We know some of the events going down in Game of Thrones Season 6 episode 3, “Oathbreaker,” thanks to the episode preview. Jon Snow is back and everyone is duly impressed. Arya gets hit with sticks for a third episode in a row. The Umbers bring Rickon to Ramsay Bolton ( probably ). Daenerys and Cersei something something, bingo bango, Tower of Joy and Jon Snow’s parents .
But has another major subplot of the next episode snuck by unnoticed? Could Varys be getting ready to murder a whole lot of Westerosi?
To promote episode 3 HBO released a bunch of stills from the upcoming Game of Thrones episode. Two are eye-catching.
Here’s Qyburn, surrounded by children.
And here’s Kevan Lannister.
Kevan sits on the Small Council and is Hand of the King to Tommen. In George R.R. Martin’s novel A Dance with Dragons, Kevan is killed by Varys and, more importantly for our purposes, Varys’ “little birds”: the street urchins he uses to gather information in King’s Landing. In this killing spree Varys also takes out Grand Maester Pycelle.
Why else would Qyburn be surrounded by kids, if they were not murderous servants of Varys? Is this HBO tipping their hat to an oncoming Godfather-like bloodbath in the courts of the Red Keep? The Spider has many legs and many webs, after all. And Varys could use some action, he’s been sidelined as comic relief for far too long.
Or perhaps we’re just grasping at the last straws of secret book knowledge left to us. Maybe Qyburn is just doing a little science demo, like the Westeros equivalent of Beakman and Jax.
We’ll know the truth when Game of Thrones Season 6 episode 3 “Oathbreaker” airs May 8 at 9 p.m. on HBO.
