Game Of Thrones Ending: Predicting What The Books Will (& Won't) Change

8. How The White Walkers Are Defeated

It seems very unlikely that Daenerys will arrive in Westeros to become its Queen, suddenly get sidetracked into fighting in the Great War for Jon Snow, and then go back down south to defeat (f)Aegon. It works in the show for making the Iron Throne the endpoint and because the Young Griff character doesn't exist, even if they still rushed the White Walkers' ending, but it doesn't make much sense from a book perspective.

Daenerys' focus when she gets to Westeros is absolutely going to be the Iron Throne, and the mummer's dragon who sits on it. That's what everything has been working towards and, whether it's late in The Winds of Winter or earlier in A Dream of Spring, she'll go there. It's after that her attention will turn north: with the threat of the Others too great to ignore, and Dany herself needing to find a sense of redemption after killing so many people in King's Landing, she'll head off to fight for the living.

In the books, the White Walkers - or Others - don't have a Night King-like figurehead, so we're not going to see Arya get that specific hero's moment, although she will likely be a part of the fighting at Winterfell and may well kill an Other. There's also no 'kill the Night King, kill them all' rule, so again the mechanics of how they're defeated is going to be quite different.

There will likely be a major battle between them at Winterfell, but The Long Night will surely go on for longer in the books, and they could well make it further south. Whether that's to the Isle of Faces, the Trident, or King's Landing itself, we'll probably see another last stand against these forces that ultimately beats them back, at a huge cost and sacrifice of human life.