Few shows on television are more adept at messing with their viewers' minds than Game of Thrones. HBO's fantasy juggernaut is known for its daring twists and tragic turns, and now fans on Reddit may have spotted a devastating clue in the Game of Thrones Season 7 trailer hinting at Cersei's fate. As Vanity Fair points out, the visual clue is one only fans of the A Song of Ice and Fire book series by George R.R. Martin would be likely to notice because it deals with a prophecy that wasn't completely explained in the show.
Season 5 began with a flashback of young Cersei meeting with the woods witch Maggy. In the show, she foretells the death of Cersei's three children, and predicts the Lannister's reign as queen will be ended by another woman. The crucial part that is left out has to do with how she will die — at the hands of the valonqar, the high Valyrian word for "little brother."
"When your tears have drowned you, the valonqar shall wrap his hands about your pale white throat and choke the life from you," Martin writes in A Feast for Crows. Here's where the trailer comes in. It appears Cersei will have a giant map of Westeros built in Season 7. In the trailer, she is standing on an area of the map known as "The Neck." Meanwhile, her twin and lover, Jaime, is standing on an area known as "The Fingers." The symbolism is breathtaking.
Now, you may be saying Jaime can't be Cersei's little brother because they're twins, but she is technically older than him. According to the books, Jamie was born holding onto his sister's foot. So while he isn't the little brother the newly minted Queen would suspect to be her undoing, Jaime does fit the prophecy.
Fans have long speculated that it would be Jaime, rather than Tyrion, who ended Cersei's reign. Given his position on the map in relation to his sister's, the show could be cleverly suggesting the theories are right, and Jaime is the valonqar. Either that or the show used the imagery as a way to hide an Easter egg for diehard devotees of the books.
Having Jaime stand on The Fingers makes it all to easy to visualize a hand, and when that's juxtaposed against Cersei on The Neck, it's hard not to think about the prophecy. Season 6 ended with Jaime looking dismayed that Cersei has taken the Iron Throne. Meanwhile, the Queen is hardly the picture of stability these days, and after what Jaime went through with the Mad King, he may not be able to stand by and watch his sister burn Westeros to the ground.
One of the things working against the clue is the fact that the full prophecy was never explained in the show. However, just because the detail about the valonqar was left out doesn't mean the writers aren't planning to have someone near and dear to Cersei end her reign.
Whether the map scene turns out to be nothing more than a clever bit of staging, or powerful foreshadowing, the Game of Thrones team deserves major kudos for embedding such a subtle nod to the books in the trailer. It's just one more example of how intricate every last detail of this dense and addictive show truly is.
