10 ways Game of Thrones could end

2. The Seven Kingdoms go back to being seven kingdoms

So we’ve talked about a variety of kings and queens who could be on the throne at the end of this story, and we’ve talked about the Westerosi giving democracy a try. That’s basically the option between staying the course or moving forward, civilizationally speaking. But there’s a third option: what if Westeros goes backward, and once again becomes a network of feuding kingdoms without a central ruler?

There are a bunch of ways this could happen. For instance, what if Jon and Daenerys learn the secret of Jon’s heritage — that he’s actually Dany’s nephew AND the rightful heir to the Iron Throne — and it pushes them apart? At the end of the show, rather than fighting for the throne, perhaps they’d prefer to divide up Westeros among themselves, each ending the show a ruler, but splitting the realm irreconcilably.

Or, even worse, what if all the potentially good rulers die in the wars to come, and when the dust has settled the people of Westeros decide they’d all rather just rule themselves like they did before the Targaryens arrived and united them under one monarch?

This would be yet another bleak way to bow out, but to paraphrase a memorable psychopath, if you think this story has a happy ending, you haven’t been paying attention.