Samwell Tarly is George R.R. Martin | Game of Thrones Theories Season 8

Think 💭 it be a bloody good ending if George R.R Martin makes an appearance at the end closing the book 📖 as older sam

I have heard that theory, and it does seem to fit. It think Sam is the writer, and the main narrative source of the series, but I also think he's got another role. Sam stole – sorry, BORROWED, his family ancestral blade, Heart's Bane, and I think that's critical to the story. Now who (if not Sam) would tell that story and know the details?

I think Azor Ahai is Varys the unic.
I think Light Bringer is already with us, but known as another ancient Valerian Steel sword. It is in the possession of Sam Tarly, and we know it as Heart's Bane.
When Light Bringer was made the first time, it needed to be forged, and then it needed to be heated and quenched in the breast of a woman everybody loved. That's what brought out the big magic.
This time around, I think the woman will be Daenerys Targarean, and I think she will be dying in agony, because of a breach birth, same as Jon Snow's mother, same as Teryon Lanister's mother.
I think you're quite right about Bran. I think what the Night King wants more than anything, is to get through this curse he has brought down on himself and die. The only way he can do that is to live until Azor Ahai comes again, and brings LightBringer.
I think LightBringer already exists, it's a Valerian Steel blade known as Heart's Bane. Sam Tarly has it.
I think Azor Ahai exists, and he was "born amid smoke and salt and fire, under a red star." He was sold by his parents at the age of ten, to a sorcerer, who castrated him, while a red comet was in the sky, while Danerys Targarian was being born, in a house of a sorcerer full of smoke and salts and blades…
I think Daenerys will fall pregnant to John Snow, and the baby will come early, right as a big battle is looming. The delivery goes wrong, as John Snow and Teryon Lanisters births went wrong, and Danni will be bleeding to death, and begs to be put out of her misery. And all the 50 brave men present at Dragonstone will not have the balls to kill her. The only man who has the balls for that, is the man who doesn't have any – the bald unic Varys. So Varys borrows Heart's Bane from Sam Tarly, and stabs Daenerys Targarion through the heart with it. It's an act of mercy, and great courage. He re-creates the legend of Light Bringer and Nissa-Nissa – to make a sword of Power, you take the life of a woman everybody loves. That's how the sword becomes LightBringer and Varys becomes Azor Ahai.
Whether that will be apparent to Varys, or the audience, at the time, is another matter entirely….
So somewhere down the track, the Prince Who Was Promised will face the Night's King, who will bare his chest and say something like "Come on – what are you waiting for?"
The Night's King more than anybody, WANTS Azor Ahai to kill him, because that's the only way he can escape the trap he got into.
I think the business of the little Ice Age that comes every century or two, that should stop and the Wall should go, the undead should go back to being dead, and most of the Magic in the world should stop. What that will mean for Dire Wolves and Dragons is not so good….
The bitter-sweet twist is that all the 'good guys' die, including John and Danni, and the ultimate hero, the saviour of men, the Prince Who Was Promised (which we are reminded is a non gender-specific prophesy, which works well for a non gender-specific character) is a liar and a thief and a master of spies and whispers, a man who spent his life peeping through keyholes. And the ultimate bad guy, the anti-hero, will be the little cripple boy we have loved, who caught Jamie and Cersi having sex. The one set up to be the hero, becomes the villain, and the one set up to be the villain, becomes the hero. That's your twist.
That and the fact that once you save the world, all the magic goes out of it. You will miss Green Seers and wargs and Direwolves, and most of all Dragons. You will miss real gods that can bring back the dead. You will miss trees that can see everything. But you won't miss a magic one century ice age that comes every 600 years or so. And you won't miss the army of the dead… These things come as a set. It's not a Walt Disney story or a Little Golden Book. That's what makes it so good.
Like Lord of the Rings, it's high fantasy, but it's meant to be adult literature – not a children's story.

I think it would be easier to list the survivors…
John & Danni will have a child, and the child should live. Name not yet decided.
Sam Tarly is pretty certainly going to live, because a) Sam stole Heart's Bane from his family, and that's a significant piece, and b) Sam is the narrator. The whole story is being told, 30 years later, as recollections & reflections of Sam Tarly.
Teryen Lanister will live. He will be the brains behind the throne, the small hand of the king (queen?) and perhaps regent for Jon & Danni's child.
Sansa I think will live, and she will become the lady of Winterfell.
Jamie & Cerci will both go, but Jamie will die doing something selfless and noble and heroic, whereas Cersi will die being a bitch.
Bran and the Night's King both die, because as discussed before, I think they're the same person. To have a successful conclusion, you have to kill the Night's King, because he is the axle the magic wheel turns on. He is the creature created as a weapon of genocide, by the children of the Forrest, to kill off all the men. The big magic, the little ice age every 600 years or so, the dragons and the white walkers and the army of the dead, and the wier-wood trees and the 3 eyed raven … real gods (spirits anyway) who really can reanimate a corpse, all this children's story must end. To get a world that works properly, according to nature and not artificial malice, you have to take the magic out of it. In order to do that, you need The Prince Who Was Promised, Azor Ahai (too many capitals…) to get hold of an ancient steel blade, which may or may not be Valeryan Steel, may or may not already have a legend, may or may not already be the ancestral house blade of house (insert unlikely family here) and use that exact blade at the exact time, at the exact place, to drive the exact point into the exact spot on the Night King's chest, which he will insist on, because nobody wants this trap / nightmare to end more than he does.
I think the person who will turn out the be Azor Ahai will be Varys the unic, but whether that means he will survive even one hour after the death of the Night's King, I am not so sure.
Thinking, who else? The Greyjoy who was abused, should live, and perhaps his sister(s) as well. Uron should die, spectacularly!
Arya Stark should live. I haven't quite worked out what the end of Arya's story-line is, but she's such a huge character. I would like to see Cersi die at the hand of Arya, by the use of a poison, almost the same one Cerci used to kill the Sand-Snake's daughter, the one that strangles the victim. The poison should have the colloquial name of the 'Little Brother'. That would close off several story lines beautifully…
Misandei should live. She may end up as co-regent for the baby, with Teryon Lanister.
None of the dragons will survive, none of the dire wolves, none of the magical creatures. Most of the magic in the WoiaF should vanish, because it's mostly a bi-product of the spell to bring down the little ice age and keep the dead walking to attack the living. The magic in the story, is a euphemism for nuclear power and nuclear weapons. It's a cautionary tale about 'be careful what you wish for, because you just may get it'.

Not a book reader but still I think that would work!