SPOILER WARNING: Hey, if you’re here, we’re assuming you’re up-to-date with Game of Thrones because this post will contain some big ol’ Tormund-sized spoilers for the Game of Thrones finale. If you’re not caught up, come back once you’re ready to properly debrief.

Game of Thrones fans, our watch has ended.

On Monday night (or Monday at 11am if you were keen enough to chuck a sickie), the Game of Thrones finale wrapped up the TV series that’s dominated our lives for a decade.

For die-hard watchers of the HBO show, watching Bran Stark a.k.a the least likely person to be king end up on the now non-existent Iron Throne (thanks Drogon) was a shock.

For the rest of the population, it’s a relief not to have to smile and nod along to chats about ‘Dany’ and ‘knowing nothing’ in the office kitchen.

Need to debrief on the Game of Thrones finale? Mamamia’s Holly Wainwright and Clare Stephens unpack every confusing, surprising and infuriating detail on The Recap podcast below. Post continues after audio.

But for those of us scratching our heads as to how Bran Stark won Game of Thrones and how the rest of the surviving Stark family made it out of Westeros alive, turns out the final GoT ending was hidden in one of Sansa Stark actress Sophie Turner’s tattoos all along.

In June, 2018, the 23-year-old British actress got a Stark Direwolf tattooed on her arm along with the words “the pack survives” by Sydney tattoo artist Lauren Winzer.

This was around the same time filming for Game of Thrones season 8 finished, and at the time, fans felt like the sentiment Turner decided to get inked below her elbow was a spoiler for how GoT would end – that all the Stark children (RIP Robb and Rickon) would survive the battle of Winterfell against the White Walker army, and ultimately, triumph over Cersei Lannister’s reign of Westeros.

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First tattoo back home! Thank you so much for getting this from me @sophiet ! ???? bad ass !

A post shared by Lauren Winzer (@laurenwinzer) on Jun 9, 2018 at 3:10am PDT

Later that month, Turner told us (perhaps on the advice of the HBO legal team) it wasn’t a spoiler and that we were all reading waaaaay too much into her tattoo.

“Yeah, actually while I was getting it done, people advised me not to because it looked like I was giving everything away, but I wasn’t,” she told James Corden on The Late Late Show.

“It’s just quote from last season. But everyone figures the pack really does survive, but it’s just a moral that I like to live by.”

You can watch Sophie Turner explain away her GoT spoiler tattoo on The Late Late Show below. Post continues after video.

But turns out the Brains of Thrones were right because it was a spoiler.

In Monday’s Game of Thrones finale, we watched ‘the pack’ survive, just as Turner’s tattoo said it would.

Jon Snow’s life was spared after killing his aunt/lover/Queen Daenerys Targaryen, and was exiled to the Night’s Watch at Castle Black (he actually went off north with the Wildlings and looked pretty happy about it).

Sansa Stark was crowned Queen of the North, and successfully regained Winterfell’s independence from the other six kingdoms. Arya Stark jumped on a ship and began sailing ‘west of Westeros’, presumably to discover her own land to be queen of. And Bran Stark was democratically elected as the new King of Westeros.

So yeah, the pack survived alright.

In an interview with the New York Times after the finale aired, Turner said she was satisfied with how the show ended, and that filming the last scene with her Stark siblings was very emotional.

"[The last scene we shot] was actually that scene where we choose Bran to be king... we were wondering when we were going to wrap, because we didn’t know if it was going to be three days or 10 days or however long," she said.

"So every time they cut, I would just start crying because I thought it was the end, and then I’d have to bottle it up again and shoot another take, and another take and another take.

"I loved [Sansa's ending]. Winterfell is the only place that she really, truly feels safe. It’s the place that she’s the most capable of ruling.

She would be a fair and loving ruler, and it’s what she’s been striving for this whole series: to go back home, to protect her home. And finally she has that."

Turner also shared a tribute to her Game of Thrones character, as well as the cast and crew, on Instagram on Monday.

 

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Sansa, Thank you for teaching me resilience, bravery and what true strength really is. Thank you teaching me to be kind and patient and to lead with love. I grew up with you. I fell in love with you at 13 and now 10 years on.. at 23 I leave you behind, but I will never leave behind what you’ve taught me. To the show and the incredible people who make it, thank you for giving me the best life and drama lessons I could have ever asked for. Without you I wouldn’t be the person I am today. Thank you for giving me this chance all those years ago. And finally to the fans. Thank you for falling in love with these characters and supporting this show right through till the end. I’ll miss this more than anything.

A post shared by Sophie Turner (@sophiet) on May 19, 2019 at 1:12pm PDT

"Sansa, Thank you for teaching me resilience, bravery and what true strength really is. Thank you teaching me to be kind and patient and to lead with love. I grew up with you," she wrote.

"I fell in love with you at 13 and now 10 years on... at 23 I leave you behind, but I will never leave behind what you’ve taught me."

"To the show and the incredible people who make it, thank you for giving me the best life and drama lessons I could have ever asked for. Without you I wouldn’t be the person I am today.

"Thank you for giving me this chance all those years ago. And finally to the fans. Thank you for falling in love with these characters and supporting this show right through till the end. I’ll miss this more than anything."

You're welcome. You're bloody welcome.

Were you surprised by the Game of Thrones finale ending? Tell us in the comments below.

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