WMG / Game Of Thrones Final Season

This is for all theories on the show's final Season 8. Be warned it contains spoilers for earlier seasons.

Jossed

The Golden Company will appear in a later episode, and its leader will be none other than Daario Naharis.

• Unless there's some behind-the-scenes business that prevents it, it would make the most sense just to bring back his character as someone everyone will recognize as opposed to introducing someone completely new at this late juncture. On top of that, It will add an extra element of tragedy for Daenerys should his mercenaries clash with her forces at any point. Alternatively, Daario can play the part of the 'man scorned' and have extra motivation to go after Daenerys because he was left behind.
• Or he pulls a fast one on Cersei and joins Dany.
  • JOSSED: Harry Strickland was introduced as the leader of the Company in "Winterfell".

No one of import will learn of Jon's true heritage

• Though it is all but confirmed that Jon is not only the child of Rhaegar and Lyanna but is also the legitimate heir to the Iron Throne the showrunners recognize that Jon's real identity is that of a true Northerner and a Stark at heart. Though it would be a cool bit of fanservice for him to learn the truth, I see Bran realizing that revealing such information is not terribly important. There is also the fact that realistically there are only two witnesses for the reality of his heritage; Bran, who "has visions" and Sam, who discovered an exceedingly obscure document like a proverbial needle in a million haystacks. The validity of any such claim would be dubious at best. Given that there's likely to still be some resistance to a power like Bran's in the larger continent and the fact that we've scene documentation doesn't necessarily translate to decree (Cersei ripping parchment and all) not to mention that Jon and Dany have done the deed and what that would do to their relationship and her claim, and that it just seems a little too tidy for Martin's world, it is highly unlikely that greater Westeros and its power brokers will learn of the last Targaryen scion.
• JOSSED: In "Winterfell", Sam tells Jon everything in the crypts after learning that Danaerys had his father and brother executed when they refused to bend the knee to her.

Possible plotline for Opening Episode of Season 8

Given how Season 7 ended — The Wall has fallen, Army of the Dead has marched South, huge army and group of individuals will come North to Winterfell, Euron is on the Prowl and Theon is chasing him, Cersei is in the capital — there are a few things that have to happen, on both a Doylist and Watsonian level, for the show to not end in S 8 E 01: That is 1) Winterfell has to be remain standing in the North and somehow avoid the Night's King dragonflames, otherwise the Army of the Dead march South and kill all the characters in the North worth caring about and without a civilization, none of the subplots, Stark reunions, reveal, and so on can play out and most of Season 8 plays out in the snowy wilderness like The Grey, 2) The Night's King has to delay the final battle between him and the heroes until the Finale Episode, 3) Space out the action so that characters known for their fighting skills (Brienne, the Hound, Jaime, Arya, Bronn) can have a moment to the shine, and likewise fulfill the promise and measure of the CGI budget and deliver on the spectacle for which the show is known for. Based on that this is how Episode 1 would have to play out:

When Episode 1 starts, the Army of the Dead marches south from Eastwatch towards White Harbor where Dany and Jon are approaching. They will receive word of the fall of Eastwatch and the approach of the Army and hear of Viserion the Wight. On hearing this, Daenerys will rush straight away on Drogon to meet Viserion and stop the advance of the Army of the Dead. Right from the start there will be a huge dragon battle between Drogon and Viserion, while this happens, Jon and Tyrion mobilize the defenses and convoy to Winterfell of the important dragonglass from the ships, but both of them fearing for Daenerys, worry. So Jon will mount Rhaegal to join her. During the dragonfight, the Night's King will have the upper hand only for Dany to be saved by Jon on Rhaegal, and the resulting dragon battle and flames will burn a huge chunk of the army of the dead, as well as collateral damage in the countryside, preventing the Night's King from adding to his ranks. As such, the Night's King beats a retreat somehow. Either Jon or Dany will consider giving chase, but for some reason, either because one of them is injured or to prevent a faction of Walkers, they will let the Night's King go. This will be the Final Boss Preview. It is only then that Dany and Jon will go to Winterfell and arrive on dragonback, and this is when Bran will give The Reveal and siege preparations happen. Meanwhile, the Night's King stung by his defeat will fly South (for more see below). The White Walker army will be split on multiple lines. A main group will be pinned north, laying siege around Winterfell and halted from marching South, while the Night's King will fly South to find new allies and bring a new army north to properly encircle the heroes and avoid battle with the two dragonriders. Bran/Sam/Tyrion/Davos will be planning a way to force a Decisive Battle, and track the Night's King who will try to force his army and subordinates to kill Jon and Dany. This will also give time for Jon and Dany to let the Rhaegar plot sink in, reunions to happen, and some amount of snark and politicking to take place.

• Jossed because the first episode is the "calm before the storm" type with many reunions and mistrust going around. Though Jon did get to ride a dragon for a test run.

Alternatively, Daenerys will defeat the Night King mid-season, but...

The ending of the episode will be a cliffhanger that shows that, just prior to killing him, the Night King has touched Dany and converted her into a White Walker. Now the Night Queen and armed with her prior memories and experience but new motives similar to the Night King, Dany will claim the Iron Throne and unleash a full-scale Zombie Apocalypse upon Westeros. Her army will be divided between those who remain loyal to her (and would even consent to being turned into Walkers themselves), and those who want to return her to her senses, and Drogon and Rhaegal will be turned into Walkers as well to join their wight brother Viserion. It'll be up to the Starks and their allies to defeat this final threat to Westeros. In the end, one of them (likely Jon or Arya) will defeat Night Queen!Dany, she'll return to her senses while dying, and the Starks will completely shatter the existing monarchy for all the problems it's caused.

• Jossed. She tried to roast the Night King except he's fireproof. Arya's the one who killed the Night King.

Aerys Targaryen's wildfire canisters will be a Chekhov's Gun

Going off of the theory that Bran caused Aerys' insanity: Aerys rigged King's Landing with wildfire because he foresaw the White Walkers marching on the city, and he was prepared to destroy his royal capital to keep it out of their hands. In the final season, one of the heroes will sacrifice their life to ignite the canisters just as the Walkers overrun the city, killing most of them in one fell swoop.

Cersei will commit suicide before Arya manages to kill her

In the end, King's Landing will be overrun by the White Walkers, and most of the people will either flee the city or fall to the Walkers—leaving Cersei with no one to rule over, and nothing to live for. At that moment, Arya will finally infiltrate the Red Keep to assassinate her. In one last act of cruelty against the Starks, Cersei will kill herself moments before Arya strikes, denying her the revenge that she so desperately wants.

• Partially jossed; Arya doesn't get her revenge, but Cersei dies anyway, courtesy of falling rocks.

Daenerys will pull a Heroic Sacrifice in the Final Battle against the Walkers

For one thing, it would be a perfect subversion of fan expectations, since we've been conditioned to expect Daenerys to take the throne since Day 1. For another thing, it would be a great opportunity for Character Development; if she spends most of the show single-mindedly fighting for the Iron Throne, only to realize that stopping the White Walkers is more important, her sacrifice would perfectly demonstrate her growth as a character. And if she goes out in a blaze of glory while fighting the Walkers, her legend would live on forever, and she would be far more of an inspiration than she could ever be as a monarch.

• Jossed. Daenerys survives the battle.

Jaime will kill the Night's King

Because he's "The Kingslayer". His nickname has actually been foreshadowing that ending all along.

• Jossed. It's Arya Stark who kills the Night King.

The show will end with Jaime on the Iron Throne

After valiantly fighting the White Walkers, he'll be left as the last surviving member of the Lannister family, and the last claimant to the throne.^note  Assuming that Daenerys is dead by that point, and Jon (if he's still alive) is more interested in reigning as King in the North. With that, he'll take responsibility for rebuilding the shattered Seven Kingdoms as "King Jaime I", and subsequently rebuild his family's legacy. Not only would it be a great apex to his years of Character Development, it would be a perfect way to subvert fan expectations. In the beginning, Jaime was intentionally written as an amoral backstabber who only cared about himself, and he was one of the show's most unsympathetic characters; so it would be appropriately subversive to have him claim the coveted Iron Throne—and to have that be a good thing. Anybody can write a Downer Ending where The Bad Guy Wins, but it would be particularly impressive to make the audience cheer for a series finale that would have made them boo in Season 1.

• Jossed; Jaime dies during the siege of King's Landing in the show's penultimate episode.

Jaime and Sansa will get married, and Sansa will outlive him

If Jaime ends up on the Iron Throne, it would make sense for him to marry a Northerner to strengthen peace between the North and the South. Hence, Sansa will marry Jaime and become his Queen, but she'll make it clear to Jaime that she'll never love him—and on their wedding night, she'll quietly remind him what happened to Joffrey and Ramsey after they mistreated her. It would be a good mark of Character Development if Sansa ended up in another loveless union with a Lannister man, but one where she had real power and influence, and actually ended up on top. And after all the Hell that Sansa has gone through since Season 1, it would be a satisfying happy ending to have her outliving all of the men who tried to use her as a pawn. So a good final scene could involve a Flash Forward with her as an elderly woman in the Red Keep, enjoying a peaceful retirement as the sharp-tongued widow of a dead king.

And it would be especially fitting, since Sansa was probably (partly) inspired by the Historical Domain Character Elizabeth of York, who united the Houses of York and Lancaster at the end of the Wars of the Roses by marrying King Henry VII. Elizabeth outlived her husband by quite a while, and enjoyed a cozy retirement after most of her family was killed in the Wars.

• Jossed for the marriage part, confirmed for Sansa outliving Jaime.

Jaime and Sansa will have a daughter (or granddaughter) named "Arya"

Assuming Jaime and Sansa end up as King and Queen of the Seven Kinggdoms, and Arya suffers Character Death by the end, it would be a fitting Tearjerker to end the series with Sansa naming her daughter (or granddaughter) after her beloved sister. And if Sansa was conceived as a loose Fictional Counterpart of Elizabeth of York, then that would make her granddaughter a Fictional Counterpart of Elizabeth's famous granddaughter Elizabeth Tudor.

Considering Arya's famous strength and independence, it would be quite fitting if her name was carried on by Westeros' version of Queen Elizabeth I, a feared and respected female monarch who refused to take a husband. Just imagine a princess who combines Arya's spunk and attitude with Sansa's grace and charm; that's a young Elizabeth Tudor in a nutshell.

• Jossed.

Jaime will kill Tyrion

Because it would be way too simple and clear-cut to give Tyrion his happy ending as right-hand man to Queen Daenerys I, it would be a fitting emotional gut-punch for Tyrion to die at the hands of the one Lannister who actually loves him, and it would fit with his probable historical counterpart. The general consensus is that Tyrion was probably (partly) inspired by the Historical Domain Character Richard III, who famously met an epic downfall at the Battle of Bosworth Field at the end of the Wars of the Roses. If that's the case, you can't help but wonder what Westeros' version of the Battle of Bosworth Field might be.

Going off of the theory that Daenerys will die in a Heroic Sacrifice and Jaime will take the Iron Throne: Tyrion will be left as the sole holdout in Daenerys' army, and he'll succumb to despair when he learns of her death. With Daenerys dead, he'll be left with nothing to live for, and he'll defiantly refuse to spend the rest of his life in Jaime's shadow. Despite knowing that he has no chance of winning, he'll gather a small force of loyal soldiers to make a doomed charge against Jaime's forces—essentially committing suicide. In the ensuing battle, a tearful Jaime will beg Tyrion to turn back, knowing that he can't bear to kill his brother. But, Defiant to the End, Tyrion will continue to charge, and Jaime will be forced to kill him in battle, sobbing as his brother dies in his arms.

Afterwards, Jaime will quietly bury his brother away from the prying eyes of his men, reflecting that he's just made the first of many painful sacrifices in his long reign.

• Jossed. Tyrion outlives Jaime, who dies in the siege of King's Landing.

Cersei will die in childbirth.

People are speculating about how Cersei's fourth pregnancy will fit into her prophecy, well here's a thought; we know that she's supposed to be killed by her younger sibling (something we know Jaime qualifies for as much as Tyrion), what if this is how? It would be the ultimate twist to the prophecy, the thing that she thought would let her beat the prophecy, is the very thing that fulfills it. Think about it, Jamie is partially responsible for the pregnancy (along with Cersei herself) so if it killed her then some of the guilt would technically fall on Jaime.

• Jossed; Cersei dies via falling rocks.

How Cleganebowl might happen

• Gregor will end up North, sent by Cersei to kill Jon Snow, or accompanying Cersei after she flees King's Landing, and he'll be close enough, and dead enough, for the Night King to be able to influence him. After cutting through many, Sandor, who will have joined the Night Watch or otherwise being allied with the Starks, will step up to be the one to stop him.
• Or how about this: Gregor is sent up north along with the Golden Company. Arya takes the face of one of its leaders, gets close to the Mountain, and stabs him brutally when his guard is down. Because he's the Mountain, he's able to fight back effectively, but before Arya is killed, the Hound steps in...and it will be marvelous.
  • Jossed. The Hound finds and duels the Mountain in King's Landing as it is on fire and takes the Mountain with him to the grave.

Arya will get her revenge on one of the oldest names on her list, and will kill Cersei wearing Tyrion's face.

• In something of a no man of woman born situation Cersei will die believing that Tyrion, the valonqar was responsible for her death... and then the mask will come off revealing Arya, having realized that the aforementioned dead Tyrion's face afforded her a chance to get to the queen, has crossed perhaps the biggest name off her list.
  • And it would still be a valonquar who's responsible.
    • Jossed. The Hound keeps Arya from going further into the city, Arya flees in terror as Dany torches the place, and Cersei dies "with her brother's hands around her neck". She always assumed Tyrion would kill her because of that prophecy, but it's really Jamie showing her a last bit of love as they are killed by the building collapsing on top of them.

Daenarys Targaryen will die in the war with the White Walkers after she takes the throne

• After Jon and Dany take the Seven Kingdoms, Cersei dead by "Tyrion's" hand, the alliance will turn their attention to the army of the dead and like her preincarnation, will die likely, in another bit of irony, by dragon or wildfire. She will bequeath the recently won crown to Jon Snow with Jaime as his "hand", Snow will sit on the Iron Throne, as it did in the House of the Undying and, to serve as a foil to Joffrey and Tommen, no one will know that he is the legitimate king.
  • Jossed. Dany survives the war and goes insane partially because Varys betrays her having learned Jon's secret and tries to replace her with Jon. Varys sends letters to all the houses revealing Jon's secret. Soon all of Westerosi will know the truth.

[WMG: Sam's philosophical musings about what 'death' is, is actually a clue on how to beat the White Walkers]]His words can be boiled down to 'Death means forgetting and being forgotten.' What if, apart from fire and dragonglass, a way to beat back the undead army is to make them remember who they used to be? It could be that an undead Hodor shows up at the Godswood to kill Bran, somehow remembers him and becomes a creature not unsimilar to Benjen Stark: undead but no longer in the thrall of the Night King.

• Jossed. The Night King can only be killed if he's stabbed in the same place as when he became a Night Walker, which he is, by Arya. His army literally falls to pieces without him.

Arya never ‘left’ the faceless men, is actually finishing her conversion to be an assassin in season 8 (this is more about the real outcome instead of being a conscious decision)

Some of the faceless men’s behavior seems odd when they punish Arya for “killing the wrong target.” Why would they care if she killed more than one target?

It makes more sense that they dislike her reasons for doing so because she’s not impartial. She can’t become ‘no one’ if she specifically wants to kill them as ‘Arya.’ Instead of rejecting her, they’re actually just waiting for her to tie up her loose ends and return.

• Seemly jossed. At the end of the series, she travels west to explore the unknown.

Cersei will die at the hands of the valonqar- her fourth child, a daughter- with Jaime.

The valonqar didn't refer to Cersei's younger sibling, but to the last younger sibling of the Jaime/Cersei relationship. Just like Joanna Lannister before her, Cersei will die in childbirth- a baby girl Lannister who will eventually grow up to be more beautiful than her and become queen. Given how much GRRM loves to twist prophecies, it would be fitting that Cersei spends her whole life terrified of Tyrion for no good reason

• But the same prophesy also says she will have 3 children, suggesting she won't survive to have the 4th, though I suppose if you die giving birth you technically didn't have that last child...
  • Mashable had a similar theory, except they speculated she'd have a son, and it'd be a dwarf like Tyrion, just to twist the knife. It'd be appropriate for her to die just like her mother.
  • Jossed. Cersei is killed with "her brother's hands around her neck" when the crypts collapsed.

Tyrion will die by series' end.

• Because it's Game of Thrones, but also because it would facilitate a subversion of a particular fan expectation, the exact type of thing Martin likes to do. That expectation is that Jamie will kill Cersei, which brings me to...
  • Jossed. As punishment for his crimes, he is made Hand of the King so that he can spend the rest of his life fixing his mess.

Jon's marrying Dany

Whether or not they learn about Jon's parentage is less important in this situation. The Iron Throne will take The North the same way as they took Dorne back in the day, through a marriage alliance. Jon and Dany obviously have feelings for each other, and a marriage alliance makes sense. For the society Dany wants to build, it makes sense as well. Jon, while having been raised as a highborn, has been elected to lead on at least two occasions.

• And let's not forget that Dany might be pregnant with Jon's unborn baby and Jon never wanted to father a bastard, so marrying with help keep the child legitimized and will help secure both Jon's and Dany's claim to the Iron Throne.
  • Unlikely as Dany goes insane, Jon is a threat to her rule and won't support a Mad Queen, and even if he did, the look Greyworm gives him after he tries to stop the slaughter of King's Landing implies Greyworm will try and have Jon killed by Dany.

• Jossed. Jon is forced to assassinate the Mad Queen after it's clear that she will burn the whole world burn to stop "tyranny".

Jaime will cause Cersei's death, but he will not die with her.

When everything has completely fallen apart, Jaime will offer Cersei and himself a wine with a painless poison like Olenna Tyrell so she doesn't face the music and a grisly death. Given his feeling for Cersei, he'd feel more comfortable with assisted suicide than plunging his sword through her heart. Cersei will proceed to spill Jaime's cup while drinking her own, which can either be a Kick the Dog moment to deny Jaime his desire to be Together in Death with her, or a Pet the Dog moment since she realizes she's a toxic influence on him and wants to free him from her in his last moments. Jaime's fate will be bittersweet as though he gets to live and start over, he will see his father, children and the women he loves all die and the Lannister house almost completely irreparable.

• Jossed. Jamie and Cersei die as Jamie tries to lead them out of the Red Keep, but their exit is blocked and they get crushed to death as half the ceiling collapses right on top of them.

The title of series finale will be "A Dream of Spring"

Unless GRRM decides to write more books after ADOS, it's likely that it might be the title which would be another way to screw book readers.

• Jossed.

Arya and Sansa in Final Season

For the sake of The Alliance and peace, there will be a wedding between a Northern and Southern Kingdom, but that will be between...Sansa Stark and Gendry Baratheon, legitimized by the royals in the North (either Jon, Dany, or both). This will create heartbreak for Arya, since she knows that she cannot be the lady but until now hasn't been tempted to think twice, because she was never tempted with making a sacrifice of something she wanted, in this case, a boy who she had a huge crush on, and is possibly in love with. For Sansa, who has been a Single Woman Seeks Good Man, Gendry will be a roundabout way of giving her what she wanted from the start, and completing the Stark-Baratheon marital contract after two failed attempts (Lyanna-Robert, Sansa-Joffrey) for Rule of Three. But in the end, if she survives, Arya will ultimately go Wandering the Earth becoming a Knight Errant-like figure, saying goodbye to her family forever.

• Even better if Jon and Danaerys made Gendry their heir (and don't survive the Winter). The "younger, more beautiful queen" replacing Cersei isn't Dany, it's Sansa!
• Jossed. Dany goes insane and is killed by Jon to end the madness, Jon is forced to take the Black as a result, Sansa declares independence from the 7 Kingdoms, Bran is voted in as King, and Arya travels West so she does wander the Earth, but Gendry isn't mentioned.

One of these pairings will become canon.

After all, it's the final season. Anything goes.

• Sansa/Sandor (Martin implied in interviews that something between the two might happen between the two in the books).
  • Jossed.
• Arya/Gendry.
  • Confirmed. They kissed and have sex together.
  • After Gendry is legitimized, he proposes to Arya who refuses based on the fact that he doesn't want to be a Lady, so it might just be a one night stand for her.
    • Arya travels west, so that's not happening. Jossed.
• Jaime/Brienne.
  • Jossed. Jaime chooses Cersei and dies in her arms.
• Bran/Meera.
  • JOSSED: The actress who plays Meera said she didn't shoot any scenes for the final season, and their last scene together kind of argues against this anyway.
• Jaime/Sansa. They have a pretty good chance of being the last surviving members of their Houses, and their marriage could finally unify the Stark and Lannister clans.
  • Jossed. Jamie dies in Cersei's arms.

Cersei's child will not be stillborn, but will be a dwarf.

It would be a nice slap in the face for Cersei's child to be like the brother she hated.

• It would, but my money is on her miscarrying.
• Jossed. Cersei dies long before she can give birth.

Giant Spiders will enter the fold.

What is very much considered a medieval and dark fantasy trope? Spiders. What has yet to be seen in Westaros? Spiders. There is enough mystical to justify their appearance. Spiders Are Scary and Go T does horror, fright, dread like few others, the show would really play up how bad they look, how vicious they are, why they are so dangerous. And a oblique reference to White Walkers using them may now lead to them being seen now that it's all about fighting the army of the undead.

• Jossed.

Lady Stoneheart will appear

• but not the same as in the books, since Beric Dondarrion is still alive in this continuity. She will be among the corpses in the Winterfell crypt who rise as wights when the White Walker army attacks Winterfell.
• We know that Catelyn is buried in the Winterfell crypt from one of the Season 8 teasers.
  • Additionally, she is the one chasing Arya through Winterfell in the Season 8 trailer. That is why she is so terrified by this particular threat. Similar to how Arya was chasing cats in Season 1, Arya will be chased by Cat in the final season.
  • Jossed.

Unconfirmed Pre-Season 8

The White Walkers ignore Winterfell.

“WHAT!?” They were created with one purpose: kill the Andals. The North is largely descended from the First Men, who were allied with the Children.

The White Walker ‘art’ is a mockery of the faith of the seven

The war between the Children and the First Men ended with a pact. When the Andals invaded, no pact was possible, so the Children created the White Walkers.

The Faith of the Seven was enforced by the Andals, which is commonly portrayed as a seven pointed star. The White Walkers’ ‘mark of defiance’ is a circular spiral made out of cadaver parts, which shows a refusal to ever adopt the faith.

Bloodraven drove King Aerys insane, and not Bran

King Aerys’ insanity started taking hold early on and got thrown into overdrive when he was imprisoned at Duskendale. The reason: Bloodraven first tried to give him a head start on the White Walkers, and then tried to warn him of Tywin’s efforts to remove him from power during the Duskendale event.

Much like Hodor, except without warging, eventually Bloodraven’s attempts got locked into Aerys’ mind, and caused the king to continually become more paranoid.

Varys isn’t helping Dany for her sake, he’s following the orders the voice in the flame gave him

You’d think a sorcerer gelding boys across Essos would have something to show for it. Varys finds him, and even the red witches consider him “2nd rate.” We don’t even know if the sorcerer even heard a voice. It seems like if he did, he would consider holding onto Varys for more parts.

It’s possible the voice gave Varys a mission, which he’s fulfilling. Whenever the red witches creep him out, it might not be because they ‘know’ about the voice, but because their spy network is on par with his own.

Who would be a good candidate for the voice in the fire, if not the red god? Bloodraven.

Benjen lied about being ‘rescued’ by the Children

We’ve seen how the White Walkers produce Wights. He would have had to take a lethal hit, and have a Child jump in right then and there to stab him with the dragon glass.

This means he was either doing something with the Children to get turned, or he was ambushed by Children. We’ve also only ever seen the living turned into a White Walker. This wouldn’t give Benjen time to look partially decomposed.

There’s no real context given to any of this. Why would the Children help a member of the Night’s Watch? You can’t claim its because he’s a Stark, because Jon Snow never met them, and Benjen doesn’t have the same powers as Bran.

It makes more sense for Benjen to be ambushed and forcefully converted by the Children.

This raises another issue though: if he underwent the same process as the Night King, why isn’t he a super powered White Walker?

The Three-Eyed Crow is a big bad, if not THE big bad

Note: I will refer to The Three Eyed Crow’s alternate name: Bloodraven because its shorter to type.

Its about matching the theme of the overall story: Game of Thrones was never about White Walkers or any of its fantasy elements. It was ALWAYS about the intrigue and power plays.

Peter Baelish’s death is particularly important, because Bran / Bloodraven steamrolled him at his own game. Fans often argued that Peter would be the big bad if he didnt die. Well, he did, and although Arya was the one swinging the blade, Bran was the one calling the shots. This makes him the ULTIMATE player in The Game of Thrones.

Key things hinting at Bloodraven’s dark intentions:

The skeletons that attacked Team Bran at the entrance of the tree: they didnt have blue eyes. ALL White Walker wights have blue eyes. If the skeletons weren’t the White Walkers’ then whose were they? They were Bloodraven’s.

Why would Bloodraven kill the kid? Because the kid was a failed attempt at transferring out of his body with the tree growing through it. The kid gained some abilities, which made him too dangerous to leave alive when he started explaining the mechanics to Bran.

All the human skulls at Bloodraven’s feet? Failed earlier attempts with kidnapped wildlings. Bloodraven learned enough from the partial transfer with the last kid to know that Bran would work. The kid that died, benefitted enough from the power to know he was going to die, but lacked the ability to understand why.

Fast forward to Bran’s training. He’s shown enough to make things work, but not enough to say... avoid getting grabbed by the Night King. Once the Night King starts his raid on the tree, Bloodraven finishes up the transfer.

This is the first time we see the dark side of Bloodraven’s power, when Hodor more or less gets labotomized. Bran just warging into Hodor the first couple of times is ethically questionable, leaving Hodor horrified every time he returned to himself, covered in blood.

The Night King could be chasing down Bloodraven to finish the threat, once and for all.

The Long Night will end with either Cersei’s or Dany’s death

The White Walkers were created with a purpose: “slay the threat to the ‘Children of the Forest.’” Like robots, they’re still executing that last instruction.

When we see Team Dany present the wight to Team Cersei, the wight goes straight for Cersei and ignores everyone else. Why does she matter? She doesn’t. She IS “The Queen” though. That institution is older than even the White Walkers.

This fits with Dany’s vision of an empty throne in a destroyed King’s Landing. This is also why it could be Dany’s death that triggers the end of the Long Night. She still wants to be queen. So, when Cersei dies, as soon as Dany declares herself queen, she becomes the new target.

Why is all this only taking place now? The dragons charged up the residual magic, as the warlocks pointed out.

Why would the Night King go after Bran then? The better question would be: Why is the most powerful seer, a human, rather than a Child of the Forest? There’s no doubt, Bran’s power is incredibly dangerous. This probably makes him a target.

• Jossed. Only a handful of supporting characters died.

There won’t be a Westerosi King after Cersei, and the Iron Throne as an institution won’t survive season 8

A lot of the ruling families are already wiped out by Season 7. Sam Tarly is the (disowned) male head of his house and he doesn’t even know it. That’s how chaotic things have become.

• House Lannister is more or less dissolved, with an empty home.
  • Tyrion and Jamie know too much about the problems with holding the throne to actually want it.
  • Cersei is pretty much going down, one way or another.

• House Stark only truly cares about the North, and nobody is really following in Ned’s footsteps.
  • Jon has a hero complex, which the universe already killed him once for it. The Battle of the Bastards betrays that he didn’t get any smarter from the experience.
  • Sansa will probably focus on rebuilding
  • With the wall breached, expect Wildlings exploring south (“I f***ing hate Thenns” -Everyone)
  • Arya will probably turn into some kind of blood knight, either in support of the Faceless Men, or something else.

• House Targaryen has only Dany, who has to survive to keep existing. If she goes down, so does her house.
  • Her vision in the warlock tower, shows a throne room destroyed and empty. Unless the snow coming in through the ceiling gaps is a subtle nod to Jon ‘Snow,’ then it means its truly empty.

• House Tarly - Samwell went from disowned, to male head of his house and by the end of season 7, he still doesnt know it.
  • He finally knows it in the Season 8 premiere from Daenerys of all people. He's certainly not happy about it.

• House Baratheon is gone, with only the bastard Gendry with any possible claim.
  • Gendry is legitimized, reviving House Baratheon.
• House Clegane will have the Hound (its doomed), after the Mountain dies.
  • House Clegane is extinct as the Hound dies killing the undead Mountain.
• House Frey is gone.
• House Tyrell is gone.
• House Martell is gone.
• House Bolton is gone.

Once the white walkers wreck Westeros there might not even be a King’s Landing to occupy.

• The White Walkers are destroyed before making it that far, but Dany torches the place so semi-confirmed, just the wrong perpetrator.

• All the houses between the Wall and King’s Landing (aside from Winterfell) are going down.
• King’s Landing is almost certainly going under siege; and it could destabilize well before then.
  • Again, is burned to the ground by Dany. Unknown how much of it will survive.

By the end of the long night, the survivors might not even want the throne, to focus on rebuilding / starting their respective houses. Instead of a central monarchy, they will probably function more like a confederacy of independent states with mutual non-aggression treaties.

House Bronn, when it comes into existence, is also going to focus on stable growth, rather than ambition.

House Dayne will be the new rulers of Dorne

Because House Martell is legitimately extinct, Dorne is in a power vacuum which would lead to several Houses fighting on who rules the region. Of course, House Yronwood who is the strongest and most powerful Dornish house and are the rivals of Martells since the beginning, was supposed to take over but they never appear or were mentioned in the show. House Uller, where Ellaria Sand's birth father is from, could be a likely candidate too but they also never appear in the show. So, the most likely replacement would be House Dayne. Out from the Dornish houses except the Martells, the Daynes had their own Histories and Lore video which was narrated by the young Ned Stark and Arthur Dayne, made an appearance in the show except of course he died a long time ago. G.R.R.M. planned to give a bigger role for the Daynes (particularly Edric Dayne) but it didn't went through ever since he made some rewrites on A Feast of Crows and A Dance With Dragons. There's also some suspicion on why Ned is the only narrating the Daynes' Lore video which could mean that they may have a role in the future and could have a connection to the Starks.

Varys is actually betraying Daenerys.

• There are numerous reasons to point to this theory:
  • 1. Cersei and Euron seem to know exactly when and where Danerys' forces will be, from Euron being able to intercept and ambush Yara and Theon's fleet, to the Lannisters pulling a feint on the Unsullied at Casterly Rock with Euron ambushing the Unsullied fleet at the same time. The timing on these ambushes is just too convenient.
  • 2. Daenerys and Tyrion had absolutely no idea Jon Snow was King of the North, and only found out about it when Melisandre informed them. There's no way they could have been that out of the loop with Westeros' greatest spymaster on their side unless Varys was deliberately hiding the information from them, since if he is a traitor, he wouldn't want Daenerys gaining more potential allies.
  • 3. Varys is the only person in Daenerys' court that doesn't have a personal stake in the conflict. Tyrion was chased out of Westeros due to false charges made against him by Cersei and Tywin. Ellaria and Olenna both want revenge for the death of their loved ones. Grey Worm and Missandei both owe their lives and freedom to Daenerys. Meanwhile Varys is only one working for Daenerys without obvious motives, meaning there's nothing motivating him to stay loyal to her.
  • 4. There is quite a bit of foreshadowing in the early season 7 episodes. Olenna warns Daenerys not to listen to "clever men" like Varys, and Melisandre predicts that Varys is fated to die in Westeros. Other than old age, the most likely reason for Varys getting killed is his treachery being found out, of which Daenerys promised she would burn him alive.
  • 5. Finally, why would Varys want to betray Daenerys? Because he knows that she cannot be easily manipulated like Robert Baratheon or Tommen. He most likely wants to prolong the war long enough until he can find a more suitable claimant to back.

Cersei is lying about her pregnancy.

We've seen in Season 7 that Cersei has been putting the lessons she learned from Tywin into use, such as manipulating others into doing what she wants. It is highly likely that Cersei is only lying about her pregnancy and telling Jaime that the child is his in order to secure his loyalty.

• Jossed. She's indeed pregnant as she didn't drink her wine
  • Not necessarily jossed. In that same episode, it's revealed that Cersei was lying to Daenerys and Jon the entire time. It could have all been an act to fool Tyrion into thinking she had a reason to agree to the truce. Plus she's seen drinking again in the Season 8 Trailer.
• Seems CONFIRMED now that "Winterfell", the first episode of Season 8, has aired. She was shown drinking a postcoital wine glass, and Euron felt her stomach up and promised he would get her pregnant eventually.

Arya, though she will struggle with deep guilt for it forever, will kill Sansa

• Sansa is so thoroughly alienated from her family right now, almost without Littlefinger's interference that she makes a decision that, in Arya's somewhat radicalized mind, is irredeemable and irrevocable to the point that she kills her wearing the guise of a Faceless Man. Considering she just made a big show of never betraying her family as she perceives Sansa to have done, this would be a nice bit of irony as the sister war comes to a shocking close.
  • Seemingly jossed given how they collaborate to kill Littlefinger and Arya's defense of Sansa to Jon in "Winterfell"

Tyrion is Azor Ahai (long-shot)

The main reason this could work are the three attempts at forging a sword.

• The first attempt was quenching it in water: The wildfire trap in Black Water Bay.
• The 2nd attempt was quenching it in a lion: Shooting his father with the crossbow.
• The 3rd attempt involves a wife (or person of extreme significance): Dany or Jaime, by using them to bait a trap.

Daenarys is Azor Ahai/ The Prince(ss) that was Promised

• We know that Jon is a son(g) of ice and fire unto himself in addition to the Ice in the alliance between himself and Dany. This likely is true of the Unburnt herself; the Fire and Azor/The Prince. The fact that she is, in actuality a princess, not yet a queen helps. I say "yet" because as I think we all rather foolishly assume, she will likely take the throne from Cersei leading into...

Jon will impregnate Daenerys

There were several hints that were dropped in Season 7 about Dany's fertility and on the seventh episode during the parlay at the dragon pit, Jon and Dany both made a specific comment about Dany's ability to bare children when Jon himself joked that Dany didn't ask for anyone's opinion other than that blood witch who killed Drogo. Later in that episode Jon and Dany have done the deed and with those hints being dropped just before that scene, Daenerys will most likely be pregnant with Jon's baby by the start of Season 8. Even though they're both Aunt and Nephew, Targaryens never bothered with incest.

• There will be an accident...dying Dany will give birth to a premature baby girl, who she will give to a completely taken aback Jon, asking him to take good care of her and name her...Lyanna, after Jon's mother. (And there is your full circle Song of Ice and Fire.)
  • Jossed. Any possibility of Daenerys being pregnant is rendered a moot point when Jon kills Daenerys.

Westeros will have at least two new lords by the end of the series (unless the characters die)

Those lords being Davos and Gendry, who have lived as commoners throughout a good portion of their lives, and understand what commoners go through. Davos is raised to the title of lord in the book, and I expect the same to happen in the show, maybe being given the empty Dreadfort as well. Gendry will be legitimized as a Baratheon and given Storm's End. I don't know who'll get the title of lord paramount, but I expect one of them to take that title. Gendry can be given the name, and every ruler Davos has served under has taken a liking to him and his advice.

• Half confirmed. Gendry is legitimized and made Lord Paramount by Dany.

The Night King is the third head of the dragon.

• If one takes the position that the proverbial dragon Rhaegar spoke of is not a straight hero or savior in the traditional sense, but rather a transformative power, a catalyst for great change, a fulcrum/divergent force then, supported by his recent acquisition of one of the actual beasts this troper submits that Dany- fire, Jon- fire and ice, and The Night King- Ice is the three headed dragon- one come to destroy, one to vanquish the destroyer, and one to rule after the wars are done.

Bran is the Night King

• Ok, so this is a theory that's been going around recently that relies heavily on many tried and true Time Travel Tropes. It posits that as he gains further mastery of his abilities as the Three-Eyed Raven, Bran uses his, I guess you might call it astral time travel projection, to attempt to interfere in past events to stop the Night King and as such, becomes the being itself. It has three basic stages working backwards to the creation of the White Walkers and points to a number of events in the present timeline to bolster its claims.
  • The theory goes that the first significant attempt by Bran to stop the Long Night is to project himself to the time of Aerys and attempt to convince him to "Burn them all" with his wildfire, the "them" being the walkers. But because of the fact that he is not corporeal in the Mad King's time, rather a disembodied voice in his head, he drives Aerys to paranoia and insanity and the belief that "them" is everyone in King's Landing. The idea that Bran can in some way interact with the past is hinted at, of course with Hodor, who may or may not have actually seen Bran in the past, and then in his vision of the Tower of Joy, when he calls out to his young father and Ned turns as if he's heard something. There are excerpts in the books that suggest this more strongly. However, this is perhaps the weakest element of the theory as the White Walkers weren't on the verge of overrunning the capitol at the time and Bran has always known of the king as an omnicidal maniac he'd likely not attempt to reason with. There is however a variant on the theory that says the previous Three-Eyed Raven (unconfirmed in the show as a Targaryen bastard) may have attempted it and, realizing the error of his ways, counseled Bran against such a use of his power. Anyway after this Bran goes further back in time.
  • Bran then tries to learn how the First Men defeated the White Walkers thousands of years ago, but fails or perhaps gets there after the war is already won, and only succeeds in helping to construct the Wall and Winterfell thus establishing himself as Bran the Builder. Some who subscribe to the theory also believe that, á la Inception, the longer he is in the more he uses his powers and inhabits some other space and time, that he gets stuck and as such, Bran takes on the roles of ALL the historical Brans of the North.
    • Finally Bran attempts to go to the source, the creation of the the Walkers by the Children. Whether he's found a way to become corporeal by that time or is using his projection in conjunction with his warging to control another's body is a toss-up but in any case he is captured by the Children, turned into a White Walker, and fashions himself as the Night King. The theory then goes on to say that because he is essentially in an And I Must Scream state that he wants to kill the Children of the Forest, whose magic created him and finally achieve peace, thus by bringing about the Long Night he will ensure his own death. Those who subscribe to this idea point to a shot of the man on the tree and that of Bran in the cave that mirror each other, Leaf's words- "We needed to defend ourselves...Against you" and the fact that the Night King personally killed the Three Eyed Raven, really Bran in revenge for not spelling out the horror that would befall him, as clues to their shared identity. Also aesthetically the Night King's face seems to become progressively more human as the show goes on even admittedly looking something like Bran's actor, and their attire and gait are quite similar.
• There are a few problems with such a theory. On a Doylist level, 1) It more or less says that Aerys II's insanity is not down to incest, not down to feudal absolutism, and that the Mad King, his retainers and enablers, are not personally responsible for their actions and crimes. It completely removes the human element from the story in favour of some magic device. 2) This story makes the Game of Thrones entirely about Bran and a time-travelling kid rather than a Hyperlink Story of many characters who are Hero of Another Story. If the entire story is about some kid trapped in a time-travel loop then what does all the prophetic stuff about Jon Snow, and Daenerys, the "ice and fire" stuff mean, it doesn't make sense. 3) If the Night King "is" Bran, and if Bran is all the Brans who have ever existed, does this mean that Bran is also Brandon Stark, Ned's elder brother who defeated Littlefinger in a duel and got killed by Aerys II? That doesn't make sense. 4) The Night's King looking more human is surely down to the fact that they changed the actor between season 5 and season 6, no? And I don't see how the Night King looks like Bran, if you squint, it looks like Jon Snow or almost any dude with his head shaved and dolled with lots of makeup. That's on a Doylist level.
  • On a Watsonian level. If Bran is truly the Night's King, then how is it that a sophisticated and gifted greenseer like the Three-Eyed Raven and the other Children of the Forest didn't detect it, and if they did, why didn't they, simply, let Bran die when he fell off the tower rather than open his third eye? All they had to do was kill Bran and that's it, the entire Night's King never comes into existence. On a character level, after what happened with Hodor, after what happened to the Three-Eyed Raven, why would Bran believe that time travel is the solution to his problems? The only reason Bran would have to go back into the past is if he believes that all hope is lost in the present, if Jon and Dany fail and everyone become wights. So again, the theory is just not believable.
    • Actually, if this theory is true, this is the more logical part of it. So far, everything seems to point to the fact that you can't really change the past (and thus the future), because if you did, the future in which you travelled to the past wouldn't happen. The biggest point in favor of this to me is the fact that the original 3ER had to know what was supposed to happen, so he took Bran in a vision to the point in time when Willys/Hodor had his vision-stroke. If 3ER didn't know he was supposed to die then and there, he wouldn't have taken Bran to this specific vision, no Hodor would be created and there would be no one to hold the door.

The prophet Lodos was right

On Episode 5 of season 7 an archmaester tries to ridicule Bran Stark's claims by mentioning the ironborn prophet Lodos who, in the midst of Aegon's conquest of Westeros, promised that the Drowned God would rise up and destroy Aegon the Conqueror. Euron claims he's the Drowned God himself, while Jon Snow's real name is also Aegon Targaryen. And in regards of Euron plan to hire the Golden Company to face the Targaryen-Stark alliance after the great war, it's quite possible a deadly clash would occur between an "Aegon" and the "Drowned God".

There's something we don't know about Elia.

There has to be a good reason Rhaegar spurned her and more or less disowned his children, but the question is what. If I had to guess? She was plotting to commit treason, planned to murder people to clear the way for her son, or was accused of adultery.

• What kind of treason are you asking? On the second theory, as far as we (and the books) is concerned, her son was just a baby before the Mountain killed him and it is said that her health was not doing well when she gave birth to her daughter and she nearly died when she gave birth to her son. The third theory (committing adultery) is the most likely reason. The Mad King never liked Rhaenys because she "smell Dornish" and it's possible that Elia had an affair with Arthur Dayne.
  • Ok, admittedly, I didn't think that far ahead, but I will point out that as the wife of a future king, adultery is treason, since she'd be trying to foist a bastard on the throne. I mean it got Anne Boleyn and Katherine Howard executed in real life. (No comments on whether they were actually guilty or not, this isn't the place.)

Elia gave her consent to R+L

• Elia believed in the prophecy of the three-headed dragon and, knowing that she was in no physical condition to give Rhaegar another child, she, like Selyse Baratheon after her, gave her consent to the prince to have another heir to complete the triumvirate. Rhaegar, understanding the power in unions between the blood of Old Valyria(Targaryens) and the First Men(Starks) chose Lyanna as the best chance to ensure the fulfillment of prophecy. He may not have even really loved her, which brings us to...

The woman's name that Rhaegar spake as he died was...

• Elia

Wargs and greenseers are the only magic in the World of Ice and Fire

• The only magic that exists in at least Westeros is that of the three-eyed ravens, Jojen Reeds, and Orells of the world and every other magic is tangentially either related to or actively created by them. They are the Lord of Light, the Night King, the magicians, and any other manner of supernatural in the world. We understand that dragons and giants are flesh and blood creatures and, the show at least seems to suggest, rather unconvincingly, that the Faceless Men use only masks to pull off their disguises. As far as Pyat Pree and the House of the Undying, it's possible that more advanced greenseers/wargs are able to project illusory images into people's minds like Prof. X and saturate structures in them like the Shining.

Wights are warged corpses

• If Brandon Stark or another warg is the Night King, then wights are created by him warging into the bodies of the deceased, illustrated in that their eyes become identical to his piercing blue eyes, much in the same way that Hodor's eyes go milky and opaque as do Brian's when he inhabits him. The Night King's greater power coupled with the fact that the dead have no consciousness, allows him to control more individual bodies and over greater distances.

The White Walkers aren't trying to destroy humanity.

Sure they are killing a lot of people, but that's for the purpose of creating an army of the dead instead of just for the sake of it. The Night's King was made by the Children of the Forest to protect them by killing humanity, but he ended up killing them. Plus for the final antagonist of a series subverting fantasy tropes and Grey-and-Grey Morality, him being a Generic Doomsday Villain as it seems now seems to go against the spirit of the series.

Rather they're building an army to go after the Children of the Forest. They managed to off their kind beyond the Wall, but somewhere south in Westeros, maybe Essos and even other continents they still exist, albeit in hiding. For taking away his humanity, the Night's King wants to exterminate every last one of them. However his zombie army leads people to think he's an Omnicidal Maniac instead of someone who wants revenge, which puts him in a worse light. The army is so huge either because the White Walkers are overestimating the threat the current Children of the Forest pose, or they aren't and are the only beings in Westeros who know they thrive. Leaf's group is simply the last surviving members of their kind beyond the wall, and it's been so long apart they've forgotten.

It's also possible that the White Walkers want to exterminate other non-human races because they see them as a threat, just like the Children of the Forest used to be to mankind.

• And if their goal was simply to annihilate the humans of the world, they would not have left witnesses—Will, Sam, Jon and all the others fleeing Hardhome by boat—to testify to their growing strength. They would never have left Caster alone in return for his male children. No, they have some greater design (which, however, the humans may not want to let come to pass all the same).

We’ll see ruling families turned into white walkers (not wights)

This builds off one of the themes: royal blood is special.

Also, if you think about it, the white walkers are kind of a weird parody of the warring human armies. There’s a few actual walkers (nobles), who nobody really understands exactly what their end goal is, and an epic ton of fodder for waging their own war. The Night King’s Viserys acquisition, even puts him on equal footing as Dany.

Considering some of the walkers are going down in battle, they will need to ‘recruit’ from the locals.

Dany will believe Bran and Sam are telling the truth that Jon is Rheagar's trueborn son

• She won't at first claiming that Sam is just making up the high septon's journal to get back at her for killing his father and brother. This will be how he finds out and his reaction convinces her that he is telling the truth.

Cersei is suffering from a phantom pregnancy.

As a result of her growing insanity and paranoia, she's fooled herself into thinking she's pregnant. Think Mary Tudor, minus the relative sanity. Given how undocumented this would be in a medieval setting, no-one asides from maybe Qyburn knows of it. As for why, it's likely her desperate desire to forge a dynasty and have a child after her three were killed that makes her believe she's pregnant.

Jon and Dany's kid will sit on the Iron Throne, but neither will see it happen.

And it'll be a big example of History Repeats. Jon Snow will end up dying in battle before his son is born, just like his biological father. Daenerys, like her biological mother and her child's paternal grandmother, will end up dying in childbirth. The kid will either be called Aegon or Jon after his father, or if they want to go for a Meaningful Name Aenys-after all like the first King Aenys the child would be the son of a Targaryen conqueror and an Aegon. As for Tyrion, he will raise the child like his own son, becoming his closest ally...much like how his father Tywin and Dany's father Aerys used to be the closest of friends. However this time Tyrion will be able to break the cycle and remain on good terms with the new king, all while ending the bitter hatred between Stark, Lannister and Targaryen. Of course it will be a Bittersweet Ending as two of the main protagonists will die never knowing if their child will live long enough to be a king in his own right. Perhaps neither will the audience, though we could have a Flash Forward instead of an elderly Tyrion being confronted by the King of Ice and Fire as he finally dies.

• Why not Dany having a girl...named Lyanna?

How Elia fits into R+L=J will be purposefully ambiguous.

In order to preserve the mystery around Rhaegar's character, it'll be made unclear how she felt about Rhaegar's love affair with Lyanna and why Rhaegar annulled her marriage. Evidence will be shown that suggests she was on-board and consented and that the annulment didn't illegitimize her children, she was plotting some sort of treason or if her husband was a Jerkass who abandoned her like a hot potato. However there will be no concrete evidence, leading Jon and Dany to speculate in-universe what kind of people Rhaegar and Lyanna and how they should feel about this. Which will likely be an Audience Surrogate for how people might feel about Rhaegar and Lyanna.

There will be no Iron Throne at the end of the show as there will be a societal and political shift in Westeros after the end of the War against the White Walkers

As of the Season 7 finale, several Great Houses have been extinct (Houses Tyrell, Martell, Frey) while several House have only one Sole Survivor which leaves the house's future uncertain (Houses Tarly- Sam can't inherit Horn Hill due to his vows to the Night's Watch, Tully- Edmure's fate is uncertain after the Freys are dead, Arryn- Robin is just a young sickly and weak boy, Baratheon- Gendry's a bastard and doesn't seem to be a ruling type). This leaves Houses Stark, Targaryen, Lannister and Greyjoy. To fit GRRM's vision of having a Bittersweet Ending, there would be a sort of rearrangement on the Seven Kingdoms depending on who survives after the war. It's either that it would no longer be called "the Seven Kingdoms" as some regions might be merge/reassign or there will still be Seven Kingdoms but other Houses will take over as Lord Paramounts of the regions which would be similar to Aegon's Conquest. As for the Iron Throne, Dany saw in her vision at the House of the Undying where the Red Keep is destroyed and the Iron Throne is covered with snow. Whether this might come true or just symbolism, it's likely that no one (not even Jon or Dany) would take the Iron Throne in the end as it is a symbol of unending cycle of the game.

• Note also that in her vision, while Dany gestured towards the throne she did not sit on it. Given that and her conversation with Tyrion in Season 7 about breaking the wheel, this seems like a strong possibility.
• Gendry is legitimized, making him a candidate for King. Whether or not he gets it, and if he does, he will be a good King or a long lasting one to form a dynasty is yet to be known.
• Cornirmed. Drogon melted the Iron Throne and Bran becomes the new King and Ruler of the Six Kingdoms via Elective Monarchy while the North became independent.

The Night's King will have Human Allies

We know the White Walkers cut deals with humans, they did so with Craster after all. In a situation where the Wall has fallen there would be no reason for the Night's King to seek allies, but a potential setback at either Dany's hands or Dany and Jon's, on Drogon and Rhaegal, will force NK to find allies. There are two possible candidates.

One is Euron Greyjoy. We know that Euron wants power and dragons. So there's a chance that the Night's King will be drawn to The Silence by means of a horn which sound draws the attention of the NK flying above. Euron will propose an alliance and also offer him his services. He will build ships that will allow the White Walkers to expand their reach across the world (since Season 7 foreshadowed that White Walkers and the dead can't swim).

The other alternative is Cersei Lannister in King's Landing. From Season 5 and Season 6, there has been a recurring image of a dragon flying over the city's skyline. Season 8 will prove it to be the Night's King. He will arrive in King's Landing (which population was named a million at the end of last episode) and he will spare Cersei because she's pregnant with a child, and the White Walkers have converted human children to their cause and Craster's wives saw them as gods. Qyburn will somehow become a medium between the NK and Cersei, and the NK will make the Mountain into a giant White Walker since he's already a zombie. In exchange, both of them become collaborators and convert whole or huge parts of the population into wights for the army of the dead, while Qyburn comes up with something that will defend the Night's King and Viserion from dragonglass. This will raise the stakes for the final battle between the heroes and the Big Bad, and also give Bran more to do, since if he's going to play a part in the final battle with his warging and greenseer ability, the Night's King potentially going down with a Dragonglass tipped spear or Valyrian Steel thrust will render him meaningless.

• Jossed. They never reach King's Landing.

To Protect the North, Jon, Dany, and/or other characters will have to do some horrible things

There will be a sequence where the heroes learn of a huge group of people pinned in a castle about to be surrounded by the Wights and there's no way to save them, and that if they fall they will become Wights for the Army of the Dead and the White Walkers. So Jon and or Dany will have to burn whole castles full of people with dragonfire for the Cold Equation of The Needs of the Many. It will be much darker if Jon does this, and he will unleash fire on...Castle Umber and Castle Karstark, whose lives he had spared in Season 7. Bonus points for History Repeats since Aegon I did the same to Harrenhal, and now Aegon "Jon Snow" will do the same.

Some characters will become Wights or will be revealed to have become Wights

Hodor obviously. But there will also be wight versions of familiar characters. Some possibilities, Brienne and/or Podrick becoming wights for the other to kill in a heartbreaking-tragic moment. Beric and/or Tormund, Dolorous Edd and other Night's Watchmen, Little Lords, Ned Umber and Alys Karstark, Tormund, maybe Theon and Yara Greyjoy.

• Semi-confirmed. Though we don't get to see wight-Hodor, Ned Umber, Edd and Lyanna Mormont do get resurrected as wights.

Danaerys dies in childbirth at the end

"When your womb quickens again, and you bear a living child. Then he will return, and not before." Dany was always meant to bear another child... and once the last condition of the prophecy is fulfilled, Drogo will return to her in the afterlife.

Jon, Dany, and the remaining dragons will both die in the War for the Dawn, leaving Sansa and Tyrion to rebuild Westeros

Much like Arthur's death in Camelot, Jon and Danaerys dying represents the end of the old world and magic. Tyrion and Sansa (who may or may not marry for political purposes) are then left to pick up the pieces and put the realm back together. They will bitterly acknowledge that Jon and Dany will pass into legend while the people who did most of the hard work (i.e. them) will go unremembered, but will push forward to create a better world in their honor.

The Wildfire will play a role yet again, this time in defeating the White Walker Army

Given that one of the White Walkers and the wights' weaknesses is fire, and we have witnessed how effective the wildfire is twice already in the show. Chances are the wildfire will be used once again to annihilate a very large portion of the undead army, making it the third time the wildfire is used in the show. How the heroes will acquire it might be through defeating Cersei for good at King's Landing and recover any unused wildfire left in the stronghold. Boom.

• White Walkers do not have weaknesses with fire. Only wights do. The wildfire still around would not be a great amount. Huge parts were used in blackwater and to blow up the Great Sept.

• The wildfire used to blow up the Great Sept. is heavily implied to be leftovers of the 'Wildfire Plot' that the Mad King cooked up to blow up all of King's Landing. The amount of wildfire that Cersei used only destroyed the Great Sept. and the surrounding areas, but the majority of King's Landing still stands, so I guess she didn't use all the wildfire stockpile yet. The wildfire that destroyed Stannis's Fleet in Blackwater is the same. The amount of wildfire used back then is the amount that only a single ship can hold. And more wildfire can be produced if desired.
  • Cersei told Qyburn to gather the remaining wildfire from its hiding places a couple of episodes earlier. There seemed like an awful lot right before it exploded. There may be some left, but nowhere near enough to seriously damage a wight army.

The Stark children will all disapprove of Jon/Danaerys

Sansa will disapprove of the relationship for political reasons, citing the Northern Lords' dislike of Talisa and how Robb marrying the wrong woman destroyed his campaign and led to his untimely death. Arya will dislike Danaerys, seeing her as an interloper who is using Jon. Bran knows Jon is really a Targaryen and will be a little squicked out that Jon's unknowingly committing incest.

• I don't actually think Arya would mind Daenerys much. At first she might suspect her for obvious reasons, but she's a better judge of character than most, and her Faceless Man training's given her the ability to accurately read people. It shouldn't take long for her to catch on to Dany's good intentions. Also helps that Daenerys is about as close to a present day Visenya as the world is going to get, so she might come to even admire her. As for Bran, he's apathetic to virtually everything at this point considering he casually made Sansa recall one of the worst moments of her life. I'd think that the reality of the Night King being on the other side of the wall with a fucking dragon in tow would preoccupy him too much to care.
• As of episode 2, Arya doesn't give a damn about Dany. Most of her interaction so far focuses more on Gendry, the Hound and her family rather than some dragon queen.

The Iron Bank shot themselves in the foot when they sided with Cersei in the last season

Cersei will eventually be defeated after buying the Second Sons with their gold and Danaerys will refuse their demands to pay the Seven Kingdoms' debts to the Iron Bank by pointing out that all of the debts owed to the Iron Bank were from loans to usurpers and rival claimants to the Iron Throne, so she's under no obligation to pay them. This will cause the Iron Bank to go under, much like the Medici after the War of the Roses.

Cersei's paying the entire loan back will turn out to be a stupid move on her part

• Read carefully, Tychos's apparent compliment to Cersei sounds sarcastic because ...
• ... everyone knows that while a bank controls you when you owe them a little money, it's the other way around when you owe them big time. Now that the bank doesn't have to worry about the Iron Throne's loan anymore, it can, as Tychos's comment suggests, explore other options for making a profit. And with winter and war making a serious food shortage in King's Landing likely, Cersei may wish she still owed, so she can get more financing.

The Lightbringer prophecy may actually be a euphemism

If you think about it, Dany's already "bared her breast" to Jon... and he's "thrust his sword" into her at least once on the way back to White Harbor. Expect Episode One to open with a shot of Longclaw on fire.

Myrcella didn't count in the prophecy.

What? Would you really be surprised that the prophecy Cersei heard only counted her sons? This is a male dominated society. That's how we get around the whole 'three children' thing, yet Cersei's pregnant with a fourth: she had four children, but three sons. She's pregnant with a son, who will be stillborn.

Jaime is a dead man.

He's outlived his usefulness to all parties. He's failed to sway Cersei to Jon and Dany's side; all he can bring to the war effort is himself, one lone one-handed knight. And now that he's on Cersei's bad side, he doesn't even have value as a hostage. And now that Bran knows everything, he now either knows or will be able to find out that Jaime was the one who pushed him out that window and started this whole damn mess. The Starks have no reason to keep him alive.

• He has one job: kill his sister.
• Bran doesn't seem to care about his past self anymore. He'll probably vouch for Jaime in front of everyone because he knows Jaime saved the people of King's Landing.
  • Jossed and confirmed. His dead, but not by anyone's hand but his own (with some help with the wounds Euron gave him slowing him down) when he's too late to get her out before the exit collapses.

The Night King is a Well-Intentioned Extremist

All of the Night King's appearances so far appear to paint him as a Generic Doomsday Villain who's intelligent but having no real motive other than creating more wights and White Walkers and conquering the land with them. The final season will reveal that his real motive is to destroy Westeros' political system and the Iron Throne because of all the backstabbing, manipulation and corruption going on between the Seven Kingdoms. However, his solution to the problem is to get rid of free will and the concept of humanity entirely by ruling over Westeros with all of its inhabitants converted into blindly obedient wights and White Walkers.

The Night King will react to dying by just brainwashing and zombifying his killer into becoming his successor, who will go on to win the war for the Night Walkers

It's one last cruel slap in the face; the Night King is old, he's bored, and he has reached the Despair Event Horizon from too many anticlimactic wars, rituals, and scientific discoveries. He basically wants to abdicate, but can't do so without erasing his 8,000 year old civilization. Even his children are also too old and bored to want the Icicle Crown. So he wants a successor who is so good at exceeding and finding the world exciting enough to live in that 'mere mortal training' (like 30 years of medieval starvation and combat) is enough for them to defeat an 8,000 year old Wicked Cultured Badass Lich King. Then he'll use the last of his magic to show them the true scope of 8,000 years of perspective, possibly even cosmic knowledge gleaned from those millennia watching the heavens and earth and travelling in the caverns to find creatures in the dark, all while removing the obsidian heart key in his chest and jamming it into his stunned killer. In this way his successor uses their newfound powers to rebuild the world, but also crush the obsolete Seven Kingdoms for good.

Some of the wildlings will marry into the Dothraki families

Culturally, they're not that different; two tribes of outcasts who resort to Rape, Pillage, and Burn and settle disputes and marriages with lots and lots of blood. With the wildlings on the verge of extinction and the promise of warmer lands across the sea, many might develop relationships during the war against the Night Walkers and the survivors will agree to share their knowledge of survival for safety and acres of dry land. Infighting is inevitable (wildlings have a custom to forgive wives who murder their abusive husbands, Dothraki view abusive husbandry as a standard), but the fusion of wildling tactics and Dothraki skill will elevate the Dothraki from tribal killing machines into a full-fledged military force comparable to Rome.

Greyscale will be important in fighting the White Walkers

Between Shireen, Jorah, and the latter's trip through the ruins of Valyria with Tyrion, the show has spent too much time on this for it not to be of some significance in the end. Perhaps Jorah falls in battle ... but can't be turned into a wight because of his past infection.

All the elements of the prophecy as to when Danaerys will again bear a living child will come true

In some grand cataclysmic moment, the world really will start turning the other way, the seas dry up and the mountains turn to dust, at least temporarily. This could be seen as similar to the catastrophe that ruined Valyria, which as Tyrion noted was still mostly unexplained but did seem to involve something similar.

If all of what was prophesied to happen to Cersei has come true, we can only assume that the same will happen to/for Danaerys.

The details of this prophecy have been repeated twice since it was made. This clearly suggests it will have some relevance to the end of the series.

Littlefinger isn't really dead, and will be crowned king at the end of the series

• In "The Spoils of War", after he gives Bran the dragonglass dagger that was used in the Season 1 assassination attempt, Bran replies with "Chaos is a ladder", letting Littlefinger know that he's on to him. Later, Littlefinger is seen talking to a young woman, giving her a coin and she seems to say something like "your time is up".
• After that, his behavior changes. He starts seeming remarkably unsure of himself, to the point where is downright cowardly in the face of his looming execution in "The Dragon and the Wolf",^note Contrast that to earlier, when Sansa threatened to have him killed and he calmly said "I'll beg for my life, if that's what you want me to do" a development which he seemed to have not only not prepared for but not even anticipated.
• Is it possible that Littlefinger did anticipate that and made some arrangement for, say, a Faceless Man to die, unsuspecting, in his place? He may have some ties there we don't know about—early in the series he mentioned his father was from Braavos.
• In fact, the series spent a great deal of time developing the Faceless Men in seasons 5 and 6. More than you'd expect for the payoff to be just Arya avenging the Red Wedding. Perhaps the odd way she and Jaqen parted may yet lead to something.
• If he manages to survive a chaotic Season 8 where the Army of the Dead is defeated but at the cost of every other potential claimant to the throne, Littlefinger could reach the top of the ladder. This ending would fit with how the cast has described the ending of the show: "bittersweet", with Sophie Turner saying she walked around in a daze for three hours after finishing the finale script and Kit Hetherington saying that Rose wouldn't speak to him for three days after he told her how it ended.
  • Seemly Jossed as evidence to show he's alive is non-existent.

Littlefinger really is dead ... and has been since long before the series started. Because he's really Rhaegar Targaryen, who never really died

• Catelyn was surprised to see Littlefinger in King's Landing in Season 1, because she thought Brandon had actually killed him 15 years earlier since Littlefinger's wound was mortal. But guess what? She was right.
• Rhaegar's body was never found ... it was assumed to have washed out in the river. But he survived and learned the ways of the Faceless Men. Littlefinger's was but one identity he assumed (recall Littlefinger saying at one point that his father came from Braavos ... not consistent with Baelish's backstory).
• He was also Sylvio Forel (explaining why we didn't see him die and it's not likely that he did, as the showrunners keep claiming—because the real Sylvio Forel was long dead) and Jaqen H'rghar (explaining how "a girl knows his name"). Arya has been key to his plans, explaining the latter's satisfied smile when she realizes she is always going to be Arya Stark and cannot be no one.
• For the rest of it see above.
• And note that the Season 6 teaser trailer took place inside the House of Black and White, with living and dead characters both apparently seen there.
• The Season 8 trailer begins with Arya's voice saying she's seen many faces of death and she will be glad to see this one. Presumably she's talking about the Night King, but maybe this is another hint about the greater role of the Faceless Men.
• Note also that back in Season 4, "The Lion and the Rose" was rewritten so that it did not resolve the "who wanted Bran killed?" subplot the way the books did. Originally, as in the books, it was to be have been more or less revealed in that episode that it was Joffrey. But that aspect was (imperfectly) written out. If the idea was at the time to have "Littlefinger" tied to it, and "Littlefinger" to escape and leave Sansa and Arya thinking they'd finally outwitted him, that was the perfect fulcrum in the narrative for it.
• In the godswood scene earlier in Season 7, notice how Littlefinger squints hard when Sansa mentions how Rhaegar raped Lyanna ... which we know wasn't true. Does he also know this and have to keep his tongue?
• Rhaegar's return would be a deliciously bittersweet ending to the series ... not Jon, not Dany and certainly not Cersei would have a claim to the throne. The Seven Kingdoms would persist, but without any of the projected winners.
  • Seemly jossed as evidence for it is non-existent.

Unconfirmed Post "Winterfell" (Season 8, Ep.1) - SPOILERS

Jaime is most definitely the left-most figure of the three etched in the Dragonstone cave, and Bran will save his life in the next episode

Obvious: The left most figure has a line across his right arm and visibly holding a sword in his left hand.

Less obvious: If you Google ‘alchemy symbol gold’ two symbols come up. One symbol is a circle within a circle, the 2nd symbol is a dot with 7 wavy lines emanating outwards.

Even less obvious:

Sam walks out from his conversation with Dany, stunned, he runs into Bran sitting under the night sky. Sam asks what he’s doing out there, and Bran replies: “Waiting for an old friend.”

He means ‘Sam’ right? No. Sam has had no prior relationship with either Bran or Bloodraven.

“Are you saying Bran creepily sat outside all night, waiting for Jaime to arrive?” ...yes. This is believable because A. He’s Bloodraven. B. In the books Milesandre doesn’t sleep. C. In the lore Barristan Selmy notes how the old he got, the less sleep he needed. Bloodraven is way older than Barristan.

Considering half of Winterfell is going to be foaming at the mouth to thrust Jaime’s head on a spike, its probably better Bloodraven be the first person he meets with.

• Bran didn't save Jaime. It was Brienne who first vouched for him then followed by Sansa and Jon.

Theon is the middle figure of the three etched in the cave. The 3rd figure is unaffiliated.

Since the left most is Jaime with an alchemical symbol for gold below it, then the middle symbol is saltpeter. Since Lannisters are known for gold, who covers salt? The Iron Island has the salt throne, and salt wives, so there’s an obvious connection. This also explains Theon’s sudden urge to go fight at Winterfell, as well as his mysteriously awesome fighting skills.

The last figure doesnt really have a symbol, except maybe another symbol for gold above its shoulder, and its taller than the other two. This means the best candidates are The Hound and Brienne. Both are known for their size, and both have connections to the Lannisters. As far as Game of Thrones is concerned, their houses barely mean anything.

Discounting size, we can then add Jon and Bronn to the mix. Jon’s a tougher sell, but gold on the shoulder could be Bronn’s greed, especially since its a clearly different symbol from the one connected with Jaime.

Qyburn Lied to Bronn

• Qyburn lied to Bronn that Cersei dispatched him to kill Tyrion and Jaime. He is actually in cahoots with Euron Greyjoy. It doesn't make much sense for Cersei to order Tyrion and Jaime executed by crossbow, when she massacred her enemies with wildfire. Cersei doesn't do anything by halves. Qyburn is shown dismayed when Cersei blithely dismisses the news of the fall of the Wall. In short, Qyburn is allied with Euron for some plan or reason.

Arya is about to invent the first gun

The concept drawing she hands Gendry is a tube designed to launch dragon glass like a projectile.

• It looks a spear actually. Unless it's a shooting spear.
• Jossed. It's a spear with a detachable spearhead that doubles as a dagger. It's not even that useful. Arya loses it halfway through.

Benjen Stark will be revealed to be alive and advocate on behalf of the Night King

“Crows always lie.” -Old Nan

This plays off recent events. First, Bran almost looks like he’s imitating the mannerisms of the actor that portrayed the Three Eye Crow. Hinting, that the crow is controlling the body, not Bran. Of course, he wants to ‘protect Winterfell’ but not from Bran’s perspective. Now, the trailers leading up to this season showed Team Dany showing up on what appeared to be open ground, with a single hoof of (presumably) a White Walker’s horse. Except, why would Team Dany meet the White Walkers outside the walls of Winterfell, where the humans would mix with wights and the dragons couldnt easily lay waste to the wight army? You could chalk it up to bad writing, except the Battle of the Bastards already primed viewers for this type of scenario. Now, even the show leads said “Jon isnt that bright.” If we go back to the wight kidnap scene in season 7, Jon stupidly doesnt hop the dragon. But... we also saw the Night King miss Drogon, and arguably after his Viserias take down, his chances of missing that 2nd shot was probably really low, to non-existant. So, Jon stupidly tries to cut his way to the Night King, and Benjen shows up out of nowhere to rescue him? If the White Walkers wanted Jon dead, he’d be dead.

We also didnt actually see Benjen die. He takes orders from Bloodraven (three eyed crow) and before that, he almost became a wight, (or White Walker)? But if the Children could undo the White Walker curse, why weren’t they more proactive about it? We know Bloodraven is a Targaryan. Jon is a Targaryan. Cersei is an Andal. Bloodraven wants a Targaryan on the throne. The White Walkers either want to destroy the Faith of the Seven, or install a Children-friendly king. Tie these pieces together and it becomes, Bloodraven made Benjen undead so he can understand the White Walkers and still communicate with humans / be a friendly face to the Starks. The Children we saw sacrifice themselves were simply finishing out their role and merging with the Weirwood network.

During the wight kidnapping scene, the plan was to commandeer one dragon to get past the wall. Jon got stupid, so Benjen was called in to get Jon out of there before he could directly threaten the Night King, who couldn’t fight back because Jon is instrumental to the plot. While Jon isnt bright, he’s still benevolent, which is hard to come by. Even Dany is alienating people left and right, while Jon is better at keeping the peace. Sam’s teary confession to Jon about his heritage after being told by Dany that she cooked his father and brother, really sets the tone for the stakes. When the White Walkers show up, its Benjen who speaks on behalf of the Knight King. This could still translate into a fight at Winterfell because the White Walkers’ approach to things is a bit brutal, and Dany is probably still pissed at the loss of her dragon.

Cersei has had a miscarriage between the end of season 7 and the start of season 8 which will be revealed in one of the next episodes

She has poured herself a glass of wine after she slept with Euron. In season 7, it was the fact that she stopped drinking which made Tyrion realize she was pregnant. Also, the way she has to hold back the tears after Euron tells her he will knock her up. Seems to me like she might be mourning the unborn baby she lost. Of course, I might be wrong, maybe there is another reason for her behaviour. But since the leaks of season 7 already mentioned her miscarriage, which wasn't a part of the show until now, it might add to it. And since Maggy the Frog predicted that she would have three children, all of whom will die before her, it seems likely she will not carry that pregnancy to term.

• Another reason for her behaviour is that she never was pregnant to begin with, she simply mislead Tyrion into believing she was with a child (by acting pregnant, knowing Tyrion would think she was since she would not have told him directly and that Tyrion values information he obtains by deduction), so she could sell her supposed Heel–Face Turn, and later on continued the lie with Jaime in an attempt to make him remain by her side. As for the scene with Euron, I didn't intepret it as her holding back tears... But is she was, it could be because she has come to accept Maggy the Frog's prophecy as true, which means that she has lost all her children and will never have another one, regardless of Euron's boasts.

Cersei knows Bronn is gonna fail to deliver, and already planned for it

Since Tywin’s death, she’s been rapid firing try / fail, and getting a lot smarter. She knows Bronn is best buds with the two brothers, and already chided Jaime for not executing him. If she couldnt come up with anything, she would have killed him as soon as Jaime left King’s Landing. While Bronn isn’t going to betray them outright, its going to slow him down at the very least. She knows she was already able to buy him off to simply not show up for Tyrion’s duel. Or... if Bronn is in Vary’s back pocket, this will at least make him less cooperative. This way, when the North inevitably sets their sights on King’s Landing, they’ll be short on intel and one of their best fighters. The big question is, “What use does she have for Bronn, that makes him more useful, alive and disloyal, than dead?”

The conflict at Winterfell is gonna be resolved faster than we thought.

Simply put, the Northern lords and Jon's friends and family, aren't too keen about an alliance with Targaryen's and it's unlikely we are gonna get another drawn out repeat of Arya and Sansa's subplot from season seven. It's also clear that the Northern lords are unlikely to put their differences aside due to family history and politcs unless something drastic happens. Since the army of the dead is literally loose in the North and the Night King killed one of their lords already, it seems the "something drastic" will occur quickly (say an attack on Winterfell) that will drive the point home to that this isn't just another political squabble between families but the literal Zombie Apocalypse lead by an Evil Overlord who doesn't care about ones banners. The only possible way the Night King's inevitable attack wouldn't shut both sides up, is if some of the lords or ladies were Cersei level of petty.

• The Dany and Sansa conflict seems to be resolved quickly though Sansa made a point to Dany that the North still wants to remain independent once the war is done. The only conflict remains is Jon revealing to Dany that he's Rhaegar and Lyanna's son which makes him a threat to her claim on the Iron Throne and it's put on hold because of the approaching army of the dead.

Bronn will switch side almost instantly

Bronn is close friend with both Jamie and Tyrion. He is also smart enough to know that material possession does him no good if he's a wight. Plus, there will certainly be no shortage of empty castles in the North for him to take after the White Walker invasion. Bronn will realize that he has far more to gain from Daenerys than Cersei.

The Wights from the crypt of Winterfell will not be evil

Due to some magical shenanigan in their bloodline, the Stark wights will retain their intelligence. Sensing that their descendants are in mortal danger, the dead Starks will go up against the Night King. Ned Stark and the others will be back for one final hurrah to buy the living some time.

• Jossed.

The White Walker threat will be dealt with halfway through. The final conflict is the one between Jon and Daenarys

The White Walker threat can be ended by simply killing the Night King. Jon tried to do just that during the Wight hunt. With an army of horsemen and two dragons at their side, the living can now afford to beeline toward the Night King until someone manages to score one decisive blow. The true conflict, however, will be the war between the last Targaryen heirs. Jon, realizing that Danaerys is turning more and more like her father, will push his claim to the throne just so Westeros won't suffer another mad king. GRRM himself has stated that “The only thing worth writing about is the human heart in conflict with itself”. The White Walker war is not a conflict between human and itself.

• Confirmed for the first half.

Bloodraven / Bran is plotting to pit Jon and Dany against each other

What’s Jon’s most obvious next choice after hearing he’s a Targaryan? He’s probably going to ‘unbend’ the knee. How strong is his connection to his newly paired dragon?

If Dany and Jon don’t cooperate, the Night King stops facing two coordinated dragons. The timing is kind of interesting because he didn’t tell Sam to drop the plot bomb until after Jon paired with his dragon.

Dany has already indirectly threatened Sansa’s life if ‘she doesn’t respect her.’ While this could also help balance the scales so Dany can’t simply burninate everyone once thw White Walker threat is gone, its also possible Bloodraven is helping the Night King survive the battle. ...or it just could be bad writing like the Little Finger fiasco.

The Battle of Winterfell is going to be Westeros vs Essos, not humans vs White Walkers

The trailers are nagging at me, and so is Dany’s behavior. Since she got to Westeros, she’s been sounding more like her late brother (the one killed for being psycho).

The trailers do not show a single scene with the main characters clearly fighting wights and white walkers. For season 6, the trailers had no problems showing scenes from the Battle of the Bastards.

Then we get into the really odd interactions between certain characters and white walkers.

Sam is ignored not once, but twice. He should be dead. This isn’t a “too pathetic too kill” issue either, because we all know the Go T universe doesnt work like that.

Jon should seriously be dead. At Hardhome, the white walker had no problems killing the Then, but once it was him and Jon, the white walker switched to beating him up.

Fast forward to the wight kidnapping. When Jon is left behind, he’s not swarmed by wights. A talking wight (Benjen) emerges from inside the crowd of wights to save Jon... from hypothermia.

Fast forward to the previews for season 8. We see a hoof drop, which in theory, is a white walker on a horse. Its not the Night King though, because he would be on a dragon. The Night King isnt exactly the type to be afraid of heading his forces from the frontlines.

“But they killed child Umber.” Which is more in line with the course of action Sansa would have taken without Jon’s intervention. Sam is loyal to Stark. House Umber wasn’t.

The North will be overrun fairly quickly and most of the war will take place in the south

There's no point in building up the Golden Company if the White Walkers is going to be dealt with in the North. Instead, the North will fall very soon and the survivors will flee south to continue the fight. It would make for a very interesting storyline as the heroes not only have to worry about the White Walkers, but also Cersei. It will also provide the opportunity for Cleganebowl to finally happen and Jamie to fulfill the prophecy of killing Cersei.

• Semi-confirmed. The White Walker is destroyed in Episode 3, so the war doesn't take place in the south.

Sam will be released from the Night Watch and allowed to become the new lord of House Tarly

The ruler of the Seven Kingdoms has the authority to relieve any one of the vows, so Danaerys or Jon can restore Sam's claim to the house. It's unlikely that all of the Tarly men were killed, so making Sam the new Tarly lord would bring more troops to the cause. The Reach is very fertile, so the Tarly can supply some much-needed food to the North.

Howland Reed will appear as a character and have an important role

• We have only seen Howland so far in flashback, where we learn that he saved Ned from being killed by Ser Arthur Dayne outside the Tower of Joy, a detail Ned left out of every other retelling of the story to make himself look better (He has been described as someone who knows too much). Nothing Meera said about her family has suggested her father is dead.
• He is about the only significant character left who could credibly be introduced into the narrative at this point.
• Most significantly, in the books he is said to be the only person who has ever managed to successfully get to the Isle of Faces, in the middle of Gods' Eye, the large lake south of Herrenhal. This is supposedly the only place outside the north where weirwoods still stand ... and where the Children of the Forest may yet be, protected from discovery by high winds and raven flocks that attack anyone who gets too close to the island.
• It has been speculated that the Isle of Faces may be the Night King's real goal. Vladimir Furdik said that this season will show that the Night King has a specific person he's targeting. While he certainly seemed to show some interest in Jon and Bran, if they were his final target, it would be obvious by now. But it seems more like he needs/wants them as a way of getting to his real target.
• If he wants to reverse his creation, supposedly destroying the center of the weirwood network on the Isle of Faces may be what he needs to do—what the spiral pattern with the wighted Lord Umber suggests. And Howland may be the one who must stop him.
• Dany still doubts on the authenticity on Jon's parentage since it came from Bran and Sam who are close to Jon. So, Howland would be the one who provide more confirmation on Jon's parentage to Dany.

Unconfirmed Post "Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms" (Season 8, Ep.2) - SPOILERS

Provided she survives the series, Arya will turn out to be pregnant

In episode 2 of season 8 Arya and Gendry have sex. If Arya doesn't die in the battle of Winterfell or further battles against Cersi and possibly Dany it could turn out that she is pregnant as a response. It is a certain poetic irony that the final plot point for a young woman who spent the last few years taking lives would be to bring a new life in.

The Night King is a Disc-One Final Boss of the season

While Cersei is the final Big Bad of the series. There's a reason that she's left Out of Focus in the second episode of the season, and it seems that this should carry over to the third as well. The show's conflicts have usually been political first, so dealing with the supernatural threat earlier than expected would be an effective way to get back into the swing of things.

• Confirmed!

The Night King split his forces into two. He's actually heading to King's Landing

The last shot of the episode shows a couple of White Walkers on their undead horses standing in front of Winterfell. But where's their boss? He maybe riding his undead dragon but what if the Night King took a slight detour? What if he's playing mind games at Bran, tricking him into thinking he's after him?

• Bran's connection with the Night King seems to give him the ability to see what the NK is doing, since he knew the NK had used the undead Viserion to break through the Wall. So surely Bran would know if the NK was attempting something like this? Though of course he might still attempt to go for King's Landing; given that the Viserion cannot be caught by anyone except the other two dragons, Bran knowing about it wouldn't change much.
• Jossed. Even if he did split his force, his death would shatter the other army.

Characters who will die in the next episode

The stakes are up and Anyone Can Die. The current episode seems to wrap up some characters arcs and show some of the characters' last moment before the battle (feel free to add):

• Bran- He's using himself as bait to lure the Night King. Whatever plan Jon cook up to keep Bran safe and to kill the Night King might screw up badly. Bran would probably be killed by the Night King or something worse if the theories of him being/becoming the Night King are true.
  • Jossed.
• Theon- Looks very obvious since he finally redeems himself to his sister. Him protecting Bran and dying for him and his adopted family would be close end to his story.
  • Confirmed. Died in a suicide charge against the Night King.
• Grey Worm- he gets his last kiss from Missandei. There's a shot of Missandei watching Grey Worm walk away while standing in front of the fence which obviously means that this is the last time they'll see each other.
  • Jossed. He survives.
• Beric - He’s synonymous with this battle.
  • Confirmed.
• Melisandre - Her arc ends with the Night King.
  • Confirmed.
• Brienne- whether we like or not, there's a huge death flag on her head. She may die fighting but she will knight Podrick at her last moments.
  • Jossed.
• Jaime - Tough sell, but if he dies, it will be protecting Brienne... and then... wait for it... Cersei gets word he died in the battle she refused to supply troops to. That Cersei, is what the heroes would be facing in King’s Landing.
  • Jossed.
• Jon or Daenerys - The question of who gets to sit on the Iron Throne needs to be answered. They can't rule together as King and Queen due to the incestuous nature of their relationship. And while Jon is happy to give up the Iron Throne, Dany sees the potential problems that will arise from keeping him alive. Then there's also the fact that the fiercely independent North won't bow so easily to a Targaryen, and the only reason she's barely tolerated in Winterfell is due to Jon vouching for her. One of them will die in the next episode, most likely while taking down the undead Viserion.
  • Jossed.
• Lyanna Mormont: The show is fond of its shocking moments, and what's more shocking than watching a little girl (a badass little girl, but a little girl all the same) get skewered by ravenous undead? Even worse: she might die saving Jon's life, the same way that Lyanna Stark - Jon's real mother - died giving birth to him and begging Ned to keep him safe.
  • Confirmed. Horrifyingly and awesomely so.
• Jorah- His story is over now. He already earned his queen's loyalty and made good terms with his cousin. He will certainly die fighting for his queen.
  • 100% confirmed.
• Gendry - He was rowing his boat until season 7. They only brought him back to forge weapons. Arya doesnt seem interested in a long-term thing. Unless he winds up on the throne, he’ll probably die.
  • Jossed.
• Tormund - Pretty much him and the rest of the Wildlings.
  • Jossed.
• Anyone from the Night’s Watch that isn’t Sam or Jon.
  • Confirmed. Edd doesn't make it.

The crypt isn't as safe as everyone thinks it will be for the women and children

Did everyone forget that there's a whole bunch of dead Starks down there that can be 'returned' via White Walker magic? There's a reason Arya is seen running frantically through the crypts in the previews for the next episode: a White Walker will enter the crypts and start resurrecting the buried Stark ancestors to join the army of the dead.

• Wouldn't most of the corpses just be bone by now, so that should be a problem?
• There are skeletal wights in the past seasons (e.g. the ones that attack Bran and company in the Season 4 finale).
• Confirmed.

Melisandre will show up at the last moment with some Red Priests and Priestesses

She hasn't been seen since Jon banished her from Winterfell at the end of season six. She'll be back to use her magic to save some characters from the undead legion.

• Semi-jossed. She returns to Winterfell by her lonesome, but she does play a crucial role in the battle.

The Mountain will be turned somehow.

There's almost no way they will let either character die without the two facing off, and just about the only way that it makes sense in the current context is for the Mountain to become a Wight of some sort. And for bonus points, Sandor will face his greatest phobia and Kill It with Fire. He'll likely be mortally wounded in the process but it seems like a fitting way for both characters' story arcs to end.

• The night king is dealt with in episode 3 and Sandor survives, so there is plenty of time for Clegancebowl to happen in the remaining episode.

The Hound will die, but Beric will sacrifice himself to resurrect him.

And thus Cleganebowl will be between two undead. Also, Sandor will have to master his fear of fire to use his new flaming sword effectively.

• Jossed.

Beric will sacrifice himself to resurrect Arya or Sansa

And then someone will sarcastically call her "Lady Stoneheart".

• Jossed.

Melisandre is gathering an army of R'hllor worshippers in Essos

Now that she has found not one but two people who might be The Prince That Was Promised, Mel would have a very good case to rally the followers of the Red God. The Night King is very similar to the Great Other, which is the Red God's polar opposite in their religion. Sailing to Westeros will not only let them fight their god's mortal enemy, but also allow them to spread their faith to Westerosi survivors.

• Jossed.

Gendry, Sam, and Arya kick-start a global revolution, pushing Planetus past its millennium long stagnation

Gendry is surrounded by iron and dragon glass. Eventually he’s going to realize folding them together makes Valyrian Steel.

Sam is going to crack open the Citadel since he’s almost certainly going to be Lord of High Garden.

Arya plans to be an explorer, and she’ll be able to blend in and fight, so her chances of getting killed will be much lower than most other explorers. She’ll also have trainees, forming a secular counter-assassin’s guild to the faceless men.

If Bran survives, he’ll accelerate all these endeavors, possibly even helping tracking remnant magical sentients and forming actual peace pacts with them.

Team Living will get curb stomped

Stating the obvious, but it doesnt look like anyone’s done it yet.

No Bolton shield wall, means humans will intermix with wights. Lethal wounds arent readily apparent, so tons of soldiers will be surprise-attacked by the person next to them, as soon as that person dies and jumps back up to their feat.

The Dothraki and House Arryn will attempt cavalry charges, only to get swarmed, killed and added to the ranks of the dead. The Dothraki in particular are used to their foes scattering. Since wights won’t exhibit fear, this approach won’t work.

The Unsullied will fare slightly better, but they will still intersperse with wights. Their armor will make it difficult to tell half way through the battle which Unsullied are still human, and which are undead.

When the trenches are lit on fire, several humans will get pushed into the inferno by the wall of dead.

Another wight army will invade through the crypts, kill most of the people there, and then invade the castle.

Jon will have an epic one-on-one fight, which will distract from just how incompetent he is at command.

Dany, in an act of desperation, will have Drogon torch the area, killing living and dead alike.

• Semi-confirmed. The living is very much completely outclassed by the White Walker force.

Unconfirmed Post "The Long Night" (Season 8, Ep.3) - SPOILERS

Greyworm will die fighting the war in the south

Greyworm survived because he still has a role to play; leading the remaining unsullied fighting against the forces of Cersei. Perhaps he will die fighting Harry Strickland. Maybe the two will do a Mutual Kill? Greyworm may not die immediately, but he'll live long enough to say his farewells to Missandei, and perhaps he'll give the surviving Unsullied one last order: To travel with Missandei back to Naath and protect her and her people, as he promised to do in episode two.

• Half Jossed. Missandei bites the dust. Grey Worm's fate is yet to be determined.

Daenerys gets her own sword

Jon and her entire small council will probably insist on it. She's unquestionably capable of wielding a blade, and there's going to be some concern that she'll need to again.

• Jossed. Daenerys gets no weapons.

Daenerys will burn down King's Landing

At some point, the vision from the House of the Undying (the Red Keep destroyed and Iron Throne covered in ash snow) would somehow end up true. Now that the White Walkers are gone, Dany would now focus on the Iron Throne. She probably wouldn't accept Jon being the true heir of the Iron Throne regardless of Jon not being interested with it. She already has doubts on Tyrion who is against burning the Red Keep due to PR reasons. And since much of her forces perished during the war and some of the surviving Northern lords still don't trust her, Dany will use her dragons as her last resort to destroy Cersei root and stem by burning the Red Keep.

• At this point it's looking that way.
• Confirmed in "The Bells".

Cersei will attempt to burn down King's Landing once she's cornered

Like Aerys before her, Cersei will decide that if she doesn't sit on the Iron Throne, then no-one else should. After the Golden Company is wiped out/turned against her, she has the remaining wildfire put in different parts of the city, ready to blow it up. And the final part of the prophecy will come true, as Jaime confronts her one last time and chokes her to death with his golden hand as the Red Keep burns around them.

• Jossed. For all her horrific actions, Cersei doesn't order her soldiers to burn down Kings Landing. Not that it stopped the city from burning down thanks to Daenerys and Drogon razing the capital.

The Night King is/was a Targaryen.

This explains the ease with which he rides Viserion (even an undead dragon, you would think, would be more feral than anything) as well as tanking a fire blast from Drogon directly to the face despite White Walkers and wights having a known weakness to fire. After all, fire cannot kill a dragon.

Bran’s future in the series

Feel free to post your theories here.

Trying again:Bloodraven is still evil. It wasn’t the humans who erected the ice wall, but the Night King. He was originally Symeon Star Eyes (before the Star Eyes bit), and chased the “Three Eyed Crow” of the era up north. The Three Eyed Crow’s spirit occupied the Weirwood network. Symeon couldnt follow him, so he volunteered to become a vanguard. The Children turned him into the Night King, and the king in turn, erected the Ice Wall to contain the entity on the north side of the wall.

Fast forward a few centuries, everyone forgot, and the Children were mind ***ed into submission. They captured people to be a vessal for the entity, but all had issues, until Bran. The Night King, realizing there Bran was a big threat, marked him, to try to kill Bloodraven once and for all. The Night King wouldnt let anything get in his way, so he hijacked a dragon, and proceeded to kill everyone in the way, to avoid another lost opportunity.

Bloodraven, knowing what this looked like to others, painted a picture of an evil being, seeking to wipe out all life on Planatus. Getting started... He continues death stares, occasionally warging into ravens to watch the upcoming wars, without really saying much.

Arya Killing the night king will be kept a secret

Arya will not want the fact that she killed to the night king to be public knowledge as it'd draw too much attention to her(if everyone know she killed the night king she'd be hailed as a hero everywhere and I don't think she wants that kind of attention). Therefore I think she'll probably have Jon take credit for killing him since it will rally the people behind him, Jon will probably be against this at first will eventually go with it because it's what Arya wants. Only Arya, Jon and Bran (since he saw her kill him) would know about it (maybe a few others).

• Jossed. Everybody in Winterfell already knew that Arya's the one while the ones outside of winterfell don't care or believe in Cersei's propaganda.

The other Houses will think the story of the Battle of the Long Night is mere propaganda

All of Westeros should be eternally grateful for the survivals of the battle, since they saved the lives of everyone on the continent... However, only the ones who actually participated in the battle know how huge a threat the Night King's army was, and all of them were already loyal to Daenerys or Jon, or both. So it wouldn't hard for Cersei to spin the news so that everyone else on the continent will believe that the battle never happened, or at least that Night King wasn't really such a big threat, and that any claims of saving humankind are merely propaganda, concocted by Daenerys' people to support her claim for the Iron Throne.

The Three-eyed Raven is the true villain

And the Night King is a Well-Intentioned Extremist who is trying to foil whatever plot he is trying to carry out. D&D said that GRRM revealed 3 twists to them, and so far we have only seen two: Shireen's death and Hodor's warging. Arya killing the NK can be the third twist, but on the off chance that it isn't, we still have one more plot twist waiting to happen.

Arya will become the new Night's Queen, and from her a new line of White Walkers and Wights will be created

Arya killing the Night King was fairly fitting, as it fulfills her story arc of becoming a killing machine first and foremost. Arya is the one who Syrio Forel told to say "Not Today" to the god of death. Arya became a Faceless Man, an unstoppable champion of the many-faced god. Arya can be regarded as the champion of the god of death after overthrowing its previous champion, the Night King. The logical conclusion to this is for her to become Death Incarnate- ie. the Night Queen, Mistress and Progenitor of a new line of White Walkers.If Arya gets turned into the Night Queen by killing the Night King, and therefore the White Walkers begin anew through her becoming one herself, that would:

• A) Bring a logical conclusion to the story arc of Arya becoming an agent of death- by her becoming Death.
• B) Be a nice shocking twist, possibly the third Shocking Scene that GRRM told Benioff and Weiss (Shireen burning was the first, Hodor's juxtaposed death and creation was the second).
• C) Completely upend House Stark; Bran needs to have sex in order for Sansa to have an heir in House Stark, now that Arya is the True Enemy.

Unconfirmed Post "Last Of The Starks" (Season 8, Ep.4) - SPOILERS

Daenerys has begun her descent into madness.

With everything she's lost in the past 2 seasons, dissent among her advisors who may be angling for Jon to take the Throne over her, and the possibility that her quest for the Throne may end up All for Nothing, it would be more than understandable if she snaps at this point.

• Yup.

If Jon takes the throne he will disband the monarchy in favor of a President / Prime Minister figure.

Jon has never wanted to rule, he's made that very clear and while he's only been playing it for 2 seasons, throughout the show he has seen his family and the realm torn apart by the Game of Thrones. He has also seen a functional electoral system in the Night's Watch. It stands to reason that he may try to implement this in some way to replace the throne, ending the Game of Thrones, for good.

• Semi-Jossed: Tyrion is the one who institutes an Elective Monarchy.

Jaime is returning to King's Landing to kill Cersei

Jaime admits that he's not a good man, pointing out the terrible things he did. Jaime killed The Mad King and forever became an oathbreaker and kingslayer to save the people of kings landing, and now he's going to do the same to Cersei to further prevent bloodshed. He'll be forced to do a terrible deed equally, if not more, worse than kingslaying just to save lives. The thought is made even worse when you consider that Jaime will also knowingly kill their unborn child for the greater good.

• Jossed. Jaime returns to King's Landing to get Cersei and their unborn child out of the city. They end up getting crushed to death in the cellar by the crumbling Red Keep.

Cersei will die, but not by Jaime's hand

With the sudden focus on "subverting expectation" that the showrunners have been taking on this season, letting Cersei dies under Jaime is too predictable. Instead, she will die under some other means, and Jaime will cradle her corpse. He may even commit suicide to be with her.

• Confirmed. She and Jaime die together when the cellar of the Red Keep collapses on them.

The Seven Kingdoms will become two kingdoms and a confederacy.

• The built-in problem with the 'Seven Kingdoms' concept from the beginning, was that the cultural differences between regions within Westeros were so vast (not to mention the regions themselves) that unifying them all under a single banner was virtually impossible. The North, the areas nearest King's Landing (Reach, Vale, Westerlands, Riverlands, Stormlands), and Dorne might as well be three separate autonomous nations anyway, and essentially operated that way even when Westeros was nominally united under one king. Whoever sits the Iron Throne - assuming the Iron Throne is still there to sit in the end - will probably figure this out and elect to promote peace by giving the North and Dorne their independence. Dorne will continue as always, ruled by its new prince (mentioned but unnamed - did Quentyn Martell survive in this continuity due to the ripple effect of the story changes? Or perhaps the previously unseen Arianne Martell actually rules as 'prince' after her father's death?). As for the North, what remains of it will likely form an uneasy alliance with the wildlings. They're essentially the same people - all First Men descendants that prefer to operate under a very loose clan-by-clan feudal system until a time of crisis hits, where all the clan leaderships elect a single figure to lead them and keep unity for as long as the crisis persists. If Jon Snow 'rules', it will likely be in this latter region, overseeing a rebuild and resettlement of the North and fostering an alliance with Tormund's wildling remnant. Culturally, they meet more or less halfway, particularly with the Wall that once divided them destroyed and unmanned.
• Partially Confirmed: the new king grants the North independence without a fight, and it's implied that other kingdoms are considering their own independence claims. Even then, the new king has enough political power to keep the kingdoms united in trade rather than nationality. Jon and Tormund take the surviving wildlings to re-colonize the Wilds.

Unconfirmed Post "The Bells" (Season 8, Ep.5) - SPOILERS

If Jon attacks Daneareys she'll claim he is a traitor.

Let's face it, regardless of love or their family connection, Jon isn't going to remain loyal to Daneareys after what she did. He is fundamentally a good man and what happened was just evil. The final battle will be Daneareys against Jon, Arya or both. If it is Jon then she will likely claim that for all his talk of honor, he has broken his oaths to her, at which point I predict he'll reply with the fact that she is not worthy of that loyalty anymore.

• Jossed.

Brienne will come forward explain why Jaime killed the Mad King.

Brienne of Tarth is the only known person to have been informed by Jaime Lannister as to why he had killed Aerys II- namely, to prevent the city from burning in Wildfire. After hearing that Daenerys burned down King's Landing, Brienne will come forward to someone in a position of power- Jon, Arya, Tyrion, Bran, or even Daenerys herself- and disclose Jaime's story regarding the death of the Mad King.

• If Brienne tells Jon, he might attempt to stage a coup, or try to talk Daenerys down.
• If Brienne tells Arya, she might attempt to shoot Daenerys in the head with an arrow or a crossbow bolt.
• If Brienne tells Tyrion, he might confront Daenerys with a crossbow. Maybe even the same crossbow he killed Tywin with, if it still exists?
• If Brienne tells Bran, he might attempt to warg into Drogon to kill her off.
• If Brienne tells Daenerys herself, she would realize that she did the very thing that her father died attempting to do- burn down King's Landing.
• Jossed. She tells nobody.

Arya will kill Daenerys

Arya killed several people in the past so she can avenge or save her family. She killed the Night King to save Bran. She wanted to kill Cersei not only to avenge her father's death but to prevent her from going after her family ever again. Now, after what Daenerys did to King's Landing, Arya would realize that Jon's in danger. This would mean she would do one kill to keep her family safe.

• Jossed, it's Jon who kills her.

Daenerys will commit suicide

After being told by Brienne why Jaime killed the Mad King, she will realize she did what her father died trying to do, walk in front of Drogon, say "Dracarys", and be immolated to death. Fire cannot burn a dragon, after all...

• Jossed, she is killed by Jon.

After Daenerys' death, Jon will refuse the Iron Throne

At this point, he'll be too tired of war and fighting, and too broken up by the death of the woman he loved to even consider sitting on it. After Tyrion begs him to take the throne and bring stability to Westeros, Jon will turn to him and say something like 'This throne has been at the root of everything that's happened to my family and to this country. Fuck the Throne.' Then he'll have it thrown into the ocean and leave King's Landing with Arya. Tyrion and whoever is left will eventually form a 'temporary' parliament made up of representatives of the Seven Kingdoms (noble and commoner alike), that eventually becomes the new form of government. Cersei once said 'If you play the game of thrones, you win or you die.' So Jon takes away the throne, so nobody else has to die because of it.

• Jossed, he's never offered it; the Iron Throne is gone, physically and metaphorically. He's sent to the wall instead.

The Prince That Was Promised prophecy didn't refer to the battle with the Night's king, but the one with Daenerys

Okay bear with me with this. Firstly the most well known line is that "The Prince That Was Promised will bring the Dawn." It was assumed that this referred to the battle with the White Walkers but what if it wasn't. While not a literal night but with the realm going from one Mad Queen to another that could be described as a dark era, with the Prince bringing the Dawn by killing Daenerys and ending this dark era.

Furthermore Lightbringer. I don't recall the full prophecy but I recall that Lightbringer was supposed to be born by the Prince plunging his sword into the heart of the woman he loves. Now it was assumed this was blood magic to create some kind of Night King killing superweapon, but what if it was more literal? If the Prince really is Jon, who does still love Dany, despite not wanting to be with her anymore, and he stabs Daenerys with his sword, well given that this sword just ended the dark era of Mad Queens it could be considered a "Light Bringer".

Even if we do assume that Lightbringer is made by blood magic as a superweapon there is still a very powerful weapon that Jon will most likely have to kill. Drogon. Most likely he will be an enemy to Jon, Arya and any allies they still have left, whether under Daenerys' instruction or in vengeance after her death he is likely to become the final opponent for the Jon in the show, and it would add another layer of tragedy, with Jon killing the woman he loved and using the sword it empowered to kill her last child.

Semi-confirmed, Jon does kill Daenerys but he never has to kill Drogon, they just fly away with Daenerys body, also killing her doesn't seem to do anything to his sword.

More dragon eggs

Daenerys and Drogon will both die. In the aftermath, we'll see Illyrio, who gave Daenerys the eggs to begin with, receive a raven explaining what happened. He'll express mild disappointment to an associate, then both of them will walk into a room full of fossilized dragon eggs, and remark that they'll make a smarter choice "next time."

The final episode will contain [1] to round out the series

What better way to conclude the show than to make references or repetitions to the beginning of each surviving character's story arcs? Confirmed in Jon's case, the series both begins and ends with him being sent to the wall

The final episode will be called 'A Song of Ice and Fire'.

• Jossed, it's "The Iron Throne".

The final episode will be called "A Dream of Spring"

It's reportedly GRRM's working title for the last book^note Assuming, of course, that it is the last book and they already used "The Winds of Winter", his working title for Book 6, as the title of the Season 6 finale.

• Jossed, it's "The Iron Throne".

Gendry will become king

Jon will kill Dany, and either die in the process, or be so fed up with politics that he decides to abidicate the throne and rejoin Ghost and Tormund beyond the Wall. This will leave Gendry as the only remaining heir to the throne. He'll marry Sansa to ensure peace with the North, and she'll be the true ruler of the Seven Kingdoms, given Gendry's relative ignorance of politics.

• ...so no one realizes as Cersei's brother and only living relative Tyrion is technically her heir?
• Is anyone going to be clamoring for another Lannister on the Iron Throne, given the nightmares that were Joffrey and Cersei? And that's assuming he survives the final episode.
• Cersei and Jamie are dead as of Episode 5 and were illegimate regardless as a Baratheon was King with the "Baratheon" children being illegimate. The Lannisters had no rightful claim to the Throne and Tyrion, the only Lannister left smart enough to maneuver himself into power, is unlikely to make a move based on his horror of Dany's actions that he helped enable.
  • The Lannister claim to the throne was every bit as legitimate as the Baratheon and Targaryen claims. They all took the throne the same way: By force.
• Jossed. Bran becomes king via Elective Monarchy.

Sansa and Tyrion will wind up with control of the Iron Throne

Not only did their historical equivalents come out on top of the War of the Roses, which inspired the books to begin with, but with Tyrion as the heir to Cersei, there’s a legitimate claim. Not to mention that Sansa is tangentially related to the Targeryans enough to stake a claim (her aunt lawfully wed a Targeryan). This is assuming Jon and Daenerys both die or Jon abdicates his claim.

• Jossed. Sansa rules the North and let Bran be king of the six kingdoms.

No one^note and no, not Arya ends up on the Iron Throne

The clearest lesson from the whole series, which some of the characters seem to be waking up to, is that maybe absolute monarchy's time has passed:

• Both the wildlings and the Night's Watch elected or chose their own leaders
• How else do you "break the wheel"?^note "Breaking the Wheel" could also be the title for the last episode if this is what happens
• Davos, Tyrion and Varys discussed (before they knew Jon's true lineage) of having him and Danaerys share power.
• Jaime pointed out that it didn't take a lord to make a knight.

Semi-Confirmed, no one ends up sitting on the Iron throne as Drogon burnt it, but Bran Does up king of the Six Kingdoms (no longer Seven as The north is now independant).

Regardless of who kills her, Dany's death will be an Alas, Poor Villain moment

• Yep it is

Daenarys wins and every lives unhappily ever after

To quote a dead man, "If you think this has a happy ending, you haven't been paying attention."

• Boy howdy was I wrong.

The series will end on a metafictional note.

The fourth wall will be completely demolished, the characters will rebel against the writers for all the crap they've put them through, and Jon will execute Weiss and Beinoff with a sword in a Call-Back to Ned performing an execution in the first episode.

• Boy howdy were you wrong.

Unconfirmed Post "The Iron Throne" (Season 8, Ep.6) - SPOILERS

Bran intentionally orchestrated Daenerys' madness to seize power from a powder keg

Everything in this season started going horribly wrong when Bran told Jon of his true parentage as the legitimate heir to the throne, despite knowing that Jon 'Loose-Lips' Snow couldn't spare a lie to Queen Bitch Cersei, and wouldn't spare the truth from his sisters and Daenerys. This snowballed into driving Dany mad as her followers began having second thoughts, and she gained the paranoia affliction with a disturbingly low resistance to the stress. She crosses the moral event horizon, and finishes what Cersei started.So why would Bran, The Oracle, poke this butterfly and refuse to interfere with the growing hurricane of fire and blood? Because he knew that if he let her stay sane a little longer, she would have become worse; the shock and betrayal of Daenerys' moral character is second only to Grey Worm's; to our horror we see that the Unsullied are NOT holding the Dothraki back, but outright reveling in the carnage, implying that her Order troops were in fact insane all along, and the whole army was destined to devolve into a horde of chaos worshippers when Daenerys eventually snapped from more understandable long-term paranoia, ruling stress, and the horror of realizing her husband is her nephew and their incest-son is another Joffrey. And with more time she would have brought more madmen to her banner, and lit a larger fuse across the entire world. So he proved just how bad she would have become in the long-term with a live demonstration.And this path eventually getting him elected President of Westeros? Bonus! Chaos is a ladder - and with the power to see through the madness (and the sociopathy of having his personality obliterated), Bran managed to climb beyond the top without his legs.

• That seems like a sound rationalization. Bran could have well explored possible futures, Dr. Strange style, and settled on the least-bad way to remove all remaining threats to peace (the White Walkers, Cersei, and Dany) with the fewest casualties in the long term. Most critically, this chain of events created a situation where there was someone both able and willing to permanently end Dany's reign of terror before it could truly begin, when she was vulnerable and didn't yet solidify her power. Given Dany's growing paranoia and her habit of surrounding herself with yes-people, such an opportunity could quite possibly never arise again.

The Dothraki went back to the Dothraki Sea

They don't belong in Westeros and since their Khaleesi is dead, they head back to the East and to their old ways, possibly splitting up into several tribes and having new Khals again just what happened in the Season 1 finale with Khal Drogo's death.

Jon Snow will become the next King Beyond the Wall

When Jon leaves Castle Black with the Free Folk, there is a strong implication that he is not going back. Further, considering how well-respected he is among the Free Folk, and the fact his exile to the Night's Watch is something that most people in Westeros (and certainly not in the North) are very interested enforcing, it's more likely that he will want to help them re-establish themselves in a thawing North, instead of standing on a broken Wall.

Daenerys will be resurrected by the Lord of Light

Sam mentions that Drogon was last seen flying East but is cut off by Bronn before he can finish, however if one listens closely he says 'towards Volantis'. Volantis is home to the Red Temple where the High Priestess Kinvara served. Given how intelligent Drogon is, it's possible he knew to take his mommy to someone that would bring her back. Kinvara believed that Dany was the 'Princess who was Promised' and, much like Melisandre did for Jon Snow, would certainly try to bring her back from the dead.

• In addition, the last song on the official "For the Throne" album is entitled "Pray (High Valyrian)", and samples Melisandre speaking the prayer she used to bring Jon back... except the lyrics sung by Matthew Bellamy are about bringing HER back.

And if the resurrection works, Daenerys will become the Melisandre of the next era

Even if the resurrection works, and even if it doesn't cause permanent brain damage like in the books, Daenerys is a broken woman. King's Landing sees her as another Cersei because of her purge. Her closest followers are either dead or traitors or just plain MIA. Two of her dragons died. Her rightful claim to the throne, the very hope that kept her going through dirt and ridicule, was a complete lie. And her beloved, the man who had the true claim, stabbed her to death at her most vulnerable moment. All she has left is Drogon, who needs his mother. So she accepts the 'gift' of immortality, to care for her remaining child and to repent for centuries. And thousands of years later, a new eldritch threat arises. Armed with the dragon-magic she has learned, Daenerys prepares to take the role that the mysterious priestess of the Lord of Light played for her so long ago.

Daenerys's actions will mean she is not allowed resurrection; instead she will be reincarnated in our world as Kate from Last Christmas.

Where she can learn the value of opening your heart and becoming a more self-reliant person, and continue her mission of helping the less fortunate, but this time without killing any of them.

Bran can not warg a dragon (and certain species of animals) without incurring significant brain damage, if it's even possible

Which explains why he doesn't force Drogon to eat his own mother or simply take another vacation eating livestock and burning children; the mind of a dragon is effectively alien compared to humans and other mammals. Also explains why Bran doesn't warg the parasites in the bodies of others to get busy and eat towards the brain.

The unnamed Prince of Dorne in Season 8 = either a legitimized bastard of Oberyn, or Quentyn

• The unnamed prince uses the Martell sigil, so he has to be a family member. The actor stated that he researched Pedro Pascal's performance as Oberyn for inspiration, which is another clue. Also, he resembles what a younger Doran Martell probably would have looked like.
  • In ASOIAF Trystane is Doran's third child, having two older siblings, a brother and a sister, ahead of him in line for rulership of Dorne (unlike other Westerosi regions, Dorne arranges the line of succession by age regardless of gender.) Quentyn doesn't survive ASOIAF due to an event that likely wouldn't have happened in the show because of timelines being switched around. He may have been away visiting his mother in Norvos (something he mentions wishing to do in the books) when the crap hit the fan in Dorne. He may have also, in this continuity, been taken away with his mother when his parents separated, with Trystane being left with his father. Naturally, after the Sand coup, someone likely gets hold of him in Norvos and informs him that he should come and take his place in Sunspear as Prince of Dorne.
  • Equally possible that Oberyn may have fathered a bastard son that Daenerys legitimized and placed on the throne in Dorne in exchange for his support (similarly to what she did with Gendry). For sake of simplicity, Oberyn's eight bastard daughters in the books were reduced to three. Although a fourth (implied to be only a little girl) is named but never seen. Either way for a man that was, as Tyrion once so eloquently put it, "famous for fucking half of Westeros," and had traveled to other lands as well (in the series Nymeria Sand seems to have heritage from the world's counterpart to East Asia, Yi Ti, which is on the far side of Essos) it would almost strain credulity for Oberyn to have not had bastard children that even he didn't know about. Robert had several by prostitutes just in King's Landing alone.
  • This tropers' money is on one of Oberyn and Doran's brothers, who in the books died as children. He looks too old to be Oberyn's kid, or Quentyn for that matter.

Narth is as deadly as in the books - and Grey Worm doesn't know it.

It has been pointed out that Narth is deadly to outsiders, so if the Unsullied travel there it will lead to their inevitable deaths, much like Jon being reunited with Ghost and the wildlings and traveling to the true north to finally live in peace, it is a case of Karma being cashed in without being too overt.

If a Red Priest(ess) tried to resurrect Daenerys it won't work.

It is stated that the lord of light revive people because they still have a part to play in his plan, Beric was needed to save Arya so she could kill the night king, and it would appear Jon was needed to kill Daenerys, if the foretold 'dawn' is in fact the new era of elective monarchy over a hereditary one then any part Daenerys played in the grand plan has been played, indeed given her behavior in the finale, her returning would make things worse, with her attempting to reclaim what was taken again and likely enact revenge on the Starks. So if Drogon took Daenerys to Kinvara a she tried to revive her, it would fail and she would remain dead.

After Winter ends Westeros will suffer a smallfolk rebellion.

It's just occurred to me that despite claiming to be the most powerful people in Westeros, the highborn, at least in the south, are not in a good place; most houses have been whittled down to one or two members, most of the armies in Westeros are dead, and lets face it, the real victims of the 8 seasons are the smallfolk. It would not be surprising if the smallfolk, seeing an opportunity, did rise up against the highborn, tired of the way they are forced to suffer as the highborn play their games, with the final straw being Daenerys' mad purge and how it almost spread to them. In fact, it wouldn't be surprising if they won. Bran the Broken may not reign for long...

• Knowing Bran, he'll probably do what all his predecessors failed to think of to solve the smallfolk uprisings: give more than one shit about them. Redistribute wealth by implementing proper infrastructure and education. Elect their champions as representatives. Write propaganda stories about Sam Tully and Brienne Tarth, and how the 'heroes' of Westeros would have died early and pathetically if not for cooler heads and loyal hearts supporting them all the way. And when they're too angry to quell, just use omniscience-fueled future technology (or a few vials of dragonfire, same difference) to put them down quick and hard.

Bran reforms Westerosi law soon into his reign.

• The episode mentions a Master of Laws hasn't been selected yet, even though it seems some time has passed since Bran's accession to the throne. Perhaps the reason is because the laws are still being (re)written - probably with the perspective of both women and (former) commoners now that both are represented among the king's inner circle. The type of Master of Laws one would want in that position probably depends on the type of laws that exist.

Gendry Baratheon becomes the new Master of Laws after the epilogue.

• Given the above, Gendry would seem to be a logical choice. A bastard with royal blood that began life as a low-class commoner and has seen life as a blacksmith, mercenary, soldier, and now Lord of a Great House. He's also a strong warrior in his prime that would command respect. The issue is that as a newly raised lord, he's probably got a myriad of political issues to work through at his new home of Storm's End before he can afford to leave to serve at King's Landing.

Daenerys Targaryen was (is) a warg

Now, this troper would consider this one a complete crackpot nonsense were it about the book!Daenerys, but weirder things happened in the show. First, she has the lineage. Daenerys, due to her father and grandfather both marrying their sisters, has only two great-grandparents - and one of them is of First Men descent (that being Betha Blackwood, wife of Aegon V.) Which means she has about the same percentage of First Men blood as Bloodraven, a.k.a. the actual Three Eyed Raven. So it's not impossible. Now, it's true that Bloodraven was also raised by his Blackwood mother and may have secretly worshiped Old Gods, which seems to be at least as important in the books as one's lineage... But that isn't completely certain; besides, show cannon plays rather fast and loose with the book cannon so why the hell not. Daenerys' dragons also sometimes act weird in the show - just remember how they didn't kill Tyrion when they were imprisoned way back in Mereen, not to mention Drogon burning the Iron Throne but not Jon doesn't make sense without Drogon being sapient (which in turn isn't consistent with his otherwise animalistic behavior). My theory is this - Daenerys didn't bond with her dragons the way her ancestors did, she warged them, at least sometimes. Definitely when Tyrion unchained Rhaegal and Viserion, possibly during the siege of King's Landing (she was distracted by warging two dragons at the same time and didn't notice the Iron Fleet is nearby - what, do you have a better explanation?) and maybe some other times. Now, after some time, she managed to "tame" them this way, so she didn't have to warg them 24/7 to have them under control. It's even possible this is what's behind her grand freakout in episode 5; she couldn't keep Drogon under control and "lost herself" in him. She wasn't triggered by the bells - he was. And when she came to her senses and realized what she had done, the realization was so horrifying her mind just broke (hence her acting like nothing's wrong when confronted by Jon). In her dying moments, she warged into Drogon and stayed there, with her (in Drogon) destruction of the Iron Throne being just a temper tantrum of an insane person. She is now flying in Drogon's body, still completely mad, and who knows what is going to do now. Maybe she'll just fly around, dying of attrition, maybe she'll go on to destroy other places, or maybe she eventually comes to her senses and either bring her body to the red priests of Volantis, or live out the rest of her life in the body of a dragon...

The Three Eyed Raven's mind is more complex than we might think

Okay, so most people just assume Bran is now a part of this emotionless hive mind that knows everything that was, is and will be. But what if that is just an oversimplification? You see, in the books, most previous Three Eyed Ravens were Children Of The Forest, untill they lured in Bloodraven, who in turn became the first human Three Eyed Raven. Here's the kicker - in the books, he retained something of his old personality and memories (and I am pretty sure that if Bran becomes TER in the books, he won't be cold and unfeeling at all, but that's neither here nor there). I think that at least in the show, previous greenseers integrated seamlessly into the superorganism that is TER, but Bran and his predecessor (we aren't sure he's Bloodraven there, but he's pretty clearly human) didn't. TER is now thus divided into three parts, each one with their own personality and goals.

• Children Of The Forest collective - the original hive mind. Their respective members' personalities have long since subsumed into the larger whole. This supermind is capable of thinking, but has no attachment to anything anymore, except for the defeat of White Walkers, and to this end, it is capable of anything. This part dominates TER to the point that it's difficult for the person bearing this hive mind of having feelings or giving a damn about anything. Hence Bran's demeanor before the White Walkers were defeated. It is, however, possible that after their only goal was achieved, they went somewhat silent, leaving the stage for...
• Bran's immediate human predecessor. A lot of his behavior starts to make more sense if he's Bloodraven, but it's not completely necessary. Because after the original hive mind let him do whatever they wanted, this guy immediately set his eyes on the throne. His new body may have been paralyzed, but he still had the powers of mind control and prescience on his side. He drove Daenerys insane and may have influenced "elections" in the Dragonpit. This divide between human and Children Of The Forest part of TER handily explains the disconnect between "I can never be lord of anything" (back when he was still concerned with White Walkers and the Children part prevailed) and "Why do you think I came all this way?" (when the human was allowed to do whatever he wanted to - and he wanted the throne). He acts as cold and emotionless as the hive mind, so that he doesn't seem out-of-character, but inside he's much more human (even if that human is a despicable person).
• Then there's Bran himself, who must be out there somewhere, growing increasingly frustrated with the other two's shenenigans. The general hive mind cost him relationships with his family and only surviving friend, Meera, while his human predecessor destroyed King's Landing and murdered countless innocent power in his bid for power, playing the same game of thrones that destroyed the lives of Bran and his family. There are two options - one, Bran will be further unable to do anything about this, forced to watch as the other two do whatever they want with his body and powers or he will after a long battle prevail and become Bran again, at least for a little while...

Bronn will be murdered pretty soon after moving to Highgarden

This was an extremely stupid move from Tyrion. Bronn, a random sellsword who just happens to be Tyrion's former buddy and who blackmailed him into giving him his position, is surely not going to be welcomed with opened arms by the rest of the Reach. And because post-show WMG can rise above plot holes and idiot plots, we can just say that Surprisingly Realistic Outcome happens afterwards. Bronn is so getting shanked - probably by the Tyrells' legitimate heirs.

Sansa will be a tyrant queen

There is no way someone goes through everything Sansa went through without trust issues. And she knows first-hand how little the Northern lords can be trusted to honor their oaths to their ruler. She will rule the North with an iron fist, demanding loyalty from all her subjects, and a lot of heads are going to roll. If there are any members of House Glover still alive by the end of the war, they won't be for much longer.

Sansa essentially pulled off a coup.

Ever since escaping the clutches of Ramsay Bolton, Sansa had been single-mindedly focused on retaking Winterfell and making herself Queen. She goes to Jon, her only remaining known relative, and appeals to his sense of family to shake him out of the bitterness that has consumed him. She doesn't even try to rescue her brother Rickon and sends Jon off to war against the Boltons without telling him that reinforcements are on the way; if Jon gets himself killed on the battlefield before she shows up with the Knights of the Vale, that's one less loose end to tie up. She keeps Littlefinger around to subtle test the loyalty of the other Northern lords, watching to see who he reaches out to and what he offers them, and eliminates him the moment he serves his purpose. The Battle of Winterfell claims the lives of most of Jon's most loyal allies - the Mormonts, the Umbers, the Karstarks, and what remains of the Night's Watch - and while Sansa had no direct hand in that, it presented an opportunity that she knew to take advantage of. She continues to appeal to Jon's sense of family over the love he has for Daenerys, assuring that he will choose them over her, and then supports the decision to have him shipped off to the edge of the world once he's served his purpose. With one male Stark heir sitting on a foreign throne and the other in exile, that leaves her authority as Queen in the North unchallenged.

Dorne will declare independence soon after the epilogue and the Six Kingdoms will be down to Five - or fewer.

• Dorne has been functionally autonomous since joining the Seven Kingdoms, has very few if any cultural ties to the rest of Westeros, and only ever capitulated to the Targaryens because they had the fantasy equivalent to nuclear weapons. From a practical standpoint,

a war to keep Dorne subjugated would drain what's left of the Kingdoms' finances and manpower for a war where the Kingdoms aren't even assured of victory. Dorne, similarly to the North, is large with very foreign terrain that would give their native fighters a distinct advantage - particularly given that they have stayed mostly aloof from the battle royale that is recent Westerosi politics and were well clear of the Night King's invasion. So, in short, even if the Five Kingdoms wanted to hold onto Dorne they probably couldn't. And Bran, for what it's worth, unless there's some Three-Eyed Raven 'big picture' reasoning, doesn't seem interested in holding power at any cost.

Post-Season Confirmed

Cersei won't survive another nine months

Episode 5 of Season 7 reveals that the Mad Queen is pregnant again. Her prophecy stated that she would have three children: Joffrey, Myrcella, and Tommen. A fourth child would invalidate the prophecy, so it cannot happen.

Incidentally, this marks the second time that a declaration of a queen's pregnancy will lead directly to death, as happened to Queen Talisa Stark.

• Confirmed, she dies in the penultimate episode.

Jon Snow will learn of his heritage but he will still consider Ned as his true father

I doubt Jon would be completely happy if he learns about who his parents are really are. He barely know about them personally and even if he knows the truth about it, he would be very critical about it. Definitely, he will angst about this revelation which could destroy his relationship with Dany. But he would slowly accept that, yes, he has Targaryen blood but he's a Stark too and Ned Stark is his one and only father because he raised him like what a loving father would do regardless of being labelled as Ned Stark's bastard.

• CONFIRMED: He said as much after Sam told him in "Winterfell".

Jon and Daenerys will become enemies.

Daenerys has been single-mindedly pursuing the Iron Throne the entire series. Even sharing power is out of the question in her mind, and when Jon's true lineage is revealed, she is going to go Full Mad Queen. It won't matter if Jon presses his claim or not; she'll see him as threat and usurper, and their alliance will fall apart.

• Confirmed, sorta. Dany never realizes that Jon is her enemy until he stabs her to death. She may have betrayed Jon eventually as Tyrion suggested, but Jon betrays her first as it becomes obvious that she's going to burn the whole world down in order to "save" it.

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