All pictures from HBO/ Sky Atlantic

Gemma Peplow, arts and entertainment reporter

The Wall is down. The Night King and the White Walkers have their own undead dragon, and their zombie army is marching on Westeros.


Winter is most definitely here.
It has been almost two years since those epic scenes in the last series -and as our heroes prepare for their final battle, it seems heartbreak is inevitable.
This is Game Of Thrones, after all. In the words of Cersei Lannister: "When you play the Game Of Thrones, you win or you die. There is no middle ground."
We learned it early on, back in the very first series in 2011, with patriarch Ned Stark’s merciless beheading at the instruction of the evil Joffrey. No one is safe.
The tiny crumbs of information that the notoriously secretive Game Of Thrones producers have revealed about what is to come in this last-ever series suggest that a finale wrapping things up with a big happy ending is about as likely as Ned Stark coming back from the dead. Although stranger things have happened...
Kit Harington, who plays Jon Snow, told Sky News the ending would leave fans "emotionally torn", while Arya Stark actress Maisie Williams says that "no one will be satisfied" when it ends.
Will Jon Snow find out his claim to the Iron Throne? Will Arya get to the bottom of her kill list? What will be left of Westeros at the end of the final battle? And how many will die?
With the help of Jamie East, Westeros expert and presenter of Game Of Thrones aftershow Thronecast, we take a look at what could be in store.
Is he giving anything away? No. "But this is it, this is the big one," he says. "They're not going to muck about."
Gulp.

What will happen when Jon finds out the truth?

First of all then, to the big reveal of series seven: Ned Stark's "bastard" son and King of the North Jon Snow is actually Aegon Targaryen, which means he has a claim to the Iron Throne.
It also means that Daenerys Targaryen, his new Queen, is actually his aunt.
This would prove slightly awkward under normal circumstances, seeing as they got together at the end of series seven, but this is Game Of Thrones; a bit of incest is the least of anyone's worries. And, you know, they're not twins, like Cersei and Jaime, so it's not the worst incest in Westeros.
Neither Dany or Jon know they are related yet (Bran Stark holds that secret at the minute, thanks to his Three-Eyed Raven powers) so what will happen when Jon finds out?
"This is the big one," says East. "The theory of Jon and Dany's relationship has been running and rumbling for a long, long time. Now we know what's happened you can go back and you can see all the clues were there.
"Their relationship's forged now... but I think their honeymoon period is going to run out quite quickly because clearly they've got to find out what they are to each other; as well as there just being an alliance for the Iron Throne and for the war, there's more to their relationship than they know about yet. So what will that do to the dynamic? Because, spoiler alert: Jon has more of a right to the throne than Dany does.
"The incest, it doesn't matter. That's fair game, I think; I don't think that is necessarily the issue. I think the issue is the fact that Jon actually has more of a right to the Iron Throne than Dany does. Up until now Dany has been very clear that Jon bend the knee to her, and actually he might turn round and go: 'You need to bend the knee to me now.' Who knows?
Is this likely, though? Jon Snow doesn't come across as the power-hungry type. Sure, he has fought - and died (and come back to life again) - for what he believes is right, but would he really want the throne?
"All he's ever wanted is a bit of peace and quiet," says East. "He's never asked for any of this. He joined the Night's Watch, but only because he felt that Catelyn Stark didn't want him around in Winterfell. So all he's ever done is just try to get on with his life, but has somehow unwittingly found himself not only the King of the North, but also in a relationship with a woman with three dragons who's related to the Mad King.
"I personally would just like to see him retake Winterfell and carry on being the Ned Stark that he always wanted to be.
"He didn't want to be Lord of the Night's Watch; it was Samwell who nominated him for that and he reluctantly agreed. King of the North, he was nominated by the rest of the lords of the North. He's the reluctant king."

How about Daenerys?

And so to Daenerys Stormborn of the House Targaryen, First of Her Name, the Unburnt, Queen of the Andals and the First Men, Khaleesi of the Great Grass Sea, Breaker of Chains and Mother of Dragons.
Or Dany for short.
Is the daughter of the Mad King favourite to take the throne? She is Mother of Dragons, after all. You don't get much more powerful than that.
Plus, she wants peace and seems good, on the whole, despite a few executions by dracarys - her command for dragon fire.
She is heading North to fight the dead and presumably if she manages to get that inconvenience out of the way, she will want to take what she believes is rightfully hers.
"Daenerys right from the get-go has seen it as her destiny," says East.
"I think what's interesting is there's actually a lot of similarities between her and Cersei, in that as Daenerys's character has developed people have started to get a bit worried about her because there are some elements of the Mad King.
"You know, she's a Targaryen. They're a house and a family that for centuries has been born out of incest, which is clearly not not the best thing for your genetics.
"I think people are wondering whether or not she's got that madness in her.
"She's kind of shown it every now and then where she's been quite merciless or made rash decisions."
One thing's for sure. With two dragons at her disposal, she won't be going down without a fight. Dracarys indeed.

So who will end up on the Iron Throne?

There are lots of big characters left in the game. Jon and Dany of course, but there's also Cersei too. Or what about Sansa Stark?
East says he isn't convinced that there will be anyone sitting on the Iron Throne as things come to an end in Westeros.
"I'm not entirely sure you know," he says. "And of course there'll be outrage whoever ends up on it."
"Although... the Night King would be quite an interesting one. It would be quite interesting for Game Of Thrones to finish and actually, they all lost... that Winter came, and won.
"So I think for me that would possibly be the most satisfying ending. It might not be the most pleasing ending but it would be the most satisfying ending.
"If Game Of Thrones has taught us anything it's that the good guys don't always win."

What is the zombie ice dragon capable of?

Bringing down the Wall, the Seven Kingdoms' northern border, for starters, as we saw in the devastating scenes at the end of series seven.
Viserion was one of Dany's three dragons before being taken down by the Night King. Now, it is an ice-breathing monster.
But it had to happen, says East, if only to put the two armies on more of an equal footing.
"We kind of knew it was coming for quite a long time. That was a real fan-pleasing moment; they throw out these morsels for us every now and then and give us what we want, and seeing the ice dragon brought back from the dead and blowing the ice fire and destroying the wall was just amazing.
"And it balances the war. Otherwise, Dany would have just trounced them straightaway: three dragons, no dragons - end of discussion.
"As we've seen throughout the series, the dragons have always been the deciding factor. It doesn't matter how big your armies are or how many ships you've got when you're trying to fight Daenerys; she'll just shout 'dracarys' and you're all gone.
"So it needed that to happen in order for the final battle.
"It's still two against one though..."

Who will fly the third dragon?

Dany still has two dragons left. She can't fly both, so the obvious answer seems to be that Jon Snow (who we now know is a Targaryen, and therefore should be a natural) will step up to the scales.
But we also know not to expect the obvious.
East thinks Tyrion Lannister, Dany's trusted adviser, would make a good choice.
"I think everyone thinks it's gonna be Jon because he's part-Targaryen," says East.
"But I think Tyrion would be quite cool on a dragon, actually. I do think we'll see Tyrion on a dragon at some point."
Which brings us to...

Tyrion's fate

Often called "The Imp" because of his height, Tyrion is the youngest son of Tywin Lannister (who he killed with a crossbow) and younger brother to Cersei and Jaime, and now adviser to Daenerys.
"He's everybody's favourite because he's sort of the conscience of Game Of Thrones," says East. "He knows that he's a deeply flawed human being and he's had a lot of baggage to carry around with him. Tywin treated him so badly, he was ashamed of him.
"Peter Dinklage has just been incredible. His performance has been mind-blowing."
"He has overcome a lot to be here in the last series. It'll be interesting to see how it ends for him."

Will Arya finish her kill list?

Arya Stark has been out for revenge ever since witnessing the death of her father Ned in series one, in what was possibly one of the most jaw-droppingly shocking TV scenes ever.
She has been training ever since, and has a kill list which is fairly long. Surely now we'll get to see her Faceless Man assassin skills put to use once again in the final series?
"Arya is just full of bitterness and vengeance," says East." I think the Starks are the family that we watch the show through their eyes; they're our heroes because we were introduced to them first and every character is so different.
"I think probably most people identify with Arya because she's like: 'You hurt my family, I'm going to hurt you, and I will not stop until I've got my revenge.'
"I think there's a lot of Arya where we're all urging her to go for it.
"Now, it's the question of what can Arya use her Faceless Man powers for? Because at the moment she's only used that power for personal revenge.
"There's a lot of people left on her list; I just hope that she ends up using it for the greater good."
Arya's skills mean she can disguise herself as others - a quick peel of the face revealing her true identity.
"There are so many ways this could lead," says East. "Will she use it to kill? Will she get killed by somebody thinking that she's someone else?
"Who the hell knows? Maybe Jon kills the Night King and then realises it's Arya?
"I've got no idea. But if that ends up being it, people are going to kill me."

'The original Avengers'

Sansa Stark hasn't had a good time of it but in the last series, finally, she was reunited with Arya and the sisters got their relationship back on track.
Will that be the only bit of happiness for the elder Stark daughter?
"When we first met the Starks in season one, Sansa and Arya were babies," says East. "You forget how long they've been apart.
"They've only just been put back together and they've been through so much. They're all like soldiers coming back from war.
"They've lost so many members of their own family; they've all just felt completely alone.
"Sansa has probably had a worse time than anybody. It's just been a relentless cacophony of misery from the second that her father died, right up until she made it back to Winterfell; everything that happened to her was horrible.
"She's been raped multiple times by multiple husbands. It's no wonder she's so distrusting of anybody, let alone men.
"So it has been good to see them all come back together and on a united front. They're the original Avengers, aren't they?"

Will Cersei get her comeuppance?

We last saw ruthless Queen Cersei Lannister agreeing to a truce with Jon and Dany as they prepared for battle against the White Walkers. She is also apparently pregnant with twin brother Jaime's child.
"Cersei is one of my favourite characters," says East. "Her story has been amazing, and she's played incredibly. She scares me a little bit. You're watching her and you just think, 'wow, what a cow'.
"She has had one of the greatest journeys, I think. She had a fortune teller who told her as a young girl that she'd have three children: all of them blonde, all would wear golden crowns but also golden shrouds.
"So she's known all her life that she would have three children and they would all die before her, which has come to pass. It's no wonder she's one of the bitterest people out there.
"She now wants to announce that she's pregnant and that Jaime is the father (as well as the uncle). You know, that's not going to end well.
"She's Peggy Mitchell, really - 'I'd do anything for my family'. When she blew up the Sept of Baelor and finally got her revenge on the High Sparrow, that was an incredible scene because you knew that she'd been plotting all along and the way that it was shot, the way it was delivered was unbelievable.
"You were sort of rooting for her even though she'd just killed about 150 people, blown up an amazing building. And then just when Cersei thinks she's won, her actions caused her son to throw himself out of a tower. So she was straight back to to to where she belonged. She ended up as Queen but she had to sacrifice her own children to do it.
"It's amazingly complex and that's the best thing about these shows.
"I think Jaime has been great. He was like the prince out of Shrek at first, wasn't he? Just this spoiled, stuck up, privileged royal.
"But he's been through a lot. He's lost his hand, the one thing that kind of separated him and gave him his status as Kingslayer. But he's been humbled and seen actually how messed up his family are.
"I'm not convinced that we're going to see Jaime and Cersei stood next to each other in this season. I think a bit of a fan request is that Jaime kills Cersei.
"They don't always give fans what they want but I hope we might get a few things... I'd like Jaime to kill Cersei, please. I think that would be quite poetic."

And finally... are there any Thronecast spoiler alerts?

The cast are sworn to secrecy.
Kit Harington has said he has kept the ending secret from his wife, Rose Leslie (and she even starred in the series, as Wildling Ygritte, who met her death in season four).
Sansa star Sophie Turner's fiance Joe Jonas apparently knows the ending, but reportedly had to sign a non-disclosure agreement and keep his camera phone covered when he visited her on set.
The producers even keep East and his co-host Sue Perkins in the dark, which means when they're reviewing on Thronecast they're coming at is as fresh as us lot watching at home.
"We might get given a hint, just a hint, at subjects to cover," says East. "That just makes your brain go into overdrive and its kind of tantalising you, you're trying to piece it all together, so that's quite good fun.
Thronecast presenter Jamie East
"But we don't see the episodes before. I'm quite happy not to have it spoiled because I can get excited with the fans. When the show goes out, our excitement, our outrage, our horror is true, we're now having to recreate it.
"So I've sort of got a few ideas about what's happening, but that's all. Just ideas. All I know is I can't say anything."
"But it's big and there is lots to get through. From the get-go, from episode one, there are going to be events that are just going to knock people sideways, I think - reveals, deaths, tactics. Everything from the get go. This is the main event."