Why it Might Make Sense for Bran to Win the Iron Throne in 'Game of Thrones' [SPOILERS]

This story includes spoilers for 'Game of Thrones' Season 8, Episode 3, "The Long Night."

At this point in Game of Thrones’ battle for the Iron Throne, many fans are betting on the most likely contenders, Jon Snow, Daenerys Targaryen, or Cersei Lannister, to sit on the throne in the finale. But as the show has proved to be difficult to predict over the years, one Redditor believes one very unlikely person could win it all in the end, instead of someone who’s been playing the game from the start.

Reddit user anonymousflash argues that there’s a reason the final season has been a bit less than impressive so far. The creators want our favorite characters to let us down and fail, in order to pave the way for someone stronger to take the throne, according to the theory. The fan continues to claim that humans only live to gain power, which is what drove the Children of the Forest to make the Night King, in attempts to end the human race. Now that the plan has failed as the undead leader was taken out by Arya Stark, there’s still one other person the magical creatures created: the Three-Eyed Raven.

Theorizing that the Children of the Forest realized they messed up with the Night King, the fan argues that they chose to then turn to someone else. They write:

“So they find someone sympathetic to their cause and basically say: ‘Look, we're going to turn you into a super-powerful being with admin access to the Weirwood Net, but in the process you are going to lose most of your humanity. We see now that the killing machine approach is wrong, so we're going to try a different way. You are going to manipulate events from a distance over the course of time until, eventually, YOU rule the humans. The only way to contain the humans is if they are ruled by someone who is not really human at all.’ Someone all-seeing, logical, and emotionless will be a fair ruler and curb all of humanity's worst tendencies. And ideally that someone will technically be a member of a respected human family... someone like ‘Bran.’”

The user concludes by explaining that Bran Stark’s whole journey as the Three-Eyed Raven has been leading up to this, and under his rule, Westeros would live in peace without the toxic temptations of power and war. When asked in a recent appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live! if Bran is “100% good,” the actor behind him, Isaac Hempstead Wright, could only answer that he’s “definitely on the side of the living.” This makes us think that Bran at least wants to help humanity in any way he can.

While this theory would actually make sense in order to provide the Seven Kingdoms with peace, it would likely be difficult to convince anyone that Bran has any right to the throne, even if he is the Three-Eyed Raven. As the fan mentions, humans strive for power. And the Iron Throne won’t be given up without a serious fight. We’ll see how the war for it turns out as Game of Thrones continues on Sunday.