We look at biggest theories from the books and make predictions for HBO’s Game of Thrones season 6.

It’s almost time. Game of Thrones season 6 kicks off this Sunday, and if you saw our recent season 5 recap, you should have a pretty good idea of where the stories left off. Now it’s time to don our tinfoil hats, make some predictions, and round up some of the best fan theories for season 6.

Click on the next image to get started…

[MAJOR BOOK SPOILERS FOLLOW]

Lady Stoneheart will make her return

If you’ve read the Game of Thrones books you’ve likely been waiting a while for the arrival of Lady Stoneheart, and we think season 6 is where she finally will make her appearance. Who is she? Well, after Catelyn Stark’s death at the hands of the Freys during the Red Wedding, she is resurrected by Beric Dondarrion.

If you’re not familiar with Beric, he’s the leader of an outlaw group called the Brotherhood without Banners. Beric himself has been killed and resurrected before, thanks to a red priest, Thoros of Myr.

In the books, Beric gives up his life for Catelyn’s and she’s resurrected as Lady Stoneheart, but the resurrection carries some complications. The reanimated Catelyn’s wounds aren’t healed fully, so her slit throat means she can’t talk, and in the process she loses some of herself: she’s consumed with rage and hellbent on revenge.

Lady Stoneheart becomes the new leader of the Brotherhood without Banners and proves to be a total badass. We really want to see her again.

Cleganebowl

Next up is one of our favourite fan theories, Cleganebowl. If it ever happens, it will likely be in season 6. The theory supposes that the Clegane brothers: Sandor “The Hound” and Gregor “The Mountain” will end up fighting each other in an epic showdown to decide the fate of Cersei Lannister.

How? First, some backstory; The Hound’s face was scarred because, when the brothers were young, The Mountain pushed The Hound’s face into a fire. Ever since then The Hound has carried a phobia of fire, and has hated his brother for it.

The last we saw of Gregor was when he was poisoned during his fight with Oberyn Martell. The creepy Maester Qyburn promised to keep him alive, but said that the process may change him a bit. All we see of him is writhe under a sheet while being experimented on. At the end of season 5, we are introduced to the newest member of the Kingsguard, who is likely the reanimated Gregor.

At the end of season 4, The Hound was seemingly left for dead by Arya. Fans of the books have come up with the Gravedigger theory, which claims The Hound is rescued by a reputed healer known as the Elder Brother.

Brienne of Tarth hears about The Hound’s survival when meeting the Elder Brother in a place called the Quiet Isle. Brienne finds The Hound’s horse, which is famous for being essentially un-tamable, and then finds a man with a similar body and wounds to The Hound, who is digging graves. The theory is that The Hound is now part of the Faith as Sandor Clegane, having left his persona behind.

Later in the books, when Cersei gets arrested by the Sparrows, she chooses trial by combat. Her representative will be the The Mountain, and so the theory goes, the Faith’s representative will be the newly pious Sandor.

So, basically, Cleganebowl, get hype.

We find out who Jon Snow’s mother is

This is based on one of the biggest and most researched fan theories out there: Rhaegar + Lyanna = Jon.

This theory claims that Jon Snow isn’t Ned Stark’s bastard at all, but he’s still a Stark. The details are vague, but in the Game of Thrones books, it is told that Ned’s sister Lyanna runs off with (or is kidnapped by) Rhaegar Targaryen, the son of the mad king Aerys, and older brother of Daenerys. Rhaegar has not featured in the show before, but his kidnapping of Lyanna causes a bunch of problems, not least of which is that Lyanna is betrothed to Robert Baratheon.

Rhaegar’s actions trigger Robert’s rebellion, during which Rhaegar is killed by Robert at the Battle of the Trident, and the Mad King is stabbed in the back by Jaime Lannister. King’s Landing is then pulverised by the Lannister armies.

After this, Ned Stark sets off to find Lyanna, and tracks her to a strange place called the Tower of Joy, wherein he finds her in a pool of her own blood, and she ends up dying. It’s theorised that Ned actually found her after she’d given birth to the baby that we know to be Jon Snow. It’s not made clear what she died of, but it’s likely to be childbirth. After all, when Ned Stark returns to Winterfell, he has a baby in tow.

The full length trailer for season 6 seems to show a guy who looks a lot like Ned Stark (wearing a Targaryen crest and carrying the Stark shield). Obviously, considering Ned is super dead, this could easily be a flashback scene. Could this be the Tower of Joy? Could R+L=J finally be confirmed?

Jamie will kill Cersei

Cast your mind back to season 5, where we saw a young Cersei and a friend visit Maggy the Frog, who tells her fortune. In the books, it’s made clear by Maester Qyburn that Maggy the Frog is actually Maggy the Maegi, a powerful maegi who uses dark bloodmagic in order to see into the future.

Maggy’s fortune wasn’t so fair for Cersei. It starts off good; She’ll marry the king, become queen, and have three beautiful children. That all happens. But she’s also told a younger, more beautiful woman will come to cast her down and take everything she holds dear. Basically, Margaery, or it could be Daenerys, or even Sansa.

“Gold shall be their crowns and gold their shrouds,” she said, meaning that all three of her children will die. Two of them are already dead, with Tommen the only remaining child left.

Then it gets even worse for Cersei: Maggy says: “And when your tears have drowned you, the Valonqar shall wrap his hands about your pale white throat and choke the life from you.”

Valonqar is high Valyrian for “little brother.” The obvious answer is it means Tyrion, which explains why Cersei is awful to him. But, she’s overlooking another little brother. Her lover and father of her children, Jaime.

Jon Snow is not dead

Jon Snow has got to be alive. And we’re not just saying that because we’re not ready to say goodbye to him and his beautiful floppy hair. There’s a bunch of theories as to how he could survive.

Some fans think that Jon warged (possessing another lifeform) out into the body of his direwolf Ghost. It’s been shown before that many of the Starks have been able to warg into other animals. Arya has done it before, as has Bran on several occasions. The theory is Jon can too. This process is easier if there’s a strong bond between the animal and the human, so it could be possible. In the books, Jon Snow has recurring dreams where he wargs into the body of his direwolf.

But another theory states that Melisandre brings him back. We know followers of the Lord of Light can do that, the red priest Thoros of Myr, who brought Beric Dondarrion back to life, being one such example. Melisandre thought that Stannis was the Chosen One, a reincarnated legendary warrior of light called Azor Ahai. Given that Stannis ended up being a bust, maybe Jon Snow is her new hope.

In A Dance With Dragons, she says this insightful line: “I pray for a glimpse of Azor Ahai, and R’hllor shows me only snow.”

The Dragon has three heads

This final theory is probably the most far-fetched and hard to believe. This theory requires you to buy into the theory that Jon Snow is the son of Rhaegar. It also means one of our favourite characters, Tyrion, is also a Targaryen.

It’s theorised Tyrion’s father is actually secretly Aerys, the Mad King, who slept with Tywin’s wife Joanna.

Tywin, who is assumed to be the (now slain) father of Tyrion, was once the Hand for the Mad King Aerys. It’s already stated that Aeryn had a massive thing for Tywin’s wife Joanna. What if Joanna didn’t refuse Aeryn’s advances?

What’s interesting to note is that, in the books, Tyrion was born with a tail. There are also tales of Targaryen children born malformed, with one story stating that a Targaryen child was born with a tail.

So if Jon and Tyrion are also Targaryen, that brings us to the third head, Daenarys. Remember when Daenerys visited the House of the Undying? She sees a vision of a man who could be Rhaegar with a woman holding a baby; they say that the baby should be called Aegon and that he’s the prince who was promised (which, interestingly, could be another name for Azor Ahai). And it is said that his is the song of ice and fire. The man who resembles Rhaegar looks at Daenerys and says “there must be one more… the dragon has three heads”.

Daenerys has three dragons, and if you assume each requires a rider, that could be her, Jon, and if you buy into the A+J=T theory, Tyrion.

Which is why them meeting is so momentous.

So, what do you reckon? Are you hyped for season six? Let me know in the comments, or let me know some of your favourite fan theories.

Don’t forget to check out our all-new GameSpot of Thrones show, which goes live every Monday after the show, providing episode analysis, answers to questions, news, reaction, and more.

Check it out here.