So, we always put that spoiler alert at the top of posts that reveal plot points from "Game of Thrones" or A Song of Ice and Fire. But there are "spoilers" and there are SPOILERS. And this post contains the latter. So stop right here if you don't want to know some crazy stuff from Season 6 of the show.
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Still here? OK. You were warned.
Today, invaluable "Game of Thrones" fan sites Watchers on the Wall and Winter Is Coming posted a whole bunch of information about a big Season 6 battle currently being filmed in Northern Ireland. We've known about this battle for more than a month: Kit Harrington was spotted participating in it, which is how we learned for sure that Jon Snow would come back from the dead in the next season.
We also already knew that people on set are calling it "The Battle of the Bastards" -- because the two armies are led by Jon Snow and Ramsay Bolton, formerly Ramsay Snow. Ramsay's army will include fighters from many Northern houses, while Jon's is made up largely of Wildlings.
But the new batch of leaks reveals some crucial -- and insane -- new details about this big battle, which is rumored to go down in Episode 9, traditionally the spot for the most dramatic moments of the season.
For starters, Jon's forces will apparently include at least one giant -- a creature second only to a dragon in terms of the damage it can wreak. On the other hand, there hasn't yet been any evidence that the White Walkers or their zombie hordes are involved.
The biggest surprise, though, is the presence of someone who has nothing to do with the supernatural: Sansa Stark. Actress Sophie Turner has been spotted near the set of the battle. You may recall that at the end of Season 5, Sansa and Theon Greyjoy jumped off the walls of Winterfell to escape from the vile Ramsay.
It's not yet clear how Sansa is involved -- or, for that matter, whether her escape attempt was successful. She might have made it to Jon Snow, and could be helping his cause ... or she might be Ramsay's prisoner once again.
That's an especially scary prospect, because Winter is Coming writes that Ramsay has been spotted "tying two known characters to X-crosses upside down and burning them during the fighting." (The Bolton sigil is a flayed man upside down on an X-cross.) So if Ramsay managed to recapture Sansa and Theon, they might be the two characters he kills. If that's the case, it would certainly be the most upsetting character death since the Red Wedding -- and it might even be worse.
In the interest of ending on a high note, though, let's venture, for a moment, even further into the dark realms of speculation. The best-case scenario for the battle might go like this: Sansa, Jon and maybe even Rickon reunite and lead a Wildling army against the Boltons, who are supported by much of the North. But when the other Northern houses see the two Stark children, they turn on Ramsay and win the battle. Then everyone lives happily forever after. Hurrah!
But wait. That still leaves two unidentified "known characters" burning on Ramsay's cross. And we still have no idea what Littlefinger is up to: He said, in Season 5, that he would muster an army in the Vale and use it to invade the North. And even if the White Walkers don't show up during the battle, they're out there beyond The Wall, getting stronger by the day. So much for ending on a high note. In the world of "Game of Thrones," there's really no way to win.
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