GRRM has consistently stated the ending will be Bittersweet

[Faint]

You can already see how Bran's ending is going to be bittersweet despite the fact that he is almost certainly going to survive the events of the series.

Also, Mirri Maz Duur's prophecy does well in foreshadowing how Daenerys' ending will be bittersweet despite getting the child she wants.

This may very well apply to other main characters as well.

Jon saves the realm from the Others but dies in the process.

Arya avenges her family but become so consumed with her revenge that she never finds peace and becomes "no one."

Sansa finally makes it back to Winterfell and helps to restore the Starks in the North but the rest of her family (besides Rickon) will be gone.

Tyrion gets Casterly Rock in the end but never finds Tysha and never reconciles with Jaime.

See? All bittersweet.

[Maxpey]

I think the novels will end in the middle of conflict, yet in a hopeful way. (With a "Dream", but not the "Spring" itself).

I'm sure it will lack closure.

Speaking about lacking closure, when I think of a bittersweet ending I see Jon Snow's story arc.

I think GRRM's "big reveal" with R + L = J is that Jon will never know the truth about his parents. Rather, he will always think of himself as Ned Stark's bastard and thus continue to question where he belongs in the world.

[Lyanna Stark]

As to the ending, Martin has said he does not like the ending to Harry Potter but has described the ending of LoTR as bittersweet. I think we can use that to extrapolate what the end will be like.

If LOTR is anything to go by, there should be quite a few people surviving to the end and at least some semblance of calm and maybe even a little bit of happiness. LOTR's bittersweet nature is more about the sense of loss when the elves are leaving the shores of Middle Earth and how everything is inevitably changing, that the people lost will never come back, etc.

Some stuff about the LOTR ending and whether it can be considered "happy" or not.

[Dontos the Slim]

We don't want dany and jon holding hands and skipping across fields of wild flowers and cheering small folk.

Agree 100%. Which makes me doubt the whole R+L=J obsession. Not that I don't think it's true (I actually do). It's just...so what? If Jon and Dany don't wind up together to make Stark/Targ super-babies, does it matter that R was his father?

Maybe that's one bittersweet element: R+L=J is true, but nothing really comes of it.

[David C. Hunter]

When I hear bittersweet it means to me that either Jon Snow or Dany will be the perceived final enemy and will either die or both will die. y money is on Dany dying because she is essentially built up as a main protagonist, but in the end she will die a villain(IMO)

However, I think the main bittersweet part has to do with what people often forget about. For arguments sake, lets say the final battle is against the Others and lets say the the Others are defeated. Everyone assumes that after that happens the first flower will blossom. But I really, really, really doubt that will happen.

I believe the Long Winter is coming with or without the White Walkers. Hell in recent years there have been winters that have lasted 10 years. Winter has even fully arrived yet and I doubt the remainder of the story will cover more than two more years, so we are assuming that this prophesized Long Winter will only last a couple of years and be over when the Whoite Walkers die? I think not. The bittersweet ending is that the enemies of Westeros will be defeated, but now everyone has to suffer the Long Winter, that is why the 7th book is called a 'DREAM of Spring'

[Jolene Brown]

Speaking about lacking closure, when I think of a bittersweet ending I see Jon Snow's story arc.

I think GRRM's "big reveal" with R + L = J is that Jon will never know the truth about his parents. Rather, he will always think of himself as Ned Stark's bastard and thus continue to question where he belongs in the world.

This is what I'm hoping for! But I think realistically that he will find out.

[Kobayashi Maru]

Or it could be that characters we like (e.g. Sansa) end up living, but in a less than favourable manner (married and believing she is Littlefinger's second Cat or something). Dany turning up in Westeros far too late as it becomes more stable, only to be branded a crazy invader. Arya losing all sense of identity as she becomes a FM. Jon living as unJon, and being just as miserable and empty as the other unPeople. Bran living in the same way as Bloodraven. Really, there are many ways for the main characters to live miserably.

I also fear that the ending might be post-apocalyptic and leave me wishing that Dany had stayed in Essos with all my favourite characters. Westeros overrun with wights and Others, quarantined by the other continents.

I would almost prefer to see her dead than to see this. :frown5:

[Ser_Patreck]

If LOTR is anything to go by, there should be quite a few people surviving to the end and at least some semblance of calm and maybe even a little bit of happiness. LOTR's bittersweet nature is more about the sense of loss when the elves are leaving the shores of Middle Earth and how everything is inevitably changing, that the people lost will never come back, etc.

Some stuff about the LOTR ending and whether it can be considered "happy" or not.

"I was born to save Westeros, Jon. And it has been saved. But not for me."

[Pod The Impaler]

People seem to be overlooking that the coming of the Others is basically the apocalypse for the ASOIAF world.

I wouldn't count on a lot of survivors. Their skein is tied, so to speak - most are fated to die.

The Seven Kingdoms? Free Cities ? Lords of This or That, House X or Y ? By the end this will just be a memory, political constructs destroyed by the onslaught of the final winter.

It is whether the world lives or dies that is at issue. Bittersweet will be what remains of the world after that's all done.

Or GRRM is just trolling & deceiving us all. At the end, they get parades, gold medals, and nearly everyone lives.

[Lady Arianne Martell]

If it's anything like LOTR, I see Dany realize her dragons will never be stable for the country, and just flying away to Valyria with the memory of her dead child and Khal Drogo keeping her alive.

Jon will lose Arya, and be devastated. But he must be strong, for he will be a leader ( if he's alive).

Davos will see his family for one last time before dying.

Idk, stuff like this?

[SerStinger]

I would be furious if there's absolutely no closure...there's too many plotlines and mysteries I need resolved :(

Please, I really would be mad if it ends in the middle of conflict.

Martin has said that he knows the fate of all major characters, so maybe the closure is based on that, what I mean is, we won't get an absolute "the end". He has created a world with a complex culture. We have a sense of the past and historicity as we read, and I'm sure we'll have a sense that there will be a future as it ends.

[HouseReed]

Let's just hope GRRM doesn't die before he finishes the series...

[Lady Arianne Martell]

Let's just hope GRRM doesn't die before he finishes the series...

Aww...

I feel tacky whenever I think this O.o

[Jon's Queen Consort]

Bittersweet: Jon saves the realm and becomes king (sweet for me bitter for Dany & co's fan) this is the only end I will accept :cool4:

[SerStinger]

Let's just hope GRRM doesn't die before he finishes the series...

Why people keep saying that? He's only 63 and in robust health. Unless there's an accident, he will normally live on at two more decades.

[kittenmittens]

I'd like to see it end with the true heroes, the Starks, Tyrion, Dany and Jon, losing gloriously to the Others. Winter comes for the South (where the villains don't believe in the Others or the winter) and the final book ends with the Others slaughtering the Freys, Lannisters, Tyrells etc.

[TheHoodedLady]

1) Jon + Daenerys rule Westeros <--- to sweet to stand it

2) Jon dies but saves the realm and and becomes the big hero for the people of Westeros <---- that's kind of bittersweet

3) Jon dies, Dany rules Westeros ( + almost all characters must die as traitors ) <---- extremely bitter

[Lyanna Stark]

"I was born to save Westeros, Jon. And it has been saved. But not for me."

Pretty much yes. :) Although I tend to think it will be "Winterfell" there and not "Westeros". Whether it will be Sansa, Jon or Arya who says it, but I can imagine either of them saying "I was born to save Winterfell. And it has been saved, but not for me."

[Lady Sansa Stark]

There's one thing i know about GRRM's 'bittersweet' and it is that the bitter will count for me. There will be no sweet ending for me.

[Lady Sansa Stark]

This is what I'm hoping for! But I think realistically that he will find out.

His true parentage will be revealed, GRRM has stated. I always thought that this meant Jon would know who his parents were, but now I'm not so sure he will know.