'Game of Thrones' Season 8 Spoilers: Why These 3 Characters May Survive

Game of Thrones fans know that no one is safe on the HBO series, so it’s no surprise that ahead of GoT Season 8, some are more apt to speculate about how a character will die rather than if he or she will survive. However, the series can’t end with every single character dead (or can it?). Someone has to live to tell the tale.

In a recent thread on Reddit’s Game of Thrones forum, fans of the series speculated over who might survive (and die) in Season 8. Here’s who Reddit’s hivemind thinks is most likely to make it out alive. (And no, just because Jon Snow has already died and been brought back to life doesn’t mean he’s safe.)

Sansa

Redditor u/nofunheremovealong thinks that Sansa is pretty much completely safe, for reasons linked to her family, arguing that there needs to be at least one Stark remaining in Winterfell and Sansa is the obvious candidate.

“The only other candidates still living are Arya and Bran, neither of whom are shaping up to be the stay at home and run the farm types,” they write.

The only problem with this argument? If there’s anything we’ve learned from seven season’s of Game of Thrones it’s to never bet on a Stark. The family death count is already astronomical. So we wouldn’t be surprised to see Sansa’s name added to that list, though if she does survive she could end up in a powerful position at the end of Season 8.

While the goal of many other characters may be to be the one sitting on the Iron Throne when the series ends, this fan doesn’t think that Sansa will be the one to do so, though she will be in a position in power.

“I think she will be Queen in the North,” they speculate.

Samwell Tarly

Not only are some fans certain of his survival, but there’s also a somewhat popular theory that he’ll play a bigger role in the Game of Thrones world after all the fighting is said and done by essentially writing the books themselves.

After fleeing to safety with his loved ones, “he’ll be the one to literally write the Song of Ice and Fire, which recounts the events of all eight seasons,” redditor u/sypnosis suggests.

Redditor uArobin08 agrees. “Sam and his family are definitely gonna survive and he’ll write a book about the whole story at the end,” they write. “They killed his dad and brother just so Sam could get the house.”

Can you imagine any other character doing that? Well, maybe Lord Varys, who already knows everything that happened to everybody, but after him, Sam is the obvious choice, assuming the series decides to take this route at all.

Arya

Arya Stark is probably one of the best bets for which character will survive and it has nothing to do with what’s already happened in Westeros. George R.R. Martin’s wife famously told the writer she’d divorce him if he ever killed off Arya, which has led many fans to assume she’s make it through to the end of the series.

Then again, Maisie Williams, who plays Arya on the show, isn’t convinced.

“[George R.R. Martin’s] wife did actually say that if he ever kills off Arya or Sansa, she’s going to leave him,” Maisie Williams told Cosmopolitan in 2015.

However, that doesn’t guarantee Arya’s safety. It doesn’t mean she couldn’t be killed off on the show and survive in his books. And besides, that was three years ago now, and that could have changed.

In that Reddit thread, some fan argued that, at the very least, it makes her a strong candidate for survival. Combine that with her assassin skills, and her chances look pretty good.

No One

“Bittersweet” has been used to describe the final season and author George R.R. Martin’s ideal ending. Though this would be much more bitter than sweet, what if something (not necessarily the Army of the Dead) wipes out all of the characters we’ve gotten to know over these eight seasons — or at least all the major characters?

Game of Thrones Season 8 will premiere in April 2019 on HBO.

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