Everything I Can Reasonably Surmise About the GOT Finale
Disclaimer: Discussion of leaks, casting, and fantheorying follows. I neither completely trust nor distrust the leaks. Many of the leaks have ended up coming true, but I sincerely doubt that they are all 100% true. I’ll wager 90% true, but would love to be wrong. Some of the leaks for 8x05 sounded worse out of context (imo they’re still pretty bad--but, for example, the bells didn’t make Dany go mad they just represented a decision she was about to make--according to commentary it was the sight of the Red Keep and what it represented to Dany that pushed her off the edge, but--).
Anyhow, let’s jump into it:
What They Have To Squeeze In the 80 Minute Time Slot
-Tyrion’s reaction to Jaime and Cersei’s deaths
-Davos’ reaction to Daenerys
-Tyrion’s reaction to Daenerys
-Jon’s reaction to Daenerys
-Arya’s reaction to Daenerys
-Something with Sansa (I really would not be surprised if this Mad!Dany demanded a trial, or said something sinister to Jon about Sansa--but Sansa is weeks away and I can’t see them rushing up there to take care of a hasty trial anytime soon)
-Daenerys’ reaction to Tyrion’s actions
-Brienne’s reaction to Jaime’s fate
-Whatever the heck Dany’s armies are going to do after Dany’s fate is decided
-Bronn (dunno what interesting thing he could do though--gosh, his whole sub-plot this season really was a throwaway huh...) (Please don’t give him High Garden)
-Bran (man I wish being a Three-Eyed Raven meant more to the showrunners --the amount of lore-related plots we could have had)
-Samwell (he’ll probably just be a cameo, sadly)
-Gendry (whether he takes Storm’s End or not, reunites with Arya or not)
-Epilogue for all surviving characters
Who We Haven’t Seen Yet
The leaks haven’t mentioned characters that have been confirmed with cast listings:
Edmure Tully
Robin Arryn
The New Prince of Dorne
Could they simply be cameos? Possibly. But the leak that mentions a council consisting of Bronn just sounds...look, I can’t put it past the showrunners, but if there IS a council, my money is on Tully and/or the Prince of Dorne being included over Bronn.
The Fate of Tyrion
If the leaks are to be believed, Tyrion will be put on trial, probably survive (I’m actually 76% sure he’ll survive), and then become part of some sort of ruling council. I think his ending could have been so much more, but they dumbed down his character arc and watered down his character so much I just can’t see them pulling off anything more nuanced than that. The best I can hope for is a thematically satisfying marriage with Sansa, or hints at their being together--and I truly mean that from both a shipping AND non-shipping perspective. Having a Stark and Lannister willingly come together, having two characters who have long dreamed of romance and suffered from abusive relationships, wow, it would just be--it would actually be something of lasting substance I could take away from this show.
Until then, there’s always the books.
The Fate of Jon & Dany
I will be the first to admit--I can’t believe that the Dany Going Mad arc actually made me...well, I never really supported Dany, but wow did I emphasize with her in this season. I think she’s going to experience a descent arc in the books too, but I think it will be a heckuva a lot more complex, Shakespearian, well-earned, and dare-I-say human in the books.
That said, I’m almost 100% sure Dany will die. The only other scenario I could see...geez, I dunno, losing her last dragon and going into exile? A death could at least be poetic, thematic. It’s possible they’ll give her a spark of humanity before that. It’s too bad we’ll never get her reaction to the old dragon skulls or other haunts of the Red Keep, since they were destroyed.
I wouldn’t be surprised if they showed her in a vision with Khal Drogo and her son--harking back to her vision of the Iron Throne covered in ash, a throne she never touches whilst she goes through another door and towards her family.
Jon will probably kill her. Man, I feel bad for Jon. I feel bad for Kit Harington. He did NOT have to be this sidelined and one-dimensional of a character. Why on earth did D&D take “good guys will always be duped by their good intentions” away from Ned’s death, and then apply that to Jon and Tyrion? Ned meant so much more than that. Jon was supposed to be Ned 2.0, in my opinion, and Tyrion is probably meant to be Tywin 2.0.--but when I say 2.0, I really mean “what those characters SHOULD/COULD have been.” Taking the best elements, learning from their mistakes, and, while making new mistakes, striving to incorporate all of the foils and flaws and make the best of it.
Which is a theme at the heart of GRRM’s books. Making the best of our own vice and virtue, no matter the personal cost.
The Fate of Jaime
Look, I don’t want to get everyone’s hopes up. Jaime’s dead, right?
The only reason I bring that up as a question is because they supposedly filmed on location for Brienne’s homeland and supposedly Coster-Waldau was seen there and supposedly Coster-Waldau was paid to appear in all six episodes.
It would be somewhat cheap to bring back Jaime Lannister back from two stabs and the entire crushing weight of the Red Keep.
No, it really wouldn’t make sense. Doesn’t mean they might not pull that out of the hat though. I don’t know why, but because I see a 2% chance of silly plot armor plot twist, I’ll include this.
Bran As King?
I know, I know, it’s a lackluster ending. I can sorta see the in-universe logic here, though, and I can point out at least a few inklings of foreshadowing that Season 8 has given us thus far:
If the Bran as King is true, I think THIS was the point of Tyrion and Bran having two significantly framed scenes together this season.
Tyrion will be one of the key players deciding on who takes the throne after, I only assume, Dany is taken out. Tyrion now knows Bran’s entire story. He’s vouched for Bran and cared for him since he was a boy--telling him that his life would not be limited by his disability, for the most part. He made him a saddle to help him continue living his life. He took the time to see Bran as a human being--something even Bran himself is incapable of these days. Then, they had their second chat, after the Long Night.
I think they’re going to establish that Bran having an insane amount of knowledge/the literal memory of all of Westeros + he can’t desire anything (good or bad) + he doesn’t want to rule (WHY DOES THIS MAKE A GREAT CRITERIA) = best choice. Which, um, again still leaves us with the heir-to-the-throne situation.
On the plus side, if Bran were king, even if he had no heirs, it would still guarantee a Stark to inherit the throne. Specifically, Sansa’s child, because of her place in the family tree. Which means it only makes more sense for Sansa to get married/implications of being married, but see below for my thoughts on that.
Of course, the other possibility is they introduce a quasi-Republic system or slap a little Magna Carta on the side.
Or the leak is wrong. Time will tell.
Romance
I actually don’t have a hard time believing that Arya and Gendry will reunite. They’ve at least set up Arya’s character for a moment like that: Arya, finally given permission via the Hound to turn back from a life of vengeance, Arya who inexplicably survived an entire city falling to pieces around her, Arya who also witnessed the horror that Daenerys released in a supposed rage of “this is what happens to people who mess with my family.” Yeah. I could see Arya now running to embrace life head-on and she and Gendry being the ones to continue on the Stark line.
BUT.
That doesn’t mean that Arya should be the only Stark who gets an S.O. and a new lease on life and the ability to carry on the Stark line.
The possibility of platonic Sanrion is strong. The possibility of romantic Sanrion is just that--a possibility. Again, I simply can’t trust the showrunners to follow up on their extremely vague hints regarding Sansa and Tyrion.
But it’s like Peter Dinklage once said: when it comes to Sansa and Tyrion, “...there’s just something you can’t put your finger on about them.”
The leaks say that Sansa rules Winterfell alone. Nope, I don’t agree with that as a satisfactory conclusion to her arc. Doesn’t mean it won’t be portrayed that way, but I have no trouble believing she’ll have a much richer ending in the books. Ned himself said she would be with someone kind, gentle, and strong. Yes, Sansa is strong on her own. But ‘aloneness’ goes against the Stark motto: the pack survives.
Sansa and Tyrion make sense on MULTIPLE levels, but frankly I don’t expect levels from GOT. I don’t even feel anti towards D&D: I’m simply unhappy, disappointed, and yes, still holding out for at least some sense of closure from the finale. If they manage to pull Sanrion through, I would be happy not just from a rose-glasses perspective of a shipper--it would be something that thematically makes sense and fulfills so many parallels:
The War of the Roses parallel (uniting two warring families together)
The Florian & Jonquil parallel (a story from the ASOIAF universe; some have thought this applied to Sandor, a knight, or to Sansa’s misplaced trust in Dontos, a fool. But Tyrion embodies the archetypes of the knight and the fool and rescues Sansa time and time again; he is also, like Florian, not stereotypically handsome)
The Beauty & the Beast parallel (Martin has only explicitly stated that Braime are supposed to be a Beauty & the Beast story, but with Tyrion being a Lannister bro as well and also having toxic love vs. healthy love as one of his struggles, I see no problem in Jaime and Tyrion both sharing a twist on this trope)
Simply the fact that both characters are intellectual politicians who were able to make the best of an awful situation and vouch for one another when they didn’t have to.
She could provide the heir that will inherit after Bran (if Bran becomes king) [theoretically, if we assume that Sansa does not get married and that Arya and Gendry have kids, Arya’s kids could still inherit, but, um, whatever I like Sansa’s kids inheriting mmkay].
Anyhow, that’s all I’ve got for now!
