'Game of Thrones' Season 8 Theory Might Finally Reveal Cersei's Valonqar

With Game of Thrones Season 8 being the last, even the characters who’ve managed to survive this long could die. After all, the HBO series is well-known for killing off important people at a moment’s notice, usually in a very gruesome fashion. At the top of that list for most fans is likely Cersei Lannister, and a new theory may explain how an earlier prophecy could be twisted to kill off the hated character in an unexpected way.

Possible spoilers for Game of Thrones Season 8 below.

Back in Season 7, Cersei revealed to Jaime that she was pregnant, but an important piece of the prophecy she received as a child from Maggy the Frog might be bad news for both Cersei and her unborn baby.

One part of Maggy’s prophecy, which we saw in a flashback on Game of Thrones, revealed that Cersei would have three children, and they would all die. That already happened, but there’s another clue that could have big implications in Season 8.

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In the fourth book of George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series, A Feast for Crows, Maggy tells Cersei that the valonqar (High Valyrian for “little brother”) will be the one to end her life. This portion of the prophecy isn’t mentioned on Game of Thrones, but there’s still time for it to come into play. Fans have long speculated that Tyrion (and even Jaime) would be the “little brother” to kill Cersei. It partly explains why she hates and wants to kill Tyrion. (The other reason being she blames him for their mother’s death and later the murder of their father, Tywin.)

Enter redditor u/Namez_Are_Hard, who suggests that it won’t be Tyrion or Jaime who kills Cersei. Instead, she’ll die in childbirth.

“What if she’s pregnant with another son, and while giving birth to him, she dies,” they write. “She is killed by the Valonqar. Nowhere in Mags prophecy does it say HER valonqar, just THE valonqar.”

The prophecy specifically states that she’ll be choked to death with “his hands about your pale throat,” but that could just translate to Cersei being in the clutches of death. After all, prophecies aren’t always literally translated, and if the baby is a boy, then the theory makes sense. He’d be the youngest of Cersei’s children, “little brother” to the three preceding him.

Furthermore, multiple women have died during childbirth on Game of Thrones. Cersei’s mother died while giving birth to Tyrion, and Lyanna Stark died while secretly giving birth to Aegon Targaryen (aka Jon Snow). So it isn’t outside the realm of possibility that the same thing could happen to Cersei.

Cersei also won’t see it coming. With the way the show’s heavily played up her bitterness and distrust of Tyrion throughout the seasons, Cersei always kept her youngest brother at a distance and treated him like an enemy. Still, she’d at least be more prepared if Tyrion tried to kill her — but not her own child. Cersei’s survived three births; she has no reason to believe her body can’t handle another one.

There’s also another option: Euron Greyjoy. “Little brother” doesn’t have to mean someone related to Cersei, and so the prophecy could also apply to the King of the Iron Islands and the younger brother of Balon Greyjoy. Euron wants power and has his eyes set on ruling Westeros. He’s also violent, disloyal, and harbors a bad temper, so it’s not far-fetched to assume he’d eventually kill Cersei to rule on his own.

Of course, this theory banks on the fact that Cersei is telling the truth about being pregnant. Whether she is or isn’t actually pregnant (Cersei has lied before and she’d do it again), there’s plenty of reason to believe the prophecy will come true before the season ends.

Game of Thrones Season 8 airs Sundays at 9 p.m. Eastern on HBO.