Game of Thrones season 8 spoilers: They didn’t start the fire

A new series of leaks for Game of Thrones season 8 declares that a popular fan theory for a confirmed event might not actually be true.

Warning: Game of Thrones fans, it’s back into the serious potential spoilers realm today. Brace yourselves.

There’s one thing we know for certain about King’s Landing in season 8 of Game of Thrones: it’s going to burn. (That’s really tough to hide for production.) Pretty much everything beyond that lies in the realm of elaborate, if well-supported, conjecture, including the thought that a dragon would burn King’s Landing down.

Apparently, that might not actually be the case.

These spoilers come to us via Frikidoctor by way of r/freefolk, with the subreddit’s ongoing thread of spoilers providing this summary of the two biggest points:

"Tyrion is responsible for the fire that kills thousands of King Landing’s inhabitantsThe last scene Peter Dinklage filmed was Tyrion walking through the destroyed streets filled with burned corpses, accompanied by Jon and Davos"

You’ll be forgiven if your first reaction to this is simply “Wait, what?” That’s what this spoiler provoked from this writer, for example. However, as commenters noted in the thread dedicated to these spoilers, this final scene might actually be a response to the loot train attack’s aftermath. At the same time, though, it’d be twisted — since Tyrion does the walk in season 7 alone, but would have others walking with him here. Jon and Davos seem like wise choices, though, since Jon and Tyrion still have a connection, and where Jon goes, Davos usually follows.

Although there’s speculation in the thread that Tyrion’s trying to save the city by burning it, why would that qualify specifically as treason? That that is the crime for which he’ll be executed comes from a previous leak.

Sure, it’s burning the capital city down, and treason doesn’t always have a clear-cut definition. At the same time, it’s still a bit of a stretch to have that translate to plotting against one’s sovereign specifically. Unless Daenerys is in the city at the time — and that’s a possibility — then it’s hard to see how that would translate. To be fair, you don’t usually have to succeed in trying to murder a ruler in order to be tried and put to death for treason, and since Daenerys is still fireproof, as far as we know, then Tyrion wouldn’t succeed. (The Gunpowder Plot, anyone?)

Perhaps he doesn’t even know she’s in the city at the time. That would square Peter Dinklage’s comments about Tyrion’s feelings toward Daenerys, although love can pretty easily turn to hate. There’s a reason we talk about crimes of passion, after all. All the same, it appears that Daenerys should be involved somehow in the burning of King’s Landing, the aftermath, or otherwise have her person affected. We don’t think the Iron Throne’s going to melt or anything, after all.

We still have more questions, though. How does Tyrion actually succeed in burning the city down? Does he steal a dragon to do it? Is there still wildfire available, and will the flames fans saw at the Belfast set be colored green in post-production? He’s still good at elaborate plans, but this seems like a challenge.

Do you believe these spoilers? Tell us in the comments below.