Game of Thrones- What could have been(Note: Massive freaking spoilers ahead!)

It is clear that Game of Thrones ended with a relative whimper, not a bang and explosions of wildfire that people had hoped. At least not the way the final season was hyped up to be. It seems that the basic issue is the plot was just mediocre and downright bad at times. The first two episodes are touching and great setup, and the third episode is an exhilarating battle hampered by the decision to make everything dark and chaotic(and the anticlimactic death of the Night King via Arya ex machina). But the last 3 episodes paled in comparison; they were focused on the more mundane threat of Cersei and taking the Iron Throne in the name of House Targaryen. As compelling and clever Cersei is, she is not as compelling a villain as the Night King is. She is setup to be in over her head and lacking in the cunning and wits her brother and father has. Nevermind the fact that she relies on wildfire and backstabbing to win, whereas the Night King has a huge army of undead under his control as well as superhuman abilities himself. Cersei has no martial training and has killed her opponents indirectly through her servants like Ser Gregor the Undead Hulk. Lady Olenna personally poisoned Joffrey’s cup of wine herself, and she along with her granddaughter Margaery generally outmaneuvered Cersei in the intrigues of the court.

Not to mention Daenerys winding up being the final villain of the series. It doesn’t help that the episode winds up like this:

Or that the show winds up throwing away a lot of the pro-feminist character development in the show. It is arguable that Daenerys went crazy and was gonna go on a rampage of wanton murder and pillaging throughout the rest of the world; she genuinely wanted to free slaves and ensure a stable, prosperous future free of evil tyrants like Joffrey and Ramsay Bolton. And even if she had to go, I would have preferred a final battle between Jon and Daenerys, preferably both riding on dragons and seeing Northmen and other Westerosi soldiers fighting the Dothraki and Unsullied. That would have been more satisfying than Jon stabbing Daenerys in the chest, but I suspect the budget for badass battles with tons of CGI had run out by the time the 6th episode began to be filmed. Again, the fact I came up with this shows how much the showrunners wanted to hastily wrap up the show and move onto other stuff; this is understandable and I don’t mind that they decided to end in 2 seasons instead of drag onto 13 seasons. This is also important for George RR Martin, who has a lot more leeway in taking the books into alternative directions like Stannis taking Winterfell or Daenerys being killed by Jorah Mormont or Jon Snow turning into the Three Eyed Raven. What is clear is that the sequence of the plot could have been done better had it been reversed.

The point of divergence comes when Jon Snow and Tyrion decided to go to the North and bring back a wight. In the 5th episode, Jon goes up to the North with Tormund, Jorah, Beric, and Gendry, among other warriors, just to capture one wight. The mission is a success, but it ends up with the death of the Lord of the Light priest Thoros and Viserion, one of Dany’s 3 dragons. This loss prevented Team Jonerys being able to revive people who died in battle(despite the fact he revived Thoros so many times) and deprived them of valuable dragon firepower. What is even more insane is the idea of allying with Cersei that Tyrion tries to push because he loves his sister. Tyrion may have affections for his sister, but he willingly killed his own father for betraying him and turning Shae against him. Another reason not to trust Cersei is clear; she blew up the Sept at the end of Season 6 and murdered hundreds of people, including her political rivals. That is one big red flag that Tyrion, and well anyone, should have picked up on.

Furthermore, Daenerys had won a decisive victory against the Lannister army and had taken out the ballista Qyburn had prepared, the same weapon which failed to stop her in Season 8. She had the advantage and should have pressed onwards to King’s Landing; she had no reason to enter into a truce with Cersei. There was little reason to suspect that Cersei would have appreciated the magnitude of the far off, abstract threat of White Walkers until they showed up personally at KL, and it made more logical sense to finish her army off first instead of leaving them for later. By ditching the siege of KL and marching up North, Dany surrendered her momentum and allowed Cersei to regroup her forces and add the Golden Company to her personal forces. She also knew that Dany’s forces would be decimated by the Night King even if they won, enabling them to finish off the rest in a straight battle. She also had a general naval advantage because Euron was so great at surprise attacks that utterly destroyed Dany’s fleet twice.

In this divergence, Dany convinces Jon to stick with the original plan of taking King’s Landing, convincing him how evil Cersei is and the importance of tackling one thing at a time. She also had power over him since he had to bend the knee to either her or Cersei. By having Jon on her side along with an undiminished army and 3 dragons, Daenerys would take Kings Landing easily. Cersei, in this scenario reminiscent of the Mad King, tries to set the whole city on fire with wildfire caches, but Jaime kills her personally and with great sorrow to save innocents. This would have been a very powerful moment for him, a moment that would illustrate the theme of choosing duty over love and I’m sure viewers everywhere would have teared up at the scene. In addition, he also would have killed his unborn child, which I’m sure would have utterly devastated him. Jaime would then surrender the city to Daenerys, given that he would pretty much have forfeited his position as Head of the Queensguard and then become “King”. Tyrion would have ensured his survival, especially because in this one Tyrion would have made great decisions to help counter the ballistas and ensure none of Dany’s dragons gets killed. Season 7 thus ends with Daenerys on the Iron Throne, but then there would have been an ominous sequence with the White Walkers breaching Eastwatch and thus making it through the wall. This sets up the stage for an epic battle with the Night King, the true antagonist of the last season.

In alt Season 8, there would be a secondary conflict between Jon and Daenerys for the throne. Jon’s parentage is still going to become widespread knowledge, and the resulting chaos could cause several offensives to fail. The first half of this season would be dark and grim, with Winterfell falling to the White Walkers and many characters dying. Viserion would also die in the siege in the same way he died in Season 7 and then raised up as an ice dragon, thus upping the ante. In episode 4, King’s Landing would also be attacked by the Night King and his undead steed, giving him a huge source of involuntary undead recruits and threatening the South of Westeros. In episodes 5 and 6, Team Jonerys would be forced to split up and find a way to defeat the Night King, presumably more complicated and satisfying than Arya taking down the Night King with a dagger through the chest in the right spot. With the Night King defeated, there is a twist; Daenerys becomes corrupt and tyrannical, due to the stress, deaths she experiences, and the effects of the Night King’s magic. As she would have directly battled and defeated him and Viserion with her dragon, she would become “possessed” and sought to dominate the realms of men with an iron fist, similar to the way she snapped in the siege of King’s Landing. Jon and many other people, mostly Westerosi, realize this, and Grey Worm breaks up with Missandei and joining up with Team Jon. There is a final battle in the last episode that ends with Jon defeating Daenerys in dragon combat and then clutching her as she passes away in the ruined Iron Throne room. This moment ends with Rhaegal, instead of Drogon(who dies like Daenerys), burning the Iron Throne and taking off with Daenerys, presumably sensing that Jon is done with dragons. At the Council after this battle, Jon Snow is unanimously chosen as King of the Six Kingdoms(Sansa manages to get Northern independence as a condition of her support), and he reluctantly accepts the position. Thus the series culminates in a bittersweet, yet hopeful ending; Jon Snow, the most virtuous of all the claimants to the Throne, wins the power and starts his reign as a just, effective King. And that is the ending that I think could have been achieved had the writers sought to balance the Night King and Cersei instead of going for Cersei and the Lannister dynasty as the easier antagonist to emphasize in the last season. Unfortunately, we can only hope that George RR Martin can end the series properly in the final two books, and I earnestly pray for his success!

Valar morghulis, Valar dohaeris!