Who Will Kill Daenerys Targaryen in the ‘Game of Thrones’ Finale?

Someone is definitely going to die in the Game of Thrones series finale, and it looks more and more like Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke) may be the first to go. After the horrific events of Game of Thrones Season 8, Episode 5, “The Bells,” it seems that Dany has lost the love of Jon Snow (Kit Harington), support of Tyrion Lannister (Peter Dinklage), and respect of Arya Stark (Maisie Williams). Transformed into a violent tyrant, Daenerys might hold power over King’s Landing, but we’re betting that she won’t rule for long. As the teaser for this week’s episode suggests, it seems likely that Jon, Tyrion, and Arya are being put into place to assassinate the triumphant Dragon Queen.

So who’s it going to be? Which Game of Thrones character has the steel, ability, and sheer balls to try to murder Daenerys Targaryen?

Will Jon Snow Kill Daenerys Targaryen?

Until the very end of last week’s episode of Game of Thrones, it seemed that Jon Snow might actually be the last person in Westeros rooting for the Targaryen queen. He loves her, but he’s just not in love with her anymore. (The whole she’s his aunt thing seems to creep him out as a half Stark.)

However, during the Battle of King’s Landing, Jon was horrified to realize what his beloved Dany was really capable of. Not only did she burn the city to the ground, but her actions gave their troops sanctions to commit war crimes. (Again, as a half Stark, he feels bad about that.)

Jon Snow always reluctantly does the right thing, even if it means that he loses. This being the case, he might be the one person capable of getting close enough to Daenerys to kill her, thus saving Westeros. He would likely die for such an act, as Grey Worm and the Dothraki are still vicious, and still loyal to her. However, he’s died before, so what’s the big deal? And if he survives, he can either take his rightful place on the Iron Throne or take the Black and scoot back north with Tormund.

It feels very plausible that Jon Snow will kill Daenerys Targaryen.

Will Tyrion Lannister Kill Daenerys Targaryen?

One doesn’t typically think of Tyrion Lannister as a killer, but he is one. He not only strategized a huge part of the defeat of Stannis Baratheon’s forces during the Battle of the Blackwater, but he murdered the love of his life, Shae, and his father, Lord Tywin Lannister. That merely means that he has the capacity to kill, but usually it comes out of passion for him. So does Tyrion have an emotional reason to want to see Dany dead?

Well, yeah, because she killed Cersei Lannister (Lena Headey), Jaime (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau), and their unborn baby. Tyrion actually does love his family and he arguably did his best to prevent the burning of King’s Landing to spare the lives of his siblings.

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There’s also the fact that in burning King’s Landing, Dany betrayed Tyrion’s trust in a way. He steadfastly believed she would do the right thing, and she didn’t. He might feel upset enough to do something about it…like try to kill her before she inflicts worse on Westeros.

Of course, it seems unlikely that Tyrion will do this because he hasn’t been able to stand up to Daenerys yet. A (suicidal) kill would feel out of nowhere. (Then again, there’s been a lot lately that’s felt out of nowhere.)

Will Arya Stark Kill Daenerys Targaryen?

Well, well, well…we might have a winner here. Arya Stark is hands down the best trained killer in all of Westeros, she is in King’s Landing in purposefully kill a queen, and she is mighty pissed off at Dany.

So Arya has the means to kill Daenerys, and she could do it in close quarters by stealing a face or wind up doing it in sniper fashion with a bow and arrow. She has the motive to murder the woman who not only killed a whole metropolis of civilians, but who is standing in her family’s way to ruling the North. Finally, she is in position to do it.

After killing the Night King in the Battle of Winterfell, Arya wound up having precious little to do with the far more fiery Battle of King’s Landing. So plot-wise, why is she there? Why bother bringing her down to the capitol if not to set up a major kill?

While it makes more tragic sense for Jon to kill Dany, it makes more logical sense for Arya to do it. If so, she would also offer Jon Snow a guilt-free path to the Iron Throne.

Could Daenerys Targaryen Survive Game of Thrones?

It’s entirely possible that no one will kill Daenerys Targaryen and that Game of Thrones will end with her as queen of the ashes. However this seems unlikely, especially since it looks like Varys (Conleth Hill) may have succeeded in getting word of Jon Snow’s parentage out to the other noble houses. All of her friends are pretty much dead, and her actions in King’s Landing will fail to endear her to the war-weary smallfolk of Westeros.

So we’re pretty sure that Daenerys won’t last long. The question remains: who’s going to kill her? Will it be Jon Snow, her noble lover, Tyrion Lannister, her scorned advisor, or Arya Stark, the avenging assassin? Or could it be someone no one sees coming?

The Game of Thrones Series Finale premieres Sunday, May 19, 2019 on HBO.

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