The Game of Thrones fandom has never been short of compelling, confusing and even ridiculous hypotheses. Just Google “Varys” and “merman” and you’ll uncover absurd suppositions that the character played by Conleth Hill is actually half-fish. Otherwise how does he travel from Dorne to Meereen so quickly? And has anyone ever really seen the Spider’s legs?
Sadly the mer-theory has been debunked, but the Ned Stark truthers remain. Oh, you didn’t know that years ago, some fans believed Ned Stark warged into a nearby flock of birds before he was executed and that’s why the camera cuts away to the flying creatures?
The season seven finale has kicked up a storm of fan theories and wild speculations has grown. To keep the conversation moving, we gathered the strongest and sanest predictions into one long fan explainer.
Warning, big-time SPOILERS ahead:
BRAN WAS ALWAYS THE THREE-EYED RAVEN
Alicia Lutes from Nerdist is one of several theorists who believe that Bran Stark (Isaac Hempstead Wright) went back in time to become the Three-Eyed Raven. Bran proved he was able to warg through time in the season six episode The Door, thus permanently altering Hodor’s brain in the chilling “Hold the Door” scene. So it is possible, if not yet proved true, that young Bran was actually tutored by old Bran, played by Max von Sydow.
Even Wright wants to believe this theory, pointing out in a Nerdist interview that Jojen (Thomas Brodie-Sangster) specifically told Bran (in a vision) that “the raven is you.”
BRAN IS ALL BRANS
So if this Zen know-it-all can time-travel, what’s stopping him from warging into additional historical characters from Westeros past? Plenty of fans have hypothesised that Bran might, in fact, be Brandon Stark, the builder and creator of the great wall of ice, with some pointing to the books, specifically the character of Old Nan, as evidence.
In the books, this elderly figure confuses young Bran with previous Brandon Starks — was her mind slipping, or did she know something others didn’t?
MAGGY THE FROG’S PROPHECY
There has been a lot of soothsaying in Game of Thrones, but none as powerful as Maggy’s. In the first episode of season five, The Wars to Come, little Cersei Lannister visits the local fortune teller who tells her that she will marry “the king” and become the queen (for a time) “but another younger and more beautiful woman will cast her down and take all that you hold dear.”
Next, Maggy predicts that Cersei will have three beautiful children who will wear golden crowns but also golden shrouds, and in the book A Feast for Crows, Maggy’s final prediction goes even deeper: “And when your tears have drowned you, the valonqar shall wrap his hands about your pale white throat and choke the life from you.” Valonqar is High Valyrian for “little brother.”
Astute fans have blown past the obvious suspect, Tyrion Lannister (Peter Dinklage), and focused on Jaime Lannister (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau), who is also Cersei’s younger (though twin) brother. Will the Kingslayer become the Queenslayer as well? They certainly did not end on loving terms in the season seven finale.
THE PRINCE THAT WAS PROMISED
If you’ve been paying attention to anything Melisandre (Carice van Houten) has been preaching all these years, you know two things: The night is dark and full of terrors, and “the prince that was promised” will save humanity from the doom and darkness of the terrible night. This prince will be a reincarnation of the legendary Azor Ahai, a gifted warrior who saved the land from a long night thousands of years ago.
We also know this: The prince can be a man or a woman (in High Valyrian, “prince” is gender neutral); was born amid salt and smoke; has dragon blood in his/her lineage and power to “wake dragons from stone”; has a song of “ice and fire” and a weapon known as the flaming lightbringer; return will be marked by a bleeding comet.
Based on these criteria, the “prince” could be Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke). She brought dragons to life from stone, she was reborn in that same fire (which would have included smoke and salt from tears and sweat), and the flaming breath from the dragons could be her “lightbringer.”
Jon Snow (Kit Harington) fits the bill as well. Ned Stark placed his sword, which had a star on the hilt, at the base of a bloody bed where Jon was born; bleeding comet? After Jon was resurrected, smoke came from his wounds. Plus, the dragons seem to like him.
But what if the lightbringer is a golden hand? If Jaime is going to strangle Cersei, he would be fulfilling both Maggy’s prophecy and turning his hands into a weapon — yet another thing Jojen predicted when he was asked about “the end” and he envisioned his own hand, ablaze.
CERSEI IS GENDRY’S MOTHER
Now that Gendry (Joe Dempsie) has returned to the game, it’s time to look at the mysterious lineage of King Robert Baratheon’s son.
In an interview, Dempsie discussed the season one reveal that Cersei’s first child (who supposedly died) was a “black-haired beauty.” Was this a direct reference to Gendry’s locks, a big deviation from the blond bunch of Lannister children? Or was this just another red herring for fans to salivate over?
“The first scene that I ever shot on Game of Thrones is when Ned Stark comes to visit Gendry down in the armoury,” Dempsie said. “He asks me about my mother, and all I remember is that she had yellow hair, and that she used to sing to me... I’ve always thought, well, that’s something that has to be addressed at some point.”
So have we.
