Burning questions we still have about Game of Thrones

Game of Thrones wrapped up its eighth and final season and scattered many characters across the charted map and beyond. But questions linger, and several storylines that were introduced remain unresolved.

For example, it was never made clear whether Cersei's pregnancy was genuine or invented to manipulate the men around her.

Season 7 devotes a lot of screen time to mentioning and reminding us of Dany's alleged infertility. Jon even asks Dany if Mirri Maz Duur is a reliable source of reproductive advice shortly before paying a visit to her bedchamber.

This seems like a lot of setup for a storyline that never paid off and was never mentioned in the final season.

Melisandre arrives at Winterfell shortly before the Army of the Dead. And she rides right up to the front lines from the same direction the wights are coming from.

Did she ride through an army of angry zombies? Did she come from the south and loop around undetected?

You'd think those townspeople in King's Landing would've been more welcoming to the army that just ensured humanity's survival. 

But who would've spread the word of the Battle of Winterfell? We don't suspect Cersei embraces a free and independent press.

The Golden Company promised Cersei elephants, but the elephants never showed.

Yes, we know this is a shoutout to events from the book series that never made it into the show, but it's unclear why the elephants didn't at least get a cameo.

Jon discovering his true parentage was positioned as a huge twist on Game of Thrones, but it didn't make much of a difference in the end.

Nephew or not, Jon would've had every reason to doubt Dany's ability to safely rule after she torched King's Landing, so what did the Aegon piece ultimately contribute?

The same thing could be said for Jon's resurrection. Did the Lord of Light bring him back specifically to kill Daenerys? Is he the only one who could earn her trust so completely?

Now that the dead are defeated and Drogon is the last remaining dragon (that we know of), are there more magical animals left hanging around?

Drogon disappeared in season 4 and flew away again in the series finale. Could Drogon have found another dragon and made some dragon babies? Could there be an entire population of dragons somewhere off the map? After all, Dany's three eggs had to come from somewhere.

We know the Children of the Forest were endangered before the Night King and his army attacked the cave of the Three-Eyed raven, but are there more?

Seriously, what did he want? Bran said in season 8 that he wanted to erase human memory, but how would that benefit the Night King specifically?

The Night King's identity was never fleshed out. Theories swirled around who he could be. Was he Bran the Builder? Was he connected to Bran Stark in some way?

We know the trees are connected to greensight in some way, but did the magic associated with these trees ever provide any information that was important to the characters on the show?

This guy has the ability to morph into any person he kills. Did he really hang around in Braavos in his assassin-training center while humanity's fate hung in the balance?

What are they watching for these days?

Did the Night's Watch rebuild the section of wall that the ice dragon knocked down? Does humanity need a wall at all now that there are no more White Walkers?

It's unclear from the final scene whether Jon Snow is leaving Castle Black forever or just as a temporary escort to the wildlings. Does the closing gate indicate that he intends to live out his days as the King Beyond the Wall?

Game of Thrones (the show) is notoriously opaque with its execution of prophecies, but it's still unclear who, if anyone, is the Prince that was Promised.

Whose horse is this? How did it avoid being burned in the massacre? Where did it go in the series' final episode?

The last time we saw Meera was back in season 7 when she left Bran to return home to Greywater Watch where she intended to protect her family from the Night King. Given that the dead were defeated before making it that far, we can assume she's still alive.

We think Meera deserves a little credit for escorting the new king around the frigid north for multiple seasons.

Missandei is dead. Daenerys didn't create this hairstyle herself, and we don't think Drogon has the fine motor skills to create this look.

How does the debt industry work in this universe? Given that she was crushed by bricks, it doesn't seem like Cersei will be able to pay her debts any time soon.

If one's goal is to sit on the Iron Throne, killing the person who calls herself queen seems like the most pressing task.

They knew that the Night King was raising the dead, so why would these dead be any different?

We never heard anyone even so much as ponder the idea of dragon reproduction. Hey, it worked in Jurassic Park.

It's literally snowing ash out here, and everyone is breathing like the particulate matter in the air isn't jumping off the charts.

When Tyrion walks into the room where Jamie and Cersei were killed, he quickly finds their bodies under just one layer of fallen bricks with their faces conveniently intact. 

Would this few bricks really have killed them without any perceptible head injuries?

The last time we saw the Dornish paramour, she was chained in the dungeon of the Red Keep. Did she escape before the siege or was she crushed by the collapsing castle?

Drogon's reaction to Daenerys' death was a little too poetic for a nonverbal reptilian beast. So, was the throne melting a coincidence?

Is he taking her for a sailor's burial at sea? Is he evacuating her back to Essos for medical treatment?

Drogon removed Dany's body and all of the evidence, so how did Grey Worm know that Jon was the killer? Did he confess? Because that would be just about the most Jon-Snow move of all time.

To borrow a line from Dany, "WHERE ARE MY DRAGONS?"

Melisandre said Arya would close brown, blue and green eyes. Many assumed this meant that Arya would kill Cersei, but that piece didn't pan out.

Bran just signed up to be the king "until his last day." The previous Three-Eyed Raven said that he was more than 1,000 years old. 

Does being the Three-Eyed Raven increase one's life expectancy by that much? If so, Westeros is going to have the same king for a while.

Was he DM-ing Yara Greyjoy? Informing whoever is running Dorne? Giving the heads-up to someone in King's Landing? Were these ravens ever even dispatched?

And why did we get this lingering shot of Varys methodically removing his jewelry before being sentenced to death by dragon?

Seriously, what was he doing? Was he helping in some way?

In the final episode of the series, Bran says he's going to look for Drogon. Does this imply Bran can actually warg into dragons, or is he going to use his avian network to find the missing dragon?

We've heard mentions of an unnamed prince in Dorne. We even caught a glimpse of him in the dragon pit. Who is he? Where do his allegiances lie? Is he a member of House Martell?

These body-part sculptures seemed to be communicating something, but we never found out what that was.

We're sure you've read a dozen think pieces about how Daenerys could go from idealistic regime changer to genocidal tyrant in an instant, but we're still perplexed by her motivations in that moment.

Does Westeros have a groundhog we could consult?