It’s been a couple of years since Season 8 of Game of Thrones aired on HBO. Last year I wrote out an outline of how the series could have ended. I have reproduced it below.
Pick up where the Battle of Winterfell left off. Except Daenerys was never told Jon was Aegon Targaryen. Olenna Tyrell and Elaria Sand are also still alive.
- Don’t go to King’s Landing right away
- Give people time to rest and recover
- Give Jon time to process the fact that he’s Targaryen and his whole life was a lie
- Give Daenerys time to become more and more paranoid
- Don’t kill Varys
- Don’t send Jamie back to King’s Landing
- Give Tyrion the chance to shine
- Do what they did in Mereen, in the North
- Have Daenerys help the people deal with winter
- Have Jon and Rhaegal bond, which makes Ghost jealous but Jon works to make Ghost and Rhaegal friends
- Which will further feed Daenerys’s paranoia
- Varys, Tyrion and Onion Knight plot to have Jon and Daenerys marry
- In their plotting, Tyrion brings it to Sansa who is not a fan of the idea
- Tyrion plays up to her need to protect the north
- Sansa talks to Arya about it
- Arya doesn’t like it or trust Daenerys
- They go to Jon and tell them of Tyrion and Varys’s plans
- Jon tells them the truth
- They beg him not to tell her cause then his life will be in danger
- Daenerys can tell Jon is keeping something from her
- In the meantime, Varys uses his resources to find out what’s going on in King’s Landing, what Cersei is up to so they can be prepared
- Now that the fight is over, Jamie does not know what to do next
- He and Brienne talk about how his whole life has been dictated by Cersei
- Maybe the beginning of him opening his eyes
- Cersei makes her alliance with Euron
- Daenerys makes alliances with the other houses: Dorne, The Riverlands, The Vale, Stormlands, The Reach everywhere but the Westerlands
- Cersei’s only allies are her family, Pyke and The Iron Bank of Braavos
- Varys uses this knowledge to help them get the other families on their side
- Bronn, where’s Bronn? Still playing both sides, he sees that Cersei has more enemies than allies, but doesn’t want to give her up yet. She’s currently on the throne, still
- Cersei marries Euron and claims to be pregnant with his child
- This pisses off Jamie, Varys tells him of the red sparrow cousin, how she slept with him, how he was with Robert when he died, how it was her dalliance with him that got her shamed
- Jon tries to learn more about his parents
- Bran who can see the fucking future warns Jon about Daenerys
- Have Varys hear they are planning something for the dragons but they don’t know what
- Tyrion, Varys and Onion Knight will caution Daenerys to watch out for her remaining 2 dragons
- Daenerys remembers the weapon Jamie tried to use against her
- They ask Jamie and he tells them what it is
- Jon and Rhaegal fly off together somewhere to explore his past
- Jon has a decision to make, to trust Daenerys with the truth or not
- Varys sees the signs of Daenerys’s paranoia and begin to push forward the matrimonial fix
- He introduces the idea to Daenerys
- She realizes that this is the best way forward, Jon already rides her other dragon
- She talks to Jon, he realizes he must tell her the truth
- This magnifies her paranoia
- He reassures her that he is devoted to her and his full support is behind her
- She demands that he proves it by marrying her
- He is conflicted, but agrees
- Arya and Sansa try to get him to change his mind
- He tells them she knows the truth, it is the best way to keep you safe
- Jon and Daenerys marry in the Godswood where she announces his true identity to everyone
- People are shocked, but readily believe it, it’s on brand with the honorable Ned Stark
- They have a wedding night before journeying to King’s Landing for the final fight
- Bronn stays behind to wait out the results
- Jamie makes the decision to finally forsake Cersei and stays behind with Brienne who stays with Sansa
- Arya and the Hound journey to King’s Landing ahead of everyone to take care of their personal grudges
- Ghost goes south with everyone else
- Jamie has second thoughts and sneaks off to King’s Landing
- All of the allies converge on King’s Landing
- Including those in the boats
- Euron pulls out his dragon killer, but misses both Drogon and Rhaegal
- He can’t aim at both of them so while he is trying to get one the other burns down his boat
- They do manage to destroy some of their boats and Missandei gets captured
- Tyrion tells them there is a way to sneak into King’s Landing on the water side
- Greyworm and some of the Unsullied sneak in under the cover of night
- They get inside the Red Keep and open the gates
- The allied armies enter the city at dawn
- The Golden Company Scramble to get into place to secure the castle
- Daenerys and Jon fly overhead, destroying all the weapons
- While a fight ensues outside, Greyworm searches for Missandei
- The mountain protects Cersei, but steps out of the way for Jamie
- They lock inside her chambers
- When the mountain walks a few feet along he comes across the hound
- Now we know it’s Arya not Jamie in the chambers
- Cersei and Jamie talk
- Jamie begins to bring up all her lying and treachery to him
- Cersei begs for forgiveness, Jamie kills her
- After she’s dead, Arya pulls off Jamie’s face
- The list is complete
- The Hound and the mountain fight, they both die
- The fight outside continues
- The bells ring to announce the death of the queen
- The Golden Company flees
- Daenerys wants blood but Greyworm emerges with Missandei
- Daenerys takes the iron throne and is crowned Queen of Westeros
- All of the allies defer to Jon, the monarch they know and trust
- Daenerys wants all of the lords of Westeros to report to King’s Landing to bend the knee
- Arya tells Jon, Sansa will not bend
- Bronn returns to King’s Landing
- While awaiting everyone’s arrival Daenerys discovers she’s with child
- Over the next few months is a tug of war between Jon and Daenerys over the north
- Only now he’s known to all as Aegon Targaryen
- He finds more records and accounts of his father and learns more about the Targaryens
- Arya stays behind to keep an eye on Daenerys for the sake of Sansa
- As her pregnancy progresses, she becomes more determined to have Sansa bend the knee
- Varys tries to advise her to let it go for now but she wants to go to war with the north
- Now he’s gotta plot against her
- Tyrion confronts Arya about killing his siblings, she doesn’t deny it, she tells him Jamie betrayed them all and would’ve died on the battlefield anyway
- Tyrion is now Lord of Casterly Rock
- Daenerys begins to see and hear things as she gets further along in her pregnancy, she sees the woman she killed to hatch her eggs, the vision tells her she is going to lose this baby like the last one
- Daenerys believes she needs to sacrifice someone to save her child, of course that someone is Sansa
- She wants to fly to Winterfell to kill her, Arya gets in her way and stops her, Daenerys doesn’t see Arya, she sees the dead witch instead and attacks Arya
- Jon stops her and brings her back to her chambers to rest
- Daenerys convinces Greyworm that Sansa needs to die to save her baby, he takes the Unsullied in the Greyjoys boats to go back to the north
- They march through the North and the Northerners are ready to declare open war to protect their Stark Queen
- Arya finds out and tells Jon who hops on Rhaegal and goes back North and stops the UnSullied at the gates of Winterfell while on the back of Rhaegal
- Rhaegal shows that his alliance is with Jon but Greyworm is stubborn and determined to do his queen’s bidding, especially because he thinks her baby’s life is on the line
- He and Join argue, Jon tries to convince him that Daenerys is mistaken and sick, he begs Greyworm to stand down because he doesn’t want to hurt him
- The Northerners surround the UnSullied and demand they listen to Jon
- Greyworm and the UnSullied turn on the Northerners and Jon has Rhaegal burn the UnSullied
- The Northerners praise Jon for saving him, he and Sansa hug when they are reunited
- He tells Sansa why Daenerys sent the UnSullied to kill her and that Daenerys won’t back down until Sansa bends the knee
- Sansa tells him that he is King, a Targaryen and the person the Lords of Westeros are more comfortable with, she tells him if he really wants to make sure they are all safe he needs to take control from her
- Bran tells Jon that Daenerys was in labor
- Jon hops back onto Rhaegal and flies back to King’s Landing
- He gets there in time to see Sam coaching Daenerys through labor, she is weak and Sam warns him that she might not make it
- Daenerys is happy to see him, she asks him if Sansa is dead, Jon avoids the question and tells her she needs to concentrate on having the baby
- She gives birth to a boy, Jon holds the baby and bonds with him
- Varys comes in when no one is watching and gives her milk of the poppy, Daenerys dies
- Jon decides to give voting powers to the lords of Westeros instead of keeping it to himself, like a kind of parliament
- Sansa asks Jon that the North remain independent, of course he grants her wish
- Jon goes north beyond the wall with his son with the Wildlings
- Arya goes West
- Sansa remains Queen of the North
- And Bran sits on the little council as an advisor