The final season of Game of Thrones is finally upon us, which means that we are fast approaching the final hours of HBO’s fantasy epic. Fans — especially those who have been reading author George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series from the beginning — have been waiting a long time to find out how this tale of tragedy, betrayal, and dragons is going to wrap up and it seems hard to believe that we only have one abbreviated season left before we find out! Of course, given how dense the lore and backstory of Game of Thrones is, there are no shortage of theories out there for how Martin’s story will end —well, the televised edition anyway; Martin’s still a few books behind. Here are 12 of the best ones I’ve across online, though I’m sure I’ve missed some really good ones. If you know of any or have a theory of your own, be sure to let me know in the comments!
12. White Walkers Win
Might as well get the bleakest theory out of the way, right? While no one is expecting Game of Thrones to have a truly happy ending — and if you are, you definitely have not been paying attention — even the most pessimistic viewer probably doesn’t think Westeros is going to end up a frozen hellscape with every character they’ve ever even remotely cared about a frozen corpse. That being said, it’s kind of hard not to rule out the “ice zombies win” scenario when the series has trained us to hope for nothing and expect the worst.
Really, this isn’t so much a fan theory as it is a fan worry because from where I’m sitting, things are looking pretty good for the White Walkers to descend on Westeros and utterly destroy everything in their path. Defeating an army of undead who can only be defeated with fire or swords made from rare elements would be a challenge for even the most coordinated army and considering Westeros is about to become embroiled in yet another war — as well as the fact that only a small percentage of the population even believes the White Walkers exist — it’s hard to imagine that the Seven Kingdoms will be able to put aside their bickering long enough to repel a threat of that magnitude.
Via HBO