The Stark Siblings

ladybirdmacpherson’s GOT analysis sideblog

[thestarksiblings]

Seven Nation Army - The White Stripes

Probably a white walker anthem. The ‘seven nation army’ is the Seven Kingdoms rallying together to defeat the army of the dead. The singer talks through his ‘eyes’ and ‘bones’ rather than speaking and talks of how ‘all the words are gonna bleed from me/and I will think no more’ as the white walkers are unable to speak the same language they once could, appearing to be a hive mind controlled by the Night King.

‘Don’t want to hear about it/every single ones got a story to tell’ refers to how despite the eight season set up, the arguments and politics of the Great Houses mean very little if they’re all killed by an unthinking ice zombie army. The ‘Queen of England’ could be Cersei as Westeros shares many similarities with England and ‘the hounds of hell’ could be the Starks of Winterfell as their symbol is a direwolf and Winterfell is called ‘Winterhell’ by Hot Pie. Let me know if you see anything more complex in this!

[thestarksiblings]

No One Knows - Queens of the Stone Age

I’m convinced there will be a secret relationship next series. There’s a few songs that reference one but obviously I’d struggle to analyse something when my main suspicions come from a playlist.

So, analysing without going completely insane with my secret relationship fan theory, I’d say this could be about Daenerys’s many unlucky admirers. Jorah, Tyrion and maybe even Daario could work.

They all work for her so ‘get some rules to follow’ but also go above and beyond e.g. both Jorah and Daario literally ‘journey through the desert’ for her and Tyrion and Jorah ‘drift along the ocean’. They’ve all tried to argue with her on points but she almost always comes out victorious and they’re ‘pleasantly caving in’.

[thestarksiblings]

Gold Lion - Yeah Yeah Yeahs

This could well be a Jaime song. ‘Gold Lion’ clearly means Lannister but which one? It’s not Cersei because she’s basically working solo and so isn’t going to be giving anyone any info, it’s unlikely to be Tyrion because what does he know that would be useful to Dany/Jon? Therefore it’s probably Jaime.

I imagine it’s referring to his experience after he arrives in the North. Whoever he approaches is wary and tries to get him to either spill info about Cersei or demonstrate his strategical capabilities to help them win: ‘tell me what you saw’, ‘tell me where the light is’. ‘This is a move without the tide’ May refer to the fact he’s left the Lannister army by himself, not with an army. He’s done something major by betraying Cersei even if he’s just one man. ‘We’ll build a fire in your eyes’ may suggest Jaime will be one of the most passionate fighters against the white walkers, or even against Cersei.

Also, whoever does these Game of Throne playlists likes the Yeah Yeah Yeahs because I remember a while ago when they did GOT character themed Spotify playlists, there were two Yeah Yeah Yeahs songs for Dany (Dragon Queen and Heads Will Roll if you’re curious).

[thestarksiblings]

Cold Cold Cold - Cage the Elephant

So this song could either be the very obvious story of someone changing into a white walker and begging for help OR it could be someone falling to the ‘dark side’ and desperately reaching out before they truly turn. If the second is correct there’s two likely possibilities: Bran or Daenerys.

Bran seems to have become more emotionless or ‘cold’ after taking on the role of the Three Eyed Raven, for example he let Meera leave without any gratitude or affection and made Sansa relive the traumatic memory of her wedding. If this is really the case, he could be tempted to do something that would make sense logically but would have negative emotional consequences and therefore this is his internal debate with his last slice of humanity. If you believe the Bran=Night King theory then this song works nicely for it: ‘and as the darkness falls, it fills up both my eyes... with my arms open wide’.

If it’s about Dany, this could suggest the Mad Queen theory or at least the idea of it. She’s has the most advisors and maybe after discovering the truth of Jons parentage and viewing him as a legitimate threat for the first time, she is confronting her advisors about what she should do. Tyrion as the ‘Doctor’ because he’s good at fixing things, Jorah as her ‘Counsellor’ and Missandei was the ‘Sweet Nurse’. She asks Missandei not to ‘look at me that way/I’ve seen those eyes before’ because she’s afraid of her betraying her like Dorreah did.

[thestarksiblings]

Burn The Fleet - Thrice

I think this is a Daenerys song. At first I thought it was Euron or another Greyjoy due to the constant references to ships and sailing but it tells the story of a group who have sailed to a new land and are either going to conquer or die trying which seems to be Daenerys’s entire plan.

Other than that, mentions of ‘torch’, ‘flame’, and ‘fire’ are all connected to the ‘Fire and Blood’ words of the Targaryens. This seems to suggest that Daenerys will either rule the Seven Kingdoms by the end of the series or will die trying (‘we’ll be heroes or ghosts/but we won’t be turned around’). That doesn’t speak too well for those who are hoping for a peaceful end to the Game and could suggest a Targaryen/Stark stand-off depending on who survives until the end...

[thestarksiblings]

Hot Blood - KALEO

Possibly a Jaime song? The references to being a ‘broken man’ who wants to be a ‘better man’ work best for him.

He escaped the faith militant who wanted to ‘shame’ him and ‘shave [his] head’ as they did to Cersei. ‘They don’t know who we are/They don’t know you and I’ are lines very reminiscent of this conversations with Cersei about how they’re the only two people who matter in the world.

Jamie’s one of the characters who’s been on a bit of a rollercoaster in terms of levels of power and safety. He’s literally had to ‘get up and get up and get up again’. Also most recently, he did ‘break away’ from Cersei last season to pursue the Northeners.

[thestarksiblings]

Wolf Like Me - TV on the Radio

This is a Jonsa song. I was trying not to take Jon ship sides but damn. Please tell me if you think it works for anything else because I can’t think of anything.

‘Wolf like me’, ‘got a curse we cannot lift’ and ‘we’re howling forever’ implies they’re both wolves (Starks) rather than just one half being so. Even little lines like ‘gotta gut that fish’ work because Sansa’s half Tully and ‘writing under your riding hood’ because she is one of the few characters we see commonly wear hoods throughout while traveling.

The ‘baby doll I recognise/you’re a hideous thing inside’ verse refers to the traumas that Sansa’s endured. Her hearts been broken and hardened, her body’s been damaged and she’s no longer this pure, delicate Lady that some used to view her as.

‘I know it’s strange, another way to get to know you’ because they’re cousins and it’s a little weird. Throughout a lot of these songs there’s lots of references to a secret relationship which the ‘we’ve got til noon’ line also leans on, so maybe that’s Jonsa?

[thestarksiblings]

Wave of Mutilation - The Pixies

I didn’t think Euron would be getting his own song but here you go. Who else could be associated with a ‘wave of mutilation’ and all this sea imagery? Also the ‘you think I’m dead but I sail away’ is very ‘what is dead may never die’.

There’s rumours that he’ll match his book counterparts brutality next series and this seems to emphasise that.

[thestarksiblings]

Girl From the North Country - Bob Dylan

Is there anyone out there who thinks this isn’t about Sansa? ‘The girl from the north country’ with hair that ‘curls and falls all down her breast’ can’t really refer to anyone else.

This is a very hopeful Sansa song, implying she’s still alive after the battles as the singer asks the person they’re addressing to ‘please say hello to the one who lives there’.

The more interesting question is who the singer is supposed to be. He claims this girl was ‘once a true love’ and Sansa’s has her fair share of admirers so hypothetically it could be Sandor, Jon, Tyrion or even someone like Baelish from beyond the grave. Maybe she’ll even get a new small romance in the final series.

[thestarksiblings]

Devil’s Spoke - Laura Marling

This could possibly be either a JonxDany or JonxSansa song. The ‘all of this can be broken/hold your devil by his spoke and spin him to the ground’ section makes me think it somehow involves Daenerys just because this really seems to refer to Dany’s ‘I’m not going to stop the wheel, I’m going to break the wheel’ conversation with Tyrion. Also the ‘my king’ line can really only refer to Jon as the only human king left alive.

‘A fallen tree that witness me/I’m alone him and me’ may refer to a weirwood tree as the Northeners believe the old gods watch through them. If Jon and Sansa are meant to mirror Ned and Cat maybe they’ll get a scene by the Winterfell weirwood tree?

The ‘many trains and many miles’ verse would make sense if the kidnapping plot does happen. Sansa’s been taken to Kings Landing which (while now snowy) is certainly a lot more ‘sunny’ than Winterfell. Could Jon show up to ‘rescue’ Sansa?

Now the next verse seems to suggest the singers lover has an ex girlfriend who is now dead. This could be Ygritte, Jon’s first love. But Dany could also possibly die, which is when Sansa and Jon grow closer? The ‘arms that fed’ and ‘the backs that bled keeping her in tow’ seem more likely to refer to Daenerys.

And the outro ‘ripping off each other’s clothes in the most peculiar way’ could refer to both pairings being at least slightly incestuous.

[thestarksiblings]

Listen to the Lion - Van Morrison

There’s three Lannisters left, therefore three possible Lions this relates to, but it’s probably Cersei.

She’s the one desperately trying to hold everything together, to not lose the Lannister inside of her (to ‘listen to the lion’) to grief or madness. Not only that, but she’s lost all her fellow ‘lions’ as well - her parents, children and siblings. As a woman who held family so close, this is what’s really tearing her apart: ‘all my love come tumblin down... all my tears like water flown’.

The final verses (‘we sailed away from Denmark... lookin’ for a brand new start’) could refer to the theory that Cersei will escape from Westeros with her baby/pregnancy and leave behind the Seven Kingdoms. It seems unlikely due to her obsession with the crown, but maybe she’ll be convinced or even tricked into leaving the throne.

Note: I’m in such a Game of Thrones mood that I heard the whispered ‘brand new start’ at the end of this song as ‘Brandon Stark’ and got super confused for a while.

[thestarksiblings]

Fire - Barns Courtney

The title suggests it could refer to Daenerys and her dragon fire or even Cersei and her wildfire but I’m certain this is a Melisandre song.

The mentions of ‘sweet virgin blood’, ‘sold my soul to the calling’ and the continuous addressing of the ‘Lord’ make it clear. The Lord of Light could feature heavily next season with Melisandre’s return. Will she bring more priestesses with her? Will they fully display the Lord’s power?

I also think it’s possible Melisandre will have a proper contemplation of her faith or at least what she’s done as suggested by ‘ghosts and devils come calling’ and ‘thousand voices dead at my feet’ which may represent the many people she’s killed in the name of the Lord. There were hints of this in both seasons 6 and 7 when Stannis fails and when it’s discovered she was involved in Shireen’s death but this song seems to tie into the idea of the bad things she’s done catching up to her.

[thestarksiblings]

So I’m gonna put my English Lit qualifications to use and try and analyse some of the Game of Thrones playlist songs in terms of how they could reflect the ending. I’ll try and remain unbiased (reasonably easy because I like most of the main players left) but wish me luck because this is probably way too much work to attempt 🤷‍♀️

Disclaimer: this is mainly a pointless bit of fun. I’m not taking it super seriously, I just need to practice my analysis skills for when I return to uni in September.