Poor old Jon and Dany: not only are they related (and potentially in a super-creepy way) but it looks like they're not even going to get to rule Westeros as husband and wife / nephew and aunt / brother and sister / father and son (or whatever sick twist they throw in at the last minute).

That's because there's SO MUCH evidence they're not going to end up on the Iron Throne at all at the end of season eight.

Despite the fact the following is pure speculation, it's so convincing we feel honour-bound to give you a major spoiler warning.

SPOILERS FOR THE SHOW AND AN OLD WAR FOLLOW.

1. It's too obvious

HBO

Jon and Dany are being set up as a traditional hero's journey heroic couple. He's the brave hero, she's the cool princess, they're coming together to defeat the wicked wizard / king to spread happiness throughout the land. There's only one problem with that: author George RR Martin doesn't do traditional.

He's consistently demonstrated that Game of Thrones is a deconstruction of fantasy tropes, not a celebration of them. Ned, the honourable hero, gets his head chopped off for doing the right thing. His heroic son Robb vows revenge, and gets killed in the most shocking way possible.

Sansa grows up believing in the ballads of romantic princes and swooning princesses and is very quickly shown that they're a seriously misleading fallacy.

With all this in mind, it doesn't make sense for Jon or Dany to have the traditional hero's journey, as it goes against everything Martin has set up so far. He's already subverted traditional romantic-lead tropes by making Jon and Dany related, but there's no way that'll be enough to justify letting them "win" in the end.

Plus, he's said the ending will be "bittersweet". Deffo no happy-ever-afters in Westeros.

2. They make bad decisions

HBO

Jon has a tendency to throw himself at whatever evil is in his path, like he's got the biggest death wish in Westeros. Also, he seems to be more interested in running around fighting baddies in the middle of nowhere than he is in sorting out the grain-supply situation in Winterfell.

Meanwhile, Dany's happy for her dragons to burn up people who get on her nerves (dragons who she once locked away in a small space because she couldn't control them, during a period of rule so unsuccessful it led to a major uprising she had to fly away from).

Basically, they're great characters but actually pretty terrible leaders. Dany's inflexible, Jon's rash. We know opposites attract and all that, but that doesn't mean they're the right people to rule the seven kingdoms.

3. They're Azor Ahai

HBO

Both Jon and Dany are connected by fans to the Azor Ahai prophecy, with both of them being contenders for the 'prince who was promised' title – the hero who has to sacrifice their true love in order to defeat the Night King.

If one of them is Azor reborn, whatever happens, the other one is going to die. Some people have speculated that's enough for the bittersweet ending George has promised. But do you know what would be really bittersweet? If BOTH of them died.

Our theory? Jon is Azor, Dany's Nissa Nissa (the true love who has to die).

Dany will offer to sacrifice herself to light Ahai's magic sword on fire (as much as George likes to subvert tropes, he still enjoys some of them), mainly because it makes sense for her character arc (she needs redemption more than Jon does) and second, she's the one who's associated with fire.

But it won't be easy for Jon: his nine lives will finally run out (he's had waaaaay too many last-minute get-outs for him to survive season eight, and they only make sense if they're building to a twist), and he'll also sacrifice himself. But who will rule if not Jon or Dany? Funny you should ask…

4. There's a more likely couple who'll rule instead of them

This is the big one – the ACTUAL evidence Game of Thrones isn't going to end the way you expect.

George RR Martin based his books on a whole bunch of historical stuff, but the further we go into the story, the clearer it is that the main inspiration is the real-life Wars of the Roses. That was a big war between the Lancasters (Lannisters) and the Yorks (Starks).

And what followed the Wars of the Roses? In terms of rule, Henry VIII, a once handsome king who put on a lot of weight – a womaniser who eventually suffered from a festering wound. (Yes, we're backflipping the show's chronology but bear with us.)

Henry's successor was a blond-haired young boy, who died suddenly (it was rumoured he was poisoned). After Joffrey, sorry, Tommen, sorry Edward VI, a strawberry blonde, Queen Mary I took over. She's otherwise known as 'Bloody Mary' because she was a bit execution-happy. (We're not counting Lady Jane Grey here. Not a proper queen.)

So, Robert, Joffrey, Cersei – fits the line of succession so far, but who came next? Well, not a brown-haired Northerner, or a blonde-haired dragon-lady. It was a young redhead, Elizabeth I of England, whose reign is now regarded as a golden age, mainly because she vowed to rule via wise counsel.

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If this pattern is correct, we can bet that Sansa will eventually sit on the Iron Throne, with Tyrion by her side.

Why Tyrion? Well, he's still her husband, technically. But also partly because he provides wise counsel, and partly because the Wars of the Roses also ended with a redhead on the throne – Elizabeth of York – who married the victor of the war, Henry VII, a charismatic, detail-orientated former enemy, previously associated with the Lancasters.

Their child, Henry VIII, went on to rule after them, which would fit George's obsession with cyclical repetition of history. It would also fit what the show's been setting up: look at how well Sansa's ruled Winterfell in Jon's absence, think of how obsessed Tyrion's been with the line of succession. They've both been groomed (by George Martin) over the course of the series for leadership.

It can't be insignificant that of all the main contenders on the show, the only two still alive without any supernatural powers (and who are romantically unconnected to anyone) are husband-and-wife odd couple Tyrion and Sansa. Wouldn't it feel narratively right for the eventual rulers of the kingdom – the inheritors of peace – to be non-magical, ordinary types? The only ones suited to power, after all, are those who don't really want it.

Whether Game of Thrones continues to be based on the Wars of the Roses, or on what happened just after it, we'll bet our polystyrene Longclaw replica that there'll be a redhead on the Iron Throne at the end of season eight.

All hail Queen Sansa!

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