It’s been almost two years since we last saw Jon & Co. Jog up your memory with our recaps and place your bets on our top five fan theories.

SEASONS 1 to 7: RECAPS

Season 1 King Robert Baratheon and Cersei Lannister make their way to Winterfell, to offer Ned Stark the position of Hand of the King, after the mysterious death of Jon Arryn. Ned accepts Robert’s offer and travels to King’s Landing with Sansa and Arya, leaving Catelyn behind with Robb, Rickon and Bran who was pushed out of a tower window after catching incestuous twins Cersei and Jaime in the act, crippling him. Jon Snow joins the Night’s Watch.  

Ned discovers that all three of Robert’s children are Jaime’s, and it wasn’t long before both Robert and Ned become casualties too. Robb rallies armies to avenge his father’s death.

Across the Narrow Sea, exiled Daenerys Targaryen emerges out of Khal Drogo’s burning funeral pyre with three baby dragons.  

Season 2 The fight for the Iron Throne is ON, as Stannis (with cold priestess Melisandre by his side) and Renly Baratheon assemble armies to unseat the sadistic Joffrey; guiding their nephew is Tyrion Lannister, acting as the Hand of the King.

The Starks emerge victorious on the battlefield against the Lannisters (they’ve even captured Jaime) but then Robb - who is betrothed to one of Walder Frey’s daughters -  marries nurse Talisa instead. This dooms the clan. Bran and Rickon flee Winterfell after it was seized by Theon Greyjoy, Sansa is still stuck in King’s Landing, while Arya befriends Jagen H’ghar, the Faceless Man.

Beyond the Wall, Jon, Samwell and a group of rangers investigate White Walker sightings, as well as Mance Rayder’s growing army of wildings. Daenerys and her followers arrive in Qarth, and buys a ship but not before incinerating the warlock who steals her dragons. 

Season 3 Let’s go straight to the juice: the Red Wedding. Old man Frey hasn’t quite yet forgiven Robb for breaking the oath to marry into his family, so he teams up with Tywin Lannister and Roose Bolton to slaughter Robb, Catelyn, a pregnant Talisa and their bannermen at Edmure Tully’s wedding. Arya witnesses the massacre in the distance.

In other Starks news, Sansa is married off to Tyrion, Bran wargs Hodor and Jon gets frisky with a wilding. Two men who wronged the family get their comeuppance: Theon is tortured and castrated by Ramsay Bolton, whilst Jamie loses his sword hand.

Daenerys teaches her dragons the art of flambé.

Season 4 Joffrey dies on his wedding day to Margaery Tyrell, and Cersei is quick to accuse Tyrion. When he demands a trial by combat, Oberyn Martell volunteers to fight on his behalf – tragically, The Mountain beat him to a pulp. Jaime frees Tyrion, who shoots Tywin with a crossbow as he sits on a different kind of throne and flees King’s Landing. This is one dysfunctional family.

Sansa escapes the capital too, albeit with the scheming Littlefinger. They seek refuge in the Eyrie, home to her aunt and his wife Lysa, whom he pushes through the Moon Door. Arya hops on a ship to Braavos, bringing her closer to the House of Black and White.

Season 5 Jon dies. Ok, a lot more happened but this is the one that caused a Twitterstorm, and rightfully so. Jon, now the Lord Commander of the Night’s watch decides to rescue wildings; his Night’s Watch brothers disagrees and kills him. Sister Sansa can’t get a break too; Littlefinger arranges her marriage to Ramsay, who rapes her in front of Theon.

Melisandre sacrifices sweet Shireen to the Lord of Light, burning her alive at the stake as her parents watch on. Horrified, half of Stannis’ army desert him. Stannis marches to Winterfell anyway, and is later killed by Brienne.

In Meereen, Daenerys and Tyrion meets for the first time. Later, under attack from the Sons of Harpy, she climbs atop Dragon and commands him to fly. The first Targaryen dragonrider in over a century is born.

Season 6 Good news; Melisandre brings Jon back from dead. After 5 seasons apart, Sansa is reunited with Jon, after escaping Ramsay’s clutches with Theon.

North of The Wall, Bran trains with the Three-Eyed Raven. As he experiences a vision on his own, he accidently reveals his hiding place to the Night’s King who arrives at the cave with his wights army. Bran manages to escape with Meera, but his direwolf, Hodor and the Three-Eyed Raven are all tragically killed. Bran’s next vision hints that Jon might not be a bastard after all.  

Speaking of bastards, the Jon vs Ramsay battle ends with the latter as dog food. Bravo, Sansa.

Season 7 Arya, now a Faceless Man crosses Walder Frey and his sons off her kill list and returns to Winterfell, where she executes Littlefinger. 

Samwell, who’s been reading up in the Citadel, writes to Jon, informing him that dragonglass is capable of killing White Walkers. Jon travels to Dragonstone, hoping Daenerys will supply him the substance and become his ally in fighting the Night King.

Jon, Jorah, Gendry, Tormund, the Hound and Brotherhood go past The Wall, in search of a wight; they intend to present it to Cersei, as proof that the Army of the Dead is real, and a threat to the realm. The men find themselves trapped, but Daenerys flies in with her three dragons to save the day. Unfortunately she lost Viserion, who is resurrected into the White Walker army. During Jon and Daenerys’ steamy session, the show reveals what fans have long speculated: his parents are Lyanna Stark and Rhaegar Targaryen.  

SEASON 8: 5 FAN THEORIES MOST LIKELY TO COME TRUE

1. Azor Ahai and/or the Prince Who Was Promised will be revealed
Melisandre’s been going at it since FOREVER, but who is Azor Ahai and The Prince Who Was Promised? Are they the same person? Thousands of years ago, legendary Azor Ahai forged the sword Lightbringer and used it to defeat the darkness - having gone through countless fan theories, it’s likely that The Prince Who Was Promised is Azor Ahai reborn, destined to save the world once again.

Everyone’s favourite priestess told Davos that “when the star bleeds and the darkness gathers, Azor Ahai shall be born again amidst smoke and salt to wake dragons out of stone.” When you tie this to the circumstances of his birth and death, Jon Snow makes a strong contender for The Prince Who Was Promised but when you take into consideration the gender-neutral word ‘Prince’ in High Valyrian, this could easily be Daenerys.

2. Jon or Daenerys will die
There’s no way happiness is in store for these aunt-nephew couple at the end of the series. To unleash his sword’s true powers, Azor Ahai had to sacrifice his wife, Nissa Nissa. Jon or Daenerys, whoever is revealed to be The Prince Who Was Promised, will have to endure the same tragedy to defeat the darkness.

3. Jaime will kill mad queen Cersei
Cersei haven’t had it easy these last few seasons: she lost her father and all her children (fulfilling Maggy the Frog’s prediction), plus who can forget her humiliating naked walk of atonement through the streets of King’s Landing? Hungry for revenge, Cersei blew up the Great Sept with her enemies inside and declared herself the new ruler of the Seven Kingdoms.

In George R.R. Martin’s A Feat For Crows, Maggy also prophesied that “the valonqar (High Valyrian for ‘little brother’) shall wrap his hands about your pale white throat and choke the life from you.” Cersei took that to mean Tyrion but Jaime, born a few minutes after her, seems a more likely candidate. Paranoid and ruthless with a penchant for wildfire, Cersei’s descend into madness will be put to an end by Jaime. After all, he’s killed a mad king before.

4. Tyrion is a Targaryen
Fans theorise that Mad King Aerys Targaryen and Tywin’s wife, Joanna Lannister had an affair, resulting in an offspring, Tyrion. This might explain Tywin’s hatred towards him, and his last line before the imp killed him: “you’re no son of mine.” Another hint to his alternate lineage? He can tame Daenerys’ dragons.

On a side note: we’re rooting for a Tyrion-Sansa ending. Having grown leaps and bounds as leaders, these two underdogs deserve to rule Westeros.

5. Bran is the Night King
About 8,000 years before the events of Game of Thrones, Stark ancestor Bran the Builder created Winterfell and raised The Wall. Fans believe three-eyed raven Bran Stark travelled back in time to build the wall and stop the Children of the Forest from creating the White Walkers. Long-story short, his plan backfired, with Bran becoming the Night King himself. One should not play with warging and time-travelling! Fans have also noticed that Bran and the Night King seem to share the same wardrobe, and look creepily alike.

With all being said, this is Game of Thrones, where like Jon Snow, chances are, we know nothing. But we do know this: if another direwolf and dragon dies, WE RIOT.

Game of Thrones Season 8 premieres Apr 14 on HBO.

Cover Credit: Dom Slike /Alamy Stock Photo

Writer | Zara N.

If she could, Zara would travel the world with her army of cats, a barista and a cook who specialises in nasi lemak. If she could, she would also end My Mister differently.