Game of Thrones begins its final season on Sunday. Like every other fan of the series, I have my ideas of how the story will go. In this article I will give my major predictions for season 8.  I am not tossing out random ideas or cool moments, but instead looking at narrative beats and how they would fit within the themes of Game of Thrones. Each is carefully chosen to fit the structure of the existing narrative.

I also refuse to make the same lame predictions of so many articles online. Arya and Jon will reunite…wow, real insight there. I love Den of Geek, but predicting the White Walker fight won’t be the finale isn’t a stretch. Game of Thrones never ends on the big moment, that comes in the second to last episode of the season. The finale is for character moments.

Revisiting this post to see if anything came true will be fun. I hope I’m right on some, but not all. Game of Thrones is always full of surprises.

The Dothraki are wiped out immediately

The Dothraki prove to be entirely ineffective against the White Walkers and are wiped out right away.  Not the first episode, but they are the first major casualty.  They’ve been built up as a major threat, so what better way to up the stakes than to have them removed from the game right away. They’re the fiercest warriors, so having them die makes the undead threat even stronger.

The Dothraki fight wildly. This works against human armies who expect their enemy to act certain ways. Dothraki are intimidating figures, instilling fear in their enemies. Against the undead, none of this works.  White Walkers have no expectations and cannot be intimidated. Dothraki tactics have no place in this fight, so they fall quickly.

It will also be a nice parallel to the first season, where Drogo dies unexpectedly from an infection.  The massive fighter is felled by a simple wound.  All his bravado amounts to nothing in the face of bacterial power. The white walkers will do essentially the same thing as Drogo’s wound.

Clegane-bowl will not happen

George RR Martin loves destroying audience expectations. Fans have been clamoring for a confrontation between the Hound and the Mountain. They named the bloody fight Clegane-bowl. I suspect Martin originally envisioned the brothers fighting and dying together, but back when the books were planned as a trilogy. Once they expanded and Martin’s themes developed, the fight stopped making sense.

In the books Sandor is either dead, or a monk living in peace. Having him fight the Mountain doesn’t necessarily fit into that narrative growth.  Perhaps, like in the show, he’ll have something to draw him back into the fight against the White Walkers.

In the show, I still hold that the fight doesn’t make sense. In season seven, Sandor tells his brother “you know who’s coming for you. You’ve always known.” Many fans see that as confirmation Clegane-bowl is happening, but my prediction is that this line confirms somebody else kills the Mountain. Why wouldn’t Sandor say “I’m coming for you” or “You’ve always known it’ll be me.”

No, the Mountain is killed by a Targaryen.  The Mountain killed Rhaegar’s children and their mother, Elia. Oberon tried to kill him for it, and he actually succeeded. The Mountain was resurrected. It makes sense his death comes from somebody else affected by the Mountain’s actions during Robert’s rebellion. It’ll be Daenerys dragons, burning the massive undead monster “alive.” His death by fire being fitting after he burned his brother as a child.

Daenerys and Jon Snow dies fighting the White Walkers

Tyrion made a big deal out of Daenerys’ lack of succession plan, and I predict this will come to a head when both she and Jon die fighting the Night King. Heroes don’t fare well in Westeros and they’re both heroic figures in the story. I see no other way for their character arcs to end.

They’ve both “died” and were reborn.  Jon literally died when the Nights Watch murdered him and Melisandre brought him back. Dany figuratively died and was reborn through the fire in season one. That parallel of being reborn in fire is strengthen if they die in Ice.  The books are called a Song of Fire & Ice.  It would be poetic for the pair to die together in the cold. 

Drogon survives and the Children of the Forest come back to Westeros

We’ve already seen one dragon die at the hands of the White Walkers.  My prediction is the battle between dragons will claim another of Daenerys’ children, but not both.  Drogon, the dragon with the most attention given to him will survive.

Game of Thrones tends to kill characters it builds up, but magic returning to the world is a massive theme of the story. To see all the dragons dead at the end would deflate that narrative element. The White Walkers can be wiped out, but something needs to remain. That something is Drogon, and the emergence of the Children of the Forest.

These two magical elements will return to the world. Dragons and Elves bring a good balance.  The White Walkers are too evil. They don’t exist in the grey area that Westeros favors, so they’ll be wiped out. The Children of the Forest are neither good nor bad, they’re just people. Dragons aren’t evil or good, they’re basically animals who happen to breathe fire. They fit the world of Westeros as a magical element.

Jamie kills the Night King

The arc Jamie’s taken from villain to hero has been a brilliant development over seven seasons. He ended last season by finally defying Cersei to keep his promise and fight against the dead. It was a great moment that could only happen because the narrative has built him towards it. He’s always sided with Cersei in the end, but finally the threat is too much to choose family.  He chooses the world over Cersei.

Driving home his character development, Jamie will get a massive heroic moment against the dead. The audience roots for Jamie Lannister already, but he needs something to truly redeem him.  He’s still very much a grey-area character.  This moment will take him out of the grey. Jamie will stand tall as a true hero, giving him the peak of his character arc. 

My prediction is that Jamie is the one to kill the Night King.  A Lannister, not a Stark gets the victory. He steps up after Daenerys and Jon are killed, and takes down the enemy.  This is the only thing that could redeem him in the eyes of the Starks, and I think that’s what he needs.  He needs something do big it outdoes pushing Bran from the window in season one. This does it.

Jamie the Queenslayer

Jamie’s not been referred to as Kingslayer much the last few seasons of Game of Thrones, but it’s still very much part of his character. In fact, learning his perspective on killing the King in season two kicked off his series long character arc. It gave the audience sympathy of an act everybody else considers reprehensible. He did the right thing, and is punished for it. Very appropriate for Game of Thrones.

Jamie will return to Kings Landing after killing the Night King.  He’ll come back to barter a peace between Cersei and the North. He’ll be supporting the Starks, which Cersei will see as the ultimate betrayal. Wild with anger, she’ll order the Golden Company to wipe out her enemies. The fight will not go her way, either the army being defeated or Tyrion out bidding Cersei and taking control of them…a nice reversal of what happened to Ned Stark in season one.

Defeated, Cersei will attempt to destroy the city rather than hand it over. We know she has more stock piles of wild fire, and her history shows she’ll use it.  She destroyed the Sept with wild fire, so why not the rest of the city. During this rant she’ll reveal her pregnancy is a lie, so what does she have to live for.  Her family is gone, Joffery, Mycela and Tommen are dead.

The mention of Tommen and wild fire will be too much. Cersei’s destruction of the Sept drove Tommen to kill himself. Now she’s going to end the whole city, just like the Mad King intended to. Jamie can’t let Cersei do it, and thus history repeats itself. Jamie runs her through from behind.

Brienne kills Jamie

After Jamie gets his heroic moment by killing the Night King, it sets a target on him. Westeros does not reward heroic figures. Ned and Rob Stark were heroes and died; Jamie will too. Daenerys and Jon were heroes, and they’ll have died in the White Walker war. In true Game of Thrones fashion, Jamie will die after becoming a hero.

I predict Brienne will find him with his sword through Cersei. He’ll have done the heroic thing, killing Cersei to save a million people living in Kings Landing. Jamie sacrifices everything to save the land, but Brienne won’t know that.

Brienne is an honorable person, which rarely works out well in this story. Jamie’s story of killing the Mad King gave her sympathy for him, but it will be washed away when he sees him having slain a “pregnant” woman. She won’t have experienced Cersei’s epic crazed rant that revealed her plan to burn the city to the ground. It’ll look like Jamie simply killed her.

Jamie could try to reason with Brienne, she’s not a rash character. Talking to her, explaining what happened, would probably work.  Only problem is, Jamie won’t try. He’s too broken to keep going, and lets Brienne strike him down.

Sansa returns North

The Night King and Cersei are dead. The threat to Westeros is over, and who is left standing? Tyrion is the hand of Queen Daenerys, but the people of Westeros hate him. Arya would not want to be a leader. The only leader left is Sansa, Lady of Winterfell.

She will walk into Kings Landing and sit on the Iron Throne, then walk away. The city is the place of her nightmares, and her past.  She doesn’t care about ruling the ugly city. She controls the North, the land of her father. Her cousin supports her from the Vale. Sansa draws a line and separates the North from the South. They may be tied through trade and need, but they are not the same land. In her own way, Sansa helps break the wheel as Daenerys intended.

Doing this also completes her growth as a character. Before his execution, Sansa told Little Finger she learns slowly but she does learn. The ultimate lesson for her is that Kings Landing isn’t a safe place for any Stark. It’s not their land, and she shouldn’t be there. Sansa learns, and she leaves the throne.

Varys rules Kings Landing

If Sansa walks away from the Iron Throne, who steps up in her place? Tyrion is hated in Kings Landing, so he doesn’t make a strong replacement. He’s also not inclined after everything that’s happened. Instead, Varys uses his connections to begin restoring order to the city. He’s got the political knowledge to accomplish this task.

Varys sitting on the Iron Throne upholds the narrative of breaking the wheel. He’s not a noble in anyway. He’s a self-made man who overcame prejudice and subjugation to gain incredible power and influence. He makes a suitable replacement for Daenerys in leading Westeros out of a monarchy.

Bronn proves looking out for himself works

Bronn always looks out for himself and he’s been very successful at it. I can’t think of another character with such a pronounced independent character arc. Yes, he works for Tyrion and Jamie, but he succeeds entirely on his own. In a massive cast of incredible characters, he manages to stand out as one of the best.

Bronn will continue this trend of coming out on top. Wisely predicting the fall of Lannister power, Bronn will have played his hand to gain control of High Garden. With Sansa uninterested in taking the south, and Varys fighting for control of Kings Landing, Bronn will fortify his position at High Garden. It won’t be hard, and he’ll make it clear to Varys that he’s happy with his expensive city full of beautiful women.

Tyrion joins Bronn in High Garden, acting as Bronn’s Hand.  It would be a great inversion of their roles when they met.  Tyrion always said “whatever they’re offering I’ll double it”. How fitting to have them end with Bronn being the one with all the money and power.

Arya leaves Westeros

Arya has made it abundantly clear that she’s not interested in becoming a Lady. She recalled the story of firing arrows while Ned Stark watched on, showing that even he knew she wasn’t destined for that life. With their enemies dead, there’s nothing left in Westeros for Arya. Bran and Sansa will be there, but none of them are the same.

Arya doesn’t get a definitive ending. It wouldn’t make sense to close off every character comfortably. Instead, she gets on a boat and sails for new lands. She’s not wearing a smile, but she’s not angry either. She’s going to see what the world can offer her. Arya’s destiny is left open ended, and that note is the perfect ending to the story. The audience joins her in leaving Westeros behind.