Sunday, April 14 signals the beginning of the end to “Game of Thrones,” when the first episode of the eighth and final season premieres. As Cersei Lannister says in season one, “When you play the game of thrones, you win or you die.” So who will come out as the victor in the final season?
The author of the novels, George R.R. Martin, has said that the ending of the series will be “bittersweet.” Though the books and show differ in many ways, they are still expected to have the same general ending.
From this clue, it can be gathered that there will certainly be a lot of sadness and death, as there is in every season, but not everything will be lost in the end.
Although there are numerous intertwining plot lines, the most important of season eight will be the fight between the people of Westeros and the White Walkers. This conflict has been slowly building since season one and will finally come to a head in the coming episodes.
While the White Walkers are supernatural beings that have many advantages against the human characters, they probably won’t win in the end since that would mean the end of civilization in Westeros as we know it.
That being said, there will definitely be numerous human casualties and probably the loss of several beloved characters. It really wouldn’t surprise me if there were only a few dozen humans left after the final battle is over. There’s no way of knowing for sure who will survive and who won’t, but I do have an idea about the two main characters.
Jon and Daenerys, who are now romantically involved as of the seventh season finale, are now central to the fight against the White Walkers and the struggle for the Iron Throne. While we all would like for them to have a happy ending ruling over the Seven Kingdoms together, that probably won’t happen. This is “Game of Thrones,” after all.
The most likely scenario is that one of the two dies in the upcoming season, most likely Daenerys. In the most recent season, there are several times where Daenerys brings up the fact that she doesn’t think she can have children. Because of the many pointed references to this, many think she will become pregnant with Jon’s child in the upcoming season. Then like her mother, Daenerys will die in childbirth. This leaves Jon to rule over the Seven Kingdoms and raise their child, who is now a glimmer of hope in the aftermath of death and destruction from the final defeat of the White Walkers. This would really fit in with the idea of a “bittersweet” ending.
As for the fate of other characters, we’ll have to wait and see, but as far as Jon and Daenerys go, this will probably be their ending.
