How to “fix” Game of Thrones season 8

Daenerys should just target the Red Keep, not King’s Landing in general

My hope is that all of these changes would lay some groundwork so that when Daenerys chooses violence, we understand her better, regardless of whether we approve. That said, even with all of these additions, I’m still not sure I would buy her indiscriminately burning random people.

So what if her spree was a bit more targeted? I think I could buy Dany’s turn easier if, rather than spraying fire among the populace at random, she made straight for the Red Keep, where Cersei is watching from her balcony, and started to burn that.

However, that raises new problems: Jon Snow kills Dany in the series finale not because she fried a castle but because she burned a city and sounds like she plans to burn more. I’ll admit that this is the suggestion I’m least sure about. In order for the story to work, Dany has to cross a line she cannot uncross. The city still has to burn, and Dany has to be behind it.

My idea (and it’s not an original one, plenty of fans have come to the same conclusion) is to add in a new subplot where Cersei, inspired by the destruction of the Sept of Baelor, pulls an accidental Mad King and lines the tunnels beneath King’s Landing with casks of wildfire, intending to light the match if it looks like the city will fall. But when she sees Dany and Drogon coming for her, she loses her nerve and tries to make a run for it, knowing that setting off the wildfire will kill her and her unborn baby as well as everybody else. At the last moment, Cersei finds that she actually wants to live; that’s consistent with how she dies with Jaime during her attempted escape.

And here’s the key bit: Dany has to know that Cersei has taken this explosive precaution, or at least that it’s a possibility. My idea is for Jaime to suspect Cersei of planning something like this in season 7, but not look too deeply into it for fear of confirming his worst fears. When he heads to Winterfell in season 8, he shares his suspicions with Tyrion, who shares them with Daenerys the night before the attack.

And yet Daenerys attacks anyway, knowing what might happen. While she’s burning the area near the Red Keep, part of the ground collapses, exposing some casks of wildfire. Drogon’s flames set off a chain reaction that rips through the city even as her armies sack the place.

When the smoke clears, Daenerys is victorious, but at a horrible cost, both to the country she hopes to rule and to herself.

Aftermath

There are other things in season 8 I take issue with. I think Dany’s death scene could use a once-over. I think Dany should come back to herself a bit more before Jon kills her, and that Jon should execute her rather than assassinate her; I think he should formally declare himself Lord of the Seven Kingdoms and Protector of the Realm before he does it, coming into his kingly authority for this one grim task and this one grim task alone.

I think there should be more horse-trading before Bran is made king; everyone signs on awfully quickly. I imagine Arya leaning on Gendry, and Sansa dangling a Northern-Ironborn alliance in front of Yara Greyjoy and a potential political marriage in front of Robin Arryn in order to secure their votes. But really, my main problem with the final season is Daenerys’ heel turn: do that right and I suspect that most of the rest will fall into place.

So what do you think? Would any of these suggestions improve the final season, or is it beyond saving? Or maybe it doesn’t need saving at all? And if you want to go another round, lots of other fans have already played this game:

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