Game of Thrones delivered an unexpected ending earlier this year. As season seven ended with the reveal of Jon Snow’s (played by Kit Harington) heritage, viewers believe he would ultimately end up on the Iron Throne as king of Westeros. Unfortunately for Jon, it didn’t exactly go down that way, and he was eventually banished to the Night’s Watch for killing Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke).
The final scenes of the show saw Jon walking north with the remains of the Free Folk, before looking into the camera and bringing the show to an end.
While it looks like he was escorting the people back to their land, viewers believe this was actually a hint at Jon’s wider future.
In fact, fans are convinced Jon would defect to the north to become the next Mance Rayder (Ciarán Hinds) – who was better known as the King-Beyond-The-Wall.
On this theory Reddit user myogname wrote: “At the end of season eight Jon goes beyond the wall once again. The remaining wildlings go with him in a journey to resettle their old lands.
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Mance Rayder was renowned for fighting for his people, and he promptly took Jon under his wing when he arrived north of the Wall.
It would be fitting, then, for Jon to take over this position for the Free Folk, and would certainly be a great conclusion to Jon’s character arc.
Some fans weren’t a fan of this theory, however, as one replied to the suggestion: “A kingdom for wildlings? Doesn’t that defeats the purpose of being a wildling?”
Meanwhile, other Game of Thrones theorists suggested Arya Stark’s (Maisie Williams) final venture west would simply leave her back in Asshai.
They wrote: “When Arya sets sail for her new adventure, she is, as her character should be, curious, and wants to explore.
“But everyone else, they seem relatively content with the answer that “no one knows what lies west of Westeros.”
“In fact, no one even really seems to wonder about it, or even care, despite apparently being a huge mystery.
“This is, despite the fact that such information and exploration would seem highly relevant for many of the rulers, merchants and other similar groups in Westeros.”
Finally, they added: “GRRM confirmed that Planetos is round, so more than likely she’ll probably just end up in Asshai.”
Asshai is not touched upon much in the show, and is simply boiled down to being a seaport city with exotic people and land.
According to the Song of Ice and Fire books written by George R R Martin, just beyond Asshai is an area known as the Shadow Lands.
However it is never revealed exactly what lies on this perilous land, leading to rumours suggesting no one has ever returned from them.
