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  • The marketing campaign for the final season of Game of Thrones is called ForTheThrone.

  • After seven seasons of conflict betrayal and death, who will win the Iron Throne, and rule Westeros in the end?

  • Daenerys says she was born to rule Westeros. She's a Targaryen, the family that made the Iron Throne, and ruled for three hundred years.

  • Daenerys spends seasons in the Dothraki Sea and Meereen learning how to be a queen.

  • And in Season 7, she invades Westeros, with her dragons and her army.

  • Dany's whole story has been leading up to her taking the Throneso it almost seems too obvious that she'll win.

  • The big question in Daenerys' story is 'what kind of queen is she?'

  • Does she burn all her enemies, or make peace?

  • Is she a tyrant like her father , or will she makethe world a better place” ?

  • Maybe Daenerys will prove herself a worthy queen by not taking the Throne.

  • In Season 2, Dany has a vision where she reaches for the Throne, but then turns away and goes beyond the Wall.

  • Just like in Season 7, when she chooses not to attack the capital , and instead goes beyond

  • the Wall, to fight white walkers. Daenerys realises that saving the world is more important than her war for the Throne.

  • But saving the world might cost Daenerys her life . According to legend, the white walkers

  • were defeated before by a warrior who sacrificed his beloved wife . It might be that Jon Snow

  • is this warrior, and that his love Daenerys will die. Daenerys could finally prove herself a worthy queen by giving up the Throne, and dying to save the realm.

  • But if Daenerys dies, who'll take the Throne?

  • In her vision, Daenerys seessnowon the Throne . So maybe Jon Snow will sit the Throne.

  • We learned in Season 7 that Jon is the rightful heir to the Throne

  • because he's the son of Rhaegar Targaryen . Jon might not want to be King of Westeros

  • he didn't want to be King in the North . But he'd likely accept the Throne if he saw it as his duty.

  • Jon becoming king would be kind of a fantasy cliché – a hero with a magic sword defeating the dark lord and ruling the realm.

  • Will Game of Thrones follow this trope?

  • There are lots of hints in the books that Jon will be king , but this could mean a darker, colder kind of king.

  • There are legends that humans once cooperated with white walkers, even married them.

  • Maybe Jon will make peace with the walkers by becoming their new Night King, maybe marrying one.

  • It'd be like how Jon makes peace with the wildlings after loving Ygritte.

  • There's all sorts of weird stuff in the lore about pacts and Stark blood and zombie-menso some kind of dark self-sacrifice might be Jon's fate.

  • If Jon does become a Night King or something, and Daenerys dies, maybe their child will survive.

  • There are lots of hints in Season 7 about Daenerys and Jon having kidsso maybe their child will sit the Throne – a son of ice and fire.

  • So those are the obvious optionseither Daenerys or Jon or their child on the Throne, with some kind of tragic magic sacrifice.

  • But there are other possibilities.

  • Gendry is the bastard son of King Robert Baratheon.

  • Bastards can't inherit a throneunless they're legitimized , like Ramsay Bolton was.

  • If Gendry was legitimized, he would be Robert's heir and, arguably, the rightful kingthis bastard boy from Flea Bottom could claim the Throne of his father.

  • But Gendry is a minor character.

  • He's not a political player, he's a blacksmith.

  • And he doesn't seem to want the Throne.

  • At most, he might rule the Stormlands, the home of House Baratheon.

  • But he isn't a very likely king.

  • In Season 1, Sansa Stark wants to be queen. She hopes to marry Prince Joffrey , and that doesn't work out.

  • But she spends the next six seasons learning politics from some of the most devious players of the game

  • like Cersei, Olenna, and Littlefinger. By Season 7, Sansa is a leader herself

  • she rules Winterfell with the support of the north and the Vale. After being used and abused for so long, Sansa really likes to be in charge.

  • And it's hinted that Sansa wants even more power. Sansa has no lawful claim to the Iron Throne

  • but maybe she could Littlefinger her way in, by murder or marriagethere are hints in the books that Sansa might marry Jon, or Young Griffit's a whole thing.

  • But the Season 7 finale and Sophie Turner's new tattoo make clear that Sansa is loyal

  • to the Starks, her home is Winterfell. So Sansa could end up Queen in the North

  • but the Iron Throne, at least in the show, seems less likely for Sansa.

  • Cersei Lannister now has the Thronebut she probably won't last .

  • She can't beat Daenerys and her dragons and Jon and the white walkers.

  • And the witch Maggy the Frog prophesied that Cersei will be cast down.

  • Cersei says that she'd rather die than surrender, like in Blackwater, when she almost committed suicide.

  • Cersei's on a path of self-destruction.

  • And one theory is that she'll try to use wildfire again, and that she'll be killed by her brother-lover Jaime.

  • Watch our Jaime and Cersei videos for more, but basically Jaime may kill the Mad Queen Cersei, just like he killed the Mad King Aerys years ago.

  • After Jaime killed Aerys, he briefly sat the Iron Throne.

  • So maybe he'll do the same after killing Cersei.

  • The Kingslayer and Queenslayer could be king, if only for a moment.

  • Cause Jaime may not outlive Cerseihe says he wants to die in her arms.

  • It'd be cool if Tyrion was kingthe despised exiled dwarf on the highest seat in the land.

  • Varys did say that a small man can cast a large shadow . But Tyrion doesn't want to be king

  • he says he wants to start a vineyard . And the people of Westeros don't want Tyrion

  • they hate him as a kinslayer, the murderous Imp who supposedly killed Joffrey.

  • Tyrion's more suited as an advisorhe could be Hand of the King or Queen, or a regent for Dany's child or something.

  • Maybe he'll rule the Lannister castle, Casterly Rock.

  • But Tyrion as a king seems unlikely.

  • Maybe Thrones will go full grimdark, and the white walkers will win.

  • All the characters we love will die, and become zombies, and the Night King will sit a cold Throne.

  • Game of Thrones is a brutal story, but there's always some hope amidst the darknessthat's why the characters keep fighting.

  • In an interview, author George Martin was asked if his series will endin some horrible apocalypse”, and Martin saidno”.

  • He says the end will be bittersweet, like the end of The Lord of the Rings

  • where the good guys win, but heroes like Frodo are damaged, and there a still problems, like the scouring of the Shire.

  • Martin says that's the kind of tone he wants for the end of Thrones, “a bittersweet victory”.

  • So the walkers won't win the Throne.

  • But there could be a different kind of twist.

  • Part of the point of Game of Thrones is to show the problems with the power structure that the Throne represents.

  • Cause the Throne puts madmen and drunkards and psychos in charge of the country.

  • It reduces women into pawns to be traded for titles.

  • It causes wars of succession, that burn the realm, and hurt the people, and distracts

  • from the real threat of the white walkersin the face of apocalypse, the throne

  • that everyone's fighting fordoesn't matter” . There are hints that the Throne will be destroyed.

  • In Daenerys' vision, and this worldbook art, we see the Throne room burned, by dragonfire or wildfire.

  • Maybe the Throne is broken, and the monarchy will end.

  • Westeros could split into seven kingdoms again, or try new forms of government, like Tyrion suggests.

  • Daenerys lets Meereenchoose their own leaders” – maybe breaking the wheel could mean some kinda democracy.

  • The end of the Iron Throne would bring uncertainty and loss, but also hope for future – a bittersweet victory, and a dream of spring.

  • Comment below who you think will win the Iron Throne.

  • If you wanna learn more about the history and lore and the meaning of Game of Thrones, you gotta check out the books.

  • As well as the main series, there are the Dunk and Egg prequels, the worldbook, and the new Fire and Blood history book.

  • You can get any of these for free today by signing up for a trial at audible.com/asx.

  • Members get a book each month, and if you cancel, you keep the books.

  • So next time you're driving, or at the gym, you can prepare for the final season of Game of Thrones.

  • Thanks for watching, and thanks to the Patrons, including Ria McDoodle, Malav Shah, Carlos Grau,

  • Michelle Broun, Kevin Ohlsson, Ian J Robinson, Gerhard Ackermann, Peter Alex, Trisha Hopkins,

  • Kristopher Mason, and Max P. Cheers.

The marketing campaign for the final season of Game of Thrones is called ForTheThrone.

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