How Will ‘Game Of Thrones’ End? 5 Rumors And Theories On Season 8 Spoilers

There are only NINE episode left of HBO’s Game of Thrones.

Isn’t that insane? Only NINE left. Only three more episodes this season and six more in the final season 8.

(The one small solace is that the season eight episodes are all rumored to be feature-film-length, clocking in at 80 minutes or more.)

So, at this point, it’s pretty natural to start asking yourself — how will this all end?

Season 7, so far, has moved at a pace that can hardly be believed, giving us the kind of battles, Stark reunions, and major character moments that we never could’ve imagined in season 3.

But that’s because the show is now firmly in its third act. Winter has come and we’re moving into the series’ end game.

And that end game is coming more from show producers David Benioff and D. B. Weiss than the creator of the books, George R.R. Martin, because, as we all know by now, the HBO series has overtaken the books with all expectations that we’ll get to the ending of the show before the ending of the novels.

Martin IS still involved with the series, however, and has characterized the show’s ending as “bittersweet,” but the fact that the show has moved beyond the books just means that we’re all in uncharted waters now. You can’t grab one of the novels and flip to the end to spoil how Game of Thrones will be coming to a close.

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The ending will be a surprise for all of us, but, now that the show is winding down, it’s making it easier and easier to propose wild theories about how all the storylines will eventually come to a close in season 8.

So, as a helpful guide to all of you Thrones fans out there, who have only a few more episodes until you have to wait over a YEAR for new ones (sigh…), we’ve assembled FIVE of our favorite GoT rumors and fan theories about how HBO’s Game of Thrones will eventually reach its conclusion…

Here goes… POTENTIAL SPOILERS FROM THIS POINT ON…

….seriously, you’ve been warned…

OK, before we get into the theories, you need a little background.

First, you might want to check out this EXCELLENT breakdown of all the Game of Thrones history/family dynamics that Buzzfeed put together, which will be invaluable in helping you remember the sordid backstories of all the Targaryens, Starks, and Lannisters out there.

Second, you might want to take a quick glance at this summary of the prophecies of Azor Ahai, a legendary savior figure from George R.R. Martin's books, who, according to the books' mythology — and most show rumors — will play a big role in the final battle against the evil White Walkers (i.e. the show’s presumed finale).

(You may remember the revelation earlier this season where, due to a translation clarification, we found out that Azor Ahai could be a man or a woman — the two most popular candidates currently are Jon Snow or Daenerys Targaryen.)

Third, just to give you the most interesting theories out there, we’re not including the super-broad obvious ones like Jon wins, Tyrion wins, Cersei wins, The Night King wins, etc. ANYONE could guess those conclusions with the flip of a coin, but we wanted a little more detail on what the show’s ending might actually look like.

With that in mind, here are FIVE of our favorite rumors and theories about how the final season of Game of Thrones will end…

1. Jamie Lannister will save us all (No, really)

Don’t get me wrong. Nikolaj Coster-Waldau is a handsome, charismatic man and we’d all be lucky to have him save us from ice zombies, but, to be frank, I never really saw the one-handed, sister-loving Kingslayer as the savior type.

But this popular theory from Reddit actually makes a pretty cogent case for why Coster-Waldau’s Jamie might end up being Azor Ahai.

You can read the whole theory in its explicit detail here, but here are the highlights:

• Another translation for the “Lord of Light” (the god behind the Azor Ahai prophecy), in the language of Westeros, is “Gold Hand.” Who has a gold hand on the show? Jamie Lannister.
• “Jaime is the hero. He displays a pattern of putting others before himself. Jaime is known for saving King’s Landing from the Mad King Aerys, but not for the throne or recognition. In fact, he suffers for his deed. Jaime routinely preserves life and avoids conflict - even at Riverrun.”
• “We also know the White Walkers are capable of negotiation and peace - remember Craster and his deal to provide male children in return for peace with the White Walkers? Perhaps this is how Jaime will resolve the conflict with the White Walkers - through diplomacy. I firmly believe GRRM will not end the story with war being the ultimate resolve. Diplomacy and peace will be the answer.”

Defeating the White Walkers through diplomacy? REALLY? I mean, it’s not expected, particularly after Jamie’s near-death experience at the loot train battle last week, but who knows?

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2. It was all a dream.

This theory sucks. Everyone thinks it sucks.

It’s what Jason Mantzoukas on the “How Did This Get Made” podcast would call “a real Jacob’s Ladder scenario” — the idea being… you’d reach the end of the show and realize it was all just a dream that Jon Snow or some other character had.

There are some interesting theories that the show might end with us finding out that an aged Samwell Tarly has written the stories down for posterity at the library in Oldtown — there have been some hints of his desire to write this season — but Sam telling the story of Game of Thrones to a next generation is a LOT different than saying nothing on the series actually happened.

The likelihood of this being true is very, very slight, particularly after Kit Harrington, Jon Snow himself, publicly commented on how much he hates this idea:

3. Winterfell is the true savior of Westeros

That’s right. This theory gets a little metaphorical in its approach to the Azor Ahai prophecy, but it’s super intriguing and has become increasing popular online. (MoviePilot and a few other media outlets have picked it up.)

Let’s take a look at the highlights of the Azor Ahai prophecy:

Darkness lay over the world and a hero, Azor Ahai, was chosen to fight against it. To fight the darkness, Azor Ahai needed to forge a hero's sword. He labored for thirty days and thirty nights until it was done. However, when he went to temper it in water, the sword broke. He was not one to give up easily, so he started over.

The second time he took fifty days and fifty nights to make the sword, even better than the first. To temper it this time, he captured a lion and drove the sword into its heart, but once more the steel shattered. The third time, with a heavy heart, for he knew beforehand what he must do to finish the blade, he worked for a hundred days and nights until it was finished. This time, he called for his wife, Nissa Nissa, and asked her to bare her breast. He drove his sword into her living heart, her soul combining with the steel of the sword, creating Lightbringer.

There will come a day after a long summer when the stars bleed and the cold breath of darkness falls heavy on the world. In this dread hour a warrior shall draw from the fire a burning sword. And that sword shall be Lightbringer, the Red Sword of Heroes, and he who clasps it shall be Azor Ahai come again, and the darkness shall flee before him.

This theory — which you can read here — suggests that Lightbringer isn’t technically a sword, instead, it’s really Winterfell, the kingdom/castle in the North (and the Starks’ ancestral home) where Jon Snow plans to make his stand against the Night King.

This theory suggests that the three attempts to forge Lightbringer are actually the various times that Winterfell has fallen and been recovered by the Starks and, for Winterfell to finally become Lightbringer — the “sword” that will stop the advance of the darkness — Jon Snow will have to sacrifice part of Daenerys Targaryen’s soul to Winterfell.

It’s a big, involved, kind of ingenious story (which any GoT fan should read), but here’s the author’s own TL;DR:

tl;dr: Winterfell is Lightbringer. Dany is Nissa Nissa. Jon Snow will be reborn of salt and smoke and become Lord of Winterfell, thus becoming Azor Ahai. A love story between him and Dany will develop, but he will end up joining Dany’s soul (her last child, Drogon) to Winterfell to reforge Lightbringer and fight back the Others, thus giving Dany her third betrayal and giving the series a bittersweet ending.

4. Westeros is actually post-apocalyptic Earth.

I know. Crazy, right? Like literally crazy.

But this YouTuber has made a fairly impassioned video claiming that Game of Thrones might have a LOT more in common with Planet of the Apes than anyone ever imagined. (I’m not buying it.)

5. It will end with an epic Jon Snow vs. Daenerys Targaryen battle, involving… wait for it… white walker DRAGONS (ooooh)

I mean, undead ice dragons sounds pretty amazing, right? Who can argue with that?

This theory from a Redditor on the Fan Theories subreddit does a nice job of bringing together some of the more popular theories — including many from this list — into one big majestic end game.

Here’s the high level overview…

This theory argues that Jon Snow is Azor Ahai from the prophecy (a no-brainer choice), but also points out (as was previous stated) that George R.R. Martin is anti-war and has said the ending will be “bittersweet.”

So, the theory alleges that Jon will attempt to do something VERY similar to the previous Jamie Lannister theory I mentioned… he will try to end the conflict with the White Walkers through diplomacy. Jon (with the assistance of Bran) will attempt to negotiate peace.

However, it argues Daenerys won’t agree to a peace after the White Walkers kill one of her dragons and resurrect him as a wight dragon (i.e. undead ice dragon). This causes Daenerys to go mad, like her father before her, forcing Jon Snow to kill her… like in the Azor prophecy… which will allow him to become the Lightbringer and “end” the darkness.

It’s an interesting theory — though perhaps frustrating for fans of Daenerys — which you can read in its entirety here. (One word of warning: the theory keeps referencing something called “The Leaked Plot,” which… surprise, surprise… is a rumored leaked plot to the show. However, keep in mind, this was supposedly “leaked” months ago, before the HBO hack, so it’s very unlikely that it’s real.)

For me, the best part of this theory are some of the images the author comes up with for the big GoT finale — including a giant final battle scene with the Night King on the wight dragon, Dany riding another, and Bran “warging” his mind into the third dragon (possibly ridden by Jon Snow) for one last epic throwdown.

But, in the end, these are just guesses.

Five fairly decent guesses… except the “it’s all a dream” guess, which sucks… but there has definitely been some thought put into these.

There are WAY more fan theories out there and there will be even more once Season 7 ends in August. But, regardless of whether or not these theories are even a tiny bit true, their existence just goes to show that people LOVE Game of Thrones and it will keep driving our imaginations (and obsessive fan speculation) until Season 8 comes to its final, bittersweet ending.