So hold onto your butts, everybody. This is gonna be a bumpy ride.
Images: HBO; Giphy
