#there are few things I love more than people not letting Euron get to them

[anxiousnerdwritings]

Yandere Euron Greyjoy w/ Siren!Reader

Euron grew up hearing the tales of the children of the sea; the sirens who sang their songs and all the men they lured to their deaths, along with their ships. He’d always dreamed of coming across one, catching it and having it for his own.

The thought of having his siren never strayed far from his mind, everytime he was at sea it was all he could think of. He would swear he felt something deep in the water watching him. Following him. Studying him. Teasing him. He knew they were out there, waiting for him. And this only ignited his need to find his siren all the more.

Usually most ironborn take a share of the plunder from their pillaging, especially the captains but not Euron. No, he knows there is a much more valuable treasure out there. Something far more worthwhile. Something only for him.

When the day finally comes and Euron hears that hauntingly beautiful song, he knows he’s got his siren and he’s not going to lose them. Whatever plans, whatever destination there was before is quickly forgotten in place of finally getting what belongs to him.

And what a sight you are to behold when he does finally catch you. You’re beautiful, so frighteningly beautiful. But he’s not scared, after all this is Euron we’re talking about, on the contrary he’s excited. Very excited. You have him feeling euphoric and he loves it. The look of complete shock, anger and fear at finally being caught that washes over your mesmerizing face has Euron feeling even more euphoric. He likes that look on you, he likes it a lot.

As much as Euron has grown so accustomed to this drawn out game of cat and mouse, a game that he has come to take much excitement and anticipation in, he couldn’t be more thrilled to have finally caught you. A part of him almost wants to throw you back into the sea just to be able to chase after and catch you all over again but he’d much rather finally claim what’s been rightfully his all this time.

People said he was mad, that the seas had corrupted him but he knew better than to listen to them. After all he’s got you now, the proof to his unrelentingness. And he can’t bring himself to take his eyes off of you. He doesn’t want to miss a thing; every part of your being, Euron wants to memorize it all.

He’s already prepared a place to keep you, a tank he had specifically made just for you. Quite a well crafted and spacious enough little home where he can watch you whenever he pleases and you’re entirely unable to hide away from his prying gaze. You are his trophy, his gift from the sea that he has waited so long to receive. Of course he wants to be able to look upon you whenever he wishes, it’s his right after all. After everything he’s done to get you in the first place the least he deserves is to see his catch in all its maddening glory.

And maddening you are. He thrives on the hateful look you send his way, the gnashing of your teeth whenever he gets too close, the way you thrash your beautifully scaled body against the thick cage-like glass of your new habitat trying to free yourself. Euron isn’t stupid, of course he’d have your new little home be thoroughly enforced. He may not exactly know what all you are capable of but he has a few ideas and your immense strength was certainly one of them.

After all this time it’s no surprise that Euron would be addicted to your voice, to your song. He’s only ever heard it a few times in his life but he saved it to memory, he would’ve been a fool not to. Euron even took up whistling a similar tune, primarily to draw you out but it was something that just stuck and he never let it go but nothing could ever compare to the real thing. So once he finally had you that song, your song, was all he ever wanted to hear. And he had nothing to interrupt it, no other noise to take away from it. He’d made sure of that when he cut out all his crewmens’ tongues. You may not have necessarily been the sole reason behind his decision but you were one of them. And if he didn’t have to bark out orders he would have taken their ears too.

As much as Euron would love to have his precious little siren wrapped around his body, he knows they’d break him without a second thought. They’d rip his throat out and spit it back in his face with a sharp toothed grin. Don’t even get him started on the drowning bit, not like he isn’t use to it given his being an Ironborn, if anything it excites him more. But none of these things could possibly strike even an ounce of fear into Euron, I mean he’s committed so much worse with his own bare hands, instead it all captivates him all the more. You truly were meant for him and only him, weren’t you? He’ll make sure to take real good care of you, his Queen of the Sea.

[dontbotherwiththepronunciation]

I'm following the shipping anthropology like it's my paid job ofc but was there anything interesting about gen preferences ? Iirc exacty if there was a question about it/what it was like but I'm curious if anyone shared

Sorry for the last response! I went over the answers many times already and one of my regrets is not digging deeper into general non-romantic dynamic preferences so I am sorry I will have to disappoint you when it comes to it since I was too short-sighted. Here are the stats for Greyjoy dynamics, some comments on Robb and Theon as friends and a few general comments on possible friendships. Character studies type of gen fanwork sadly wasn't mentioned.

Extremely surprised by Theon & Euron being more interesting than Theon & Balon to the common fandom.

Many throbb people and also less Theon-centric people who answered the survey also spoke of Theon and Robb as friends or friends to lovers which I found interesting because this wasn't the case with other ships that are are based on somewhat positive interactions/emotions, like show! theonsa or theyne (who I don't consider his friends either).

i picked theon/robb mostly because that's been his healthiest relationship during his life but i generally don't engage with shipping content besides occasionally seeing fan art. i enjoy the dynamic of childhood friends turned lovers as well as like maybe them bonding over their mistakes in the afterlife. i like to think robb would forgive theon eventually, he doesn't seem the type to give up on his loved ones. -

Very close tie between Theonsa and Throbb for me. I enjoy a dark twist on the childhood friends trope, I like the potential for exploring Theons trauma from being a hostage vs his genuine love for Robb and Sansa

I don't feel strongly about it, I don't think Theon and Robb would ever say or do anything explicitly romantic/sexual "in canon", but I get that it can be fun to explore it. I like to explore how their friendship developed, how they grew so close, and the crushing guilt, regret and trauma of the betrayal

I live for TheonxRobb fics but mostly the ones about the war time, the angst about betraying Robb or his family, reactions to the red wedding, angsty flashbacks to their childhood and so on. it's the childhood friends to lovers to enemies to tragedy that does it for me. but when I'm in mood I can get super into fluffy fics of the two, since Robb isnt really a pov character there's much more leeway for the writer, I can read I fic about them and not be bothered if Robb is ooc (hard to be out of character when you are not much of a character lol) because I'm not familiar with inner thoughts and all that, theres more freedom for imagination.

I find Theon/Robb interesting because the themes of friendship/brotherhood/betrayal are really interesting to me. Theon's guilt, mania, depression and his complex relationship to the Starks are best shown through the Throbb (ew name lol) dynamic. I also think it's hilarious. Mordern AU throbb is insane..

I wish he was in AGOT a little more! Like I don't think we get a full conversation between Theon and Robb besides when Robb yells at Theon, which sucks because they are basically best friends.

I feel like Robb was Theon's only friend in Winterfell for a long time. Like he was the only person the idiot could sorta trust

Catra from she ra! Redemption and identity and sexy bad boy stuff again. Childhood friends to lovers. Enemy/rival of the childhood friend/lover. Most of the characters in Yellowjackets. (Jackie is Robb).

I just ignore things that bug me. I don't like calling him reek. I don't think he was "right to betray the Starks" or that he didn't betray them. I think he did betray them despite being a ward, or at the very least he betrayed robb who was his friend. Theon says as much, what he did was wrong and it supposed to be wrong.

Others

let him have other friends in modern aus, the whole botley family is right here.

Back to the iron islands support group thing we came up with. I would really love it if Wex, Falia, Jeyne & Theon would become friends (and maybe it develops into something else with one of them, maybe it doesn't). Not found family, he has a family, but friends! Good friends who treat him right and don't look down on him. He had friends in Winterfell and he had friends in the Iron Islands! He is not unloveable or unloved but life has made it very difficult for him to keep those friendships or for those friendships to even be healthy and these three people have gone through similar situations in their life and could find some happiness and carelessness in each others company.

I need to know who his dead or grown into strangers friends were. Was Botley one of them? Was that the reason he looked down on him and Qarl later on? Was Baelor one of them? grrm why add that extremely relatable line and not expand on it?!? You know me, I know you. Killing ourselves over this.

[riocat01]

@fiedmehtahkos ,

I truly believe that the clues are there that Jaime left Brienne to stop Cersei, to make sure she would die and Brienne would be safe.

While Jaime and Brienne’s ending was far from perfect and certainly not what they deserved, it was also not the “twincest is beautifully tragic” ending that many people think it was. What we were given was the “man scarfices himself for the woman he loves” ending. Jaime said those things to Brienne in the courtyard and was distant because he didn’t want her follow. He knew her Oath bound her to Sansa and she could not go, and he knew if he was tender with her he would never be able to leave to complete his mission. He was already a dead man. Jaime could not even look at her knowing he was hurting her. If he hadn’t loved her he would have been acting cold and nasty, he wasn’t, he was destroyed.

Even with Tyrion he was traumatized. He knew he had left his heart and soul at Winterfell with Brienne and was going to die. What he told Tryion was a lie so Tyrion would set him free. If Tyrion knew Jaime’s real purpose which was to get close enough to Cersei to take her out and probably die himself, he wouldn’t have let him go. Then when Euron wounded Jaime, he knew he was dying and would not be able to return to Brienne, so he was more determined than ever to ensure Cersei’s death and make the world was safe for Brienne.

There was no loving reunion with Cersei. He never declared love for her. He didn’t even kiss her. He clearly did not want to be there. His whole persona was totally different. NCW played Jaime in a way he’d never done before. That wasn’t Jaime Lannister, that was a man already dead, who had lost everything. Jaime literally dragged Cersei through The Red Keep. There was no gentleness.p no caring. And watch him, he’s looking up at the ceiling, for the place he knows will collapse and bury them both. He doesn’t even mentions her fake baby. He doesn’t even register it when she mentions it as a manipulation to keep him moving. Then he just stops and gives up. When did Jaime Lannister even just stop and give up? Never. He knew exactly what he was doing. The only reason he held Cersei at the end was so she couldn’t get away. He even pulls her face to look at him so she wouldn’t see there was an escape route nearby, which was clearly shown in the scene where Tyrion finds the bodies. When they are found, they had switched orientation and Jaime was lying on top of her, not under her where they would have fallen if they stayed the way they were standing when the ceiling fell. The explanation for that is that Cersei had tried to flee in the final seconds when they were obscured by the falling bricks, but Jaime had grabbed onto her and held her under the rubble to make sure she would die.

Jaime took Cersei to The Hells himself, and he did it to keep Brienne protected. He knew Cersei would come after Brienne, the way she had tried to kill him and Tyrion. Bronn even hinted at as much in the tavern scene in Wintertown. (‘Upping the bargain by picking off a few of the Dragon Queen’s top generals, one at a time.’) Brienne was one of those generals. Then when Sansa told Jaime about the ambush of Dany’s fleet and Cersei’s victory, you can see his whole world crumble on his face. Jaime knew Cersei would come for Brienne. He knew he would have to leave her.

The most glaring evidence that Jaime only left to ensure Cersei would die is that he stayed in the North the whole time Cersei was basically loosing, even knowing troops were marching on her. He was happy with Brienne, Tyrion even said so in the tavern. Jaime was fine to let Dany take Cersei out. When did Jaime leave? When the tides had turned and Cersei was now winning. He became aware of this right after talking to Bronn in the tavern and realizing Cersei would never stop if she were left alive. He knew what she would do. She would either slaughter Brienne in for jealous revenge or Brienne would be caught in the middle of a war between the North (who had broken away from the other kingdoms, taking a huge part of Cersei’s realm with them). Jaime knew he could not let anything happen to Brienne.

Even when Jaime got to Kings Landing he rang the bells like Tyrion told him to. He was going to surrender and hand Cersei over to Dany. When the siege didn’t stop, and knowing he was mortally wounded, Jaime decided not to take any chances and see Cersei dead himself. Jamie did not die with Cersei because he wanted to, or because he had any love left for her. He sacrificed his own life to make sure she died and Brienne, the woman he truly loved would always be safe. The ending didn’t show a betrayal of Brienne, it showed that Jaime’s ultimate honorable act was to give his life to protect her.

Brienne knew this, too, or she would not have finished his White Book page so lovingly. She would have seen him as a man truly without honor, but he wasn’t and she knew that. She knew what he did and why he did it.

The Valonqar prophecy (even though it wasn’t really mentioned in the show) came to pass. Valonqar means younger brother, which Jaime was. The hand that would choke the life from Cersei was his hand that held her under the rubble and suffocated her. Jaime was true to Brienne to his dying breath.

Jaime Lannister was the Valonqar!

Hells Yeah! Jaime Loved Brienne! ❤️

[krakensofpyke]

@longmayshereign-cersei

From here:

Euron loosed a hearty laugh at the woman’s words.  She reminded him a lot of his niece, with a dash more of the gravity that comes from age.  “You’re a fearless woman, aren’t you?” he responded, clapping his hands in amusement.

“I am sorry to bore you, Lioness,” he continued, placing sardonic emphasis on the title, “but I have no designs on your immediate death.”  He walked over to a table where a decanter of wine and two glasses were left.  The king sniffed at its contents, wrinkled his nose, and spilled them onto the floor.  Reaching into a hidden pocket of his shirt, he produced a silver flask and poured the ink liquid into the empty cups.

“Have you ever considered that your foes and mine are the same?”  He offered the Lannister regent one of the goblets.  “Stannis Baratheon, your false friends of Tyrell, the scheming cravens of Dorne; I’ve as little use for them as you, I’d wager.  What if they all simply vanished?  Pray, drink with me a while.”

[dwellordream]

Hey, I don't know if you are in the mood for such frippery, but would you do a director's cut on chapter 69? That is one of my most reread chapters of h/h, and not simply because Nell and Harry are arguing in church.

It’s been a long time since I did one, but I can try:

Nell starts off the chapter believing the Neck’s mystical reputation and location as the entry to the North is responsible for the return of her cryptic dreams.

She attempts to rationalize her old dreams of her mother and Sara Snow by telling herself it was just the subconscious manifestation of her insecurities and fears and guilt over her childhood, and also tries to dismiss the creeping sense that Robb and Grey Wind were linked from the very start, in a supernatural manner.

She also expresses worries and fears over the fact that Robb’s health has not improved during their travel north, and he and Grey Wind continue to avoid each other, whatever bond they had mangled. Meanwhile, Harry has confided in her his fears that they will start losing large numbers of men to desertion, as they enter the North and with the winter weather only worsening.

Nell acknowledges Harry’s more practical concerns but admits all she can focus on is getting Lysara back, and then goes into her latest nightmare. While pregnant she dreamed of a son leading her through a peaceful, sunny Riverrun. Now she’s left Riverrun, perhaps permanently, and dreams of an older Lysara leading her through the dungeons of the Dreadfort, the exact inversion of her old hopeful dreams.

Nell acknowledges that they are down in the crypts near her dead siblings, and is alarmed when Lysara runs ahead, leading her straight to a flayed figure. Nell initially believes the person is Bethany, then realizes in horror that it’s actually herself, comforting Lysara. Nell reacts furiously to her almost-dead self, commanding the figure to release Lysara; instead the flayed Nell begins to strangle her own child.

On the one hand, this dream expresses a very literal fear of her own father and brother; if captured by them her fate is likely to be gruesome. On the other hand, this dream also reflects Nell’s childhood dread of her home- the place she should have felt safe, but never did- and the lost potential of a home with Robb and Lysara, as well as guilt over losing her daughter and blaming herself for the possibility of Lysara’s death.

It also acknowledges that Nell would rather Lysara be dead than grow up abused and terrified of Roose and Ramsay, something she cannot admit in real life, that she would rather Lysara have a quick death than a lifetime of suffering.

Upon waking angrily, Nell rejects her Bolton heritage and the Dreadfort’s claim on her once again, thinking that her only pride was always in her mother’s legacy, not her father’s. She trues to convince herself Lysara must be alive and unharmed, but admits she never believed Roose would betray and murder Robb, either.

Nell reflects on the crannogmen’s isolated existence; like the mountain clans they prefer to marry amongst themselves, as their insular, hard lifestyle is very hard for most outsiders, even fellow northerners, to adjust to.

Arden Greengood shows up to inform them that his father Karl Greengood has notified Greywater Watch, who is coming to them, rather than them trying to find it. Now the army just has to wait, not exactly a comfortable experience in the middle of the swamps and marsh.

Arya feels suffocated because she doesn’t have any child companions since Harry sent him back south to Starfall, judging the travel north too dangerous for Edric and that his aunt Allyria must be worried sick about him. Nell is sympathetic but unwilling to let Arya wander, after having just reunited her with her mother.

Nell also knows that Oldtown is in danger from Euron’s fleet, but is privately relieved the Ironborn are not trying to attack the North again for the time being.

Arya expressed worry for the former household of Winterfell, and wants to rescue whoever is still alive, remembering them all by name, to Nell’s surprise. There also seems to be a massive wolf pack following the army north, though Nell doesn’t connect them to Arya.

Nell wants to sacrifice a goat to the old gods for their continued safety as they travel north. She is unnerved by Robb’s disinterest and refusal to participate, not because he disagrees with sacrifice but because he is now apathetic towards the gods, and frightens Nell by telling her he didn’t feel them when he died, or like he was going to any kind of afterlife. He only felt the painful, horrifying sensation of his soul being unwillingly forced back into his corpse.

Nell argues that the gods meant to help them by returning Robb to her, and that they must have some great purpose for him. Robb denies this, and reacts angrily, telling her he doesn’t feel or think all the things she believes he should. He remembers he loves her, but that’s it, and blames himself for being ‘weak’ and not seeing the betrayal coming, which Nell rejects, calling himself a failure.

He reviled the fear he felt when Roose killed him, and tells Nell he no longer fears, so he won’t fail again. He wants her to give the goat to Grey Wind to eat instead, as hunger is one of the few things that matters to him anymore. Nell is distraught and refuses, telling him to go see Catelyn, who still loves him, even if she is afraid.

We then get to the infamous godswood scene. The godswood in the neck are all tiny islands and islets, not proper sprawling gardens. The baby goat obliviously accompanies Nell, and when she kills it she almost breaks down into tears at its trusting innocence. Despite this, Nell still arranges its entrails and prays, hoping the slaughter of the innocent goat will appease the gods, who, ironically, she views as hungry and unfeeling as Robb himself.

Harry then shows up to interrupt her alone time, much to her annoyance. They speak about the coming fight for Moat Cailin and he warns her that the North may not automatically flock back to Robb’s cause, and that Barbrey may sell them out. Nell is infuriated and insists Barbrey is only going along with Roose to protect Lysara, while Harry warns her not to depend on House Dustin or Ryswell for support, especially after the execution of her uncle.

This then devolves into a general fight over Robb. Harry flat out tells her Robb is dead, never getting better, and that most people know it. He also insinuates that while Robb can still fight, he could never rule as king again after this. Nell is incensed and accuses Harry of speaking treason, which he ignores, insisting she is in denial. He also accuses Robb of being a warg, which Nell takes as him calling Robb a heartless monster.

Nell calls him a power hungry fool blinded by his own fear, which be explodes at, reminding her that he helped get them this far in the first place, and reunited Arya with her family. If he wanted power he could have easily killed Robb (again) and left Nell to her fate. This is somewhat ironic as we later find out that Harry almost did kill Robb when he was being revived.

He reminds Nell that his family line descends from the Starks and that they want the same thing, while Nell realizes, despite her fury, that he is isn’t lying or trying to manipulate her. She almost feels she can read him better than she can Robb, which frightens her. This sense of intimacy with Harry is disturbing as Robb slips further and further from her.

Finally, Nell admits that Robb may not be able to rule after they take back Winterfell, but won’t consider what might happen to him, just insists that Lysara is still his heir and will someday be queen. She wants Lysara to be loved and respected, even if the North never loves Nell herself as her family’s actions.

Harry admits she will never be publicly loved, but points out the first Starks were not loved after conquering the North, either, even though they viewed their actions, like all conquerors, as part of the greater good. However the Stark name is still beloved now, even though they were hated by many at the start of their dynasty.

Harry warns her again against putting her faith in Robb’s rule, and that’s that.

Nell admits that what she and Harry just discussed was treason, and that she can no longer confide in Robb. He has no more room for nuance or understanding of these things and would kill Harry immediately. She also finally admits to herself that he is actively dying. Despite her desperate prayers, they will never live a long and happy life together, even if they get their daughter back. She is going to lose him again, and doesn’t know if she can go through the grief again.

Lying awake with Robb that night, he surprises her by asking about the color of Lysara’s eyes. Nell admits sadly that she doesn’t know, it’s been so long. Ruefully she asks what color he’d prefer, which he can’t answer. They fall asleep together dwelling on their loss, and in the morning Greywater Watch arrives.

[gascon-en-exil]

A Game of Thrones 10th Anniversary Season Ranking: Part 2

Link to Part 1

Time for the bottom half of the list. The four seasons here will surprise no one, but the order might.

#5 Season 6

You can tell what I most what to talk about here...but there's an order to these things.

S6 actually has a bunch of great ideas, but they drown beneath the most slapdash plotting and character work the show has seen yet in order to set the stage for the narrower conflicts of the last two seasons. It's notorious for bringing back characters who haven't been seen in a season or longer only to kill them off (Balon Greyjoy, Osha, Hodor, the Blackfish, Rickon, Walder Frey) or awkwardly graft them back into the main plot (Sandor Clegane, Bran). There are plot threads that ought to be compelling but are too rushed in execution, like the siege of Riverrun, Littlefinger's hand in the Battle of the Bastards, or Daenerys's time back among the Dothraki and then finally getting the hell out of Meereen. Arya hits on the only interesting part of her two-season sojourn in Braavos - a stage play, of all things - only for it to stumble at the end with a disappointing offscreen death and some incomprehensible philosophy ahead of the start of her murder tour of Westeros. There's also so much cutting off the branches, enough to be conspicuous; the final shot of Daenerys leading an armada of about half the remaining cast she assembled partially offscreen says that better than anything else. Well, not anything....

Highlight: Without exaggeration, the opening of S6E10 is easily my favorite sequence in all of GoT. The staging, the music, the mounting suspense even as it becomes increasingly obvious what's about to happen, the twisted religious references particularly in Cersei's mock confession to Unella, Tommen throwing himself out a window because he can't deal with the reality of how terrible his mother is, how Cersei gives absolutely no fucks whatsoever about murdering hundreds of people at once in a calculated act of vengeance largely prompted by her own poorly thought out actions - I love it all. It's the single most masterfully-executed act of villainy in the whole show - Daenerys torching King's Landing probably has a higher body count, but the presentation there is all muddled - and if I had any doubts about Cersei being my favorite multi-season major character they were silenced in this moment. The explosion of the Sept doesn't sit perfectly with me, because I liked the Tyrells and because of what I said about deaths like theirs and Renly's in the previous post under S2, but I think that unease only cements the strength of this sequence. It's an overused phrase in fandom these days, but GoT at its best is all about moral greyness that gives its audience room for multilayered reactions. Cersei nuking the Sept and making herself the sole power in King's Landing, which in a sense is just a more overt example of the kind of character/plot consolidation elsewhere represented by Daenerys's armada, is one of those events that's impossible to approach from a single angle if you care about any of the characters involved. And hey, it's not in the books (yet, presumably), so unlike Ned's death or the Red Wedding the GoT showrunners can take the credit for realizing this one.

Favorite death: Even leaving aside the Sept and related deaths there's a lot of good ones to choose from in S6. Ramsey is cathartic but too gory for me, Osha's was a clever callback but a little delayed, it's hard to pin down specific deaths when Daenerys incinerates the khals, and Arya only gets half credit for Walder Frey and his sons when she saves the rest of the house for the opening of S7. I'm thinking Hodor, not so much because I enjoy his character or the manner of his death but because it's a clever bit of playing with language (that must have been hell to render in other languages for dubbing) wrapped up in some entertainingly murky consent issues and some closed time loop weirdness. It's all very...extra? Is that the word for it?

Least favorite death: Offscreen deaths continue to be mostly letdowns, in this case Blackfish and the Waif. Way to botch the ending of Arya's already near-pointless Braavos arc, guys. Speaking of Arya, this spot goes to Lady Crane, whom the Waif somehow kills with a stool or something. It's a dumb way to send off an entertaining minor character.

#6 Season 8

I swear that I'm not putting S8 this high solely because of Jonmund kind of sort of happening. I've never been very interested in either of them and the sex would be far too bear-on-otter to suit my pornographic preferences, but even so the choice to close out the series with them is hilarious.

I really don't need to elaborate on why S8 is down here; everyone who's ever watched the show has done as much in the nearly two years since it wrapped up. I do however need to explain why I've ranked not one but two seasons below it. My biggest argument here is that I don't believe it's fair to critique S8 for problems it inherited from earlier seasons. A non-comprehensive list:

Mad Queen Daenerys: unevenly built up beginning from S1 and continuing in some form through every following season

The questionable racial optics of Dany's army: also seeded as early as S1 and solidified by S3 with the Slaver's Bay arc

Cersei only succeeding because she makes stupid decisions and then lucks out until she doesn't: apparent from S1, directly lampshaded by Tywin in S3, fully on display with the Faith Militant arc of S5-6

Jaime not getting a redemption arc or falling in love with Brienne: evident with his repeated returns to Cersei throughout the show as one of the most consistent elements of his character, particularly in S4 and during the siege of Riverrun in S6

Tyrion grabbing the idiot ball/becoming a flat audience surrogate mouthpiece: started in S5 around the time the showrunners ran out of book material for him and wanted to make him more of a PoV character and his arc less of a downward spiral, although I've seen arguments that changes from the books involving his Tysha story and Shae set him on this trajectory even earlier

The hardening of Sansa's character: began in earnest in S4 and never let up from there

The strange ordering of antagonists: set down by S7's equally strange plot structure - the Night King had to come first with that setup

CleganeBowl and the dumber twists: from what I've heard the whole thing of writing around fans on the internet guessing plot twists started pretty much when the book content ended, so S5-6 maybe?

Yes, there's plenty to criticize about S8 on its own merits...but just as much that was merely the writers doing what they could at that point with deeply flawed material.

Highlight: This may sound cheesy, but the better parts of S8 are almost all the cinematic ones, whether that's E2 being a bottle episode with tons of poignant character send-offs before the big battle, a handful of deaths with actual satisfying weight like Jorah's and Theon's, and an epilogue that incorporates both closure for individuals and the broader uncertainty of messy socio-political systems that GoT has always been known for before working its way back to the Starks at the very end for some tidy bookending. Even imperfect moments like the Lannister twins' death and the resolution of Sansa's character felt weighty and appropriate based on what had come before.

Favorite death: Forget about the audio commentary attempting to flatten Cersei's character; Cersei and Jaime Lannister have an excellent end. Cersei especially, as the scenes of her stumbling her way down into the catacombs as the Red Keep crashes down around her really show off how her world is abruptly falling apart and how she retreats into her own self-interest at the end in spite of her demise being at least partially of her own doing. There's some stupid moments associated with these scenes, like Jaime dueling Euron to the death and CleganeBowl, but I can excuse those when the twins end up dying exactly where you'd expect them to: in each other's arms, in a ruined monument to their family's grand ambitions that, like Casterly Rock itself, was taken from another family.

Least favorite death: Quite a few dumb ones in S8 have become forever infamous. Missandei sticks out, and for me Varys too just as much because of how the writing pushes him to do the dumbest thing he could possibly do purely for the sake of killing him off ten minutes into the penultimate episode. But no one belongs here more than Daenerys Targaryen, killed at the height of a rushed and uncertain villain reveal by a man who takes advantage of their romantic history (who is also her family, because Targaryens) to stab her in a moment of vulnerability - pretty much only because another man tells him that Daenerys is the final boss. Narratively speaking that might be the case, but even so this is the end result of multiple seasons of middling-to-bad buildup. Not even Drogon burning the symbolism can salvage that. Also Fire Emblem: Three Houses did this scene and did it better.

#7 Season 5

...Yeah, we're going to have to go there.

Sansa's rape is not a plot point that personally touches me much. It's terribly framed in the moment and the followup in later seasons is inconsistent at best, but it's not a kind of trauma I can relate to. On the other hand, in the very same episode Loras is tried and imprisoned for homosexuality, and Margery faces the same punishment for lying for her brother. That hits much closer to home, not just for the homophobia but also for the culture war undertones of the not!French Tyrells persecuted by a not!Anglo fanatic who later reveals himself to be the in-universe equivalent of a Protestant. The trial is just one part of Cersei's shortsighted scheming, just as Sansa being married off to Ramsey is part of Littlefinger's, and both of them get their comeuppance in the end...but it's unsettling all the same. I especially hate what the Faith Militant arc does to King's Landing in S5, swiftly converting it from my favorite setting in GoT to a tense theocratic nightmare that only remains interesting to me because Cersei is consistently awesome. What's more, pretty much everything about S5 that isn't viscerally uncomfortable is dragged out and dull instead: the Dorne arc, Daenerys's second season in Meereen, Arya in Braavos, Stannis and co. at Castle Black. The most any of these storylines can hope for is some kind of bombastic finale, and while several of them deliver it's not enough to make up for what comes before, or how disappointing everything here builds from S4. S4 has Oberyn, S5 has the Sand Snakes - I think that sums up the contrast well.

Highlight: S5 does get stronger near the end. As much as his character annoys me I did like the High Sparrow revealing his pseudo-Protestant bent to Cersei just before he imprisons her, and there's a cathartic rawness to Cersei's walk of atonement where you can both feel her pain and humiliation and understand that she's getting exactly what she deserves (and this is what leads into the climax of S6, so it deserves points just for that). The swiftness of Stannis's fall renders his death and that of his family a bit hollow, but it's brutal and final and fittingly ignominious for a character with such grand ambitions but so little relevance to the larger story. The fighting pits of Meereen sequence is cinematic if nothing else, and even the resolution to the Dorne arc salvages the whole thing a tiny bit by playing into the retributive cycles of vengeance idea (and Myrcella knows about the twincest and doesn't care, aww - no idea why that stuck with me, but it's cute all the same). Oh, and Hardhome...it's alright. Not great, not crap, but alright.

Favorite death: I don't know why, but Theon tossing Myranda to her death is always funny to me. Maybe because it's so unexpected?

Least favorite death: Arya's execution of Meryn Trant is meant to be another one of the season's big finale moments, but the scene is graphic and goes on forever and I can't help but be grossed out. This is different from, say, Shireen's death, which is supposed to be painful to witness.

#8 Season 7

I can't tell if S7's low ranking is as self-explanatory as S8's or not. At least one recent retrospective on GoT's ruined legacy I've come across outright asserts that S7 is judged less harshly in light of how bad S8 was. If it were not immediately obvious by where I've placed each of them, I don't share that opinion.

Because S7 is just a mess, and the drop-off in quality is so much more painful here than it is anywhere else in the series except maybe from S4 to S5 (and that's more about S4 being as good as it is). The pacing ramps up to uncomfortable levels to match the shortened seasons, the structure pivots awkwardly halfway through from Daenerys vs. Cersei to Jon/Dany caring about ice zombies, said pivot relies largely on characters (mostly Tyrion) making a series of catastrophically stupid tactical decisions, and very few of the smaller set pieces land with any real impact as the show's focus narrows to its endgame conflict. As with S6 there are still some good ideas, but they're botched in execution. The conflict between Sansa and Arya matches their characters, but the leadup to that conflict ending with Littlefinger's execution is missing some key steps. Daenerys's diverse armada pitted against Cersei weaponizing the xenophobia of the people of King's Landing could have been interesting, but there's little room to explore that when Cersei keeps winning only because Tyrion has such a firm grip on the idiot ball and when Euron gets so much screentime he barely warrants. Speaking of Tyrion's idiot ball, does anyone like the heist film-esque ice zombie retrieval plotline? Its stupidity is matched only by its utter futility, because Cersei isn't trustworthy and nobody seems to ever get that.

And how could I forget Sam's shit montage? Sums up S7 perfectly, really. To think that that is part of the only extended length of time the show ever spends in the Reach....

Highlight: A handful of character moments save this season from being irredeemable garbage. As you can guess from my screencap choice, Olenna's final scene is one of them, even if Highgarden itself is given insultingly short shrift. S7 also manages what I thought was previously impossible in that it makes me care somewhat about Ellaria Sand, courtesy of the awful death Cersei plans for her and her remaining daughter. The other Sand Snakes are killed with their own weapons, which shows off Euron's demented creativity if nothing else. I like the entertainingly twisted choice to cut the Jon/Dany sex scene with the reveal that they're related. And, uh...the Jonmund ship tease kind of makes the zombie retrieval team bearable? I'm really grasping at straws here.

Favorite death: It's more about her final dialogue with Jaime than her actual death, but again I'm going to have to highlight Olenna Tyrell here for lack of better options. She drops the bombshell about Joffrey that the audience figured out almost as soon as it happened but still, makes it plain what I've been saying about how Jaime's arc has never really been about redemption, and is just about the only person to ever call Cersei out for that whole mass murder thing. There's a reason "I want her to know it was me" became a meme format.

Least favorite death: There aren't any glaringly bad deaths in S7, just mediocre or unremarkable ones. I still think the decision to have Arya finish off House Frey in the season's opening rather than along with their father at the end of S6 was a strange one that doesn't add much of dramatic value.

[epiphany-of-a-madwoman]

The Unexpected Perks of War | Daenerys Targaryen x Fem!OC

Part 2

Summary: Allys Baratheon is the only trueborn daughter of Robert Baratheon and Cersei Lannister. After the explosion of The Sept of Balor and the death of Tommen, Allys grew tired of the ghosts that hung in Kings Landing and set off to Dragonstone, hoping to find a semblance of safety.

Note: Masterlist for this series here🤍

A loud knock on her door is the first thing Allys hears upon waking up. Sitting up, her dark hair, tangled and matted from tossing and turning all night, obscures her vision. She breathes in a deep breath and pushes away the hairs. Tangles get caught in her fingers, causing a few strands to get pulled from her scalp. Cringing at the pain, Allys simply tucks her hair behind her ears, careful to not pull on any of the knots and wipes the sleep away from her eyes.

“Come in,” she calls out, her voice croaky and uneven from lack of use. The door clicks as the person on the other side pushes on the handle. The wood creaks as the heavy door swings open, revealing a bright-eyed Missandei. Her attire is similar to what she’d been wearing when Allys first came to Dragonstone and her hair is styled the same, but somehow she brings a sort of...freshness to it. Allys has never seen Missandei look dull and lifeless, no matter the color palette of her attire due to the soft smile and beaming eyes she pairs with it.

And it didn’t take Allys long to figure out why.

In her time in the East, Daenerys went from city to city, using her dragons and an army that quickly grew each day to liberate the people of Astapor, Yuanki, and finally Mereen. Missandei had been in Astapor, as a slave translator to some master there. When Daenerys came to purchase the Unsullied she took Missandei as well… and then proceeded to kill all the masters and free the people. So it is no surprise that she and Daenerys are like sisters, something that makes Allys subconsciously smile, but also bringing a ping of sadness, reminding her of her own sister. Myrcella had been kind and good and so unlike their mother, and the world chewed her up and spat her out, as it does with all genuinely good people.

It had been a bitter pill to swallow when Allys’ uncle told her that the woman who poisoned Marcella, Ellaria Sand, was an ally of Daenerys. One she invited to Dragonstone to form an alliance with. It had felt like poorly made ale pouring down her throat whenever she wandered through the large castle and happened upon one of her daughters or Ellaria herself. Her fist clenching and unclenching at her side in anger, but without the power to do anything. So she was forced to let it go. And eventually, karma caught up to her when she was captured by Euron Greyjoy and dragged to King’s Landing. Allys isn’t sure what happened next, but she knows her mother did something horrible to the woman. But Allys couldn’t bring herself to feel saddened by her death. For once, her mother’s viciousness played in her favor.

“Good morning, My Lady,” Missandei said, beaming at Allys as she glides across the room towards her windows. Her heeled boots clack against the stone floor, the only proof that her feet were making contact with the ground. A stray curl rests on her forehead, bouncing with each movement. Upon reaching the windows, she throws aside the thick curtains that once blocked out the early morning sun rays. A flock of birds flies into view as they soar through the sky, unbothered by the storm that’s been brewing since Daenerys got her dragons. Missandei begins to move the curtains to their respective sides and ties them into a knot, forcing them to stay put.

“Good morning, Missandei,” Allys replies, her voice still shaky and groggy sounding. Finished with the curtains, Missandei turns to face Allys with her fingers intertwined as they rest in front of her body.

“I’m here to help you dress this morning,” Missandei said as if this was a normal thing.

It wasn’t.

“Don’t you help Daen - I mean, The Queen?” Allys asks, stumbling on her words when Daenerys was mentioned. And Allys cursed herself and her ancestors as the heat began to rise on her cheeks. A part of her hoped that the fascination she felt towards the Dragon Queen would fade with time, not wanting to become emotionally invested in someone who may die. But instead of dimming, as time went on and days turned to weeks, and weeks turned to months; all the while, Allys’ affection for Daenerys only grew. And while a part of her was convinced Daenerys felt the same, she couldn’t bring herself to do anything.

It was irrational really, considering the kiss they’d shared the first night Allys came to Dragonstone.  Daenerys was warm and welcoming, often spending hours upon hours of her free time roaming Dragonstone and its surrounding island with Allys. They spoke about anything that came to mind; from the color of the sky that day to childhood trauma hidden behind porcelain masks and a gaze as hard as stone. Allys told Daenerys things she’d never dreamed of telling. And Daenerys returned the favor, whispering of the times with her brother Viserys - when she was a soft flower and nothing like the dragon breathing fire she is now. Yet still, Daenerys made no further moves, so like a coward, Allys shied away from her feelings, unable to open herself up to hurt if Daenerys had changed her mind.

“The Queen is away with Drogon and the Dothraki,” Missandei answers, throwing Allys a knowing look with a twinkle in her eyes. This only furthers Allys’ blush, turning her face Lannister red.

“Right, how could I forget,” Allys answers, eyes darting around the room, unable to meet Missandei’s gaze.

‘She knows. Of course, she knows, how could she not.’

“If you would prefer I can leave?” Missandei proposes, slightly quirking an eyebrow, but otherwise maintaining an even expression. Most time Allys couldn’t beleive that Missandei had endured all she did, being dragged away from her home as a young child and forced into slavery, serving vicous men who enjoy the suffering of those beneath them. She was so light and bright, bringing a warmth akin to the burning sun in the South. But there were times her past slipped into her actions. It was there in the way Missandei could quickly change her expression, schooling her facial expressions to reveal nothing.

“Oh no! That’s not - I just - I and - you usually - ” Allys stumbles over her words like a fish out of water. It seemed every time she opened her mouth, something ridiculous would come out. And not for the first time, Allys wishes she paid better attention to the lessons her Septa attempted to instill in her. The soft laughter coming from Missandei pulls Allys from her jumbled mind. One of her hands covers her mouth in an attempt to conceal the smile tugging at her lips. “Right, I um would love your help this morning. If you don’t mind, that is,” Allys manages to answer.

“Then I shall pick out a dress for you, My Lady,” Missandei replies, not missing a beat as she moves towards the wardrobe that now holds various outfits for any possible occasion. Gifts from her new host. It didn’t escape Allys’ notice that most were in black and red - the colors of House Targaryen.

“Missandei,” Allys said, watching as she opens the wardrobe and begins moving around the dresses.

“Yes?” she answers, not moving her gaze from her current task.

“Do you think you could braid my hair? I’d do it myself, but my hands are so shaky it never looks good. AndtheQueen’shairalwayslookssonice,” Allys said, saying the last sentence in one breath, her anxiety growing with each word.

Missandei watches Allys with an unreadable expression, causing Allys to immediately clam up. And before she can frantically spit out an apology and attempt to hide in her blankets, a beaming smile forms on her face and she gives a single head nod.

“Of course, My Lady.”

_______________________

“My niece you are practically glowing!” Tyrion Lannister calls from across the room, closing the distance between them. She begins giggling softly, unable to control the noises as they echo in the entrance of the castle, the tall ceiling carrying to sounds through the hall. Her footsteps click all around them as Allys lifts her dress slightly and runs towards Tyrion. As they meet Allys bends down slightly and embraces him in a hug with a contented sigh. It’s warm and comforting as she wraps her arms around her uncle, basking in the familiarity of his presence. After a moment he pulls away, taking in her full appearance.

“Thank you, Uncle,” Allys says, managing to stifle her laughter. She brushes her hands down the sides of her dress, feeling the small embroidered flowers dance up her dress. It was pale pink with delicate white details. The design and colors are similar to something she’d wear in King’s Landing, though this dress is thicker than the light airy dresses she used to wear. “Missandei helped me this morning.”

“I could tell from the braids,” he points out, smirking slightly as he notices the braid style is similar to Daenerys’ hair. “You’ve always been hopeless when it comes to those things,” he teases, referencing all of Allys�� failed attempts at needlepoint. What was intended to be a flower, looked like a blob in pretty colors. And don’t even bring up the lion she attempted for Tyrion’s nameday. Instead of a proud lion in red and gold, it looked like a half-dead lion someone cut open. Allys would like to use her age of nine as a defense, but the point would be moot, considering her needlepoint never progressed past that age.

“I make up for my unsteady hands by being a master at chess,” she teases back, reminding him of the countless times she beat her uncle at chess. She used to play every waking hour, almost entranced by the game, attentively watching the tactics of each opponent. She’d play anyone willing: her Uncle Tyrion, Uncle Jaime, her brothers, at one point she’d even played Ned Stark. Yet the only person more insistent to play than her was Joffery, but for all the wrong reasons. One day they played and she crushed him. Joffrey, unable to let his pride be wounded by his sister - seeing himself as superior to her for the simple fact that he was a man and she was a girl - played her every single day. But with each loss, he grew violent and would throw the chess set on the ground, his face red with anger. After he broke the fifth set, Allys settled on only playing Tyrion, preening at the praise he offered after each victory.

“Something you never allow anyone to forget,” Tyrion said. A soft smile on his face as they both reminisce about simpler and much happier times.

“How was it?” Allys asks, referencing the battle her uncle had just returned from. Daenerys, along with Drogon and the Dothraki attacked the Lannister and Tarly army while they were on the road to King’s Landing after taking Highgarden.

“It was -” he begins, but trails off, unable to find the words.

“War?” Allys butts in.

“Yes, it was war,” Tyrion replies as he nods his head. A deep sigh escapes his mouth, his expression downcast. Allys feels the urge to change the subject, pretend people aren’t dying, and live in a world where everyone’s happy, but something grips her tightly, not allowing the words to leave her mouth. Not those words at least.

“And Uncle Jaime?” she asks, her mouth moving before her brain. Another sigh from Tyrion and this time, he rubs across his face with his hand.

“Not dead… I think,” he replies, his voice muffled by his arm.

“You think?” Allys questions. While the more distant of her two uncles, Allys still greatly cared for her Uncle Jaime. She understood his facade was a means to block away the pain; a way to be unbothered by the venom lacing the tongues of the people who whispered about him, their words like a whip lashing him. He covered his pain with arrogance and bravado, but Allys would see his facade slipping through the cracks in the quiet moments. When the harsh words of the court were absent and her father wasn’t being belligerent. Jaime Lannister was softer than he’d ever admit. Even if he and her mother did questionable things, their bond just a touch closer than normal, he’s family. One of the few remaining on the list that grows shorter each day that passes.

“I didn’t see him die… I also didn’t see him after the battle,” Tyrion explains, moving his hand from his face.

“So an ambiguous ending… I’ll take it,” Allys said. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m dying to get out of this dark castle and feel the sun,” Allys said, moving towards the exit.

“Of course,” Tyrion said, stepping away from her. “And Allys,” he calls out, stopping her in her tracks. She turns to face him, a bright smile once again upon her face.

“I’m glad you’re here,” he said. And with a single nod and her smile getting even wider, Allys opens the door and steps out of the castle.

___________________

The sun while bright and inviting is far more deceiving than it had been in King’s Landing. While Allys assumed with the sun out, the air would be warm, the biting wind that whipped around her meant differently. But not even stray hairs smacking into her face and getting stuck in her mouth could stop the dopey grin on her face nor the warm fuzzy feeling slowly building into something more.

Standing exactly 20 paces from Allys was Daenerys, looking as regal as ever. Her silver hair was pulled back into an intricate style, suited for a queen riding into battle on a dragon. Her pale skin glowed in the soft sunlight, reminiscent of opal. Her clothes are dark in color, with a stark red cloak hanging off her shoulder. The cloak was held in place by a three headed dragon clasp, the silver shining in the sun and nearly blinding anyone who dared look at Daenerys. The dragons fly high above, but never get too far from her. And not for the first time, Daenerys seemed more like the Fire Goddess the Dothraki revered her as than the human girl Allys knows her to be.

The only damper to her mood was Jon Snow standing two paces from Daenerys, a touch closer than Allys ever dared get - in fear that Daenerys would hear her pounding heart. The newly named King of the North originally came here for an alliance, but upon refusing to bend the knee, he hasn’t left yet. By choice or by force, Allys isn’t sure. Either way, he’s always there, with his puppy eyes and brooding stare, constantly in Daenerys’ presence. And while Allys never felt any particular emotion towards him, an unreasonable disdain bubbles inside her whenever she sees him. And yet even with this perceived threat, Allys found herself too cowardly to say a word to Daenerys.

Daenerys’ purple eyes move from Jon, panning across the landscape until they land on Allys. Her eyes widen a fraction, her blank expression melting away as her lips curl into a sweet smile. Allys’ heart beats erratically at the small gesture, her lips turning upward to mirror Daenerys’ expression. With mumbled words to Jon, not even bothering to look at him, Daenerys moves towards Allys. Her pace is quick, crossing their distance in 10 strides as opposed to 20. And before Allys can speak or even think, Daenerys throws her arms around Allys. Her embrace is welcomed, her warm body fighting away the chilling air surrounding them. On instinct, Allys snakes her arms around Daenerys as she soaks in their closeness. Her heartbeat is loud and more frantic to the point Allys fears it might stop.

But she’ll take the risk just to spend another moment in Daenerys’ arms.

And for a split second, she is convinced that Daenerys' heart is pounding as loud as hers, but quickly dismisses that notion. Instead, determining it was simply her own echoing in her ears.

Daenerys is the first to pull away but stays a pace away from Allys. And with an alarming revelation, Allys realizes this is the closest they’ve ever been. Her cheeks heat up again, as bright as they were earlier in the morning. Allys just prayed to any god that would listen that it could be passed off as a result of the cold. Either way, Daenerys doesn’t bring it up and for that, Allys is grateful.

“I missed you,” Allys said, the words tumbling from her mouth before she could stop them. Daenerys’ smile raises a fraction, bringing a hand up to Allys’s face. With bated breath, Allys watches out of the corner of her eye as her hand comes near Allys’ cheek. She lightly caresses it, her touch so light it could be mistaken for the wind, before tucking a few stray hairs behind Allys’ ear.  

“I missed you as well,” Daenerys said, her voice so soft it was concealed by the wind, only to be heard by Allys. “Your presence would’ve been a welcomed changed to an otherwise dull event.” Her hand trails from Allys’ face down her cheeks before faintly resting on her jaw.

“I never knew a battle to be a dull event,” Allys said, managing to keep her tone semi-steady even though inwardly she was bursting with each touch.

“I’ve found in the recent months any affair is dull when you are missing,” Daenerys replies. Her purple eyes watching Allys, soaking in every reaction on her face. Allys’ flush gets deeper and the warmth spreads to the entirety of her face. And suddenly she found it incredibly difficult to breathe. Yet the feeling wasn’t unwelcomed, as butterflies flutter in her stomach and her breathing wavers in anticipation. The anticipation of what? Allys isn’t sure.

“That’s a relief. Wouldn’t want to be on the bad side of the woman with three dragons,” Allys manages to choke out, hoping to play off the excitement building in her.

“No I suppose not,” Daenerys replies, not fully paying attention to the conversation as she continues watching Allys, and Allys makes no moves to stop her. “Your hair is different,” Daenerys points out. Her hands move from Allys’ jaw to her neatly braided hair, playing with the strands with her fingers, gently pulling on it.

“Missandei did it for me. I’m hopeless with my hands,” Allys said, finding herself once again entrance by Daenerys.

“It’s beautiful,” Daenerys said unconsciously, twirling the strands around her fingers.

And for a moment, Allys loses all sense of time. Blue eyes meet purple, both entranced by the other. Goosebumps cover Allys’ body as the hairs on the back of her neck raise, but not necessarily in a bad way. The anticipation within her builds, but doesn’t go anywhere even as it grows larger and larger. The whistling of the wind goes in one ear and out the other as Allys basks in the close proximity of Daenerys, memorizing her scent and the small freckles covering her cheeks. A mixture of lavender and rose with a hint of ash, three scent she will never be able to smell without remembering this exact moment, despite it seeming so miniscule. But any moment with Daenerys is noteworthy, something to diligently take note of and hold onto forever.

Then suddenly Allys is snapped back into reality. Daenerys drops her hand and steps back from her.

“I have to leave, but would you mind meeting me here tonight?” Daenerys asked, her eyes boring into Allys’ once again.

“Of course,” she answers without hesitation.

“Until tonight then” Daenerys said, Allys watching as she walked away completely unaware of Jon Snow as he passes or the Dothraki lingering near.

[danwhobrowses]

10 Things that would’ve Improved the Game of Thrones Final Season (For Me)

So it came to my attention that recently it was the First Anniversary of the Final Episode of HBO’s ‘Game of Thrones’. I was taken back to my memory of the BinGOT thing we had at work where we all made predictions of who lived, died and ‘won’ from the last ep (I was in 2nd or 3rd place). And since my mother has started binging it during quarantine I thought in the spirit of that environment I’d discuss a little what I would’ve changed in the final season.

Spoilers for Game of Thrones Season 8 Below, if you haven’t watched it then you’re better off not reading this frankly, if you haven’t been spoiled already at least.

So for starters, the final episode is not the worst tv I’ve ever seen, it just was a sloppy final season in general that really didn’t satisfy the 2 years of hype waiting for it, it’s like with the How I Met Your Mother finale, but that annoyance being more than one episode. But without further ado here are 10 things I would’ve changed about the final season Note: Most will involve the finale. The first 2 episodes were great.

10 - Ten Episodes The Long Night was 1 episode, the LONG NIGHT. A Culmination of the army of living and dead confined into one episode. One of the main problems with the final season was that the pacing was a bit rushed, it made character progression seem unnatural and dropped long-built plot points like water through a sieve. With 10 episodes, which was not a big ask given that this was the usual number and the gravitas of it being the final season would easily allow it to be green lit. D&D immediately backed themselves into a corner by giving a limit they weren’t used to and too much content to put in.

9 - Bite of the Spider Varys’ death was an upsetting start of the penultimate episode, while I would’ve loved him to have survived start to end and potentially ended on top (because he’s never shown to be as cunning or dangerous as he is in the books) there was some sense in him dying. However, Varys was shown sending a letter before his arrest and that never came back up, the finale could’ve used this by revealing to the public Jon’s true heritage, which would’ve immediately undermined Dany’s claim and set up a better conflict. Also we never knew what the voice in the flames said to him...

8 - A More Fitting Long Night While everyone probably popped hard for Arya killing the Night King, myself included, the nature of it was rather abrupt. I don’t think anyone can buy that she sneaked past that entire army. I do feel like the Night King was just a MacGuffin for the Long Night, given that he did so little in the actual fight. This is where a multi-part Long Night would’ve been key as well, going from the Night King being immune to Dragonfire to dying a bit later was not a good pace, and we lacked any conflict with Jon like we teased twice, Arya probably wasn’t the most poetic person to kill him either but GoT seldom did poetic deaths (Joffrey, Cersei, Euron). While the Long Night had exemplary deaths like Theon, Lyanna, Jorah and Beric, the Night King fell among the ranks of Melisandre and Edd in terms of meh deaths. The Long Night should’ve been a bigger bloodbath than it was, half the Dothraki somehow survived remember, we didn’t get to see Ghost fight at all either, no giant spiders, a lot of the tension was lost with the way some fight scenes were filmed; it was too easy to read between the lines and not enough characters had any true ‘oh god this person could die’ scenes.

7 - Resolution for the Characters we didn’t See and Plots unresolved With so much funding and finality in the show, there felt like there could’ve been more stuff that could’ve been resolved; what was the Quaith’s prophecy about? What really happened with the Doom of Valyria? Why does Dragonglass and Valyrian steel kill White Walkers? What is Daario doing after Dany died? Were the Faceless Men really that okay with letting Arya wander around knowing their skillset? Nobody hired them to help in the war either. What happened to the remnants of that warlock dude who stole the baby dragons, they sent one scorpion and that’s it, what happens with the Little Birds now that they’re leaderless? Who was Azor Ahai? What were the spirals about? There are a lot of questions the show kinda just, ignored. 

6 - The Mad Queen So, Dany going from ‘I’ll stop if they surrender’ to ‘Burn them fucking all’ was abrupt for many, the majority of fans were not ready or willing to accept turning on their Kaleesi in just one episode. While I could see the conclusion coming from being jumped, losing another ‘child’ and her closest friend as well as her new boyfriend being her nephew and a legitimate threat to her legitimacy despite already pledging fealty, Dany’s descent could’ve used more time, and less naivety.  While the death of the dragon was a huge shock, the idiocy fell on Dany in thinking that Cersei would play fair and wouldn’t try to occupy Dragonstone while she abandoned it. There also fell inconsistency when the same fleet and rows of Scorpion crossbows suddenly got Stormtrooper aim during ‘The Bells’. Euron is a renowned sailor, he ruined a Dornish fleet in a previous season, he may be an annoying bastard but you have to treat his naval tactics with a bit more respect - and make Dany less stupid with Cersei doing Cersei things. A lot of people definitely needed more time in buying the idea that Dany had lost her cool and that she blamed all of Westeros to justify burning everyone unashamedly.

5 - Proper Redemption We all know who we’re talking about. Jaime, Jaime, Jaime. In the end he just proved Olenna’s point didn’t he? And his turn away from redemption was only to serve as an example point for Tyrion to use to convince Jon to kill Dany. Jaime didn’t have to live, but he didn’t have to die rushing to Cersei’s rescue, or even due to Euron stabbing him. If anything Jaime should’ve died with some Honour, to be the inverse of Ned as he was presented in Season 1.

4 - My Lady does not have to mean M’Lady This is probably the most selfish ones of my 10 but as a shipper at my very heart and soul I wanted one, at least one, ship to survive this entire turmoil and Gendry and Arya were that couple. We almost had it as well, but then for some mad reason D&D decided that Gendry, despite literally saying that “none of it will be worthwhile if you’re not with me”, stayed in Storm’s End. Arya’s character endgame was right in her venturing off not being bound by the fact that she’s a noble, but Gendry spent a lot of time not caring that he was of Kingsblood to basically being his Father’s son. He’ll rule Storm’s End, marry some woman to have kids, but he’ll still have fallen into the same pit as King Robert did. It would’ve been much more satisfying and hopeful if Gendry abandoned the titles and land he never wanted or needed to accompany someone he loves and who loves him back on an adventure into the unknown. She’s not a ‘lady’ if she’s only marrying a blacksmith and love is the death of duty.

3 - Sansa is NOT Smart (and gets what she actually deserves) Right. So I really, really didn’t like Sansa. Like, I get it, she got held hostage by the Lannisters, watched her father get beheaded, got accused of murder, learned that her brother and mother died, watched the guy who fancied her mother and kissed her kill her aunt and then got effectively sold to an abuser in an arranged marriage. But Sansa is not the smartest player in the game, it was annoying that they tried to portray her as one, she had one idea that anyone could’ve told you ‘don’t be stupid against Ramsay Bolton’. She spent all of Season 8 mainly giving side eye like a petty bitch, completely trying to undermine Dany despite the two being very very similar (remember Dany was raped, sold off in an arranged marriage and watched family members get killed too) to the point where she was conspiring for Jon to usurp her. And in reality she took her ball and left, she was so pissy that the leaders didn’t pick her to be Queen of Westeros that she literally pointed out her own brother’s infertility, claimed that the North wouldn’t bow to a monarch, then declared herself Queen.  Hide the ‘Yas Queen’ goggles for a sec, this wasn’t empowering she was throwing her own brother under the bus because she wanted to be queen, and she learned far too much from Littlefinger and Cersei’s playbook to actually be a just one. The North is allowed to be an independent nation, but Sansa’s ‘victory’ was more earned by virtue of a lot of shit happened to her than her actually demonstrating qualities to be queen.

2 - Bran Stark can’t come to the Phone right now... While we’re on the subject of Stark children not being fit rulers, Bran. What a cockamamie decision that was. I was 100% behind the destruction of the Iron Throne, but the chorus of laughter with a democratic rule was a bit of a slap in the face. Of all the choices though, Bran had to be near the bottom, it felt completely unearned that he spent literal seasons disconnecting from the world even to the point where he told Meera and Sam that Bran Stark is no longer here anymore only for Bran Stark to magically resurface when a crown is in waiting. I think it defeats the whole Three Eyed Raven thing too, the guy isn’t really one for the people, which is the problem every other ruler before him failed at. If you can’t pick a just person to lead, then why not a council instead? Just using Bran was a poor and messy decision.

1 - THE MOTHERFUCKING VALONQUAR One of the few expectations across all of Game of Thrones was the wondering over whether Cersei was gonna get what’s coming to her, the Maggy the Frog prophecy was going along quite well up until the Valonquar bit, where the younger sibling that was going to choke the life out of her was: bricks. BRICKS! Of all the long-winded prophecy foreshadowings to drop this one was the worst, Cersei (and Jaime) died in underwhelming, thoughtless fashion, the lack of fanfare on killing off one of the best and most ‘love to hate’ villains in the show only cemented the fact that the finale was not able to live up to the hype. True, most of these are small changes, but it’s worth remembering that there was some good coming out of the final season and it was the lack of those little things and attention to detail that led to the season ending on an underwhelming note.

We did however get a good ton of memes out of it, and at work a long-winded discussion on who should get the ‘winner’ 5-points (compared to the 1 correct points) since we had technically agreed that the 5 points goes to “whoever correctly guesses who sits on the Iron Throne” XD I still can’t believe I was right in Drogon melting the throne though that was one in a million

[nightqueendany]

Original Final Season 7 - Episode 8: Protectors of the Realm

As with last episode, this episode takes place entirely in King’s Landing and entirely at Night because again, the Long Night is not just ONE night! 

Also, this episode has quite a bit of exposition but you will see why. Sorry not sorry.

In the Dragonpit

(which looks like the actual Dragonpit described in the books atop Rhaenys’ Hill [above], not just some repurposed gladiator arena *shakes head, rolls eyes*)

Team Stark/Targaryen prep for battle against the Night King, it’s decided the majority of non-fighters will be holed up in the Dragonpit as it’s the most strategically placed dwelling in the city other than the Red Keep. Bran will be in the pit as well.

Jon and Dany plan to be on the dragons protecting the Dragonpit (as they were supposed to be by the Godswood protecting Bran) - they can’t let the Night King/AOTD get to the Dragonpit, can’t let all those people die/turn and can’t let the Night King get to Bran - he’s the only one with the power to potentially defeat the Night King, **more on this in a bit**

While prepping in the Dragonpit (seeing the structure refortified, non-fighters of the city making their way in, passing out meals and blankets etc.), Dany can’t hold the truth from Jon any longer. She loves him and knows he wants to marry her but she can’t let him do so without knowing the truth - she’s infertile. Jon doesn’t believe it but if it’s true, it doesn’t matter to him, he loves her and knows what’s best for their people, all their people, is for them to join the Kingdoms once more through marriage in order to protect everyone.

They discuss logistics, who to tell of Jon’s parentage? He wants to tell his family but no one else matters

In the Red Keep

Team Stark/Targaryen periodically sends messengers to the Red Keep to inform Cersei of battle prep but the messengers keep coming back saying the Queen refused to see them 

In reality, Qyburn is intercepting all correspondences for Cersei, feeding her lies about what is happening in the city

Cersei and Euron (who’s finally back from Dragonstone) are insistent about the wildfire under the city being a “last resort” - Qyburn assures them he’s planned for this and that Team Stark/Targaryen will be none the wiser.

Euron attempts to persuade Cersei to take shelter on his ship during the battle, but Cersei refuses, her place is the Red Keep, she’s not going anywhere.  

On the Street of Steel

Gendry gives Arya the weapon that he made for her.

Soon after, Bran finds Arya, indicates her new weapon, and tells her she won’t need it. Arya is upset, she’s a warrior, she always has been, she should be outside fighting. Bran again reiterates that Arya must be a different kind of warrior for the fight against the dead, it’s what she’s trained for her whole life.

Arya, knowing she won’t be able to use the weapon Gendry made her, gives the weapon to Sansa who insists she be on the walls of the pit to defend it, with the rest of her people. Arya tells Sansa she won’t leave her side and Gendry and Theon say they will be at Sansa’s side too.

Plans for the Future

Once amongst a small group of their advisors and family, Jon and Dany announce that they will be married before the Battle for the Dawn. They have a few days, they don’t know what will happen during the battle to either of them, and they want the Seven Kingdoms united officially before then

Baelish and Varys obviously love this idea and they finally broach the topic of who they should name their heir, in the unfortunate event that they both die fighting the Night King. Jon, Dany, Melisandre and Bran look at Baelish and Varys suspiciously, but do nothing. They’ll think on it and tell everyone they will name an heir after the wedding, before the battle.

Because there are no weirwoods in King’s Landing and no septons either, Melisandre offers to officiate the ceremony. Dany finds this particularly appropriate as she was the one to bring Jon back from the dead.

Varys is clearly uncomfortable with this but says nothing

Okay, now that wedding stuff is settled, they need to plan for the upcoming fight against the dead...

Battle Plans

Jon speaks first and asks the one question on everyone’s minds, the only thing that matters really: How do you defeat the Night King?

Bran explains that when the Night King falls, the rest of the dead will fall with him. However, not all the dead were created by the Night King, so to make the battle easier, they have to go for the White Walkers - only three substances are known to kill White Walkers: Valyrian Steel, Dragonglass...and direwolf teeth.

Yes, Arya’s role in the battle finally has a purpose. Arya will warg Nymeria’s pack to find and take out all the Walkers so the living stand a chance against the dead - because even with all their armies pulled together, the dead still outnumber them.

Going back to the Night King, what does he want? How can he be destroyed?

Bran explains the NK was created by the COTF to defend themselves against the First Men. Sam and Missandei jump in, filling in gaps for Bran when they can. From what they can all tell from the symbols of the COTF, the histories in the different books they’ve read/skimmed through, and different visions of the past, the NK’s purpose was to destroy mankind for their wicked and violent ways, and the Children as well for making him. Only once the Men and Children put aside their differences and teamed up against the White Walkers did the dead retreat to the far North, aka The Pact.

So what went wrong, why is the NK back? Sandor Clegane chimes in. It’s simple. Man broke their promise. They went back to being at constant war. Violence is a disease. The Night King’s there to “cure” them. Beric asks Sandor who told him about violence being a disease. Sandor simply, sadly answers, “A friend.”

Missandei chimes in again. From what she was reading in one of the Targ history books she came across at Summerhall, it’s suggested that that’s why Aegon the Conqueror came to Westeros. He wanted to unite the realm to stop Winter from Coming. 

Sansa wonders why the Stark words, the Starks aren’t the enemy. No. They’re not. The Stark words were always a warning, passed down through generations of what would happen if Man broke their promise. The meaning was just forgotten.

Alright, so they know what the Night King’s purpose is. But Jon gets everyone back on track to the matter at hand: How. Do. We. Kill. Him? Arya looks at Bran hopefully but no, direwolf teeth, dragonglass, Valyrian Steel, dragon fire...none of it will work on its own. On its own? everyone asks. Bran has an idea, but as it’s never been done before, he’s not sure it will work. Bran believes he’s got to warg the Night King from the past to make him vulnerable in the present - as he did to Hodor.

Will this kill Bran? the Starks ask, concerned for their little brother. Bran doesn’t know, but if it does, it’s a sacrifice he’s willing to make for the good of mankind. Jon doesn’t want to accept this, there must be another way, Bran tells him there isn’t, Jon leaves the meeting upset.

Though Dany wants to go after Jon, she hesitates, stays behind with Bran, she has a question. If the Stark words were always a warning of the threat of the dead, do the Targaryen words, Fire and Blood, have meaning as well because Aegon I wanted to protect the realm against the dead? Bran says he doesn’t know but it’s possible. Missandei listens to this and it jogs her memory to something else she read about: What’s the meaning of three, what’s the meaning of The Dragon has three heads? Dany hasn’t heard of this either, she’s curious, but again, Bran has no idea.

The Protectors of the Realm

As everyone else continues prepping, Bran is searching the city’s memories, popping up just long enough to give instructions, inform people of gaps or weak spots in the walls of the city, secret entrances that need to be blocked back up, etc. While delving into the past, Bran comes across a memory he realizes is recent - Varys and Littlefinger sneaking into the city.

VisionBran follows them and sees them meet in secret with Qyburn. The three discuss plans for the future, a future Bran realizes won’t include Cersei, Daenerys, or Jon. Qyburn assures Littlefinger and Baelish that once the dead are defeated and it’s clear Jon and Dany are dead too, he will poison Cersei and the Mountain. When Baelish and Varys ask for clarification as to how Qyburn will ensure Jon’s and Dany’s deaths during the battle, he shows them his scorpion prototype that was first seen on Euron’s ship when he attacked Dragonstone. Bran comes to with a gasp.

Jon and Dany are quickly informed of Varys’ and Baelish’s treasonous plot.

Baelish and Varys proclaim everything they did, they did for the realm, always to protect the realm. This gives Jon an idea as to how the two shall be dealt with but until then, they are put in chains.

Outside, snow starts to fall much more heavily on King’s Landing. They’re running out of time...

A Royal Wedding

Davos swings a cloak around Jon’s shoulders and fastens it for him as Missandei places a simple crown of winter roses on Daenerys’ head.

Everyone gathers around in the middle of the Dragonpit where Melisandre and Jon are waiting.

Dany emerges, clutching Jorah’s arm - he’s giving her away.

At Mel’s instructions, Jon and Dany recite the words of the religion of R’hllor and jump over a ditchfire, emerging on the other side as one. Having no other cloak available, Jon removes his and places it around Dany’s shoulders. They are finally married.

“Celebrations” begin (it’s really just everyone eating around bonfires in the Dragonpit, laughing, visiting, telling stories, etc.)

At Tormund’s prompting and questioning, Jaime is inspired to Knight Brienne which everyone loves

Jon and Dany escape the festivities and retreat to the loft they’ve been staying in while in King’s Landing - it’s simple and modest and Jon apologizes that their first night as man and wife isn’t befitting of a queen, Dany shakes her head and tells him it’s perfect, they begin to kiss

Love Montage

Tyrion prompts Pod to start singing

Cue montage of all the GOT “couples” cuddling and/or having sex - Missandei/Grey Worm, Jon/Dany, Theon/Sansa, Gilly/Sam, Arya/Gendry, Jaime/Brienne, (obligatory shot of Euron in Cersei’s bed dead asleep and Cersei beside him with a glass of wine, ambivalent)

Everyone else during the montage is shown laughing, talking, and enjoying life - Jorah/Lyanna Mormont, Bran/Meera/Howland Reed, Davos/Tormund, (hilarious shot of Baelish and Varys in chains, scowling at each other).

Three Blasts

Pod’s song ends and Bran approaches Tyrion - they need to inform Cersei of Qyburn’s betrayal, she’s in danger too, Tyrion agrees

Once Jaime and Brienne surface (with Tyrion giving them both a questioning but pleased look), Tyrion and Bran make their plea to Jaime - Cersei is under attack too, should be informed of Qyburn’s treason as they have a temporary truce with her. Jaime is likely the only one Cersei will let near her and he reluctantly agrees to deliver the message.

A horn blasts three times to announce the arrival of the dead and Jaime gives Brienne one last kiss goodbye before heading to the Red Keep

As instructed by Jon, Baelish and Varys are escorted outside the city walls in chains and then their chains bound to structures in the ground to prevent them from fleeing. They want to protect the city? There they are. The city’s “first defense” against the dead, standing together, alone, outside its walls. The protectors of the realm.

Episode 8 Inside the Episode: Protectors of the Realm

1) Arya warging Nymeria’s pack and Direwolf teeth destroying White Walkers?

This one was a kind of no brainer. We were supposed to have direwolves in the 8x03 episode anyway and Arya needs to use her powers somehow in the fight against the dead, not just some dumb cheap-shot on the Night King. 

Also, I’ve always felt the direwolves could serve a bigger purpose in the fight against the dead. Bloodraven (likely) sent the direwolves to the Starks for a reason. Yes, to protect them, but what if the direwolves could do more? We’ve already seen Grey Wind fight in battles for Robb. What if the rest of the pack was meant to fight against the dead? 

(And yes, I know Nymeria’s pack is mostly regular wolves but if she’s stumbled across a few other direwolves and maybe had some hybrid pups of her own, their teeth could still kill White Walkers - in this story)

2) The Night King’s Purpose

I really loved the idea of everyone having a little piece of the puzzle - Sam, Bran. Missandei, even Sandor Clegane. They all put the pieces together to figure out the Night King’s motives, why he wants to destroy the world. 

Plus, the Night King’s purpose being to punish man for their violent ways, their sins, would make the story very biblical, which would make for some great parallels as well. 

In the show, the Night King just wants to destroy everything, but we’re never really told why. This just makes his purpose more specific and the lesson of the story more specific as well - PEACE. Prioritize peace, put aside differences, fight with each other, not against each other, etc.

3) “Winter is Coming”, “Fire and Blood”, “The Dragon Has Three Heads” - AKA Stuff actually means things??

LOL yes, stuff actually means things. People have been speculating for a while that the Stark words “Winter is coming” was a warning about the White Walkers and I’m still pissed this was never paid off in the show - like really, what was the point? So now it actually has a point.

And, as GRRM hinted at in an interview, yes, I’m making it canon (my canon), that Aegon the Conqueror came to Westeros to save the planet from the White Walkers. It makes total sense. With that in mind, like the Stark words, the Targ House words will have meaning, as will “The Dragon Has Three Heads” which is more repeated in the books than on the show, but who the fuck cares? This is my final season, so I’m writing it the way I want and what makes the most sense to me.

4) Littlefinger and Varys?

They were meant to die together, I’m convinced. The bitchy, problematic, asexual scheming dream couple we were promised. Sorry not sorry. Lol

5) Royal Wedding and subsequent gangbang?

K, it’s not a gangbang, just a montage of everyone having sex. Because weddings make people want to have sex, right? It’s basically the montage scene from the show, just, you know, better. You can imagine for yourselves which couples are actually shown getting down and which are only “cuddling” - except Jon and Dany. Jon and Dany definitely would be shown having sex as they’ve got to “consummate” their marriage :D

Also, had to sneak in Meera and Bran in there. No, they’re not having sex, just talking and visiting with Meera’s father. She and Bran should have ended up together. It is known bitches.

6) Not really a note but apologies some characters like Davos and Tormund haven’t had much attention this series. Well, Davos has a bit. But not Tormund. I’m sure he would have a very important part in the books up until when/if he dies. But he’s never served a very big role in the show since Jon invited the wildlings south of the Wall, so he’s just not had a big role in this series either. Imagine his story whatever you’d like, likewise with all other minor character’s whose stories haven’t been touched on much here. 

As always, comments are welcome.

Sorry this took so long to get out! Thanks to everyone who’s been keeping up with it!

Until next episode, which will possibly be posted next week but not sure. Still have some parts to finish. 

To Read Previous Episodes:

Original Final Season 7: Preface Post

Season 7 Episode 1: Family, Duty, Honor

Season 7 Episode 2: Greywater Watch

Season 7 Episode 3: The Last of the Dragons

Season 7 Episode 4: Dragonglass

Season 7 Episode 5: The Storm

Season 7 Episode 6: Summerhall

Season 7 Episode 7: A City Fit For A King 

Season 7 Episode 8: Protectors of the Realm (Current Episode)

Season 7 Episode 9: The Battle For The Dawn

Season 7 Episode 10: ?

[miazeklos]

I can’t believe that over two months down the line this is still a conversation being had, but jfc, no, the Jon/Dany murder scene was not a revamped Cersei/Jaime scene, it was specifically meant for them, the show was never going to do the same thing with Jaime and Cersei and I’m so dаmn tired of seeing the exact same bitter post three times a day in tags where it doesn’t belong. I love Dany and I get the frustration but it just makes absolutely no sense at all and even if it’s hard to give it a single logical thought, just... give it at a try.

This rant is also the perfect excuse to write a post I’ve wanted to write for ages, namely, the way Daenerys and Cersei are presented as acting Queens, so this is what I’ll proceed to do. Warning: it’s long. Please bear with me.

Cersei and Dany being portrayed the way they were towards the end was set up since the beginning of s7 at least. In a lot of instances, it’s really blatant. 

Tyrion saying that Cersei would cling to Casterly Rock for the sake of it and that Dany’s armies would prevail because they fight for a cause and that being the voiceover to their victory, only for it to turn out that the vast majority of Cersei’s army isn’t even there (this whole sequence was directed in a way that almost felt like mockery, to be honest). Conversations about what a tyrant she is followed by scenes of the people cheering as her enemies are dragged in chains through the city. Cersei asking for the North’s neutrality while Dany insisted on them bending the knee. The fact that the most powerful of Dany’s Westerosi allies (Dorne and the Reach) had joined her mainly on a ‘fuсk the Lannisters and Cersei specifically’ basis. Cersei sparing Tyrion’s life twice when you take into account that D&D take Daenerys’s reaction to her brother’s death as the earliest sign of something being wrong (which is a whole other can of meta, to be opened in a later post). When Dany speaks about returning things to dust, that’s what she does; when Cersei speaks about burning cities to the ground, she still only punishes the two specific people responsible for her daughter’s death.

Неll, there’s even Tyrion admitting that the only difference between them is that Dany has people to rein in her worst impulses, which is why she won’t burn King’s Landing. This is what Dany is being talked out of - killing large masses of people - while Jaime mainly talks Cersei out of choices that would end up killing her (like attacking the North in Winter and ignoring the AOTD). The unspoken implication here is that the former isn’t an impulse that Cersei needs to be held back from... because she doesn’t have it.

Cersei wouldn’t have ever burned the city because her politics were far more focused on ‘if the people leave me alone and don’t hurt me or my family in any way, I’ll also leave them alone’ than ‘they’ll have died for a good reason if it comes to that’, because in her eyes, the biggest upside to her position of power is everyone letting her live and that’s it. She did her duties after being crowned and, even if she was doing it for personal gain, let her people into the safest place in the city during the invasion. No one who actually lived under her rule seemed particularly displeased with her as a Queen and she was never going to go on a random killing spree because she’s never shown any signs of being into slаughtеr for a greater cause, even if that cause is remaining on the Throne.

(The only reason the Sept explosion happened was because she was backed into a corner from every possible direction and facing a trial she could not win (yeah, remember how she wanted a trial by combat and that could have been the end of it? Good times.) and she burned one (1) building to eliminate everyone who was a direct threat for her specifically. It did cause more damage than that, of course, but there is... a significant difference between a building and a few city blocks because there’s no other way to save your skin and the whole city because they’re supposedly traitors.)

If the writers wanted to make a point of Cersei being worse, they wouldn’t have made her anti-Daenerys campaign and propaganda come true literally two episodes after she started planting it (her armies will kill your sons and her dragons will burn your food, she said, and what happened?). They wouldn’t have given Dany the ‘I know Cersei told you I’d burn your shit and destroy your houses if you don’t obey, but it’s not true. Oh, you still support her? Okay, die.’ scene. They wouldn’t have made the Tarlys do what they did to begin with and they certainly wouldn’t have made Dany arrange Field of Fire 2.0 for no good reason (this was literally food for the city she wanted to take and rule over in the near future. Starving the people isn’t the same as starving out the royal family because even during famine, the Queen would literally be the last person to starve. That’s siege 101. She did it because she was frustrated by Tyrion’s constant deflection of anything that could hurt his siblings. That’s in the text; she essentially says it herself).

Cersei at no point said that she wanted to destroy the city so that Daenerys couldn’t have it. She said she wanted to die fighting (perfectly in character) and then took it back like a week later and decided to go for a truce when she realised she was pregnant and had something to lose (also in character). The sudden change was empathised upon enough that it was a perfectly logical choice to have her ring the bells when she realised there was no way out. There was nothing spontaneous or illogical that she did in her time as a Queen; all her actions made perfect sense for the position she was in. As I’ve said time and time again, being ruthless and killing people in war/revenge does not, in any way, equal madness or even a start on the road to it. If there was ever a Mad Queen on the show (highly debatable, but that’s a topic for another post), it was certainly not her.

Back in s7, these instances above were all meant to be ‘hey, wait a minute’ moments and they were never leading to Jaime killing Cersei because she was never going to go mad out of nowhere (no, not even if she’d had a miscarriage. The most logical course of action for that timeline would have been her going back to the ‘fight and die’ scenario and I’ve at one point already talked about why that would have been a highly unsatisfying death for her as a character).

I’ve even read accusations that the whole script of the Jon/Dany scene was meant for them, which is straight up laughable because if Cersei ever started talking to Jaime about building a new better world, all he would have (rightfully) accused her of would have been letting Euron hook her on his drug habit. She literally said in 7x07, loud and clear, that she doesn’t give a fuсk about the world and what she wants from it is safety for her and her family. Power was a great bonus, to be sure, seeing as she’d always wanted it, but she gave it up when it was that or death, and she always would have. All her most powerful decisions have stemmed from the desire to protect herself and 'those who matter’ (or, in the case of Blackwater - another early example! - making sure that the end is as painless as possible), which Jaime understood (he and Tyrion talked about it while he was captured), even when he felt betrayed by her decisions. Show-wise, their story was never leading to any kind of spiteful murdеr-suiсidе situation, especially not for the greater good. It makes no sense with the way they’ve been written ever since the start and their character arcs through the seasons. It certainly makes a lot less sense than it does for Jon and Dany’s situation in 8x06. It could have been developed more, yes; it could have dived right into the weight of what he does instead of skirting around it for the rest of the episode, but that doesn’t mean it actually wasn’t meant for them to begin with.

TL;DR: Whatever you think of the characterisation in Jon and Dany’s last scene, it was always theirs and theirs alone, sorry. Jaime and Cersei, especially on the show, have absolutely nothing to do with it.

[ohcaptaintarthister]

The Assassination of Jaime Lannister*

Rant contains spoilers of Season 8 Episode 4 of Game of Thrones. Look away if you haven't seen it.

Right. Here we go.

I did not read the series A Song of Ice and Fire (ASOIAF) until Season 5 of Game of Thrones. Fantasy is not my favorite genre. Besides these books by George RR Martin, the only fantasy novel I've read was The Eyes of the Dragon by Stephen King.

I was drawn to the books because of the show. They're not easy to read. Besides being thick enough to actually hurt someone with it, I read them with zero ideas about the conventions of fantasy, the worldling and so on. I was curious and wanted to see. Also, Season 5 took too long. After a weekend where I binged on Seasons 1 to 4, I needed to know about the books.

The wait for Season 5 was reason one. Curiosity the second. The third was I have fallen in love with Jaime Lannister and Brienne of Tarth. Yes. I was in love with them as a pair. They are my favorite characters.

Back then I had no idea what shipping meant, and what fandoms were. But I knew I had to see if the chemistry of Jaime and Brienne in the show, awesomely played by Nikolaj Coster-Waldau and Gwendoline Christie, resulted from casting and adaptation or if the characters' interactions sizzled in the books. In other words, and this is vocabulary I picked up once I began wading deeper into the fandom, I was curious if it was canon.

And it was!

On their own and together, Jaime and Brienne were written with nuanced complexity. Jaime, especially, seemed sketched to cover the entire spectrum of gray and other unknown shades of it. Readers and show-onlys went from wishing this guy Seven Hells for throwing a ten-year-old child from a window to cheering him on as he found himself, often with great reluctance at first, on a path to redemption. Because Jaime, once separated from his family--the continuing disapproval of his father Tywin because he was nothing more than a glorified bodyguard and the quicksand relationship with twin sister Cersei--was finally free to be a man on his own. It did not matter that he was one of the greatest sword fighters, that he was a Lannister and Kingsguard. Robb Stark's army captured him because he was leading the Lannister armies. He lost his hand for thinking being a Lannister gave him protection and privilege. One-handed and probably still fevered, he jumped into the bear pit to rescue Brienne of Tarth. And before that, he saved her from being raped too.

As all that Jaime had been was gradually stripped away to reveal a man who murdered his king to protect the people yet one who loved his sister without guilt, Brienne was there in the picture of him being rendered anew. Honestly, because of Brienne, I swung to Team Jaime. Possibly with pom-poms too.

But after reading the books and seeing some episodes again, I began to wonder if David Benioff and D.B. Weiss hated the character.

While in the books Jaime said, "The things we do for love" WITH LOATHING, in the show he said the line with a smirk, that throwing a boy out the window was the natural consequence of protecting his affair with Cersei. Maybe Show!Jaime didn't see it as a consequence but something that simply had to be done but without smugness.

Okay, I thought. That was weird but the writers have to know right? They read the books.

When Jaime and Brienne finally have that bath in the show, and how it was adapted as faithfully as possible, I thought the show finally understood him. It was weird that Jaime returned to Cersei before the Purple Wedding but i thought of nothing of it.

Until THAT episode in Season 4.

In the books, the scene above should be when Jaime returned at King's Landing after being captured by Robb Stark and The Brave Companions. The reunion was from Jaime' point of view. Cersei's consent was clear:

"Hurry," she was whispering now, "quickly, quickly, now, do it now, do me now. Jaime Jaime Jaime." Her hands helped guide him. "Yes," Cersei said as he thrust, "my brother, sweet brother, yes, like that, yes, I have you, you’re home now, you're home now, you’re home." She kissed his ear and stroked his short bristly hair." 

In the show, she actually said, "It's not right!" a few times. Also, a few episodes prior to this, we saw Jaime complaining to her that he had been "back for weeks," and wanted to resume their affair. While in the books we saw two people falling in each other's arms after being apart for a long time, and needing each other desperately, in the show we saw rape. Though the claim by Benioff and Weiss was due to "bad editing/lighting" and that it was "unintentional," their refusal to actually address the issue and just re-edit and re-broadcast buried even more Jaime's redemption arc. As a viewer I forgave this mistake. Maybe next season?

Nope. It got worse.

When Jaime and Cersei made love by Joffrey' body in the books, this was the last time the twins would have sex. The books showed Jaime's gradual disillusionment with Cersei--he thought she drank too much, was tired of her scheming. Tyrion also told him about her affairs with other men. So when Jaime went to Riverrun to recover it for the Crown, he was not only the farthest from Cersei again, he was done. Just DONE. Her pleas for him to help her and promises of love end up tossed in the fire.

The show, rather than adapting this, simply diverged. Season 5 was as confused in what to do with Jaime as lots of viewers were. Season 6 saw Jaime and Cersei resume their affair before he left for the Riverlands. Returning to King's Landing in the finale, we saw the chilling look Jaime gave Cersei during her coronation.

Perhaps this was it. This would be when he falls out of love.

HA.

Season 7, until this weekend's episode, was THE WORST ADAPTATION OF JAIME. There. I'm saying it. THE WORST.

Why? It wasn't even the incest that pissed me off. Jaime, who slew the Mad King for wanting to torch King's Landing with wildfyre, did a dizzying 180 by ENABLING his sister, who murdered Queen Margaery, her former fiance, Kevan Lannister and other innocent members of the court by wildfire. Season 7 Jaime simply took Cersei at her word. Forget about Tommen, THEIR LAST SON. Who committed suicide as a result of his wife's murder. Forget about what really caused the Sept explosion. What mattered was creating a dynasty for "the last Lannisters who count."

Jaime stood by her side and in the queen' name, contributed in tearing further apart the Seven Kingdoms. No questions asked. LITERALLY no questions asked. Despite telling Cersei of the danger of her new position, he went on to rant about the lack of allies. That can be read as Jaime being practical but as the season progressed, it was proof that he would be at her side no matter what. No matter who had to be murdered. He DID say he would murder everyone until it was only the two of them left in the world. Alright.

LIoking back on past episodes, Cersei always succeeded in keeping Jaime at her side with promises of going public with their affair. In the books, Jaime pressed her to let people know he was her choice and she refused. In the Season 4 finale, she told him she told Tywin about them, resulting in passionate and this time consensual sex on a table in the White Sword Tower. In Episode 3 of Season 7, after Cersei fucked him to celebrate her victory over the Sand Snakes, we saw a loved up Jaime in the morning after.

This would be the happiest viewers had seen Jaime. Cersei, now really THE Queen of the Seven Kingdoms, would openly fuck him. The scandal reached as far as Eastwatch, with Tormund, wanting to clarify, asking which queen was discussed in a conversation. "The one with the dragons or the one who fucks her brother?"

After Daenerys and her Dothraki army burned the Lannister forces on their way back to King's Landing, a shaken and muddy Jaime returned to Cersei right away. And in the same episode, Cersei revealed she was pregnant again. This was happy news, indeed but Jaime needed to know one thing: who will Cersei acknowledge as the father.

"You."

Now I refuse to think Cersei had once again succeeded in manipulating him. I think she WAS pregnant. There's no way to fake joy like that. And yeah, though I don't ship them, I understood Jaime's happiness. Finally, he would get to be a real father.

Still, still, still. Season 7 Jaime really made no sense. There was none of Book Jaime here. None. What we saw was a guy who supported a tyrant willingly and was now going to be a real daddy. I hate it but that's really Season 7 Jaime. Even when he left Cersei, the reason was a headscratcher.

"I don't believe you," has got to be the worst break-up line because it's lame. Better if Jaime just looked at Cersei with puppy dog eyes and walked away. Really.

The beginning of Season 8 saw the writing of Jaime hitting the right beats. A different man, check. A man who honestly regrets what he did to Bran, check. A man who was no longer the golden lion and ready to fulfill a vow he made, check. Hearteyes at Brienne, check.

He knighted Brienne. BIG, FAT CHECKS.

In episode four, The Last of the Starks, Benioff and Weiss, probably tired from the glare of their computer screens, seemed to have just written the episode in bullet points. It became glaringly obvious they wanted the series over and done with. Fuck decent writing.

Jaime Lannister is not the only one who was badly written in the latest episode. Everyone seemed to have forgotten about Qyburn's ballista and Euron apparently a sharp-shooter. We have no idea how Missandei was captured. That drinking game with Jaime, Brienne, Podrick and Tyrion was awkward and misogynistic--seriously, why shame Brienne for being a virgin?

And Sansa! Sansa basically saying if she had not been raped and abused, she wouldn't be in the position she is now! Who on earth says anything like that? Answer: no one. And I don't mean Arya.

And Missandei. The ONE WOMAN OF COLOR in a blindingly white show is chained and beheaded!

Then Jaime. Oh, Jaime.

There are no happy endings in Game of Thrones. Ned Starks gets beheaded. Jon Snow gets knifed. Sansa is raped. Catelyn, Robb and Talisa get butchered. Just when victory is within reach, characters are punished so cruelly it's inhuman.

But it doesn't mean crappy writing. At fifteen million dollars an episode this season, I expect writing that reflects intelligence. Who cares about CGI wolves and dragons when the writing is shit?

Now it's no longer a question if David Benioff and D.B. Weiss hate Jaime. THEY DO. Everyone else was buffed up or given meat. They couldn't even spare Jaime Lannister a decent-sized bone.

I don't blame Jaime for leaving Brienne. Hear me out.

After Brienne and Sansa tell him the latest developments in King's Landing with regard to Cersei, we see Jaime shocked and even horrified. The next scene, he's in the chambers with Brienne contemplating what to do. And this is where the writing becomes really shitty:

1. He left her without saying goodbye.

2. He LEFT Brienne with her thinking he did it for Cersei.

What was the point of according her the respect and honor of being a knight--done by his own hand? What was the point of telling her he was no longer the fighter he was? Where was the respect when he was going to leave her as a regrettable one night stand? (But Winterfell to King's Landing is a month by land so I assume they've been banging for that long)

Nothing, it's just illogical shit.

Had the writers made just a bit more effort, Jaime Lannister should have been shown experiencing some happiness with Brienne, rather than Tyrion telling the viewers about it. We don't see it. We're just told and have to take their word for it. Jaime could have benefitted too in leaving Brienne in the NEXT episode. Why? It increases the stakes. Just one scene showing Jaime happy, just one, and of him ACTUALLY talking to Brienne about having to leave instead of being found out, and the episode probably won't be as crappy. I don't mind Brienne begging and crying, heartbreaking as that scene is. What I mind is Jaime never being shown what he stands to lose if he leaves Winterfell. Olenna Tyrell, before he he grants her the mercy of taking poison, had warned him it will be too late for him. She's right.

I believe he goes to King's Landing because of the guilt that he began a war to protect Cersei. When he does things for Cersei, the consequences are horrible and far-reaching. Easy to call him dumb and he is. But let's not forget that he charged at Daenerys and Drogon with just a spear thinking to end it all. A spear against a fire-breathing dragon. Like, what are the odds, right?

I'm not going to say anything more about The Bang That Was Promised And Sucked Donkey Balls. Enough has been said, enough hearts have been broken. We KNOW the world of Game of Thrones is dark and bitter and almost without hope. We really do. But as fans of the books and the show, FANS WHO MADE IT POSSIBLE FOR THE SERIES BE RENEWED AND HBO TO INCREASE THE BUDGET EVERY SEASON, all we ask for is good writing. We get that without actual material from George the writing is challenging. WE REALLY DO.

But is it too much to ask for the writers to set aside their hatred for one of the best characters in the series and understand him? Give him the material he deserves in the show? There is none of the Book Jaime trying so hard to be honorable. None. Instead what we've been given, since the first episode, is a train wreck of an adaptation that has now been confirmed as a character assassination.

It's not dragonfyre that has killed Jaime but writing that is careless, hurried and just plain awful. In Benioff and Weiss' determination and delusion in finishing the TV series on a high note, Jaime Lannister has been left with barely a whimper.

*Previously titled, "When Adaptations Assassinate A Character."

[minetteskvareninova]

How the GoT ends for to me

(Because I refuse to admit anything after 8x03 is cannon the same way many people refuse to acknowledge The Cursed Child.)

- Tyrion and all the other smart people (maybe Varys Davos and Sansa?) cook up the plan of the final attack

- First few weeks noone does anything, while Cersei plans the destruction of Targaryen forces. Daenerys takes a vacation to Essos, allegedly to deal with some made-up trouble, and Varys makes sure Cersei knows about that.

- Yara captures the Iron Islands, and Euron goes there to deal with her. Cersei lets him go, since she thinks she has time. Dornish attack him from back and Yara kills him herself.

- Bronn still comes North to murder Jaime and Tyrion, and they also offer him The Reach. However, they also ask him for something else - to go kill Cersei. Bronn obviously doesn’t want to risk his life for them, especially not by going against The Mountain, so The Hound offers himself to protect him, “to die for greater good when this c***t doesn’t want to”.

- Notherners pretend Bronn has been successful and maybe even have a fake funeral for Jaime and Tyrion. Bronn comes to King’s Landing as a Cersei’s man and meets up with her, bringing masked Sandor with him, claiming he’s the sort of man she might need. Cersei, desperate for some reliable lackeys, meets up with both of them, and they off both her and The Mountain.

- Ellaria Sand, as well as other prisoners, are given freedom, but Ellaria completely lost her mind in the meantime, which pisses off Daenerys, but people responsible for that are already dead, so there’s nothing she can do. Something happens to Quiburn, I don’t know what because I don’t give a shit about Quiburn. Maybe he survives and later tries with Dany to hatch eggs Drogon later lays? That would be cool. Golden Company just kind of fucks off? There’s noone to pay them and nothing to do, so I can’t imagine what they would do.

- Jon and Daenerys decide to get married after Sansa (of course, Jon still tells her) threatens to spill the beans, but their relationship has been soured ever since, so it’s just a political match, at least at first. Jon becomes Jon Aegon Targaryen, but everyone calls him just King Jon. Daenerys eventually has to return to Essos temporarily and will probably swing between continents for the rest of her life. In the meantime, Westeros is in the hands of Jon&co.

- I don’t know whether Jon would get over the incest thing, let alone whether this relationship would work in the long run. I guess so - these two just have a lot in common. At any rate, this would be a boring marriage, because Jon is overall a boring guy. Also, Daenerys has a baby. It’s a girl named Visenya (for Viserion). Yes, only one, because only one of her dragons has died. Maybe she decides to sacrifice one of her dragons for an heir? There’s a lot of story potential here, along with the future of dragons! At any rate, Ghost lives in capital with Jon, but if he wasn’t doing well down south, Sansa would take care of him as her new direwolf.

- At any rate, Jon is officially a Targaryen, but loves his Stark relatives and still calls them brother and sisters.

- Westeros is a complete mess after all those wars, anarchy and thugs everywhere. So the criminality has to be dealt with and it’s gonna be a lot of work.

- Stormlands are being ripped apart by power-hungry local lords, because their liege lord was long gone and Cersei had other things to worry about. Gendry is thus legitimised by Jon and given the title of lord of the Stormlands. Because he knows nothing about ruling, Jon sends Davos to mentor him and take care of the lords and various outlaws.

- The North is ruled by Sansa, obviously. She later fall in love with and marries Tyrion, but they only spend together a part of year, because he is in the Small Council and helps Jon rule. Jon seeks her advice a lot and when Daenerys returns, she has to admit Sansa is pretty good when it comes to administrative and court politics (especially since Daenerys considers the normal administrative stuff boring and focuses on big things). The two have kind of a frenemy relationship and work together for the good of the realm as The Queen In The North (a nickname, not an offical title) and The Dragon Queen, with King Jon as a peacemaker in case of a conflict. The North isn’t independent, but gets more authonomy than other lands, because they were the ones who had to fight the white walkers. Sansa and Tyrion have many children, who officially take their father’s name, but are so thoroughly northern people start to call them Lannistarks, which eventually sticks so much it becomes the official family name. They get a new sigil, probably something with a direwolf and lion.

- Arya Stark dates Gendry for several months, but when he is made the lord of Stormlands and asks her to come there with him, with the obvious implication of getting married there, she gets cold feet and with embarks on a journey with a few other people (Yara? They’d surely be besties. Tormund and wildlings? Maybe.) to the lands beyond former Wall, where they would explore whether Lands Of Always Winter are still there, what is the climate and wildlife situation there and most importantly, whether there is anything new to learn about the white walkers, since Jon is haunted by a possibility they might not be completely gone (since they are so mysterious and all). Bran helps them with all that exploration, warging into animals and going into past. In the end, she returns and decides she’s quite ready to settle, having seen and experienced in twenty years more than other people do in life, and marries Gendry, but doesn’t become a typical lady and still fights, helping her husband deal with outlaws and being sent by Jon on all sorts of secret missions.

- Jaime and Brienne get married and he becomes a stay-home dad, also taking care of the administrative in Westerlands and Tarth, while she is off being a knight. (I think Jaime’s old enough for retirement. Give him a break.)

- Varys stays Varys and is very smart and very useful as a spymaster, do you hear me D&D?! After he dies, his considerable wealth is given to the poor, probably trough some kind of charity organization.

- Missandei and Grey Worm stay in Essos and rule the cities in Daenerys’ absence. Missandei eventually earns considerable respect after dealing with all sorts of trouble and is treated as a second queen. She decides to not retire, unless Grey Worm dies (and maybe not even after that, because her queen needs her? IDK), since if she returned to Naath, she would have to leave him. You see, you can’t stay on Naath for long, because foreigners tend to get this illness called butterfly fever, and since Grey Worm isn’t from Naath... She visits the island several times, tho.

- The Unsullied generally serve untill they reach a certain age, then they are given lands and pension. Some of their training techniques are incorporated into a training regime for a new, elite unit, but most of them are deemed too brutal to be continued and so they just quietly die off.

- Dothraki divide into two groups - one returns to Essos, the other stays with their Khaleesi in Westeros and live of horse herding and breeding the way others might of cattle. They settle mostly in the Reach, because grass.

- It turns out Daenerys “breaking the wheel” meant breaking the cycle of the civil war by weakening the power of great houses and returning stability to Westeros (also end of hereditary monarchy and succession of the most worthy, like choosing your heir trough a testament or something never lead to civil war; that didn’t work anyway). One way was to modify administrative system, so that it’s more in control of chosen civil servants not belonging to any fraction. It’s not a democracy, but it’s a honest attempt to do better. Of course, after a few generations, civil war broke out again anyway, because some things never change, but the new system is still more egalitarian and generally an improvement.

- At any rate, the ending is happy for everyone involved and not bittersweet at all, but only in comparison with what they’ve already come trough; otherwise rebuilding the ruined nation is a difficult and somewhere down the line, they can always fail...

[rainhadaenerys]

Hi there, I just started following you so sorry if you've already answered my questions (haven't had time to mass stalk your blog yet). Firstly, I've been reading other ASOIAF blogs and a few of them seem to predict that Dany will accidentally activate the wildfire and burn down Kings Landing but I think if it were to happen wouldn't Cersei make more sense since she was so fascinated by it. What do you think? Also everyone seems to think Dany will die at the end by sacrificing herself (1/2)

since she's a messiah figure along with Jon but won't that just mean that the two prominent leadership arcs we've been following will go drown the drain? Thoughts? And if they do die what would have been the point of their marriage? I mean I know they'll get married because they genuinely love each other but it's not like either of them have a problem having a relationship outside of marriage if you know understand what I'm getting at. (2/2)

About the wildfire: yes, it makes much more sense if it was Cersei. GRRM has actually given us foreshadowing that Cersei will do something with wildfire. See this meta. With Dany, there’s actually no foreshadowing for this at all. The most anyone could claim as foreshadowing is this quote:

The thought of home disquieted her. If her sun-and-stars had lived, he would have led his khalasar across the poison water and swept away her enemies, but his strength had left the world. Her bloodriders remained, sworn to her for life and skilled in slaughter, but only in the ways of the horselords. The Dothraki sacked cities and plundered kingdoms, they did not rule them. Dany had no wish to reduce King's Landing to a blackened ruin full of unquiet ghosts. She had supped enough on tears. I want to make my kingdom beautiful, to fill it with fat men and pretty maids and laughing children. I want my people to smile when they see me ride by, the way Viserys said they smiled for my father.

But before she could do that she must conquer. - Daenerys II ACOK

So maybe, while conquering Westeros, Dany accidentally sets off the wildfire, turning King’s Landing into exactly what she didn’t want. Some people actually think this would be important for Dany to face the truth about her father, but honestly… what’s really the point here? To condemn Dany for using violence? But why only Dany? Why is it that the narrative doesn’t condemn everyone else’s violence? Why is it that the only character the narrative condemns for their violence is the character who has the most revolutionary beliefs in the story? Why is it that Dany ends up accidentally doing the worst thing that anyone else has done in the series, even though Dany is probably the only character that constantly questions the use of violence (like, seriously, other characters don’t even think about the consequences of war, they just go to war and that’s it. Dany is the only one that is constantly questioning it)? Why is it that Dany’s biggest parallel, Jon Snow, doesn’t end up doing something as bad as this? Why is it that both main female rulers in the story are bad in some way (Cersei because she’s evil, Dany because she will do something terrible by accident), while the two main male rulers (Jon and Tyrion) look better by comparison? Does GRRM really not see how he’s writing a sexist narrative if that’s how things are going? Even if Dany is not a villain, even if she burns King’s Landing by accident, it’s still very sexist to portray both his main female rulers as worse than your main male rulers.

So like… I don’t know. I think it’s a terrible decision for the story, and I don’t see nearly as much foreshadowing for Dany blowing up King’s Landing as there is for Cersei. I guess it’s possible that the foreshadowing for Cersei could still come true if she tries to burn King’s Landing with wildfire but doesn’t succeed, and then Dany comes and sets off the wildfire later. But I still think this would be really bad for the story, and it would have terrible implications. And there are still many things that will happen before Dany even comes to Westeros: Cersei vs Aegon, Euron coming to Westeros with Dany’s stolen dragons… with all these things that need to happen, why is the fandom so certain it will be Dany? Why is it that everyone thinks it has to be Dany? It doesn’t have to be her. Dany doesn’t need to destroy King’s Landing to realize that the use of violence has limits, she has already been questioning her methods every step of the way. She’s self-critical, she doesn’t need to destroy King’s Landing to “wake up” from her “dark path”. And she doesn’t need to destroy King’s Landing to decide to fight against the Others. She doesn’t need to destroy King’s Landing to realize that saving the realm from ice zombies is important. Honestly… I see really no reason for Dany to be the one that burns King’s Landing.

As for Dany dying, I wrote many rants about this (and I’m also writing another one that I hope to publish soon). I do think it’s a waste of Dany’s political storyline. And it would make Jon and Dany’s marriage pointless (I’m very sure they’ll marry, the House of the Undying spells it out for us), and it would make their baby pointless too (it will happen: x, x). I don’t believe in this notion that Dany’s arc is leading her to “decide to be selfless and sacrifice herself”, because Dany was already selfless from the very beginning. Ending her story with a selfless sacrifice is not an arc, it’s making her character stagnant. And I’m sorry, I really don’t agree with this idea that just because Dany is a “messiah” figure, she has to die. Just because Dany is a messiah type of character, it doesn’t mean that’s what her arc is about (and it isn’t, Dany’s arc is political). Is there a rule or something that says that messiah characters have to die or else it’s not a good story? For a fandom that loves subversions, this fandom is really insistent that GRRM must play all tropes straight when it comes to Dany. Anyway, I will stop for now, because as I said, I have a long rant in my drafts that is exactly about all the reasons why I think Dany dying is a bad idea, so wait for that post. For now, you can take a look at the metas I linked, as well as my #let dany live tag (you can take a look at my other tags as well, the link for them is in the blog description).

[shy-of-the-cool]

Jaime is a good man!

So like everybody I think, these last few days have been spent in a blur wondering what the hell happened on GOT on Sunday. It's taken a few days of venting, thinking and researching and I have to say I'm still on Jaime's side. After rewatching all of season 7 and then season 8 ep2 and 4 multiple times I can completely understand his aim.

This is a man who for years has loved only one woman, somebody he came into the world with, somebody he bore children with and somebody who ultimately brought out the arrogant, obsessive dark side of him. His entire life from the moment he was deemed Kingslayer has been a war between him wanting to be the best and most honourable man he can be in a situation that expects the very worst from him. His goal has always been his family, namely Cersei, Tyrion and his children. Keeping them safe and protected no matter what the cost...The things I do for love. The last line he muttered at the end of episode 1 season 1 and still he lives by that quest. Every atrocious, evil act he has done has had Cersei at the basis of it, to either get back to her, protect her or impress her.

We have to remember that Jaime and Cersei have been in a romantic relationship since they were young and they are both in their 40's now. That's a hell of a long time to be devoted to somebody. Now I wanted to research season 7 because I wanted to see the foreshadowing of them breaking up and obviously Jaime could see that slowly the power was overtaking Cersei and she was beginning to show signs of madness, but still through it all he remained loyal and when she announced the pregnancy and said she wanted people to know he is the father you could tell that was all he had ever wanted, but still even that moment was ruined by Cersei's viciousness. Now looking at the last episode of season 7 when Jaime leaves I wanted to work out the exact point you could see he completely gave up on Cersei. Of course he was not happy with her decision to not let him and the Lannister army go north but I don't believe that is what decided it for him. The moment when Cersei tells Jaime that she and Euron had plotted behind his back to hire the Golden Company and she planned to be his queen, you can see Jaime's heart literally break in 2. This was the woman he had given everything to, had broken oaths for, murdered for, betrayed people for and she was treating him like he was despensable. Like he was nothing, a subject that was stepping out of line. And I think that was the moment he thought, I've lost her, she is no longer my reason to die. When he threatens to leave she doesn't beg him to stay or show him any loyalty, she actually threatens to kill him for treason. I thinks that when Jaime thinks I made a pledge to go north and fight for the living and that's exactly what I'm gonna do. I think Brienne is an important factor in this as he remembers her statements to him in the dragonpit, and he wants to make her proud by honouring his pledge he made to her and the others.

To go north was ultimately a very brave decision on Jaime's part as he knew the welcome he would receive would be unkind and he would not be wanted there but still he is willing to face death to honour the pledge he made. To be an honourable man! What i don't think Jaime was prepared for when he got north was how he would feel seeing Brienne, as I stated in a previous post, s8 ep2 is basically Jaime pining over Brienne and I believe this stems from their first meeting again in his trial. You think, he has literally just left a woman he had loved for years without her showing any kind of affection or loyalty back to him, always let him take any fall he needed to for her and now here is,in a room full of judgement and Brienne has no qualms about standing up in front of those people and vouching that he is a good man, an honourable man and she would without a doubt fight beside him! She defends him knowing it puts her in a position to be ridiculed and possibly turned against but she does it. And in that moment I think he lets these buried feelings begin to surface. He admires her, he adores her, he wants to be good enough for her. He knows she would never ask him to do anything unjustly or unknightly like Cersei did. She has never judged him since sharing that bath at Harrenhal. She has respected him, as a knight and as a noble man. Throughout that entire episode he wants to be near her cause in his mind he doesn't plan on making it through that battle. He wants his last few hours spent with a woman that for a long time he has harboured feelings but because of the toxic hold Cersei had on him he could never admit it or even contemplate and still even now he doesn't want to dive in because what if he dies or worse what if she does. So they stand together in battle and fight for eachother. Not leaving each other sides for fear of not being there to save the other. But then they do survive, they make it through a battle where death is probable.

Now i also want to mention that I think for years Jaime's path in life was being prepared to die for those he loves, he puts himself in harms way numerous times to keep Cersei safe, Tyrion, Tommen, Myrcella and Brienne. He has never been afraid of dying, in fact I think in some way he hoped for it. Hoped for the torture to end, the feeling of failure, to die for a worthy cause so the world finally knew he was an honourable knight. He pledged to fight for the living and I think that's important to remember going into s8 ep4.

Now like everybody I had issues with this episode, I was so angry to begin with, what have they done to Jaime, why are they changing him, but then i watched again and again and actually i realised, they haven't, he is the same way he has always been. With Brienne, he is nervous, he feels unworthy, because all his life he has loved one woman loyally and even she threw him aside, and brienne is 100x the woman Cersei is so how could he ever be good enough, yet after the battle they both realise I think that they both long to be loved by somebody that loves them back, somebody they trust, in that moment just before they make love, Jaime looks at brienne with such awe and admiration and love quoting "I've never slept with a knight" I took that as he has never slept with anybody he deemed noble or honourable or loyal as Cersei is none of those things, and obviously Brienne has never given herself to anyone as she has never trusted anybody enough to let her guard down with but in eachother they have found missing parts of themselves and it's actually a truly beautiful moment. Too short though! And then when Jaime wakes up the next morning for the longest time I could not understand the look he had on his face, he appeared scared, and I thought why, then i realised in that moment he has found something to live for, he can see a future with Brienne, he truly loves her and she makes him happy. And that bloody terrifies him because when do Lannisters ever get happy endings! Even Tyrion can see how happy he is and not once did Tyrion ever say that about him and Cersei. Jaime even tells Brienne he will stay in Winterfell with her instead of going back to KL to help defeat his sister, that's a huge deal for him, he wants a life with Brienne.

But then of course he plummets back to earth with a bang when he finds out what Cersei has done to Dany’s Dragon and Missandei being captured and he realises, he can't just run away from this problem. I think Olenna Tyrell said it best in Season 7 when she was with Jaime during her last moments. “If she has driven you this far, it’s gone beyond your control....she’s a disease, I regret my role in spreading it...you will too” I think finally, Jaime is seeing Cersei as the disease and how he finally needs to put a stop to the spreading of it. This woman controlled him for years, manipulated him, and yet that has helped him know Cersei, know her mind, know what lengths she would go to and the people she would hurt to get what she wants. The north wouldn't be safe, KL wouldn't be safe, Brienne wouldn't be safe not while Cersei still rules. So he makes one of the hardest decisions he ever will, he pledged to fight for the living so that's what he's gonna do, when he leaves without waking Brienne that night I think it's because he literally can't bear the thought of having to saying goodbye probably for the last time. But then she comes to find him and he wasn't prepared for her reaction. Now remember Cersei never begged him to stay when he said he was leaving, nobody has ever ever begged him to stay, to ask him not to put himself in harms way to save somebody else. But Brienne does, she loves him so much the thought of him going to KL and probably sacrificing himself pains her and Jaime can see that in her eyes as she begs him to stay. Jaime didn’t see this coming, he doesn’t anticipate it and you can see in those long moments when he’s clutching her hand, he doesn’t want to go of course he wants to stay, but he knows if he tells her why he has to go to KL, she will follow, she will pledge to stay by his side no matter what, and Jaime can’t bear that, to let Cersei even have the chance of destroying Brienne is not an option. So he breaks her heart, he reminds her of he is, who Cersei has made him become, what hateful things he did to love that hateful woman. Even though this isn’t who he is now, he’s actually hoping for the fact that Brienne will think the worst of him and let him go. It’s awful because you can tell it absolutely breaks Jaime to do this, but he loves Brienne more than the idea of living happily ever after with her, her safety is all he cares about. And what I actually found quite poetic about this moment is that Tyrion had to do the exact same thing with Shae when Cersei found out about her, he had to lie and say she was nothing but a whore to break her heart in hopes she would run and get safe. I find it ironic that the two great loves in these Lannister’s lives have been destroyed because of Cersei. This is why Jaime will not return to save Cersei, or because he loves her. They came into the world together, of course he has to be there when she leaves it, they have unfinished business. But this is not the end of Jaime and Brienne. Their love story is probably one of the most important in GOT. It’s lasted over 7 seasons and I can’t see it culminating in Jaime dying, I think that would be too obvious. They have finally after all this time given him something to live for and I can’t see him not doing everything in his power to get back to the one he loves.

[ashleyfanfic]

I just needed to say I saw this idk if it’s a dvd extra or what on YouTube about the finale and it literally doesn’t make any sense. Like D&D and people are talking about how great the ending with Bran ruling the 6 kingdoms is because he can’t have children? Funny how that was an issue when it was Dany though!!? And the damn council being so different from what Westeros has had before because the people’s voices will be heard! Like what no? They shut down the idea of small folk mattering?!?

2/3  Also how in any way is it a Stark victory?!? They’re not together? The pack won’t survive because now they’re all lone wolves!!?!? And they didn’t help anyone they argued for Northern Independence despite a Stark sitting on the Throne!!? Why would the other kingdoms accept that?!! Also the North can sustain itself independently?’!? And why the duck is Arya yeeting off to “explore” when the last few seasons were all about her claiming her family “A girl is Arya Stark and she’s going home”?!? (CON 3/3  And Sansa betrayed Jon just to isolate Dany!!? She broke his trust and helped push Dany into “madness”? And if Bran is truly all knowing he saw what would happen and did nothing to stop it? They’re responsible too for what happened on King Landing and it’s just fine? No consequences? And Jon is exiled for doing what they tricked him into doing? Queen slayer/kinslayer/betrayer he will always be and have to live with. Alone on the cold. How is that a win for anyone? The wheel isn’t broken!?

There is a lot in these three asks to break down so let me start by saying that I think, for people like Sophie and maybe even Isaac, but I think less from him because he thought it was a joke, that it was a satisfying win for the Starks. I don’t know that Maisie would say it was a win for the Starks, maybe she would. But the thing is, I think a lot of them have to say they’re happy with the ending, otherwise it feels like years of their lives have been wasted. Think about your job and if you studied for ten years to learn how to do it only for them to come in and tell you that instead of chemical engineering, you’re going to be doing brain surgery every day. Like, that doesn’t make any sense and makes you feel like your life for the last ten years meant nothing if they could do that. So, this may be giving Kit a pass, but what is he supposed to say? “Oh, I hated the ending! It made no sense. Can you believe how they fucked up Daenerys?” Like, this is the show that got him an Emmy nomination and a GG nom. He’s not going to hate on it and to expect him to is ridiculous. 

But as for the characters and what happened...none of it made sense. So, let’s look at people other than Jon and Dany. You have Arya who fought for years to find her place in the world, finally decided that home is where she needed to go and found her place with her sister, then abandoned that to explore more. What? At the least, Arya would have argued harder for Jon to have been allowed to stay in Westeros. Second is Bran. So, I suppose they can now say it was foreshadowing that he said he would never be lord of anything. He was right. If you look at all the stuff he said and did and allowed it happen, it was all leading him to be king. Which means he allowed his sisters to fight with one another and Sansa to almost have Arya killed. He allowed an emotionally compromised Sam to tell Jon about his parentage. He knew that Euron was waiting at Dragonstone. He knew that Missandei would die. He knew that Theon was going to die. He knew that Sansa would betray Jon. He knew that Dany would lose it and destroy King’s Landing. He knew that Tyrion would betray Dany. He knew everything that was going to happen and allowed it to do so all so he could be king. To me, that makes Bran the actual villain of the the series as he allowed all those things to happen and warned no one. I would say that he even manipulated Sansa into some of it because he used the worst night of her life to persuade her that he had the gift of sight. 

Then there’s Sansa. She was going to have her sister killed. She was cold to a woman who brought her armies to the North to save her pathetic ass when she didn’t have to. She tried to emotionally blackmail her brother by saying that his loyalty was misplaced because he loved Jon. She indicated that said brother was weak because of it. She tried to press that the North should be independent for some fucking reason I’ve not fully grasped other than she just wanted it. While everyone else was up above fighting to save her life, she is in crypt still shit talking the queen that put everything on the line to save their lives. She’s incredibly threatened by the power Dany has and does everything she can to subvert her in front of her people and then behind her back. She betrayed her brother after knowing a secret for five minutes, not because it was what was best for the realm, but because she could use it to her advantage. And she never argued that Jon shouldn’t be sent to the Wall. Instead, she still argued for the North to be independent, and made her brother King so she could get what she wanted. Sansa who missed her family was perfectly fine with being alone in Winterfell with her crown. 

Then there’s Jon and Daenerys. I mean, Dany was being gaslighted by Bran and Sansa nearly the entire time she was in the North, if not before that by Bran. Dany had too much power but Jon was her true weakness, or at leas that’s what they wanted us to believe. Dany who lost a child and a husband, who fought for slaves and witnessed atrocities, who was sold to a warlord by her only relation (that she knew of), who suffered rape and pain at the hands of her husband, betrayal by nearly every person she knew. But sure, her weakness is Jon. So, we’re supposed to believe that of all the losses she suffered, the one that turns her hard and cold is the rejection of Jon Snow. And what happened to her? She’s betrayed again by someone she loves, but this time, it cost her her life.

And then there’s Jon Snow. I feel like what they did to Jon is equally as horrible, but everyone seems to bypass it. You have Jon Snow who befriended the Wildlings and learned to open his world view up to beyond what he’s always known. He’s murdered by his brothers for doing what he thought was right. He never wavered in that he thought it was right and that he should have done it. He had a difficult time that other people didn’t see it that way. He rode to take his home back for his sister. He managed to convince people that probably wouldn’t give him the time of day to fight for him. He became King in the North because he was a Stark, yes, but because he fought for his people. That was something he put pride in. So when he meets Dany, she’s someone who seems to have the same moral compass he has and puts the lives of the small folk above her own ambition. It’s one of the things that he respects about her. Remember, he thinks she has a good heart. Even Davos thinks highly of her. They fall in love and it’s really one of the first things Jon does that is for him. But that’s the point, isn’t it? Jon is the self-sacrificing hero. He’s not supposed to be allowed to have things like love of a good woman without having to suffer for it. So, they reveal his parentage for NO OTHER REASON than to keep Daenerys from the throne. That’s it. It’s never brought up after she dies. He’s still called Jon Snow. He’s not considered to be the King. He’s treated as the bastard he was always supposed to be. Only now, he’s worse than that. He betrayed the woman he loved by killing her. He not only became an Oathbreaker, he became a Queenslayer, and a Kinslayer. They made the honorable Jon Snow an Oathbreaker. Wrap your head around that, fam. And what’s his happy ending, as Kit sees it? Going to live North with the Wildlings. Because, yeah, that’s better than getting to be with the woman he loves for the rest of his life with babies. 

The truth is D&D ruined every character and blew holes and sank every ship on their way out. Everyone got done dirty, and yet we fixate on the ones we love he most. I mean, was Gendry only brought back so he could be the rail for Arya to ride? Yes, that still bothers me. I was a Gendrya fan before I was a Jonerys fan. Just...UGH! 

[intrepid-fictioneer-7]

On Whether the Books of A Song of Ice and Fire Will Have the Same Ending As the TV Show Game of Thrones

No.

Or rather, maybe, maybe not.

Seriously, we have no actual way to tell. For years, even before Season 8, many loved to proclaim, especially smugly if said to book readers that came to dislike GoT, that the show will obviously have the real ending out before the books ever finish, because GRRM told the showrunners the details of everything and how it will end in case the show overtook the books. And so you, the one critical of the show, will have to resign yourself that you will only get to see the canonical ending through the show.

And then the post-Season 3 changes piled up way too much for the showverse looking much like the books, reassuring the readers that the show had clearly become its own thing. And then Season 7 and Season 8 rolled around, and book readers felt vindicated, while show viewers were disappointed, saddened, or angry at how yet another the most popular show on television ended so badly.

Nowadays, not many still hold the old belief, most hoping that GRRM do something different. But many others still believe the endings will be the same, if only not with joy but with resignation this time.

After all, say some, didn't Isaac Hempstead Wright just confirm King Bran was a future plot development that GRRM told D&D? Making it one of the 3 twists GRRM told D&D (“three holy sh— moments” to quote them) that will definitely make it into the books, the other being Shireen's burning and Hodor's origin? Meaning many if not most things from the show's final season and ending will end up in the books?

I personally don't think so. Of course, the exact same ending has always been an unbelievable hyperbole, but even thinking most major plot points will be the same has me in doubts. As said earlier, a lot of storylines have been completely changed to the point that they are unrecognizable. Sansa's for example is vastly different from her show counterpart's due to taking another character's role and removing the central elements of her Vale storyline (notably Harry the Heir). The plotline of Aegon and the Golden Company has been completely cut when it would necessarily affect many major and minor characters. Arianne was cut and the Dorne storylines were butchered beyond recognition. The show created the character of the Night King.

So much has changed between the two, stating that the endings will share similar beats would be the same as saying the MCU's Infinity War/Endgame duology/pseudo-finale is the same ending as the ending to the Marvel comics' Infinity Gauntlet storyline simply because in both the Snap is undone. Which is ridiculous: both worlds have changed far too much for one to simply be a copy-paste of the other anymore.

The show and the books have become two completely separate universes, a "Westeros 1" and a "Westeros 2", as Bryan Cogman put it.

But what also makes me doubt are the dubious statements on the ending. So I have compiled many quotes on the ending of the series, from GRRM and D&D, to show just how not so clear-cut it is.

It should be noted that, as far as I can see, only Benioff really implied the ending would be the same:

Luckily, we’ve been talking about this with George for a long time, ever since we saw this could happen, and we know where things are heading. And so we’ll eventually, basically, meet up at pretty much the same place where George is going; there might be a few deviations along the route, but we’re heading towards the same destination. I kind of wish that there were some things we didn’t have to spoil, but we’re kind of stuck between a rock and a hard place. The show must go on […] and that’s what we’re going to do. I think the thing that's kind of fun for George is the idea that he can still have surprises for people even once they've watched the show through to the conclusion. There are certain things that are going to happen in the books that are different in the show, and I think people who love the show and want more—want to know more about the characters, want to know more about the different characters who might not have made the cut for the show—will be able to turn to the books. So that's where we stand.

—David Benioff (x)

And even then there are caveats about there being differences.

There is even more circumspection about the two endings in other interviews:

You’re now at a point where you’ve caught up with the books. What does that mean for the future? Benioff: [...] We’ve had a lot of conversations with George, and he makes a lot of stuff up as he’s writing it. Even while we talk to him about the ending, it doesn’t mean that that ending that he has currently conceived is going to be the ending when he eventually writes it. Weiss: It’s like looking at a landscape and saying, “OK, there’s a mountain over there, and I know that I’m getting to that mountain.” There’s an event that’s going to happen, and I know that I’m moving in the general direction of that event, but what’s between where I’m standing now and that thing off on the horizon, I’m not totally sure. I’ll know when I get there, and then I’ll see what the terrain looks like around me and I’ll choose my path once I get closer to it. He figures a lot of this stuff as he goes. He always says he’s a gardener, not an architect.

(x)

Benioff and Weiss always knew this would happen. So they met with the novelist in 2013, between Seasons 2 and 3, to sketch out what Martin calls “the ultimate developments” after the books and show diverge. The upshot, they say, is that the two can coexist. “Certain things that we learned from George way back then are going to happen on the show, but certain things won’t,” says Benioff. “And there’s certain things where George didn’t know what was going to happen, so we’re going to find them out for the first time too.”

(x)

From George himself, I have only ever seen more nuanced and ambiguous statements about the books' ending vs. the show's:

Let me reiterate what I have said before. How many children did Scarlett O'Hara have? Three, in the novel. One, in the movie. None, in real life: she was a fictional character, she never existed. The show is the show, the books are the books; two different tellings of the same story. There have been differences between the novels and the television show since the first episode of season one. And for just as long, I have been talking about the butterfly effect. Small changes lead to larger changes lead to huge changes. HBO is more than forty hours into the impossible and demanding task of adapting my lengthy (extremely) and complex (exceedingly) novels, with their layers of plots and subplots, their twists and contradictions and unreliable narrators, viewpoint shifts and ambiguities, and a cast of characters in the hundreds. There has seldom been any TV series as faithful to its source material, by and large (if you doubt that, talk to the Harry Dresden fans, or readers of the Sookie Stackhouse novels, or the fans of the original WALKING DEAD comic books)... but the longer the show goes on, the bigger the butterflies become. And now we have reached the point where the beat of butterfly wings is stirring up storms, like the one presently engulfing my email. Prose and television have different strengths, different weaknesses, different requirements. David and Dan and Bryan and HBO are trying to make the best television series that they can. And over here I am trying to write the best novels that I can. And yes, more and more, they differ. Two roads diverging in the dark of the woods, I suppose... but all of us are still intending that at the end we will arrive at the same place. In the meantime, we hope that the readers and viewers both enjoy the journey. Or journeys, as the case may be. Sometimes butterflies grow into dragons.

—GRRM (x)

So when you ask me, "will the show spoil the books," all I can do is say, "yes and no," and mumble once again about the butterfly effect. Those pretty little butterflies have grown into mighty dragons. Some of the 'spoilers' you may encounter in season six may not be spoilers at all... because the show and the books have diverged, and will continue to do so. IF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN ALL FIVE SEASONS AND READ ALL FIVE BOOKS, STOP HERE! Just consider. Mago, Irri, Rakharo, Xaro Xhoan Daxos, Pyat Pree, Pyp, Grenn, Ser Barristan Selmy, Queen Selyse, Princess Shireen, Princess Myrcella, Mance Rayder, and King Stannis are all dead in the show, alive in the books. Some of them will die in the books as well, yes... but not all of them, and some may die at different times in different ways. Balon Greyjoy, on the flip side, is dead in the books, alive on the show. His brothers Euron Crow's Eye and Victarion have not yet been introduced (will they appear? I ain't saying). Meanwhile Jhiqui, Aggo, Jhogo, Jeyne Poole, Dalla (and her child) and her sister Val, Princess Arianne Martell, Prince Quentyn Martell, Willas Tyrell, Ser Garlan the Gallant, Lord Wyman Manderly, the Shavepate, the Green Grace, Brown Ben Plumm, the Tattered Prince, Pretty Meris, Bloodbeard, Griff and Young Griff, and many more have never been part of the show, yet remain characters in the books. Several are viewpoint characters, and even those who are not may have significant roles in the story to come in THE WINDS OF WINTER and A DREAM OF SPRING.

GAME OF THRONES is the most popular television series in the world right now. The most pirated as well. It just won a record number of Emmy Awards, including the ultimate prize, for the best drama on television. It's an incredible production with an incredible cast and crew.

WINDS OF WINTER should be pretty good too, when it comes out. As good as I can make it, anyway. Which is a long way of saying, "How may children did Scarlett O'Hara have?" Enjoy the show. Enjoy the books. 

—GRRM (x)

WINDS will be different in some ways, but will parallel the show in others. At this point, there are probably a dozen characters who are dead on the show but alive in the books, so it would be impossible for the two to remain the same. (Also, of course, there are characters in the books who have never even existed on the show, like Victarion Greyjoy, Jon Connington, Penny, Arianne Martell... )

—GRRM (x)

The showrunners note that they’re not entirely sure of Martin’s future storylines anyway (“George discovers a lot of stuff while he’s writing,” Benioff says). But more surprising is that Martin is likewise somewhat in the dark on the show’s ending. “I haven’t read the [final-season] scripts and haven’t been able to visit the set because I’ve been working on Winds,” Martin reveals. “I know some of the things. But there’s a lot of minor-character [arcs] they’ll be coming up with on their own. And, of course, they passed me several years ago. There may be important discrepancies.”

(x)

Benioff and Weiss had to carve their own course for the past couple of seasons, after outpacing Martin’s writing. “I’ve been so slow with these books,” Martin says, with palpable pain. “The major points of the ending will be things I told them five or six years ago. But there may also be changes, and there’ll be a lot added.”

(x)

Anderson Cooper: When it clear they were catching up, you told them over-- a kind of an overarching future of where you saw the-- the last two books going in terms of plot? George R.R. Martin: Yes. And, you know, the major beats. I mean, obviously, we're talking here about a-- several days of story conferences taking place in my home in Santa Fe, New Mexico. But there's no way to get in all the detail, all the minor characters, all the secondary characters. The series has-- has-- been extremely faithful, compared to 97 percent of all television and movie adaptations of literary properties. But it's not completely faithful. And-- and it can't be. Otherwise, it would have to run another five seasons. Anderson Cooper: And in essence, what's-- by the time the series is finished and your other two books are finished, y-- essentially it's gonna be two se-- different-- George R.R. Martin: Yeah. Anderson Cooper: Two different versions. George R.R. Martin: But, you know, I think that's true of every adaptation. We got all these Spidermen. Is it Stan Lee's Spiderman from the comic books? They're-- they're similar, but they're also different. Things happen to one that never happen to the other. Things are resolved differently. The girlfriends are shuffled and reshuffled. The-- the primary beats are there, the character is there, but it's a question of-- what are the choices you make to tell the story, which are partially dictated by your-- your medium. Anderson Cooper: I mean, do you worry that some fans will have Dan and David's ending in-- in their mind's eye? Would that-- would that-- you know, would that be a disappointment to you? George R.R. Martin: I don't think Dan and Dave's ending is gonna be that different from my ending because of the conversations we-- we did have. But they may be on certain secondary characters, there may be big differences. And, yeah, some of the people will have that. There will be a debate, I'm sure. I think a lot of people, who-- say, "Oh, Dan and Dave's ending is better than the one George gave us. It's a good thing they changed it." And there will be a lot of people who say, "No. Dan and Dave got it wrong. George's ending is better." And they will all fight on the internet. And there will be debate. And-- that's fine. I mean, it-- you know, the worst thing for any work of art, be it a movie or a book is to be ignored. (LAUGH)

(x)

How will it all end? I hear people asking. The same ending as the show? Different? Well… yes. And no. And yes. And no. And yes. And no. And yes. I am working in a very different medium than David and Dan, never forget. They had six hours for this final season. I expect these last two books of mine will fill 3000 manuscript pages between them before I’m done… and if more pages and chapters and scenes are needed, I’ll add them. And of course the butterfly effect will be at work as well; those of you who follow this Not A Blog will know that I’ve been talking about that since season one. There are characters who never made it onto the screen at all, and others who died in the show but still live in the books… so if nothing else, the readers will learn what happened to Jeyne Poole, Lady Stoneheart, Penny and her pig, Skahaz Shavepate, Arianne Martell, Darkstar, Victarion Greyjoy, Ser Garlan the Gallant, Aegon VI, and a myriad of other characters both great and small that viewers of the show never had the chance to meet. And yes, there will be unicorns… of a sort… Book or show, which will be the “real” ending? It’s a silly question. How many children did Scarlett O’Hara have? How about this? I’ll write it. You read it. Then everyone can make up their own mind, and argue about it on the internet.

—GRRM (x)

There is a general sense that things may be subject to change and that the ending, besides certain points, is not set in stone. Definitely not the certain "same ending" some say it will be.

We will also recall that, as mentioned in some of the quotes above, in an interview with The Guardian in 2011, GRRM described himself as a "gardener" type of writer who works out the story as he goes, as opposed to an "architect," who plots out all the details ahead of time, a characteristic which may also play out in changes in the ending notes he gave D&D ("George discovers a lot of stuff while he’s writing"). We can see this in how, for example, he came up recently with a big twist about a non-show character while writing Winds.

So I hope, in having written all this, that I have given some hope to the most pessimistic about the series' end, because I have seen many, especially in light of how the show wrote Daenerys, decide to repudiate the book series and accuse GRRM of what D&D did. While I want to make clear that I don't think GRRM is flawless, I think he deserves the benefit of the doubt based on his strong writing throughout the books series, so that at the very least he be judged on his own merits and own faults whenever Winds (tentatively 2020?) and Dream come out. I urge people to not conflate GRRM and D&D.

And most importantly:

Q: "Early on, one critic described the TV series as bleak and embodying a nihilistic worldview, another bemoaned its “lack of moral signposts.” Have you ever worried that there’s some validity to that criticism?"

GRRM: "No. That particular criticism is completely invalid. Actually, I think it’s moronic. My worldview is anything but nihilistic."

(x)

The number one question people ask me about the series is whether I think everyone will lose—whether it will end in some horrible apocalypse. I know you can’t speak to that specifically, but as a revisionist of epic fantasy—
 GRRM: I haven’t written the ending yet, so I don’t know, but no. That’s certainly not my intent. I’ve said before that the tone of the ending that I’m going for is bittersweet. I mean, it’s no secret that Tolkien has been a huge influence on me, and I love the way he ended Lord of the Rings. It ends with victory, but it’s a bittersweet victory. Frodo is never whole again, and he goes away to the Undying Lands, and the other people live their lives. And the scouring of the Shire—brilliant piece of work, which I didn’t understand when I was 13 years old: “Why is this here? The story’s over?” But every time I read it I understand the brilliance of that segment more and more. All I can say is that’s the kind of tone I will be aiming for. Whether I achieve it or not, that will be up to people like you and my readers to judge.

[...]

I think you need to have some hope…we all yearn for happy endings in a sense. Myself, I’m attracted to the bittersweet ending. People ask me how Game of Thrones is gonna end, and I’m not gonna tell them … but I always say to expect something bittersweet in the end,” he said. “You can’t just fulfill a quest and then pretend life is perfect.

(x)

I urge my readers to have some hope. I know I will.