Aegon's absence is really noticeable now

[MoreOrLess]

It seems rather early to label Dany's victory as "predictable" given that she's only been in the position to invade at all in the last couple of episodes.

Beyond that of course I'd hope theres more at play than simply beating Cersei's forces on the battlefield.

[Desert Fox]

Aegon being cut could mean anything really. It probably means he won't be the last king. But it doesn't really tell you much else. He could be important but easy to cut out. He could have a very interesting story line that doesn't really impact the ending. Even someone like Robb and Cat could have been cut out without huge structural plot changes. But you'd lose important and great pieces of the story.

By pure speculation, I think the issue is that Aegon doesn't make it to the end and D&D don't have much written material to make a storyline. So it's easy to cut. They'd have to write from scratch 80% of the Aegon story no matter what. Whatever they come up with won't match GRRM's anyway. He's not a great character. Whatever big plot points he does in the outline of the ending can be transferred to other characters or skipped and smoothed over.

If he takes KL and defends it against Dany, have Cersei do it instead. If he just bloodies Dany before the war of the dawn, skip it and have her lose a bunch to the WW. If he's just there to sour the people on Jon's secret Targ story, just have nobody believe it because there is no proof.

Unless HBO adds another season (which D&D want to avoid cause they are burned out), I don't think Aegon would even be possible. You'd have to cut out story and time from other characters. Which characters do you want to skip instead?

[MoreOrLess]

One potential switch I spose could be that Gendry returns and takes on a similar kind of role to Aegon.

[dariopatke]

5 minutes ago, MoreOrLess said:

One potential switch I spose could be that Gendry returns and takes on a similar kind of role to Aegon.

Not really because he has no one backing him, 7K are already divided and I dont see him having enough money to hire GC (and we know that even GC isnt enough that why we will see friends in Reach and in show we cant because we havent seen Tarly getting insulted all the time and Rowan being huge Targ supporter).

[MoreOrLess]

13 minutes ago, dariopatke said:

Not really because he has no one backing him, 7K are already divided and I dont see him having enough money to hire GC (and we know that even GC isnt enough that why we will see friends in Reach and in show we cant because we havent seen Tarly getting insulted all the time and Rowan being huge Targ supporter).

I'd agree he can't have exactly the same story but it wouldn't need to be an identical story in order to potentially fit into the plot, just someone with a rival claim to the throne besides Dany and Cersei.

Honestly though my feeling is actually that if the show had wanted to introduce Aegon for greater unpredictability the best time would have been seasons 5-6. This season especially really featured mostly plots, character interactions and settings that we'd already seen a lot of with quite predictable ends to them, the Boltons defeat, Ayra rejecting the faceless men, Dany beating the slavers and controlling the Dothraki, the confronation with Cersei and the Faith.

Next season on the other hand represents much more of a clean slate with new plot points and lots of new and unpredictable character interactions. Dany appears in a strong position but that in itself is interesting I that her force is made up of many characters with very different positions and views that we haven't seen interacting much previously.

[dariopatke]

3 minutes ago, MoreOrLess said:

I'd agree he can't have exactly the same story but it wouldn't need to be an identical story in order to potentially fit into the plot, just someone with a rival claim to the throne besides Dany and Cersei.

Honestly though my feeling is actually that if the show had wanted to introduce Aegon for greater unpredictability the best time would have been seasons 5-6. This season especially really featured mostly plots, character interactions and settings that we'd already seen a lot of with quite predictable ends to them, the Boltons defeat, Ayra rejecting the faceless men, Dany beating the slavers and controlling the Dothraki, the confronation with Cersei and the Faith.

Next season on the other hand represents much more of a clean slate with new plot points and lots of new and unpredictable character interactions.

I agree that this season was really really predictable and next one likely wont be.

The only unpredictable thing is North forgets.

Gendry can put a claim, but he is a bastard without money, he will be easily crushed. Aegon on the other hand will likely take KL, at least for a while. Maybe we see this in s7 but this wont be nearly interesting as Aegon would be.

[MoreOrLess]

22 minutes ago, dariopatke said:

I agree that this season was really really predictable and next one likely wont be.

The only unpredictable thing is North forgets.

Gendry can put a claim, but he is a bastard without money, he will be easily crushed. Aegon on the other hand will likely take KL, at least for a while. Maybe we see this in s7 but this wont be nearly interesting as Aegon would be.

The big issue I'd say is simply the number of plots, this season had so many sub plots that I think Aegon as well would have been too much. You could argue as well I spose is that at a certain point things become predictably unpredictable and having a more cathartic season both provided something a bit new and created a more stable situation to upset next season.

As far as Gendry goes the most obvious way his claim could be used is leading(or being pushed into a figurehead position of) an uprising from within KL itself, the populace certainly have many reasons to turn against Cersei and you could argue that's actually easy for the show to deal with that having Aegon elsewhere.

You also of course potentially have Ayra thrust into the mix with the potential for Gendry to be used in her story with or without him pressing a claim to the throne.

[dsug]

The only reason I can think of for GRRM pulling Aegon out of his ass is that he was getting paid by the word. Aegon has no narrative purpose other than stretching things out and complicating things even further. I am glad he's not in the show, as he was such a non-character in the books. 

I'd much rather see what Euron develops into as a villain, as they're setting him up to be pretty formidable and has direct ties to Daenerys's alliance. I know the actor has yet to really blow anybody away, but he's only had two scenes. I have a "wait and see" approach, and this show has a spectacular track record with its actors. On a show with hundreds of characters, I think I can count the actors I don't like on one hand. 

Daenerys will also have Cersei to contend with. An established fan favorite character portrayed by a critically acclaimed actress is a damn good villain if you ask me. The show has taken Cersei down a highly anticipated path (MADQUEENHYPE) and it should be great to see such well known and completely different women square off. 

[dariopatke]

58 minutes ago, MoreOrLess said:

The big issue I'd say is simply the number of plots, this season had so many sub plots that I think Aegon as well would have been too much. You could argue as well I spose is that at a certain point things become predictably unpredictable and having a more cathartic season both provided something a bit new and created a more stable situation to upset next season.

As far as Gendry goes the most obvious way his claim could be used is leading(or being pushed into a figurehead position of) an uprising from within KL itself, the populace certainly have many reasons to turn against Cersei and you could argue that's actually easy for the show to deal with that having Aegon elsewhere.

You also of course potentially have Ayra thrust into the mix with the potential for Gendry to be used in her story with or without him pressing a claim to the throne.

You are roght about leading uprising from KL, this never occured to me, can happen.

I guess Arya will be heading north next season, she did say she goes home and she has to meet Mel, but who knows she was heading to the Wall and ended up in Braavos.

I would like to see Gendry, he is the only missing character left. Oh and do you think Edric Storm will appear again in books? I know this is show subforum, but since we are discussing  about similar stuff why not mention this,too.

[MoreOrLess]

1 hour ago, dariopatke said:

You are roght about leading uprising from KL, this never occured to me, can happen.

I guess Arya will be heading north next season, she did say she goes home and she has to meet Mel, but who knows she was heading to the Wall and ended up in Braavos.

I would like to see Gendry, he is the only missing character left. Oh and do you think Edric Storm will appear again in books? I know this is show subforum, but since we are discussing  about similar stuff why not mention this,too.

In the short term I'm guessing Ayra could meet up with some/all of the Hound, Mel and the BwB, there in the same area and theres obvious drama(and prophecy) there. She could potentially stay in the area and help free the Riverlands I spose but to me the story that seems to fit her best is to head after Cersei to KL, maybe with the Hound. I think her revenge story needs a big climax to justify it not just going home, either dying for her revenge or switching it to something more positive.

I am a bit more hopeful about seeing Gendry again with so many other supposedly forgotten characters coming back this season and like the Hound he does obviously have a connection to Ayra. I could see a few ways that story could work, maybe Cersei captures Gendry and either kills him providing extra motivation or keeps him imprisoned leading to a potential rescue. Maybe he ends up the figurehead of an uprising that actually breaks Cersei's power before Dany gets there and Ayra helps stop her from destroying KL with wildfire.

You look at the KL story in general and its rather empty after the finale isn't it? Cersei, Jamie and Qyburn are really the only characters there(maybe Bron I spose) and previously its always been the location with the most depth. We could get Euron and Randall Tarly allying to Cersei but still they would be linked into a single plot not the multiple often opposing viewpoints were used to. Having Ayra, The Hound, Gendry etc on the streets of KL would I think help provide that depth we've been used to.

If Gendry does come back, has his status revealed and survives then he could well end up lord of the Stormlands under Dany.

[charleois]

Aegon reminds me of Perkin Warbeck and other false pretenders in the time of Henry VII after the Wars of the Roses. Therefore he is historically interesting. However, as a character in the books, he is completely uninteresting to read and an annoying distraction from the many other stories and characters in which I am already invested as a reader.