'Game of Thrones' Season 8 Spoilers: Why Daenerys Won't Win the Way We Hope

With fans still waiting for a premiere date for Game of Thrones Season 8 and so little known about the final season, there’s plenty of time for speculation as to how the series will end for all our favorite characters. And, of course, there’s always the question of who will sit on the throne.

Fans have been theorizing for years as to who will end up on the Iron Throne and rule over the Seven Kingdoms at the end of Game of Thrones. Daenerys Targaryen wants to take it back for her family, as has been her goal since Season 1.

However, a new fan theory addresses this through the lens of Daenerys’ line of succession. Redditor u/ShadowSwipe recalls Tyrion bringing up her successor in Season 7. At the time, Daenerys decides to brush his comments off until after she’s claimed the crown.

“I am convinced that Dany will perish in the upcoming season,” u/ShadowSwipe writes. “I believe that this brief and almost forgettable argument between her and Tyrion is yet another example of the show foreshadowing distant events in the future.”

They add it’s odd this topic never comes up again before the end of Season 7, and redditor u/rolldownthewindow, offers up two possible explanations. Either 1) a Jon Snow/Daenerys pregnancy or 2) Tyrion making a deal with Cersei “to let Daenerys name her child as her heir.”

If the latter is true, that would explain Tyrion’s reaction to Jon and Daenerys in the season finale.

But there’s another possibility, one which combines several theories and hints about the final season.

“There will be a little Targaryen baby to sit on the throne soon enough,” redditor u/Itsraynie writes. “But I also suspect Daenerys will die before she ever sits on the iron throne herself.”

So what if Daenerys has Jon Snow’s baby, and then she (and maybe even Jon Snow, too) die in the war against the White Walkers? That baby would be the rightful heir to the throne.

Furthermore, co-executive producer Bryan Cogman’s preview to Entertainment Weekly doesn’t exactly suggest a happy ending.

“It’s an incredibly emotional, haunting, bittersweet final season,” he said. “I think it honors very much what George set out to do — which is flipping his kind of story on its head.”

It would certainly be “bittersweet” if Daenerys’ heir sat on the throne, but she didn’t.

Game of Thrones Season 8 premieres on HBO in 2019.