Rewrite Not Needed — 5 Simple Ways to Fix the Game of Thrones Ending

Photo via HBO

It’s a shame that the beloved Game of Thrones, the second-most viewed HBO series (after The Sopranos), received scalding fan reviews for the ending. A petition demanding a rewrite of Season 8 has garnered over 1,800,000+ signatures. That rewrite definitely won’t happen in the near future, but what could have been done to fix this mess?

Joker with its over billion-dollar box office revenue proves that you can show a descent into madness in a short amount of time and make it seem plausible. George R.R. Martin has confirmed that Daenerys Targaryen's story in the upcoming books will also end with her reaching the Mad Queen ending.

Game of Thrones only needed to make 5 relatively minor adjustments to Season 7 and Season 8 and it would have all made sense. Imagine a Season 7 and 8 where 95% of the scenes were the same and only a few scenes were added or adjusted to reach a perfectly reasonable ending.

1. Jorah is captured at the Roseroad Battle and executed after the parley council

• Why? One of the biggest complaints by Game of Thrones fans is that Daenerys turned mad and paranoid too quickly. It is important that she remains resentful of Cersei for a long time so that when she does decide to burn the city, her madness has fully formed. Missandei’s execution in Season 8 Episode 4 was too late in the game. Therefore, Daenerys must lose someone important by Cersei’s hand before the end of Season 7.
• What scenes to shoot? Jorah Mormont has lived with the Dothraki for many years and therefore, it would make sense that he would join the Roseroad Battle to lead the Dothraki. During the Battle of Roseroad, seasoned battle strategist Randall Tarly captures Jorah and then insults Daenerys to a point where she decides to execute Randall Tarly but holds Dickon Tarly as a prisoner in exchange for Jorah Mormont (at Tyrion’s behest). In the parley council, Daenerys offers to release Jorah in return for Dickon. Cersei counter offers Jorah in exchange for Daenerys (technically the invading party) leaving Westeros. Daenerys does not agree to leave in exchange for Jorah’s life. Cersei executes Jorah. Daenerys executes Dickon.
• Why is this important? This scene will show Daenerys that Cersei is not someone that can be negotiated with and must be dealt with by force. Jon would also see that Daenerys is willing to sacrifice long-standing followers in pursuit of her end goal. Season 7 Episode 7 becomes the new pivot point of when Team Daenerys starts to have doubt on her psyche and not (the too late) Season 8 Episode 4.

2. Daenerys allows the Dothraki to pillage the North

• Why? In various scenes, Sansa and Arya express to Jon that they do not trust Daenerys. However, this doesn’t make sense as they have had barely any interaction with her and she did ride North to save the North. In Season 8 Episode 1, Sansa rightfully expresses concern on how to feed the Greatest Army That Every Was but the show never answer that question. In real times of medieval war, food is usually forcibly taken from local farmers during an advance.
• What scenes to shoot? Already agitated by losing her most loyal supporter, Daenerys allows the Dothraki to take food forcibly from the Northern farmers. Jon is furious and attempts to stop her but Daenerys persuades him by stating that all will be returned three-fold once the war is won.
• Why is this important? The most obvious solution would be for Daenerys and Jon to marry and rule Westeros together. However, Tyrion states that this would be impossible, as Daenerys will bend Jon to her will. This scene will clearly show evidence that they cannot be equal rulers as Daenerys’ will truly is stronger. This also gives Sansa and Arya evidence why Daenerys cannot be trusted and further fuels the Northerner's desire to leave the Seven Kingdoms.

3. Daenerys makes a clear threat to Sansa

• Why? Tyrion says in the last episode “What about your sisters?” which seems to be the mental turning point for Jon to confront Daenerys. However, up until then, Daenerys has not overtly threatened his sisters and Jon would not be so rash as to believe it only based on Tyrion’s suggestion.
• What scenes to shoot? During Daenerys and Sansa’s private talk in Season 8 Episode 2, Sansa asks “What about the North?” to which Daenerys does not reply and simply removes her hand. This is too subtle. The scene must take a turn for the worse as Daenerys explicitly states that the North will be a part of her dominion with the same ferocity as when she declared to Jon Snow in Dragonstone “I was born to rule the Seven Kingdoms — and I will.” Sansa (being clever) stays quiet in the moment but later tells Jon privately the incident and compares Daenerys’ relentlessness to win to Cersei — two sides of the same coin.
• Why is this important? If there is one thing that Jon cares about above all others, it is the protection of his sisters. It is believable that he would do anything to protect his sisters, which will make his subsequent murder of Daenerys more understandable.

4. The bells never ring

• Why? One of the most baffling scenes in the finale season is when the people of King’s Landing manage to ring the bell and even though Daenerys had agreed to call off the attack after the bells are rung, she still attacks the city anyways. Does Daenerys have a history of going against her word? No. Generally, she does what she says and says what she does. Therefore, to be consistent with her character, the bells cannot ring.
• What scenes to shoot? After the Golden Company is obviously annihilated and the Lannister army puts down their swords, Daenerys looks down at her clear victory and she decides to burn them all because the bell never rang anyways.
• Why is this important? In order to make the ending more heartbreaking and her death more questionable, we must be able to understand the choices made by both the hero and the villain. In the last battle, it seems unbelievable that Daenerys did everything morally wrong and nothing right. Therefore, by giving Daenerys the justification that the bells did not ring, we can understand why she continued attacking. We can also understand Jon’s point of view that the battle was clearly already won and she should have stopped the bloodshed.

5. Daenerys burns only on her way to the Red Keep

• Why? One of the most horrifying shots is Daenerys atop Drogon going street-by-street zigzagging as she burns innocent civilians for no apparent reason. Daenerys has always been the protector of women and children so it makes absolutely no sense why she would change now. Her justification that Cersei used “their innocence against her” is understandable but not relevant to her burning random civilians in the streets outside of the Red Keep. Again, Game of Thrones made it too obvious that Daenerys was on the morally wrong side, the finale would have been more compelling if they made her actions more debatable.
• What scenes to shoot? We see shots of Drogon flying toward the Red Keep as she burns fleeing Lannister soldiers that are a mix of at least 60% soldiers and no more than 40% civilians. We see shots of her burning the Red Keep as it falls on civilians killing them below. When she makes her decision atop of Drogon to continue burning, it must be clear that her anger and personal wrath is directed at her line of sight — the Red Keep with Cersei in it.
• Why is this important? This would more consistent with her history of not harming women & children as she could justify to herself that she was only burning the Lannister soldiers. Furthermore, Cersei made a big deal of inviting innocent civilians inside the Red Keep but we barely see many scenes of the repercussions from it. Instead, most of the civilian death scenes happen in the streets of Kings Landing and not within the walls of the Red Keep.

With virtually the same budget and the same story, Game of Thrones could have avoided a lot of fan uproar with these 5 simple changes. Do you agree? Voice your thoughts below!