LogFAQs > #943955712

wolfy42 posted...

Yeah, almost anything honestly would have been better. Having Danny be Queen in the south while john becomes king in the north, but then you see Danny is pregnant (so their child will unite them), would have been perfect.

I feel like they were trapped with that - can't really have the two marry and rule together (which would be the ideal conclusion) because modern audiences are a bit uncomfortable about the whole incest thing. Same problem with them having a kid.

You could probably get away with it in the books, but in mainstream TV a lot of the audience would probably be squicked by it.

The alternative is to kill one or the other (or both) off, but that alienates a lot of the fanbase. So if you're going for a fan-friendly ending you probably have to go for one where Dany either rules the South while Jon rules the North, or you have a scene where Dany says something like "All my life, I've only ever wanted to be queen in Westeros because I believed it was my duty - my family's responsibility and right. But now I have a nephew with a stronger claim to the throne, who knows and loves the land better than I ever could. And I've realized I don't want the throne or the crown - I already have some of my own." And then she peaces out to go rule her conquered lands in Essos and turns them into Happy Sunshine Rainbow Land with no more slavery or poverty or problematic thinking. Whee!

Either that, or I'd probably just have Dany help fight off the threat from the North (which should have been WAAAAAY more significant, probably like at least 2 seasons worth of battles and magic significant), but she dies in the process and Jon sort of becomes the General of the Armies of Mankind by default, inheriting Dany's warriors (and maybe one of the dragons, if you go with the "the dragon has three heads" stuff) and the warriors of Westeros united under the lore of the Night Watch to unleash 17 kinds of holy hell on all the ice monsters, with Jon getting the throne in the end more by acclaim and glory than simply right of blood.

That last one is also good because it fits the tone of the series - the girl who has always wanted to be queen dies before she ever sees the throne (or the capital), while the boy who never wanted to be in charge of anything is forced to be king against his will, to keep the peace and end civil war. Neither get what they want, and Jon winds up on a throne he doesn't want because he is truly his father(Ned)'s son, and he can't stop putting honor and duty before personal desires. He will be king because he MUST be, not because he WANTS to be.

And then Sam gets to be the Hand, because of course he does.

Or Sam gets the Grand Maester spot while Tyrion gets the Hand (again). Though it feels more fitting for Tyrion to get Master of Coin. Or maybe even go full irony and give him Varys' old seat.



wolfy42 posted...

Something...anything.....ANYTHING....would have been better than Jamie's ending *sigh*. I would have loved to see him die defending Breyanna or something like that (possibly against the Lich King).

It doesn't even make sense with the lore, considering it's kind of a huge deal that Cersei is supposed to get offed by a brother, not falling masonry.

"When your tears have drowned you, the little brother shall wrap his hands around your throat and choke the life from you" doesn't really offer much wiggle room for interpretation.

Though that was the easiest fix of all. Telling Brienne that he doesn't want or deserve redemption? Riding back to the capital? Riding back to Cersei? All still works. Have him show up, Cersei is overjoyed to see him. They wind up together in one of her private rooms... and then he chokes her to death. He's finally broken by everything that's happened, accepts that so much of what's gone wrong is her fault, and that there'll never be peace so long as she lives. So he reaches back into himself, to the time when he was still an honorable knight who was willing to sacrifice everything to do the right thing no matter how much it cost him, no matter how much he might hate himself for it.

Thus, the Kingslayer becomes a Kinslayer. A Queenslayer.

Then you either have him calmly accept death (suicide fall off a tower, letting the guards murder-stab him, falling on his own sword, etc), or you have him wander off, possibly leaving Westeros entirely, becoming either a hermit or a wanderer who fades into obscurity like a myth.

Or, you COULD have him just wind up with Brienne in the end, but that does start to feel too much like the sort of "and then they all lived happily after" fantasy that Martin was sort of deliberately writing counter to the entire time, with a darker (and in many ways more realistic) story. Sometimes, the heroes don't get the happy ending.
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