Game of Thrones Season 7/8 Re-Write

[SeanF]

2 hours ago, BlackLightning said:

Actually the idea of putting Gendry on the Iron Throne as a puppet for the pro-Seven, anti-Lannister faction and then forcing him and his handlers to fight Dany is actually a pretty good idea.

I feel like going back and editing that post of mine. Brilliant idea!

@KingStoneheart and @SeanF do you wanna hear my rewrite of season 8 and 9...or is this thread dead.

And yes, I would've had a season 9. So, I'm not introducing fAegon and revamping Dorne in the second to last season. There's two more seasons left after season 7.

Go ahead.

[Rose of Red Lake]

7 hours ago, Angel Eyes said:

and is frequently bullied by Sansa.

this line comes up a lot too. I don't get it. Arya literally pushes her to the ground and pummels her with her fists to the point that Ned has to ask Sansa if she's hurt. Arya later throws an orange directly at Sansa's head. Seems like it goes both ways.

[MissM]

2 hours ago, Rose of Red Lake said:

this line comes up a lot too. I don't get it. Arya literally pushes her to the ground and pummels her with her fists to the point that Ned has to ask Sansa if she's hurt. Arya later throws an orange directly at Sansa's head. Seems like it goes both ways.

You're conveniently excluding what proceeded both incidents. Both cases involved bringing up Mycah's death which is extremely traumatizing for Arya at the time. 

Pretending Arya's retaliation is anything like the "bullying" is a stretch. 

[SeanF]

41 minutes ago, MissM said:

You're conveniently excluding what proceeded both incidents. Both cases involved bringing up Mycah's death which is extremely traumatizing for Arya at the time. 

Pretending Arya's retaliation is anything like the "bullying" is a stretch. 

Sansa's also sticking up for the Lannisters straight after Jaime attacked their father.  Sansa matures, and develops better qualities from ACOK onwards, but through most of AGOT, she's a spoiled brat. Septa Mordane bears a lot of the blame for that, given her habit of constantly praising Sansa and knocking Arya.

[Rose of Red Lake]

8 hours ago, MissM said:

You're conveniently excluding what proceeded both incidents. Both cases involved bringing up Mycah's death which is extremely traumatizing for Arya at the time. 

Pretending Arya's retaliation is anything like the "bullying" is a stretch. 

Arya threatening to cut off her sister's face was on track with this early characterization though. Sansa may make a nasty, cutting comment but Arya responds with violence, even to her family own members. I don't blame Sansa for being afraid of her.

[Jaenara Belarys]

20 hours ago, Rose of Red Lake said:

Sandra is a racist xenophobic bitch who doesn't deserve to be queen. Sandra sucks. Drogon should have eaten Sandra.

Well, I don't know about racist xenophobic stuff, but I do agree she shouldn't be queen. And, yes, Sansa Sandra whatever you wanna call her should've been eaten by Drogon for the crimes of being annoying, disloyal and stupid. 

8 hours ago, SeanF said:

but through most of AGOT, she's a spoiled brat.

Exactly.

11 hours ago, Rose of Red Lake said:

Arya literally pushes her to the ground and pummels her with her fists to the point that Ned has to ask Sansa if she's hurt. Arya later throws an orange directly at Sansa's head. Seems like it goes both ways.

Arya attacks her because she's lying. Arya throws an orange at that spoiled brat Sansa because she's acting like a arrogant turd. Please don't ignore WHY Arya does that stuff.

[Rose of Red Lake]

1 minute ago, Jaenara Belarys said:

Well, I don't know about racist xenophobic stuff, but I do agree she shouldn't be queen. And, yes, Sansa Sandra whatever you wanna call her should've been eaten by Drogon for the crimes of being annoying, disloyal and stupid. 

Proving my point that "Sandra" is a tell for Sansa hate in both mediums. I've changed my mind. Please, call her Sandra. It helps me identify which posts to ignore.

[Jaenara Belarys]

22 minutes ago, Rose of Red Lake said:

Please, call her Sandra. It helps me identify which posts to ignore.

Yes, because that will get you so far in the conversation. If you're going to ignore the other point of view, what exactly is the point of posting?

[SeanF]

Well, I don't think we'll get anything like that ridiculous Sansa/Arya confrontation in the books.  Arya threatened to remove her face, Sansa wanted to "gut" her, following her discovery of the letter she wrote on behalf of Cersei.  I don't think either girl will behave like that when they reunite.

As to the earlier incident, what enraged Arya so much was that she was the only person present who viewed Mycah as a human being.  In common with the rest, Sansa viewed killing Mycah in much the same light as one would crushing a wasp. That's not really her fault, because that's what people like Septa Mordane have raised her to believe.

[Lady_Qohor]

On 4/1/2021 at 5:31 PM, Rose of Red Lake said:

why do ya'll do this? 

Lol, I actually have no idea why some people call Sansa Sandra and it annoys me as well. I don't know if you'll believe me but that genuinely was a freak typo, which I've now fixed (thanks for pointing it out).

[Lady_Qohor]

On 3/9/2021 at 4:49 PM, KingStoneheart said:

So from what I can see, understand and relate to, no one liked Season 8 and Season 7 was definitely the downward spiral of rushed nonsense. What I would like to know however is how would you have done it differently? In my personal opinion as TV Shows go Seasons 1-4 were pretty flawless, with only some (understandable) issues. Season 5 was a bit of a flop, they ruined the likes of Stannis and Season 6 sort of recovered the TV Show, particularly with their Episodes 9&10.

All I want to know is how you would have done Season 7 and 8? Would you even have had 2 seasons? How many episodes would each season have and what would have been the ideal ending for you?

As the person who unwittingly prompted @KingStoneheart's thread to turn into a Sansa vs Sandra debate, I feel like I should make some effort to get it back on track. I have no idea how they would all fit together in a narrative but here are some other things I would have liked to seen in S7/8:

> Elephants!!! - I don't blame the TV show for not giving them to the Golden Company (the cost would've been huge) but lets not pretend it wouldn't have been cool to see battle elephants

>Evil Bran - there's a reason why the 'Bran is the Night King' theory was so popular. Separately S7/8 Bran is boring and the Night King is generic and bland but put them together as the big bad and you have a much more interesting, emotionally wrenching story.

>Danaerys returns to Essos - Essos gave everything to Dany while Westeros repeatedly took it away. I would've loved to see Dany give up the burden that was the Iron Throne and the Targaryen legacy (which always Viserys' dream anyway) and go back to Essos to strike out on her own. Whether that's freeing the slaves of Volantis or living a happy peaceful life in a house with a red door.

>Clever Tyrion - we like Tyrion mostly because he's clever, so make him clever

>Comeuppance for Tyrion - however he should also have some comeuppance for the murder of Shae which I felt was basically brushed aside. I would have especially liked to see Sansa's reaction to finding out that Tyrion killed her only true friend in Kings Landing.

>Revenge of the Freys - Arya murdered most of the men of House Frey. The women of House Frey should be furious and baying for blood. I don't know if this should have resulted in some sort of comeuppance for Arya but it should have at least been addressed.

>Revenge of the Faith - S6 saw the holiest building in Westeros destroyed along with the High Septon himself. All over Westeros there should be septons, septas and devout nobles and smallfolk baying for blood. Whether people recognise that it was Cersei's doing or she successfully blames Dany/the Starks, there's no way this shouldn't result in some sort of 'holy war'.

>Politician Sansa as Hand of the King/Queen - Personally I dislike that Sansa starts off the show as destined to be a Queen and then ends up a Queen. I know she has more power as QitN, but I feel like her arc was driving her away from being a figurehead to being a politician who wields power behind the scenes. After all her 'mentors' weren't leaders, they were S1-4 Cersei, Tyrion and Littlefinger. I love the idea of Sansa as Hand and feel like it complements Season 1 if she succeeds in the role where her father failed.

>Progress to the Renaissance - It would have been great to have a throwaway line in the final scenes of the show that indicate that this Medieval era of Westeros is drawing to a close and the Renaissance was on the horizon. Maybe a reference to someone inventing a printing press or discovering/importing gunpowder.

[KingStoneheart]

On 4/1/2021 at 7:12 PM, BlackLightning said:

 

@KingStoneheart and @SeanF do you wanna hear my rewrite of season 8 and 9...or is this thread dead.

 

Yes I would, I enjoyed reading your Season 7 and it actually gave me a few ideas on how I would have personally tweaked Season 7. First of all, I would have made it 10 episodes as it is 100% possible -

 

Arya and the Brotherhood -

Arya would be seen freeing her uncle from the Twins' cell and eventually she meets up with the Brotherhood on the road (who are heading south to help with Cersei's downfall instead of to Eastwatch). Beric has a contact in the city who has been newly elected as the High Sparrow and is working on Cersei's downfall from the streets.

 

Winterfell -

Very similar to what we saw on screen, Jon, Davos and Brienne head to Dragonstone (Brienne is sent as Sansa feels she would be of more use protecting Jon in the south) and Pod is left behind as Sansa's personal bodyguard. When Bran sends Meera away, he tells her to return with Howland Reed as he needs to speak with him.

 

Dragonstone -

When Dany and Co. arrive on Dragonstone, the Unsullied have to kill the Lannister skeleton crew that were garrisoned (stupid that the Lannisters never took Dragonstone when Stannis died). The Unsullied and Dothraki are sent to take Crackclaw Point and later Duskendale so that Dany has a foothold on land. Nymeria Sand goes to King's Landing to help Varys' contact (same High Sparrow that Beric knows) bring Cersei down and Varys mentions that the High Sparrow is working with Gendry, though downplays the threat as Gendry can be used as a useful ally as Lord of Storm's End and the Stormlands. Yara, Ellaria and Tyene are still captured by the Iron Fleet, whilst Euron still kills Obara. When Jon and Co. arrive, there's an immediate connection between Jon and the dragons (particularly Rhaegal) which makes Dany concerned as the dragons have never behaved like this with anyone else other than her.

 

King's Landing -

Daven Lannister is introduced as the Warden of the West and reveals that he has been the sole reason that the lords of the Westerlands have remained loyal to Cersei. Jaime, Bronn and Randyll still take Highgarden as Randyll turned the Reach lords (except Oldtown and the Arbor) against Olenna Tyrell. Jaime's host are attacked by Dany and the Dothraki, but Jaime and Bronn are captured after the battle and brought back to Dragonstone. Bronn immediately switches allegiance, but Dany does not trust him and keeps him in a cell along with Jaime. Eventually, once the Brotherhood and Nymeria Sand arrive in King's Landing, the riots begin and with the soldiers from the Brotherhood, Cersei's soldiers are not expecting it. They manage to breech the Red Keep and Cersei decides to light the wildfire fuses and blow up the city. During the destruction of the city, Cleganebowl happens (Qyburn does not die) and both Sandor and Gregor die their same deaths - before Sandor goes ahead, he tells Arya to leave and go north as he doesn't want her journey to end with the same death as him. The only ones that make it out of King's Landing are Cersei, Qyburn and her queensguard (minus the Mountain) and Beric, Gendry and Arya. Beric and Gendry escort the survivors of King's Landing back to Duskendale, whilst Arya says goodbye and heads north to Winterfell. Cersei is found by sailors loyal to Euron and Euron agrees to sail her to Casterly Rock if she agrees to marry him.

 

Oldtown -

Sam does his same storyline and saves Jorah, but Euron attacks Oldtown (as a punishment for not bending the knee to the Iron Throne) and destroys the majority of the city and Citadel. This gives Sam a good excuse to actually leave Oldtown and head back north. He gets a ship and sails to White Harbour.

 

The Wall -

When Jon and Co. (Jaime - Tyrion wants him north as he's afraid Dany will kill him now that Cersei is possibly dead, Bronn - to prove his loyalty to Dany, Brienne, Beric, Jorah) head north to go beyond the wall (whether to try and find and kill the Night King or just capture a wight to show Cersei / Daven if Cersei died), Benjen is the one who saves them from the wight bear and travels with them for a while, showing them the way and keeping them safe. On Dragonstone, Rhaegal is wild as he senses the danger of his true master and he actually abandons Dany to go North and help Jon. Dany senses that something must be wrong as none of the dragons has acted like this and so she follows Rhaegal with Drogon and Viserion. When the dragons arrive north of the Wall, Viserion is killed and Drogon rescues everyone except Jon and Benjen. Benjen sacrifices himself so that the others are given time to escape (he cannot travel south of the Wall anyway) and Jon falls beneath the ice. Rhaegal refuses to leave with Dany though, and she decides to put the safety of herself, Drogon and those that she rescued above trying to get Rhaegal to follow. She flies back to the Wall without Jon and Rhaegal and once Jon gets back above the ice, he is rescued by and flies Rhaegal back to the Wall. 

 

The Westerlands -

Once back in Casterly Rock, Cersei hears that Dany has captured Jaime and she agrees to a parlay, but says that it must be held in Lannisport so that the dragon queen cannot betray her and burn them all (if she burned Lannisport, the Westerlords would never bend the knee to her). After the meeting, Jaime still leaves Cersei to fight in the North as Cersei betrays the vow that she made during the council.

 

The North -

Once Sam arrives at White Harbour, he travels to Winterfell and on the road, he is attacked by bandits but rescued by Howland and Meera Reed and many Crannogmen. Once in Winterfell, Bran, Sam and Howland come to the revelation that Jon is the trueborn son of Rhaegar and Lyanna and that his name is Aemon (not Aegon that is stupid) Targaryen.

 

 

Note: I know that my version is still very similar to the Original, but this is just what I think they could have done differently to give the story a bit more and make it feel less rushed - as being rushed was my main issue with everything.

[MissM]

On 4/2/2021 at 5:16 PM, Rose of Red Lake said:

Arya threatening to cut off her sister's face was on track with this early characterization though. Sansa may make a nasty, cutting comment but Arya responds with violence, even to her family own members. I don't blame Sansa for being afraid of her.

Sansa has no ability to fight. Instead she uses her words to re-traumatize and provoke Arya in both those incidents you originally mentioned. 

 

[Angel Eyes]

On 4/2/2021 at 1:03 PM, SeanF said:

Well, I don't think we'll get anything like that ridiculous Sansa/Arya confrontation in the books.  Arya threatened to remove her face, Sansa wanted to "gut" her, following her discovery of the letter she wrote on behalf of Cersei.  I don't think either girl will behave like that when they reunite.

As to the earlier incident, what enraged Arya so much was that she was the only person present who viewed Mycah as a human being.  In common with the rest, Sansa viewed killing Mycah in much the same light as one would crushing a wasp. That's not really her fault, because that's what people like Septa Mordane have raised her to believe.

Arya’s memory must’ve been shot since she derides Sansa for being amongst the Lannisters at Ned’s execution, yet Arya did jack shit to stop the execution and served as Tywin Lannister’s cupbearer (which Benioff and Weiss made up, they basically ignored their own work there).

[Angel Eyes]

On 4/2/2021 at 4:00 AM, SeanF said:

Sansa's also sticking up for the Lannisters straight after Jaime attacked their father.  Sansa matures, and develops better qualities from ACOK onwards, but through most of AGOT, she's a spoiled brat. Septa Mordane bears a lot of the blame for that, given her habit of constantly praising Sansa and knocking Arya.

Plus there’s the whole debacle about how much of a role Sansa played in Ned’s demise. 25 years ago the books were published and that debate still burns hot.

[Ghostlydragon]

6 hours ago, Angel Eyes said:

Arya’s memory must’ve been shot since she derides Sansa for being amongst the Lannisters at Ned’s execution, yet Arya did jack shit to stop the execution and served as Tywin Lannister’s cupbearer (which Benioff and Weiss made up, they basically ignored their own work there).

And does Arya not remember that she saw Sansa screaming for it to stop? Like you said, Arya didn't do a thing to stop it. Sansa tried.

[Jaenara Belarys]

On 4/9/2021 at 12:21 PM, Ghostlydragon said:

And does Arya not remember that she saw Sansa screaming for it to stop? Like you said, Arya didn't do a thing to stop it. Sansa tried.

Sansa's screaming at them to stop because it's "ruining my perfect afternoon with my gallant sadistic prince, waahhhh". She don't give one whit about Mycah. Furthermore, she's yelling at Arya, not Joffrey, which puts all the blame on Arya, like Arya made Joffrey take a sword to Mycah.

On 4/9/2021 at 5:49 AM, Angel Eyes said:

Plus there’s the whole debacle about how much of a role Sansa played in Ned’s demise. 25 years ago the books were published and that debate still burns hot.

Cersei admits that it was a close thing, and that she might've ended as a head on a spike if Sansa had not run to her. She effectively ignored all the bad incidents with Joffrey, and betrayed her family. 

 

[Angel Eyes]

37 minutes ago, Jaenara Belarys said:

Sansa's screaming at them to stop because it's "ruining my perfect afternoon with my gallant sadistic prince, waahhhh". She don't give one whit about Mycah. Furthermore, she's yelling at Arya, not Joffrey, which puts all the blame on Arya, like Arya made Joffrey take a sword to Mycah.

 

Wrong incident; we’re talking about the scene where Ned loses his head.

[Rose of Red Lake]

On 4/3/2021 at 9:32 AM, Lady_Qohor said:

Lol, I actually have no idea why some people call Sansa Sandra and it annoys me as well. I don't know if you'll believe me but that genuinely was a freak typo, which I've now fixed (thanks for pointing it out).

Haha well it resulted in some funny arguments.

On 4/9/2021 at 6:01 AM, MissM said:

Sansa has no ability to fight. Instead she uses her words to re-traumatize and provoke Arya in both those incidents you originally mentioned. 

 

And BOTH sisters are awful to each other. And what is the reason for that? So that it's much more cathartic when they do come together around Ned's words about the wolfpack working together. 

[21st Century Moose]

Broadly speaking, the show has the same structural problem as the books, up to a point: Dany just takes far too long to get out of Meereen, and while she's wheel-spinning there other plot and characters need to happen, so too much new stuff is added, and it all starts to collapse under it's own weight. 

But that's all before seasons 7 and 8. The biggest problem with seasons 7 and 8 is also one in common with the books: the creators seriously underestimated how much was needed to get to the end. In the show that means two rushed and ultimately unsatisfying final seasons. With the books it means... Well, we all know where that is at. 

I don't think I'd change much, if anything, in the broad outline of the plot. The single biggest change I'd make is to finish it in three full-length seasons rather than two shorter ones. And don't forget that seasons 7 and 8 happened over 3 years, not 2, so I wouldn't be taking extra time for this. 

This would give the stories room to breathe, plot points and character arcs could be developed at a more natural, more comfortable pace, and some of the more jarring events of the seasons 7 and 8 we got could be set up properly. 

My season 7 would have to be Dany's invasion of Westeros, pretty much the existing season 7 episodes 1 to 5, but properly fleshed-out and properly paced. We'd see more of Dany's descent into madness, so that we're properly prepared for what's eventually going to happen. 

Season 8 would then focus on the Walkers, so that the single biggest threat that the whole show to date has built up gets done proper justice instead of being brushed off in one episode. I'd bring the Azor Ahai stuff back in, that the show just seemed to completely forget. I'm not religious about who kills the NK - maybe Arya is Azor Ahai after all? But just set it up properly, and having set it up, use it rather than forget it. 

Season 8 ends with The War for the Dawn, to give it it's proper name. 

Season 9 is then for dealing with Cersei, wrapping up events in Kings Landing, and the endgame stuff. The Valonquar prophecy needs to be handled properly. Would I kill Dany? Don't know. I would handle the house-with-the-red-door though, it's criminal that the show ignored that. 

I've no idea who I'd put on the Iron Throne, but I do know it would be neither Dany nor Jon. Bran aside, I was mostly satisfied with the ending the show gave us for the rest of the Starks, and I see no reason to change that. So Jon's true home is the North, that's been well-foreshadowed, and he's going back there, maybe to die. Arya gets to wander the world, Sansa is QITN, and that's it - fade to credits. 

I think the only major item I haven't touched on here is the direwolves, and to be honest I think the shows handling of them in seasons 1 to 6 means that it's probably for the best to just let them disappear into the background.