Season after season, Game of Thrones makers have equally panned fandom to incorporate their plotline suggestions in the series
The best TV shows don’t spoon-feed the plot to you but deliver solid thrills and moral ambiguities. Fan theories exploit these ambiguities to come up with an unorthodox take on the story. They’re like fries, you can’t help but reach for another one.
While most fan theories tend to take a turn for the bizarre, some of them exhibit close attention to detail and foresight. Game of Thrones, a series so convoluted and twisted, choc-a-bloc with deaths and unexpected turns, has its own share of fan theories blowing up the internet. Some didn’t make the cut but many others did not just change the way we watched Game of Thrones but also went on to come true.
let’s take a look at eight fan theories which seemed outrageous at the time, but were proven right in the course of the show.
Jon Snow isn’t dead
Fans had their doubts about Jon Snow’s death, ranging from him being “warged” into his direwolf to turning into a whitewalker to being resurrected by the Red Queen Melisandre. With Melisandre at the Castle Black and Ghost’s refusal to leave Jon’s side, speculations were rife. Well, we all know who burst back to life, with only his direwolf present to witness the miracle of his rebirth.
Hold The Door, Hodor
One of the most insane fan theories, this was predicted by one crazy fan on Reddit eight years prior to the episode’s airing and soon it went viral. The fan suggested that “Hodor” is actually short for “Hold the Door”, the last word that Walder hears before brain damage and before it becomes the only word he remembers. It felt like a long shot but it was so compelling, it felt true. little did we know, it was only a matter of time!
Ramsey will die by being fed to his dogs
This may have been wishful thinking but it did turn out to be true. Season after season, the mind-numbingly evil Ramsey Bolton has troubled and killed people left, right and centre. From flaying people alive to feeding them to his ruthless dogs, raping Sansa Stark, brutalising women in general, murdering children to again feeding people to his dogs, Ramsey had rightfully earned the hatred of millions of people from around the globe. That hatred turned into a vengeful thought by fans who wished that Ramsey would die the same horrific death he subjected people to. Even better, they wished he died being fed to his own dogs, the same brutality he had unleashed on so many people.
After the Battle of Bastards, when Jon defeated Ramsey, fans waited with bated breaths to see how Ramsey would finally die. As Sansa, in all her glory came forward and spoke of her desire of feeding Ramsey to his dogs, it was a moment of celebrations for fans.
Arya Stark will leave Bravos to pursue her revenge list
Headstrong and warrior-like, Arya was a character every fan rooted for right since the beginning of the series. Unlike most other girls of that time, Arya was everything a girl wasn’t expected to be in that time. When Brienne wasn’t introduced into the series, Sansa was into knitting, sewing and busy dreaming about her marriage to Jeoffrey, helpless and at the mercy of her brother Viserys, a benevolent Arya stood out as a fighter. That moment when Jon gives her her first sword that she names “Needle” was a standout moment.
But Arya Stark’s character took an unimaginable turn from the moment she escaped King’s landing after her father was killed and her siblings separated. She was helpless, looking for direction and didn’t know where to begin on her famously plotted revenge list — a list of all the people who were the reason for her family’s downfall. Her plot went into a crazy spiral and fans were left wondering.
But a large chunk of these fans predicted that Arya will leave everything eventually to pursue her revenge and come back on track; that her time in Bravos was serving a purpose to make her an excellent swordswoman, a mighty fighter.
Well, the next thing we saw was Arya Stark slitting Walder Frey’s throat after feeding him a mince meat pie — the meat was of Frey’s sons.
Shireen will be at the stake
Melisandre sure likes her king’s blood. It comes in handy for a lot of things, whether she wants to make a shadow baby or throw leeches into the fire. But king’s blood has been in short supply in the North which is why this moment was much anticipated by fans yet shocked them still in their seats.
Some assumed she was there to introduce grayscale on the show, some said she was the Baratheon heir while many others rightfully pointed out that she was a sacrificial lamb for Melisandre. Viewers are still debating whether Shireen Baratheon’s was the most gut-churning moment in the show.
Cersei’s Deadly Revenge
With the deaths of Joffrey, Myrcella and Tywin, Cersei loses all semblance of sanity. After Cersei was robbed of a chance at trial by combat, she blew up the Sept of Baelor in an explosive Game of Thrones finale. But Reddit users saw Cersei’s devastating wildfire plan coming a mile away. Cersei’s obsession with burning things to the ground offered the little hints as season upon season, she continued shouting out lines like, “I will burn our house to the ground before I let that happen” and “I will burn their cities to the ground if they touch her” referring to Myrcella.
Well, it seems like Olenna Tyrell certainly underestimated Cersei’s thirst for revenge.
Sansa Stark is more than the victim she plays out to be
More than a prediction, fans must have actually wished she was more than a mere puppet. First at the hands of Jeoffrey then an easy target for littlefinger and going on to finally becoming a plaything for Ramsey Bolton or his wife...same thing. looking at her sad, pathetic life, fans of the show predicted that the Stark daughter had to have more to her than that and that just maybe, she would be the one whose hands Ramsey would die in. And that turned out to be true. Not only did she emerge to be one of the strongest Stark siblings in Season 6, she got Ramsey killed by convincing everyone, including her half-brother Jon, to go into battle against Ramsey. In his last moments, Sansa ordered without a single glint of remorse that Ramsey be fed to his dogs. Now, fans have predicted that she will turn out to become somewhat evil, going Cersei on all those who did wrong to her family. Well, she needs to get in line as Arya has already started that deed!
R+l=J
Finally, here is the moment that everyone has waited six seasons for! Readers of the book, TV show enthusiasts and everyone had predicted that Ned’s sister, lyanna Stark, and Daenerys’ brother, Rhaegar Targaryen, gave birth to a baby boy, Jon. Hence lyann + Rhaeger=Jon i.e. the popular theory - R+l=J.
This was established when everyone doubted how such an honourable, family man such as Ned Stark would even allow himself to forgo his honour, even for a short while, even for an hour. This theory became more and more popular as readers found that Ned’s flashbacks in his dreams always had a dying lyanna in a pool of blood say to him, “Promise me Ned, promise me.” The Season 6 finale episode confirmed this in Bran’s vision.
Did Hodor turn into a whitewalkerIJ Is Tyrion lannister a bastard TargaryenIJ Will Jamie be the Kingslayer twice overIJ Is Sansa Stark pregnant with Ramsay’s sonIJ Will Euron Greyjoycontrol a dragonIJ Will greyscale be used as a biological weapon of warfareIJ Is Varys a mermanIJ What will Samwell Tarly discover at the Citadel libraryIJ
The lawless and compelling world of Game of Thrones holds a myriad number of possibilities where the unlikeliest of hypotheses could be proven.
(Game of Thrones Season 7 is on 10 pm only on Star World)