The Night King's death and the subsequent destruction of the Army of the Dead in "Game of Thrones" season 8, episode 3 was anticlimactic, to say the least. But now, a new theory has emerged on Reddit basically claiming that the Three-eyed Raven is the show's ultimate villain. This theory makes a ton of sense so without further ado, let's get right to it.

Warning: Potential spoilers for the rest of "Game of Thrones" season 8 ahead.

'Crows are all liars'

Redditor u/idols2effigies points out at something that Old Nan had said to Bran in "Game of Thrones," season 1, episode 3, right before she told him the story about the White Walkers and the Long Night.

At the beginning of that scene, a crow appeared on the window. This was where Old Nan said a very peculiar line.

"Don't listen to it. Crows are all liars."

According to u/idols2effigies, the fact that Old Nan says this line right before she starts talking about the White Walkers, hints at the true nature of the Three-eyed raven, the supposed good guy.

'You died in that cave'

The Redditor then goes on to suggest that the Three-eyed Raven's plan all along was to get rid of both the Night King and mankind. For this plan to work, he first needed to lure the Night King south of the Wall. And since he was stuck in the tree, the only way to do so was to posses Bran's body, which is exactly what he did in that cave in "Game of Thrones" season 6 episode 5.

Essentially the Three-eyed Raven was using the Night King as the catalyst to force Bran's consciousness into a situation that allowed him to take over. If this is true, then Bran, quite literally, died in that cave, as Meera pointed out in season 7.

The meaning of the spiral symbol and the Night King's goal

In "Game of Thrones" season 8 episode 1, after killing everyone at Last Hearth, the Night King leaves a message in the form of a spiral symbol.

Reddit user u/Hoser400 has a rather unique explanation of what the spiral means.

"A spiral is a symbol that shows that from one spot, everything is connected and "spirals" outward," Redditor writes. "That what has happened will continue to happen again."

When Beric burns Ned Umber's body, the spiral lights on fire and goes away.

To put it simply, if you remove whatever is at the center of the spiral, the effects of that spiral cease to exist.

So what does it all mean?

Well, here's an interesting thought: what if the Night King wanted to destroy himself and his army by killing his creator, the Three-eyed Raven?

But wait, wasn't the Night King created by the Children of the Forest as seen in "Game of Thrones" season 6 episode 5? Well, technically yes, but who is to say that they weren't just following the Three-eyed Raven's command?

After all, it was his face that we saw on the Weirwood tree where the Night King was created. See the picture below.

The truth about the Three-eyed Raven and the Children of the Forest

We are all led to believe that the Three-eyed Raven and the Children of the Forest are nice magical beings who just want to help humanity against the evil White Walkers even though they were the ones who created them in the first place. But make no mistake, the destruction of mankind is all they have ever wanted.

According to u/idols2effigies, the entire Army of the Dead threat was orchestrated by the Three-eyed Raven to get what he wants: the ability to rejoin the waking world while simultaneously putting a stop to a threat to his existence - The Night King.

The user then goes on to suggest that the Three-eyed Raven spun a story on the true motivation of the Night King to save his own skin at the cost of human lives.

In other words, the Three-eyed Raven only helped mankind in the Battle of Winterfell because he wanted to protect himself against the Night King - his own creation that has gone rogue.

The Three-eyed Raven as the Great Other

It is my belief that the Three-eyed raven's goal has always been to destroy mankind with ice and fire. In a sense, he's the Great Other, the creator of the White Walkers, the forces of ice. There's an interesting quote from the "A Song of Ice and Fire" books that supports this claim.

"A wooden face, corpse white. Was this the enemy," Melisandre wonders, "A thousand red eyes floated in the rising flames.

Beside him, a boy with a wolf's face threw back his head and howled."

As you can see, Melisandre's vision is about the Three-eyed Raven and Bran.

The Three-eyed Raven as the Lord of Light

On top of being the Great Other, I believe that the Three-eyed Raven is also the Lord of Light - the one whose visions have always led to war and destruction. For all we know, he could have been the reason why the Mad King went mad, why Rhaegar kidnapped Lyanna. These events ultimately led to Robert's Rebellion and more death and destruction.

If it wasn't for the Lord of Light and his visions, the War of the Five Kings would have ended more quickly. It was because of his visions, that Jon Snow's band of heroes ended up being trapped beyond the Wall, which led to the Night King acquiring a dragon and breaching the Wall.

Future conflicts

According to u/idols2effigies, in season 8, episode 1, The Three-eyed Raven pushed Sam into revealing Jon Snow's true identity because he knew that reveal would pit the only two surviving Targaryens against each other. It's very likely that the conflict between Jon and Daenerys will escalate into the full-blown Dance of the Dragons 2.0, and the destruction of the world by fire.

If this theory is true, then we are left with three conflicts before the series ends.

  • The war with Cersei that will most likely end with her death
  • Dance of the Dragons 2.0 that probably ends with Jon killing Daenerys
  • Jon Snow killing Bran in order to destroy the Three-eyed Raven and save mankind.

"Game of Thrones" season 8, episode 4, airs this Sunday, May 5 on HBO.

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