Game of Thrones ending: predictions for the season 8 finale

Warning: spoilers up to the latest episode ahead

The end of Game of Thrones is near, with 72 episodes down and one to go.

Speculation is rife about who will finally reside on the Iron Throne, as well as who will survive and who will suffer a grizzly demise.

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In the penultimate instalment Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke) burned King’s Landing to the ground, confirming the long-held theory that she would follow her father’s path and become the Mad Queen.

Cersei Lannister (Lena Headey) reunited with her brother and lover Jaime (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) before the tunnels of the Red Keep caved in on them.

The episode ended with Arya Stark (Maisie Williams) surviving the bloodbath and riding a white horse out of the capital’s ashes.

So what will happen next? Here are some of the most popular predictions.

Jon kills Dany

News that Jon Snow (Kit Harington) is Daenerys’s nephew threw a spanner in the works for Westeros’s power couple. In light of Jon’s right to the throne and Daenerys slaughtering a city of innocent people, it seems almost inevitable that Jon will be pushed to overthrow her in the finale. Many fans are convinced he is the “Prince who was Promised”, a reincarnation of the legendary Azor Ahai, who drove a sword into his wife to protect the world from “darkness”.

Tyrion turns out to be a Targaryen

Your initial reaction to this theory is “probably to recoil and say, ‘No way!’” says Yahoo! But “wouldn’t it explain so much? Wouldn’t it create a wonderful narrative parallel between Tyrion Lannister (Peter Dinklage) and Jon Snow? One is a bastard who doesn’t realise he’s actually royalty and the other is royalty who doesn’t realise he’s actually a bastard,” the site suggests.

The theory that Tyrion might really be a Targaryen “hinges on a key detail” that his late father Tywin (Charles Dance) always hated his son, says Inverse. Tywin suggests he believes Tyrion was the result of an affair, telling him in his final breath: “You’re no son of mine.” He has also been able to approach Daenerys’s dragons in the past.

Sansa will end up on the Iron Throne

YouTube fan channels In Deep Geek (in 2017) and GoT Academy (in 2015) have both predicted that Sansa Stark (Sophie Turner) will come out on top in the end, highlighting the many similarities between her and fellow redhead Queen Elizabeth I. Series author George R.R. Martin has cited the War of the Roses as an inspiration, so a Tudor-inspired finale is possible. Sansa is certainly prepared to stand up to Daenerys but seems unlikely to make a move for the throne with Jon still alive.

Arya is Azor Ahai

Some fans have got another take on the Azor Ahai theory after watching the latest episodes. The prophecy says the Prince, or Princess, who was Promised will be born “amidst smoke and salt” and that “his is the song of ice and fire”. Nerdist suggests it could be Arya who becomes the one to save the world from the darkness of both ice (the White Walkers) and fire (the Dragon Queen).

An end to the Iron Throne

The Hollywood Reporter thinks the “likeliest prediction on the board” is that the throne is disassembled and the equivalent of a “President of the United Kingdoms of Westeros” is established. “More and more, the throne has become a symbol for the worst aspects of humanity, a metallic reminder of how absolute power corrupts absolutely,” says the magazine. “There may be someone still in charge of the Seven Kingdoms when Game of Thrones ends, but sitting on the Iron Throne? It feels increasingly unlikely.”