I always thought "paid the iron price" was just a euphemism for murdering whoever owned the item before
Bittersweet in this regard means fucking silly. The only one who wins is Ghost. Everything else turns to shit.So let’s review all the potential ‘Winners’ of the game and potential occupants of the Iron Throne, and why each is an inherently unsatisfying result of 10 years of television.
Bran: The worst of all prospective Kings. He is completely detached from the workings of living men, outside of the two arbitrary plot points set up in S8: He was the penultimate target of the Night King in the North, and had to tell Sansa/Arya about Jon’s heritage because I guess Jon didn’t want to be the one to say it. His training as a lord ceased soon as he left Winterfell, and one can assume he is uneducated and uninterested in the necessary arts of statecraft. A nearly-mute sage living solely in the past does not make a good king. He would just sit there in his chair with his creep-smile and leave the administration of his kingdom to his advisors, and to show him doing otherwise would be antithesis to the character they’ve built up over the last decade.
Jon: The one with the most ‘right’ to the throne and the most likely candidate, but talk about boring. His status as a Jesus/savior character is completely undermined by the fact that every situation he ended up in was completely beyond his control. The idea of him sitting grim faced and reluctant on the Iron Throne is in keeping with the character, but the idea that the game was ‘won’ by the person would wanted it the least doesn’t have enough time to be explored in the span of the last episode, and least not in a fleshed-out and satisfying way. He stumbled into all of it in the same way his foster dad stumbled into the information and situation that got him beheaded- by following honorable principle, and getting fucked over by it.
Dany: Not that rights of succession have mattered all that much up til this point, but she has no actually claim to the Iron Throne as long as Jon lives. She’s got one dragon and a decimated populace within a mostly-destroyed city, the Pyrrhic victory of a conqueror.... but as promised, it came at the cost of the lives she wanted to rule over. The installation of a Breaker of Chains turned tyrant may be reasonable within the context of the entire story, but to me there is nothing satisfactory about leaving it as a parting shot of her on the throne: ruling through blood and fear, unloved by her subjects. Again there isn’t enough room in one episode to redeem her actions. If they show the populace ‘coming around’ to support her cause it would have to be with slap-dash exposition and time skips that would be forced and empty.
Sansa: No claim to the throne and no practical skills in ruling the Seven Kingdoms, despite the one-off and baseless assertions she’s a badass and ‘the smartest.’ She was literally shuffled about as a pawn for 6 whole seasons, with little agency or ability to navigate her situations other than submitting to them. Rape and molestation, despite the weird emphasis otherwise, does not make you into a ruler...then again, this a universe in which strong Khal dicking turns you into a Khaleesi. It could be argued that she has learned the art of leading people, of only through the establishing shots of her staring down at her people milling about the Winterfell courtyard...but she survived this long through sheer luck and people interceding on her behalf. I would argue that Sansa on the throne is more likely than anything else, if only for D&D’s emphasis on ‘subverting expectations’ in hamhanded ways.
Of course, it doesn’t really come down to who ‘deserves’ the throne. They’ve been clear that the ending will be bittersweet, and with the elimination of the Night King (possibly replaced by Bran?) that probably means there will be no satisfying sum ending. Whoever sits on the throne is not going to be particularly happy about it, and that’s likely to be the bittersweet they’ve been warning us about for years.
I'm still baffled this turned in to a "tune in to see who is going to end up sitting the Iron Throne" bit of musical chairs for the ending as if that's been what people have been tuning in for season after season.
Also a badass.Wakandans have you heard about book victarion?
Obviously it's not going to be Sansa. Get ready for your worst case scenario happening.So let’s review all the potential ‘Winners’ of the game and potential occupants of the Iron Throne, and why each is an inherently unsatisfying result of 10 years of television.
Bran: The worst of all prospective Kings. He is completely detached from the workings of living men, outside of the two arbitrary plot points set up in S8: He was the penultimate target of the Night King in the North, and had to tell Sansa/Arya about Jon’s heritage because I guess Jon didn’t want to be the one to say it. His training as a lord ceased soon as he left Winterfell, and one can assume he is uneducated and uninterested in the necessary arts of statecraft. A nearly-mute sage living solely in the past does not make a good king. He would just sit there in his chair with his creep-smile and leave the administration of his kingdom to his advisors, and to show him doing otherwise would be antithesis to the character they’ve built up over the last decade.
Jon: The one with the most ‘right’ to the throne and the most likely candidate, but talk about boring. His status as a Jesus/savior character is completely undermined by the fact that every situation he ended up in was completely beyond his control. The idea of him sitting grim faced and reluctant on the Iron Throne is in keeping with the character, but the idea that the game was ‘won’ by the person would wanted it the least doesn’t have enough time to be explored in the span of the last episode, and least not in a fleshed-out and satisfying way. He stumbled into all of it in the same way his foster dad stumbled into the information and situation that got him beheaded- by following honorable principle, and getting fucked over by it.
Dany: Not that rights of succession have mattered all that much up til this point, but she has no actually claim to the Iron Throne as long as Jon lives. She’s got one dragon and a decimated populace within a mostly-destroyed city, the Pyrrhic victory of a conqueror.... but as promised, it came at the cost of the lives she wanted to rule over. The installation of a Breaker of Chains turned tyrant may be reasonable within the context of the entire story, but to me there is nothing satisfactory about leaving it as a parting shot of her on the throne: ruling through blood and fear, unloved by her subjects. Again there isn’t enough room in one episode to redeem her actions. If they show the populace ‘coming around’ to support her cause it would have to be with slap-dash exposition and time skips that would be forced and empty.
Sansa: No claim to the throne and no practical skills in ruling the Seven Kingdoms, despite the one-off and baseless assertions she’s a badass and ‘the smartest.’ She was literally shuffled about as a pawn for 6 whole seasons, with little agency or ability to navigate her situations other than submitting to them. Rape and molestation, despite the weird emphasis otherwise, does not make you into a ruler...then again, this a universe in which strong Khal dicking turns you into a Khaleesi. It could be argued that she has learned the art of leading people, of only through the establishing shots of her staring down at her people milling about the Winterfell courtyard...but she survived this long through sheer luck and people interceding on her behalf. I would argue that Sansa on the throne is more likely than anything else, if only for D&D’s emphasis on ‘subverting expectations’ in hamhanded ways.
Of course, it doesn’t really come down to who ‘deserves’ the throne. They’ve been clear that the ending will be bittersweet, and with the elimination of the Night King (possibly replaced by Bran?) that probably means there will be no satisfying sum ending. Whoever sits on the throne is not going to be particularly happy about it, and that’s likely to be the bittersweet they’ve been warning us about for years.
Fuck this sucks.So let’s review all the potential ‘Winners’ of the game and potential occupants of the Iron Throne, and why each is an inherently unsatisfying result of 10 years of television.
Bran: The worst of all prospective Kings. He is completely detached from the workings of living men, outside of the two arbitrary plot points set up in S8: He was the penultimate target of the Night King in the North, and had to tell Sansa/Arya about Jon’s heritage because I guess Jon didn’t want to be the one to say it. His training as a lord ceased soon as he left Winterfell, and one can assume he is uneducated and uninterested in the necessary arts of statecraft. A nearly-mute sage living solely in the past does not make a good king. He would just sit there in his chair with his creep-smile and leave the administration of his kingdom to his advisors, and to show him doing otherwise would be antithesis to the character they’ve built up over the last decade.
Jon: The one with the most ‘right’ to the throne and the most likely candidate, but talk about boring. His status as a Jesus/savior character is completely undermined by the fact that every situation he ended up in was completely beyond his control. The idea of him sitting grim faced and reluctant on the Iron Throne is in keeping with the character, but the idea that the game was ‘won’ by the person would wanted it the least doesn’t have enough time to be explored in the span of the last episode, and least not in a fleshed-out and satisfying way. He stumbled into all of it in the same way his foster dad stumbled into the information and situation that got him beheaded- by following honorable principle, and getting fucked over by it.
Dany: Not that rights of succession have mattered all that much up til this point, but she has no actually claim to the Iron Throne as long as Jon lives. She’s got one dragon and a decimated populace within a mostly-destroyed city, the Pyrrhic victory of a conqueror.... but as promised, it came at the cost of the lives she wanted to rule over. The installation of a Breaker of Chains turned tyrant may be reasonable within the context of the entire story, but to me there is nothing satisfactory about leaving it as a parting shot of her on the throne: ruling through blood and fear, unloved by her subjects. Again there isn’t enough room in one episode to redeem her actions. If they show the populace ‘coming around’ to support her cause it would have to be with slap-dash exposition and time skips that would be forced and empty.
Sansa: No claim to the throne and no practical skills in ruling the Seven Kingdoms, despite the one-off and baseless assertions she’s a badass and ‘the smartest.’ She was literally shuffled about as a pawn for 6 whole seasons, with little agency or ability to navigate her situations other than submitting to them. Rape and molestation, despite the weird emphasis otherwise, does not make you into a ruler...then again, this a universe in which strong Khal dicking turns you into a Khaleesi. It could be argued that she has learned the art of leading people, of only through the establishing shots of her staring down at her people milling about the Winterfell courtyard...but she survived this long through sheer luck and people interceding on her behalf. I would argue that Sansa on the throne is more likely than anything else, if only for D&D’s emphasis on ‘subverting expectations’ in hamhanded ways.
Of course, it doesn’t really come down to who ‘deserves’ the throne. They’ve been clear that the ending will be bittersweet, and with the elimination of the Night King (possibly replaced by Bran?) that probably means there will be no satisfying sum ending. Whoever sits on the throne is not going to be particularly happy about it, and that’s likely to be the bittersweet they’ve been warning us about for years.
Anyone but Jon Snow sitting the throne is a shit ending. At this point I'd have rather the story never even mentioned his lineage. I don't think it's unreasonable to want that part of the story (the most salient plot point in the entire series) to have a better impact than him not fucking his aunt causing her to burn kings landing.
Arguably the main character of the show, entire life built around a lie. A lie that shaped how others saw him, how he saw himself, how he acted, it defined who he was. The truth is revealed and... nothing. No conversations about it with his sister/cousins, nothing with his aunt/lover. No coming to terms with it, no idea how he even feels about it. Jon keeps on plodding along telling people he doesn't want it, and he loves the queen. The fact that his entire life is a lie didn't really phase him or change him in anyway. Out of all the shit thrown at us this season this stands out the most to me.
The characters arent even characters anymore. They're just shells that the writers move around to force an ending they didn't earn and clearly don't give a shit about.
So let’s review all the potential ‘Winners’ of the game and potential occupants of the Iron Throne, and why each is an inherently unsatisfying result of 10 years of television.
Bran: The worst of all prospective Kings. He is completely detached from the workings of living men, outside of the two arbitrary plot points set up in S8: He was the penultimate target of the Night King in the North, and had to tell Sansa/Arya about Jon’s heritage because I guess Jon didn’t want to be the one to say it. His training as a lord ceased soon as he left Winterfell, and one can assume he is uneducated and uninterested in the necessary arts of statecraft. A nearly-mute sage living solely in the past does not make a good king. He would just sit there in his chair with his creep-smile and leave the administration of his kingdom to his advisors, and to show him doing otherwise would be antithesis to the character they’ve built up over the last decade.
Jon: The one with the most ‘right’ to the throne and the most likely candidate, but talk about boring. His status as a Jesus/savior character is completely undermined by the fact that every situation he ended up in was completely beyond his control. The idea of him sitting grim faced and reluctant on the Iron Throne is in keeping with the character, but the idea that the game was ‘won’ by the person would wanted it the least doesn’t have enough time to be explored in the span of the last episode, and least not in a fleshed-out and satisfying way. He stumbled into all of it in the same way his foster dad stumbled into the information and situation that got him beheaded- by following honorable principle, and getting fucked over by it.
Dany: Not that rights of succession have mattered all that much up til this point, but she has no actually claim to the Iron Throne as long as Jon lives. She’s got one dragon and a decimated populace within a mostly-destroyed city, the Pyrrhic victory of a conqueror.... but as promised, it came at the cost of the lives she wanted to rule over. The installation of a Breaker of Chains turned tyrant may be reasonable within the context of the entire story, but to me there is nothing satisfactory about leaving it as a parting shot of her on the throne: ruling through blood and fear, unloved by her subjects. Again there isn’t enough room in one episode to redeem her actions. If they show the populace ‘coming around’ to support her cause it would have to be with slap-dash exposition and time skips that would be forced and empty.
Sansa: No claim to the throne and no practical skills in ruling the Seven Kingdoms, despite the one-off and baseless assertions she’s a badass and ‘the smartest.’ She was literally shuffled about as a pawn for 6 whole seasons, with little agency or ability to navigate her situations other than submitting to them. Rape and molestation, despite the weird emphasis otherwise, does not make you into a ruler...then again, this a universe in which strong Khal dicking turns you into a Khaleesi. It could be argued that she has learned the art of leading people, of only through the establishing shots of her staring down at her people milling about the Winterfell courtyard...but she survived this long through sheer luck and people interceding on her behalf. I would argue that Sansa on the throne is more likely than anything else, if only for D&D’s emphasis on ‘subverting expectations’ in hamhanded ways.
Of course, it doesn’t really come down to who ‘deserves’ the throne. They’ve been clear that the ending will be bittersweet, and with the elimination of the Night King (possibly replaced by Bran?) that probably means there will be no satisfying sum ending. Whoever sits on the throne is not going to be particularly happy about it, and that’s likely to be the bittersweet they’ve been warning us about for years.