#as bittersweet and tragic as it is i think this ending is brilliant and compelling and also fitting of the character

[catabasis]

what i love the most about this ending is the inevitability of it and the subversion of it, how this was all meant to happen and yet, when Loki is presented with choices that would involve people suffering and he's told he can't win, he makes the choice that allows everyone else to win and to live except for him. Loki was always meant to lose, but he wouldn't let the rest of the universe lose with him, so he takes it upon himself to keep it safe. the god who didn't want a throne and didn't want to be alone, dooms himself to eternity in solitude in a throne, finding meaning to his existence and fulfilling a noble purpose that is more burden than glory: keeping everyone and those whom he loves safe

[heavyshoegaze-blog]

The stan wars will never end

Yup. Even after S8E6, after we know the ending of Game of Thrones and roughly the ending of A Song of Ice and Fire, we’ll still be bickering and complaining and being altogether too nasty towards each other over the love lives of fictional characters. 

“Now, HeavyShoegaze, you dashing-yet-bewilderingly-named Adonis”, you might say, “the story’s gonna end. Either Jon Snow is going to marry his sister/cousin or his aunt! One side is going to win and the other side is going to be relegated into the trash heap of not-canon crackiness!”

Oh, you sweet summer child.

Here’s my prediction: No, Daenerys Targaryen is not going mad. If she was, she would have burned King’s Landing and Cersei. If she was, she wouldn’t have lost her dragon to save Jon Snow (As much as I love Jon, literally no one in the North is anywhere near as important to Daenerys as her son, a literal dragon. Dany took the L to save Jon, no bones about it). And no, Jon isn’t playing Daenerys. He genuinely believes in her cause, having seen her at her best, selflessly putting the well-being of her people ahead of her personal desires.

The truth-bomb of RLJ gets dropped by Sam after Jon takes Dany’s side in the deaths of Randyll and Dickon. Sam will be upset and want Jon to take the Throne from Dany, and in doing so will spill the beans without realizing just how big of a deal it is for Jon. Cue Jon being horribly depressed, taking the revelation in the worst possible way. He and Dany will be estranged by the news as Jon struggles to decide who he is if everything he knew about himself, even his own damn name, is a lie. Eventually, he and Dany reconcile over the fact that she’s miraculously pregnant, and they get married. Jon would want to give a child of his the home life he never had, after all. 

There will be tension and friction as multiple people with grievances and family histories struggle to work together. Winterfell will fall, forcing the survivors to accept that being petty assholes has consequences during the apocalypse! Jon, Dany, and Sansa lead their people South, having to now deal with Cersei and her Golden Company in addition to the White Walkers. Shenanigans happen and the Golden Company switches sides, since “Some contracts are writ in ink, and others in blood”. Blackfyres or Targaryens, the Golden Company is a brotherhood of exiles, founded by a faction of House Targaryen that lost a civil war. Like Dany. So they switch sides. They fight for the living. Cersei tries to blow up King’s Landing but Jaime kills her.

Ultimately, the final battle against the Night King will be fought, Jon and Dany sacrifice themselves in order to defeat him for good, and Sansa rules for their kid. House Stark and House Targaryen are united and live on through this new song of Ice and Fire, and a war-ravaged Westeros looks towards the future, towards Spring, with hope.

And that’s how Game of Thrones ends. Bittersweetly, I think. Jon and Daenerys have this beautiful, star-crossed romance, but they have to sacrifice not just their lives but their chance of experiencing the future they’re fighting for. They go out together, as the greatest heroes Westeros ever sees, but they don’t get to know their kid. It’s tragic, but it also feels like an ending they deserve. Yeah, their arcs as leaders are brilliant and you could make the case that without an endgame where they apply those hard-learnt leadership lessons what’s the point (and seriously, read Jon’s arc in A Dance With Dragons and tell me it’s not all about leading, learning, failing, and doing better. Like, if Martin wanted to write how Aragorn learned to rule “wisely and well”, that’s how he’d do it), but even still. I think that this would feel bittersweet without being either too sappy or too depressing. I’ll cry, but I’ll also be happy.

As for Sansa, I think her ruling as regent bookends her story nicely. The beginning of the series sees her dreaming of being Queen, marrying a beautiful Prince and having beautiful children. In the end, she becomes the leader. She doesn’t marry, she doesn’t have kids, but she’s the one calling the shots and guiding Westeros through this new Dawn. I have a lot of problems with the way the show handled Sansa’s arc and the way that they changed her characterization, but I feel that both in the books and in the show this is where her story is building. Again, it’s bittersweet. On one hand, Sansa becomes the ruler of Westeros! Woohoo! On the other hand, that’s the last thing she wants. It means she’ll never see Winterfell again, that she has to stay in the Capitol and rule instead of returning to her idyllic family home. That she can never reclaim that lost innocence ever again. It’s like the Scouring of the Shire, which Martin is hugely influenced by. The Hobbits have to accept that they can’t just return to their ways before the events of Lord of the Rings. Similarly, Sansa gets this bittersweet ending.

(Also, she might be a little sad that her brother is dead. Just a little. At least, I hope. Maybe she won’t give a damn.)

But most importantly, this is an ending that gives everybody something without satisfying anyone. I don’t think that pleasing everyone should be a storytelling goal, but if you wanted to ensure that the community literally never stops fighting pointlessly between Sansa and Dany, this would be how you’d do it. Jonerys stans are going to say “ha! see?! Daenerys and Jon were OTP, the Song of Ice and Fire who fell in love, had sex, saved the world, and left Westeros in capable hands. Their kid is gonna rule the Seven Kingdoms, and the future is bright... because of them. Hahaha. You wish you stanned the Mother of Dragons. #CANON-SHIP, boiiiiiiiiiiiiii!!!” Meanwhile, Jonsa stans will turn around and say “No, Sansa is obviously the most important one. She won the Game of Thrones! Dosido and that whore Jon Snow died like scum and now Sansa is in charge! And she lost nothing! She’s totally happy, no tragedy here! If only Jon was smart and picked Sansa, then he would be alive instead of dead like he deserves for picking the other girl >:(.” 

Both sides can find ways to claim that they won and the other side were all deluded fools, and both sides can also rage impotently at the show and claim the books will give them the true (read: their preferred) ending. We’ll constantly pick apart every tiniest detail looking for proof that our favorite was the real winner and the true hero instead of accepting that maybe the series is full of imperfect, human, characters who try their best to do what’s right, and that multiple people are responsible for saving Westeros.

And we’ll never get to enjoy this brilliant series of books and the wonderful, complex, compelling characters without getting sucked it to endless bickering over who’s boning who and who should have boned who. Hooray.

In all truth, I’m excited to see how it ends. I have mixed feelings about the show as an adaptation of my favorite book series, and I wish Martin had told the ending himself, but I’ve been waiting to learn the fates of my favorited characters for so long. I’m hyped. I don't actually know what happens in Season 8, obviously, but I can’t wait to cheer, cry, angst, and find Tumblr a disaster like always.

And while I’m here making predictions that all but ensure everyone justifiably hates me and no one ever takes me seriously ever again... Arya and Bran also die leaving Sansa and the Starkaryen kid as the last Starks, Tyrion blows up King’s Landing and is executed for it, Jaime dies, Cersei dies, Theon dies, Grey Worm and/or Missandei die, Jorah dies, Bronn dies (he should have died in Season 7 tbh), Varys dies (God, without Aegon there’s like no point to him). Tormund dies, Brienne... Not a damn clue. Gendry maybe lives? Hell, maybe Arya lives? 

Seriously, I have no idea how this ends.