Game of Thrones begins....

[crazy canuck]

My head cannon is that Bran planned this all along. The 3 eyed raven is actually the big bad evil, letting people roast and die left and right so he can be king.

Why did he insist on telling Jon about his parents and his claim if he doesn't care about anything?

It doesn't explain the Night King - three eyed raven connection but whatever. Nothing in the show explains why the raven matters or why the night king cares about him anyway.

You a right, the show does not.  It will be interesting to see how Martin deals with it. 

[Habbaku]

In hindsight, it seems pretty clear that the two showrunners just wanted to do all the 'cool' stuff like the Red Wedding and...didn't pay any attention or give a shit about the lore, the mysteries, the prophecies, etc. I'm really buying the giant, behind-the-scenes break with GRRM now over disagreements with the show's direction.

[celedhring]

Also the only payoff for all those episodes of Arya learning the face-stealing technique seems to have been to kill off a bunch of Freys. Maybe she can amuse the sailors now that she's gone Columbus (where did that come from?)

Oh well, at least Martin can use all that's gone wrong in the show to hopefully finetune the books. If we end up having books at all (somebody get Sanderson on speed-dial).

[The Larch]

Also the only payoff for all those episodes of Arya learning the face-stealing technique seems to have been to kill off a bunch of Freys. Maybe she can amuse the sailors now that she's gone Columbus (where did that come from?)

She apparently mentions it in passing while she's in Braavos with the theatre troupe, but that's as flimsy as rice paper.

[celedhring]

Also the only payoff for all those episodes of Arya learning the face-stealing technique seems to have been to kill off a bunch of Freys. Maybe she can amuse the sailors now that she's gone Columbus (where did that come from?)

She apparently mentions it in passing while she's in Braavos with the theatre troupe, but that's as flimsy as rice paper.

Not even her remembers that.

[Josquius]

One bit I did like was Sam's "Maybe we let the people vote?" - LOL! Stuff. For a second there had me thinking "Oh wow, my Republican revolution and president Hot Pie joke prediction isn't far off"

Bran was dumb on oh so many levels. Earlier this very series weren't they just going on about how he can't be king of the north due to his condition?

Interesting thought that this was Martin's original plan but he meant it as something quite dark with the whole Night King/Three Eyed Raven thing being about two pretty nasty forces opposing each other. Shame nothing came of it. I was thinking for a while in this episode, knew it wouldn't happen but was thinking anyway, what if theres some kind of cyclical time travel, have to stop the raven taking over, business.

When Sansa goes "Oh, btw, we want independence"- I wonder why Greyjoy didn't then just go "Oh? Cool. Me too".
And you'd expect maybe Dorne to be the same considering they're the least hit by all these events and most recently independent.

Uncle Tully- I did not recognise him at all at first. Where's he been hiding? Was he putting himself forward there?

Jon filling all these cool heroic tropes but ultimately not being king anyway I have to say I don't have too much of a problem with. Martin does like to subvert convention like that. The killing of Danaeryis in such a way was just as awful an execution as her turn to the dark side. Perhaps more so. Such an anti climax for what should have been, could have been, a Red Wedding style shock

[grumbler]

Dani's assassination would have been better (and more shocking) had she NOT burned down the city, but instead had simply ordered (as she did) wars without end.  Jon would have had the same reaction, but his motives would have been more mixed and the surprise more deeply felt.

Better would have been Grey Worm killing her to "break the wheel" of her assuming that all the Unsullied wanted forever more was to fight in her never ending crusades.

[Berkut]

Dani's assassination would have been better (and more shocking) had she NOT burned down the city, but instead had simply ordered (as she did) wars without end.  Jon would have had the same reaction, but his motives would have been more mixed and the surprise more deeply felt.

Better would have been Grey Worm killing her to "break the wheel" of her assuming that all the Unsullied wanted forever more was to fight in her never ending crusades.

Hell, she could have burned down the sitting as an act of war, rather than one of genocide, and THAT would have been

A) More actually in line with the debate they had about the morality of destroying Kings Landing in the act of saving it, and
B) Been much more of an ethical dilemna where the "right" answer is actual complex, difficult, and not spoon fed to you by the writers.

The entire show abandoned any real sense of moral and ethical nuance at some point, and everyone became pretty damn single dimensional in the end.

[saskganesh]

That was unexpected...  Why would would you send someone to protect a wall with a big hole in it from a people who are no longer there?  What's the night watch suppose to do?  And how does the King have authority to send someone to the Night's Watch when he no longer is suzerain of the North?

Exiling Jon was a way of appeasing the Unsullied, and getting him out of the way dynastically. The details are irrelevant.

Note that once he got back to the Wall, he deserts, and goes north with his wildling/freefolk friends where he will think wtf  for the rest of his life.

[Josephus]

Could you imagine the *immediate* new wars that would start, as most of the nobles of Westeros NOT sitting at that table would say "BRANTHEWHOTHEFUCK????" and put forth their own candidate?

Hell, at the point fucking Gendry has a better claim than he does.

Plus,if the North gets to secede why not other kingdoms. I envision a massive civil war.

[grumbler]

Could you imagine the *immediate* new wars that would start, as most of the nobles of Westeros NOT sitting at that table would say "BRANTHEWHOTHEFUCK????" and put forth their own candidate?

Hell, at the point fucking Gendry has a better claim than he does.

Plus,if the North gets to secede why not other kingdoms. I envision a massive civil war.

All of the other lords of Westeros were bannermen to the ones who named Bran king.

War against Bran might not go so peachy, what with his spooky ability to see everything his enemies are planning and doing.  I just wonder what the reaction is when they realize (as Berkut pointed out above) that Bran isn't going to die?

[Grinning_Colossus]

Note that once he got back to the Wall, he deserts, and goes north with his wildling/freefolk friends where he will think wtf  for the rest of his life.

Aegon VI Targaryen, King-Beyond-the-Wall. 

[Valmy]

I don't get why the Northern Lords wouldn't rally to a Stark King. Wouldn't that theoretically make them the top dogs in the Seven Kingdoms? Why would they go with Sansa?

Granted Bran isn't Bran but some bizarre collective memory of the Greenseers or something.

[Zoupa]

A better alternate ending:

https://www.reddit.com/r/freefolk/comments/br2t0z/this_video_of_an_alternate_ending_wins_the/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x

[Solmyr]

I am annoyed that I did not get the slaughter of the Dothraki that I've been dreaming of this whole time. Oh, well. At least lots of them died at Winterfell.

They are magical Dothraki, appearing and disappearing according to the writers' needs.