Game of Thrones season 1-7 recap: what's happened so far?

The eighth and final season of Game of Thrones, HBO’s television juggernaut, is fast approaching. But who will survive, and what will be left of Westeros once the dust has settled?

You may have forgotten what’s happened in the seven seasons so far. There’s been so much sex, violence and political intrigue that even the most seasoned fan would struggle to recall it all. And the cast is huge.

So, with the first episode only weeks away, there’s no better time for a year-by-year breakdown of the fantasy caper to rule them all.

If you’re really pushed for time, here’s a summary. A long time ago, in a magical fantasy kingdom, everybody was half-naked, oversexed and bloodthirsty.

And then some ice zombies turned up…

Season one: enter the dragon lady

North of the Wall, a patrol of the cloistered Night’s Watch order is ambushed by undead White Walkers. One of the men escapes south; for his troubles, he’s beheaded by the Lord of Winterfell, Eddard Stark (Sean Bean).

Noble Ned dismisses the babble about animated corpses, and insists that it’s his solemn duty to execute the deserter in person. Traitorous soldiers, however, are soon the least of his worries. Hundreds of miles to the south in King’s Landing, “Hand of the King” Jon Arryn dies in mysterious circumstances.

This is obviously bad news for Jon Arryn, but it opens a new career path for Ned, as his old friend King Robert Baratheon (Mark Addy) travels to Winterfell and offers to make the Warden of the North the new Hand of the King

There are a few sticking points. For one thing, Ned has no interest in becoming entangled in courtly intrigue at the capital. And Robert has brought with him his loathsome extended family. These include cruel Queen Cersei of the powerful House Lannister, her dashing but self-regarding twin Ser Jaime (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) and their prostitute-fraternising sibling Tyrion (Peter Dinklage).

Most unpleasant of all is Robert’s ghastly son and heir Joffrey (Jack Gleeson), a spoiled prince whose brattish temperament couldn’t be more different from that of the garrulous, profane Robert. (It’s almost as if they aren’t related…).

Still, if things are bad for Ned – who resists Robert’s offer but is made to understand that he doesn’t have a choice – they’re worse for his son Bran (Isaac Hempstead Wright). Climbing a tower, the adorable poppet happens upon Cersei canoodling with Jaime – yes, her twin! “The things I do for love,” Jaime sighs, shoving Bran out of the window.

Somehow the boy survives – albeit crippled for life and in a temporary coma. While mother Catelyn sits by his bed, Ned, Robert and their retinues depart for King’s Landing. With Ned are his daughters Sansa (Sophie Turner), who’s flighty, fashion-conscious and bafflingly besotted with Joffrey, and feisty little Arya (Maisie Williams).

Also saying farewell to the family home is Jon Snow, Ned’s “bastard” son, openly loathed by Catelyn. He is to travel north to the Wall and join the semi-monastic Night’s Watch, whose solemn duty is to guard the ancient rampart. Jon knows nothing of his mother; Ned vows to at last share the truth when next they meet.

Across the Narrow Sea and far from the courtly scheming of Westeros, Princess Daenerys Targaryen is about to be married off to barbarian warlord Khal Drogo (Jason Momoa). A union between the wide-eyed, partially clothed Daenerys and the brutish Drogo has been arranged by the Princess’s unpleasant – even by Joffrey standards – brother Viserys (Harry Lloyd).

As the sole surviving children of the Mad King who once ruled Westeros – and was violently deposed by the Baratheons and Starks in “Robert’s Rebellion” – Viserys believes that the Iron Throne is his to reclaim. Awkwardly for him, he’s wimpy, vain and lacks an army. Not much to be done about the first two – however, hitching Daenerys to Drogo will put at his disposal the Khal’s Dothraki hordes and, all going to schedule, unleash the Targaryen “dragon”.

Back in Westeros, new Hand of the King Ned is surprised when his wife Catelyn arrives at King’s Landing. She has received a letter from her sister (also Jon Arryn’s widow), claiming that the Lannisters killed Ned’s predecessor. (Catelyn believes they later dispatched the assassin who unsuccessfully attempt to finish off stricken Bran.)

Alas, the Starks are about to lose a crucial ally. Robert, a serial philander in a sham marriage with Cersei, dies during a boar hunt, with his wife having apparently drugged his wine.

This is unfortunate timing as Ned has discovered that Joffrey isn’t Robert’s biological son. Confronted, Cersei admits that  Jaime is the father of all her children. But naive Ned has underestimated his enemies. With Joffrey to be King, Eddard is arrested for treachery and executed. The whole thing is seen by daughters Sansa, who (in a be-careful-what-you-wish-for twist) is now betrothed to loathsome Joffrey, and Arya, watching in disguise before fleeing for her life.

In Essos, Daenerys surprises herself by taking to the life of a Khal’s wife. Also surprised is Viserys. No longer in control of his sister, he is executed by the Dothraki. (The horsemen, apparently big fans of dramatic irony, pour a “crown” of molten gold over his head.)

Yet the lot of a bloodthirsty warlord can be challenging, and Khal sustains fatal wounds in battle. Into his funeral bonfire steps Daenerys with the three dragon eggs she received as a wedding gift. She emerges unharmed – this being Game of Thrones, her clothes aren’t so lucky – while the eggs have hatched into baby dragons.

Season two: the imp steps up

With Joffrey king and headless Ned very much dead, Westeros is gripped by rebellion. In the North, Ned’s eldest son Robb (Richard Madden) has declared war, taking Jaime Lannister prisoner in an early skirmish. Likewise intent on unseating Joffrey is Robert Baratheon’s brother Stannis (Stephen Dillane). He’s more dutiful and level-headed than Robert (good), but also convinced he’s marked for greatness by the “Lord of Light” – a pagan deity demanding human sacrifice (not good).

Just how “not good” soon becomes clear. His supernatural counsellor Melisandre (Carice van Houten) sends a “smoke monster” to kill Renly Baratheon (Gethin Anthony), Stannis’s dear brother and rival for the throne. Meanwhile, anyone who dares to speak against the Lord of Light is likely to end up strapped to a pyre.

Robb likewise demonstrates questionable judgement as he sends childhood chum Theon (Alfie Allen) – a prince of the Iron Isles raised in Winterfell – back to his maritime home to gain the support of father Balon. Rather than rallying to the Stark banner, Balon guilt-trips Theon, who opportunistically seizes Winterfell for the Greyjoys. Bran is forced to flee north with his simple-minded minder Hodor. (Theon hangs two farmer boys in the place of Bran and brother Rickon.)

Also on the run is Arya Stark. She fetches up at the fortress of Harrenhal, where Tywin Lannister (Charles Dance), patriarch of the Most Evil Family in Westeros, unwittingly appoints the disguised princess his cup-bearer. She later flees, with the assistance of the mysterious Jaqen H’ghar (Thomas Wlaschiha) of the Faceless Men of Essos.

Over on the eastern continent, it’s proving a long and aimless road for Daenerys, her baby dragons and shrinking Dothraki army. Eventually they make their way to the desert City of Qarth where they’re befriended by silver-tongued merchant Xaro Daxos. They’re ultimately betrayed by Daxos, in cahoots with the warlock Pyat Pree. With her dragons Daenerys defeats the sorcerer and seals Daxos (along with her traitorous servant Doreah) in a tomb. Don’t mess with the Mother of Dragons.

Elsewhere, what will become known as the War of the Five Kings rumbles on. As Robb plots his next move against the Lannisters, Catelyn sets Jaime free. He’s to be escorted to King’s Landing by Brienne of Tarth (Gwendoline Christie) – Renly’s loyal former bodyguard – in the hope of securing the release of Sansa and Arya.

On a scouting mission north of the Wall, Jon is kidnapped by the Wildling Ygritte (Rose Leslie) – a meet cute that sets in train a tragic love affair. No such excitement awaits the other Rangers of the Watch: they are attacked by the White Walkers and their servant wights.

In King’s Landing, Stannis’s invasion fleet hoves into view. With useless Joffrey in charge, everyone expects the worst (especially Cersei, who paints for Sansa a bleak picture of the treatment they can expect).

Hand of the King Tyrion, however, has a cunning plan. As Joffrey weeps like the wimp he is, his uncle repels Stannis’s forces with explosive wildfire, stocks of which the Mad King concealed beneath the city. It's enough to keep the enemies at bay until Tywin Lannister gallops to the rescue.

Season three: “The Lannisters send their regards”

Having saved King’s Landing from Stannis, Tyrion is promptly demoted by his disapproving father, who has never forgiven his son for killing his mother in childbirth – and for having a functioning moral compass.

Rather more popular in the capital is the ambitious Margaery Tyrell (Natalie Dormer). Renly’s widow has displaced Sansa and is now betrothed to Joffrey. Sansa, Tywin has decreed, will be married off to the reluctant Tyrion. (With uncommon decency he declines to consummate the nuptials.)

Far to the north, Jon Snow finally meets the Wildlings’ semi-mythic King beyond the Wall, Mance Rayder (Ciaran Hinds), and they agree that they have a common enemy in the Walkers.

Things are going less well for Theon Greyjoy, whose botched conquest of Winterfell has seen him fall into the clutches of a mysterious torturer. The true losers this season, however, are Robb and Catelyn Stark. After falling in love with healer Talisa (Oona Chaplin), Robb backs out of an arranged marriage to Roslin, daughter of his ally Lord Walder Frey. She will instead be hitched to Edmure Tully – and the Starks are invited!

Thus is the table set for the notorious Red Wedding. The Freys and Boltons, striking a secret deal on Tywin Lannister, turn on the Starks, cutting down Catelyn, Robb and Robb’s pregnant intended. “The Lannisters send their regards,” snarls Roose Bolton as he stabs Talisa in her womb.

Arriving in time for the butchery is Arya Stark, reluctantly taken under the wing of the “Hound” Sandor Clegane (Rory McCann), formerly Joffrey’s personal butcher. With the rest of the family dead or in jeopardy, Bran continues north. Haunted by visions, he resolves to go beyond the Wall and find the “Three-Eyed Raven”, who holds the secret to Bran’s burgeoning ability to project his mind into the body of a direwolf. He is accompanied by Hodor and two new companions, Meera and Jojen Reed.

Elsewhere, Daenerys’s plans to conquer Westeros are gathering momentum. On her wanderings across Essos, she garners an army of “Unsullied” warriors and receives counsel from two disillusioned refugees from the Seven Kingdoms, Ser Barriston Selmy and Jorah Mormont (Iain Glen). With the cities of Slaver’s Bay falling to her one by one, a new power is rising in the East.

Season four: Joffrey eats humble pie

A new season welcomes a fresh face to King’s Landing. Oberyn Martell (Pedro Pascal), dashing prince of Dorne, arrives at the capital for the marriage of Joffrey and Margaery – and also to take vengeance against the Lannisters, whom he holds responsible for the death of his sister.

But Joffrey’s wedding doesn’t go quite as planned. He is poisoned, and topples over before he has had a chance to toast his new bride. Also exiting King’s Landing, albeit by less bloody means, is Sansa, smuggled to freedom by slippery Lord Petyr “Littlefinger” Baelish (Aidan Turner) and Margaery’s wily grandmother Lady Olenna Tyrell (Diana Rigg). We will later discover they conspired to kill Joffrey, to spare Margaery being hitched to a brute.

At the Eyrie, Sansa falls foul of mad Aunt Lysa, who attempts to push her niece through a Moon Door. She is rescued by Littlefinger, with Lord Baelish instead sending Lady Arryn, with whom he has entered into an arranged marriage, to her gravity-assisted demise.

Up north, Jon Snow warns the Night’s Watch that Mance Rayder intends to attack. An epic battle ensues, and Jon and Ygritte’s relationship hits an awkward patch as she tries to cut him down with an arrow. With the Wildlings temporarily repulsed, Jon sneaks off to kill Rayder – just as Stannis Baratheon and his forces ride to the rescue of the Night’s Watch.

Back at King’s Landing, Tyrion is (unjustly) accused of assassinating Joffrey. The case is to be decided through trial by combat. His champion Oberyn, however, is cut down by “The Mountain” Gregor Clegane, Sandor’s hulking brother. Later, Jaime releases his brother, who sneaks back to his chambers to find that his lover Shae has been canoodling with Tyrion’s father Tywin. Tyrion shoots his dad on the latrine and, aided by Master of Whispers Varys, flees Westeros.

Also quitting the Western continent is Arya. She witnesses an apparent fight to the death between Sandor and Brienne (who, having failed Catelyn, has sworn to protect any Stark crossing her path). Exhibiting uncharacteristic cruelty, Arya leaves Sandor to his fate and crosses the Narrow Sea to study with Jaqan H’ghar’s Faceless Men.

Season five: the Night’s King shows his hand

With Joffrey dead, Margaery marries his younger brother Tommen – to the disgust of Cersei, who has developed an enthusiastic loathing for her daughter-in-law.

Never one to tread softly, Stannis burns the King Beyond the Wall at the stake – punishment for refusing to swear fealty. Meanwhile, Jon Snow is elected leader of the Night’s Watch, to the visible disapproval of the senior members of the order.

Sansa and Littlefinger leave The Vale – but where are they bound? That would be a surprise, Littlefinger suggests. It truly is: he plans to marry Sansa off to horrible Ramsay Bolton (Iwan Rheon), thus restoring a Stark to Winterfell (albeit by the back door).

In her former family home, Sansa is horrified to find Theon, now the broken and half-insane plaything of Ramsay (his mystery torturer). She is then brutally abused on her wedding night by the sadistic younger Bolton – with Theon (re-named “Reek” by Ramsay) forced to watch.

Stannis marches south towards Winterfell. With Winter coming, heavy snow threatens his war against Ramsay. He is urged by Melisandre to sacrifice daughter Shireen to the Lord of Light. Stannis reluctantly complies, and the weather indeed turns. Unfortunately his troops don’t wish to fight for a religious maniac; they desert and he’s easily defeated by the Boltons. In the aftermath of the battle, he’s discovered by Brienne, who fulfils her vow to avenge Renly's death by cutting down the man instrumental in his killing.

In Essos, Arya is accepted into the mysterious House of Black and White – though she proves slow to subsume her identity into the collective of the Faceless Men. That she has much to learn before becoming “no one” is confirmed, as she catches sight of Ser Meryn Trant, the sadistic knight of the Kingsguard and, assuming the likeness of a child prostitute, decides to strike him down. As punishment for betraying her vows, she is struck blind.

At King’s Landing, Cersei neutralises Margaery – who has her wily claws in the naive Tommen – by striking an alliance with the leader of the Sparrows, an evangelical cult growing in popularity. Everything appears to be going as planned; Margaery’s beloved brother Loras is thrown into a deep dark room for sleeping with men, and his sister is imprisoned as well for lying on his behalf.

Alas, Cersei’s clever scheme isn’t so smart. Whisperings of her relationship with Jaime reach the High Sparrow (Jonathan Pryce). She’s dragged away by the religious police, and required to do a naked Walk of Shame.

In the desert kingdom of Dorne, Jaime and his sidekick Bronn are on a mission to save his daughter, Princess Myrcella. With Oberon Martyll slain by Cersei’s champion, they fear Myrcella is in imminent danger from the Martell family. She is safely retrieved – but poisoned as they set off for home.

Up north, the terrifying extent of the threat posed by the Walkers is revealed, as the Night’s King attacks Jon Snow and his men at a Wildling encampment. Alas, his warnings are not heeded back at the Wall, where senior members of the Watch kill Snow as revenge for his traitorous alliance with the Free Folk.

In Essos, Daenerys’s hold on the city of Meereen slips when the Sons of the Harpy stage an ambush at a grand gladiatorial bout. She’s rescued by her dragon Drogon, though, and swept away to a destination unknown. Her new adviser Tyrion – smuggled across the narrow sea to Essos by Varys – will rule in her stead, while Ser Jorah and her lover Daario set off on her trail.

Season six: the bastards do battle

Jon Snow is dead! But only until Melisandre, calling on the Lord of Light, brings him back (to the surprise of all, Melisandre included).

Thus begins the war of the Bastards, with Jon intent on wresting Winterfell back from Ramsay and Roose Bolton. Actually, make that just Ramsay – he eliminates his dad, his stepmother and newborn half-brother (a true blood heir who jeopardises Ramsay’s position).

As a showdown between the two approaches, Sansa and Theon continue to flee Ramsay’s forces. Sansa travels to the Wall, where she’s reunited with her brother. (“Half brother,” Lord Baelish might say, with a significant pause between “half” and “brother”). Theon, meanwhile, journeys to the Iron Islands, just in time for his hateful father to be deposed by Theon’s even more unpleasant uncle Euron.

In King's Landing, Cersei isn’t quite off the hook. She's been humiliated by her Walk of Shame, but she still has to stand trial for her crimes. The fundamentalist High Sparrow is not for turning, and guileless King Tommen has agreed to a formal alliance between church and state.

Bearing further bad news is Jaime, who reveals that Myrcella is dead. With that, all but one of Cersei’s children is gone, bringing closer a witch’s prediction that her offspring would wear funeral shrouds. (Good luck, Tommen.)

Daenerys is having a testing time, too, as prisoner of the Dothraki. Being the surviving wife of a slain Khal, it is her fate to live in cloistered servitude with the other widows. This doesn’t chime with her plans to rule the known world.

So she scorches her opponents alive and, walking unharmed through the flames, she becomes the leader of the Dothraki. She returns with Drogon to Meereen, where wise and wily Tyrion has brought an uneasy peace.

Meanwhile, Theon and Yara Greyjoy (Gemma Whelan) have stolen the Iron Islands fleet from under the exceedingly wicked nose of usurper Euron Greyjoy. Fleeing to Essos, they strike an alliance with Daenerys. Boats, dragons, Dothraki – look out Westeros, the Targaryens are coming!

In the North, the Battle of the Bastards is finally joined, as Ramsay clashes with Jon. (Not before Ramsay kills the youngest Stark sibling, Rickon, strictly for the chuckles.)

There follows lots of hacking, slashing and rucking in the muck. Just as the tide appears to have turned in favour of Ramsay, however, in rush Petyr Baelish and the Knights of the Vale, who carry the day. Ramsay is fed to his own dogs by a vengeful Sansa. (It’s sadistic and disgusting, but still… good for her).

In Essos, Arya regains her sight and restarts her training at the House of Black and White. The going remains bumpy, as she clashes with her nemesis the Waif after she refuses to assassinate a kindly actress. On overcoming her implacable foe, Arya is shown the door by Jaqen, who intimates that her training may be complete and that she is indeed “no one”. We next see her, in shape-shifting form, cutting the throat of Red Wedding planner Walder Frey.

In a mystical cave, Bran studies with the “Three-Eyed Raven” – in reality a wizened human (Max Von Sydow) psychically connected to a tree – and experiences time-travelling visions. We discover how Hodor became Hodor – a complicated temporal loop – and we learn the truth of Jon Snow’s true parentage. He is the child of Ned’s tragic sister Lyanna. The identity of his father is not (yet) revealed.

Unfortunately, Bran’s training is interrupted by the Night King, who kills the Three-Eyed Raven and sends the Stark boy and his companion Meera fleeing. Hodor – who indeed “holds the door” against the zombies – sacrifices himself so that they can escape.

An unpleasant fate also beckons for Cersei. She has sent Jaime off to the Riverlands to put manners on an old Stark ally, “Blackfish” Tully. Alone, except for the resurrected Mountain and her loyal mad scientist Qyburn, what’s an incestuous Queen Mother to do?

The answer, Cersei concludes, is to blow up the Great Sept with some of that leftover wildfire, and thus eliminate every rival power player – including Margaery, the High Sparrow and her uncle Kevan. Appalled, Tommen jumps from a window. With the Iron Crown upon her head, does the Game of Thrones at last have a winner?

Season seven: the ice king cometh

As the White Walkers continue to march south, Daenerys finally reaches Westeros and sets up camp in her family’s ancestral seat, Dragonstone, with her fleet and advisors, among them Tyrion. They meet with her Westerosi allies; Melisandre advises Daenerys to meet with Jon, and Tyrion agrees that the Starks could be allies.

A plan is made for Daenerys’ Westerosi armies to besiege King’s Landing, while the Unsullied will capture Casterly Rock, the Lannister stronghold. Unfortunately Euron Greyjoy’s Iron Fleet attacks and defeats Yara Greyjoy’s army. The Unsullied capture Casterly Rock, infiltrating the castle via its sewage system, but it’s a trap; the Iron Fleet arrives and destroys their ships, leaving the Unsullied stranded on the opposite side of Westeros.

Jon and Sansa have been busy clashing over how to manage the North. Jon receives Daenerys’s invitation to meet at Dragonstone. Sansa and Davos Seaworth (Liam Cunningham) tell him not to do it, but Jon recognises the value of dragonfire. He heads off, and leaves Sansa as regent.

Down in King’s Landing, Cersei has few allies and grand delusions of establishing a Lannister dynasty. She’s openly flaunting her relationship with Jaime, who warily follows her lead. Euron brings his prisoners to Cersei, and she accepts his alliance, agreeing to marry once the war has been won. She takes revenge on Ellaria by poisoning Tyne with the same poison she used to kill her daughter Myrcella, and keeping her alive to watch Tyne slowly die.

Arya gets her revenge on House Frey for her mother and brother’s murders, then makes her way north on hearing that Jon has reclaimed Winterfell.

Bran and Meera arrive at Winterfell. Littlefinger gifts Bran the Valyrian dagger used in the attempt on his life, but Bran sees through him. Both sisters are disturbed by Bran’s change in personality and mystical knowledge; he gives Arya the Valyrian steel dagger.

Littlefinger tries to play Sansa and Arya against each other, too, but soon enough they figure it out and turn the tables. As Sansa coldly watches on, Arya slits his throat with that dagger.

While training to become a maester, Samwell Tarly (John Bradley) learns of a large deposit of dragonglass – one of only two materials that can kill White Walkers – located on Dragonstone, and sends news to Jon. But he leaves in frustration with Gilly (Hannah Murray) when the maesters decide that the potential end of the world “needs further study.” He takes with him documents from the Citadel library; one of them details the annulment given to a “Prince Raggar”,  who married another woman in a secret ceremony in Dorne…

Jon and Daenerys finally meet. Jon tries to explain the gravity of the White Walkers situation, but Daenerys wants to claim the Iron Throne before dealing with other threats. When he shows her the enormous dragonglass mine under Dragonstone she’s convinced, but she still isn’t going to fight against the White Walkers unlesss Jon bends the knee. No chance.

Jaime and Randyll Tarly’s armies take Highgarden, House Tyrell’s seat, and Jaime allows Olenna Tyrell a quick and merciful death by poison, but not before Olenna confesses to murdering Joffrey. Daenerys leads a Dothraki attack while riding Drogon and surrounds the Lannister army. She gives the surviving soldiers the choice between fealty to her or death. Tyrion urges her to spare the Tarlys or send them to the Wall, which they refuse. Fair enough: Drogon incinerates them.

Daenerys returns to Dragonstone and Drogon allows Jon Snow to touch him, an extraordinary occurrence. The impasse ends when Tyrion proposes capturing a wight and bringing it as proof to Cersei that the threat of the Night Army is real. Neat idea: Jon and Jorah volunteer for the mission.

Tyrion and Davos smuggle Gendry, Robert Baratheon’s sole remaining bastard, out of King’s Landing. While he’s there, Tyrion arranges to meet with Jaime in secret; he requests an audience with Cersei if Jon can prove the White Walkers exist. Cersei acknowledges a temporary ceasefire could be necessary. Better (or worse), she reveals to Jaime that she’s pregnant, and wants to acknowledge him as the father.

Jon’s party journey beyond the Wall and successfully capture a wight, but they end up trapped on an island surrounded by the undead. Daenerys flies north with Drogon, Rhaegal and Viserion and lays waste to the army, but at a crucial cost: the Night King kills Viserion with an ice javelin.

Daenerys is bereft, but she’s also convinced. She agrees to fight the Night King and White Walkers with Jon; in return, Jon pledges fealty to her. Meanwhile, beyond the Wall the Night King reanimates Viserion.

Daenerys, Cersei and their entourages finally meet in King’s Landing. Jon and The Hound successfully present the animated wight to Cersei, who agrees to help against the war against the Night King, on the condition that Jon be a neutral party. She rescinds her support when Jon tells her he has sworn himself to Daenerys.

Late, she returns to the talks and seems to have changed her mind. Now she agrees to send her army north to fight the White Walkers. But in reality, as she tells Jaime, she has sent Euron to Essos to transport the Golden Company, an elite mercenary force, which she will then use to pick off whoever’s left standing in the north. And with that, Jaime finally breaks with his sister, and rides north.

After Sam turns up in Winterfell, Bran drops the biggest bomb of all: Jon’s real parents were Prince Rhaegar Targaryen, firstborn child of Mad King Aerys and Daenerys’s eldest brother, and Lyanna Stark, Ned and Benjen Stark’s sister. They married in secret after Rhaegar’s marriage to Elia Martell was annulled. Jon’s real name is Aegon Targaryen, and as Rhaegar’s legitimate son, he is the heir to the Iron Throne.

Ignorant of all this, while sailing up to Winterfell Jon and Daenerys (nephew and aunt) finally succumb to temptation and have sex. Good timing…

And finally, the undead army arrives at Eastwatch with the Night King riding a reanimated Viserion. The undead dragon destroys the fortress and a section of the Wall. The gigantic structure is breached. The White Walkers march into the Seven Kingdoms.

Winter has come to Westeros…

Seasons 1 - 7 are available to watch on NOW TV  (with a 7 day free trial), along with the new season from April 15