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‘Game of Thrones’ Fan Theories: Arya kills the Night King, The Night King is the Mad King, Daenerys flips

The new series debut has prompted a whirlwind of theories on fan boards about how the series will end, such as, who will get to kill the Night King, and will Daenerys join him?

Arya kills the Night King, The Night King is the Mad King reincarnated, Sansa Stark dies, Daenerys flips sides and joins forces with the undead so she can be with her beloved dragons forever and a fourth dragon will be born.

These are just some of the many theories proliferating on social media as fans digest the Season 8 premier of Game of Thrones, which has now screened across all major markets and is believed to be one of the highest rated TV shows of all time, with as many as 100 million viewers.

Some of the plot predictions are intensely plausible, while others seem about as unlikely as HBO really deciding to bring the world’s biggest TV franchise to a shuddering halt (did someone say ‘prequel?’)

Perhaps the most eagerly discussed theory circulating on fan sites, ground zero of which is this reddit thread, is that Daenerys Targaryen will turn into the Night Queen.

In season 2, Daenerys had a vision of herself in a destroyed throne room covered in snow to a voice over declaring: “The mother is reunited with her babies, and you’ll be with them through winter, summer, then winter again.” Given that one of her beloved dragons is already a member of the undead army, if another one (or two) was killed why wouldn’t she flip?

Viewers of a certain vintage may be reminded of the words of the similarly undead Kiefer Sutherland in The Lost Boys: “Sleep all day. Party all night. Never grow old. Never die. It’s fun being a vampire.”

Adding fuel to this icy fire is the suggestion that the Night King is a Targeryan himself.

One redditor observed that David Benioff said on the official after-show show that Jon Snow should have realized he was a Targaryen because “only Targaryens can ride dragons.” It would be kind of cool, if complicated at Thanksgiving dinner, if the Night King was an incarnation of Aerys Targaryen, aka The Mad King, aka Dany’s father and Jon Snow’s grandpa.

For those who believe that a mere two live dragons and their one undead counterpart are leaving the skies above Westeros a little lonely, the possibility that a fourth winged monster could join the fray is an appealing theory. And one fan theory gaining prominence is based on an observation that at the end of the new opening credits, there are four dragons etched into the sword alongside a comet.   

The comet may be the most reliable hint as sword etchings of a comet were also seen back in season two when the original three dragons were born, according to The Daily Mail.

A rival theory suggest that Arya Stark will kill the undead dragon and its rider.

She has emerged as one of the most powerful women of Westeros, and it’s therefore not hard to see the scriptwriters giving her the job of slaying the Night King. In this season’s debut episode, Arya gave blacksmith-turned dragon glass expert Gendry a sketch of a dragon glass tipped missile she wants him to build for her.

Bringing down a zombie dragon looks like exactly the kind of application this little gadget is designed for.

Plus, when the dragons swooped into Winterfell and everyone else was running around screaming, Arya spent her time coolly surveying them. Was she sizing up their weak spots?

We do know that lots of people are going to die. Will Sansa Stark is be one of them? This post by actress Sophie Turner got people talking.

Perhaps only one thing is certain; no one has any idea what will happen on a show that has always made it clear that anything could.

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Tom SykesEuropean Editor at Large

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