10 ways Game of Thrones could end

8. The Night King kills everyone

So Jon and Dany getting happily married and ruling side by side is the happiest ending on the table. What about the flip side? What if the Night King steamrolls over everyone despite their best efforts and exterminates humanity, or near enough? What if the show goes full bleak?

It’s possible. When last we saw the Night King and his frightening crew, they were pulling down the Wall with a zombie dragon. That’s pretty dang intimidating. Sure, the armies of humanity are assembling, and Daenerys has dragons, but there are distractions afoot. What of the incest bomb about to drop on Jon and Dany? What about Cersei Lannister in the south, who at best will stay out of the fight and at worst might actually go after our heroes? Maybe committing genocide on humanity will be easier for the Night King than he thought.

Having the Night King walk away as the series winner wouldn’t even be completely out of character for Game of Thrones. The show has featured many a brutal plot twist, the Red Wedding and Ned Stark’s beheading chief among them. Is there one more in the pipeline?

All that said, it would be pretty hard to say goodbye to our fave show with the Night King having gutted everyone we love. HBO is surely smart enough to realize that a completely bleak ending is just as unrealistic and false as a completely happy one. I doubt they’ll want to leave this bitter a taste in the mouths of fans.