With just days away for the release of the finale season of ‘Game of Thrones’ it’s time to join in on the debate and speculation.
Honestly, I have never read the books and only started watching the show a couple of weeks back with my sister, Tereza, and now, after having finished Season 7 recently, have joined in on the debate. It is vague, as we’re both still new to GOT, but we have caught the GOT fever and here goes…
Cersei Lannisterer will die. Most likely by her brother/lover Jaime Lannister, but as he may not want to live without her either he may die as well in some sort of self-sacrificial way that kills them both. Poison has been hinted towards in the series which may be one of the possibilities, or wildfire or both, but they’ll die together in each other’s arms, or perhaps with his hands around her neck. If following the prophecy that was told to Cersei as a child, she will die by strangulation of sorts. Although it states “the valonqar shall wrap his hands about your pale white throat and choke the life from you”. It could be metaphorical, which could still refer to poison of smoke inhalation, and “valonqar” meaning little brother, will still be by Jaime’s doing. Either way I still think Jaime will die in the process as well.
But what about their unborn child? Well there is only two possibilities, either she will lose the baby, or the baby will live but she won’t live to raise him/her, meaning Tyrion will raise the baby.
Yes that’s right, Tyrion Lannister will live. He will be the last living Lannister, that is if he is a full Lannister at all. There are theories that he may even be half Targaryen as well, but we have just found out that Jon Snow is half Targaryen, I don’t know if another is in the works. It would be too soap opera in that way.
Theon Greyjoy will find his sister Yara and their uncle Euron Greyjoy, and he will try to rescue her, but Theon will die in the process.
Yara will live.
She will kill her uncle, Euron, and take back the Iron fleet. Just in time to come to King Landings aid against the White Walker invasion. That’s right, eventually the White Walkers will make their way to Kings Landing, it’s been teased throughout the entire show, but they’ll first have to go through Winterfell, and probably a couple of other places. Expect a whole lot of deaths and wounded.
Beric Dondarrion will finally die. He is on Arya Stark’s list, but he won’t die by her hand.
Podrick Payne will die in battle.
Ilyn Payne will die, he will be killed by Arya. Although we haven’t seen him make much of an appearance, but he is still on her list, there must be closure.
Bronn will return to help fight but he will die.
Jorah Mormont will eventually die, but we are all hoping that it will be in a heroic manner to save his beloved Khaleesi and that for once she will acknowledge the poor guy and give him a kiss. Poor Sir Friendzone.
Gendry will live and at some point, be given the Baratheon name and will be named the Lord of Dragonstone. It would be fitting that the last heir to the Baratheon House is a bastard, since House Baratheon was founded by Orys Baratheon whom was also a bastard. He will be reunited with Arya along the journey.
Ser Davos Seaworth, will live, and will serve Gendry when he becomes the Lord of Dragonstone.
Melisandre will return with an army, but she will die. She will be killed by Arya, well that’s if Ser Davos Seaworth doesn’t kill her first as he has sworn to do.
This army could be led by Daario Naharis. Enter the love triangle between him, Daenerys and Jon Snow. Well quadrangle if counting Sir Friendzone, but he wasn’t a threat to Daario, but Jon is, especially since Daenerys is falling in love with him. Eventually Daario will die as well.
Lord Varys will live. I know Melisandre prophesied his death, but I don’t think it will be at this time, it will be in the years to come that we won’t see.
Missandei will live.
Grey Worm will die.
Brienne of Tarth will live, she and Jaime Lannister will have their final goodbye before he kicks the bucket.
Tormund Giantsbane will live and we’re hoping that he and Brienne will get together. In the end, the wall will remain open for the Wildlings to come and go as they please. They may even remain the watchers of the wall under Tormund’s command.
Arya will live. Of the remaining people on Arya’s list she won’t be the ones to kill them, well besides Ilyn Payne and Melisandre, but the rest will die at the hands of others. Not to say that she won’t add more people to that list that she will kill and let’s not forget that she removed ‘The Hound’ from her list. She and Sandor Clegane a.k.a. ‘The Hound’ will be reunited though.
Given both their stubborn nature it will be a cold greeting but later they’ll warm up to each other, even if it’s in their last moments together as ‘The Hound’ will die. He and his brother Ser Gregor Clegane a.k.a. ‘The Mountain’ will finally have their grudge match.
‘The Hound’ will defeat his brother but he will suffer from fatal injuries. Arya will be there and this time she will kill him, although not wanting to, she will do so as an act of mercy and respect for him, she won’t leave him alone to die like the previous time. It will be an emotional send-off but it will tie off their characters nicely. Also with this new path that ‘The Hound’ has found himself on with the ‘Lord of Light’ he might even be reluctant to battle against his brother at first, but since his bro is of the ‘Frankenstein’s Monster’ persuasion he will find himself in a predicament which brings on their face off.
Ghost will make an appearance but will die. Arya’s wolf will also come back but will die as well.
Jaqen H’ghar will make an appearance. There are rumours that he may be Eddard “Ned” Stark in disguise as a faceless man, which would be infuriating if it were true. His family and all of the North have been through hell because of his death, his wife and some of the kids have already been killed, to find out that he has been around all this time would be a disappointment and too harsh. I’m still not happy about the Red Wedding and that Robb Stark died.
But if you go read up the speculations, they do have sound reasoning for it to be a possibility. Perhaps Jaqen has Ned’s face and will use it to his advantage but I don’t think it will actually be Ned that’s alive. Although it would be cool to have Sean Bean back. Other theories speculate that Jaqen is either Rhaegar Targaryen or Syrio Forel or both. Whoever he really is, we will hopefully find out soon.
Sansa Stark will live and will take over Jon’s position and be the Lady of Winterfell. She won’t remarry but she and Tyrion will meet again but they won’t continue their marriage, since it already dissolved once she married Ramsay Bolton. Although there is still some setup that hasn’t been payed off between them, being that he would only sleep with her when she wanted it or asked him. After the hell she has been through with Ramsay and being manipulated Lord Petyr Baelish a.k.a. Little Finger, Tyrion is a dream in comparison. But wait until Gendry enters the picture and sees Sansa, some sparks may fly between them. Although it would be more interesting if he and Arya got together in the end and Sansa to remain a strong independent woman.
Samwell Tarly will live and since his father and brother are dead, he will take over as the Lord of House Tarly. Since those lands aren’t too far off from High Garden and there is no remaining Tyrell member alive (that we know of) he may even get those lands too. Since he is in possession of a sword made from Valyrian steel, you can bet that some White Walker slaying will happen. It would be interesting if he is the one to give the final blow to Night King. They will endure losing friends along the way, but he and Gilly will have the happy ever after, with baby Sam. There are theories that say all of GOT is Sam telling or writing a story of the events, but I doubt this is the case, it would be too close to Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit.
We will finally get to see what it is that the Night King and his White Walker army are up to and what he wants. Surely, it’s not just a revenge story, there’s got to be more to it, and we may even hear the Night King speak for the first time. This will most likely bring in ‘The Children’ and the ‘pact’ that was made all those years ago.
Bran Stark’s visions may have also resulted in him causing the ‘Mad King’ to go crazy, hearing voices and wanting to “burn them all”, just as he had done with Hodor and the “hold the door” scenario.
R.I.P. Hodor.
There are some interesting theories speculating on the web that Bran is the Night King, of sorts. The theory is that the Night King is actually King Brandon Stark, also known as Bran the Builder or Brandon the Builder, whom was a legendary member of the First Men from the Age of Heroes. According to the theory, Bran is a reincarnate of his legendary ancestor. It could explain the connection and as to why the Night King could see Bran and touch him in his visions. Eventually, the Night King will die. Thus Bran may die as well, since there won’t be need for the Three-eyed Raven anymore. Unless Bran comes back to normal, but he will not take over as Lord of Winterfell, he will leave Sansa with the title but will serve by her side.
Plot twist, the Night King will return to his human form and live.
Both Jon Snow and Daenerys Targaryen are the prince/princess that was promised in the prophecy. Jon couldn’t have come back from the dead just to sire a Targaryen lovechild with his aunt, I’m sure there is still a big part for him to play in all this. It’s still so weird about their incest situation, but it wouldn’t be the creepiest stuff that’s happened either. Maybe this is a soap opera. In that case some people are coming back from the dead (Jon and Beric, to mention a few) and there will be an evil twin plot (Cersei). That theory of Ned being alive doesn’t sound that far fetched now. Yikes!
Jon will ride the dragon Rhaegal. Daenerys and her dragon Drogon will kill the undead dragon Viserion. Both living dragons, Drogon and Rhaegal, will die, unfortunately. One may be killed by the undead dragon but the other by that huge arrow that Cersei commissioned, but in the end, it will be revealed that there are more dragon eggs.
It’s believed that GOT creator George R. R. Martin has mentioned that this series has always been more about politics than the supernatural and fantasy and that in the end it will remain so. Thus Cersei is the main antagonist not the Night King. That means there’s got to be a showdown between her and Daenerys. This could be where the mercenaries and the Iron Bank come in.
Power is both Cersei and Daenerys way of doing things, having their armies or dragons battle it out, but it would be cool to see a physical fight between them. Depending on the scenario it could come down to a trial by combat, but they’d most likely have others fight in their stead because, as mentioned earlier, Cersei will die by the hands, or doing, of her brother and I don’t think this is how Daenerys would die either. Perhaps this is where The Hound and The Mountain battle it out.
However, I do think both Jon Snow and Daenerys Targaryen will die, but their child will live. Missandei will help raise the child. Lord Varys will remain in Westeros as the hand of the king/queen until the child comes of age. There are rumours that Jon will die by Euron Greyjoy, if that is the case than expect that to happen before he is killed off himself by Yara. Daenerys will die in the final episode.
The final battle of the White Walkers will take place in Kings Landing. The only way to kill as many of the undead as possible is to trap them inside of the castle and blow it up with wildfire. To Daenerys disapproval at first, as to take back the Iron Throne has been her mission throughout the series, but she will eventually allow it. She may still have a moment on the throne but it would be very brief and eventually it will all be destroyed for the greater good. This is where the foreshadowing of the Mad King wanting to “burn them all” comes in. It was meant for this moment, it wasn’t to burn the people of Westeros but of the undead and White Walker invaders. It would be epic if this is where Daenerys dies, sacrificing herself, her birth right and everything she has ever wanted to save everyone. And although she has walked through fire and lived, I don’t think she will be able to live through wildfire. She and maybe a couple others will remain in the throne room while the rest will all escape in the tunnels below the castle.
It’s also around this time that Cersei will die. If she and Jaime are in the castle as well this could be where Jaime will give her the poison, so that she wouldn’t feel the pain from the fire and he will remain with her. Not only that but he will also be the one to help Daenerys “burn them all”, just as the Mad King ordered for him to carry out before he killed him all those years ago and became the ‘King Slayer’.
George R.R. Martin said to expect a bittersweet ending. With only a few remaining characters to pick up the pieces and all the top contending characters dead or only their children surviving, with all the heroics and epic sacrifices, that should leave a rather bitter taste in your mouth. It seems to all culminate to having a fresh new start. Rebuild a new world, a more peaceful world. Learn from the past and from those that died trying to ensure that there would be a future, to strive to make a better world together, no matter the differences or the culture. According to Cersei “power is power” but it’s going to come down to unity is more powerful.
Plot Twist. There are other threats out there besides the White Walkers, always have been and there is a bigger story that’s been in the works, this has all been a distraction (a synonym for “game” is “distraction”, thus a distraction of thrones) but it will only come to light as the season unfolds, we shall have to wait and see.
Game of Thrones season 8 will air on the 14th April 2019.
Angela de Sousa 