skiracing12

Personally, I can't see Jon or Dany dying at any point. Yes, this show loves to kill important characters but always for a reason that adds to or complicates the story. Without Ned dying we don't have a War of the 5 Kings (at least not the same war), without Robb dying we don't have Jon ascending to power so he can fight the Others. I know lots of people see Dany's role as the one to come, beat the Others, give Jon and heir, and then die somehow but that has been clearly shown to be Jon's destiny while Dany's is to rule. Dany's death would also clear Jon's path to the IT, but as many people have said Jon (probably) doesn't want it and likely (in my opinion) wouldn't be good at it, or at least as good as Dany. Killing either at this point feels like it would be mostly for the shock value, which seems out of character of GRRM if he has any say. Also, as I've seen mentioned, GRRMs original plan from 1993 says that Jon, Dany, Arya, Bran, and Tyrion will survive. Yes, i know that huge parts of this original plan have changed drastically, but never have those changes effect the overall main plotpoints of the show. Yes, Robb isn't betrayed at at the red wedding, but he still dies, Jon and Arya aren't in love, but they still have a special connection, Sansa is not pregnant by Joffery, but she still regrets choosing him over family etc. They haven't killed any of those main 5 yet either, which gives me hope that the writers are attempting to stay true to this point, especially because it seems very central. These are 5 main characters, the reason we see so much focus on them is because we are intended to see their journey from the start of the series to the end, or as GRRM says "growing from children to adults and changing themselves and the world in the process". I can also think of many other way that the ending could be bittersweet other than the death of one of the main two characters. Anyway, this might all be wishful thinking but I hope that if they do decide to kill of Jon or Dany they at least make that arc rock solid. Pretty disappointed with the writing this season and don't want any of that with such a huge event.

I dont remember where but I remember reading a letter George RR wrote in the early '90's that explicitly said Jon, Dany, Arya, Bran, and Tyrion would survive the series. He also said something similar to the crew of Season 1. Does anyone have any reason that this might have changed? Or do we have to think of another way the ending will be bittersweet.

Exactly. Great post. I see Dany's talk of breaking the wheel to mean stopping the power struggle that causes so much war and poverty in Westeros. This can be as simple as just being a wise ruler and establishing some stability in a kingdom that has been pretty much a power vacuum for 20-50 years. However, i also think that Dany has demonstrated many times that she truly cares for the lowly and downtrodden and personally believe that she will work to help them in Westeros as well (I'm thinking reforms like Aegon V that curtailed lords rights over subjects and granted them more protections as well as better food distribution, but who knows!)

I think the actors have good insights on where D and D are probably going to take this arc and also Peter explains tyrions weird look.

Reading these threads is making me feel like I'm the other one who likes the Dany and Jon romance (the idea, not the writing). Yeah incest is pretty gross to us but again as people have said it supposed to be a different time. I'm not dedicated enough to scan the genealogies of the houses but I'm sure that if you looked there would be many examples of marriages like this one throughout the houses. Also, GoT has always been a show of grey's, not black and white. One of the things that i felt was missing from this season was some grey in our heroes's arcs. Because we all recognize incest is bad, maybe this is a way to add a little bit more grey to a character like Jon, and present him with choices in the future that can redeem him or add even more grey. Anyways I thought the writing could've used some work, but i like the idea of a Jon Dany romance, not just because its a fan service but because it does exactly what we all love GoT for.

does anyone else get a sense that the whole mess with the golden company is a way to introduce (book) Aegon? The idea of the dragon having three heads seems important and i cant see any way an army that recently defeated the Night King being able to also beat cersei and 20,000 mercenaries and i also cant see cersei on the iron throne in the end. I hope this isnt where D and D are going there just isnt enough time ( and aegon is born before Aegon-jon(wtf guys be more original)

I was also a little thrown off by the travel speeds in this episode but this article helped to make it seem a little more reasonable in my mind and less like the writers were taking shortcuts for the plot if they actually did this research https://www.forbes.com/sites/insertcoin/2017/08/22/the-math-behind-that-game-of-thrones-supersonic-911-rescue-raven/#4d0965437365