WHAT DOES IT MEAN?
Game of Thrones fans, steel yourselves. We might finally know how the dramatic HBO fantasy shakes out and who wins a place on the Iron Throne thanks to a bit of ink. A tattoo artist claiming to have inked Sophie Turner revealed a picture of her work and the internet has gone full on speculation nation, as it seems to hint that the Stark family comes out victorious.
The blockbuster show recently wrapped filming its final season and the cast celebrated in style at a massive Belfast party, where everybody got a little tipsy and things escalated with Jason Momoa and Emilia Clarke attempting that Dirty Dancing lift. It seems like Sophie Turner wanted a more lasting celebration of the show she essentially grew up on, as tattoo artist Lauren Winzer revealed a fresh new direwolf tattoo that appears to belong Sophie Turner.
However, it was the words underneath House Stark’s sigil that blew everybody’s minds. They read, ‘The pack survives.’
Cue the sound of a million fans screaming all at once. What does it mean? Does it mean that the Starks win the Iron Throne? Does that mean Sansa survives? Is it metaphorical and none of them survive? WE NEED SOME ANSWERS.
Immediately, avid fans flooded the comments. One user called @hellohemmy decided to go straight to the source and tagged Sophie saying, ‘Is this a spoiler? @sophiet’
Unsurprisingly, Sophie didn’t respond.
Others made up their own minds about what it meant, with one user @wolfsbaneandsilver saying, ‘She survives! Shut your pieholes you haters!’
Another called @pau_inlaw86 made a bolder claim, saying, ‘sansa, arya and Bran will survive to the great war’.
However one user called @gerzzzey suggested what we think is the most likely answer, saying, ‘Just bec a tattoo said “the pack survives” doesn’t mean it’s a spoiler and the starks survived. The phrase came from her monologue back in S7 ! Why aren’t people thinking about that?’
They’re of course referring to an emotional moment between Sansa and Arya Stark during the final episode of season seven, when the reunited sisters stood on Winterfell’s battlements and quoted their late father Ned Stark’s motto.
The phrase goes, ‘The lone wolf dies, but the pack survives.’
While Sophie hasn’t confirmed whether or not she’s the person in Lauren’s photograph - she’d be far from the last cast member thinking of grabbing a Game of Thrones tattoo. In fact, she and her co-star Maisie Williams already have matching tatts of the date they both found out they had landed their roles.
Emilia Clarke of the House Targaryen, First of Her Name, the Unburnt, Queen of the Andals and the First Men, Khaleesi of the Great Grass Sea, Breaker of Chains, and Mother of Dragons also recently revealed that she wants a little dragon tattoo on her wrist.
She said in a Live! With Kelly and Ryan interview, ‘I’m going to get a dragon right here, kind of flying away. So I think that’s cool. A little kind of peace out.’
We’re not even going to try to read into that one.
We’ll have to wait until next year to find out whether any of our wild theories about Sansa and House Stark are true, as the final Game of Thrones episodes will be released some point in 2019.
