Let me start by saying that I love pretty much everything Game of Thrones. I love the books, I love the TV show, the comic con panels, the fan base, everything. Even my eight-year old daughter knows I’m obsessed. Season 7 of the HBO series just concluded this week and I find myself feeling, I don’t know, a little troubled. I’m wondering what George R. R. Martin thinks of this spectacle and where it all seems to be headed.
The show is now officially beyond the reach of the books and I do wonder if the path the show is following is the same path that GRRM intended. While visually stunning and certainly entertaining, this season has seemed a little too predictable. The character arcs are too obvious. Parallels to events earlier in the series are in abundance. The result of all this is a clear signaling to where the story is headed. Whatever GRRM intended he was never obvious. What I love about “A Song of Ice and Fire” is the subtly in which events unfold. Certainly, some big plot twists are foreseeable if one pays close enough attention, R+L=J springs to mind, but for the most part clues are only obvious after an event has occurred with consequence being a direct result of character. There was nothing surprising in Season 7 of the television show, except perhaps, that nothing surprising happened.
GRRM has two more books to write before his grand opus comes to an end. I hope he writes the books he always intended and does not force his vision into the current HBO story line. Even worse, I hope he does not allow the conclusion of his masterful creation to be told by someone other than himself. How awful would it be if he simply told the HBO showrunners how it all is supposed to end and allow them to drive the story to completion? Worst of all that he never finishes the series as suspected by many in the rabid fan community. For me personally the best possible outcome is to let the Game of Thrones TV show reach its own conclusion. It is a different animal than the books, particularly after this last season. GRRM would then be free to write the end of A Song of Ice and Fire without limiting himself to the plot of the TV iteration. It’s also a brilliant marketing ploy. I can almost see the advertising –
“You’ve seen the end of Game of Thrones, now read the conclusion of A Song of Ice and Fire as intended by the creator, George R. R. Martin.”
I have no idea how the TV show or book series will end. Maybe they will share the same conclusion. The only thing I do know is that GRRM has said the ending will be bittersweet so here is my prediction. Dany reaches the Iron Throne but dies in childbirth. Jon (the father) reluctantly comes forward to claim to the throne he never wanted until his son comes of age. My only hope is that if that happens Tyrion is by his side. Then, in my world at least, all may not be perfect but all will be well.
If it were in my power in addition to Jon and Tyrion I would save all the remaining Starks and direwolves, Drogon and Rhegal, Davos, Tormond, Bronn, and – most importantly – Jaime Lannister.
