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If you’ve read all of the Song of Ice and Fire books then you know what’s going to happen in the next few seasons of Game of Thrones. But what do you want to happen? Not only in the show, but in the book series itself?

We took an informal poll amongst the Game of Thrones-happy staff here, asking those who have only seen the show what they want to happen and asking those have read the books what they would like to happen. How about you?

 

Spoilers ahead for the entire book series and the forthcoming season of Game of Thrones!

 

WHAT WE’D LIKE TO SEE IN GAME OF THRONES

Chris Lough: Just combine A Feast For Crows and A Dance With Dragons in an interesting way. The show is so entertaining, that’s all I ask!

Leah Schnelbach: What I really want is for the last book to be about how the throne doesn’t actually matter—I want it to devolve into an apocalyptic showdown between endless armies of White Walkers and thousands of dragons that just spontaneously reawaken, with all of the humans getting mowed down. No more POV characters—no more POV!—just an omniscient third person narrator describing the destruction of the two non-human armies. The epilogue of the last book is set a thousand years in the future, and tells the story of the descendants of the remaining humans who managed to hide out until the dragon/zombie war ended in mutual destruction. The humans are better now than they were—rather than worshipping Lords of Light, Drowned Gods, or illusions of power and wealth, they spend their lives seeking knowledge, sex, and drunkenness, all in honor of the One True Lord, Tyr the God-Imp, whose exploits have been immortalized in stories and songs. Oh, and no one gets on a boat, ever.

There, see? A happy ending.

Emmet Asher-Perrin: SPACE DRAGONS. Then Daenerys can rule from a THRONE OF STARS.

Bridget McGovern: In terms of my what I’d like to see in the upcoming season and beyond…obviously, I’m looking forward to seeing how the show will handle the Purple Wedding ; I just hope that it’s every bit as crazy and dramatic as the Red Wedding was horrific and heartbreaking. For the most part, I’m happy to wait to see what the writers of the show are going to adapt the source material, but if I had my druthers, we’d see all of the following:

  • I’d like to see Daenerys and Daario’s flirtation unfold with about 90% less skeeviness. I know that skeeviness is hard to quantify, but there was really nothing I enjoyed about their interactions in the books; I kept feeling like I was supposed to view his behavior as charming swagger, when all that came across was an irritating, tricked-out hustler with a gold-tooth who can’t keep his hands off his naked-lady daggers. Since I couldn’t find any charm in Daario, it made Dany’s response to him that much more baffling (and oddly disappointing, if that makes any sense?) So if the show could throw in a little more banter and actual charm and a little less leering and braggadocio, I’ll be thrilled.
  • Less time spent with the Greyjoy clan: No offense to the House Greyjoy fans out there, but I’m hoping the show really boils down all the time the books spend on the Iron Islanders, apart from the already-established characters of Theon and Yara (Asha). Sometimes reading the Greyjoy POV chapters feels to me like being forced to eat your vegetables…and those vegetables are cold, and slimy, and taste like salt water and despair and wet feet. I’m not saying that Euron, Victarion, and the Damphair need to be cut entirely—I just hope the series doesn’t spend a ton of time on the kingsmoot and other grim, kraken-y business when there’s already so much ground to cover elsewhere.
  • A stronger, savvier Sansa: I know that the character of Sansa is a lightning rod for all sorts of conflicting opinions among GoT/AsoIaF fans; as much as I disliked her very early on in the books, I think that the series and Sophie Turner’s performance has breathed additional life into the character, or at least managed to drive home aspects of Sansa that I didn’t necessarily appreciate at first glance. Personally, I would love to see Sansa Stark evolving over time into a more calculating, shrewder, more worldly figure (both on the show and in the books)—not necessarily more mercenary or less empathetic, but as long as she’s stuck with Littlefinger, one can only hope that she’ll pick up a few tricks and start employing them to her own benefit…

 

Iron Throne Marc Simonetti

WHAT WE’D LIKE TO SEE IN A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE

Theresa DeLucci: I wish Benjen Stark would return to the Wall and tell Jon who his parents are. It’s supremely unsatisfying, especially on the TV show, for Benjen to be in the first few episodes and then disappear forever. If the universe is determined to keep Starks from ever reuniting, all Starks should at least get the courtesy of dying onscreen (in some horrible fashion of course.) My feelings might also be biased because I love all fictional big-nosed brothers of Sean Bean. Benjen is the new Faramir, okay? He should be equally as worthy of some more story.

I had held out hope for Benjen in the books, when everyone thought that he might be Coldhands, but, alas, it was not to be. I’d like some closure. Even if that means Benjen coming back as a big-nosed wight.

Also, having seen the season four premiere, I want a third Daario.

Chris Lough: I want what I think a lot of readers generally want: Daenerys to head west, the Starks to start reuniting, and so forth. But what I want from the next book in this series, more than anything else, is for something good to happen to a character. Not bittersweet, not okay, just flat out good.

I think the story needs this kind of relief now and then and I worry that Martin might be stuck in this kind of loop where he feels that death and trauma is part of the appeal of the series so he has to double down on it with every new book. I found A Dance With Dragons to be a complete slog because of this (well, this and the constant walking and boating and stew-eating) and when Jon got stabbed at the end of the book it didn’t at all feel like a big climactic moment, just more of the same ol’ ultraviolence. It’s gotten to the point in the series where a hope being fulfilled would actually be shocking.

Bridget McGovern: In terms of what I’d like to see happen in the books still to come…I actually haven’t read any of the material released from The Winds of Winter so far, so I’ll just keep these general, short, and sweet:

  • Jon Snow totally survives the events of A Dance with Dragons to live and pout another day.
  • Rickon gets a POV. I would love to know what goes on in that kid’s head—he’s such an unknown quantity, at this point: is he irreparably warped from all the terrible things that have happened in his young life, or will he bounce back? Also, tell us everything about Shaggydog (best name for a direwolf ever.)
  • The Triumphant Return of Syrio Forel and/or Nymeria: I realize that one of these returns is far more likely to happen than the other, but both would be welcomed and appreciated. Especially if it helps bring a little of Arya’s humanity back, in some way…
  • Leave the Hound’s fate ambiguous: The Hound might be dead. Or, he might have survived, given up his violent past and begun a new life as a novice at the monastery on the Quiet Isle (depending on how you interpret the comments made by the Elder Brother of the monastery to Brienne in A Feast for Crows). I actually would prefer to leave the question open—I like not knowing, but being left with the possibility that Sandor Clegane finally found some peace (or at least, a less violent and bloody mode of existence).
  • Podrick survives Lady Stoneheart’s noose. That would be nice.
  • No more random characters named Pate. Unless all the Pates eventually get tired of all this outdated imperialist dogma, see the violence inherent in the system, rise up, melt down the Iron Throne, and reinvent Westeros as an anarcho-syndicalist commune (with each Pate taking turns acting as executive officer for the week)…in which case: all power to the Pates.

 

Your turn! What’s your wish list for the series, be it in TV or book form?


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