The final goodbye - a bittersweet ending

[jet199]

GRRM has said he is going for a bittersweet ending and I have often seen this used to justify main characters dying right at the end of the series. However I think good storytellers try to end their stories as they began.

The surviving Stark children and Jon (maybe even Theon) will all return to Winterfell by the end of the series and meet up. However, due to them having built their lives elsewhere during the series, it will be a short reunion and last chapter of the books will be them parting again. Bitter-bloody-sweet.

[Errant Bard]

He has also said the Lord Of The Rings ending was bittersweet, I'm ok with that, and like you I have long expected that one Stark will be " the Shire The north was saved, but not for me. I am leaving."

Of course, any of the main characters could say that at this point: Bran becoming an Ent, Arya a warped woman, zombie Jon a corpse, Sansa a queen... Even Dany, Tyrion or Theon are up there in the life-changing misery trauma scale.

[Sylva Santagar]

The quintessence of the LOTR ending is that one age came to an end and another began (End of the Third Age/Beginning of the Fourth Age). I tend to believe that we will see a transfer similar to that in ASOIAF. Westeros will not be the same as it was, a new order will be installed, characters will have changed dramatically (those who survive), and many of what we loved and favoured will be irreversibly gone but with the hopes and dreams of something new coming....

[Faceless Sam]

as if there will be a final book...

[Fanless Mace]

I thought this series was going to end with Septon Maribald clicking his heels together three times while saying, "There's no place like home!" He wakes up in Albequerque, just a defrocked priest in a halfway house for crank addicts. The bittersweet part is that Dog stays behind in the dream. Oh, and everyone gets raptured except Cersei.

[Sylva Santagar]

I thought this series was going to end with Septon Maribald clicking his heels together three times while saying, "There's no place like home!" He wakes up in Albequerque, just a defrocked priest in a halfway house for crank addicts. The bittersweet part is that Dog stays behind in the dream. Oh, and everyone gets raptured except Cersei.

:rofl:

[Ilúvatar]

I don't like the sound of such an ending.

It would be a lot more unpredictable and interesting to have the Starks eradicated completely along with Daenerys. Cersei should win in the end. Or the Others.

[Roddy the Ruin]

I hope the ending has the tone that Assassins Creed 4 Black Flag ended on.

MASSIVE SPOILERS IN THE FOLLOWING LINK

SERIOUSLY MASSIVE ASSASSIN'S CREED SPOILERS

http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2013/12/10/the-surprisingly-beautiful-ending-of-assassins-creed-iv-black-flag/

[NOT A TARG I SWEAR]

Of course, any of the main characters could say that at this point: Bran becoming an Ent, Arya a warped woman, zombie Jon a corpse, Sansa a queen... Even Dany, Tyrion or Theon are up there in the life-changing misery trauma scale.

Life-changing misery trauma scale should range from 1 to Theon. I think it's going to be hard to beat his entire life story. The guy should write a book and go on Oprah.

[XSarellaX]

I imagine the ending of the series will have a similar feeling to the end of Robert's Rebellion. When I think of it, it was also pretty bittersweet... more bitter than sweet, but although many characters I imagine we would have liked die, not all of them have to in order to end the story well.

For example, imagine RR was an independent novel:

Ned survives, goes home to meet baby Robb and get to know Cat better. We know how much Cat prayed Robb would get to know his father, and we're relieved he will have this chance At the same time, Ned has endured the loss of his father and two siblings, and we're afraid his marriage won't be as good as it could because of him claming a bastard.

Lyanna and Rhaegar die, and despite being controversial characters, their deaths were so tragic... but the child they wanted so much lives, even though it belongs to the wrong gender. The best part is that he's going to grow up in Winterfell, and be raised by none other than Ned Stark, so we know he will be alright.

Jaime finally, finally, does what we wanted him to do all along and kills Aerys. His death feels great, but now Jaime is seen as dishonourable by everyonein the seven kingdoms.

Jon Arryn, the best guy in the book, becomes Hand of the King and gets to be close to Robert, but their relationship is changed, since Robert doesn't seem to listen to him anymore. Also, his marriage to Lysa doesn't seem to be all that good

So, no, no evryone needs to die. Some will, but there are many different ways a fate can be bittersweet,

[SeanF]

I think it'll be more bitter than sweet. Say, Tyrion gets Casterly Rock, but is widely hated, and ends his days as a bitter alcoholic. Dany saves Westeros from the Others, but savagely persecutes her enemies. Sansa connives in the death of Sweetrobin, and becomes a murderous, lying, hypocrite. Jon lives in hiding from his aunt. Arya survives the series as a dead-eyed assassin. Cersei and her children get fed to Drogon. Bran survives as a tree.

[The Kinkslayer]

I thought this series was going to end with Septon Maribald clicking his heels together three times while saying, "There's no place like home!" He wakes up in Albequerque, just a defrocked priest in a halfway house for crank addicts. The bittersweet part is that Dog stays behind in the dream. Oh, and everyone gets raptured except Cersei.

That's because Brienne killed dog isn't it?

I was under the impression of that there will be no ending, the series is always 2 books away from being completed.

[Errant Bard]

For example, imagine RR was an independent novel

Depends on the cut-off, the majority of the things you mention as bitter are actually only hindsight, there is no way we would know or even suspect that with a regular ending to a novel. For the rest, nay, it would be a happy ending: one or two tragic loss, like in about any novel out there, but the good guys won, Robert the hammer god despite his grief has a beautiful intelligent wife, old king sympathisers recognized the error of their ways and are pardoned (Jaime and Barristan and Dorne), Ned goes back to his wife and son, with the promise to rise Jon as a good man. Meanwhile, the bad guys are all but crushed: The rapists Aerys and Rhaegar dead, the tyrant family on the run, all in all unlikely to threaten the kingdom again.

[XSarellaX]

Errant Bard, I suppose it would depend on how it would be written. When I wrote my post, I assumed the problems I mentioned would be adressed in the hypothetical book about RR. I'm a bit confused about how you think the end of the rebellion was mostly happy though. Many people I suspect we would have liked died, and those who lived were hurt by the loss of their loved ones (I'm thinking of Ned here). Lots of terrible things happened...

Anyway, this thread is not about RR, this was just the example that came to my mind :)

[Julia Martell]

I don't like the sound of such an ending.

It would be a lot more unpredictable and interesting to have the Starks eradicated completely along with Daenerys. Cersei should win in the end. Or the Others.

That's not bittersweet! That's just a downer ending.

[myhousigilisthehousecat]

I imagine the ending of the series will have a similar feeling to the end of Robert's Rebellion. When I think of it, it was also pretty bittersweet... more bitter than sweet, but although many characters I imagine we would have liked die, not all of them have to in order to end the story well.

For example, imagine RR was an independent novel:

Ned survives, goes home to meet baby Robb and get to know Cat better. We know how much Cat prayed Robb would get to know his father, and we're relieved he will have this chance At the same time, Ned has endured the loss of his father and two siblings, and we're afraid his marriage won't be as good as it could because of him claming a bastard.

Lyanna and Rhaegar die, and despite being controversial characters, their deaths were so tragic... but the child they wanted so much lives, even though it belongs to the wrong gender. The best part is that he's going to grow up in Winterfell, and be raised by none other than Ned Stark, so we know he will be alright.

Jaime finally, finally, does what we wanted him to do all along and kills Aerys. His death feels great, but now Jaime is seen as dishonourable by everyonein the seven kingdoms.

Jon Arryn, the best guy in the book, becomes Hand of the King and gets to be close to Robert, but their relationship is changed, since Robert doesn't seem to listen to him anymore. Also, his marriage to Lysa doesn't seem to be all that good

So, no, no evryone needs to die. Some will, but there are many different ways a fate can be bittersweet,

That's a really nice way of putting it! It's impossible to have a realistic and 100% happy ending, but resolving the major conflict from the beginning is what really counts, and that's what happened after RR.

[Lion of the West]

I don't like the sound of such an ending.

It would be a lot more unpredictable and interesting to have the Starks eradicated completely along with Daenerys. Cersei should win in the end. Or the Others.

I like the sound of that. :) But I wouldn't mind if Sansa was spared.

[Widows_Blood]

Prologue could be something like Bran alone in a cave apart of a Weirwood tree, roots growing all around him as he watches his siblings. Jon is on the throne, Rickon lord of Winterfell, Sansa happily married, Arya with her pack. Maybe inter-cut with quick flashbacks to Winterfell before the war. Happy memories with his father, mother and the rest. Realizing at the end he will never see them again.

[Generic Bravo]

Life-changing misery trauma scale should range from 1 to Theon. I think it's going to be hard to beat his entire life story. The guy should write a book and go on Oprah.

It Rhymes With Freak, the heartbreaking story of a boy who just wanted to fit in, but found himself trapped in a never-ending cycle of abuse and neglect.

[Hangover of the Morning]

How could the books not have a bittersweet ending? There are likeable (and repulsive) characters in every House and every corner of GRRTH and their agendas are often incongruous with each other.

For me it's not about giving a good guy a good ending he deserves but giving an interesting character a satisfying journey.