What’s good for the Targaryen is good for the Stark—and it’s about time the direwolves started helping win battles for the good guys again. So if Arya survives to the final Season 8 battle between the realms of men and White Walkers, and things start to look, well, dire for the Stark girl and her team, we shouldn’t be surprised if Nymeria and her pack arrive out of nowhere to save the day and turn the tide. Wouldn’t it be nice if Ghost also got to fight by his wolf sister’s side—just as Jon will likely wind up fighting alongside Ayra? They haven’t been together for a long, long time.

Bauer’s assurance that Ghost has a significant role in the final season shores up the theory that Nymeria has a big role to play as well. Perhaps this story ends with Ghost joining his sister and running wild in Westeros. Oh, who are we kidding; both of them are dying heroically in battle, aren’t they? Then again, the “cool things” Ghost has to do may not be related to war at all. Remember, Jaime Lannister is headed to Winterfell as well, and the direwolves never met a Lannister they didn’t like to menace.

But Ghost’s relationship with Jon Snow is more important than snacking on Lannisters, zombies, or wights. The reason fans have been missing the direwolves isn’t just because they look cool: it’s because in the books, the emotional connection between the Stark kids and their pets is woven into the fabric of the whole saga. “These wolves are more than wolves, Robb,” Catelyn reminds her son in the books. “You must know that. I think perhaps the gods sent them to us. Your father’s gods, the old gods of the north. Five wolf pups, Robb, five for five Stark children.” (Robb helpfully reminds her there was a sixth for Jon.) The curly haired King in the North has honestly felt a bit empty without his shadow self, even if he’s now making friends with dragons.

We may have learned that Jon Snow has Targaryen dragon blood in the Season 7 finale, but his mother Lyanna still makes him half-Stark—half-wolf. You can’t have the dragon without the wolf, the fire without the ice.