We all know how unpredictable "Game of Thrones" can be. The show, and the book series, have been churning out brutal twists and thrilling revelations since 1996 and 2011 respectively. Scenes like the Red Wedding and Hold The Door made us gasp, weep, and throw things angrily at our television through a haze of salty tears as we swear to never watch this stupid, beautiful show ever again (or maybe that's just me). While fans may get mad at George Martin or the show runners for their lack of respect for our fragile hearts, we have to admit that these plot twists are what draw us back in for those ten Sundays out of the year and leave us continuously on our toes about what might happen next. These plot twists are also the reason that fans are always theorizing. Every episode is almost immediately followed by an outpouring of fan theories and speculations. While some of the longer held and more logical ones have been confirmed over the years (all hail R+L=J, the fan theory of all fan theories), others have been left in the dust or exiled from canon like so many Jorah Mormonts with so many outbreaks of Greyscale. However, even if they didn't turn out to be true, some of them are still really cool concepts (or just so ridiculous that they need to be mentioned). So here are my favorite eight debunked "Game of Thrones" fan theories. Warning: The night is dark and full of spoilers.

1. Arya and The Waif are the same person.

While I loved getting to see Arya Stark become a complete bad-assassin and give Walter Frey the horrible death he really really deserved, to me her season and a half with the Faceless Men was honestly a little boring. One thing that made it more interesting was her constant rivalry with The Waif, a mysterious girl in the House of Black and White who's favorite pastimes included wacking bling Arya with a stick and glaring at Arya from afar. After Arya refused to kill Lady Crane and got herself repeatedly stabbed in the gut by The Waif disguised as a sweet old lady, fans were questioning how the Stark girl was still walking around and even appeared to be doing hardcore parkour in the preview for the next episode. One theory that gained a large amount of popularity was the Arya wasn't actually hurt. This theory claimed that The Waif was actually Arya herself, and that her personality had split as a result of her want to become No One but inability to let go of her old life and name. The Waif stabbing her was then theorized to be a mental attempt by Arya to erase what remained of her Stark self, and truly become No One. However, the next episode disproved this by not only seeing Arya very much actually stabbed, but The Waif's face very much cut off by Arya and placed in the Hall of Faces as atonement to the Many Faced God. I have to admit that the theory would have been very interesting had it played out that way, but if Arya truly did become No One we might not have even gotten to see her feed Walder Frey his sons in meat pies and then cut his throat (sorry for the graphics, I just really loved that scene). This "Fight Club" style plot twist sounds really cool, but it wouldn't have really contributed to the grand scheme of the show. And with one fourteen episodes left, I understand why the writers opted for Arya's return to Westeros instead of a whole other episode of mental reflection and a serious lack of human meat pies.

2. The CleganeBowl

We have seen The Hound and The Mountain fight before, and it was epic. However, fans always want more of the two biggest and baddest dudes in Westeros, who just happen to be brothers, going at each other mercilessly with swords and fists. With Cersei depending on the trail by combat to clear her name in season six, and The Hound confirmed to be returned from the death (although far less literally than his zombified brother), a lot of people were gearing up for a big battle between the brothers. The hope was that Sandor would find his way back to King's Landing just in time for the Sparrows to choose him as their champion (because like, who else even has a chance against the Mountain) and Cersei would of course choose Ser Gregor. However, it looks like the great CleganeBowl has been postponed if not permanently cancelled. Sandor seems to have fallen in league with the BrotherHood Without Banners and their quest to save the world lies north at the wall instead of at King's Landing where his brother is currently torturing a very morally ambiguous nun in the name of the Queen.

3. Varys is a merman.

There's no question that Lord Varys is one of the most, if not the most, shady characters in the GOT universe, but is he a slippery merman as well? This theory, believe it or not, does have a small amount of logic working for it. For one, Varys is famously a eunich. Fans of this theory speculate that his lack of male appendage wasn't actually a tragic boyhood dealing with magic and human sacrifice, but a result of his secret identity as a merman. It also hinges on a few lines between the Lord of Secrets and Tyrion where Varys seems very unafraid of being thrown overboard. The theory has been around for a while, but gained a lot more popularity after the season six finale in which Varys seemed to teleport directly from Dorne to the prow of Daenerys's fleet. Furthermore, the theory claims that Varys is in league with Dany and her dragons for the betterment of a mermaid plot for world domination. Fans claim that Varys and his merpeople friends are planning on melting the north with Dany and her dragons, therefore causing global warming and a notable rise in water level. Therefore, more water means more mermaids which means...world domination? This theory, like the Arya one, is really fun to think about but it actually doesn't float well in the established storyline. It's much more likely that Varys really did get his business chopped off by a wizard, and that he just doesn't really flinch at threats from anyone. It's also kind of been disproven by geography. To get to Westeros (specifically to Dragonstone, which is the Targaryen ancestral castle and Dany's most likely first target) Dany would have to pass very close to Dorne. She probably just picked Varys up, and the scene of them on the boat occurred weeks or months after her departure from Meereen.

4. Hodor is the Great Other

Oh Hodor, the kindest and most gentle character in Westeros. But is Hodor actually a vessel for the Great Other, the commander of the White Walkers and the great enemy of the Prince That Was Promised and also the world? The answer, of course, is no. However, for a while there was a growing theory in the ASOIAF community that this was true. The theory states that while The Wall was built to keep the Others out, Winterfell was built to keep the Great Other in. Hodor somehow accessed this great evil as a child and the resulting possesion caused him to lose his ability to speak. While this theory has been tragically disproven by season six's "The Door," the theorists did have one thing right. Several people added to this theory that Hodor's inability to say anything but "Hodor" was a reference to holding a door closed, but instead of holding the door so Bran and Meera could escape the Night's King, it would be a door of some kind that kept the spirit of the Great Other trapped in the crypts of Winterfell.

5. Daario Naharis is Benjen Stark

This is another recently disproven theory that previously was gaining a lot of steam. It claims that instead of disapearing beyond The Wall (or, you know, dying and becoming a super ice zombie who kills other ice zombies with his fire mace) Benjen Stark left Westeros and traveled across the Narrow Sea to take another name and start a new life as a sellsword and eventual boy toy to Daenerys Targaryen. This theory had been around for a while in the book world, but grew ever more popular among fans of the show as soon as the actors for Daario were infamously switched out. The new actor, Michiel Huisman, shared the beard and humorous demeanor of Ned Stark's brother as he was in the first season. While the actors did look similiar, the theory was evetually disproven by Benjen's reapearance as the show's version of Coldhands to help Bran and Meera after Bran basically ruins everything with the Three Eyed Raven and manages to kill Hodor and his direwolf in the process.

6. Roose Bolton is a skin walker

Roose Bolton is a horrible guy with a horrible house sigil and an infinitely more horrible son. True, Ramsay may be the most twisted of the two, but Roose is literally the guy who plunged a knife into Robb Stark's heart and for that he ranks almost as high as his bastard son in my list of evil guys in "Game of Thrones." However, in addition to his murdering and scheming, many fans also think he's an immortal being with the power to wear other human's skin. The most concrete evidence for this theory is his house sigil, a flayed man, but several more hints in the books are dropped. Characters very often refer to Roose as "grey" and "ageless." He is described as cold, emotionless, and just plain creepy. This theory was sort of disproved with Roose's death at the hands of his son, but some theorists claim that the immortal being inside Roose simply moved on to Ramsay once he died. Whether or not this is true in the books, the show has definitely put an end to this disturbing theory by killing both Roose and Ramsay in season six.

7. L+N=J

There are many, many theories about Jon Snow's parents. Ranging from Daenerys and Drogo (because magic, and also time travel) to the eventually confirmed Rhaegar Targayen and Lyanna Stark. However, some fans went much much darker and speculated that Jon was not only Ned Stark's actual son, but the result of an incestuous relationship between him and his sister Lyanna. The theory was backed, of course, by Ned never mentioning Jon's mother and getting very secretive each time she is brought up. It was also helped by a description of Lyanna's death that occurs in the books during one of Ned's dream, and by Ned's complete disdain towards Jaime and Cersei Lannister when he discovers their own incest. Many fans thought that his hate was caused by a deep sense of shame for his supposed relationship with Lyanna. Not only would this theory have been interesting as far as Ned's character development, but it would have also made it very ironic that the Bastard of Winterfell was in fact more Stark than any of the other Stark children. However, as we all know, R+L=J is confirmed, and this unsettling theory was at last put to rest.

8. Lady Stoneheart

This last theory isn't actually a theory at all, but a very cool plot twist that was cruelly cut from the television show. In the books, Catelyn Stark is resurrected days after her death by Thoros Of Myr and Beric Dondarrion from the Brotherhood Without Banners. She still has a cut throat and has to cover it with her hand every time she wants to speak in a creepy, raspy voice. She takes over the Brotherhood and leads them on a quest to brutally murder anyone who ever wronged the Stark family or had anything to do with the Red Wedding. She's alltogether a very cool character, and it would have been great to see her come to life on screen. When season three came and went, fans held out hope for a while that we would see Lady Stoneheart make the jump from page to television, but she never did. Despite repeated denials by both Michelle Fairley who played Catelyn and the showrunners themselves, fans still theorized that she would eventually appear. In season six, the hype was realler than ever. Characters referenced Catelyn every other episode, and when the Brotherhood appeared to be brutally murdering people for no reason, fans were sure that The Hound would hunt them down only to find a reanimated Cat at their helm. However, it was not to be. The Brotherhood apparently just had a few rouge members, and Beric Dondarrion was still (mostly) alive and leading them. The hype is gone and hearts are broken, but we move on. At least we have Arya to take her place and ruthlessly murder every person who ever even looked at a Stark wrong.