➤ Game of Thrones: what if the real villain was someone else? 🎮

The most epic TV show in history comes to an end: here's a new theory that could make you look at the latest episodes of the season with new eyes.

I state that the delusional theory you will read below is not all my work. Some elements are well known to enthusiasts, others are the result of some reflection and some reading of the always interesting Encyclopedia of the Chronicles of Ice and Fire.

Second fundamental premise, the writer has not yet finished reading the books (I would not bear the wait for the last one) so these considerations are based exclusively on what has been seen in the TV series, although enriched with elements taken from the books but necessarily acquired from the relato

Third premise: This article contains possible spoilers on the third and fourth episode of the eighth season.

The third episode of the eighth season has literally divided the audience between those who appreciated it, considering it one of the highest points reached by the television medium and those who instead believe that with it, after a seventh season like this, it definitely went to be blessed. every narrative coherence not only with what is told by the books - which could also be justified, given that Game of Thrones is something different from the literary saga of Martin and not an exact transposition of his stories - but also with what is seen in the show.

The main criticism of the third episode of the last season, if we exclude those in terms of military strategy which, frankly, leave the time they find (we are still talking about a series with dragons, undead, revived and fireproof queens), concerned in particular the abandonment of the narrative line represented by the prophecies concerning theAzor Ahai and the prince who was promised, kept throughout all seven seasons and then suddenly disregarded by the epilogue with Arya heroine of Winterfell.

The prophecies

The prophecy ofAzor Ahai, or the prince who was promised, makes an appearance on the TV show with the priestess Melisandre and with the Master Aemon Targaryen, third son of King Maekar I and grand master of the Night's Watch, in some exchanges these characters had with Stannis Baratheon and Sam Turly respectively.

As a Chronicle of Ice and Fire Wiki reports, the prophecy of the "prince who was promised" tells of the birth of a prince, the very incarnation of the legendary hero Azor Ahai, whose destiny is to save the world from darkness. Born from the union of two antithetical elements, his will be the song of ice and fire. Prophecy is a crucial element of the books, but it also assumes a certain relevance in the television show since even in this several narrative lines intersect with it, determining the fate of some main characters. How can we forget, for example, that of Stannis Baratheon, incorrectly indicated by Melisandre as the chosen one, or of Daenerys, indicated by Aemon as the princess to whom the prophecies refer or that of Jon Snow and finally of Arya Stark, who, after the initial error, is indicated by Melisandre as the one destined to end the existence of many "blue eyes".

Even more interesting is the prophecy of the Bringer of light, the legendary sword that can fight the darkness. This is not mentioned in the TV show, but it is still interesting to observe how in our analysis it is able to explain some of the latest events narrated on the HBO show.

“Darkness has enveloped the whole world and a hero, Azor Ahai, has been chosen to fight it. To do this, he needs to forge a hero sword. He thus works thirty days and thirty nights until he completes the work, but when he dips it in water to temper it, the sword breaks. Azor Ahai is not a man who gives up easily, so he starts all over again: for the second sword he takes fifty days and fifty nights and this time, to temper it, he captures a lion and pierces his heart, but, again, the metal of the sword. sword breaks. The third time, with a heart full of sadness because he understands what he needs to complete the sword, he works for a hundred days and a hundred nights until the weapon is completed. Once finished, he calls Nissa Nissa, his wife, and asks her to uncover her chest and pierces her: the woman's soul joins the metal of the sword, thus giving birth to Lightbringer. "

The end of narrative coherence?

The third episode of the eighth season seems to have shed light, surprisingly, on the name of the promised Prince: Arya Stark. Trained to be a "no one", to escape the god of death, it is itself the executioner of the bringer of darkness. But is it really so? Are we really sure that the prophecy is fulfilled with Arya? And the magic sword? and the song of ice and fire? and the star of blood that heralded the arrival of the savior? Is it possible that an event as important as the end of one of the main narrative elements of the entire series ends like this in 20 seconds? Could it be that the role of one of the protagonists in the mother of all battles, and we obviously refer to Jon Snow, was to kill some undead and shout at a dragon? Not even a crossing of swords with the Night King or a joke? but rather a Night King who almost avoids confrontation, not paying even a minimum of attention to the undisputed protagonist of Game of Thrones? Could that be all there is to it?

Let me be clear, Arya is a perfect character for the task entrusted to her by destiny. Silent killer, so much so as to be invisible even to the god of death, is now something more than a Stark and certainly the twist of the dagger that slips from one hand to the other piercing the king of the night in the exact point where he is created with dragon glass, it took everyone by surprise. But is a twist in a series like GOT enough to solve the intricate web of theories, clues, conspiracies, clashes, developed over the course of almost 9 years of filming? Definitely no.

A new hope

Despite everything, I can't believe the writers ended one of the most epic tales in television history with a Deus Ex Machina. It will be my extreme optimism, it will be that I have never trusted the simplest explanation, with all due respect to Occam's razor, but I am still convinced that the real "prince who was promised" is Jon.

Just two episodes from the end, I realize that mine is a risky thesis. Too many things that distance Jon from the legendary figure of Azor Ahai: the Night King is now deceased and his return is highly unlikely; Snow's sword, Long Claw, is not at all similar to the one described in the prophecy which, according to legend, will be flaming and shining as if with its own light; finally only Cercei separates Daenerys from the Iron Throne.

But are we really sure we've seen it all? After all, there are two episodes of 1h and thirty each missing and therefore it is still possible for us to hope that not all of that perfect gear that is the work of Martin has been lost.

So let's try to pull the strings of what has been said so far. A prince born of ice and fire will brandish a flaming sword tempered in water, in the blood of the lion and in that of the woman he loves. and with it he will definitively defeat the darkness. Symbology, which has always been a fundamental element of any self-respecting fantasy, is even more so in Martin's work, for whom nothing is left to chance. Just as it is no coincidence that the Starks have a direwolf as a symbol of their lineage and the Targaryens a dragon.

Are you starting to understand where I want to go? Not yet? Think about it for a moment: we are in the fourth episode and apparently the only antagonists left in the race are Euron and Cercei. Doesn't Euron Greyjoy have a huge Kraken towering over the water in his banner? And doesn't Cercei have the Lannister lion in her own? And isn't the prophecy really about water and blood of a lion?

If Jon killed the two aforementioned protagonists with his sword, however, something would still be missing for the Lightbringer to manifest. The blood of the beloved. But we have that too, don't worry.

Already starting from the sixth season the character of Daenerys has had a negative evolution, according to many. The queen of dragons, increasingly obsessed with her destiny "as ruler of the seven kingdoms" and legitimate heir to the Iron Throne, over the last two seasons, has transformed from a "chain breaker" into a despotic, fickle, at times tyrannical. His expectation that Jon Snow kneels, the little pity he shows towards those who, even with honor, refuse to submit, the way in which he seems to exploit his love for Jon (whom we believe sincere) to ask them to give up to his name, and finally the killer look with which the fourth episode of the last season closes, do not bode well and are clear signs of a radical change.

The beloved bride of Azor Ahai prophecy, then, if the assumptions made so far are correct, it could be Daenerys. who, maddened by the loss of all her friends and the fear of losing her much-coveted throne to a legitimate male heir, would be willing to wipe King's Landing and its inhabitants off the face of the earth. If this is the case, then Jon to save thousands of people from the murderous rampage of Daenerys will only be able to sink his blade into the heart of his beloved, ending the existence of the Queen of Dragons and her incredible epic and fulfilling to the prophecy of the "bearer of light".

But at this point, without the Night King, what good would this legendary sword be? Let us not forget the task of the prince who was promised, is to defeat the darkness. But what darkness does the prophecy refer to now that the outsiders have been defeated?

Here the clues scattered on the field by the writers end and we enter the field of hypotheses, so take it all with a grain of salt.

"Divide et impera"

With the premise that part of this theory began to circulate a few days ago on Reddit, in the opinion of the writer, to the question posed above it is possible to give only one answer: the real villain of the entire Game of Thrones series is one and only one: the three-eyed crow.
His role in the whole affair is decidedly obscure. Why do the children of the forest turn to him, a human? Why is his shelter full of skeletons and skulls? What are the real intentions of the children of the forest and those of the Night King? Of course, exterminating humans was in the initial plans of the children of the forest and strangers but in the last siege, the real goal of the Night King seems to be Bran and frankly the justification that the characters seem to give themselves: he wants to kill Bran because he wants to "erase the memory of men ”, it seems rather insane. The memory of men is contained in the texts of the Old Town library.

The real target of the Night King is therefore Bran and only Bran, or rather the three-eyed crow. In the battle of Winterfell, he doesn't even try to fight Jon Snow, he just wants to slow him down.
If this were true, if the Three-Eyed Raven was something / someone different from what we have been told, everything seen so far would take on a new meaning. Even the role of strangers.

The game of the throne, the battle of Winterfell, the impending clash of King's Landing, could be the realization of an ingenious and diabolical plan to end the reign of men. By acting on the weakness of these, on their desires, on their primordial fears and pitting them against each other, the Three-Eyed Raven would have manipulated the minds of the protagonists in the shadows by making men annihilate themselves. "Divide et impera"