HOW THE GAME OF THRONES OUGHT TO END
Game of Thrones is a show that will define our generation. For it is a show that is not only layered with its storylines and plots, but also exquisite with its character development and balance of the emotion and action quotient. Above all the sheer grandiose scale of execution of the show has been immaculate and has spawned a cult following like no other.
Season 8 is upon us this year and has gone before it started, with the last episode to air tomorrow, 19th May 2019. It is the last episode of the show!!!
Many are disappointed with the season and how it all seems poised to end.
The Night King and the war with the white walkers built up over the last seven seasons seemed to end like a damp squib. The ‘twist’ with Daenerys going mad and burning down King’s Landing is also seen as unsatisfying and a setup for Jon Snow to kill her and take the Iron Throne in a typically boring Bollywood filmi ending.
Many fans are ruing the fact that the ultimate season has unfolded with a potential climax which falls woefully short of the potential that was built up over the past seven seasons. In fact, many fan theories about season 8 were way more complex and fleshed out than what has been seen so far.
Yet, I feel, there is still hope.
The whole thing is setup at a critical juncture and may belie the obvious prediction of the Bollywood ending of Jon Snow taking the Iron Throne. So here is my theory on how this could end, doing justice to the show and also to the genius of George R. R. Martin who apparently has had little say in the climax of the show, with his climactic book being in absentia.
The main premise of my theory is grounded on the following apparent disappointments/unanswered questions:
- The Night King died too soon and the war with the White Walkers came to an end a bit too abruptly;
- Why was the Night King obsessed with killing Bran rather than carrying on with his purpose of killing them all?
- Is the winter over? Wasn’t it supposed to last many years and generations?
- Bran was apparently inactive and not using his powers in any way during the Battle of Winterfell apart from being a sitting duck.
So here is what I feel should be the ending of the show:
Bran has the power to see the history of man. He has seen not only the creation of the Night King, but also the truth of the origin of Jon Snow. He has seen what has spawned with mankind over generatinos. He is this all-seeing oracle who knows what is and what should be. He has not been languishing as a passive bystander. He sees and knows what we have become and what is to come. He knows the future of Man.
It is for this reason that the Night King went up to him in the midst of battle. Did he go up to kill him? If yes, he could have swiftly done the job rather than stand making eye contact with Bran as if telepathically communicating with him.
Bran had set up the entire sequence to have Arya come and ‘kill’ the Night King. When Jon Snow tried to attack the Night King, the Night King could have well enough engaged with him in a battle and killed him swiftly like he did with Theon, instead he chose to bring up a wall of dead men between them to evade a heads on engagement with Jon Snow. It was orchestrated by Bran so that it is Arya who comes to kill the Night King, and that is why he had given the dagger to Arya a few episodes back.
But did Arya really kill the Night King? Was it really so easy? No.
Is Bran really the Night King as has been the subject of many fan theories? No.
The Night King was formed to bring winter on humans. He was a near immortal who would not perish so easily. He chose to perish at the hands of Arya for that was the communication between him and Bran. When he touched Arya, he converted Arya into a White Walker who would be the successor of the Night King. For Bran indicated a more effective plan to the Night King for achieving the same purpose.
By the same token, Bran told the truth about Jon Snow’s lineage to him, to set in motion a chain of events which would determine not who would sit on the Iron Throne, but the destiny of all in Westeros.
It was clear to Bran that winter is inevitable. It is required. For humans have descended into a spiral of pettiness, immorality and inhumanity! Whether it be the incestuous act that caused his own handicap, setting in motion the chain of events of his becoming the oracle, or the pettiness where despite fighting off the White Walkers and saving humanity, Queen Daenerys was overwhelmed by who would sit on the Iron Throne and how she could not put love ahead of the throne. From the war mongering, the scheming, the selfishness, of characters such as Littlefinger and Cersei, to what was done to his sister Sansa at the hands of Ramsay, Bran had seen it all. In fact, he had seen the centuries of war over a throne and knew that it was time for a cleansing of the human race. It was for this reason that winter was required.
The ultimate scheming and selfishness of humans has played out, as Bran foresaw, with the truth about Jon Snow, making Daenerys insecure and committing genocide. It is thus clear that humans are beyond saving.
Even Jon Snow deserves to die, for he may be good, but he chose to standby while evil played its course. A good person who allows evil to carry on, is no less guilty, noble or helpless as he may call himself or herself.
The baton has been passed to Arya. She got a white horse at the end of Episode 5, to ride as the Night King would for eternity as the immortal warrior leader of the White Walkers.
Arya has seen the inhumanity of the so called ‘good side’ that she was fighting with, in the last episode. She has seen that very side unleash its wrath and burn innocent to a cinder. This is what everyone has been reduced to. Nobody is good, they show their evil, selfish and scheming ways when the time comes. Whether it be witnessing her father being beheaded at the outset, or what happened with her brothers and sisters, she has seen it all….only to see the final act – the burning of King’s Landing – which will convince her soul of what she has to become and do.
Arya will accept the burden of becoming the Night King – kill all in the final episode. She will convert them into a new army of the dead, and winter will prevail over Westeros for a long time, until a new cleansed generation of humans is ready to take over. This is the nature’s will and nature’s cycle. And this is why….as they have been saying all along…
VALAR MORGHULLIS….ALL MEN MUST DIE!!!
© Anshuman Khanna 2019
Published on www.anshumankhanna.in