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How would you have ended it?


Techmaester

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After Jon kills Dany, Arya rescues Jon. The rest of Westeros heeds the letters Varys sent out (and later Sansa) about Jon and rally to his cause. Jon's forces smash the Unsullied and Dothraki and take King's Landing. Also, no Jaime rescuing Cersei mission. So we have:

 

King on the Iron Throne: Jon/Aegon VI Targaryen, the White Wolf.

His Council: Tyrion (Hand), Davos (Ships), Arya (Whispers), Jaime (LC of Kingsguard), Yohn Royce (War), Some reach lord (Coin), and someone else for Laws.

Lords:

Westerlands - Tyrion & Sansa Lannister

North: Bran. If Bran cannot reproduce - Jon or Sansa/Tyrion's second son to take the Stark name.

Stormlands - Gendry

Riverlands - Edmure

Reach - Introduce a Hightower

Vale- Robin Arryn

Dorne - Distant Martell relation.

Iron Islands - Honestly prefer no Greyjoys but Yara.

 

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The NK drives down to the Gods Eye. The entire North is wiped out and become Undead. Because people need to die for this to matter.

At the Gods Eye Bran kills the NK by merging into the Weirwood internet whilst the armies of the living defend him. Bran dies in his physical body and flies.

KL does not surrender but Jon is sickened at the destruction caused. Wildfire caches cause vast death but it is explicitly collateral damage. Dany is all for settling down but Jon stabs her because he’s afraid of her now.

Jamie kills Cersei.

Jorah destroys Jon (who died screaming in a puddle of his own urine) and takes the black; dying a broken man at the edge of the world.

With no North Sansa returns to the Vale where she lives the rest of her days advising her cousin Jon Arryn as a new Lady of Thorns. She never married or finds love.

Arya abandons her path of vengeance and realises she’s suffered enough hardship on her “adventures”. She realises this ain’t like the songs and that she can find happiness elsewhere. She marries Gendry, proposing to him on her terms.

Gendry becomes King as the last claimant left and being legitimised by Dany. Tyrion becomes his suffering hand. Yara becomes master of ships. Davos goes home to his family. 

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6 hours ago, Rose of Red Lake said:

Have Jon actually join his family and fight for the North, rather than becoming another lickspittle in Dany's harem.

Tyrion dies.

Cersei lives, in exile, as Ned originally intended.

The Starks attend Sansa's fucking coronation.

Well, that's funny. But did it really happen though? :D Instead he manipulated Daenerys to fight the real enemy, then stabbed her through the heart and freed the North unintentionally because of killing her.

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On 6/22/2019 at 10:05 PM, Tyrion1991 said:

The NK drives down to the Gods Eye. The entire North is wiped out and become Undead. Because people need to die for this to matter.

At the Gods Eye Bran kills the NK by merging into the Weirwood internet whilst the armies of the living defend him. Bran dies in his physical body and flies.

KL does not surrender but Jon is sickened at the destruction caused. Wildfire caches cause vast death but it is explicitly collateral damage. Dany is all for settling down but Jon stabs her because he’s afraid of her now.

Jamie kills Cersei.

Jorah destroys Jon (who died screaming in a puddle of his own urine) and takes the black; dying a broken man at the edge of the world.

With no North Sansa returns to the Vale where she lives the rest of her days advising her cousin Jon Arryn as a new Lady of Thorns. She never married or finds love.

Arya abandons her path of vengeance and realises she’s suffered enough hardship on her “adventures”. She realises this ain’t like the songs and that she can find happiness elsewhere. She marries Gendry, proposing to him on her terms.

Gendry becomes King as the last claimant left and being legitimised by Dany. Tyrion becomes his suffering hand. Yara becomes master of ships. Davos goes home to his family. 

Realising how much the people of Westeros hate her, Dany says "f*ck this for a game of soldiers" and marries the Night's King.  Then the pair of them go on the rampage like Mickey and Mallory in Natural Born Killers.

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2 hours ago, RYShh said:

Well, that's funny. But did it really happen though? :D Instead he manipulated Daenerys to fight the real enemy, then stabbed her through the heart and freed the North unintentionally because of killing her.

I would love it if he manipulated her to fight for the North - total grey character move from GRRM. I just dont see it happening in the TV show since he was repeating "mah kween" so much it became a meme. I still dont know why Varys wanted this idiot to be king so badly.

Wouldn't freeing the North intentionally by killing her be better?

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53 minutes ago, Rose of Red Lake said:

I would love it if he manipulated her to fight for the North - total grey character move from GRRM. I just dont see it happening in the TV show since he was repeating "mah kween" so much it became a meme. I still dont know why Varys wanted this idiot to be king so badly.

Wouldn't freeing the North intentionally by killing her be better?

Well, because Jon was better than Daenerys and Cersei. The best of a bad bunch. At least Jon realized that Daenerys shouldn't be the Queen of the 7 kingdoms which includes the North too.

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3 hours ago, SeanF said:

Realising how much the people of Westeros hate her, Dany says "f*ck this for a game of soldiers" and marries the Night's King.  Then the pair of them go on the rampage like Mickey and Mallory in Natural Born Killers.

 

Which is still better than the ending we got. 

It is the worst ending they could have done. Bran drives Dany insane and launches a Stark coup after using her to win. 

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2 hours ago, Rose of Red Lake said:

I would love it if he manipulated her to fight for the North - total grey character move from GRRM. I just dont see it happening in the TV show since he was repeating "mah kween" so much it became a meme. I still dont know why Varys wanted this idiot to be king so badly.

Wouldn't freeing the North intentionally by killing her be better?

You answered your own question.  Varys preferred a weak King to a strong Queen.

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43 minutes ago, SeanF said:

You answered your own question.  Varys preferred a weak King to a strong Queen.

He preferred an honorable fool to a mad queen who burns even children. Ned II over Aerys III anyday.

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10 minutes ago, RYShh said:

He preferred an honorable fool to a mad queen who burns even children. Ned II over Aerys III anyday.

Dany was simply disciplining the children she loved, as a good parent must.

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2 hours ago, RYShh said:

Well, because Jon was better than Daenerys and Cersei. The best of a bad bunch. At least Jon realized that Daenerys shouldn't be the Queen of the 7 kingdoms which includes the North too.

Oh yeah I totally get that, but just the fact that Jon thought Dany would make a better monarch than him, even after she went on her murderous rampage makes his judgment look pretty bad. Unfortunately, Jon had to be ruined just so we're really clear that Targaryens suck. LOL.

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  • 4 weeks later...

New idea based on something I said in another thread:

Basically the same up until Jon’s trial.

Sansa, Tyrion, Sam, Davos, Gendry, and Arya are all demanding Jon’s freedom saying he’s the rightful heir to the throne.

Yara, the prince of Dorne, Greyworm and the Dothraki are fully opposed, it leads to a huge disagreement and both sides prepare for war.

Sansa and Arya plan Jon’s jail break, and then Sansa begins politcking to get the Vale, Riverlands, Lannister remminents and the Reach (still neutral) to their side.

Arya frees Jon using her FM skills, but on the way out they get caught and have to fight unsullied. After a few sweet action scenes, they flee into KL, but realize they can’t get through the gates. 

Next morning, Dorne, Iron Islands and Dothraki are lined up for battle and clearly have the superior force. But then the Vale (led by Sweet Robin) and the Riverlands (led by Edmure) shows up in support of the north. 

The Reach (led by a Hightower) show’s up in support of team Yara though, and it looks like the North is badly outnumbered.

In KL, Jon comes face-to-face with Grey Worm, and the two fight. They battle to a stalemate,and have a little heart-to-heart where Jon explains his POV and Grey Worm has the moment of clarity his actor claimed he had at Comic-Con. 

As the two armies begin to charge into battle, a huge roar is heard and Drogon shows up under Bran’s control. 

The two armies stop fighting for fear of Drogon, and have another Dragon Pit meeting.

People push for Jon to be King, but he refuses and just up and leaves.

Everyone looks to Grey Worm to stop him, but he lets him go and then leaves himself taking the Dothraki with him on a quest to free slaves and continue Dany’s legacy.

With the external threat gone, Bran gets nominated to be king by the Hightower who is in awe of his power. 

Bran agrees, but offers Independence with fair trade/support to anyone who wants it. The North, Dorne and the Iron Islands all take it.

Jon joins the Wildings, Arya goes west, Bran rules the 4 Kingdoms, Sansa is queen of the north, Tyrion is Hand (I guess), Brienne is Bran’s LC, Drogon goes back east, Sam takes Hornhill, Davos is master of ships, etc. 

Everything is basically the same outcome-wise, but I feel like this adds way more context and pays off arcs in a more satisfying way.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I don't know if this is how I would have ended it or what the best ending would be, but I thought an interesting ending would have been if Jon shockingly died (in a fire, so he couldn't return, and thus "perishes twice") shortly before the battle with the white walkers.  Like, 24 hours before the white walkers were set to arrive, so everybody is freaking out.  Especially if Daenerys was blamed (rightly or wrongly; maybe Littlefinger would frame her) for the death.  The tensions between the remaining Starks and Targaryens would then go way up, but they would also have no choice but to work together against the white walkers.  (Though if Daenerys and her crew could just leave, that would kind of ruin it.)  It would be a big test of whether ice and fire could put aside their enmities.  Then lots of characters could make sacrifices, some of them sad: Arya might decide "Not Today" and let Daenerys live since they might need her against the white walkers, giving up her one chance at revenge; then after the battle, if Drogon is untamable and burns King's Landing some and kills civilians, Daenerys might poison him, giving up her "child"; etc.  The human heart in conflict with itself, etc.  Basically, Jon was a main character trying to get everybody to work together, and if he suddenly died it could have been interesting to see how those other characters would be angered and devastated and inspired, and if they would do what Jon would have wanted them to do.

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12 hours ago, BootsWhiskersPounce said:

I don't know if this is how I would have ended it or what the best ending would be, but I thought an interesting ending would have been if Jon shockingly died (in a fire, so he couldn't return, and thus "perishes twice") shortly before the battle with the white walkers.  Like, 24 hours before the white walkers were set to arrive, so everybody is freaking out.  Especially if Daenerys was blamed (rightly or wrongly; maybe Littlefinger would frame her) for the death.  The tensions between the remaining Starks and Targaryens would then go way up, but they would also have no choice but to work together against the white walkers.  (Though if Daenerys and her crew could just leave, that would kind of ruin it.)  It would be a big test of whether ice and fire could put aside their enmities.  Then lots of characters could make sacrifices, some of them sad: Arya might decide "Not Today" and let Daenerys live since they might need her against the white walkers, giving up her one chance at revenge; then after the battle, if Drogon is untamable and burns King's Landing some and kills civilians, Daenerys might poison him, giving up her "child"; etc.  The human heart in conflict with itself, etc.  Basically, Jon was a main character trying to get everybody to work together, and if he suddenly died it could have been interesting to see how those other characters would be angered and devastated and inspired, and if they would do what Jon would have wanted them to do.

This would have been so awesome to see and would have really put our characters to the test: people in conflict with themselves and having to make difficult choices/sacrifices. 

Perhaps you could've had it where a still alive Littlefinger actually coordinates the murder and burning of Jon, thinking "Chaos is a ladder" but then, as you describe, people still work together in honor of Jon the martyr and his death is a rallying cry. Would also be fun if Jon died and went into Ghost, eventually killing Littlefinger AND ending up north of the wall at the end. Also like the idea of Drogon being untamable after the WW fight, you could also have a parallel to this w/ one of the human characters also going crazy and blood last after fighting death itself. 

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Thank you very much!

Yes, fleshing it out a little more, my basic thinking before season 7 came out was that the show could end something like:

First, word gets out that Jon is the son of Lyanna+Rhaegar.  There are tensions with Daenerys because Jon might have a claim to the throne.  Melisandre pushes the idea that Jon is the Prince who was Promised, and everything seems to be pointing to Jon being the heroic leader who will defeat the white walkers.

Unfortunately, a few characters have selfish plans and choose to put their own pursuits ahead of what’s right, notably Littlefinger (desire), Varys (hatred), and Cersei (power).  This greatly increases the chances that everybody could die from either the white walkers, or the dragons, or both.  Everybody’s trust and faith is crushed.  Specifically: Littlefinger’s plan involves killing Jon in a fire right before the white walkers arrive and framing Daenerys, thus putting Daenerys on Arya’s list.

You note:

On 8/13/2019 at 11:05 AM, WeDoNotKneel_HailMance said:

Perhaps you could've had it where a still alive Littlefinger actually coordinates the murder and burning of Jon, thinking "Chaos is a ladder" but then, as you describe, people still work together in honor of Jon the martyr and his death is a rallying cry.

 

This is a great point, thank you!  The “chaos is a ladder” view would fit in with this well, but Jon as a martyr and his death as a rallying cry could ruin Littlefinger’s plan.

I hadn’t considered this possibility you suggest:

On 8/13/2019 at 11:05 AM, WeDoNotKneel_HailMance said:

Would also be fun if Jon died and went into Ghost, eventually killing Littlefinger AND ending up north of the wall at the end.

 

You’re right, Jon could be in Ghost, his story could continue, and could involve going back up to the “real North”.

Then other characters (Arya, Daenerys, Sansa, Bran, Tyrion, Jaime, Qyburn, Sandor, etc.), partially inspired by Jon, end up sacrificing their own personal goals in order to save the people of Westeros.  Thus, Jon did not “save the day” by wielding a sword or leading an army, in fact he unintentionally gets himself killed which some people take as a sign that he was foolish (though as you point out he might still be alive), but he ends up kind of heroic because his attempts to get people to work together inspired those around him to save the day.

Going into those earlier examples a little further:

I pictured a possible emotional episode-ending scene where Arya has Needle pointed at Daenerys’ throat, all of her training seemingly coming to this moment, but Sansa begs Arya to let Daenerys live to fight the white walkers (even though Sansa also hates Daenerys), so Arya decides “Not Today” and lets Daenerys live.

I guess you could have the Jon-dying-before-the-white-walkers-battle idea without having the Daenerys-killing-Drogon idea, those seem kind of unrelated.  I was trying to think of a sacrifice that would be very difficult for Daenerys, and thought that maybe if Drogon is the one remaining dragon and all of this violence and scheming has led him to completely turn on all the humans and stop trusting people, and he kills a bunch of people and it seems that he is a threat to kill a lot more, the climax could be a heart-wrenching scene with Daenerys comforting an injured Drogon and feeding him “medicine” that is really poison, maybe even first drinking it herself in order to get Drogon to trust her. I guess that would have to be very strong poison to kill a dragon, so maybe this wouldn’t work well, and I didn’t really think it through much.  But your idea makes a lot of sense:

On 8/13/2019 at 11:05 AM, WeDoNotKneel_HailMance said:

Also like the idea of Drogon being untamable after the WW fight, you could also have a parallel to this w/ one of the human characters also going crazy and blood last after fighting death itself. 

 

This is interesting, Daenerys could go “crazy” as happened in the show, or I wonder if another character would make sense?  I’ll think about that, thanks!

Then of course the show would end with remaining characters coming to some sort of agreement over governance.

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After much thought on this, I would have ended it pretty similar to how it ended - just with better writing. Even the final peace negotiation with issues was bittersweet - it was just written by a couple of fuckwits who don't understand drama.

The single thing I would have changed is the Night King. I don't mind that he was destroyed but his destruction and backstory should have tied in better to the themes of the plot - human belief and power, the NK rose up against it and failed - fine, he should have been painted somewhat sympathetic, so that his demise made us realise human arrogance has won and now we prepare for the showdown of that.

I am sure GRRM knew what he was doing and just got too gutless to finish in our modern anti Western environment. And I'm sure D&D had the outline but were too swayed by politics, their lack of ability and the fandom to stay the course. Gutless art - fuck it, doesn't have the balls to be what it should be.

Edit - I have a theory, when art bows to politics, culture is lost.

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  • 1 month later...

You need rewrite the last two seasons to make the end of the story work. Maybe even the last four.

The biggest mistake the creators made was to not make the truth about Jon being a trueborn Targaryen and the legal heir to the Iron Throne relevant.

The second biggest mistake is excluding Aegon.

The third biggest mistake is not having Daenerys do or think villainous things that make sense and further her goals in Westeros or Essos. If you get that out of the way before her arrival in Westeros, then people like Sansa, the Tarlys, Varys and even Cersei have legitimate concerns.

On 5/28/2019 at 9:30 AM, Aldarion said:

I would not have removed Young Griff from the story. So he would have gained the throne, Daenerys would kill him (accidentally destroying King's Landing via wildfire) before discovering he was actually related to her. Those relevations would have pushed her over the edge to become Mad Queen, after she had already decided on "Fire and Blood" approach earlier. After that it would be downward spiral, with her campaign of conquest gradually becoming increasingly cruel, until Jon kills her and claims the throne. But since few people believe his claim, some kingdoms declare independence, following by others, and so Seven Kingdoms are dissolved by default - showing that power indeed does lie where people believe it does.

That's a nice spin.

It won't end like that in the books but I like this ending.

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8 hours ago, Jabar of House Titan said:

You need rewrite the last two seasons to make the end of the story work. Maybe even the last four.

The biggest mistake the creators made was to not make the truth about Jon being a trueborn Targaryen and the legal heir to the Iron Throne relevant.

The second biggest mistake is excluding Aegon.

The third biggest mistake is not having Daenerys do or think villainous things that make sense and further her goals in Westeros or Essos. If you get that out of the way before her arrival in Westeros, then people like Sansa, the Tarlys, Varys and even Cersei have legitimate concerns.

That's a nice spin.

It won't end like that in the books but I like this ending.

I agree completly with your whole post. 

It is one of the reasons I Don t understand how the books can be similar to the show. Either the last seasons have to be very different from the books or the ending has to be very different... The 2 together simply don t fit

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9 hours ago, Jabar of House Titan said:

You need rewrite the last two seasons to make the end of the story work. Maybe even the last four.

The biggest mistake the creators made was to not make the truth about Jon being a trueborn Targaryen and the legal heir to the Iron Throne relevant.

The second biggest mistake is excluding Aegon.

The third biggest mistake is not having Daenerys do or think villainous things that make sense and further her goals in Westeros or Essos. If you get that out of the way before her arrival in Westeros, then people like Sansa, the Tarlys, Varys and even Cersei have legitimate concerns.

That's a nice spin.

It won't end like that in the books but I like this ending.

Yeh.  If they wanted to have Daenerys acting like Timur the Lame at the end, then show her becoming Timur the Lame in Seasons 6 and 7.

Killing a few slave masters, the Tarlys, and Dothraki Khals, and giving a couple of fiery speeches, does not Timur the Lame make.  They could have really shown her at the end of Season 6 burning Yunkai to the ground, massacring prisoners, and leaving a pyramid of human heads behind her. And, then follow it up with her burning towns and villages that support Cersei in Season 7.  It wouldn't even have damaged her popularity;  most fans  would just say it proved what a badass she was. 

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