How do you think the series will end?

[wolfsbae]

I know we have a thread discussing how we do NOT want things to go, but how do you think the series will end?

Zombie apocalypse?

Bran the Night King?

Targ dynasty?

Sansa and the Hound living happily ever after?

Bronn saying how it is all cocks in the end?

[Ran]

"In fire."

[btfu806]

As far as the show goes, and not the books, because I honestly do think things will be slightly different.

But what I think will happen will be Dany dying in child birth and Jon refusing the throne, setting up a vote the leader in thing like the Night's Watch had. Then paving way for democracy (though if I were to be really cynical and political, I would say D&D would like to go with the current trends and make it more like democratic socialism, not looking to argue about it, just could see them doing something like that)? I think Arya, Sansa, Tyrion, Jon, will survive (and may be missing other big characters too).

What I want to happen though, is not that at all haha. I kinda want Cersei out of the way early on in the season because I think her character has long past her stay of welcome. I want Jamie's arc to come full circle and him to kill Cersei. I want Arya to become more than just some assassin. Tyrion to get casterly rock but it needs extreme amounts of gold to fix up and make good again and he is broke (or something like that). Sansa I want to have the power of being queen till the end of the story and she marries someone, becoming second in power to that person (just like she always wanted as a child but now wishes she didn't get as an adult). Dany I personally want her character arc to follow in the footsteps of her father and brother, where she slowly goes mad with power and dies at the end by ... idk what means. I know that upsets a lot of Dany fans, but I think it would kinda make sense and I have never really liked her character much (so maybe I am just being mean to her for no reason). Then Jon ... I just don't know. His arc to me should end with having a family, or being part of a family but I just don't know for sure. His arc always alludes my thoughts for some reason.

But what I really want is a giant and long Others vs humans battle and dragons fighting each other to the death and once everything calms down. We see Ser Robert Strong on the battle field, the champion of the Others, vs. Ser Sandor Clegane, the champion for the humans. And it's to decide who lives and dies in all the realm and CLEGANEBOWL HAPPENS! F***ING CONFIRMED!

Anyway! that was a long rant, but that's what I think will happen vs what I want...

[alienarea]

Hugo will turn the frozen donkey wheel and set the seasons straight.

[Juligen]

Jon Snow will be the King, he will marry Sansa Stark and start a new dinasty that will last a thousands years; he will create a new House, new sigil and New Words. Their reign will be long and peaceful;

Bran will probably stay with Jon helping him to rule the country.

I expect Sansa to be a great queen. She will change the rules of sucession allowing girls to be heir in front of their younger brothers; give the right for women to pass on their names to ther children and many other improvements in the realm. 

The North and the Iron Islands will keep part of their independence; Theon will be the King of the Iron Islands and Arya the Queen in the North.

Jaime Lannister will be the hand of the King Aegon, he will marry Brienne and have his happy ending. He will be able to rewrite his history.

I am almost sure that Jaime will be the one to defeat Daenerys in the final battle for Kings Landing and he will be the one to kill drogo. He will be know as the dragonslayer after the battle. 

Daenerys will be the final antagonist, burning down Kings Land to the ground and putting an end to her family dinasty. It will be the end of House Targaryen, she wont die, she will be sent in exile back to Essos, with no dragons, and no armies. I am predicting her to have the most tragic ending alongside Stannis Baratheon.

The country will be devasted by the wars and the winter. I expect Highgarden to be named the new capital. Its available and its located in the Reach, the most fertile part of the country.

[Vhagar's Ghost]

Jon dies killing the Night King, Dany survives childbirth but is so broken that when people raise her as their queen, she is like "I brought more death to the realm than good, Imma go back to Slavers Bay and rule there". Also all dragons are dead.

Sansa becomes the Queen in the North, whose territory now includes the Vale.

Arya becomes an assassin for hire who operates in Essos and Westeros.

Tyrion becomes King of the Rock, and Westeros will return into a series of petty Kingdoms constantly warring with one another.

The castles along the Wall, mainly the Shadow Tower and Castle Black, will be the seats for new lords and ladies.

Yara will be Queen of the Iron Isles. Theon and Euron are both dead bois.

Winterfell will be burnt to the ground, gone for good. As well King's Landing. There will be no Iron Throne left to sit, and yeah.

[btfu806]

15 hours ago, Vhagar's Ghost said:

Jon dies killing the Night King, Dany survives childbirth but is so broken that when people raise her as their queen, she is like "I brought more death to the realm than good, Imma go back to Slavers Bay and rule there". Also all dragons are dead.

Sansa becomes the Queen in the North, whose territory now includes the Vale.

Arya becomes an assassin for hire who operates in Essos and Westeros.

Tyrion becomes King of the Rock, and Westeros will return into a series of petty Kingdoms constantly warring with one another.

The castles along the Wall, mainly the Shadow Tower and Castle Black, will be the seats for new lords and ladies.

Yara will be Queen of the Iron Isles. Theon and Euron are both dead bois.

Winterfell will be burnt to the ground, gone for good. As well King's Landing. There will be no Iron Throne left to sit, and yeah.

I don't know why, but if Jon dies again, I think it will piss me off. You already killed him once, brought him back (in away I wasn't a fan of but w/e, that's on me) then just having him die off again to kill off the main antagonist. IDK. Though I can't see Dany's character being that person either. So by default maybe it does have to be Jon. Just pisses me off, not a fan of the idea (though who knows, might actually work when they put it on screen...)

[Lady Fevre Dream]

On 7/9/2018 at 4:58 PM, alienarea said:

Hugo will turn the frozen donkey wheel and set the seasons straight.

LOLOL  Thank you for this, I needed a laugh.  Are there any time traveling bunnies for Bran to play with, though? 

[DisneyDoc2425]

Over the past seven seasons we have generally seen a nihilistic tone to the series with a major focus on man’s inhumanity to man resulting from a drive for power and control with the consequences being cruelty, betrayal, revenge, murder, and war (at times being portrayed as well intentioned and justified). Empathy, sensitivity, understanding, guilt/shame, and remorse are in relatively short supply. As we enter season 8 it seems relatively clear that the main “protagonists” are Daenerys and John, with their fates being a major point of interest. In line with this, IMHO, while there certainly are some outlier groups, I feel that overall the majority of fans fall into one of 3 supporter camps (Daenerys, John, or both Daenerys and John). So how can HBO, the show’s directors, and GRRM end up presenting a strong message for the series ending without antagonizing a significant number of fans (I guess you could argue they don’t care, but I doubt this is the case to a major degree).

It is my belief that they plan (and have always planned) to address this issue by having both Daenerys and John die in the battles to defeat the Night King and Cersei, with their child (or children) living on as their legacy, with at least the Targaryen gene pool being diluted with some Stark blood . I believe the snow that was seen on the Iron Throne in the vision Daenerys had represents the child (children), not Jon. Jon and Daenerys can then be viewed overall as heroes that sacrificed themselves to save Westeros (although I think Daenerys will go a little “nutsy” and engage in some questionable behaviors before she dies-but I guess we can cut her some slack on this because the end result will be the same).  I also believe that their romance/relationship will end, as Jon (Aegon) begins to see the darker side of Daenerys’s split personality, even though John might marry Daenerys to give legitimacy to their child (children).

To maybe “Tolkienize” the ending a bit I could see Daenerys reuniting with Drogo and their child in the Night Lands and crossing over with them to the next realm (remember in her past “vision” Drogo refused to cross over until she was there).  Who knows, maybe John and Ygritte may do the same thing (but probably not). Probably surprising, unexpected, and not very predictable to the large number of fans in the 3 camps above.

[Kajjo]

Well, GRRM is great in writing interesting twists and in making the storyline fit. I expect this to be true for the show, too. The books might be more complex, the path more winding, but the final outcome will be the same. That is clear from several interviews, e.g. of GRRM himself and some of the main actresses: Show and books describe the same story and will have the same final.

This said, I see some major motives in the storyline: 

(a) "Breaking the wheel of power" and "A final end, a conclusion" -- this is promised by GRRM-- I expect this to happen, so there will be no queen or king ruling from the Iron throne. The throne will either be destroyed or left unoccupied. Maybe some other kind of system installed like democracy (Night's watch) or at least just the remaining independent kingdoms without an Iron throne ruling them all. It would be extremely disappointing if Daenerys, Jon or anyone else end up on the Iron throne. This would just be continuity instead of conclusion.

(b) "Ice and Fire" -- the main theme and topic of the all the books and the show. Ice and fire will somehow neutralize each other, will quench each other, will cease to be important. I expect dragons to be extinct again and the Night King's army (wights/walkers) to be gone. The winter will probably end in the final scene, spring and new life to come about.

(c) "Bittersweet" is promised by GRRM and this fits to the whole series as we know them, both book and show. Major characters dying, major twists occuring. Important characters will die, we will not see a Hollywood-ish "happily ever after". That would be boring and stupid. But of course, some will survive and have a life, some will die.  Bittersweet means there will be a logical, realistical outcome, a great war never ends without sacrifices, drawbacks, deaths, but it will also give raise to new life, a new system, a prospect of worthwhile future to come.

Taking these three "columns" as granted, we still do not know how it will end. And that is fine! How boring if the end were clearly predictable. It is not. It hopefully will be surprising. But hopefully, the balance of bittersweet will be bearable and satisfying.

Personally, I can simply guess and maybe present some "hopes" how I would like it to end:

• Jon and Daenerys will die. No other sensible way out without ending up as king/queen. Cf. also Dany's prophecy not reaching the throne.
• Arya survives, e.g. leaving for "West of Westeros" (I'd like that). Cannot figure her in an important final position, though. But who knows. Also Aryas appears to be a favorite character of GRRM and his wife.
• Sansa survives, particularly because of the promise "the pack survives", but not on the Iron throne, just in the North.
• Cersei dies, probably killed by Jamie (I'd like that), who is a younger brother (cf. prophecy).
• The Mountain dies, probably killed by Arya (I'd like that), cf. "quick as a snake" references in the book and Mountain beaten by Oberyn, maybe assisted by the Hound.
• All dragons killed in the war. No dragons left. I cannot see the history of captive dragons repeating itself and free dragons make no sense, particulary not after Daenerys' death.
• Brienne/Jamie -- very difficult to predict. They might die or not.
• Bronn survives, a minor character who makes it through all of it.
• Theon and Euron dying, maybe Theon saves his sister and kills Euron, then dies.

However, what is more interesting than single survives/dies are the important storyline corner stones:

• What are White Walkers, what is their and the Night King's intention? Being created by the Children of the forest, there should be more to it than just an "enemy" without real story? NK vs Daenerys, maybe good and evil swap sides?
• What kind of epilogue or final prosepct will there be? How can Westeros have a "normal" future after all this concludes?