this post was submitted on 16 Jul 2024
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[–] [email protected] 26 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (4 children)

A lot of people shit on the final season, and rightly so. The ending didn't fit the entire narrative of Ice and Fire, Arya's training was basically useless, Daenerys's ending didn't make sense

I'm yet to hear of how anyone would rewrite the final season to be good, or where the plot points are all resolved. You would need to change a LOT, particularly how you conclude with the final battle AFTER Kings Landing is taken/won. There's a few novel ideas there:

  • Bran warging into a dragon
  • The Night King ignoring the North and going to war with Kings Landing
  • Arya using her skills at some point to attack/kill Cersei
  • Jamie's redemption, and possible pairing with Brienne, to leave Cersei alone and unhinged. Perhaps even Jamie killing Cersei?
  • The Night King being such a credible threat that he actually takes over Westeros and the final battle being waged in Essos, or with the full "world" involved
  • Jon ascending to the throne, as prophesied - but leaving the throne and escaping north
  • Westeros just generally being destroyed and no one winning. " The dragons siding with Jon, leading to Daenerys's madness
  • Bran slowly turning into the new Night King

So many avenues, but I'm yet to read a coherent plan.

[–] [email protected] -5 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Daenerys made perfect sense, people overlooked all the evil shit she did the whole way, because she was "good." You can argue just sitting there listening to bells during the turn was dumb, but the end result makes sense. For all the terrible shit in the last season, that really wasn't something.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 4 months ago (1 children)

it made sense. but not in that short amount of time shown. If it was a slow change over a season, it would have been perfect. But as it was it bascially went "oh well, better nuke the city"

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago

pretty much this. she had the targaryn gene and it was always going to be her destiny to succumb to the madness. they did a pretty good job for most of the show showing her explicitly overcoming it but then it was like fuck that get angry and be evil in the space of a few episodes

[–] [email protected] 19 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I think the big thing is the Night King should have stayed in the Far North, and there should have been a counteroffensive to push into his territory and kill him there as the battle keeps raging in the south. A full on war, with the White Walkers being a seemingly impossible enemy to overcome, with the only glimmer of hope being the army in the north slowly approaching the Night King's stronghold to cut off the threat at its source.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago

A bit like Frodo et al.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 months ago

I'm partially with you on this. Comparing the mess of a state that the books' storylines are in, I think the TV show actually did a good job of cutting out some of the complications, from fake Aegon to Lady Stoneheart to the defeat of Stannis to all the storylines that were pruned in the Sept explosion, and finally moving things towards a conclusion.

If it is the case that Bran wins the throne in the end, fine, I guess that's the finish that's been prescribed.

But I do think the show itself could've hit all the same major points in a way that was paced better, with more episodes. More time building up Jon and Daenerys relationship, building up Euron as a major force to be reckoned with, making the final battle against the Night King a bit more evenly matched (maybe using some Children or better tactical use of dragons or even the freaking Dothraki), either building up or never adding the Golden Company, and maybe a bit more political or military skirmish/buildup between Cersei's and Daenerys's allies. All the while, really showing that Bran himself has got some cool shit going on and turning him into a more compelling character.

I feel like that could've been done without actually revamping the core storyline too much.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 4 months ago (3 children)

My main gripe with is with the final episode, the final ,"bran should be king" happy ending. Like come on. It's so counter to the rest of the show. They just rushed the cleanup so badly.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 months ago

Even worse (IMHO) was Martin rushing out book 5 in an unfinished state in order to take advantage of the TV show's popularity.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 months ago

"bran should be king"

Didn't you hear, who had a better story? Who? Totally king material.

[–] [email protected] 31 points 4 months ago (1 children)

My headcanon is Bran warged into the writers and made them do that

[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 months ago

D&D certainly displayed the same level of intelligence as Hodor in writing the last 2 seasons.