What to Watch

The Best ‘Game of Thrones’ Season 8 Theories (So Far)

By Meghan O'Keefe

August 31, 2017 // 8:00am

Game of Thrones Season Seven is over. Now it’s time to speculate about Game of Thrones Season Eight.

The final season of Game of Thrones is about a year — if not two years away — but the internet is already abuzz with theories galore about what might happen next. Some of these theories range from the brilliant to the absurd. Some of them are super crazy. Some have taken the internet by storm. Some of them are just our own pet theories that will never, ever come true. Still, they all do their best to draw upon details fed to us from the books, the show, and even interviews with the cast and creative team to help answer all of the most burning questions Game of Thrones fans have in the wake of the Season 7 finale.

Well, we did our very best to comb the internet, search the Reddit boards, and to find hidden details in the shows to bring you the best Game of Thrones Season 8 theories (so far). Since there’s a Citadel’s worth of theories out there, we thought it best to divvy the strongest ones up according to what pressing questions they answer. So what’s the scoop on the dragons and direwolves? Why did Tyrion give Jon and Dany’s hookup “that look”? Is Cersei pregnant? How will she die? Did Tormund and Ser Beric die? We’ve got some of the best answers to these questions (and then some) below — and, okay, I added my own unauthorized crackpot theory to the mix.


1. What's Going To Happen With The Dragons?

We expect that Drogon will stay Daenerys’s main ride in the fight ahead. He’s the biggest and most battle-tested of the dragons. And pretty much every Game of Thrones fan in the world is expecting that Jon Snow, aka Aegon Targaryen, will eventually ride Rhaegal into battle. Dragon riding is sort of his birthright as a Targaryen, and it would be fitting to see him battle the Night’s King and Viserion on the back of the dragon named for his father.


Now that the Night’s King is armed with a zombie “blue fire” breathing dragon (whom we’ll still call an ice dragon for convenience’s purposes for now), Jon, Daenerys, and their forces have a big puzzle to figure out: how to kill your (old, undead) dragon. Luckily there’s a very obvious solution. The one problem is that Jon is going to need to pull everyone in Westeros’s resources.

See, Qyburn’s big scorpion was a big plot point this season. The traditional spear Bronn shot at Drogon during the Loot Train Battle didn’t kill the dragon, but it’s possible a dragonglass or Valyrian steel could take out a wight-ified Viserion. Good thing Ser Davos picked up the best blacksmith in Westeros and brought him back to Dragonstone last season, eh?


2. Will We Ever See The Direwolves Again?

Just as there are only two dragons left, there are only two direwolves yet. So what role will they play in the war ahead? Any? At all?

Even though we finally got a reunion with Nymeria, Arya’s wild direwolf, Jon’s loyal direwolf Ghost was conspicuously absent from the action. Sansa even makes a joke about it, saying not everyone will just wait at home for him like Ghost will. One very pragmatic theory I’ve read for Ghost’s absence is that the large direwolves are unwieldy and expensive to animate. (Fur is notoriously harder to nail in CGI than scales, guys.) While a lot of people think we’ll likely never see them again, I personally can’t imagine that we won’t get Ghost in one last major scene. That’s just my opinion, man.


3. What Did Tyrion's Look Mean?


When Jon Snow knocks on Daenerys Targaryen’s door to get their boat a-rocking, the camera cuts to one very disappointed person’s face. Yeah, Tyrion is none too pleased that the former King in the North is getting it on with the Dragon Queen.

I’ve seen a bunch of explanations for this plaintive look from Tyrion. The first big one circling the web was that Tyrion had indeed fallen in love with her. What was his desperate meeting with Cersei if not a stupid show of heroics for his queen? That’s very possible, but there could be a more strategic reason behind his “oh shit” look. Buzzfeed speculates that Tyrion cut a deal with Cersei to gain her support in the war ahead. He doesn’t know that Cersei planned to double-cross him, but he does know that she’s pregnant. And before Jon and Dany’s hookup, he was very, very concerned with who was going to inherit the Iron Throne after Daenerys’s reign ends. The theory is that he promised Cersei that her child would be named heir and if Daenerys produces one of her own it would obviously complicate things. It would not only ruin the alliance with House Lannister, but it could be presented as proof that Tyrion “betrayed” Daenerys’s interests behind her back.

So that “oh shit” look might be a “oh shit, I hope Daenerys doesn’t have a baby because if so, she might wind up killing me” face.


4. What’s Going On With Cersei’s Baby? More importantly: How Will Cersei Die?


The internet has a lot of opinions about Cersei’s pregnancy. I’ve seen rumors ranging from she’s not pregnant to it’s Euron’s baby to it’s Ser Robert Strong’s baby (ew) to it’s a SHADOW BABY (oogity-boogity!). However, my favorite theory? It’s Jaime’s and it’s going to kill her!

Cersei was given a prophecy as a child that has largely come true. The gist of it? She’ll be queen, have three children, and they’ll all die before her. In the books, we get an added dimension to this prophecy that suggests she’ll be killed by the valonqar, High Valryian for the little brother. Fans have speculated that Tyrion, Jaime, or even Euron could kill her.

Okay, okay, okay, but sweeping all that extra stuff aside, the prophecy still suggests that her days are numbered and that she’s not going to be a mom for a fourth time. It would make a lot of sense for Cersei to die in childbirth. Adding to the irony? If the child was a dwarf, like Tyrion. She would die the same way her mother did, and her pregnancy would be the fault of her brother.

Okay, okay, okay, the more popular theory about Cersei’s death concerns one Arya Stark. Cersei is the one big player still on Arya’s list and Arya is a skilled assassin who is fond of wearing other people’s faces. There’s a huge swath of the internet that thinks Arya will kill Jaime, steal his face, and use it to get close to Cersei to kill her.

(I still like the idea that she’ll die in childbirth because her children have always been her biggest weakness and it still would be Jaime’s fault.)


5. Who Is "The Prince Who Was Promised"?

Azor Ahai. He is the one to bring light to the darkness. He is the “Prince (or Princess) Who Was Promised.” He was a legendary warrior who killed his wife to unleash the power of a flaming sword and, like King Arthur, he will come again to save the people of Westeros. But, like, who is he?

Vulture has a complete rundown of all the popular contenders. The two big ones, of course, being Jon Snow and Daenerys Targaryen. The two trending outliers? One, Jon and Daenerys’s magical incest baby. Hey! It could happen! And Ser Davos Seaworth. Yeah, that’s right. There are people out there who think that the salty smuggler might be the one who ends up on the Iron Throne. It sounds crazy, but the evidence does add up.


6. Who Is The Night King and What Does He Want?


We would be remiss if we did not remind you of the absolutely bonkers, but completely compelling theory that Bran Stark is the Night King. The idea being that Bran goes back in time to warg into the body of the First Man (that’s a cultural term, he was not the very first man) who the Children of the Forest transform into the Night King. He does so to try to stop the transformation, but gets stuck forever in the Night King’s frigid monster body. My boss, Mark Graham, is convinced of this theory because the Night King and Bran have the same nose.

Actor Isaac Hempstead-Wright poo-poo-ed this theory in an interview with Vulture, saying:


Wait, we could find out why the Night King wants to turn everyone into ice monsters? There’s a why? What could it be? No, really, what could it be? I don’t have a take on this.


7. Will We Get Cleganebowl?


Sandor and Gregor Clegane finally came face-to-face in the Season Seven finale and they…stared at each other. Well, Sandor gave his brother a super cryptic message that left fans guessing: “It doesn’t matter. That’s not how it ends for you, brother. You know who’s coming for you. You’ve always known.”

While the rest of the internet seems to think that this is setting up a future Cleganebowl, I’m sticking to my guns. I think The Hound is hinting that his newfound fire-gazing future-telling skills are strengthening and there’s going to be a showdown between Gregor and the Army of the Dead in the future. (But that’s just me!)


8. Will The Iron Bank (And Golden Company) Really Make a Difference?


When we (and Jaime) last left Cersei, she was explaining that by sacking Highgarden, the Lannisters were able to repay their debt to the Iron Bank and that would allow them to buy the services of the Golden Company (aka the last major mercenary force not on the board). Euron was going to bring them back to Westeros, but fans are already seeing a few potential flaws in this plan:

  1. Lannisters may think it’s a good thing to always pay their debts, but paying back a major loan to a bank can take away your power over them. The theory is as long as the Iron Bank was waiting for the Lannisters to repay them, they had to stick around and wait. Now that the debt is paid up, the bank is neither beholden to the Lannisters, nor can it make more money off of sky-rocketing interest fees. It’s very financial nerdy, but Cersei might have actually screwed herself by paying back the debt.
  2. The Golden Company — as it exists in the books — is an army of exiled mercenaries who are “Team Targaryen.” There are hints in the books that if they ever came to Westeros, they could quickly turn against anyone who bought them to fight for a Targaryen force. So, if Cersei hires them, they could switch sides for Jon or Daenerys. That seems like a lot of backstory to plug into the show, but Joanna Robinson at Vanity Fair points out that we already know a mercenary in Essos (where the Golden Company is hanging) who is very loyal to House Targaryen: Daario Naharis. The theory is he could wind up the Golden Company’s current leader and turn the tide in an important battle.

9. Are Tormund and Beric still Alive?

Fans still don’t know the fate of these two fan favorites – okay, this one fan favorite and one character fans are pretty cool with. In the morning after the Season 7 finale, I guessed that they did survive because it looked like they managed to get to the part of the Wall just beyond Viserion’s destructive blast. Also, we didn’t see a body. That’s usually a sign that a character is coming back.

Another sign a character on Game of Thrones isn’t dead? They don’t change their (facial) hair.

As long Tormund’s beard is alive, I say Tormund is alive.


10. One Final Crackpot Theory — From Yours Truly

Every theory I’ve seen online concerning killing the Night King assumes that Jon Snow, Daenerys Targaryen, or even Arya Stark will be the one to make the final kill. The idea is that if you kill the Night King, you end the war. However, when I was prepping for this article I remembered that we’ve already seen one character (stupidly) charge a monarch with the aim to kill her and end a war this season: Jaime Lannister.

Yeah, what if Jaime Lannister is the one to deliver the “killing blow” to the Night King? Think about it: he’s already killed one king to save the people of Westeros from fire. If he killed the Night King, he would do it again to save them from ice. He’s currently charging up North with a Valyrian steel sword forged from Ned Stark’s old family sword Ice so he’s got the weapon to do it. Oh, and if Bran is going to chime in on a plan of strategy to end it all, he already seen in his visions the one way a Stark can kill a superior warrior in one-on-one combat: getting your ally to stab him in the back.

So wouldn’t it make sense for Jon to challenge the Night King in one-on-one combat as a diversion so that Jaime, the actual Kingslayer, could once more stab a king in the back? Or maybe Jaime will see Jon flagging in the final battle and just make the choice to do it himself? It would be the act that would finally earn Jaime the redemption he’s always sought. And if Jaime dies in the process, it would only further Cersei’s hatred of Jon and Daenerys for a potential final Lannister vs. Stark/Targaryen showdown.

Just one woman’s crackpot theory…

Where to Stream Game of Thrones

Copy the URL to share