Characters And Theories On Game of Thrones Comes To An End

Sunday’s Game of Thrones episode will be its last. Yes, fans, the series is coming to an end. It seems like only yesterday the vast majority of us were introduced the Starks and the Lannisters. It wasn’t long after their introduction the vast majority of us got real tired of people saying “In the book.” We got it, we understood. Those who had read the books were smarter than us non-readers and more in tune with the what was “really going on” in the series. Then something amazing happened. The series ran out of books and we were all on the same level of the playing field.

Fans of the books and series are without doubt some of the most rabid television fans one is likely to meet in person or on social media. As we’ve seen, speak against a beloved character and you’re speaking against the actor and the person who likes said character. But here we are with one episode left and there is still a lot of smack to talk.

Season eight saw Jon Snow’s story arc come, mostly, to an end. Jon’s main goal in the series was to convince everyone the dead were coming and a giant wall wasn’t going to stop them. The Night King all but called Jon Snow on to the proverbial carpet at the end of “Hardhome,” Everyone expected an epic face off between the Night King and Jon Snow. Everyone was disappointed. Sorry, Arya fans, there was nothing to set the stage for her to kill the Night King.

The tragic consequences of Arya killing the Night King and, in a round about way, the Night King being killed to quick is Weiss and Benioff have relegated Jon to almost second tier status. Which is a shame. Jon has been a driving force in the series since the very first episode. Now we see him running and jumping from place to place and rock to rock without any real motivation. Perhaps Jon Snow, the character, can be redeemed and placed on a more coherent path. It’s a tall order with ninety minutes of the series left, but anything can happen. Right?

It would seem there is no real plan to end Jon Snow’s story. Unless we’re to believe a fan theory that has been spread around since the beginning of the season. The theory goes Jon Snow will kill Daenerys and take the Iron Thrones. Only problem with that is Jon has said time and time again he doesn’t want the throne. The other problem with this theory is the big, ticked off dragon who is never far away from Daenerys. This is the same dragon responsible for destroying pretty much all of King’s Landing. Any ending would almost be anticlimactic to a story arch that has been building for the past seven seasons.

There aren’t a lot of main characters left in the series. Weiss and Benioff have taken care of Jamie and Cersei Lannister in the most uncharacteristic way possible. Jamie’s story was leading towards redemption. Cersei, on the other hand, deserved her fate. As much as fans hated her ending it was fitting the character. At her core, Cersei Lannister was a coward. She never dealt with things face to face. She always had someone else to do her dirty work for her. This may be the way things work in royalty circles, but not in the Game of Thrones.

The showrunners have also dispatched Gendry to Storm’s End. His story should be over unless Arya somehow teleports herself across the Westeros. Or Gendry shows up at the last minute to claim the throne as one theory has him doing in the series finale. Except he’s not the last royal who could take the throne. Robert Baratheon usurped the throne from Aerys Targaryen. A Targaryen would have more claim to the throne than one of Robert Baratheon’s many children.

Here’s one theory not a lot of fans have embraced. This theory is as follows: Daenerys sits on the throne at the end of the series. No one can stop her or her pissed off dragon. She still has the Unsullied, lead by even more pissed off Greyworm, who seem to multiply after every battle. She also has the invincible Dothraki, who also seem to multiply after every battle.

Scenes for the series finale show a lot of surprised and, maybe, ticked off people. Who among them could stop her? Tyrion will be lucky to make it through the first half of the episode. Varys is gone. However, his birds may have spread the word far and wide about Jon’s true parentage. Another quick teleportation trick would have the armies of the North at King’s Landing in no time. Would the letters work on Dorne or the Iron Islands? Neither have an allegiance to the North but all have pledged to back Daenerys.

Only a few short hours and we will know the ending. The only theory that has any merit and will undoubtly come true is that not everyone is going to be happy how one of the best television series in the history of television ends.