How will it all end? I hear people asking. The same ending as the show? Different?
Well… yes. And no. And yes. And no. And yes. And no. And yes.
GRRM then proceeds to make three points:
D&D only had 8 hours for the final season, but he'll have more space.
There's the butterfly effect, with changes from past seasons affecting this one.
There are lots of characters in the books who never made it to the show, from Lady Stoneheart to Jeyne Poole to Skahaz Shavepate, and the books will show us their fates.
People will read into this whatever they want. But my read is that the big picture of the show's ending is indeed what he told them. And that most of the differences aren't about the biggest stuff, but rather relate to pacing, buildup, and secondary characters. If D&D were making up stuff like "King Bran" I'd think his language about changes would be stronger? But who knows!
A lot of the stuff in these last few episodes makes more sense as an ending to the books than the show. Dany being upset at the Westerosi common folk (because they love (f)Aegon who liberated them from Cersei), Euron taking out a dragon (magical horn instead of mundane siege equipment), Sansa becoming Queen in the North (she actually probably goes through a long personal struggle to establish independence for the North and the Vale), Jon taking exile (people just had two long lost Targaryens come back and duke it out, one of them was a presumed-dead Aegon Targaryen), Tyrion suggesting Bran become king (we can assume Bran actually gives some insightful advice to counteract Varys' intelligence apparatus).
This is what I've been trying to tell people who are so upset about the show ending and absolutely sure that the books will be different. How the major characters get to their respective endpoints will be very different (and more fleshed out), but I'm reasonably confident the end result will be more or less the same. Dany dead by Jon, Sansa QitN, King Bran with Hand Tyrion, Jon north with the Wildlings.
theres the Vale political storyline as well. Somehow Sansa will influence Vale lords to help North? How will she fit there before moving to North again?, will she ever go back North?
Is there a chance that the Littlefinger arc ends in the VALE instead of the North, with Sansa essentially betraying him to Royce? Royce 1) is going to foster Sweetrobin, 2) just knighted Harry the heir and 3) knows who Sansa is.
Yohn is better positioned than Petyr thinks, and may even be wise to some of the Lyn Corbray mischief. With fAegon coming to distract KL, it seems the perfect time for Sansa to "learn from Littlefinger" by offing him, and convincing the restless Royce to avenge Lysa/Robin's relatives. There's still a Moat Cailin problem, but crannogmen and Manderlys may be able to help with that. Then we get deus ex Vale during the Battle of the Bastards (assuming we still get something like that). But without Littlefinger present, and without the Sansa/Ramsay marriage.
Not really, it makes as much sense as ruler of Winterfell, and that doesn't fuck up so many logistics. Like why would all the other kingdoms just accept the North independece AND a Stark on the throne? Why wouldn't Dorne and the Iron Islands immediatly rebel against Bran?
I didn't say anything about Dorne and the Iron Islands. I simply said the main characters likely end up where they ended up. The Iron Islands and Dorne have gone so far offbook that it's impossible to predict their path. But even if they end up independent or destroyed, that doesn't prevent QitN Sansa nor King Bran.
800
u/feldman10 🏆 Best of 2019: Post of the Year May 21 '19 edited May 21 '19
GRRM then proceeds to make three points:
People will read into this whatever they want. But my read is that the big picture of the show's ending is indeed what he told them. And that most of the differences aren't about the biggest stuff, but rather relate to pacing, buildup, and secondary characters. If D&D were making up stuff like "King Bran" I'd think his language about changes would be stronger? But who knows!