Game of Thrones season 8: Will the show kill Daenerys?

Is it possible that Game of Thrones season 8 could go so far as to kill off one of its most iconic characters in the final season?

Let’s just get right into it: Could Daenerys Targaryen die in Game of Thrones season 8? Metro in the UK found a proposal from a fan that seems to make a lot of sense, but it’s originally on Reddit. While the user, thetripleb, doesn’t provide any sort of justification for their assumption, they do provide a situation: Daenerys becomes pregnant by Jon Snow, births a child (or, as they suggest, twins), but then perishes herself.

It would also neatly parallel the situation that led to Jon Snow’s origins: after all, his own mother, Lyanna Stark, dies just after he’s born. Additionally, Emilia Clarke has spoken previously about her reaction to the actual season 8 scripts. At the time, we speculated that Daenerys might die just because of how strong Clarke’s response seems to have been.

Would it be the most solid ending? Well, perhaps. Jon’s story has always been one of abandonment and loss — his birth parents, the man he believed to be his father, Ygritte (to whom thetripleb alludes), father figures, friends … The list goes on, really. But that’s just been Jon’s story.

This is something I’ve talked about with our sister site, Winter is Coming, on WiC Live, but let’s dive deep into why it wouldn’t be great for Daenerys. Daenerys’ story is ultimately about triumph over barriers presented to her by her world because of her gender and at the expense of her romances. Khal Drogo dies, and she’s still the Khaleesi. She finds something with Daario Naharis, but leaves him behind in Essos because she has seven kingdoms to conquer. She’s not supposed to be the head of the Targaryen reconquest of Westeros; her brother is. But he dies midway through the first season, and Daenerys survives (oh, and also has dragons).

And in that sense, killing off Daenerys mostly for shock value and for Jon’s pain would be a not-so-great ending for Game of Thrones‘ female fanbase (or, come to think of it, the male fanbase either, since women aren’t and shouldn’t be portrayed as disposable).

Next: Is there an early exit in Arya's future?

Of course, this is all a theory, and thetripleb has some other major theories (like Cersei becoming a member of the undead! Now that would require some makeup work). But for now, we’re worried about Daenerys most of all.