After Episode 1 Season 1, the characters of Game of Thrones were literally thrown across the world. They traveled leagues, learned how to survive, and learned a bit of magic too. With only six episodes left, everything and everyone will be converging on two places: Winterfell and King’s Landing. As a result, we will be getting characters reuniting for the first time in, in some cases, 57 episodes.
Here are a some of the character reunions we’re expecting to see in Game of Thrones season 8!
Jon Snow and Arya Stark
The friendship between Arya and Jon in Season 1 shed light on how both children were the outcasts in their family. Arya, the tomboy who bests Bran at archery; and Jon, the bastard of Ned, raised as the all but a legitimate son. Their goodbye when Arya is leaving for King’s Landing and Jon is leaving for the Night’s Watch was bittersweet.
Jon gifts Arya with her very own sword in order to continue practicing, which she names Needle – an irony because she is quite terrible at the needlework that girls and women are encouraged to do and societally pressured to be good at. And throughout the following seven seasons, Needle has been Arya’s off and on companion. In Season 6, she ceremoniously picks up Needle from its “grave” in Braavos and in doing so, she reclaims her name and place in the world: Arya Stark of Winterfell.
Throughout the seasons, Jon has not had a token of his sister with him, unlike Arya. Only memories. Even then, there is not much exposition (at least, in the show – there is more in the books) of Jon thinking about his sister until he reunites with Sansa at Castle Black. And as far as anyone other than the Hound and Brienne and Podrick are concerned, Arya is probably long dead. After all, she has been officially missing since the end of Season 1.
Sansa and Jon’s reunion was emotional and beautiful – and those two didn’t even get along when they lived at Winterfell together! Theon and Jon would have had a brawl over the ‘killing’ of Bran and Rickon but because of Theon saving Sansa from Ramsey, instead we are given a heartwarming, “I don’t like you but I won’t kill you” moment. Which means that the reunion of Arya and Jon will likely be as sweet and as heart-wrenchingly beautiful as we have all imagined it.
The new Game of Thrones promo videos this week have given us a sneak peek at just what this will look like. We are taking a guess on the location, but it looks like they’ll meet in the Godswood at Winterfell. Arya will see Jon first. She’ll approach slowly. There will be a pause where we the viewers hold our breath in anticipation. Then…
I predict that we will see a recreation of their goodbye hug from Season 1. The hardened badass that Arya has become will melt away as they embrace. Jon will pick her up and hold her tight, just like their goodbye. For a moment, Arya will be just a girl again, just a daughter, just a teenager. And we’ll all be sobbing happily.
