Game of Thrones season 8 spoilers: A death affects the pride?

Game of Thrones could show a new gift for one of its more powerful characters and bring an excellent character arc to a premature end when season 8 arrives.

Warning: While these may just be Game of Thrones rumors, at least for now, they do seem like they could be true based on where they’re coming from, which means they could be spoilers.

Game of Thrones has never been shy about surprising its audience. In fact, one might say that it’s even one of the reasons the show has done so well since it debuted. (Well, it’s probably that and the ever-increasing budget.) Whether it’s the Knights of the Vale riding in to save Jon Snow’s attempt to retake Winterfell or Cersei Lannister destroying the Sept of Baelor and a slew of her enemies in the process, the show likes its spectacles.

What better spectacle, then, than the rumors from r/freefolk that have it that Melisandre will command the dead in an encounter with the Night King? Before you simply dismiss this as another fake spoiler, consider that the same poster also put some hugely significant photos on the internet and claimed they merely couldn’t take pictures of the other events they describe.

This isn’t to say that makes the claim absolutely true, but it certainly lends credence to the theory. Additionally, Melisandre has already shown some talents with the dead. How big of a step is commanding the undead after resurrecting someone who’d been stabbed a lot? It doesn’t seem like much, really, especially not for a character like Melisandre, who has shown she can do quite a lot even if she’s not always great at interpreting what she sees.

But perhaps the bigger of the two tidbits is this: there is now a claim that Jaime Lannister will die.

Let’s face it: Jaime starts Game of Thrones acting like trash. There’s not much lower to go than pushing a kid out of a window in the first episode. But since then, the show has quietly explored Jaime’s psyche and given him the kind of character development that means we legitimately worried about his death last season after “The Spoils of War.”

Granted, the claim goes that “Jamie Lannister will die in Brienne arms [sic].” If that’s the case, then presumably this will be a big, emotional moment. We already have heard rumors that will put Jaime and Brienne together on the battlefield.

At that time, I predicted that the two would fight to protect a Stark, but guessed it would be Arya or Sansa.

To go all out, what if Jaime dies protecting not just the sisters, but their brother as well? Bran, after all, is only in his chair because of Jaime. It would make a marvelous way to bookend the first and last seasons.

Next: More season 8 spoilers: Timeline trouble

Let’s just hope the Night King doesn’t immediately resurrect him.