Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Entertainment
  3. News

The Mad Queen rules over ashes in Game of Thrones’ final episode photos

Rick Marshall
By
Game of Thrones | Season 8 Episode 6 | Preview (HBO)

King’s Landing is ashes, and the Mad Queen has emerged victorious, but there’s still one episode remaining in the final season of HBO’s Game of Thrones.

Recommended Videos

The fires are still burning in both the hit show and in fans’ debate over the penultimate episode of Game of Thrones, and the network has now released a pair of photos and a preview of what’s to come when one of the most popular series of all time concludes its eight-season run. Titled The Bells, the most recent episode saw Daenerys Targaryen’s army — but mostly just her dragon — win the battle for the Iron Throne, but at what cost?

Related

After deciding to rain fiery death on a city full of innocent civilians despite the city’s surrender, the newly christened “Mad Queen” now looks poised to take the Iron Throne for herself, concluding a narrative that saw her rise to power, only to become a villain greater than the one she deposed. The first photo released by HBO shows her overlooking the ash-covered remnants of the city, while the second photo puts Tyrion Lannister (Peter Dinklage) front and center.

Image used with permission by copyright holder
Image used with permission by copyright holder

The trailer takes a brief look at the aftermath of Daenerys’ rage and features a brief shot of Arya Stark, one of the characters who saw firsthand the terrifying toll it took on the city’s most vulnerable inhabitants.

More Game of Thrones News

Although the show’s series finale will air this upcoming weekend, that won’t be the end of the saga inspired by author George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire fantasy novels.

A Game of Thrones prequel series is currently in development and active casting with Kingsman: The Secret Service and Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children screenwriter Jane Goldman attached as head writer and showrunner, and Martin himself also involved. The still-untitled series will be set thousands of years before the events of Game of Thrones and feature two-time Oscar nominee Naomi Watts in an unidentified lead role.

Episode 6 of Game of Thrones season 8 will air 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT on Sunday, May 18, on HBO.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Rick Marshall
Rick Marshall
Former Digital Trends Contributor
A veteran journalist with more than two decades of experience covering local and national news, arts and entertainment, and…
The Red Wedding at 10: How the groundbreaking episode changed Game of Thrones forever
Robb Stark's body with his direwolf's head in Game of Thrones.

The so-called Golden Age of Television reached its undeniable zenith during the 2010s. Shows like Mad Men, Veep, Breaking Bad, and Stranger Things took TV to new and exciting levels of visual and narrative quality. However, no show had more influence or acclaim throughout the 2010s than Game of Thrones. The HBO juggernaut became synonymous with prestige television, delivering a perfect mix of political intrigue, high fantasy, and sex that became irresistible for critics and audiences.

Game of Thrones wasn't an instant success; it was only in season 3 that the show became the must-see show on television. Two events helped the show achieve this elusive reputation. The first was Daenerys' sacking of Astapor in the fourth episode, And Now His Watch Has Ended. The second is, of course, the Red Wedding. The episode it was featured in, The Rains of Castamere, changed the series' course, altering the fate of multiple characters and radically shifting the power balance between the noble houses of Westeros. The groundbreaking episode showcased Game of Thrones operating at full strength, and, as a result, allowed audiences to truly understand what kind of show they were watching.
Game of Thrones sends its regards

Read more
House of the Dragon season 2: Everything we know so far
Alicent and Rhaenyra clutch each other in House of the Dragon.

While it may not be coming this year, long-time Game of Thrones fans are already eagerly anticipating the return of House of the Dragon. The show became a genuine phenomenon in its first season, which told the story of the friendship between Rhaenyra Targaryen and Alicent Hightower as it soured into what would eventually become an all-out civil war.
HBO renewed the show for a second season almost as soon as the first season began airing, and we already know plenty about where the show will be headed when it returns.
This post does not contain any spoilers for the show’s second season, but it is informed by Fire & Blood, the Targaryen history by George R.R. Martin that the series is adapted from, and will obviously continue to focus on the conflict between Rhaenyra and her younger half-brother Aegon as they battle for control of the Iron Throne.

What will happen in season 2 of House of the Dragon?
House Of The Dragon | Official Teaser | HBO Max
Without delving into spoilers, the second season of the show is expected to pick up soon after the first season left off. Fans of the show will likely recall that that season ended with Aemond Targaryen’s dragon inadvertently attacking and killing Rhaenyra’s son Lucerys and his dragon. Lucerys’s death is what ultimately brings what had been a simmering conflict closer to a boil, and leads to a much greater level of death and destruction.
We also know, thanks to an interview with one of the show’s writers, that a moment known to fans as Blood and Cheese will be included on the show. The exact details of that moment are best left to the imagination, but suffice it to say that it’s a moment likely to leave many fans talking.

Read more
The Last of Us episode 9 trailer teases an explosive season one finale
A young girl stares and looks in the Last of Us.

One of 2023's most acclaimed shows is almost over. After a terrific run of episodes, The Last of Us will conclude its first season with an explosive finale this Sunday night. In the episode 9 trailer, Joel (The Mandalorian season 3’s Pedro Pascal) and Ellie (Game of Thrones’ Bella Ramsey) make their final trek to Salt Lake City to meet up with a group of Fireflies who may be able to create a cure for the Cordyceps infection. As Ellie says to Joel in the footage, "There's no halfway with this. We finish what we started."

Fans of the video games will notice a familiar face in the episode 9 trailer. Ashley Johnson, who portrayed Ellie in the video games, will play Anna, Ellie's mother, in episode 9. The tense footage shows Anna writhing in pain as she tries to stave off an infected woman.

Read more