'Game of Thrones' fans are trying to guess the series' 'bittersweet' ending

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It's going to be quite some time until "Game of Thrones" comes back for its penultimate season, and longer still until the entire series has wrapped up. That hasn't stopped fans from making wild, baseless guesses about how it's all going to end. In fact, it's probably encouraged them.

Fans on the "Game of Thrones" Reddit page have been putting their best guesses forward. Surely, they agree, it's not going to be a "happy" ending. This is Westeros, after all, and series author George R. R. Martin cautioned everybody to expect a bittersweet ending.

But exactly how it's going to end is still unknown. Here are some of the guesses — and why they will or won't work. 

The Starks will win, but in an ironic twist, we're not going to be happy about it. 

"I think the series ends how it started, with Starks v Lannisters, this time vying for the throne," wrote Redditor amak316. "The only Starks left will be Sansa and Arya who will at this point have done several evil things to the point of the audience turning on them, with Jamie and Tyrion as the only remaining Lannisters, Jamie having already completed his redemption arc. The Starks will end up with the throne in brutal fashion and Tyrion and Jamie will suffer. After 7+ seasons of people rooting for the Starks to come out on top it will happen, and we won't like it."

This seems somewhat plausible, though it doesn't really account for Dany's role in the endgame. The idea of a Stark victory being a bad outcome is the type of complex twist that Martin relishes. 

Littlefinger will sit on the Iron Throne alongside a defeated Sansa.

"Sansa and Balish end up with the iron throne after Balish lets Jon and Dany destroy themselves fighting their own respective wars. Jon wins but dies in the process Dany succeeds only to be usurped by Balish. Sansa marries Balish because she has nothing left and is empty inside," Smtxflhi wrote. 

Littlefinger casually defeating Dany seems, well, unlikely. How many kings (and queens) can one man murder?

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The series will end how it began — with no magic.

"For me, it would be that nothing changes from the beginning and a bit earlier," coach_veratu guessed.

"The final fight would cause the death of the dragons, White Walkers and all other magic. The world will become the same as it was before the events of the show/book. We would finish with someone on the iron throne and houses running the kingdoms, feudalism will continue. the world becomes boring again."

It could happen. Personally, I'll be shocked if all three dragons survive the series. If all of them die it will have been a very brief resurgence of magic in the world of Westeros, which would indeed be bittersweet. 

Some Redditors might be confusing "bittersweet" with "bad."

"I imagine Westeros will be completely ravaged and destroyed, the armies of the North and South crushed," HombatWistory wrote. "The Royal Fleet is now used to evacuate the remaining Westerosi. As they arrive in Essos, however, they feel a chill in the air, and see millions of dead blue eyes staring at them."

OK, this prediction is too much of a bummer even for Martin. 

Read all of the guesses here. 

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