Warning: This story contains spoilers for season 8 of Game of Thrones.
Update: If you were brave enough to weather the Game of Thrones series finale on Sunday night, you'd know that most of the show's long-running questions and puzzle pieces were left unanswered and unattended. Luckily, at least one major point was addressed in a big way before the sixth episode finished: The Stark children made it to the end — and Sophie Turner's tattoo totally spoiled it.
Yes, Turner (who plays Sansa Stark) got a tattoo last June of the House Stark sigil, a direwolf, and Ned Stark's famous maxim ("The pack survives") on her arm. Fans accused the actress of giving away how Game of Thrones ended, although Turner emphatically denied it was a spoiler at all. But the pack did survive... albeit in completely different parts of the world separated from one another. We suppose that's better than the pack not surviving at all, right?
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This story was originally published on June 14, 2018.
By the end of the penultimate season of Game of Thrones, it had started to look a lot like a fatal divide between Arya (Maisie Williams) and Sansa (Sophie Turner) would mean the end of House Stark. But, in one of the most epic plot twists of the season, Sansa didn't kill her younger sister as we'd all feared she would; she killed Littlefinger instead — with his own dragonglass dagger, no less. All at once, the feud (and our anxiety) was no more, and it seemed as though what was left of Winterfell's most embattled residents would live on — for the time being, at least.
But if we know anything about GoT, it's that the HBO hit always serves up shocking changes when we least expect them. And, like every season that's come before it, fans can't help but wonder: Will the Starks survive season 8?
The Three-Eyed Raven might not be available for comment, but we do have the next best thing: Turner's latest GoT-inspired tattoo. Thanks to Sydney-based artist Lauren Winzer, the actress now has the House Stark sigil, a gray direwolf, inked on her arm (or is it her leg?), with three telling words written underneath: "The pack survives."
Many fans will recognize the phrase as an old Ned Stark maxim he once relayed to Arya, and something Sansa repeats in season 7. Naturally, it has a lot of people convinced that Turner's tattoo is a major spoiler for the final season. Considering the cast is filming the six-episode arc now, it's certainly not out of the question.
But perhaps there's one other detail fans are forgetting. At the 2016 Emmy Awards, Turner revealed to E! News that her and Williams got matching co-star/BFF tattoos of the date they both landed their respective roles for the show in 2009. Turner admitted that their initial design idea was to get a direwolf all along, but the two weren't sure how long they'd last (most of House Stark has perished, so we don't blame 'em). What's more, Turner confirmed to Vulture back in 2016 that all the co-stars who will survive all eight seasons plan to commemorate the feat (it's a big one) with matching tattoos.
Though there's no proof of the rest of the ensemble getting the direwolf ink yet, we're almost certain Turner's is enough of a breadcrumb to prove the theory that House Stark will live on. The only burning question left: Who will win the Iron Throne?