Game of Thrones season 8 episode 3: Who will live and who will die?
Bella Ramsey as Lady Lyanna Mormont. Photo: HBO
Lyanna Mormont
Brace yourselves, this one is going to be absolutely horrendous. We’re pretty sure Lady Lyanna Mormont, queen of armor and staring down men and women twice her age, is going to meet her maker in this episode. It’s horrible, and Game of Thrones never shies away from horrible, does it?
First there’s the fact that The Night King loves children. From all the babies of Craster’s Keep to little Ned Umber (whom Jon could have mourned a bit more if we’re honest!), children have been of particular use to the White Walkers. We can only assume The Night King is putting on an amateur production of Annie once all this has blown over.
Secondly, there’s the fact we watched Lyanna determinedly tell Ser Jorah to stick his pleas for her to join the other women and children (of which she is, notably, both) in the notoriously extremely safe crypts, determined as she is to lead her House in a battle that the fearsome Grey Worm himself cannot win. Could this mean the end of the Mormonts?
Look, we absolutely hate it and the Game of Thrones creative teams are monsters, but unfortunately…you don’t get to watch a character this lovable on a show like this for long.
Chance of survival: We miss her already.
Podrick Payne
There’s too many characters. Podrick’s got to go, for our sanity in this death pool alone.
My apologies, my sweet-singing angel.
Chance of survival: Singing his (swan) song.
Varys
Melisandre prophesied that this sly old dog would die in Westeros, and since he is in the noted and renowned safe crypts, you would be forgiven for thinking that fate could be avoided here.
Nope. He’s a goner. Unfortunately, as with dear Beric, he serves little to no purpose at the moment, has no real scores to settle, but his presence with us from day one would make his demise a gloriously shocking one. It hits all of Game of Thrones’ tick boxes.
Chance of survival: The spider’s twitching on its back.
Jaime Lannister
If his redemption arc wasn’t enough, this spooky threat from Bran just might be: “What makes you so sure there is an afterwards?”
That would also explain Not-All-Bran’s attitude to forgiveness: letting your enemies live when you know they’re going to die a day later at the hands of a zombie is a poetic sort of justice indeed.
But Bran isn’t really like that, so it may just be that his death will be heartbreaking to all those who have gone on this journey with him (i.e. us and Brienne). He will die defending Winterfell (he himself has pointed out this particular irony) and news of his death will no doubt be delivered painfully to Cersei, who will be equal parts upset about it and furious that it wasn’t her who did it.
Who could have imagined Jaime Lannister dying a hero’s death in Season 1? That’s precisely why he’s going to now. We’d bet a lot of money that he is one of the “beloved heroes” lying outside the gates of Winterfell, as described by Entertainment Weekly when they visited the set.
Chance of survival: Goodnight sweet prince. The rest is silence.
Ser Brienne of Tarth
If you’d asked us before the last episode, we’d have said Jaime to die, Brienne to live. But now, with her greatest wish to become a knight achieved, we are living in abject fear.
It would make glorious vindictive sense to the Game of Thrones team to gift us this perfect moment of her being knighted, and dare we say loved, by Jaime Lannister, and then rip it all away.
Also, not to editorialize, but tell us you can’t see a moment between Jaime and Tormund, if they live and she doesn’t, going a bit like this quote from the movie One Day:
"Tormund: “She made you decent. And in return you made her so happy.”"
It’s too much for one heart. Can we really live in a world where Brienne dies? We just might have to.
Chance of survival: All her life she’s been knocking men to the dust. Please don’t stop now, Ser Brienne.
Samwell Tarly
Sam’s only hope is that he is the one to raise the alarm about White Walkers overrunning the crypt. We’ve mentioned his completion of the Titanic-esque tableau between him and Gilly and Baby Sam, plus the fact he’s divulged his salient information means he may no longer be essential to the plot, and should Bran live.
He would make an excellent Maester or even Hand of the King, should it come to that (it absolutely won’t) and we’d love him to survive. Give him a proper hero moment, instead of an unlikely one. Again, not to commit this death pool to fanfiction, we’re also vaguely attached to the idea of Sam turning out to be the one writing the Song of Ice and Fire at the end. He loves books, and we love a cheesy full circle.
Unfortunately, however, George R.R. Martin… not so much. Needless heart-pain and loss of beloved characters? Oh yes. Much more his thing.
Chance of survival: Don’t bank on it.
Davos Seaworth
Trying to make everyone feel better about having no combat experience by telling them how you survived two massive battles? Oh yeah, Davos, you’re a goner, as much as we’d like you to end up Hand of the King/Queen to someone (Gendry…).
Chance of survival: We’re not crying, White Walkers have just been cutting Onion Knights.