Who Will Win ‘Game of Thrones’? Odds, Polls and Bran Theories
Game
of Thrones returns today! And 35 days from now, Thrones will end. In less time
than it seemingly takes Littlefinger to zip around to every corner of Westeros,
showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss will deliver a conclusion to the story
George R.R. Martin first introduced 23 years ago—and in that precious time
they’ll have to answer half a hundred pressing questions: Who will live? Who
will die? Who will tell Jon he’s doing it with his aunt?
Separate
from those series-shaping questions are countless smaller but still crucial
details that the show may or may not explore in the final season. These are
Thrones’ loose ends: the characters, places, events, prophecies, and more that
the story has made audiences wonder about over the past seven seasons but has
yet to satisfyingly wrap up. In the run-up to the final season’s April 14
premiere, we’ll be digging through these loose ends, looking at why they matter
and how they could affect the endgame as we count down the days to Thrones’
long-awaited conclusion.
Who Will Win the Game of Thrones?
There
are any number of unlikely victors in the game of thrones. Gendry (Joe
Dempsie), the Baratheon bastard who seems to know nothing but hammering, could
survive to claim his father’s throne. Or perhaps Cleganebowl can wait until
after the war with the Night King has ended, with the two brothers, Sandor “The
Hound” (Rory McCann) and Gregor “The Mountain” ( Hafþór Björnsson) fighting in
the decimated Red Keep, the victor collapsing to catch their breath on an Iron
Throne once and for all stripped of its majesty. Or maybe Tormund Giantsbane
will claim the throne for the wildlings. Any number of scenarios placing Sansa Stark,
Varys, Jaime and Tyrion Lannister or Hot Pie on the Iron Throne could play out
when Game of Thrones returns for Season 8. But all of these are unlikely. Here,
instead, are those we wouldn’t be flabbergasted to see claim King’s Landing’s
throne of swords.
Cersei Lannister
While Cersei Lannister (Lena Headey)
currently sits on the Iron throne, she’s a presumptive loser in the game of
thrones. She spurns all alliances, rules with resentment and paranoia, and has
even managed to alienate her brother Jaime—the only person she loves, and is
loved by, in all of Westeros. And while a crucial line was left out of the Game
of Thrones TV series, Maggy the Frog’s prophecy still looms over the Queen.
“When your tears have drowned you, the valonqar shall wrap his hands about your
pale white throat and choke the life from you,” Maggy says, in George R.R.
Martin’s A Feast for Crows. Valonqar, High Valyrian for “little
brother,” could point to her death at the hands of either Tyrion or Jaime, who
was born just after, clutching to Cersei’s heel.
But while there’s enough evidence to
safely bet on Cersei’s downfall, her triumph has some interesting thematic
implications. Our reasons for believing Cersei will lose—prophecy and her
refusal to join an alliance against the Night King’s destruction—could also be
seen as points in her favor.
While Game of Thrones overflows
with prophecy, it seldom turns out to be accurate. Melisandre alone, in her
misguided devotion to Stannis Baratheon, has proven that. Prophecies in Game
of Thrones aren’t ironclad, or are uninterpretable to those involved in
them. Like magic, prophecy is just another part of the series’ discourse,
jockeying for authority against politics, armies and personalities.
Martin has famously described the
intended end of the A Song of Ice and Fire series as “bittersweet,”
launching thousands of speculative reddit threads that hinge upon
interpretations of just that single world. So what could be a more bittersweet
end for Westeros than to successfully avert the apocalypse at the cost of all
your heroes, leaving a conniving tyrant behind to rule over what’s left?
Daenerys Targaryen
The
only reason to believe Daenerys Targaryen won’t sit on the Iron Throne is
because nearly every episode of Game
of Thrones suggests she will. Since the beginning, Daenerys has
been the exiled queen, learning to rule. Beyond the most legitimate claim to
the Iron Throne (only recently, and theoretically, superseded by Jon Snow,
revealed to be Aegon Targaryen and first in the line of succession), Daenerys’
dragons make her a figure of destiny, her invasion the re-fulfillment of her ancestor
Aegon’s original conquest of Westeros. But perhaps all her power has been
accrued for another purpose: the defeat of the White Walkers.
Jon Snow
As
much as Jon Snow (Kit Harington) is Game
of Thrones “Chosen One,” it’s hard to imagine him ruling from a
sharp perch in King’s Landing. (His last time in a leadership position, when he
was Lord Commander of the Night’s Watch, didn’t turn out so well.) If Daenerys
has been destined for the throne, then Jon has been destined to turn back the
threat from beyond the Wall.
But
like Daenerys, Jon Snow clearly has a date with destiny. Either one of them
could be the Prince (or Princess) That Was Promised—the return of the ancient
hero Azor Ahai (Melisandre’s money is on Daenerys, but The Red Woman’s track
record might have you looking elsewhere). Azor Ahai defeated his greatest enemy
by first plunging his sword into his wife’s heart. It may be the case that, to
defeat the Night King, either Jon or Daenerys must somehow sacrifice the other.
However Game of Thrones ends,
their fates are intertwined, by more than bonds of blood.
The Night King
He’s
got the biggest army (and one that can be infinitely replenished) and an ice
dragon, but gauging the Night King’s chance of sitting on the Iron Throne isn’t
about traditional metrics of leadership—his victory is the triumph of death.
While unlikely to win outright (bittersweet, remember), it’s just as unlikely
that Westeros beats back the armies of the dead without great cost. It’s also
possible that, rather than sitting on the Iron Throne, the Night King could
accomplish a goal professed by Daenerys: to “break the wheel” of power. While
Daenerys means an end to Westeros’ constant wars of succession, uniting the
seven kingdom’s under her own authority, the Night King might just break the
power structure entirely. Rather than sitting on the Iron Throne, the Night
King is more likely to destroy it.
There’s
another theory, involving the Night King, for who will sit on the Iron Throne
when the credits roll on Game
of Thrones, and it’s a popular pick on betting markets.
Odds on Who will Win the Game of
Thrones
According to betting news site Odds Shark, relaying odds
from the online offshore gambling site Bovada, it will be Bran Stark (Isaac
Hempstead Wright) in charge when Game of Thrones ends. Considering the
soft-spoken greenseer seems to prefer the company of trees and fireplaces, this
is a little hard to imagine. But it seems people are latching on to a number of
clues pointing to a very bold conclusion, beginning with the Game of Thrones
Season 8 teaser trailer “Crypts of Winterfell.”
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