This 'Game of Thrones' Theory Suggests Varys Took His Rings Off for an Important Reason
This post contains spoilers for the final season of Game of Thrones. Consider yourself warned.
The countdown to the final episode ever of Game of Thrones is on, and we’re not quite sure what everyone’s going to do with themselves once the juggernaut HBO show ends. In the meantime, I guess we’ll all just continues to analyze (and criticize) every frame of footage to try and figure out what is going to happen on Sunday night.
One prevailing guess among fans is that Daenerys Targaryen is going to die. In the previous episode, Dany basically breaks bad—possibly becoming the Mad Queen—and torches huge swaths of King’s Landing with her lone remaining dragon, Drogon. Based on the reactions of Jon Snow and Arya Stark, it would seem they’re not comfortable with her new leadership strategy. And some fans think will lead to Arya taking down the Mother of Dragons, just as she did the Night King.
If she is indeed the one to kill Dany, perhaps Arya will use her training by the Faceless Men to get close to her. But a new fan theory (first laid out on Buzzfeed) suggests the actual method: poison. We know that Varys sent letters—presumably telling others in the realm about Dany’s “madness” and Jon’s rightful claim to the Iron Throne—before he was executed. And, as Buzzfeed points out, he also very deliberately removes his rings while writing.
What could that mean? The theory suggests that there may be poison in one of them that is meant to kill the Mother of Dragons—and it’s based on the show’s history with deadly accessories. Back in season four when Olenna killed Joffrey, she did so with poison that was originally hidden in a jewel in Sansa’s necklace.
We already know that the Master of Whispers was trying to assassinate Dany with poison, so the thinking is that he deliberately removed the rings because he knew he was about to die and wanted to leave them for someone else like Arya, Jon, or Sansa to use.
We’ll find out on Sunday when the saga comes to an end.
Abby Gardner is a contributing writer at Glamour. You can follow her pop culture musings on Twitter @abbygardner or in her weekly newsletter, We Have Notes.