Nine months ago, a series of anonymous Reddit posts claimed to reveal some major details about how Game of Thrones would end. At the time, they were mostly ignored and mocked by the fans who make up the “Free Folk” subreddit community, but as GoT Season 8 comes to a close, many of those alleged leaks have already come true. It looks like this leaker (redditor u/afraidpart) was telling the truth, and a look back at their original posts may reveal some huge spoilers about Game of Thrones Season 8, Episode 5, and maybe Episode 6 as well. Warning: Game of Thrones Season 8 spoilers ahead. First, here’s a quick rundown of all the details in this nine-month-old Reddit leak (resurfaced by the fantastic Storm of Spoilers podcast) that have already come true in Season 8: The Mountain beheads Missandei. (Yep, that happened in Episode 4.) “The undead things are dealt with in the first three episodes.” (Also true.) Subscribe for free to Multiverse and get Game of Thrones coverage delivered to your inbox the night the episode airs. “Last three episodes are in front of King’s Landing.” (Seems extremely likely.) “Cersei makes a meat shield of all the innocent people.” (Yup.) “Only one dragon is left” and “something to do with a scorpion needle one of the dragons and the Lannisters.” (They’re talking about Euron killing Rhaegal.) “The undead dragon is trying to kill people and when it breathes fire the flames are coming out of its neck because its been hurt … Jon Snow kills that dragon.” (Almost correct, but pretty darn close.) These all turned out to be true. So what else did u/afraidpart leak that we can expect to see in Game of Thrones Season 8, Episodes 5 and 6? Warning: Huge possible Game of Thrones Season 8 spoilers ahead. This is your last chance to turn back. The Clegane brothers meet again HBO. Cleganebowl Happens, With a Twist Unsurprisingly, the Hound and the Mountain (aka Sandor and Gregor Clegane) will finally go head-to-head in the battle we’ve been anticipating for years. Fans even have a name for this showdown: Cleganebowl. Here’s what u/afraidpart revealed about the fight: “He finally takes the helmet off the ugly guy.” (So it sounds like the Hound will remove his brother’s face-covering helmet to reveal his decomposing zombie skin.) “The Hound and his brother fight and they end up both dying in fire by falling in.” We hope this second one doesn’t come true. We’d like to see Sandor make it through the end of Game of Thrones, but if he dies, at least he’ll get revenge on his dirtbag brother first. Cersei Lannister in Season 7, Episode 1, "Dragonstone" HBO Cersei’s Death May Be Unsatisfying Here’s a quick breakdown of Cersei-related leaks: “Cersei is watching the dragon coming in, and the witch doctor is like ‘we should leave’.” (We’re guessing that’s Qyburn.) “There’s a sort of ‘flashback’ where she thinks about how she blew up something in her city (I don’t know what the fuck he was talking about here, but I recorded it anyway) and the dragon blowing things up reminds her of that?” (That sounds like the time she blew up the Sept of Baelor and everybody in it.) “Cersei goes into the chambers where you first see the ‘catapult things’.” (No idea what this means, but maybe Cersei has one more secret weapon.) “Jaime shows up and they’re all omg and they hold each other and everything crumbles.” “Cersei and Jaime are holding each other when they die.” So it sounds like Cersei will die, but she’ll have a pretty good death in the arms of her brother/lover. Jon and Dany in the Season 8 premiere. HBO What About Dany and Jon? In two different posts from u/afraidpart, Daenerys and/or Jon Snow either die or survive. It’s possible Game of Thrones filmed multiple endings to avoid leaks. So definitely take all of this with a grain of salt. Here’s one leak that seems to suggest Jon will kill Dany: Danaerys actually DOES die, she’s killed (stabbed I think) by Jon Snow. She goes back to the throne room and touches the throne. Has no idea WHY he kills her, there’s a missing chunk. But it happens in the throne room. I asked him why and he said he doesn’t know and I don’t even think they saw the actual death scene, just the fact that she’s dead. So he’s only assuming she gets murdered, otherwise she commits suicide but that doesn’t make much sense. Then the dragon flies away with her body but doesn’t kill Snow. Either way, she dies. Beyond that, they also claim that “the dragon enters the throne room and fucks shit up,” which sounds pretty awesome and would fulfill Dany’s misunderstood Season 2 vision. Additionally, the leaker says Tyrion will eventually give up on Dany and quit his position as Hand of the Queen (possibly after she burns down King’s Landing). Here’s that part of the leak: When Daenerys is making her speech everyone is mad at her. Tyrion makes some comment (he doesn’t get sound) and throws his pin (?) on the ground and she sends him to the prison? Idk what was going on here. Arya is No One HBO Arya Does … Nothing? Arya Stark may have already peaked back at the Great Battle of Winterfell, at least according to these leaks. They claim that “Arya is useless,” which is a bit of a disappointment after she headed off to King’s Landing in Episode 4 with some sort of goal… Additionally, the leaker notes that “Jon Snow finally sees Arya after they get to the throne.” This one is a bit harder to parse, but we’re guessing it means Jon will see Arya use her Faceless Men training to disguise herself as another person, which she hasn’t done since killing Walder Frey. Who will be sitting on the Iron Throne when 'Game of Thrones' ends? HBO Iron Throne, RIP “The Iron Throne gets melted by the dragon.” Good! Down with the Westeros monarchy! ! Game of Thrones airs Sundays at 9 p.m. Eastern on HBO.<doc-sep>Thought Game of Thrones season 8 was going down the predictable path towards a King’s Landing showdown? Think again. While these Game of Thrones season 8 episode 5 images carry some familiar faces – including Dany looking particularly drained after last week’s traumatic deaths – but there’s someone you might not recognise being set up as a potentially huge roadblock for Jon Snow, the Mother of Dragons, and what’s left of her forces. Say hello to Harry Strickland. He’s briefly appeared in Game of Thrones season 8, being introduced as the head of the Golden Company, the sellswords who pledged their allegiance to Cersei and Euron. He’s finally proving his worth, too, if this new image is anything to go by – and could be the only thing standing between Dany and Cersei. Could we be looking at a late-game wildcard to shake things up? Elsewhere, everyone looks very pensive after The Last of the Starks turned us all into a tear-filled mess. Jon Snow and Varys take stock on the shores of Dragonstone, while Tyrion and Grey Worm both look pained by an audience with Khaleesi in the throne room. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Chronologically, things (and this could be a semi-spoiler, so look away now) were clearly left unfinished at the gates of King’s Landing last week. Jon, Tyrion, and Davos are overlooking their army but, of course, we now know their turn tail and head back to Dragonstone alongside the Mother of Dragons, who is looking equally distraught by Missandei and Rhaegal’s death The good guys don’t get all the promo shots though. Euron looks particularly perplexed by whatever is up above him (a second dragon attack, perhaps?) and, of course, Cersei gets the final say. Or should that be smirk? She’s looking very, very pleased with herself and has the Mountain at her back. Could we be looking at the (surprise) winner of the Game of Thrones – all thanks to her last-minute ploy to get the Golden Company on her side? Don’t bet against it.<doc-sep>
Game of Thrones speculation has reached a fever pitch as we head into the second-to-last episode ever of the super popular HBO show. What will happen in Season 8, Episode 5? It’s tough to say. Game of Thrones is as unpredictable as ever, but a few major leaks may have revealed some key details from the final two episodes. Over the past week, we covered a few different Game of Thrones leaks that we really think might be real (we ignored even more that were clearly fake). In case you missed them, here’s a quick rundown of the three biggest Season 8, Episode 5 leaks, along with our reliability rating for each one. My favorite Game of Thrones theory this week was so detailed and believable that Reddit moderators flagged it as a leak and deleted it. The theory/leak says that the good guys win the Battle of King’s Landing after Daenerys and Drogon kill Euron Greyjoy with the help of Yara Greyjoy’s fleet. Then the Golden Company basically quits, prompting Cersei to hide in the castle, only to find that Arya Stark and the Hound had snuck in. Arya kills Cersei, the Hound kills the Mountain, and Daenerys goes full-on Mad Queen, burning everything to ash. This leaves the series finale to focus on Daenerys turning against Sansa and everyone else who wants Jon to be king. Things get so dire that Jon has no choice but to kill her, but he abdicates the throne to wander north in exile, searching for Ghost and Tormund. As much as I really don’t want Daenerys to become the Mad Queen, everything that’s been happening this season has foreshadowed this. The show’s set up every one of these plot points already, which is why this theory seems so legit. But is it real? I’m not sure I believe that this one’s a legit leak, but I do think this person wrote a really great outline for how the series should end. Will it, though? (Corey Plante) Reliability Rating: Maybe There’s no shortage of alleged Game of Thrones leaks on Reddit, but most are just made-up fan theories. Then there’s this one. A trio of Reddit threads posted nine months ago listed a whole bunch of details for Game of Thrones Season 8. At the time, the entire thing was ignored and mocked by fans, but that all changed after several predictions (including Missandei and the Night King’s deaths) turned out to be true. What else did they predict? The full list includes how Cersei dies, the results of Cleganebowl, and a whole lot more. You should probably treat this leak with a bit of suspicion, but there’s reason to believe that at least some of it could be true. (Jake Kleinman) Reliability Rating: Probably What felt like a throwaway line of dialogue might actually be the biggest bit of foreshadowing in Game of Thrones Season 8. Is the “new Prince of Dorne” an actual character? We didn’t think so, and then we found out about Toby Osmond. A bit of leaked casting news last year revealed that Osmond was cast in an unconfirmed role for Season 8, and everything we know about that role suggests he could be the new Prince of Dorne. Will Osmond swoop in at the last minute to save Daenerys and her dwindling army at the Battle of King’s Landing? It might be a bit of a stretch, but we wouldn’t be surprised if that’s exactly what happens. (Jake Kleinman) Reliability Rating: Extremely Likely Game of Thrones airs Sundays at 9 p.m. Eastern at HBO.