Essays · TV

Game of Thrones: All The Season 8 Predictions and Theories You’ll Ever Need

Here’s how it’s all going to go down. Probably.
Game Of Thrones Season Predictions
By  · Published on April 1st, 2019

All The Time Travel Shit Bran Might Do

Thrones Characters Bran

There are a number of ways in which fans have imagined the Three-Eyed Raven will end up (accidentally) screwing over the seven kingdoms—or saving them. Basically, most theories about Bran posit he’s either the one who fucks everything up or the one who’s going to save everybody. There is no in-between.

Bran made the Mad King mad [Probability: Low]

The gist of this one is that Bran tries to use his wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey powers to stop Aerys II and ends up pulling another Hodor, except Aerys’ “Hodor” is “Burn them all.” Oops.

Bran is the Night King [Probability: Low]

Basically, this one works like part 2 of “Bran made the Mad King mad,” where Bran’s reaction to accidentally making the Mad King mad is to say “you know what, let me try that again.” He goes back even earlier to prevent the creation of the First White Walker, in the process becoming the first White Walker. Supporters of this theory particularly like to point to the scene where Bran goes back and sees first White Walker being made because he acts pained when the dragon glass knife is pushed into the man’s heart as if he feels it himself. And that Bran, awakened from the vision, is seated against the cave wall in a position comparable to the man who becomes the first White Walker. Ergo, same person.  

The Night King wants to kill Bran to end the cycle [Probability: Low]

In this Looper version of events, the Night King isn’t the soulless void of evil he seems to be. At least, not entirely. Building off the “Bran is the Night King” theory, this addendum posits that the Night King is specifically after Bran, so that he can kill him and break the world destroying time loop. Why does he need a gigantic army to achieve this goal? Not exactly clear.

Bran is actually all the Brans [Probability: Low]

There have been a lot of Brandon Starks over the years, and considering Bran’s powers, some fans speculate that they might all be actually the same person, or at the very least connected through weird powers—after all, Bran the Builder, who built both the Wall and Winterfell, was the founder of House Stark. Most of the support for this one comes from the books—namely, a line about how Old Nan, whose fairy stories and legends have ended up having a surprising amount of plot relevance (still waiting on the giant ice spiders though), confuses all the Bran Starks in her head—namely, Bran, his uncle Brandon, and all the legendary Brandon Starks in her stories. Hold up, you might be thinking, couldn’t that just be… old age? Yeah, that’s literally what the quote from the book says too, but the whole point of this theory is what if it’s not?! What if she’s actually onto something?! 


All The Ones Winning Serious Originality Points

Ed Sheeran In Game Of Thrones

As you can tell, most fan theories follow certain threads of logic. But there are some truly inspired works of speculation out there on the interwebs. Here, for your reading pleasure, are some of the most special snowflakes of Game of Thrones fan theories:

No One Ends Up on the Iron Throne (in a good way)  [Probability: Low]

After all that Season 8 #ForTheThrone campaigning, it would be particularly ironic for Westeros to end up a Republic. But breaking the wheel as it were would be a powerful way to start fresh.

Samwell Tarly ends up writing an in-universe A Song of Ice and Fire [Probability: Medium]

The biggest evidence for this comes from that Season 7 conversation between Sam and the Archmaester about what makes a good book, as it really doesn’t have much narrative function unless it ends up foreshadowing something—and, you know, the fact that Samwell Tarly is pretty much in-universe GRRM already. The bonus caveat to this theory is the possibility that we could see an older Sam played by George R.R. Martin himself.

Everything Takes Place In The Eye of a Blue-Eyed Giant Named Macumber [Probability: Low]

In the St. Elsewhere version of a Game of Thrones finale, this legend (which has been brought up twice), actually foreshadows the finale. The “Long Night” is when he goes to sleep or something?

Rhaegar Targaryen is Jaqen H’ghar… is Ed Sheeran [Probability: Low]

Barristan Selmy told Daenerys all about how Rhaegar was a great singer. Ed Sheeran is a singer, who sings a song for seemingly no reason in an obnoxiously long cameo that appeared to have minimal plot relevance. Unless, of course, it ends up having up plot relevance of the highest order. Don’t shoot the messenger, we’re just passing it along.

Merman Varys [Probability: Low]

Seriously. We didn’t make this up, though to use George R. R. Martin’s nomenclature the more accurate description would be “Merling.” The theory goes that Varys’ mission in life is to free his fellow merlings, and as such, he wants Daenerys’ dragons to melt all the ice in the North, putting Westeros underwater and making it inhabitable for his kind. The evidence is a little, uh, sketchy. One of the key pieces includes Varys’ response to Tyrion’s threat of throwing him into the sea being, “the big fish eat the little fish, and I keep on paddling.” A+ concept; full marks.


That’s all for now folks! We’ll be returning for an updated prediction check-in after every episode this season. As you were. 

Zoolander

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Based in the Pacific North West, Meg enjoys long scrambles on cliff faces and cozying up with a good piece of 1960s eurotrash. As a senior contributor at FSR, Meg's objective is to spread the good word about the best of sleaze, genre, and practical effects.