#Also the reason for why GRRM gave up on the 5 year gap

[jackoshadows]

One of my favorite Jon Snow chapters. It’s a rather quietly meditative and introspective chapter with Jon reflecting on his childhood and wrestling with Stannis’ offer to be Lord of Winterfell and his own desires and ambitions.

Ygritte wanted me to be a wildling. Stannis wants me to be the Lord of Winterfell. But what do I want?

It’s interesting to note that unlike the other Stark children, Jon doesn’t really consider Winterfell to be his home. There’s the dreams of the old kings of winter telling him that he doesn’t belong and there’s the memories of Catelyn making him feel like he doesn’t belong there.

The chapter starts with Jon remembering Robb telling him that he can’t be Lord of Winterfell because he’s bastard born (A poignant moment because we as readers know that Robb has legitimized him as Jon Stark, KITN and Lord of Winterfell). From here, Jon reflects on marriage, children, family, home, Robb, Ned, love and the future as he walks by the ghosts of his past.

Outside, he found he had no idea where he was going. He walked past the  shell of the Lord Commander's Tower, where once he'd saved the Old Bear  from a dead man; past the spot where Ygritte had died with that sad  smile on her face; past the King's Tower where he and Satin and Deaf  Dick Follard had waited for the Magnar and his Thenns; past the heaped  and charred remains of the great wooden stair. The inner gate was open,  so Jon went down the tunnel, through the Wall. He could feel the cold  around him, the weight of all the ice above his head. He walked past the  place where Donal Noye and Mag the Mighty had fought and died together,  through the new outer gate, and back into the pale cold sunlight.  

Just as Jon finally comes face to face with his desire for Winterfell, Ghost makes an appearance and gives him his answer. Jon is not going to break his oaths, become Lord of Winterfell  and burn down the Godswood as Stannis desires.  

We then get to see the first election in Westeros and all the different players. Here’s where we get the first hints of the likes of Marsh and Othell Yarwyck, with Thorne trying to convince Yarwyck to stand down in favor of Slynt in order to not displease Tywin. And Yarwyck more or less suggesting Jon, taking into consideration that Slynt would displease Stannis. We see how a lot of the NW brothers don’t like Janos Slynt’s bluster and big talk.

And finally, Mormont’s raven. Did Sam place the raven inside the kettle? Did Maester Aemon know? Was it Bloodraven’s doing?

The chapter ends with Jon being elected Lord Commander of the Night’s Watch and starting a whole new story arc for the character.

The Wall was his, the night was dark, and he had a king to face.

[aheartofink]

Re-EDIT GoT!

In regards of the recent petition to remake season 8 of Game of Thrones, I think instead of remaking it HBO and the writers should re-edit it. They should go back to their storyboard and work with what they already filmed and add more to it so the storyline for season 8 actually makes sense. Fill in the plotholes and the gaps that are linked to the reason why most people hate on season 8. They are confused and so am I. I would hate to see all the cast and crew hardwork go to waste just to be remade for the fans satisfaction of a good ending.

The ending (this includes Dany's inevitable turn to madness idk about the inbetween plots) was set up by GRRM long before D&D started writing season 8, so season 8's turn of events was and always will happen regardless. So they shouldn't change it. However, they should have developed the storyline deeper for the ending to fall into place perfectly. The only reason, I feel, that the storyline was written poorly was because their is only 6 episodes. Only 6. 6 rushed episodes that merely followed the "tell and not show" writing tactic to get things moving to fit the short time frame. Too little time with the characters we have followed for 10 years or more (book readers). Too little time to develop a coherent plot. Too little time to put a close to characters acrs and doom. Too little time to say goodbye. 6 was not enough to make a good storyline for a finale even for other TV shows, it is not enough. I'm saying 6 episodes was the problem.

If they were to remake everything, well that would also be a waste of time and money since we already know the impending end to this story and we can't change it. I feel that it is better if they were to re-edited it. Adding more scenes to provide viewers with an inside view to characters POV to see what is happening, what they are thinking *cough*Jaime*cough*Bran*cough*Dany*cough*. Just add more plot to have a good foundation for how this season 8's storyline plays out because we are getting increments! Reminder, HBO literally offered D&D as much freedom to end GOT the way it should, meaning they had the budget to have 10 episodes!

Examples:

(These are just examples of what I'm trying to convey for the re-writing of GoT in regards of if there was 10 episodes)

Dany's Madness:

Yes, we have all heard that Dany's madness was foreshadowed since season 2 and I could see it. Don't get me wrong I loved Dany's character and her arc, but there was always an underlying tone of madness in her and I appreciate the subtlety. Since it is going to happen anyways the writers should have written her character to bring up some more of her subtle madness, progressively getting less subtle through the episodes until the burning of KL.

I can see were the Dany stans are coming from and I support their points. The writers should have foreshadowed it more especially this season showing a progression. Such as more burning lines, more Viserys lines, more scenes of her feeling isolated in Westeros, just bring back all those subtle madness hints back into this season as a "full circle foreshadow". What I loved about episode 4 was the scene in the dining hall when your in Dany's POV seeing Jon get all the love. The whole eeriness of the scene was perfect for her feeling like she didn't belong. Tge slow motion shot of her looking at the dining hall gave me a sense of her feeling underappreciated and foreign to her people after she had sacrificed so much just to get no love. We needed more of that. Slow progressive burn my friends for the ultimate burn.

Bran the Three Eyed Raven

Bran and his mysterious powers remain a mystery as they get dismissed by his character when asked about it. "Its a long complicated story". Well, explain it or at least show us what he is seeing while he is warging into ravens to give viewers insight.

On the topic of how Bran knew the NK's motives, we were simply told. I think we should have been given more POV screentime with Bran. Him seeing the NK and what he wants. If the NK could actually talk instead of broading and smiling let him speak to Bran while he is in his "trace". There is a reason why people meme Bran. All he does is sit, stalk, and "I'm gonna go now".

Jaime's "Redemtion" Arc

Honestly I would be okay if they changed Jaime's redemption arc to actually fit the whole idea of a redemption arc, but that's up for debate. If they were to keep his arc of inevitably going back to Cersei, obviously they shouldn't have done right after he sleeps with Brienne. What they should add is him debating with himself about Cersei to himself or to Tyrion. We were left off in season 7 with Jaime basically leaving his sister and "Fuck loyalty". Anyway, we should have seen a progression of him turning back into his old ways instead of sleeping with Brienne and the two minutes later "I want to be with Cersei". There was little to no indication of this we NEEDED indications.

I was a played a clown for thinking Jaime broke Brienne's heart to save her the pain of never seeing him alive after he goes back to KL to kill Cersei. He really should have since hey, there's a prophecy waiting to be fulfilled hello! Anyways, I digress.

Sequence of Events Rearrangement (by episode)

Arrival at Winterfell, lovely lovely reunions, Bran contacting/seeing the NK and learning his motives, madness level 1.

Jon learns lineage, more contact with NK, Jaime's arrival, and madness level 2.

More Bran visions, jon tells lineage to his family first (shown), reunions, Bran tells NK's motives, and madness level 3.

Same plot as "The Knight of the Seven Kingdoms", Cersei's POVs, and madness level 4.

Same plot as "The Long Night".

Celebrations, Jon tells Dany of lineage, plans for to march on KL, and madness level 5.

Marching on KL, adventures with Arya and Sandor, Tyrion learns Jon's true lineage, Missandei and Rhaegal die, and madness level 8.

Plans, Varys learns Jon's lineage and dies, and madness level 9.

Burning of KL and madness level 10.

The inevitable end.

^^this is a very rough sequence of episodes if their was 10 but makes sense in my mind lmao. I think D&D's storyline was good, it's the restriction of 6 episodes which made the storyline falter.

[throughhthehills]

For all the people who say Arya is going to die

She won't and all I need to prove that is just some logic.

We all know GRRM originally wanted to do a 5 year gap. After the gap, we would have our characters who are now older, wiser, experienced and has got abilities that are important for their life in the future. But his idea didn't work and he had to write the books which feature the events he intented to make happen in this gap. Basically, AFFC and ADWD are development books; characters are getting ready for their roles in the future that is yet to come. This is also the reason why many people find these books boring because nothing important is happening.

And these are the abilities Arya has gained in two books:

She found the Myrish mirror the next day, and every morn and every night she sat before it with a candle on each side of her, making faces. Rule your face, she told herself, and you can lie.

Arya grinned, realized she was grinning, and gave her cheek a pinch. Rule your face, she told herself. My smile is my servant, he should come at my command.

She almost bit her lip again, but this time she caught herself and stopped. My face is a dark pool, hiding everything, showing nothing.

The moon turned and turned again, though Arya never saw it. She served, washed the dead, made faces at the mirrors, learned the Braavosi tongue, and tried to remember that she was no one.

"Learn three new things before you come back to us," the kindly man had commanded Cat, when he sent her forth into the city. She always did. Sometimes it was no more than three new words of the Braavosi tongue. Sometimes she brought back sailor's tales, of strange and wondrous happenings from the wide wet world beyond the isles of Braavos, wars and rains of toads and dragons hatching. Sometimes she learned three new japes or three new riddles, or tricks of this trade or the other. And every so often, she would learn some secret.

"You have five senses," the kindly man said. "Learn to use the other four, you will have fewer cuts and scrapes and scabs."

Poisons and potions were for the afternoons. She had smell and touch and taste to help her, but touch and taste could be perilous when grinding poisons, and with some of the waif's more toxic concoctions even smell was less than safe. 

Supper was for language lessons. The blind girl understood Braavosi and could speak it passably, she had even lost most of her barbaric accent, but the kindly man was not content. He was insisting that she improve her High Valyrian and learn the tongues of Lys and Pentos too.

She learned to hear the lies, to feel them in the play of the muscles around the mouth and eyes.

And for a time it seemed that she could see them too, through the slitted yellow eyes of the tomcat purring in her lap.

In addition to these, she is great at acting, making friends, reading people, seeing the things as they are and well, on some level manipulating people.

I think, show has made it clear by now that Arya will never be a Faceless Men and she has never been one of them in the first place (only thing I am grateful to them for). Arya never really learns how to be a Faceless Men anyway. She constantly seeks out a chance to go home, rebels them, refuse to believe in their idea of justice and fails miserably every time she tries to get rid of her identity. She still doesn’t know how to change her face and she will never learn because Arya’s face is important to her. She is the only Stark child that has the Stark look, she is a Lyanna lookalike and GRRM makes a lot of effort to show us how Arya is becoming prettier as she grows up. Arya’s fate is not being a Faceless Men. Then what is the purpose of Arya having all of these qualities? You don’t make your character spend two books to learn all these things just for nothing in the end. She won’t have a chance to use those when her TWOW story will pretty much revolve around Riverlands and Lady Stoneheart and her ADOS story will be about the war with the white walkers. These are the abilities that will be needed after the war on whatever Arya’s endgame is. So no, she won’t die, not until she uses these.