How will ASOIAF end? or a GOT ramble before HOTD starts again.

Who has a better story than Bran the Broken?

When ‘Game of Thrones’ ended (2011-2019) in a car crash of dragons and stupidity, I only really had one major question on my mind…is this how the books will end? Because the television series finished on a sour note.

Like…really bad.

Half a decade later, you may need a reminder of how the final few seasons played out. To keep this brief:

The remaining Stark family come together with Daenerys Targaryen to defeat the Night King, while Cersei Lannister (now Queen?) allies herself with Euron Greyjoy despite being pregnant with yet another incest baby. Brienne and Jaime have sex once and he immediately goes back to Cersei. Sansa has Arya execute Littlefinger, and also Arya kills the Night King. Jon Snow is revealed to be the secret real heir to the Targaryen dynasty causing tension in his relationship with the Dragon Queen, who snaps when her friend and advisor Missandei is executed in a taunt by Cersei. Daenerys destroys the city, Cersei dies in her brother/lover’s arms in rubble, Jon kills his aunt/lover because he thinks she’s mad, and the remaining characters decide to elect Bran Stark as King because he's a psychic tree man.

Got all that? Now if you don’t mind, I’m going to ramble a bit about a show I have mixed feelings on, and a book series that I love but am sick of being edged by.

In the game of thrones, you either win or you die.

Early seasons of ‘Game of Thrones’ essentially followed four arcs, each centred around one of the Stark family, and each orbiting a different type of power structure. Sansa in the South and the world of politics, Arya in the East and the world of assassins, Jon in the North and the world of the Wall, and Bran in the North and the world of…tree psychic raven magic. The other storylines, Daenerys and her dragons, Dorne and the sand snakes, Littlefinger – these all intertwine and connect with Stark storylines. It’s a simplified version of the books, which feels much broader than the central family, and basically none of it matters. By the end, everything boils down to one plotline.

The truth of it is, in terms of storytelling, the actual story being told is the political story in the South. Or more specifically, Cersei Lannister, who had made herself Queen without regard to any of the political factors that made up the previous six seasons of plot and worldbuilding. She’s just that powerful.

It’s Cersei vs. The World. Sansa ponders eloquently about how good she is at revenge. Jaime returns to her side. Tyrion tries to save her and the coming incest baby. Arya throws away a full arc of learning to internally process her grief to get revenge, only for the Hound to give her a vague “it’s not worth it” speech to her before interrupting Cersei and his brother the Zombie from escaping. Daenerys is goaded into attacking King’s Landing…which is what she’s there to do in the first place.

The choice for Cersei to end up the focal point for literally every character in the show makes sense in a world where all the other threads are cut off. ASOIAF offers a series of parallel stories about identity and destiny in tandem to the two threads of the commonly political and the often-ephemeral world beyond that. Dragons are where the two paths cross, but in practice, we haven’t reached that point quite yet. So instead, the show killed of two of the dragons and allowed the other to destroy the Iron Throne in an act of symbolism that means very little.

Magic has destroyed politics. Except it left. Now a magic man is King?

I have to assume this isn’t how the books play out. At the point of writing, they haven’t really crossed the full length of season five yet. Sansa is still in the Vale, pretending to be Littlefinger’s bastard daughter. Jon has not been resurrected. Shireen Baratheon hasn’t been burned alive in a pointlessly gruesome scene. Myrcella Baratheon is still alive and, according to some theories, has been swapped out for a lookalike.

In fact, Dorne in general is a much messier and more interesting place. One of them got burned alive by a dragon. And the heir is imprisoned by her father for being too cool. Really, the entirety of Dorne’s political influence and how it might inspire Cersei claiming the throne for herself has been washed away. And with it, the most interesting and possibly inept political player in the series.

Justice for Arianne Martell!

The show is missing quite a few interesting characters, which made sense when it was good and was telling a tight story but was really sad when I realised it was going to bomb the ending. Edmure Tully is Lady Catelyn’s brother who gets kidnapped. He has a maybe gay uncle called Brynden. Genna Lannister is Tywin’s messy younger sister who is married to a Frey and basically raised her brother’s kids.

The Freys in general are more interesting than the show allows. As are everyone else, but this grasping family of social climbers and political players is basically like if the Tyrells lacked glamour. Which is good, because the Tyrells are actually less interesting in the books.

Also, fAegon is around.

I’m not going to bother fully explaining fAegon, except to say that there’s a second alleged Targaryen claimant who is gunning for King’s Landing. He had an army behind him. It’s perfectly reasonable to assume the starving people of the realm will welcome him over Cersei and her incest babies.

Then, of course, is the maester conspiracy. And the Blackfyre conspiracy. And the reality of Bloodraven. And the fake Arya plot with the Boltons. And the lost Euron Greyjoy plot about a magic horn.

Because I have to assume Cersei as the Big Bad can’t happen this way in the books. If the Sept goes up in Wildfire, it probably won’t be the big bang that makes it so Cersei can get that crown. That’s idiotic.

On the other hand…

George R.R. Martin gave the ‘Game of Thrones’ team the broad strokes ending to the series. Maybe this is all he has planned. Obviously with some changes and better pacing (if it happens), but it could definitely be in his notes. Daenerys gets killed and the world is given to a omnipresent psychic who lacks any signs of humanity, which feels like an improvement after an insane Cersei Lannister.

I have my own personal theories about the plot, but it could be that I’m wrong. Maybe fAegon is a distraction from the King’s Landing stuff. Maybe the Night King is as easy to kill as a fly without wings. Maybe Cersei – in the midst of her alcoholic violence – will take the throne and hold it for more than mere moments.

But I swear to god, if I open up that last book and there’s a screed about ‘Bran the Broken’, I will burn it all to the ground.