Around lunch time today, the battle for Westeros will finally be over. The TV show, at any rate. But before that happens, let’s do a little bit of theorycrafting. If you could plot an end for the show, what would it look like?
Let’s play around with three scenarios for this one. You don’t have to muck around with all three, but boundaries often inspires creativity, so here we go. The first scenario is where we are right now, with things left as they were at the end of last week’s episode. I won’t get into spoiler territory–use spoiler tags in the comments if you need to–but what would you do if you were writing just the final episode?
If you want grander visions than that, here’s another scenario. Reboot the entirety of season 8–but you still only have six episodes to work with. How does the battle at Winterfall pan out? What do you do with the Night King? What would your general structure be, what would you change around? And would there be any deaths you’d add, or retcon?
For those who have really strong feelings about Game of Thrones, here’s the last scenario. Rewind all the way back to season 6, when Euron gets introduced as the new villain, the Tyrells are still in play (long live Olenna) and there’s still a few fantasy elements in play: Melisandre and whatever the Lord of Light can do, Jon Snow and his … predicament, plus that madness that sent Euron a bit around the bend.
What factors would you play up a bit further? Would the Boltons take a different path in life? What does Daenerys’s arc look like if you’re plotting it out over two seasons?
So those are some guidelines to work with. I’m a big fan of playing up the mystical elements behind Euron’s time away at sea. It’s a big part of the books and something the TV series hinted at when Euron was first introduced, but I’ve also enjoyed the few times when the series has dabbled in magic and mysticism before. I don’t know how far you could push it, but for my money someone who gets shitfaced and stabs blokes over poker would probably sacrifice part of his crew to bring, say, the Kraken out to battle Drogon. That’d have been a cool CGI fight.
Anyway, if you were writing the end for Game of Thrones, what would it look like?
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