History Fridge / GameOfThronesS8E6TheIronThrone

* This video [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4-lavfgIBw&feature=em-uploademail]] notes that the Starks splitting into two branches (the North and South) parallels the Plantagenets, whose conflict led to the Wars of the Roses, a major inspiration for the books, then the TV series. Bran can't have children, true, but what if Arya at some point does and her descendants are at odds with Sansa's? A closer parallel of those wars might take place.
* There's a uniquely chilling realization when you compare the two and realize that, by the end of the series, Sansa has become ''exactly like Cersei''. The second half of season 8 literally depends on Sansa being so obsessed with obtaining personal power that she's willing to play the "Game of Thrones" herself, even at the extent of those who care about her. In a way, Daenerys' fall was Sansa's tool for herself to rise and become the Queen in the North. And if she's willing to do the things she did to get this far... how much further will she go?

* Despite losing her way, in the end Daenerys ''did'' end up "smashing the wheel" as she intended. Her actions demonstrated to everyone just how dangerous a single person with such unchecked power could be, while her death left a power vacuum, giving the remaining Lords the chance to reform the government into an ElectiveMonarchy, thereby preventing unfit rulers from rising to power.

** If he was aware of Dany's descent into madness then him letting countless innocents in King's Landing die makes him come off no better than Dany. At the very least, Dany was driven by madness while Bran was fully aware of his actions.

* This video [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4-lavfgIBw&feature=em-uploademail]] notes that the Starks splitting into two branches (the North and South) parallels the Plantagenets, whose conflict led to the Wars of the Roses, a major inspiration for the books, then the TV series. Bran can't have children, true, but what if Arya at some point does and her descendants are at odds with Sansa's? A closer parallel of those wars might take place.

*** The Wildlings would be lucky to even be numbered in two thousand at this point, and most of them would be women and children, and that is assuming most Wildlings go back to beyond the wall instead of just staying south. Of the five thousand who originally escaped Hardhome, the Battle of the Bastards probably kill a ton, then there's the fall of Eastwatch where a lot of wildlings were in the collapsing section, and there's the Battle of Ice and Fire which probably kills half of what's left. It would definitely take hundreds if not thousands of year for the Wildlings to regain their pre-White Walker number. Wildlings are only dangerous because of their huge number. Without that, they are no better than the Hill tribes, which Westeros have lived with for thousands of years without a wall. Peace with them would last for a very long time. The fact that the Night Watch still have a practical use as a penal colony is no proof that their condition won't deteriorate. The simple fact of the matter is that people used to donate enough money to keep them in fighting condition. Now that there is no need for that, expect people to give just enough for the order not to instantly fall apart.

*** The Wildlings would be lucky to even be numbered in two thousand at this point, and most of them would be women and children, and that is assuming every Wildling goes back to beyond the wall instead of just staying south. Of the five thousand who originally escaped, the Battle of the Bastards probably kill a ton, then there's the fall of Eastwatch where a lot of wildlings were in the collapsing section, and there's the Battle of Ice and Fire which probably kills half of what's left. It would definitely take hundreds if not thousands of year for the Wildlings to regain their pre-White Walker number. Wildlings are only dangerous because of their huge number. Without that, they are practically just a snowy version of the Hill tribes, which Westeros have lived with for thousands of years without a wall. Peace with them would last for a very long time. The fact that the Night Watch still have a practical use as a penal colony doesn't prove that it won't become worse.

*** The Wildlings would be lucky to even be numbered in two thousand at this point, and most of them would be women and children, and that is assuming every Wildling goes back to beyond the wall instead of just staying south. Of the five thousand who originally escaped, the Battle of the Bastards probably kill a ton, then there's the fall of Eastwatch where a lot of wildlings were in the collapsing section, and there's the Battle of Ice and Fire which probably kills half of what's left. It would definitely take hundreds, if not thousands, of year for the Wildlings to regain their pre-White Walker number. Peace with them would last for a very long time. The fact that the Night Watch still have a practical use as a penal colony doesn't prove that it won't become worse now that all pretenses are gone.

*** They are vindicated and rendered obsolete at the same time. They are vindicated as guardians of the living, sure, but what are they guarding the living against now? People know of nothing else beyond the wall, so the current Night Watch is still as good as guarding the realm against mythical beings. The only thing left that might be out there that everyone knows about is the Children of the Forest, but Bran probably tells everyone about how they are or about to be extinct because it's essential to his story. The awareness of the WW probably won't help much, because it's already proven that Southern Lords don't care about the Wall while the White Walkers are already ''inside'' of it. The only reason left for the NW to exist is as a glorified penal colony and dumping ground for unwanted people, which is no good reason.

** There's also a massive hole in the Wall now that wasn't there before, necessitating men be there to guard it. One has to remember that as friendly as Tormund and Jon are, the people of Westeros still see the wildlings as barely-human barbarian savages and can't expect any peace with them to last any real length of time. Aside from that, well, for hundreds of years at least, no one thought the night's watch was actually necessary; people in the North thought the walkers were long extinct, people in the south thought they never existed, and no one actually considered the wildlings much of a real threat to the realm - Mance Rayder's army was only a threat because Robb had taken the northern forces south, and would have crumbled against real opposition, as demonstrated by Stannis. The Night's Watch existed for hundreds of years under the pretense of protecting the realm from threats from the north, but in actual practice, existed as a convenient place to send unwanted sons, bastards, and criminals who were politically inconvenient to execute. The fact that the pretenses for the Night's Watch's existence are a lot weaker now don't remove it's practical application as a penal colony and exile.

*** True, but if a lot of people start converting to a new religion, that might revive the Faith Militant as part of a backlash. Particularly when Bran is so linked to the Old Gods (plus his family followed them to begin with, aside from Catelyn Stark).

** There's also a massive hole in the Wall now that wasn't there before, necessitating men be there to guard it. One has to remember that as friendly as Tormund & Jon are, the people of Westeros still see the wildlings as barely-human barbarian savages and can't expect any peace with them to last any real length of time. Aside from that, well, for hundreds of years at least, no one thought the night's watch was actually necessary; people in the North thought the walkers were long extinct, people in the south thought they never existed, and no one actually considered the wildlings much of a real threat to the realm - Mance Rayder's army was only a threat because Robb had taken the northern forces south, and would have crumbled against real opposition, as demonstrated by Stannis. The Night's Watch existed for hundreds of years under the pretense of protecting the realm from threats from the north, but in actual practice, existed as a convenient place to send unwanted sons, bastards, and criminals who were politically inconvenient to execute. The fact that the pretenses for the Night's Watch's existence are a lot weaker now don't remove it's practical application as a penal colony and exile.

** There's also a massive hole in the Wall now that wasn't there before, necessitating men be there to guard it. One has to remember that as friendly as Tormund & Jon are, the people of Westeros still see the wildlings as barely-human barbarian savages and can't expect any peace with them to last any real length of time. Aside from that, well, for hundreds of years at least, no one thought the night's watch was actually necessary; people in the North thought the walkers were long extinct, people in the south thought they never existed, and no one actually considered the wildlings much of a real threat to the realm - Mance Rayder's army was only a threat because Robb had taken the northern forces south, and would have crumbled against real opposition, as demonstrated by Stannis. The Night's Watch existed for hundreds of years under the pretense of protecting the realm from threats from the north, but in actual practice, existed as a convenient place to send unwanted sons, bastards, and criminals who were politically inconvenient to execute. The fact that the pretenses for the Night's Watch's existence are a lot weaker now don't remove it's practical application as a penal colony & exile.

* Drogon takes Dany's body with him as he flies off. He is last spotted flying east towards Volantis. What lies in the east? The Red Priests, who have been shown capable of bringing people back from the dead...

** It's unlikely there's much fight left in the Faith of the Seven. The High Septon/Sparrow and most of the fanatical Faith Militant died when Cersei immolated the Great Sept of Baelor. If there was anyone left who cared they would probably have come for Cersei in the immediate aftermath of that event.

* "When you play the game of thrones, you win or you die" turns out to be true: Every major character who actually played the game (i.e., sought power) winds up dead except Sansa, who wins by becoming Queen in the North. Bran, who winds up King of the Six Kingdoms, and Jon, who winds up (effectively) King Beyond the Wall, never sought power.

* Jon Snow's actions in the final episode, where he abandons Castle Black and heads back into the Far North with the surviving Free Folk makes ''perfect'' sense; there is no Night's Watch anymore, it doesn't exist as a formal organization and with the White Walkers and the Night King destroyed, there's no point to its existence, either. Especially since there's a giant hole blown in the eastern expanse of the Wall! Jon Snow's "punishment" was, effectively, an excuse to "exile" him to the Far North for the remainder of his life -- the Essossi wouldn't know that Jon didn't view it as a punishment, the Northerners didn't care that it wasn't actually punishing him (since they wanted him free in the first place), and the Six Kingdoms' denizens neither knew nor care. And Jon? He knew he was being given an opportunity to do what he really wanted; leave the Seven Kingdoms and all of their bad memories behind to instead lose himself in the place where he first learned to be happy and free with the Wildlings.

** At this point, Beyond the Wall is likely the safest and healthiest place for Jon to be, too. [[HeterosexualLifePartners Tormund]] and the Wildlings are [[UndyingLoyalty fiercely loyal to him]] because of the shelter he offered them after Hardhome, none of them care about Jon's titles or parentage, and Jon's about as far removed from the South and Essos as he can possibly get. Moreso than any of the other Starks, Jon is at his happiest far away from the political games they play in the Seven Kingdoms.

* In the War for the Dawn, both the Old Gods and the Lord of Light made their existence known while the Seven had no involvement. This leads to the question of what will happen to Westeros as many followers of the Seven convert to gods who they now know are real as opposed to gods who are either apathetic or nonexistent. Does this lay the groundwork for a holy war as the Faith of the Seven, who have a long history of reacting violently to anything that goes against their teachings, clash against the new religions growing in the continent?

*** Then again, who is innocent anymore?

** Jon was the only one unable to truly choose and was forced into exile at or North of the Wall...But then again Jon is "Not a Stark".

* On a meta level, there are people concerned about Sam and Gilly's relationship, since he has become Grand Master and Maesters are supposed to be celibate. But if you look at Sam's maester's chain, it only has a handful of proper links in it (an apprentice becomes a Maester when he has forged enough links to wear his chain like a necklace) and is held up by a normal chain. Sam isn't a proper Maester, he simply occupies the position of Grand Maester (the King's chief academic advisor), either by will of the King or as a political move by the Citadel to curry favor with the new regime.

** The masters probably revolted the moment Daenerys left. She left three barely stable cities under one man with skewed morals and no experience in ruling. It's doubtful that that went well.

** The Night's Watch just received the greatest advertisement they could have asked for - an actual invasion by the White Walkers. Sure, the Night King was killed and the army of the dead crumbled, but can one be sure there's nothing ELSE beyond the Wall? The Watch was underfunded as everyone thought they were guarding against mythical beings, a refuge for the unwanted, but now they've been vindicated and, at least in the North, respected as an organization. They can likely expect a renewed amount of funding and personnel.

* On a meta level, there are people concerned about Sam and Gilly's relationship, since he has become Grand Master and Maesters are supposed to be celibate. But if you look at Sam's maester's chain, it only has a handful of proper links in it(An apprentice becomes a Maester when he has forged enough links to wear his chain like a necklace) and is held up by a normal chain. Sam isn't a proper Maester, he simply occupies the position of Grand Maester (the King's chief academic advisor), either by will of the King or as a political move by the Citadel to curry favor with the new regime.

* Daenerys' control over the former slaver cities of Essos depended on the nobles fearing her and her dragons. The series ends with Daenerys dead, as well as two of her dragons, and Drogon has flown away to parts unknown. Her army of Unsullied and Dothraki are both weakened and seemingly have no intention of returning to their homeland. For all intents and purposes, the Masters of Slaver's Bay are free to try and overthrow Daario and resume their cruel practices without fear of reprisal.

* Drogon takes Dany's body with him as he flies off. He is last spotted flying east. What lies in the east? The Red Priests, who have been shown capable of bringing people back from the dead...

** It's even worse considering a dragon's natural lifespan can be measured in centuries. Drogon's going to be lonely for a ''long'' time.

* The first corpse Tyrion sees while surveying the damage is a little girl, looking no more than seven, laying facedown towards the city gate. She doesn't appear burned. This opens a bunch of horrific scenarios about her end:
** She was running to escape the city, and she ''almost'' made it.
** She could have been killed by falling debris.
** Even worse, she could have been murdered by an Unsullied, Dothraki or Northman in cold blood.