5 important things you probably missed on the ‘Game of Thrones’ season finale

HBO

From left, Peter Dinklage as Tyrion Lannister, Nathalie Emmanuel as Missandei, and Emilia Clarke as Daenerys Targaryen on “Game of Thrones.”

Warning: spoilers ahead for Sunday’s episode of “Game of Thrones,” “The Winds of Winter.”

Three houses have risen from the ashes and a huge Jon Snow revelation rocked the season-six finale of “Game of Thrones” this week.

Cersei Lannister (Lena Headey) opted for a scorched-earth policy instead of going to trial in front of the Faith Militant. That decision would wipe out all her enemies and give her the Iron Throne, but it also led to the death of her final living child.

Meanwhile, Daenerys (Emilia Clarke) assembled her forces and locked down enough ships to begin her return to Westeros. Along the way, she solidified her unlikely alliance with Tyrion Lannister (Peter Dinklage), but has resolved to take on a new alliance via marriage.

And over at Winterfell, Jon Snow (Kit Harington) and Sansa Stark (Sophie Turner) tried to patch up any issues of trust between them after she hid the inclusion of Littlefinger (Petyr Baelish) and the Knights of Vale in the Battle of the Bastards.

But their sister, Arya (Maisie Williams), is on her own mission of vengeance.

Here are five important things you probably missed on this week’s “Game of Thrones”:

A very long goodbye.

Just as a matter of historical importance, we want to bring attention to this episode’s length. At 69 minutes long, it is the series’ longest episode to date. Previously, that record was held by the 10th episode of the fourth season, titled “The Children,”  which was 65 minutes long.

All is right again in the opening credits.

Fans cheered a significant change during this episode’s opening credits. For all of season five and the first nine episodes of season six, Winterfell was labeled with the Bolton sigil, or house symbol, of a flayed man, with the Starks’ direwolf lying broken nearby.

On this episode, the direwolf symbol returned.

The significance of Tommen wearing gold.

Fans of the “A Song of Ice and Fire” books, which “Thrones” is based on, probably expected his death when they saw how he was outfitted.

When Cersei was young, she was given a prophecy by an old fortune teller. The part that would apply to Tommen (Dean-Charles Chapman) wearing gold on this episode: “Gold shall be [Cersei's children's] crowns and gold their shrouds.” And so it was.

Take note, there is more to the prophecy, which is referred to as the “valonqar” prophecy. It states that Cersei will be killed by a “valonqar,” which is Valyrian for “little brother.”

On face value, that could mean Tyrion or her slightly younger twin, Jaime (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau). Some believed that it could refer to Tommen, the youngest of her children, the “little brother.”

But now that Tommen is dead, Jaime is within striking distance and Tyrion is on his way back to King’s Landing with Daenerys. Will the rest of the prophecy come true? And if so, who will kill Cersei?

What’s at stake with the winter’s arrival?

After years of hearing that the winter is coming, it has finally arrived. We know, because of the appearance of a white raven. It’s sent out by the maesters in Oldtown to signal a change of seasons, a sporadic and unpredictable thing in Westeros. So, what does it mean? 

Typically, it can be a burden to all the kingdoms when it comes to warfare and feeding the people. Dorne will probably be the only land spared by its hardship.

But in the larger sense, it means the White Walkers are coming.

Who’s Jon Snow’s father?

Through Bran’s (Isaac Hempstead-Wright) vision, we finally learned who Jon Snow’s mother really is. At the Tower of Joy, young Ned Stark found his sister, Lyanna Stark, bleeding after having a child, Jon.

That’s just half of the popular fan theory about Jon Show’s parentage known as R+L=J. The other part of the equation is what stands for “R.” According to the theory, Snow’s father is Daenerys’ brother, Rhaegar Targaryen. Though he was believed to have kidnapped Lyanna Stark and then taken her to the Tower of Joy, the theory states they actually ran away together, in love.

NOW WATCH THIS:

var playerParam = {

'pcode': 'BhdmY6l9g002rBhQ6aEBZiheacDu',

'playerBrandingId': '6e12e8b3387a44daacfb73afba25a76e',

'skin': {

'config': 'http://ift.tt/1UygWuD'

}

};

OO.ready(function() {

window.pp = OO.Player.create('ooyala-post-container', 'BqbWY0NDE67HpUzV9Y75XOdfm736jxkn', playerParam);

});

Read more stories on Business Insider, Malaysian edition of the world’s fastest-growing business and technology news website.