TheGame of Thrones power rankings decide who is most likely to rule Westeros at the end of Season 8.
We're making these predictions based on what the showrunners are likely to think is the best possible story. You can see the previous rankingshere.
Night King, we hardly knew ye.
For the first time since we began ranking in 2015, there's no space for ol' blue eyes. The big boss of the White Walkers could have had it all -- he was rarely out of the top 3 in this list -- if ruling Westeros was his goal. All he had to do was stay away from the front lines of his unstoppable army. But no, the Night King had to go Three-eyed Raven hunting, and got an icy shiv from Arya for his troubles.
There's a lesson here for all our players: arrogance will come back to haunt you eventually. Far better to fail upwards towards the throne, as noted in my theory that Game of Throneswill now end with total Stark victory.
But is that the only possible ending? It is not. Let's survey the field.
Our Revenge of the Nerdsconcept was that Sam will enter the game as the new head of House Tarly, rallying the banners against Dany, the woman who murdered his father and brother. However, that scenario was dealt a major blow when Sam spent the entire Battle of Winterfell weeping.
The Kingslayer still has a better claim to the throne than his twin sister. The traditional rules of tragedy suggest he'll be the one to finally end her rein -- an echo, perhaps, of the moment when he had no choice but to kill the Mad King. Then again, Jaime also signed up to the disastrous military strategy of fighting the undead outside the walls of Winterfell, so there's no guarantee he'll survive the Last War -- especially not when Bronn is lurking somewhere with a crossbow.
Sure, the Three-Eyed Raven has no interest in governing -- but that doesn't mean he won't be installed by his family. Indeed, his disassociation from actual human life may make Bran the perfect figurehead in a new constitutional democracy. Besides, who better to put on the Throne than someone who can see every coup attempt coming from three moves away?
The woman who bought the most powerful mercenary army in the world. The man who built the most powerful fleet in the world. And neither of them have to face the Dothraki or the Unsullied any more. Is there anything that could stop this power couple, this ultimate marriage of convenience? Oh yeah, the 99-percent chance that they're going to try to double-cross each other. And we all know who'll win that contest.
Give the master manipulator her due: she was right to hang back in the Great War against the undead. Now her Northern foes and the dragon queen are more depleted than they've ever been. Realistically, there's very little that could stop Cersei holding on to the Iron Throne three episodes hence -- except for the fact that it would be a profoundly uninspired ending. After all, the show by this point has trained us to expect that she'll win.
That look in the Winterfell crypt said it all: Tyrion and Sansa have major respect for each other. Theirs would be a political rather than a romantic match, but this alliance of ultimate survivors also happens to be the leadership dream team. Westeros should be so lucky. It probably won't be, unless the theory about Tyrion also being a secret Targaryen turns out to be true.
She's pissed off the North, lost the majority of her fighting force, and her fire-breathing children are hardly at full strength. So why are we rating Dany so highly? Because of this possible ending: she wins the Last War, but loses her dragons in the process. The only way she can govern is by giving the North its independence. That scenario looks distinctly more likely if it's ...
He has a stronger claim to the throne than she does. However, he also wants it less. So we can see Jon officially renouncing his claim and becoming consort to Queen Daenerys in exchange for the North's independence (Sansa becomes Queen in the North in this scenario). This would no doubt be a crowd-pleasing ending -- just don't mention that whole auntie-nephew thing.
As outlined in our Stark victory theory, the most likely ending is that Dany dies, Jon ascends to the throne alone, then abdicates in favor of some proto-democratic system. But what if he can't? What if his advisers beg him not to step down, fearing the chaos it could bring? That would make for a richly ironic ending -- the King who never wanted the role, who wanted to break the wheel and bring about a different form of government, trapped at the top by the system itself.
The throne left empty -- or perhaps melted down. The wheel of monarchy broken and a new more democratic system established. Even without the scenario where the Night King eradicates everyone, the option where no King or Queen governs Westeros at the end remains the most likely scenario. Quite apart from anything else, this ending is the only way to prevent fans from clamoring for a sequel.
TopicsGame Of Thrones
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