'Game of Thrones'  Season 8 Spoilers: How to Stop the Night King AND Winter

Winter is coming has been the Game of Thrones tagline since Season 1. The Stark family motto originally seemed like a reference to the unusually long seasons experienced in Westeros, but as the Night King began his southern march, it’s taken on an even more sinister meaning.

But what if there’s a way to stop both winter and the White Walkers all at once in Game of Thrones Season 8? That’s exactly what an intriguing new theory suggests by linking the fictional world’s unusual seasons and its most menacing villain.

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Redditor u/devreddy theorizes that it’s the White Walkers who are behind the long seasons in Westeros. This fan theory references author George R.R. Martin’s own evasive explanation about the reasons the winter and summer seasons seem to last forever to back up the claim. Scientists and fans alike have tried to explain the reasons behind the climate of Westeros, but the reasons might be just as fantastical as the rest of Martin’s world.

“Because it was already established that White Walkers have control over weather (both in the show and in books), I think they are also responsible for long winters in Westeros as well,” u/devreddy writers. “And killing the Night King will bring the seasons back to normal, like the way we experience them.”

This fan might be onto something. If winter’s arrival coincides with the White Walkers’ movement past the wall (which the Night King destroyed at the end of Season 7), then it’s not outside the realm of possibility to suspect that the coming long winter could be diverted by defeating the Night King and his army.

Of course, this assumes that before the Children of the Forest created the Night King, the seasons were more like ours. But considering that his creations coincides with the arrival of the first humans in Westeros, there’s no way to know whether that’s true or not.

Map: Here’s where all your favorite characters will be during the Great Battle of Winterfell.

We’ve also seen proof that the White Walkers can bring cold weather with them. This happens in Season 5, Episode 8 (“Hardhome”) when the White Walkers seem to travel with a wintry storm. And in Season 7, Episode 1, Bran sees the Night King causing a storm in a vision. As Jon Snow said at the end of Season 6, “”The true enemy won’t wait out the storm. He brings the storm.”

Though they do bring the cold, it might not necessarily mean the White Walkers need it. They’re the undead, so it’s likely that they could survive in any weather, hot or cold, though that might not be true for the Night King’s army of weights. The Night King may also realize that freezing temperatures give him an advantage over humans.

With the [Great Battle of Winterfell]((https://www.inverse.com/article/55132-game-of-thrones-season-8-episode-3-runtime-battle-of-winterfell) on the way and the White Walkers set to attack in Episode 3, “Winter is here,” might prove to be one of the biggest understatements of the series, but perhaps killing the Night King once and for all could end the long winter before it can truly begin.

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