Game of Thrones fans think Theon Greyjoy (Alfie Allen) killing Bran Stark (Isaac Hempstead-Wright) and his brother Rickon (Art Parkinson) would have spared everyone from enduring the hell that was season eight.
Dedicated viewers of HBO’s high-fantasy epic will remember that all the way back in the seventh episode of the second season, Theon mounted a successful coup of Winterfell and convinced everyone he’d killed the youngest Stark children.
This, of course, turned out to be a little white lie. Theon had instead killed two village boys of roughly the same age, letting Bran and Rickon go free. This would ultimately set Bran on the road to becoming the Three-Eyed Raven.
Now, fans have discussed whether things would have probably worked out a lot better for everyone if he had actually followed through and killed the two brothers.
In a Reddit post, Guardian 5252 listed off everything Bran did after leaving Winterfell that turned out to be bad news – leading the Night King to his location by becoming a human sat-nav, killing the original Three-Eyed Raven and informing Jon Snow (Kit Harington) of his true ancestry, which drove a massive wedge between him and Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke).
This massive wedge, of course, would eventually lead to Daenerys turning into the Mad Queen, committing genocide at King’s Landing before being murdered by Jon.
So basically, Bran caused a lot of mayhem in Westeros.
And to stick the knife in even more he ended up becoming King of the Six Kingdoms at the end of season eight.
Grim to think about, but it’s kind of true. Sorry, Bran.
Of course, fan dissatisfaction with the way the final season played out is nothing new – but Arya Stark herself Maisie Williams let us know that the now-mythical alternate ending for Thrones doesn’t exist, sorry bout it.
‘I think people wish we did,’ she told Metro.co.uk. ‘But..we didn’t! So, that’s your lot!’
If you’re missing your high-fantasy fix, however, we have good news – the long-awaited prequel House of the Dragon has started casting Dany’s Targaryen ancestors.
Game of Thrones seasons one to eight are available to stream via NOW TV.
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