[00:00] Game of Thrones had one of the worst endings in television history. The book series does not have an ending yet, and that has created some confusion among the masses. One thing that I keep seeing that really makes me angry to the point that I already made
[00:14] a YouTube short about it is this idea that Martin's ending, the author of the books, is going to be exactly the same as that of the show. First off, that's impossible. There are so many different characters and plotlines that were fully cut from the show
[00:28] that will undoubtedly have a massive effect on the landscape of the books in the final two installments. Additionally, we know that David and Dan took a number of creative liberties in what they did with the series after about season 4.
[00:43] We saw plotlines diverge entirely from their book counterparts, characters, twisted this way and that, oftentimes just based on who fans liked in terms of actors and characters. And overall, I think they're going to be very, very different conclusions to a very, very
[00:58] different adaptation and core story. Today, I want to discuss what elements of these final seasons of Game of Thrones do come from Martin or his notes or his ideas, as there are a few instances of us having concrete
[01:13] examples of such events happening in others that seem to be kind of indicated as being notes from the author. I've also seen speculation that Martin is going to change his ending, and oh, part of the
[01:25] reason Wins is taking so long is that he's changing so much to make sure it doesn't line up with the show that everybody hated. I don't think that is the case at all. The show was terrible because the show runners were terrible, and at that point, they were just
[01:38] kind of adapting based on vibes and aura and little else. Look at a feast for crows and an ants with dragons, I've done videos on that in the past, but the two most recent books in the series are pretty much not adapted in their entirety because
[01:51] David and Dan couldn't be bothered to read and understand them. People always say, the problem with the series is running out of books. Well, yes, I do think that having the full picture of the series would have given a showrunner a better idea of what parts of the story are going to be crucial, but we also have two
[02:06] books that are already out that were entirely disregarded, which is often disregarded by the masses. As I mentioned, we have a few concrete notes from Martin, things that David and Dan cited
[02:18] as coming directly from the author that have not yet happened in the published text of the series. Those being in chronological order, coming from season 5, episode 9, Stannis Baratheon
[02:30] burns his daughter, Shireen. There's some weirdness about that in the books. Some people believe he is not going to be the one to burn her, but we do know from Martin's mouth specifically, Stannis is going to be the one to burn his daughter.
[02:42] Then from season 6, episode 6, question mark, I think I remembered that correctly. We have hold the door, Hodor sacrificing himself and having this weird time loop situation where Hodor is really him trying to say, hold the door for his entire life because Bran
[02:58] is just messed with his mind in this weird paradox type thing. It's a really cool scene and it sounds like it's even better in the books. As Martin has specifically said that hold the door is going to be less, this guy just acting
[03:10] as a literal door stop and more like holding the pass, like Gandalf holding off the ball log. So he's going to be actually fighting with a sword, so that's going to be neat to see. The last note comes from the very final episode, that being Bran Stark being king at the end
[03:25] of the series. I've also seen some readers protest that, oh, it won't be Bran at the end of the series, that was awful and makes no sense, but I think it's pretty clearly baked in from the jump. Bran is the first chapter in the entire series, saved for the prologue, which establishes
[03:40] the others. What I do think that he is a very crucial character and I think that there are ways where him becoming king can make a lot more sense. Most notably, if he leans more into the supernatural elements, maybe he uses some power to influence
[03:54] people and is able to get himself to the throne that way, I think it'll be quite interesting and it would explain why this comes out of absolutely nowhere, just being randomly suggested by Tyrion in the show, given that David and Dan didn't like the magic elements and wanted
[04:07] to steer away from them. I also think the framing of how David and Dan learned about these events is quite important. After, I believe it was season 3 or season 4, David and Dan went out to Martin's Santa
[04:21] Fe house and had this essentially two day long rap session where Martin essentially walked them through his general outlines for the future of the series. It's worth noting that Martin is someone who very much doesn't like to outline.
[04:34] He has said as much many, many times in interviews, but here this is done just for the good of ensuring the story is going to remain coherent and he is going to have at least some influence and be projecting some of the ideas that are relevant to the book series.
[04:49] These three specific events and the reason we know about them is these interviews that David and Dan have done. They describe these incidents as three holy shit moments that Martin told them about.
[05:01] I think that framing holy shit moments does say a lot. These are the moments that absolutely shocked David and Dan in terms of the direction of the story and what was going to happen. I think it's pretty interesting and shows some divergence in where these endings are going.
[05:17] I think it's worth noting that these events are two coming fairly early on specifically hold the door and Stanis burning his daughter are both events that are almost certainly going to occur in the winds of winter and going even further.
[05:31] I think that both of those events are pretty likely to be in the first half of the winds of winter. So there is a gap between those and King Brand which I think is going to be the last chapter of the series mirroring him being the first chapter of the series.
[05:44] There's this gulf in between where we have no events that are referenced directly as coming from George Martin and hence that's pretty telling. We should also consider the way in which David and Dan are talking about these notes from
[05:58] Martin specifically in reference to two of these events being the burning of Cherine and King Brand. Their mentioning of Martin's notes reads to me as a defense for criticism that they may
[06:11] receive specifically they received criticism for a number of decisions in the shows past. It may be if they say oh this was the author's idea it was his all along it's on our faults they are going to be able to shield themselves from some of the blowback and I think it is
[06:25] pretty telling that these specific events are the ones that they're claiming some sort of defense for. There are many other events that they really don't do that for despite being much more controversial
[06:38] than King Brand. The big one for me is John Killing Daenerys. I also want to ask are there any elements of the Game of Thrones ending that you think are going to get translated over to the ending of a song by Sinfire?
[06:51] I'd love to hear your opinions in the comments below while you're down there leave like subscribe it really helps me and helps the channel. I did have a recent video where I discussed the possibility of John Killing Daenerys. I do not think it is a sure thing.
[07:03] I do think that was an idea that Martin had in his head at some point in the series past and there's at least some evidence to that fact. In an old draft of a feast for Crows, Slash of Dance with Dragons back when they were only
[07:16] one book we see an early version of a Daenerys dream where she is very clearly dreaming of being stabbed by someone with cold lips and a cold blade which could refer to a resurrected
[07:28] John Snow. There's maybe not fully himself in some form of not necessarily a corpse like Lady Stoneheart, but maybe a little colder than normal, maybe stabbing her like happens on the show. But I think that David and Dan would have have to have known how terribly Daenerys's death
[07:45] was going to go over with fans of the show. She's one of the main characters and her turn into madness comes out of pretty precisely nowhere in the show. There are some hints that something could happen in the books. I don't think she's going to go in that direction.
[07:59] There are hints in Daenerys 10 that you could end up taking a bit more of a hard line stance, but that isn't established whatsoever in the show and it just completely comes out of nowhere. So I think that if they could have fallen back on this being a note from George Martin,
[08:13] he would have done so. David and Dan would have used Martin as a shield to protect themselves and maybe continue being allowed to write a Star War. As mentioned earlier, I think that the gaps between these notes are also telling about the areas
[08:28] of the story that are going to diverge the most. We hear nothing about this all-important plotline with the white walkers, also called the others in the books. And additionally, none of these have anything to do with the war for the Iron Throne in the
[08:42] winds of winter and a dream of spring, other than brand being ruler at the very end. I think that very much tells us that the version of the white walkers we see in the show will be very different from what ends up happening in the books, which I think all of us assumed
[08:56] but it is good to get, I don't know, a little bit more indication in that direction. And going to the Iron Throne point, it is interesting to see them just cut out Aegon and his entirety for those who might not know. This is another claimant who is supposedly the son of Braygar Targaryen who would make
[09:11] a better claim than Daenerys in terms of direct bloodline succession if indeed he is legit, which he probably isn't. So cutting him out entirely does drastically change that storyline, notably with Cersei kind of subbing in as this continuing villain, despite having her have nothing to do for the final
[09:28] two seasons. I will say, I don't think the ending from the show will be entirely divorced from the ending in the text. For instance, I think roughly the same characters will survive.
[09:40] I think we see that the characters who are generally a bit better morally, all of the characters I would describe as like wholly good being like Davos, Sam and Brienne, all of them make it. I think they are going to make it in the books as well, and I think elements of their endings
[09:54] ring true. I don't think Davos is going to end up on the small council, I think ideally he ends up retiring and living with his family, which would be nice, David and Dan just kind of forgot about Davos' family. And the only thing that stands out to me is really ringing true is Brienne ending her
[10:08] story by filling in Jamie's page in the white book. I don't quite know why she'd do that in the show given that he had just kind of abandoned her and kind of soiled his memory with her, but I think that that very much reads as being
[10:22] very important to two, closing both her and Jamie's arcs in the text. As there is a lot more focus on the white book there, and I do see Brienne ending her story as a Kingsguard, as she was introduced to us as Renly's Kingsguard in a clash of
[10:35] Kings. There was another element of the final season of Game of Thrones that I think was retroactively kind of made a little better for happening in the books in House of the Dragon, strangely, when Jace is having a language lesson, lesson on a high Valerian in, I believe it's House
[10:52] of the Dragon season one episode eight Lord of the Tides. We see him talking about trees being filled, and he said says that they are killed. I think that that could indicate that the climax of this story with the others, the white
[11:04] walkers, could end up happening at Winterfell. It makes sense to me. There was something important going on in the Stark crypts, and Winterfell could also be a meaning Winter was killed there, and maybe you could signal that some other element of previous
[11:18] interactions between humans and others could have taken place at Winterfell and thus this kind of height of this conflict could also end up happening at Winterfell. But with that said, it would kind of make the story a bit anticlimactic. I hope even if they do end up kind of ending this story at Winterfell, there's at least
[11:34] more damage done than the show, and the long night lasts a bit longer than 90 minutes. Are you ready for my biggest crackpot theory of all time that I've not seen anyone else mention ever? Okay.
[11:46] So it's about Arya and the Night King. Arya is telling the Night King like sucks, right? It makes no sense. She's not involved in the spot with the Undead, but she was supposed to be. And she is going to have an important plot with Ann Undead in the Winds of Winter.
[11:58] Let me explain. Don't click off. I'm not insane. It makes more sense than you think. In the earliest version of a song of Ice and Fire, this draft letter that was an outline of the entire story as Martin had intended to tell it back in 1992, eight years before
[12:14] I was born. But regardless of that, Arya, Bran and Catlin Stark were all supposed to flee north of the wall during the war of the Five Kings, rather than having each of their individual roles at Winterfell wandering Riverlands or being with Rob's campaign.
[12:29] They're going to get turned away by the Night Swatch, which would create this conflict with John. And once they are north of the wall, similarly going to Blood Ravens Cave where Bran can train, they are attacked by the White Walkers, the others.
[12:41] Catlin Stark is killed there instead of at the Red Wedding. And then she is raised as an other, as a white, I forget which it is. I imagine then Arya might need to kill her.
[12:53] And what's bizarre is I think this is kind of maintained in the series as it currently exists. Catlin is killed and does come back as an undead, rather than a white walker. She is a fire walker.
[13:05] She is a fire white. She's revived by Barric Dondarian. And I believe Arya's story is still kind of on this trajectory to have this interaction with her mother where she is able to give her mother the gift of mercy and prevent her from
[13:20] living this kind of half unlife fueled by, in this case, vengeance if she was turned as an other white walker. I don't know what she'd be fueled by, maybe just cold, but regardless, I think that this idea of Arya killing this plot important other was kind of transposed onto Arya killing the
[13:39] Night King. I think that if we ever see a version of Ice and Fire where Arya ends up killing Stoneheart, I could very much see David and Dan coming out and say, oh yeah, that's why we ended up having her killed the Night King.
[13:51] It all made sense. It was a note from Gurm. It wasn't our fault. Regardless of my incoherent ramblings, I think that the ending of a song of Ice and Fire is very clearly going to be very distinct from that of Game of Thrones.
[14:03] The key there is that the stories are fundamentally not the same. The two latest books in the series, a feast for crows and dance with dragons, well, they have altered the series in certain ways and undoubtedly caused the winds of winter to take longer.
[14:16] They add so much depth to it, as well as adding entirely new plotlines that are undoubtedly going to have massive effects on the plot moving it forward, and we know that much because Martin himself has referenced it.
[14:29] The following comes from a not a blog post by George R. Martin entitled Ending, published the day after the Game of Thrones show ended in 2019. Quote, I'm working in a very different medium than David and Dan, never forget.
[14:44] They had six hours for this final season. I expected these last two books to mine with fill 3,000 manuscript pages between them before I'm done. If more pages and chapters and scenes are needed, I'll add them.
[14:56] Of course, the butterfly effect will be at work as well, shout out to Hot D. For those of you who follow this not a blog, you'll know that I've been talking about this since season 1. There are characters who never made it to the screen at all, and others who died on the
[15:08] show, but still live in the books. So if nothing else, readers will learn what happened to Jane Poole, Lady Stoneheart, Penny and her pig, Scott Haws, Shavepate, Ariane Martell, Darkstar, Victorian Greyjoy, Sir Garland
[15:22] the Gallant, Aegon VI, and a myriad of other characters, both great and small, that viewers of the show never had the chance to meet, and yes, there will be unicorns of a sort. Booker Show, which will be the real ending?
[15:35] It's a silly question, how many children did Scarlet O'Hara have? How about this? I'll write it, you read it, then everyone can make up their own mind, and are you about it on the internet. Thank you all so much for watching.
[15:47] Let me know what you think in the comments down below, leave a like and subscribe, I really appreciate it, and it does really help grow the channel of many more videos for you in the very near future about a song of ice and fire, how's the dragon, duck and egg, Game of Thrones, and I hope you'll join me for all of those, I look forward to sharing them, and
[16:03] yeah, I'll keep you updated on what I'm working on. I'm starting year three law school, starting next week, I start on the 25th, so videos might get a bit more sporadic, we will see, I'm gonna try to balance work in life as best
[16:15] I can.