Fans Are On The Fence About Tormund's Fate During The Battle Of Winterfell

The Battle of Winterfell is coming, and Game of Thrones fans are already mentally preparing themselves to say goodbye to some of their favorite characters when the bloodbath airs on Sunday, April 28. Considering that the first two episodes of the final season have been setting the scene for the stand-off between the Night King's army of the undead and the living who are prepared to make a stand at Winterfell, Throners have started making predictions about who will live and who will die come Sunday. Considering his prominent placement in last week's segment, you might be wondering: Will Tormund die in GOT Season 8 Episode 3? Here's why his fate is still up in the air, according to fan theories.

At the end of the Season 7 finale, fans saw Tormund Giantsbane — the leader of the Wildlings, or the "free folk" as they've come to be called — fleeing for his life as the Wall fell to the Knight King's army. Now, his fate is up in the air once again as the Battle of Winterfell nears — and Throners are wondering if the beloved bearded, milk-chugging warrior will survive to make a romance happen with Brienne of Tarth. While his name has constantly come up on lists of characters that fans think are on the chopping block this episode, there are a few reasons why things could go either way come Sunday.

First and foremost, Thormund and Gilly are the only remaining Wildlings left, so it would be surprising if the show runners decided to get rid of him so early on in the season. Second of all, the show has been teasing and building up some kind of a relationship with Brienne — despite the fact that she clearly has feelings for Jaime. Killing off Thormund during this battle would clearly put a damper on that and get rid of that storyline. Thirdly, he survived the destruction of the Wall, so I have to believe that the producers of the show wanted to keep him around for a greater purpose.

On the other hand, fans are worried for Brienne's fate after she was knighted by Jaime at the end of episode 2. TBH, I thought she was going to be one of the characters that survives at least until the very end, but GOT is notorious for making bad things happen to characters right when they're most happy — and we could all see the pure joy on her face when she was knighted by Jaime and finally received the honor she's wanted the most her whole career. If Brienne dies during the Battle of Winterfell, she'll be wiping out the potential Brienne/Tormund relationship anyways. There's also the fact that Tormund, while a beloved character, mainly serves to provide comic relief without significantly altering the storyline.

At this point, I could see things going either way, and the Twitterverse is having serious ~feelings~ about potentially saying goodbye to the red-haired warrior.

On Thursday, April 25, the actor behind the on-screen legend sat down with The Hollywood Reporter to talk about his uncertain fate at the end of Season 7 as well as his fate in the days ahead.

"I didn't really think I was going to die," Kristofer Hivju told the publication about the scene where he is seen watching the fall of the Wall. "I don't remember anyone telling me that, but … Game of Thrones is too fond of their deaths to give me an off-screen death. If they want to kill somebody, they want some emotional impact out of it."

While the actor didn't give too many spoilers about his character's fate at the Battle of Winterfell ("It was just crazy. I haven't seen the episode, so I really don't know. But I think it will be pretty intense," he told the publication), something tells me that live or die, he'll be giving it his all when he takes to the battlefield on Sunday.