Did You Catch These Clues in Season 1 of Game of Thrones?

The Subtle Lines That Predicted Important Developments Later On

Season 1 of Game of Thrones had iconic lines. Looking back after Season 8, many of these ended up being easter eggs, clues of where our HBO journey would take us.

If you’re rewatching it, let me give you a couple warnings to avoid getting as disoriented as I did:

• The hair and makeup crew were still actually trying to convince us Peter Dinklage (Tyrion Lannister) was blonde. Probably best to avoid direct eye contact.
  
• Cersei talks about a miscarriage–which may or may not be true. For whatever reason, this isn’t brought up again. Ever.
  
• Jon is entirely baby-faced. It’s adorable but it may catch you off guard.

Now that you’re entirely ready, come along and we’ll see if you caught these lines that foreshadowed what was truly to come… especially in Season 8.

WARNING: THIS POST CONTAINS SEASON 8 SPOILERS

Episode 1: Winter is Coming

Whatever did it to them could do it to us. They even killed the children.

It’s a good thing we’re not children.

Will & Waymar Royce

Context:

Will is trying to convince Royce that the circle of dead wildlings he found means something dangerous is out there and they should go back to the wall.

Why It’s Important:

Will parallels Jon Snow, foreshadowing Snow trying to warn the Night’s Watch about the white walkers and Mance’s army, but ends up getting killed when he tries to protect the “wrong” people.

It also might be a call back to the creation of the White Walkers, as the Children of the Forest created them before the Night King and the White Walkers turned on them.

He won’t be a boy forever. And winter is coming.

Ned Stark

Context:

Ned says this to Catelyn when she asks him not to bring Bran to the beheading of the deserter Will.

Why It’s Important:

This could foreshadow Bran actually not being a boy–or a person?–forever, as he turns into the Three-Eyed Raven.

Where will they [the direwolves] go? Their mother’s dead.

They don’t belong down here.

Bran & Ser Rodrick

Context:

When they find the direwolf pups in the woods, Bran holds one and asks Ned this.

Why It’s Important:

Since there are multiple instances of the direwolves paralleling the Stark children, this could be foreshadowing of Catelyn dying at the Red Wedding and the Stark children having to all go to different places and/or serve a new purpose:

• Bran to the Three-Eyed Raven beyond the wall
  
• Arya with The Hound to The Vale, eventually leading her to the Faceless Men in Braavos
  
• Sansa having a new purpose in wearing the necklace that holds the poison to kill Joffrey and eventually going to the Vale with Baelish
  
• Rickon with Osha to the Last Hearth to stay safe
  
• Jon back to the wall after being shot with three arrows by Ygritte for betraying her.

All of these changes happen either right after or soon after Catelyn’s death.

When they write the history of my reign, sweet sister, they will say it began today.

Viserys

Context:

Viserys says this to Daenerys after showing her the dress Illyrio got her to meet Khal Drogo.

Why It’s Important:

This really is about Daenerys, as her reign truly began that day. Since her wedding made her the Khaleesi and this led to her power later, and it is written in the book presented to Tyrion in the Season 8 finale, A Song of Ice and Fire.

The people drink secret toasts to your health. They cry out for their true king.

Illyrio

Context:

He says this to Viserys in Pentos, encouraging him that he will be King of Westeros soon after the Khal accepts Daenerys as his queen.

Why It’s Important:

As we know, Varys represents the good of the realm and the people of the realm throughout the series. This was especially true with his death in Season 8, as he was trying to keep the realm safe.

As we learn in Season 4–when Varys sneaks Tyrion to Pentos–Varys has secretly been supporting Daenerys’s claim to the throne, along with other lords in Essos.

This line foreshadows the “people” that Varys represents supporting the Targaryen claim to the throne.

I hope to always serve the rightful king.

Jorah Mormont

Context:

Jorah tells this to Viserys at Daenerys’s wedding to Khal Drogo, after giving her the histories of the Seven Kingdoms.

Why It’s Important:

This line both shows Jorah’s true intentions at the time, as he is serving Robert Baratheon, the current true king, by spying on Daenerys. However, it also foreshadows his service, and subsequent death, at the Battle of Winterfell in Season 8, which was considered Jon Snow’s war. Therefore, Jorah was serving the actual rightful king, as we know Jon is the true heir to the Iron Throne.

Episode 2: The Kingsroad

In the Shadowlands, there is a ghost grass that murders all other grass. The Dothraki believes that one day it will cover everything. That’s the way the world will end.

Jorah Mormont

Context:

Jorah says this to Daenerys after she is reluctant to eat horse, but Jorah reminds her that the Dothraki have only horses and grass in abundance, and shares this history with her.

Why It’s Important:

If we look at this from the perspective of a natural force beyond grass, say snow, this describes the White Walker invasion, as they bring winter with them and are a sort of ghost species, undead.

We can go out walking beyond the wall if you’re not afraid.

Jon Snow

Context:

Jon says this to an unconscious Bran when he’s saying goodbye before leaving to the Night’s Watch, apologizing for not seeing the wall first with Bran like they’d always talked about, and telling him they can do this when Bran gets better.

Why It’s Important:

This foreshadows Bran going beyond the wall to become the Three-Eyed Raven and bravely using himself as bait for the Night King during the Battle of Winterfell by going to the godswood beyond the wall.

The next time we see each other, we’ll talk about your mother. Hm? I promise.

Ned Stark

Context:

Ned says this to Jon when he asks about his mother before leaving for the Night’s Watch.

Why It’s Important:

This foreshadows when Jon visits Ned’s crypt for the first time in Season 8 and Sam tells him who his mother really was while he is there.

Yours was uh, Alenna? No. You told me once. Meryl? Your bastard’s mother.

Wylla.

That’s it. Must’ve been a rare wench to make Lord Stark forget his honor. You never told me what she looked like.

Nor will I.

Robert & Ned

Context:

On the Kingsroad, Robert and Ned discuss the various women they were with in the last war.

Why It’s Important:

This line foreshadows Ned’s secret about Jon’s true identity as Aegon Targaryen, as he specifically kept it from Robert to keep Jon safe.

Episode 3: Lord Snow

The north cannot be held. Not by an outsider. It’s too big, too wild.

Cersei Lannister

Context:

Cersei says this to Joffrey while she is breaking down his hypothetical plan to control the north when he is king, and why it won’t work.

Why It’s Important:

This foreshadows the Northerners being similar to the Free Folk, as Jon points out to Stannis Baratheon later on, and the North becoming a free and independent kingdom by the end of the series.

We’ve come to a dangerous place. We cannot fight a war amongst ourselves.

Ned Stark

Context:

Ned tells this to Arya after she gets angry with Sansa for not telling Cersei and Robert the truth about what happened with Joffrey, Mycah, and Nymeria.

Why It’s Important:

This foreshadows the downfall of the Starks role in the War of Five Kings because their power went down once Robb and Catelyn started fighting with each other.

We’ll speak when I return.

Uncle Benjen Stark

Context:

He says this to Jon before leaving Castle Black to go beyond the wall and only his horse returning.

Why It’s Important:

The word return serves two meanings here: He and Jon do speak when he returns to the wall to help him survive the White Walkers in Season 7, but he also returns from the dead before they reunite, as he is now somewhere between death and life.

Episode 4: Cripples, Bastards & Broken Things

You sold slaves. Why?

I had no money. And an expensive wife.

Where is she now?

In another place. With another man.

Daenerys & Jorah

Context:

This is when Jorah tells Daenerys the Dothraki won’t cross the Narrow Sea and Robert’s advisors won’t let him go to open battle if they do. He says he knows this because he fought with them but now Ned Stark wants his head, which leads Daenerys to ask this.

Why It’s Important:

This foreshadows Jorah’s relationship with Dany, as he loves her and has to leave because of his betrayal–literally selling information about Daenerys, who used to be considered a slave to Drogo–and she goes off to another place and falls in love with Jon.

[Syrio] said every swordsman should study cats. They’re as quiet as shadows and light as feathers.

Arya Stark

Context:

She tells this to Ned when she explains why she’ll be chasing cats that day.

Why It’s Important:

Though this line is small and quick (you see what I did there?) it foreshadows Arya’s role in the Battle of Winterfell, as the white walkers are also known as white shadows, and she is quiet enough to not only get past the ones in the castle but sneak into the godswood and attack the Night King.

Episode 5: The Wolf and the Lion

You will dishonor yourself if you do this.

Honor? I’ve got seven kingdoms to rule. One king, seven kingdoms. You think it’s honor that keeps them in line? You think it’s honor that’s keeping the peace? It’s fear–fear and blood.

Ned & Robert

Context:

This is when Robert tells Ned to kill Daenerys once Robert finds out she’s pregnant.

Why It’s Important:

This foreshadows Daenerys using this same idea to fight back in Season 8, killing children in King’s Landing, threatening with “fire and blood,” and telling Jon before the battle that she will use fear over love to maintain her power.

Episode 6: A Golden Crown

*Theon protecting Bran from Wildlings in the woods*

Context:

This isn’t a quote obviously, but Theon saves Bran (and Robb) in the woods when they are attacked by wildlings, after Robb tells him he’s not a Stark and Theon walks away, upset.

Why It’s Important:

This foreshadows Theon protecting Bran from another threat beyond the wall (the Night King and his team of wights) before he dies.

Do you pray?

To the old gods and the new.

There is only one god. The god of death. Do you know what we say to the god of death? Not today.

Syrio & Arya

Context:
Syrio asks Arya this when she tells him that she fears for her father’s life after he is taken prisoner for being a traitor.

Why It’s Important:

This foreshadows Arya killing the Night King, who could be seen as a personification of the God of Death, in the godswood, the tree of the Old Gods that she and her family prays to.

Episode 7: You Win or You Die

Theon Greyjoy, the lady is our guest.

I thought she was our prisoner.

Are the two mutually exclusive in your experience?

Maester Luwin & Theon

Context:

Maester Luwin says this to Theon about Osha after Theon treats her poorly and threatens her while she is held captive in Winterfell.

Why It’s Important:

This foreshadows Theon’s progression of becoming a prisoner himself at Winterfell, where he used to be a guest, and eventually dying serving those who helped him in Winterfell, just as Osha did.

I will kill the men in their iron suits and burn down their stone houses.

Khal Drogo

Context:

Drogo says this to the Dothraki after Daenerys is almost poisoned and Khal makes the announcement that he will bring the Dothraki to Westeros to get Daenerys her crown.

Why It’s Important:

This foreshadows Daenerys’s exact line to the Dothraki after they take King’s Landing in Season 8.

Episode 8: The Pointy End

I’ll be a queen, just like you. I promise.

Sansa Stark

Context:

Sansa says this to Cersei in a plea to allow her to marry Joffrey after Ned is found to be a traitor.

Why It’s Important:

This foreshadows Sansa becoming Lady of Winterfell and (finally) Queen in the North.

Blood will always tell. You’ll hang for this, bastard.

Alliser Thorne

Context:

Thorne says this to Jon after Jon tried attacking him with a knife after Thorne called him a “traitor’s bastard.”

Why It’s Important:

This foreshadows Thorne’s hanging & possibly Jon’s real ancestry with the ‘blood’ comment, as Jon being the true heir and truly rightful for the throne is shown in Daenerys’s spiral into a tyrant.

Love is the death of duty.

Maester Aemon

Context:

Maester Aemon tells Jon this when he is advising him not to abandon the Night’s Watch to help Robb win the war.

Why It’s Important:

This line is directly referenced back by Jon in the final episode of the series, but it also relates to Jon’s mistake of allowing his love for Daenerys, as complicated and repressed as it eventually becomes, to cloud his recognition of her development into tyranny.

Am I your brother, now and always?

Now and always.

My sword is yours, in victory and defeat, from this day until my last day.

Theon & Robb

Context:

This is in reference to them declaring to fight for Robb instead of Renly or Stannis.

Why It’s Important:

This could foreshadow Theon’s death in season 8, and Sansa putting her Stark sigil on him to honor his sacrifice for Bran, as he finally honored this pledge.

I won’t watch you burn.

Is that what you fear?

Jorah & Daenerys

Context:

Jorah says this to Daenerys before she walks into Drogo’s funeral pyre, and after this exchange, Daenerys kisses Jorah’s cheek and he blushes, shocked, before she starts her speech to the Dothraki about the choice they can make to stay for her.

Why It’s Important:

The obvious significance here is that Jorah is in love with Daenerys, and she sees it. Can we blame him, though? It’s Emilia Clarke. Come on.

The further significance here jumps all the way to Jorah’s death in Season 8. Daenerys has survived because of those who love her, Jorah being one of the most consistent and important ones.

Once Jorah dies and Daenerys discovers the others are conflicted in their feelings about her, she descends into using fear over love to claim her power, just as her father did. She says this outright to Jon before the Battle of King’s Landing, as mentioned earlier.

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That’s all I have for Season 8!

There were a lot of issues in the writing of Season 8, from the writers using shock value over real value, to the rushed quality of the season overall, to the overuse of dialogue to explain the plot choices instead of the writing being good enough to justify itself.

However, a good portion of plot points made sense with these lines from the first season, so these are the ones I chose to point out.

Did I miss your favorite quote? Did any of these surprise you? Any inconsistencies between the seasons just rub you the wrong way? Let me know in the comments.

That’s it from me from The Bees Analyses.