8 Wild Ideas To End Game Of Thrones Without Disappointing Everyone
3. The Bast*rds Ending
Following the sacking of King’s Landing and the destruction of the Red Keep, none of the remaining nobility will accept Daenerys’ rule. In a moment of clarity she recognises that she cannot burn all of Westeros to kindling, and abdicates her claim to the throne, retreating to Dragonstone and from there to Essos with Drogon and the remaining Dothraki and Unsullied.
Sick of it all, Jon refuses to acknowledge his parentage. Frustrated, Tyrion has a brainwave: he calls the newly legitimised Gendry Baratheon, Lord of Storm’s End, to King’s Landing, and the surviving nobility recognise the baffled former blacksmith as the sole legal heir to Robert Baratheon’s crown.
King Gendry names Arya Stark his Kingsguard: when asked why he has only the one, he smiles and replies that clearly they haven’t met her.
As Hand, Tyrion recognises that the North has never been so volatile and in order to head off the possibility of yet more civil war, suggests a secession: Gendry formally legitimises Jon, naming Jon Stark the heir to Eddard Stark’s name and lands.
In turn, Jon reclaims the title of King In The North and takes the remains of Castle Black as his seat, determining to bring down what remains of the Wall and bring the free folk under his protection. Sansa is named Lady of Winterfell and Jon’s Hand, and Ser Brienne is named Wardeness Of The North: her first act is to knight young Podrick Payne.