‘Game of Thrones Season’ 8 Air Date, Plot, Speculations: How Will the Final Season of the Epic Fantasy Series End?

“Game of Thrones” Season 8 is expected to end on a bittersweet note as George R.R. Martin isn’t fond of predictable conclusions. Everything that has been leading up to this moment has suggested this statement as major characters – protagonists or otherwise – have been killed off mercilessly.

While fans are predicting that the Night King (Vladimir Furdik) is going to be defeated by the combined forces of the South, it’s highly likely that their victory will be at a cost. The question now becomes: What is the price that the protagonists are going to pay in “Game of Thrones” Season 8 in order to finally put an end to this seemingly unstoppable force?

The most obvious answer is their lives. But again, this is a simple answer that doesn’t coincide with Martin’s line of thinking. Diving deeper into what the characters have now evolved into, fans can assume that it will be something intangible like honor or morality. And since Jon Snow (Kit Harington) is set to cross swords with the Night King in “Game of Thrones” Season 8, this possibility is still on the table.

Jon Snow, or Aegon Targaryen, has been portrayed as someone who values honor and morality even in the face of insurmountable odds. But what happens if these noble traits hinder the only path to victory that could see the Night King dead once and for all? Fans had already seen what happens when honor is valued above all else when Ned Stark (Sean Bean) refused to play the political game brewing unseen in King’s Landing. Will this same lightning strike in “Game of Thrones” Season 8?

Again, this is a possibility but not a certainty. However, since one of the main themes of the epic fantasy saga is sacrifice, Jon’s moral principles breaking becomes even more likely in “Game of Thrones” Season 8. Jon is already being touted as Azor Ahai. And the surrounding prophecy in this regard suggests that this hero will forge a terrible weapon “with a loving wife’s heart.”

Since Jon and Daenerys (Emilia Clarke) already started developing their romance in the previous installment, this supposed sacrifice will be none other than the Mother of Dragons herself. Nathalie Emmanuel, the actress playing Missandei, already hinted that the ending of “Game of Thrones” Season 7 is both mind-blowing and heartbreaking.

But the sacrifice doesn’t stop there. Popular fan theories would have it that the Night King and Bran Stark (Isaac Hempstead Wright) are one and the same. Indeed, there are several hints suggesting that this is the case. If these hints continue to pop up in the six episodes of “Game of Thrones” Season 8, then it’s likely that the theories have it right, which means Jon would need to kill Bran as well.

That would be quite the mind-blowing and heartbreaking conclusion to the epic series and will be in parallel with how Martin is approaching the fantasy genre. Sure, it will be dark but the whole show has been dark from the very beginning. Of course, this is just one avenue that showrunners can take and fans will have to wait for “Game of Thrones” Season 8 to come out in 2019 to know exactly how this beloved show is going to end.