First off, this is just an exercise in writing so I can get these ideas off my mind that I've been thinking about for ages in regards to the end of GOT. Most of the problems in Season 8 began with Season 7. The truth is, the showrunners, in their haste to be done with the greatest achievement of their professional lives, completely botched the ending by rushing through it and there is no fixing it. We will all just have to wait for George R.R. Martin to hopefully finish the books to see what he really had in store. Having said that, this is how I think Season 7 and 8 could have been plotted to bring the series to a satisfying conclusion.
Season 7
This is a full ten episode season
The season starts off with Meera Reed hauling Bran to the Wall with the help of Uncle Benjen. The Night King and the Army of the Dead are hot on their heels. Benjen sacrifices himself to help them get to the Wall. Bran, having been marked by the Night King in Season 6, unknowingly breaks the ancient magic that been protecting the Wall for the last 8000 years by passing underneath it. Now able, The Night King makes his final assault on the Wall using ice weapons and such and having the undead army of wights, giants, mammoths swarm the gate to Castle Black. The Night's Watch, lead by the 999th and final Lord Commander Eddison Tollett, makes their final stand. This allows Meera and Bran to flee south. The Army of the Dead breaches the wall and ends the Night's Watch. The final shot of this sequence is The Night King strolling in to Castle Black and raising the Night's Watch to join his army, signified by Dolorous Edd, who always said he never wanted to come back, rising and taking his place in the ranks.
At the same time this is going on in the North, Daenerys and her entourage land on Dragonstone, symbolically bring both ice and fire to the continent at the same time after all these years of build up of both. The immediately plan to lay seige to King's Landing. Tyrion is in charge of battle plans and his characterization is not sacrificed to "even the odds." The first battle is a loot train type battle outside of King's Landing that plays out in much of the same way. The sequence ends with Randall and Dickon Tarly refusing to bend the knee and being burned alive. Cersei pulls her army back to defend the city. Daenerys' Unsullied and Dothraki armies, the Dornish and Tyrell armies, and Yara Greyjoy's fleet in Blackwater Bay set up a siege surrounding the city with the three dragons circling overhead. The plan is to starve them out, hopefully inciting an uprising against the crown, not dissimilar to how she took Yunkai and Meereen.
Meanwhile, The Night King starts laying waste to the North. His sends his White Walker generals with huge undead garrisons in different directions, taking out everything in their path. Last Hearth, Karhold, Deepwood Motte, and the Dreadfort all fall within days. Meera and Bran arrive at Winterfell to tell Jon Snow, newly crowned King in the North, and Sansa about the carnage that is headed their way. Having just taken back their ancestral home, the Starks, their remaining bannerman, and the wildlings, are forced to flee south while The Night King and his army overrun Winterfell.
The Starks make it Moat Cailin, which is the key to the North. The Night King and his armies will have to converge on that spot in order to get any further south. Bran informs Jon and Sansa about Daenerys, her armies and dragons, having just arrived in Westeros and setting up shop outside of King's Landing. They decide that they must convince her to join the fight. Jon rides to King's Landing with haste. He arrives in Daenerys' siege camp and meets with her. They have some playful banter about him bending the knee. He tells her that if she joins the fight and helps them defeat The Night King, he will bend the knee and give her the North. She is convinced she can just fly her three dragons up there and win just like that. Tyrion and the rest of her advisors tell her not to, but of course, she does anyways. That's when The Night King uses his ice spear to take out Viserion, forcing Dany to see the horror of which they face and abandon that plan of action.
This is when the Dragonpit meeting is arranged. The threat has become to great to ignore even in King's Landing. Cersei, looking for an angle to end the siege, agrees to send her armies, commanded by Jaime, up to Moat Cailin along with everybody else. If the NIght King makes it past Moat Cailin, all will be lost. Meanwhile, she plotting in secret with Euron Greyjoy and the Iron Bank about something or another.
Finally, all the armies of Westeros converge on Moat Cailin. The Northern, Lannister, Tyrell, Dornish, Unsullied, and Dothraki armies all prepare for battle. Characters reunite, sworn enemies break bread together, and everyone prepares for humanity's final stand against the Army of the Dead. They know the Night King is coming for Bran the Three-Eyed Raven so the plan is to protect him at all costs. By this point in the season, an entire episode has been dedicated to the Night King's motivations and his loathing towards the Three-Eyed Raven has been explained. The original Raven helped Azor Ahai end the Long Night, and with the Children of the Forest, helped Bran the Builder forge the Wall in ice and magic and banish the Night King to the Lands of Always Winter. The Raven's purpose then became to pass down knowledge for thousands of years in the event the Night King was able to break out of his prison. He finally did at the start of the series and now here he is, hell bent on destroying humanity for making him suffer for all this time. The battle commences and characters and armies fall by the wayside. The Night King rides in on Viserion and is immediately attacked by Rhaegal. An epic fight ensues. Jon and The Night King are each knocked off their dragons. Rhaegal and Viserion fight to the death. The Night King takes one of his ice spears and clips Drogon with it, injuring him but not killing him. Dany is thrown from the dragon and lands in a no man's land. Jorah runs to save her. Drogon flies off, barely dodging more of the Night King's spears. The battle seems lost. Some of the remaining hero's gather around Bran as The Night King and his Generals march in. Theon makes his last stand against the Night King. Jaime, Brienne, Tormund, and The Hound battle the White Walker Generals. Jon duels with The Night King, who is immune to Valyrian steel. The Night King bests Jon and prepares to deal him a fatal blow. Then, out of nowhere, a girl who has not been seen in years, who has long been presumed dead, pulls off the face of a undead wight and lunges at the Night King. What does she say to the God of Death? "Not Today" and plunges a dragonglass dagger into his heart. The Night King, who was once a man, slowly melts, falls to the ground, and dies as a man. The White Walkers burst into ice and the undead army falls where it stands. The war is over, the battle for humanity has been won.
Everybody breathes a big sigh of relief. Jon and Arya reunite, him having seen her just save the entire world. Everything seems like it's going to be all right. Soldiers of different houses helping each other out. But then, in the immediate aftermath of the battle, in rides a calvary, Helm's Deep Style. It's the Golden Company, lead by scorned lover Daario Naharis, riding in and decimating what remains of the Unsullied, Dothraki, Dornish, and Tyrell armies. The Lannister army also turncoats and joins the slaughter. Meanwhile in White Harbor, Euron Greyjoy sails in and destroys Yara's fleet. The Golden Company captures Moat Cailin, securing everything south of it for Cersei. The Starks, Daenerys, and company are forced to flee back north to Winterfell.
Subplots
Jon and Daenerys spend an entire season flirting with each other and building the foundation to a real relationship. They end up consummating it the night before the battle.
Howland Reed rides in to Moat Cailin, not far from Greywater Watch, the night before the battle for a couple reasons. First, to reunite with his daughter Meera and tell her that she did her best and to grieve with her for his fallen son Jojen. And, of course, to tell Jon and Daenerys about Jon's true parentage immediately after they have consummated their relationship.
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms takes place at Moat Cailin with a few differences. Jaime knights Brienne and that's the culmination of their relationship. After the battle, Jaime having just fought and bleed with these people to save humanity, has something snap in him as he watches them get massacred by the Golden Company. He decides to head to King's Landing to end Cersei's reign of terror.
Arya still gets her revenge against House Frey for the Red Wedding. She then ends up at the Crossroads and Hot Pie tells her about the Army of the Dead taking Winterfell and marching south. He knows this because he works at Crossroads and knows everything that goes down in Westeros. She isn't seen again until she lands the killing blow on The Night King.
The Brotherhood and The Hound head to Moat Cailin to fulfill their respective narrative purposes. Melisandre also shows up to help.
Littlefinger's trial happens early in the season at Moat Cailin.
Sam spends the early season in the Citadel, who completely ignore the threat bearing down on the continent. He becomes completely disillusioned with the Citadel. He heals Ser Jorah and they both head up to Moat Cailin, stopping at Horn Hill to leave Gilly and Little Sam with his mother and learning about his father and brother.
The unbelievably idiotic kidnap a wight to show Cersei who doesn't help anyway but end up losing a dragon that the Night King uses to take down the wall that's stood for 8000 years plot never comes to fruition, which we can all be thankful for.
Season 8
This is a 6 or 7 episode season
This season starts in the aftermath of the battle. Cersei, knowing the North can never be held, has declared that it is being excised from the Crown. They are not to cross Moat Cailin and they will be left in peace. Also, Ellaria Sand and Olenna Tyrell were captured and both sentenced to death for their crimes against the Crown. Olenna drinks the poison and then tells Cersei in person that she was the one to kill Joffrey.
The Starks and their remaining bannerman retake their Northern lands and set about the task of rebuilding. Sansa spearheads the effort and has little interest in continuing to fight another war.
Daenerys, having once had four armies, a fleet, and three dragons, now has absolutely nothing. Her armies and fleet have been destroyed, two of the dragons are dead and Drogon is injured. Both Jorah and Grey Worm died in the battle. Her only advisors left are Varys, who doesn't trust her, and Tyrion. She has also just recently learned that Jon Snow has a better claim to the Iron Throne than she does. She doesn't trust anybody. Her entire purpose in life has been taking the Throne and that all seems to be slipping away. Cue her getting more and more desperate to retake her Throne.
Jon is torn between his family and supporting his queen, who sacrificed everything to help them win the war, is compelled to help her take the Throne. He rallies what remains of his bannerman. Sansa agrees on the condition that the North keep it's independence once the war is over. They march on Moat Cailin, which is still being held by the Golden Company. A small ground battle ensues but then Drogon comes roaring out of the sky to burn it all to the ground. Daario is captured and burned alive by Daenerys. Tyrion is becoming more and more concerned about her state of mind. Varys, having learned of Jon Snow's parentage through the Westeros game of telephone, begins plotting to place him on the Throne. Tyrion, still convinced Dany is the chosen one, turns on him and Varys is burned alive as well.
They march on King's Landing with the small army they have left. What began a season ago as an unbeatable siege is now a motley crew of soldiers and one dragon. Tyrion worries that the only way to win is that Daenerys is going to burn King's Landing to the ground. Jaime is captured and Tyrion frees him, telling him to get Cersei to surrender the city and flee to Essos. In truth though, he knows this will never happen.
The remaining soldiers, led by Jon Snow, attack the city gates while Daenerys and Drogon torch the Iron Fleet. The Hound and Arya both sneak into the city to fulfill their respective revenge quests. The Golden Company and Lannister armys quickly overwhelm Jon's forces, causing a retreat. Daenerys, seeing the battle has been lost, has been backed into a corner. This is the nexus point of her entire character arc. This is not an emotional decision. Does she spare the millions of innocent civilians that she claims to be liberating and give up her destiny or does she retake her Throne in fire and blood? She makes her decision and starts laying down fire. She has to wind her way through the city, dodging scorpions shots and swaths of Lannister soldiers to get to the Red Keep. Tyrion looks on in horror as the city he worked so hard to protect goes up in flames.
Arya and the Hound make it to the Red Keep as this is happening. The Hound convinces Arya to give up her revenge otherwise she will die. Arya then runs through the city with fire and blood raining down around her. Jaime runs into Euron and they duel and Jaime kills him. Cleganebowl happens as advertised. Cersei, in manic desperation, turns to Qyburn and orders him to ignite the Wildfyre stores in the city and burn them all. Jaime arrives in this moment and kills Qyburn. He turns to Cersei and tells her that he killed the Mad King to stop him from burning down the city, he will not let her do the same. He wraps his hands around her throat and chokes the life out of her as the Red Keep falls down around them, metaphorically crushing them under the weight of their fallen empire.
Once the bloodbath is over, a dazed Jon stumbles through the city surveying the carnage. He runs into Tyrion who is similarly at a loss. They have a conversation. Tyrion tries to justify what happened. Daenerys had no choice, it was the only way to win. Jon cannot reconcile this though. Daenerys is his queen and the women he loves but she just killed a million innocent people to win the Throne. Love is the death of duty but sometimes duty is the death of love. He resolves in his decision.
Daenerys is in the Throne room, looking at the Iron Throne. He tells her about the devastation down in the city but she does not want to hear it. She wants to revel in her victory. She truly believes this was her destiny and that she just saved the world. He tells her he loves her and then does his duty, plunging a dagger in her heart and freeing Westeros from the grip of yet another tyrant. Tyrion walks in as this is happening. Drogon then comes in and melts the Throne before flying off with Dany's body.
In the aftermath, Tyrion gathers a Great Council of the remaining leaders in Westeros to decide what to do with Jon. Half of them want him executed for treason, the other half want to crown him King, the news of his parentage spread far and wide by Varys. He stands before them and declares he does not want to be King, all he wants is to go north beyond the wall to live out his days. They all agree to this. Then they decide the future of the Realm. Sansa declares the North will remain independent. Yara declares the same for the Iron Islands. The new Prince of Dorne reminds everyone that Dorne has never bent the knee. And so, the Seven Kingdoms become seven kingdoms again, actually BREAKING THE WHEEL that Aegon the Conqueror himself created and Daenerys was using to seize power. They create a Council of Kings to meet every year in King's Landing to discuss the State of the Realm.
Tyrion ends the series taking his rightful place as Lord of Casterly Rock and King of the Westerlands. He takes Bronn as one of his bannerman, a suitable reward for his contribution. His last line is about the status of the sewer and drainage system within the Rock.
Sam, having left the Citadel, reclaims his birthright and becomes Lord of Horn Hill and King of the Reach. He and Gilly marry and he names Little Sam his heir.
Davos returns home to House Seaworth and kisses his wife, who asks were he has been for the last ten years and where their son Matthos is.
Brienne is released from her service to House Stark by Sansa and spends her time going around the country helping those in need.
Podrick is made a Knight and returns to the service of House Lannister under Tyrion.
Bran goes and finds a weirwood tree to live out the rest of his days under. He definitely does not become King of anything.
Arya sails West of Westeros to begin her new life as an explorer. She discovers Americos.
Sansa is named Queen in the North.
Jon and Tormund lead the wildlings north of the Wall. The last shot of the series is Jon looking back at the Wall and then riding into the northern forests, never to return.
There you have it, Game of Thrones wrapped up in a satisfying manner, hailed an instant classic. The standard which all other TV shows will forever be judged. If you noticed, the ending was virtually the same. It's how we got there that made all the difference. The internal logic and character motivations all made sense. Oh, what could have been.
Submitted July 05, 2020 at 10:28PM by gma2424 https://ift.tt/31MeURX
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