11 "Game Of Thrones" Fan Theories That Are Better Than The Actual Show

I wish these theories had come true tbh.

One of the very best – and very worst – things about Game of Thrones has been the fan theories. They’ve run the gamut from pure genius and 100% accurate to totally wild and utterly weird.

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They’ve both blown my mind and infuriated me by turns – but either way, they’ve enhanced the show and the experience of watching it. While some theories did come true – and oh, how wonderful it was when they did – there are many (many, many) that didn’t. Here are some of the best ones…

1. Daenerys and Jon would have a baby

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After the show heavily foreshadowed Daenerys getting pregnant in Season 7, a boatsex baby appeared inevitable. Instead, it all seems to have been a way to build up a happy ending in our minds, only to tug it out from under us at the last minute. Ooft, it still hurts.

2. Jaime would kill Cersei

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A lot of fans thought Jaime would kill Cersei thanks to a book prophecy about the “valonqar” or “little brother” choking the life out of her. Even when he broke Brienne’s heart and fled back to Cersei at the end of Season 8, Episode 4, many fans hoped he was actually going to kill her and fulfil the prophecy. Instead, he just went to die with her because he loved her. I’ll never not be mad about it tbh.

3. All magic would be destroyed

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Some theorised that in order for the Night King to be destroyed, the magic powering him would need to leave the world – and, in fact, the show would end with no magic in the realm. This seemed especially likely considering we’d already seen the demise of the Children of the Forest and the giants before Season 8 had began. But by the time the show ended, we still had two direwolves alive, one dragon, and, of course, the Three Eyed Raven as the freaking king. So yeah, this theory definitely didn’t pan out.

4. Jon Snow would become the new Night King

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Pretty much everyone thought Jon Snow would have to sacrifice himself in some way to defeat the Night King. Many believed this would be in some kind of pact with the White Walkers that would see him become the new Night King. He would have turned into the very thing he feared most, which would have been a gut-punch of an ending. Instead, he just screamed at an undead dragon while his little sister killed his nemesis, and then he murdered the woman he loves and ended up right back where he started in Season 1. ~Bittersweet~.

5. Bran would become the original Night King

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This was probably one of the most popular theories going into Season 8. So many people were convinced that Bran would get stuck in the past after warging and end up in the body of the man who was turned into the Night King. Well, Bran did become a king, but certainly not the kind we expected.

6. The White Walkers would win

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Nobody thought Game of Thrones would have a happy ending. But some fans believed it would end in the bleakest way possible – with the Night King winning, and succeeding in wiping out all of humanity. It would have been incredibly depressing. Whether more or less so than the actual ending probably depends on how much you love the idea of Jon murdering Dany, or Bran becoming king.

7. Tyrion Lannister would ride a dragon

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This theory stems mainly from the more tinfoily theory that Tyrion Lannister was secretly a Targaryen. In the books, Daenerys has a vision of Rhaegar Targaryen saying “the dragon has three heads”, which many fans took to mean that there would be three dragonriders. The first obviously being Dany and the second predicted to be Jon, people pegged their hopes on Tyrion completing the trio. At least Tyrion got to pet a dragon before it was all over, I guess?

8. Jaqen H’Ghar was Syrio Forel

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Since Jaqen H’Ghar was a faceless man who could take on the appearance of others, some thought he was really Syrio Forel – or rather, Syrio Forel was Jaqen H’Ghar. After all, we never see Syrio actually die. This would have been super cool but, alas, it never panned out on the show.

9. The White Walker art had significance

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We saw the spiral patterns of the White Walkers repeatedly throughout Game of Thrones. Fans spent many hours analysing them and what they meant. But it turns out they didn’t really mean much. They were nothing more than a perversion of the holy symbols of the Children of the Forest, who created the White Walkers. At least, that’s what we’ll assume until the prequel series perhaps reveals more…

10. [Insert character here] was Azor Ahai

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Azor Ahai/the prince that was promised has arguably been the most talked about fan theory in the Game of Thrones fandom, aside from the classic R+L=J of course (which actually turned out to be true!). There were A LOT of theories about who the promised one would be, and pretty much all of them turned out not to be true. I say “pretty much” because Jon and/or Dany could still technically have been the prince/princess that was promised, depending on how you interpret it. Them coming together was the crucial circumstance in defeating the Night King, after all, even if neither of them delivered the killing blow. Still, in the end, this theory had much, much less significance than the fandom thought it would.

11. Varys was a mermaid (mer-eunuch?)

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Game of Thrones fans have come up with some pretty out-there theories over the years. This one isn’t quite as wild as the one about Tyrion being a time-travelling fetus (uh...look it up if you’re curious; like I said, it’s WILD), but it’s still pretty… unique. There is actually some evidence to back it up… and in a story featuring dragons and giants, why not mer-creatures too? Sadly, Varys' secrets died with him.

And now, it's time to retire the tinfoil.

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At least until the next book, or the prequel series comes along...

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