Did you study a language for multiple years in high school or college? Did you learn a language while studying abroad? Now ask yourself if you could hold a basic conversation in that language if somebody fluent were to come up to you right now. If you’re like me, and hundreds of other people, you likely can’t. When I try to speak Spanish with someone, there always comes a point where I have to pull out my Google Translate app or start doing some poor form of charades. Needless to say, knowing a language other than your own comes in handy for countless situations, including traveling, business, communicating with family members, and so on.

Why is it that learning languages seems reasonably manageable, but retaining that conversational knowledge is exponentially more difficult? A polyglot from Los Angeles named Gabriel Wyner has an answer, and what he thinks is a solution. On September 19th, Wyner launched a Kickstarter campaign for a language-learning app called Fluent Forever. It quickly became the most funded app in Kickstarter history, surpassing its $250,000 funding goal in just over 17 hours. As of today, the campaign has 3,639 backers with a total funding of $495,134.

Wyner received bachelor’s degrees in mechanical engineering and vocal arts performance at USC, and went on to pursue a master’s degree in singing in Vienna, Austria. While in Vienna, he shifted his focus from opera to learning languages. He’s now fluent in eight languages: English, Spanish, Italian, French, German, Russian, Hungarian, and Japanese. “I had a terrible experience learning Hebrew and Russian in high school,” Wyner tells The Verge. “I didn’t actually learn anything, which seems to be a common experience in the States.”

His first successful experience learning a language was with German, in an immersion-style program called German for Singers, in Middlebury, Vermont. After moving to Italy for a short period of time in 2008, Wyner came back to Middlebury to try to learn French. In order to get himself into an intermediate course, given his knowledge of Italian, Wyner cheated on his online placement test with Google Translate. Unfortunately, he did too well on the test and was placed into the intermediate level class that required students to do a 15-minute interview in French. Wyner only had three months to learn French, and in a state of panic he found a language-learning flashcard software called Anki. Instead of using Anki for word-to-word translations, he used it for pictures and sentences. The interview came around and Wyner ended up being placed in an advanced class because he had reached near fluency through the learning methods he had developed using Anki.

This is where Wyner’s key learning came from, and it led him to publish a Lifehacker article that went viral. That led to his first book, Fluent Forever, and his first Kickstarter campaign that consisted of pronunciation training products within Anki. The project originally had 11 products promised, but ended up delivering 65 due to its success. Wyner’s method was unique in that it did not focus on translation, but rather on pronunciation, and building associations between a particular list of words with larger concepts. “The way that most languages work is you put things in categories like, ‘I’m going learn my colors today, and all my numbers tomorrow,’ which is terrible from a memory standpoint. But if you learn colors like, ‘I’m going to learn red, apple, delicious, lunch, knife, and piece,’ I’m learning the things that would be involved in cutting a piece of a red apple. That ends up being significantly more memorable than just random words.”

The Fluent Forever app essentially takes Wyner’s products that he developed within Anki, removes the difficultly of learning a specific piece of third-party software, and brings it to the palm of your hand in an easy-to-use app. When you first enter the app, you’re taken through three to four videos about your language of choice’s alphabet, its consonants and vowels, and the spelling rules that produce those consonants and vowels. Any language that has a new alphabet uses a series of visual mnemonic devices. “Say B is for Boy,” Wyner explains. “We commissioned artists to create a B that is hunched over in the shape of a boy.”

After you’ve had some time to learn the pronunciation, you’re taken through a 625-word list. The list is based off of the publicly available General Service List, which Wyner customized to eliminate words he felt would not be essential (e.g., watermelon). You can either learn words with a picture, or with sentences. All of this is in done in a simple flashcard format with audio recordings. There are three options for the sentences, with varying levels of difficulty, creating 1,875 sentences total that you can learn with. If you have questions about word choice or grammar within any of the sentences, you can ask in a discussion thread attached to each sentence, and a native speaker will respond. 

If you choose to learn a word with image association, the app presents you with eight options all sourced from Google Images. For example, if you’re learning the word for “dog” in French, the image selection will be sourced from French websites through the search word “chien.” This is important because it will actually show you images of dogs that are more commonly associated with French, which are usually smaller and cuter. It’s these kinds of associations that Wyner says create distinct memories that allow you to retain a language.

Once you’ve completed these steps, you can browse through additional words and sentence combinations from a proofread community database. This is where a crowdsourcing aspect of the app comes in. If a language is not supported on the app, you can begin to add your own sentences from outside learning through a tutor or through traditional books. Fluent Forever has resources on its site that allow you to find a tutor, will set you up with an interface that allows you to build resources for the language, and then you can add it to the app.

Through this, Wyner says, it should be feasible to learn a level one language, such as Spanish or French, in six months with 30 to 60 minutes of practice a day. Level two languages include Greek and Russian, and those will take roughly 12 months to learn, while level three languages like Japanese and Arabic will take roughly two years.

The Fluent Forever app will come out in beta starting next February for every backer of the Kickstarter campaign. It will officially launch in the App Store with Spanish support starting in April, with plans to add support for French, Italian, Russian, German, and Korean by the summer of 2018. Wyner projects that he needs a total of $850,000 to include all possible languages, which if he doesn’t get through the Kickstarter, he hopes to get through an Indiegogo campaign he is starting shortly after the Kickstarter ends.

The Kickstarter campaign ends October 19th. You can get beta access to the app by pledging $40. When the app is released worldwide, the full $12 a month subscription will give you full access to image searches, flashcard creation, and the community database for all languages, along with demo access to the pronunciation trainers and sentence lists in all of those languages. The $6 a month subscription will limit image searches and will not provide access to a native speaker for questions. If you want to access full sentence lists outside of the demos, those will be included as in-app purchases. A sentence list is priced at $25, and a pronunciation trainer is priced at $12.(A bundle of these two comes in at $30.)

“I really enjoy the process of learning how to think in a new language,” Wyner says. “People get caught up in the translation thing. I want to push this idea of, ‘I’m thinking in German,’ instead of, ‘I’m decoding my English really fast.’ That’s what I’m interested in.

Update: You can follow the Indiegogo campaign here

If you’re a Spotify user (and an iPhone user), there have probably been countless times you’ve shared a song with a friend through iMessage. The share button is easy and intuitive enough on the Spotify app, but the action can only be done within Spotify, and not the other way around. On the receiving end, once your friend gets the link, they have to leave iMessage, open Spotify, and then listen to the full song. Now, you can share a song on Spotify without ever leaving iMessage, thanks to the quiet launch of Spotify’s new iMessage app, TechCrunch reports.

Unlike Apple Music’s iMessage app, where you can only pick from a selection of songs you’ve recently listened to, Spotify’s app allows users to search for any track within the Spotify catalog, and send a 30-second snippet of it within iMessage. To enable this feature, go into your iMessage and open a conversation, click the App button on the left, and enable Spotify. Once you’ve done that, click on the Spotify icon, and begin to search for the song you want to share. The person on the receiving end of the message then gets a 30-second preview of the song and from there they can then decide if your share is worthy of them tapping out of iMessage and listening to the full song.

If your friend is a Spotify subscriber, they’ll only be able to access the preview by enabling the app in iMessage as well. This feature will definitely come in handy for folks who like to share and listen to music via texting. Because even if you have to leave the iMessage app eventually to access the full song, the 30-second preview should prevent at least a little app whiplash.

Finding a great note-taking app is like finding the perfect pair of jeans. They’re hard to come across, but once you do, you’ll always stick with them. The same goes for the best smartphone apps. Some people might still prefer the old, foolproof method of taking notes with pen and paper, but this is the mobile era, and having one good note-taking app on your phone can save you constant hassle. And for students heading back to college, the right notes app can keep you organized and on track.

That is why Evernote is by far my favorite note-taking app that helps me keep my life in order. I’ve been using the free version since early 2013. One of the best things about Evernote is that it works pretty much everywhere, including iOS, Android, Mac, Windows, and on the web. If you want to get a little bit more from Evernote, such as more devices to sync across, offline access, or more robust storage features, you can sign up for the Plus Plan that starts at $25 annually. I personally feel like the free version will do just fine, as I’ve found 60MB of space to be pretty adequate for notes. But Evernote’s changing prices are one reason The Verge’s Casey Newton gave up on the app completely. Nonetheless, the free tier of Evernote still gets the job done. I’m going to be running through how to use Evernote on a Mac desktop, since that is mainly where I access it. But the app is pretty intuitive and fairly easy to understand on mobile, too. If you’re headed back to school, let’s focus on how to get the most out of this app so you can keep your GPA high throughout the year.

Notebooks

The first thing to know is that Evernote allows you to organize notes by different “notebooks,” and “notes” within those notebooks. You can simply click the “new notebook” button on the top left corner of the app. Then, you can choose to either make it a private note or one that can be shared with collaborators or classmates. So, say you’re taking four very different classes this semester. You can create a notebook for each of these classes — each with their own notes — and you won’t have to jumble notes for all of them into one place. Instead of carrying around several physical Moleskins, you can have it all in one neat, virtual place. That’s got to be better for both you and the environment.

Checklists

The neat thing about notes is that you can also decide how you want to view them. I personally prefer the card view, because it gives you a little snippet of your most recent notes on the left and a view of the entire note you’ve selected to the right. But definitely try them in the other views to see which layout suits you best. Once you create a note, there are numerous ways to organize your information. You can add web page clippings, images, and audio recordings all within one note. But perhaps my favorite feature is the check-box bullet point option. It’s great for to-do lists, and is a satisfying virtual equivalent of crossing off things from a handwritten list. You can get super granular and nerdy with it, too, by customizing sections with different colors, fonts, and separate sections with a horizontal line. Get your organizational nerd on!

Voice Notes

If you’re about to kick off a boring 8AM lecture and you had a late night, Evernote’s voice notes feature might prove very useful. When you don’t feel like typing out your notes, simply hit the microphone button on the far right and select record. Just sit up close to the professor. On Mac, you can choose to have voice recordings saved right to your iTunes library, and they’re equally easy to share on other platforms. You can always go back to the recording later and take your own notes when you’re more attentive. Voice notes can definitely be a lifesaver.

Attachments

There are two ways to attach files to a note: directly from your computer or from the cloud with Google Drive. For files on your computer, Evernote makes it easy with a simple drag-and-drop function. If you’re a visual learner, it’s easy to drop-in diagrams, videos, photos, GIFs, and anything else that is important in order to give yourself the full picture. For my “post LG Instagram” item on my checklist, I simply dropped the image into the note so I knew exactly which photo I’d be using. There’s also the paperclip icon on the top right corner of the note where you can add attachments that might not be on your desktop. The Google Drive attachment function is great because you can reference a spreadsheet or presentation that can’t be fully created in the free version of Evernote. In my case, I had a very lengthy spreadsheet within Google Docs that was housing all of my hotel, flight, and excursion confirmations for an upcoming trip to Spain. I dropped the attachment into my “Spain” note, and referenced it anytime I needed to add another to-do item.

Adding web clippings

Say you’re doing research for a paper and you want to save articles or web clippings, but don’t want to accumulate a list of URLs with no sense of which article holds what information. There are two ways to save web clippings so that you can have the entire article within a note. The way to do it on desktop is to first add the Evernote Web Clipper Chrome or Safari extension. Once you hit the little elephant icon, you can select which format you want to save the web clipping in. I prefer the “simplified article” option since it removes all the ads and other junk from the site. You can also add a remark, or title for the clip, and select which notebook to add it to. The process is similar for adding from your smartphone. When you’re reading an article, you hit the “share” button, and select the Evernote app from there. You just have to make sure that the Evernote toggle is turned on under “Activities.” The same menu will appear to allow you to add a note.

Creating tables

While you can create tables within Evernote, the catch is that they don’t work like your traditional excel spreadsheet. You can’t do simple calculations or really have any advanced formatting. However, tables are at least somewhat customizable by color, size, and border.

Sharing

There are a few ways you can share notes and notebooks. It’s similar to Google Drive in that you can manage permissions by allowing others to either view, edit, or both, and also add in a note for your share. This is great for passing along notes to classmates without copying and pasting into an email and losing the formatting. The other option is to share a note to either LinkedIn, Facebook, or Twitter. I’m not entirely sure why you’d need to do that, but it’s there just in case.

Setting Reminders

Reminders are particularly useful if you’ve been procrastinating on a project and need a gentle nudge to get it done. You can title a note the name of your project, and hit the alarm clock icon on the top right corner. Once you do that, Evernote allows you to add a date and time. All of your reminders will also show up in a neat list form above your notes preview if you’re in the card view. This works like a checklist, so once you’ve marked a reminder as complete, Evernote will cross it off like an item on your to-do list.

Syncing

With the free tier of Evernote, you can sync up to two devices to access your notes. For a college student, this is perfect since it covers both your phone and laptop. If you’re on the subway and remember something last minute, you can open the app on your phone and make a note, but you need to make sure it’s synced so that you see that note on your laptop the next time you open it. How do you know if your work has been synced? If you click on the “i” button on the top right corner, you can edit the metadata of your note and see the last time it was synced. If you just updated a note and need to sync it, click on the two circular arrows button at the top left side of the app. Now you can be sure to find any updates to a note on both of the devices.

Recovering deleted notes

One time, I accidentally deleted one of the most important notes I had for an upcoming presentation and was horrified that I’d lost it forever. But not to worry, that’s what the “trash” icon on the left-hand side is for. Once you click on a deleted note in this folder, it gives you the option to either delete it forever or recover it. Accidental deletions won’t be a catastrophe. So check in there from time to time if something goes missing.

Presenting

Finally, if you put together a big presentation or plan inside of a note, you can actually present it by entering presentation mode. You access this by hitting the play button icon on the top right next to the alarm clock icon. Presentation mode makes everything look really clean, and there are a few options for how it’s displayed: you can choose between having the note divided into slides with horizontal lines, removing screen breaks, or go with an auto layout.

It feels like there are endless ways to use Evernote, from making it your simple, everyday notes app to learning some of its more sophisticated features. Use it for school, work, life, and beyond. But hopefully you’ll now go in with a better understanding of how to best make the app feel less overwhelming, and instead make it work for you.

Game of Thrones’ season 7 finale was the most-watched episode in the show’s history. While it had its satisfying sequences, the consensus across social media was mixed. In typical Game of Thrones fashion, the finale left a lot of unanswered questions to set up a final season a year or two from now. But there were also rushed, predictable plot points that left the fans frustrated, and sparked a good deal of online debate.

Spoilers ahead for Game of Thrones season 7

1. A justification for Theon’s ongoing story

I probably have more sympathy for Theon than most Game of Thrones fans, but seriously, how did he survive that beatdown at Dragonstone? His conversation with Jon, which marked his transformation from victim to attempted hero, was satisfying, but his first step toward that heroism — a fight with Harrag over whether the Ironborn survivors would go rescue Yara — looked like a fatal misstep. Then Theon got his moment of eunuch glory, and with one headbutt and some punches, he takes out a guy who’s twice his size. And that show of machismo suddenly wins back his people. Why didn’t Theon try to learn where Yara was while he was in King’s Landing, where she was last seen? Why didn’t he enlist the help of Brienne, Jon, and Jorah, some of the best fighters on the show? Who even cares about the Greyjoys at this point? Yara and Theon are not about to stop the White Walkers, so why the focus on them? Maybe because they have a fleet, and zombies can’t swim? I really hope that’s the reason this storyline is being stretched out.

2. A resolution for Tormund and Beric Dondarrion

The showrunners kept virtually all of the key characters alive through season 7, so it’s safe to assume Beric Dondarrion and Tormund survived the destruction of Eastwatch. We saw other Night’s Watch members falling to their deaths, but Beric and Tormund got to watch in horror, then make a run for it. Their story is probably going to echo Jaime and Bronn mysteriously escaping Drogon’s flames, and we’ll likely still see them in season 8. But if they’re dead, why not show it? If they’re alive, how? They managed to run from a dragon-sized cataclysm and then the entire army of the dead? Who knows!

3. An explanation for Tyrion Lannister, jealous stalker

One of the scenes that came as a surprise was Tyrion lurking despondently outside Dany’s chambers as she and Jon consummated their abrupt feelings for each other. His expression was pure jealousy, which the show hasn’t exactly justified. There have been hints: Tyrion was responsible for shipping off Jorah in Mereen and keeping Daario behind in Essos. He tried to keep Dany from flying North to rescue Jon and Jorah. It does seem like he’s weeding out the competition. He also had an interesting line in the season 6 finale, after advising Dany to leave Daario behind: “He wasn’t the first to love you, and he won’t be the last.” His questions about Dany’s successor could also be an indicator that he wanted to marry her under the pretext of allying their houses. Were these events meant to indicate that Tyrion is in love with Dany? At the time, all those moves seemed politically calculated, but maybe the writers were just playing coy. Tyrion worrying about Dany for political reasons seems more plausible, given what we’ve actually seen. The jealousy aspect doesn’t feel earned. Plot-wise, though, Tyrion’s jealousy could drive a wedge between him and Jon, causing tension in Dany’s ranks.

4. Any lead-up to the Stark siblings’ awareness of Littlefinger’s plot

Arya savagely slitting Littlefinger’s throat with his own dagger was deeply satisfying, and arguably one of the finale’s best scenes. For the last couple of episodes, we’ve seen nothing but clear evidence that Littlefinger was successfully playing the Stark sisters, especially as he runs through a list of motives for Arya to murder Sansa. There wasn’t a single scene that hinted at their suspicions, or that they were colluding with Bran, who’s apparently been psychically spying for them offscreen. That all seems too convenient, given the comparative helplessness and bafflement we actually saw onscreen, from all of them. Sure, a lot of people guessed that the Starks were manipulating Littlefinger, rather than vice versa, but those theories were mostly wishful thinking until the finale. Still, it’s good to see Sansa pass sentence on the creep who sold her to Ramsay.

5. Cleganebowl, or even a dramatic lead-up to it happening someday

For fans hyped about “Cleganebowl,” the seemingly inevitable grudge match between Sandor “the Hound” Clegane and his brother Gregor “The Mountain” Clegane, their actual face-off in the finale was anticlimactic. For a brief moment, Cleganebowl seemed almost certain. Before the summit in the dragon pit even started, the Hound walked right up to his brother to insult him. But the Hound walked away with a vague threat — “You know who’s coming for you. You’ve always known.” That could be a hint that the Hound means to take out the Mountain himself. Or is he referencing a vision he had in the flames, or the Mountain’s current undead status. Either way, the Mountain didn’t even flinch, and the Hound got nothing out of the exchange but a chance to talk shit.

6. Gilly getting credit for her research into High Septon Maynard’s diary

Bran Stark tells Sam Tarly the tale of R+L=J, confirming Jon as Dany’s nephew, at the same time those newly confirmed relatives are having incestuous sex. Nicely played, Game of Thrones. Sam brings up something he learned in Oldtown — former High Septon Maynard left notes in his diary that confirm Jon isn’t a bastard, he’s the rightful heir to the Iron Throne. There are three problems with this. First: In the scene where Gilly read this information to Sam, he clearly wasn’t paying attention. And yet he mentions it casually, as out of all the notes in the diary, this was the one that stood out. Second: he completely fails to mention that Gilly dug up this information, and was the one who cared about it. Why wasn’t Gilly in that room, interjecting with her own research? Third: why had Bran never looked back on Lyanna and Rhaegar, whose relationship kicked off Robert’s Rebellion? Did he really need Sam to unveil that piece of information to him in order to go there? It all just seemed to fall together too quickly and easily.

7. Any useful accomplishments from Cersei and Jaime

Cersei finally got her moment to shine when she had all her enemies inside a dragon pit, and what did she do? She lied. She could have easily murdered everyone there and continued on her quest. Instead, she went for the long con of conquering Westeros while everyone else fights the army of the dead. Why waste the time? Mostly to keep all the other characters alive until the next season. It’s almost unbelievable that she let everyone leave King’s Landing unscathed, and didn’t even take the chance to murder Tyrion, whom she’s wanted dead since he was an infant. Why hold back? Because of her “love for family”? Then why not avenge her father, mother, and children? I thought for a brief moment that she’d poisoned the wine in the nearby carafe, knowing her brother would go for it the moment he got a chance. But no, Cersei is still focusing on taking over Westeros the hard way, even though Jaime keeps telling her she’s miscalculating. Meanwhile, he also does nothing. He’s been shown time and time again that Cersei is totally insane, but he doesn’t try to contain her, and he only barely tries to convince her. He shows his disapproval with diluted pupils and slightly more gritted teeth than usual. And in this case, when he finally takes a step, it’s running away. Come on, Jaime! How whipped can you be by this madwoman?

Spoilers ahead for all of Game of Thrones.

The Game of Thrones season 7 finale airs this Sunday, and it’s sure to be full of bloodshed and gore, possibly with a dash of incestuous romance. With an ice zombie dragon that bears resemblance to a certain Yu-Gi-Oh! card in play, and relationships that fans have been rooting for finally blossoming, we’re heading into the finale with plenty of loose threads and questions to answer. Here are the top 12 things we hope to see addressed in the epic season finale.

1) Will Bran finally do something useful?

Although we’ve seen relatively little of Bran in season 7, it’s becoming more apparent that he will play a key role in the war against the army of the dead, and in revealing crucial pieces of information to characters. His ability to project himself backwards and forward through time into other people’s bodies has allowed him to learn about the creation of the White Walkers, Jon’s parentage, and discover his own hand in Hodor’s origin story. (RIP, we miss you, Hodor.) In a conversation with Sansa in episode 3, he claimed that he can never be a Lord of Winterfell, and said, “I need to learn to see better. When the long night comes again, I need to be ready.” Is he brushing up on his Three-Eyed Raven skills so he can warg into the Night King or the zombie dragon Viserion, ending the war before the long night comes again?

There is also the popular theory that Bran is the Night King, and has been stuck in his body for thousands of years after being marked in a vision. The Three-Eyed Raven and Jojen did warn Bran that if he stayed in one place too long, he could get stuck. Is that why The Night King let Jon go at Hardhome — because it was actually Bran, seeing a member of his family after a millennia? Is all of this just a confusing time loop that finally closes with Jon killing the Night King, who is actually Bran thousands of years ago? It could explain why Bran said “I need to talk to Jon.” Maybe he’s trying to tell Jon to kill the Night King (aka himself) to end the war, ultimately sacrificing himself in the process. Frankly, this seems like a more key piece of information than Jon’s true lineage.

Aside from the war, Bran could also prove himself useful in the feud between Arya and Sansa (if they’re not already one step ahead of him, but we’ll get to that later). We saw the way Bran blurted out “chaos is a ladder” to Littlefinger, exposing Lord Baelish as the manipulator he is. Bran also creepily recounted Sansa’s wedding night to her and apologized for everything she had to go through in Winterfell. He terrified her, but in the process gave a strong impression of being truly all-knowing. That could come in handy if he decides to clue Sansa and Arya in on Littlefinger’s true intentions. A simple one-liner could bring the two sisters together in alliance to murder Littlefinger — because seriously, how is that guy still alive?

2) Can Daenerys give birth again?

In season 7’s penultimate episode, Daenerys informs Jon that dragons are the only children she’ll ever have. She likely believes this because back in season 1, she was pregnant with the son of Khal Drogo, but that baby was stillborn with lizard-like wings. At the time, it was said that the child’s life had been traded as part of a blood ritual intended to save Drogo’s life.

In the books, Dany was specifically told that her womb was cursed — but the show very specifically omitted that particular detail. Is that because Dany’s prospects for children aren’t as bleak as she thinks, particularly if her feelings about Jon Snow continue to evolve?

3) Will Arya and Sansa Stark make peace, or war?

Thanks to Littlefinger’s manipulations, Arya Stark is on poor terms with her sister Sansa. Or is she? We know that Arya’s training at the House of Black and White in Braavos helped her become a master spy. She followed Littlefinger upon returning to Winterfell, but was she just trying to determine if he was purposefully driving a wedge between her and her sister?

Speaking of Sansa, in episode 6, Littlefinger suggested she use Brienne of Tarth as a weapon to protect herself against Arya. This could have been the moment that Sansa realized that Lord Baelish was up to something. We know that she is already well aware of his manipulative ways, even warning Bran that, “He wouldn’t give you anything unless he thought he was getting something back.“ She ultimately went against Littlefinger’s advice, sending Brienne off to represent the North at a meeting requested by Cersei.

But he had already planted doubts, and Sansa went snooping through Arya’s things, landing upon her bag of faces in the process. It lead to the most awkward and aggressive interaction we’ve seen between the sisters, with Arya explaining that thanks to her time in Braavos, “I can become someone else, speak in their voice, live in their skin. I could even become you.” She then approached Sansa with a dagger, but flipped it around at the last minute, handing it over. Some have seen this as a direct threat, while others have interpreted it as Arya signaling to Sansa that she can be of help, without directly mentioning Littlefinger. Why? Because Arya knows he has eyes and ears everywhere.

It would be really stupid if the two sisters actually killed each other. They are Starks, after all. The better theory is that Arya will kill Littlefinger, and add his face to her collection so she can actually help Sansa. By pretending to be Littlefinger, she can still keep the support of the Vale, while eliminating his threat entirely. Because after all, “the lone wolf dies, but the pack survives,” as Sansa said ominously in a season 7 teaser.

4) What will happen to the Greyjoys?

No matter how you put it, there’s pretty much no happy ending for Theon. Some people have more sympathy for him due to his tortured Reek past, while others have just been waiting for him to die ever since he betrayed Robb Stark in season 2. He didn’t help his cause in the second episode of this season, when he let his sister Yara be captured by their uncle, Euron. Yara was last seen in chains when Euron arrived in King’s Landing to hand over the Sand Snakes as a gift to Cersei.

There’s a quick shot of what looks like Theon dropping to his knees on the shore in the episode 7 finale preview, but it appears to be more of an emotional collapse rather than a physical one. Could Yara be dead? Tortured? Will Theon save her from Euron’s grip, and kill him to metaphorically reclaim his own manhood? Given what Theon’s been through, a part of us really does want to see him catch a break at some point.

5) Will we finally get Cleganebowl?

This is probably one of the most anticipated showdowns in Game of Thrones history. We’ve been patiently waiting for seven seasons to see the two sworn brotherly enemies come head-to-head. In the episode 7 preview, we see Gregor Clegane, also known as The Mountain, by Cersei’s side. As for the Hound, we last saw him dumping a wight into a boat. We assume he’s headed to Kings Landing with Jon and crew to bring the body to Cersei. Given those two pieces of information, it’s practically a lock that the two will be in King’s Landing at the same time.

There’s also a shot of The Hound pulling a sword in the Season 7 trailer that has yet to appear in the series. It will clearly happen in the final episode, and could be another indication that Cleganebowl is coming. Because why wouldn’t the Hound kill the Mountain on sight?

Of course, it could also just be the Hound killing the wight, or getting into some other, unrelated skirmish. But we’re certainly hoping it’s an epic battle between the two brothers.

6) Will someone reveal the truth about Jon’s parentage?

Earlier this season Samwell Tarly tried to convince the Citadel’s group of Archmaesters that Bran’s warning about an army of the dead was very real. After having his concerns dismissed, Sam returned home for a reading session. At this point, we witnessed probably one of the most important scenes in Game of Thrones history. Gilly stumbled across the word “annulment” in one of High Septum Maynard’s diaries and asked Sam to define it. He frustratingly explained that it meant the termination of a marriage.

She then continued to say, “Maynard says here that he issued an annulment for a Prince Rhaegar” — which she adorably pronounced as “Raggar” — “and remarried him to someone else at the same time in a secret ceremony in Dorne.” Sam then cut her off to mansplain about his issues with the Citadel. He finally declared, “I’m tired of reading about the achievements of better men,” and ditched Old Town with his family, Archmaester Maynard’s diary presumably in hand.

We also know that Bran’s flashback in season 6 practically confirmed Jon Snow is the son of Lyanna Star and Rhaegar Targaryen, Daenarys’s older brother. With Bran knowing who Jon’s parents were, and Sam carrying evidence that proves they were secretly married, the question isn’t if Jon will find out the truth. It’s a matter of when, and who will tell him.

7) What do Melisandre and Varys have planned?

In season 7, episode 3, Melisandre expressed guilt to Varys over her past crimes, like burning Shireen Baratheon at the stake. Then she disappeared, saying she shouldn’t show her face in Westeros anymore. But she also told Varys that eventually she would need to return to Westeros to die — just as he would.

Both characters are invested in who eventually becomes the ruler of Westeros, whether it’s Cersei, Daenerys, or someone else entirely. Both The Red Woman and the Spider have been long-game strategists with endless machinations in play. Are their hopes as straightforward as, just get Jon Snow or Dany on the throne? Varys hasn’t promised Dany complete loyalty, either — if she strays from justice, he will act in retaliation. Knowing these two schemers, there will probably be caveats and side plots involved, no matter what they’re up to.

8) Will all the parts of Cersei’s prophecy come true?

George R.R. Martin may not have finished the books yet, but he left enough hints for the showrunners to work from in the form of prophecies and visions. One of these prophecies was delivered to Cersei Lannister by Maggy the Frog in season 5. Maggy stated that a younger, more beautiful queen would usurp Cersei, and that all three of her children would be buried in golden shrouds. We have already seen much of the prophecy come to pass, including the deaths of all three of her children. But now Cersei says she’s pregnant. Does that mean she will die before the child is born, or is it a clue that she’s lying about her pregnancy?

Even worse, the prophecy in the books states that Cersei will die at the hands of the Valonqar — “little brother” in High Valyrian. Assuming the showrunners respect this detail from the books, this could infer that either Tyrion or Jaime will eventually kill Cersei.

9) Do our favorite almost-couples finally get together?

Aside from the incestuous passion-fest between Jaime and Cersei, we haven’t really seen any romances come to fruition in quite some time. At this stage, the two biggest question mark romances are between aunt-nephew duo Jon Snow and Daenerys Targeryen, and the large-and-in-charge warriors Tormund and Brienne. Let’s start with Jon and Dany.

This is probably the most tension-filled and anticipated romance in Game of Thrones. For one, they’re both ridiculously good-looking. Plot-wise, it’s almost inevitable that the pair become an item after their intense hand-holding session on Dany’s boat. Jon even declared his allegiance to Dany after she blushed at his use of her nickname, instead offering, “How about my queen?” Was this Jon’s subliminal way of offering himself to her as a strategic marriage-partner? And let’s not forget Jorah’s “blessing,” where he officially handed over Longclaw to Jon, saying “I forfeited the right to claim this sword. It’s yours. May it serve you well, and your children after you.” Was the reference to children a hint at Jon having kids with Dany? It may be a stretch, but we know how Game of Thrones love to foreshadow with unsuspecting one-liners.

Moving on to our favorite budding one-sided romance: Tormund and Brienne. The small moments between these two are pure joy. Allow us to refresh your memory:

Brienne has basically grimaced with disgust every time she’s encountered Tormund, but he’s persisted nonetheless. His fascination is driven by a love of her giant mutant child-bearing abilities, and bad-ass, “I could probably kill you in one-on-one combat” vibes. It’s adorable. We know from the episode 7 preview that Brienne will end up at King’s Landing on a possible suicide mission inside Cersei’s dragonpit, and Tormund isn’t pictured in the preview shot of Jon and his squad arriving for their meeting with the Queen. But that doesn’t necessarily mean he’s not there, or that he and Brienne won’t be united in some way during the final episode. Either way, can we please have this?

10) Will Arya ever reunite with Gendry?

Arya and Gendry have a bond that dates back to season 2, when Arya was still on the run from King’s Landing, but neither character has seen each other since. In the time that has passed, Arya has developed into a highly skilled magical assassin, and Gendry went into hiding in Flea Bottom and learned his way around a hammer. Although Gendry disappeared off the show for several seasons, he finally rejoined the gang in season 7, and Arya — who’s currently in Winterfell — would be glad to see him if their paths ever crossed again.

11) Will Arya Stark cross the rest of the names off her kill list?

Although we haven’t heard Arya mutter her kill list to herself in a long time, she has mentioned it in passing to Sansa this season. So, who’s still alive on Arya’s list, and will she ever get to killing them? Cersei Lannister is the prime target, followed by the Mountain, the Red Woman, Beric Dondarrion, and Ilyn Payne, who executed Arya’s father. Given Arya’s current location up north, it’s more likely that she can reach Beric by the season finale, rather than the others. Then again, the characters this season have shown their powers of teleportation already, so perhaps Arya has a trip down south planned soon.

12) Is Cersei going to go full Mad Queen?

Love her or hate her, Cersei is a master villain. After she brought all of her enemies together in one place last season and blew them up, we knew she was truly capable of anything. It’s hard not to see the parallels in the season finale preview, where she has invited her now-enemies into the dragonpit for what could be High Sept explosion part two. After all, if you know a little dragonpit history, you know that King Aerys, aka the Mad King, stored caches of wildfire all over King’s Landing, in case his enemies ever attacked him. Will Jaime catch wind of this plan and kill her — and will that be how Maggy the Frog’s prophecy gets fulfilled?

Bonus unanswered questions:

• Will Ed Sheeran reprise his cameo? He didn’t get to do much, besides sing a song from the books and meet with Arya, and what little screentime he did get was not well-received. For the real-life Ed Sheeran’s sake, we hope that he’s gone.
• Is Tyene Sand dead, and what will happen to Ellaria Sand? We last saw them in the dungeons where Cersei planted a poisonous kiss on Tyene’s lips in retribution for Myrcella Baratheon’s murder. Cersei promised to let Ellaria rot in the cell forever, but since this is Game of Thrones, nothing’s for certain until there’s a dead body on the screen.