--- title: How Game of Thrones Pale Horse Could Portend Daenerys' Doom description: In season 1, Daenerys rode a white horse as a hero. Now, Arya is riding a white horse after witnessing the carnage Daenerys wrought. canonical: https://time.com/5588151/game-of-thrones-white-horse-meaning/ author: Eliana Dockterman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2019-05-13T14:34:23.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:57:01.518Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: Why Arya's New White Horse on Game of Thrones Could Be an Ominous Sign for Daenerys og:description: Here's what that Game of Thrones horse could mean og:url: https://time.com/5588151/game-of-thrones-white-horse-meaning/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte8c4bbfd507bb8bc/698949cb7cdbace8aed5f835/gameofthronesaryastarkseason8episode5.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: GameofThronesAryaStarkSeason8Episode5 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Why Arya's New White Horse on Game of Thrones Could Be an Ominous Sign for Daenerys twitter:description: Here's what that Game of Thrones horse could mean twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte8c4bbfd507bb8bc/698949cb7cdbace8aed5f835/gameofthronesaryastarkseason8episode5.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Why Arya's New White Horse on _Game of Thrones_ Could Be an Ominous Sign for Daenerys  by [Eliana Dockterman](https://time.com/author/eliana-dockterman/)  ## Eliana Dockterman Correspondent May 13, 2019 2:34 PM UTC  Arya Stark fights for survival in Game of Thrones season 8 episode 5 and eventually, a pale white horse appears. Arya Stark fights for survival in Game of Thrones season 8 episode 5 and eventually, a pale white horse appears.Helen Sloan—HBO  by [Eliana Dockterman](https://time.com/author/eliana-dockterman/)  ## Eliana Dockterman Correspondent May 13, 2019 2:34 PM UTC **Warning**: This post contains spoilers for _Game of Thrones_. Things were looking pretty grim for Arya Stark (Maisie Williams) at the end of Season 8, Episode 5 of _Game of Thrones_, “The Bells.” Daenerys (Emilia Clarke) [had fully transformed into the Mad Queen](http://time.com/5587311/daenerys-mad-queen-game-of-thrones/) and destroyed King’s Landing with dragon fire. The green wildfire stashed throughout the city began to explode on impact. Some innocent woman and child Arya had met about 15 minutes earlier were burned to a crisp. And then as Arya miraculously emerges from the ashes, she spots a white horse. Sharp-eyed viewers [speculated](https://twitter.com/Orions%5FBeIt/status/112776940005090099) that it was the same horse that Harry Strickland, the leader of the Golden Company, was riding before his forces were easily demolished by Daenerys’ dragon. Now, it’s her means to leave this burning place. Some fans are even theorizing [Arya’s brother Bran Stark (Isaac Hempstead Wright)](https://www.reddit.com/r/gameofthrones/comments/bnxfqs/spoilers%5Fi%5Flooked%5Fand%5Fthere%5Fbefore%5Fme%5Fwas%5Fa%5Fpale/), who was noticeably absent from the episode, warged into the horse and sent it to her to save her.  Arya Stark fights for survival in Game of Thrones season 8 episode 5 and eventually, a pale white horse appears. Helen Sloan—HBO But the horse may carry a symbolic significance, too. ## What’s the meaning behind the pale horse? White horses have represented a lot of different things in myth and literature. In some stories, white horses are heroic figures, like the winged horse Pegasus in Greek mythology or the white steed that Gandolf rides in _Lord of the Rings_ named Shadowfax. But in the Bible’s Book of Revelation, the four horses of the apocalypse all ride different colored steeds, and Death rides a “pale horse.” The passage reads: “And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him.” Many writers have made allusions to this more sinister symbolism in their works, including _Watchmen_ author Alan Moore and mystery writer Agatha Christie (see: _The Pale Horse_.) _Game of Thrones_ has historically presented white horses as the animals of heroes on the show. Ned Stark rode a white horse in season 1, and Khal Drogo (Jason Momoa) gifted Daenerys a white horse at the beginning of the series. But a lot has changed in the show since those first episodes: One of those heroes was quickly beheaded, and the other has transformed into a villain capable of killing thousands of innocent people. _Game of Thrones_ is always subverting tropes, so it’s likely that the new horse Arya encounters represents something more sinister. ## How might that factor into the finale? So if _Game of Thrones_ is now partial to the biblical interpretation of “pale horses,” when Arya mounts it she becomes a harbinger of death. Arya is already a formidable killer. Just two episodes ago, she killed the most potent symbol of death, The Night King, herself. Now, given what Arya has seen during the destruction of King’s Landing, many fans are theorizing that [Daenerys just moved to the top of Arya’s famed kill list](http://time.com/5587928/game-of-thrones-will-arya-kill-daenerys/).  Helen Sloan/HBO The possibility that Arya might ride a pale horse to Daenerys’ camp in order to execute the woman who is now definitively the Mad Queen could further support the [popular theory](http://time.com/5587928/game-of-thrones-will-arya-kill-daenerys/) that she will be the one to kill Dany. The fact that Daenerys used to ride a white horse before she rode a dragon — well, that makes the fact that a new hero on a white steed has emerged to kill her all the more potent. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5588151/game-of-thrones-white-horse-meaning/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5588151/game-of-thrones-white-horse-meaning/"},"headline":"Why Arya's New White Horse on Game of Thrones Could Be an Ominous Sign for Daenerys","datePublished":"2019-05-13T14:34:23.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:57:01.518Z","description":"In season 1, Daenerys rode a white horse as a hero. 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