‘THRONE’ WITH THREE QUEENS

‘Game’ on: Can Sansa, Cersei or Daenerys defeat the Night King?

IF “Game of Thrones” proved anything this season, it’s that women rule Westeros — and that there could be a wild card we hadn’t counted on when the series returns (perhaps as late as 2019 — more on that later.)

When the dust settled on Sunday night’s game-changing season finale, Sansa Stark (Sophie Turner) was Lady Winterfell, Cersei (Lena Headey) was mistress of King’s Landing and Daenerys (Emilia Clarke) had her own throne at Dragonstone. All three are formidable rulers pitted against the Night King (Vladimir Furdik) — but do any of them have the moxy to take him down?

With so many male villains already gone and buried in the “Game of Thrones” universe, only one true bad guy remains — and this season’s last two episodes gave viewers a frightening picture of the Night King’s potential for destruction heading into next season. In Episode 6, he killed Viserion, one of Daenerys’s precious dragons, with one thrown spear, then had the beast repurposed as a lightning-breathing killing machine. In Episode 7, the Night King rode his new dragon and used him to pulverize the Wall and gain access to Westeros.

From this vantage point, it looks like it’s “Game” over. We’ve seen that the so-called indestructible dragons are as vulnerable as any soldier. Can Daenerys and her armies and fleets really take on the blue-eyed monster? It’s hard to imagine. Last time her top soldier (and nephew), Jon Snow (Kit Harington), was on the battlefield with the White Walkers, he had to hop a ride on one of his aunt’s dragons to save his ass — so he’ll never go the distance.

As for Cersei, she is determined to stay put in the South. She may be playing her cards right, content to see Daenerys, Jon and now Jaime (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) get wiped off the planet, but she is a marked woman. With Littlefinger (Aidan Gillen) dispatched and Sansa fully in charge up North, Arya (Maisie Williams) is free again to finish killing the people on her list — and evil, evil Cersei is at the top. She won’t even get the chance to fight the Night King.

The Season 7 finale proved that Sansa is nothing without her little sister, so it will be interesting to see the trajectory their relationship takes next season as Arya’s power (and confidence) grows. Would Sansa have had the gumption to kill Littlefinger herself ? It doesn’t seem likely. Having polished off Walda Frey’s men in the first episode of the season, Littlefinger must have seemed like a piece of cake to Arya. It seems to me that the only woman in Westeros who could stand up to the Night King is the pintsized assassin, even if she might wear someone else’s face. All of her training in Braavos with the Waif (Faye Marsay) has made her unbeatable in one-on-one combat. Sansa should put her in charge of the northern fighters. She could be Joan of Stark.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, “Game of Thrones” will resume production in October, with shooting on the series’ final six episodes — many of which are expected to be over an hour long — running well into 2018, which could push the final season premiere into 2019.

Maybe we should be asking Bran Stark (Isaac HempsteadWright) — who can see the past and the future — to give us a better idea of when “GoT” will finally return.