[NO SPOILERS] We need to talk about the term Bittersweet

A while ago it was announced that the ending of GoT would be 'bittersweet', people have considered that some kind of spoiler, as if they were expecting something other than a bittersweet ending, but what's more perplexing is how this information has been used.

There's few things more fun for a GoT fan than trying to predict how the show will end, I've done it on numerous occasions, my issue is that almost every theory is now presented as 'bittersweet' as some kind of claim for its legitimacy. First of all writing something sad does not make it more likely that you are correct, unless you write that everyone becomes friends and they live happily ever after your theory could be defined as bittersweet and therefore no better than every other idea out there.

Stranger than this is people coming up with the weirest ideas and then calling it bittersweet. it feels strange having to define this but bittersweet means 'Arousing pleasure tinged with sadness or pain'. In story terms this means we get a positive outcome but with some negative consequences. In GoT that likely means that our heroes will win but there has been some kind of sacrifice to achieve this ending. What it almost certainly doesn't mean is that we'll get a totally unexpected ending which significantly departs from the story we've been following.

It will not be bittersweet if Cersai wins, it will not be bittersweet if all the protagonist characters die, it will not be bittersweet if the world ends, it will not be bittersweet if the Mountain ends up on the Iron Throne, it will just be bad. It will be bittersweet if Arya dies stopping the NK from destroying kings landing, it will be bittersweet if Jon and Dany's kid is given to the Nk to ensure peace, it will be if bittersweet if Davos lets Melisandre kill him to power some ensential blood magic that saves the day.

If your theory focusses on anyone but a Stark, Lannister or Targaryan being the main character it's probably wrong, if your theory relies on some book reference that hasn't been mentioned in the show it's probably wrong, if your theory relies on a plot twist not yet referenced its probably wrong and saying that it could be right because its 'bittersweet' pretty much disqualifies it out of hand.

(Apologies for the rant, I'm in a grumpy mood)

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Submitted March 01, 2019 at 06:07AM by Subtleiaint https://ift.tt/2H6ohla