‘Game Of Thrones’ Season 7: Is [SPOILER] Dead? Fan Reactions, Predictions

“Game of Thrones” has been delivering some big moments throughout Season 7, but the closing minutes of Episode 4, “The Spoils Of War,” have fans asking only one question.

Spoiler Alert: The Ending of “Game of Thrones” Season 7, Episode 4, “The Spoils Of War” is discussed below.

After a victory at Highgarden that saw the death of Olenna Tyrell (Diana Rigg), who confessed to Jaime (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) that she was the one responsible for Joffrey’s (Jack Gleeson) death, he and the Lannister armies were headed back to King’s Landing, with all the Tyrell gold in tow for Cersei (Lena Headey) to finally pay off the crown’s debts to the Iron Bank. Though the gold managed to make it to King’s Landing, Jaime, Bronn (Jerome Flynn), Randyll Tarly (James Faulkner), Dickon Tarley (Tom Hopper) and the Lannister army were still on their way back to the capital, when Daenerys (Emilia Clarke) decided to finally make a move that didn’t involve the deaths of her allies. Her Dothraki horde descended on the soldiers from the ground, while she and Drogon came from above, scorching hundreds of men in mere minutes.

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Though Drogon was taken down by a well-placed arrow from Bronn using Qyburn’s (Anton Lesser) Scorpion machine, the fates of both Daenerys’ dragon and the woman intent on taking the Iron Throne aren’t the ones in question. Instead, fans are left to wonder if Jaime, after he attempted to charge at the two and was kept from a fiery death at the last minute by Bronn’s heroics, is dead, after the two men plunged into a lake, and Jaime seemed as though he was sinking to the bottom.

Fans were unsure of what to make of the episode’s final moments, as it appeared to suggest that one of the biggest players in Westeros was taken down during a field battle, after his heavy armor and famous golden hand seemed to force him to drown. Some were stunned and heartbroken by the scene, believing it meant The Kingslayer, one of the few remaining major characters on the show, was given an unsatisfactory end.

Others however, were certain he is still alive and will somehow be revealed as such in the next episode, even though he wasn’t shown in the trailer. Though reasons they believed he was still alive varied, the most popular related to a big theory regarding Cersei’s prophesized death, and who would hand it to her:

Coster-Waldau himself didn’t provide any clues in a post-episode interview with Entertainment Weekly, refusing to say whether or not Jaime survives, but dropping hints it could be possible as well, telling the magazine that the episode’s script direction told the actors that a main character was “about to die,” and also seeming to agree that Olenna’s prophecy that Jaime would be doomed by his loyalty to, and love for, Cersei, which would eventually lead to his downfall.

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“It’s not going to end well for Jaime Lannister, I can’t imagine,” he said.

He also referred to his character as an “idiot” for attempting to charge at Drogon and Dany, a sentiment that was echoed by his brother, Tyrion (Peter Dinklage), as he watched from the sidelines.

“Jaime is such an idiot that he thinks for a second, ‘If I can do this, I can win the whole thing in a Hail Mary,’” Coster-Waldau said.

However, despite the lack of help on Coster-Waldau’s part, there is a compelling argument for why Jaime would still be alive. Vanity Fair points out in their own analysis of the episode, that killing Jaime off in such a lackluster way, and at such a crucial point for the series, wouldn’t make sense, because of what he lends to Cersei’s storyline.

Do you think Jaime is dead or alive? Sound off in the comments below.

“Game of Thrones” airs Sundays at 9 p.m. EDT on HBO.