The show runners did say they have the major plot points and the overall outline, just needing to fill it in themselves. That’s why I won’t say “the show has gotten worse since it got past the books” or “GRRM would do something better” - the reality is that it’s easier to set up a complex story than to resolve it and GRRM is never going to do it, so it’s kinda shitty to crap on the people who are forced to do what he himself refuses to do.
So I don’t know if Arya stabbing the NK was from GRRM or what. They did say that was the plan for 3 years.
There is no reason Melisandre is in Westeros otherwise. She chooses Stannis because she believes him to be the one who will destroy the Others. She constantly speaks about that being her goal. Not because she cares who sits on the Iron Throne.
Just throwing my support for ISiddqui. Melisandre’s entire purpose was to help the living defeat the dead. Azor Ahai is merely the vehicle to help in that purpose.
I think the Red Witch thought her work was done - and maybe lighting up all the swords and the barricade just exhausted her and used up all her remaining magic.
Robert’s grandmother was a Targaryen, IIRC from the books.
Yes, I’d be fine with that as well, for those reasons.
I do think they’ve teased the dragon killing crossbows enough that it’ll come into play and maybe kill of Dany and leave Jon to sit the Iron Throne. I guess that’d be ok. But at this point it just seems the mystery for the rest of the show is which character gets to kill Cersei.
Azor Ahai/PTWP/Jon Snow isn’t the Lord of Light, either. The battle of the long night is fought by proxies of the LoL and Great Other. I doubt the White Walkers are gone for good. They’ll be back in another 10,000 years or so. Just seems to be how things work on Planetos. I do wonder if the seasons will ever be normal. I kind of figured that was caused by WW-based magic.
GRRM has said that his ending would be bittersweet. Right now, the show looks like a a fairytale ending. I don’t think you can really call an ending where the Others are defeated and Jon and/or Dany rule the Seven Kingdoms “bittersweet.”
If the show does the ending GRRM planned, I have to think at least one dies. Potentially one kills the other.
Hell of an episode with a great finish, but not enough key characters died. Several were literally about to be killed for a full ten or fifteen minutes.
I predicted “Jon kills Dany” a while ago, but I thought it would have prophetic/magical significance for the defeat of the Night King. The books mention how the original Azor Ahai had to temper his sword by plunging it into the chest of his wife, and the sacrifice created Lightbringer.
Now, I’m not sure if there is a point besides shock value. I can’t see Jon get worked up about who is on the Iron Throne, unless Dany threatens Sansa or the North somehow. And she kinda redeemed her “mad queen” tendencies by fighting the battle and not running away on her dragon when things got bleak. She even swung a sword herself and killed wights on foot. I’m impressed with Dany’s fighting spirit. I expected her to fight on dragonback or else be completely helpless.
Daenerys seems fairly sane now, which is a shame, because back in the first half of the show, she was kind of nuts. That would have made her a better character.
It would be hard to square their characters with fighting over the Iron Throne. Jon doesn’t want it and Daenerys wants nothing more than it. Jon’s logical move is to sacrifice his claim to allow Daenerys to take the throne in return for some North independence. The question is whether or not he has to sacrifice his life to do that.
It’s pretty hard for the fight for the iron throne to matter now. I mean, you can’t have “the personification of death comes to exterminate all life” be the main threat of the series, handle that, and then expect who sits on the Iron Throne to be all that significant in comparison. You literally just saved all life from a magical army of death that would’ve snuffed out your entire race. Now we’re going to go back to bickering over who gets to sit on a throne?
I mean, I still will be, but it just seems like kind of a Writing 101 sort of error there.
It does seem odd that the penultimate battle was the more important one, but I guess we’ll see if they have some crazy shit up their sleeves. Maybe Cersei has a White Walker penned up or an army of Mountain-like Frankenwarriors.
Well it’s quite possible that it was George’s answer to the Scouring of the Shire. An afterlude as opposed to getting the same amount of play as the big battle against the dark (in the show each will get it’s own episode it seems, while in the books, the Battle of KL may be far less in pages than the Battle of Winterfell).
The showrunners stated that they have known that Arya would kill the Night King for about 3 years. Since the show premiered 8 years ago, GRRM’s ‘broad strokes’ must have been delivered before that…so “Arya kills the Night King” appears to be a show-only invention.
Also, there is no such character as the “Night King” in the books…at least, not that we’ve seen so far.
Ok, I’ll concede. But that doesn’t make a lot of sense either. If the Night King is an existential threat to the entire world, shouldn’t all Red Priests/Red Priestesses be in Westeros for the fight against him, not just Melisandre and Thoros? (It’s not clear Thoros has any idea what the game is anyway.) If Melisandre knows and cares, why don’t the rest?
The Night King is referenced in stories, but IIRC it was a Stark that ruled north of the Wall (the wiki didn’t help). Took an Other as his bride? Something like that.
If GRRM ever finishes the books it will be a weird experience to read them given a lot of the show is how I view the world now.