Who won the Iron Throne? How your season 8 predictions unfolded for the ending of Game of Thrones
Note: this piece contains multiple spoilers concerning the plot of Game of Thrones seasons 1-8
When you play the Game of Thrones you win or you die. There is no middle ground – so Cersei Lannister coolly said to Ned Stark. Of course they’re both dead.
The show’s season eight has finally ended and we know who won – and whether it matched your predictions. In the lull before each episode we’ve been speculating on directions the plot might take. We've been using your responses, to generate our collective best guesses for each week’s twists and turns.
A big thank-you to everyone who played!
We’ve really enjoyed seeing how well everyone has done at guessing the coming twists. We’ve moved the final game down the page, as there are no more predictions to make. Now let’s take a look at how you did with the finale:
Your Game of Thrones predictions
Week 6: The Iron Throne
First thing’s first – Bran Stark was never one of our candidates to finally win the throne. He never seemed that likely, which makes his eventual coronation quite the twist. Although 49 per cent of you thought he was up to no good in Week 4 – and what could be more “no good” than having the power to predict the future and allowing a million people to be burned alive so you’d end up king?
In things we did get right – this episode confirmed the 82 per cent of you who believed Cersei had actually died when the roof caved in on her last week. Also, people said Brienne would be back – and she was!
Technically, Jon stopped Drogon, as the big guy was unwilling to burn him to a frazzle when Daenerys died. And it might have been a Targaryen thing. Arya probably would have killed Dany, if Jon hadn't done it...
Most popular candidate for the Iron Throne: Jon Snow. Frankly, he was robbed! Although at least he’ll be happier running around and having adventures with his friends and his dog.
Week 5: The Bells
By some margin the most popular predictions from last week had both Bronn and Jaime trying to kill Cersei. Unless we see a truly mind-blowing twist in the finale that doesn’t seem to be on the cards. On the more accurate side of things, regular readers were not remotely surprised at Dany’s turn to the dark side – hey, there was even wildfire just the way her dad would have wanted!
In other news, two of our picks for the chop met their end this week. Euron did indeed meet his end, although it might have been wishful thinking that had him picked as our fan favourite to die. Readers are also pretty firmly of the opinion that we’ve seen the last of the wildlings.
Most popular candidate for the Iron Throne: Sansa Stark. Surprising, but at least it wasn’t Cersei!
Week 4: The Last of the Starks
Last week’s biggest prediction was that we’d be seeing friction between Cersei and Euron. Bafflingly, that doesn’t seem to have been the case with the pirate king deliriously happy and perhaps we even saw a little twinkle in Cersei’s habitual smirk. Next week though, it has to kick off as Tyrion seems to have rather let the cat out of the bag about the coming baby.
Wisely, our readers warned that Sansa is a huge threat to Dany’s ambitions and this did play out, with some judiciously-spread information to her loyal advisers. Perhaps unexpectedly, there was also support for Sansa and Tyrion giving their marriage a second chance.
In other news, Bran Stark is not as benevolent as he seems and has a nefarious plan for the Seven Kingdoms. Oh, and in a triumph for the predictor crowd, we all saw Jaime/Brienne as on the cards two weeks before it happened!
Most popular candidate for the Iron Throne: Sansa Stark, in her first week on our contenders list
Week 3: The Long Night
Last week saw a big upswell of support for Tyrion Lannister, as overwhelmingly readers put him down as loyal and to remain at Daenerys’s right hand for the foreseeable future.
The dead-pool we ran turned out to get nothing right – perhaps Game of Thrones is turning into a show that surprises you by not killing off the main characters. Several times we thought Grey Worm was definitely done for, in the whirl of action around Winterfell – close but no cigar.
On a downer note, maybe we’re never going to learn what those spiral patterns the White Walkers left actually meant. If the Night King was going to get a monologue, this would have been the week.
On the longer-term view, almost nobody thinks that Sansa and Dany will wind up best buds. Are these two the main contenders for who will rule Westeros at the end of the show?
Most popular candidate for the Iron Throne: Daenerys Targaryen, back on top
Week 2: A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms
This second predictor was on the money for quite a few plot developments. Far and away most readers don’t see Samwell Tarly as the vengeful type – we’ve yet to see if they’re 100 per cent right.
On the other hand, we did successfully predict Arya and Gendry’s eve of battle tryst – and that Bran wouldn’t be blabbing anyone’s secrets for the foreseeable future. Unless you count weird, cryptic remarks that only the audience would necessarily get. Also, no elephants for Cersei this week and possibly never.
Jaime Lannister also wound up getting inducted into the northern army pretty quickly, just as you predicted last week.
Interestingly, a large number of readers want Jon and Dany to stay together, despite their auntie/nephew relationship. Perhaps that’s just because it’s Westeros’s best hope to defeat the White Walkers...
Most popular candidate for the Iron Throne: Jon Snow
Week 1: Winterfell
Our first edition of the Game of Thrones predictor was quite speculative, due to the year-plus gap between seasons seven and eight. Nonetheless, several trends emerged. In short, people wanted a happy ending and the real baddies punished.
Wildly the most popular theory was that Cersei has been lying about being pregnant again, as a ploy to manipulate her brothers. Surely she would never sink so low! People also want to see Arya wreak vengeance against the Lannister queen – a real tribute to Lena Headey’s performance.
The third most-popular plot outcome was that Jaime Lannister would be welcomed to the North with open arms. That’s still in the process of playing out, but puts the Lannister siblings at the dramatic heart of the show going forward.
Most popular candidate for the Iron Throne: Daenerys Targaryen
