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With hours to go now for the third episode of the final season of Game of Thrones, the one question playing on everyone's mind is who from the living lot is going to survive the Battle of Winterfell against the White Walkers. Will the three Starks live? Will the three Lannisters be around on the other side? What about the Targaryen aunt and nephew? Well, we just don't know yet. But fan theories have been buzzing about what all will be revealed in the final four episodes – all written by the show creators David Benioff and DB Weiss – and what other major twists will be slapped on us. Like R + L = J. So, here are the 8 most plausible fan theories floating out there.
We've seen the Stark boy's incredible time-hopping skills, in the way he scrambled Hodor's mind by just standing there. Could he have possibly warged into the man whom the Children of the Forest converted into the first ever White Walker? If you think about it, barring Cersei, there's no proper living villain on the show anymore. Maybe Bran is the bad guy we don't know of, yet.
Miguel Sapochnik, who directed the Battle of the Bastards in Season 6, is directing episodes 3 and 5 in Season 8. So those are the two battle episodes. Now is it possible that the Night King outsmarts all the big warriors waiting in Winterfell and fly in with zombie Viserion to destroy Cersei's hideout in King's Landing? And then our heroes play catch up for the 5th episode battle? Very possible.
It's ironic that those who don't want to battle the White Walkers are going to hide in the crypt. What do we have in the crypt? The buried Starks. What is the one power we know about the White Walkers? They can turn the dead into the undead. So, don't be surprised if Catelyn Stark finally returns as Lady Stoneheart. And headless Ned, maybe?
According to the prophecy by Maggy the Frog (whose other prophecies have come true), Cersei will be killed by her "valonqar", which is High Valyrian for "younger brother". Now the obvious interpretation is Tyrion somehow killing Cersei but given this show is famous for bending the obvious, it would perhaps be her (once) lover Jamie "choking the life from her". Or does Arya get to tick off another name on her list by facing off as Jaime? Sounds more delicious, doesn't it?
This theory has been around for a long time, so long that no one talks about it anymore. But Game of Thrones the show has a weird habit of confirming theories much later, like they did with Jon's parentage. So can Tyrion be the love child of Aerys Targaryen and Joanna Lannister? Well, Tywin did proclaim on his death pot: "You are no son of mine." Plus, Tyrion's levels of comfort with dragons and the other way around is very striking. We'll know soon.
This one's a little far-fetched but then in one of his interviews, show creator Benioff was very categorical that only a Targaryen can ride a dragon. Like Dany and now Jon. Well, the Night King too rode zombie Viserion like a pro. The only argument against it is that it's an ice dragon and not really the fire dragon Benioff is talking about. But what about the flaming spiral of human hands and arms that the White Walkers left behind around Ned Umber? It looks very much like the Targaryen sigil with the three-headed dragon.
This is perhaps the most likely of all the theories on this page. The show is likely to end with Samwell Tarly returning to the Citadel and starting to write the book about everything he saw – and heard – in his lifetime. In other words the entire Game of Thrones. Yes, very much like Frodo Baggins in The Lord of the Rings.
Game of Thrones is a great show but Benioff and Weiss will definitely try and write in some event in this last season that will turn this into the greatest show that ever was. And of all the fan theories being whispered around, this one has the potential. Jon and Dany's was always a doomed love story like Jon and Ygritte's. Now, with him being revealed as her Targaryen nephew, they are definitely not going to have a romantic walk-into-the-sunset ending. So, maybe as Azor Ahai, "the Prince that was promised", Jon would have to kill Dany and forge the burning sword, the Lightbringer.
Well not all of these theories can come true but even if a couple of them do, the internet will crash and we'll be mourning or celebrating long into the long night.