And now it ends …

Summary: Sometimes the line between the "good guys" and the "bad guys" can be a bit blurry, and the good guys don't always win. If the odds are not in your favour and you have made too many silly costly mistakes, sometimes you do lose and sometimes you do have to pay. Set after the events of season 7.

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1) And so it begins.

Winterfell:

"They said he was due to arrive today" the soldier told his companion at the tower.

"King in the North" the other guard replied, his gaze lost in the distance. "Do you think it's true?" he asked his friend after a tense silence.

"What?"

"That he's bent the knee. That he has surrendered the North to this Targaryen girl"

"What are you talking about?"

"Well, that's what I have heard. Mikka mentioned it in the hall the other day as we were having a drink. He said he heard it from Tatto, who heard it from Lusha, you know, Lady Sansa's chambermaid."

"I wouldn't know. The Ladies Stark and the little cripple Lord have been very quiet lately."

"Very tight-lipped and mysterious. Makes you wonder, doesn't it?"

"Do you think they are hiding something?"

"According to Tatto, Lusha has heard them talk in whispers and has seen them read letters. We have not been told of any news since King Jon left Winterfell but something is definitely going on. Apparently Lusha has heard them talk about this Targaryen Queen that King Jon agreed to meet."

"That could mean anything" the soldier replied shrugging his shoulders.

"Yeah, maybe .. or it could mean everything" the other soldier countered raising his eyebrows. "I was talking to Daygo the other day. Do you remember the fat man that showed up last week with that girl and the baby? Well, Daygo said he is a Brother of the Night Watch."

"Yes, mhh, the one who keeps mumbling and speaks strange? I can't get a word he says. Sam something, isn't it?"

"Tarly. Samwell Tarly. But he has a wife and a baby! Aren't they supposed to take no wife? Has he deserted the Watch and taken up a girl?"

"I wouldn't jump to conclusions just yet. Maybe he's just on his way back to Castle Black" the man offered.

"I'm not jumping into anything, but if he was a Brother who was just on his way back, wouldn't he have left by now? And why is he with his wife and baby?"

"Stop being so distrustful"

"Am I? As I was telling you, I was talking to Daygo the other day. He says chubby boy and Lord Bran spend hours in the library just talking. He told me that he heard them whisper names like Lyanna and Rhaegar and Elia."

"Lyanna? As in ..?" he trailed uncertain whether he should finish the sentence.

"Yes, Lyanna and Rhaegar. It rings a bell, doesn't it? And Elia" he paused until his friend nodded in recognition. "Well, chubby boy and Lord Bran go into the library at different times and through different doors and then they leave their separate ways to pretend they were not even together. I'm telling you. They are hiding something. They all are! Lord Ned and Lady Catelyn were never this secretive."

"I think you're just being paranoid" his friend snorted.

"Am I? Did you see what they did to that Baelish guy?"

"Lord Baelish?"

"Yeah, they killed him"

"Mhh. I always found him a bit creepy. I never did like the guy much" he replied noncommittally.

"Me neither. But they killed him, nonetheless."

"Yeah, they said he had betrayed Lord Eddard and Lady Catelyn, and then tricked Sansa. So, it serves him right, I suppose"

"Exactly: they said. But we don't know, do we?"

"Don't you trust Lady Sansa and Lady Arya, and Lord Bran?"

"I shouldn't answer that question" the man whispered shaking his head lightly. "But I was there in the hall. The two Ladies kept talking about all the supposed crimes he had committed and Lord Bran just mentioned events there is no way he could have known, events he was not privy to or never even witnessed. Lady Sansa also accused him of killing Lady Lysa in the Eyrie, but I was told that when Lady Lysa died, it was Sansa who vouched for him. But now she just changed her words. And then Arya just killed him."

"He was executed."

"That was no official execution, that was murder in cold blood. They just told him: you are guilty of this and that and Lady Arya just slit his throat" he explained running his own finger along his friend's neck. "He wasn't even allowed to defend or explain himself. I didn't really know the man, so I cannot say whether he's guilty or not. All I know is that he saved Lady Sansa in the capital and he brought the army that won us the battle. We wouldn't be here if it were not for him. Jon had an army, but he never had a plan. He had the numbers, but not the brain. He just led his men foolishly to their deaths – not something an experienced commander would do, is it?"

"True. But then, don't you think Lady Sansa should have told Jon that her army was coming?"

"Aye, absolutely! She is as much to blame as he is."

"But we did win."

"Not us. The men from the Vale won. Our army had all but lost the battle. Jon would have died in the field out there" he continued pointing to the field outside the castle walls where the battle against Ramsay's army had taken place. "Our skinless bodies would be hanging from the battlements under the Bolton banners were it not for Baelish and his army" he added turning his eyes back at his friend. "And that is how they repay him" he ran his thumbnail along his own throat. "Doesn't that make you wonder?"

"Wonder what?"

"Whether you'll be next. How do we know they won't just accuse you of things and kill you before you have a chance to defend yourself? I'm telling you, I was there, that was no execution. That was bloody murder. And that Lady Arya relished the sight of blood and Lady Sansa was smirking. That's not the way Lord Eddard used to do things, that's not the way he dealt Justice."

"Yeah, maybe" came his unconvinced reply.

"Have you noticed the way the King and Lady Sansa keep bickering? That's not a sign of strong leadership in time of war, is it?"

"I wouldn't call it bickering"

"He keeps blindsiding her and acting without consulting with her, and she keeps questioning him in public. It's like they are vying for power. I remember when Lord Eddard and Lady Catelyn were alive. They would never argue in public. I know the Lords chose Jon as their King. I was there in the Hall when Lady Mormont gave her speech. It was quite powerful and moving; it convinced me. But now I'm not so sure they made the right choice."

"Do you think they should have chosen Sansa?"

"Maybe. Or none at all. I fear for us now. I fear for the North" his voice faded in an ominous tone.

"I don't know. I think you're blowing things out of proportion."

"That may be so. But unfortunately, I'm not the only one" he finished and held his friend's gaze for a minute before turning back to the frozen landscape below him.

The noise was the first thing that reached them. The two friends in the tower steeled themselves and got their bows ready. For a few moments nothing but this screeching sound could be sensed, until a black shadow appeared in the sky. As the shadow crept closer, they could see that it was not one but two creatures, and they had wings. The two friends did not dare utter a word. But they both knew what those creatures were. Dragons.

No sooner had they raised the alarm than a spec of dust appeared in the horizon. As the cloud of dust got closer to the castle, the guards were able to make out the horses and the banners they were carrying: the grey direwolf of House Stark and a banner the North had not seen in years - a red three-headed dragon on a field of black.

"King Jon" the first man said pointing at the horses on the ground, "and the Targaryen Queen" he concluded raising his eyes into the sky at the dragons, one of which was indeed carrying a person.

A welcoming party left the gates to see to the incoming riders. Lady Sansa and Lady Arya were seen rushing about in the yard, pushing Lord Brandon in his chair. From the tower, the two soldiers saw their King come in through the gates and be greeted by his siblings. King Jon dismounted and waved his hand into the air. It was a cue. A screech was heard again and the two soldiers gasped and held their breath as the two dragons landed in the middle of the yard in Winterfell. It was a sight to behold: fire breathing creatures landing on the cold pale snow and a girl with the whitest hair the soldiers had ever seen.

Jon held out his hand and helped the girl off the dragon. He kissed her hand tenderly and then gave her a peck on her lips. He got on his knees and signaled for his siblings to do the same. Upon seeing the Ladies Stark courtesy and pay respects to the girl, everybody else in the yard mimicked their gesture.

"People of Winterfell" Jon's voice broke through the silence as he addressed the terrified crowd getting back on his feet. "I give you Queen Daenerys Targaryen. Queen of the Seven Kingdoms"

TBC

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Note: I am very disappointed in the new direction taken by the show: it goes completely against the spirit of the books and the first seasons.

At the beginning, if someone made a mistake, they paid. Characters like Ned, Catelyn, Robb, Tywin, Stannis, and others behaved in a much more honorable way throughout and were smarter and more pragmatic than the leading characters we have now, but when they made mistakes they had to pay. Most of their mistakes were justified or even logical given the circumstances and what they knew, and they did not even have such far reaching consequences. Now we have Jon, Dany, Sansa, Arya, Jaime, Tyrion behaving in extremely dishonorable ways and making lots of silly costly mistakes (most due to arrogance and stupidity) and not only are they not held accountable for them, but they are actually rewarded!

At the beginning characters acted upon what they knew. If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck. Then maybe, with more information and after other factors came into play, in hindsight it turned out that it was not a duck but a swan. Well, for the past three season, the quote has been changed to "Even though it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, quacks like a duck, and I have no reason to think otherwise, somehow, I know it is a swan. Why? Just because." This is ridiculous! Davos went to great risks to resurrect Jon and he had no idea who he was. Dany took a big risk trusting Tyrion when she had no idea who he was and it made a lot more sense to have him executed. Characters just appear to know the truth for no reason. Now, after season 7, given the way the Starks have behaved, and especially if the truth about Lyanna comes out, there is no way the North can trust them. It looks very very suspicious. An omnipresent reader can know the truth, but that's not the way it looks. For the Northerners, if they look like liars, they sound like liars, they behave like liars, then, they are probably liars….

At the beginning, if a character found himself in a situation from which there was no way out, they died, regardless of who they were – main character or not. What set GoT apart was not that it dared to kill main characters, but that if a character had to die, they died. There were no unreal last minute rescues. Ned was imprisoned and he died. Cat and Robb were betrayed and they died. Drogo died from an infection and Robert from a boar's attack. But now, a little girl like Arya is stabbed countless times and falls into a dirty river and she survives, Jaime manages to swim one-handedly across a river while wounded and wearing full armour and Dany doesn't even bother looking for him when he is the main enemy, Jorah gets an incurable disease but somebody without medical background whatsoever finds a cure, etc. The plot armor that surrounds Jon is so silly it's not even funny anymore. He should be dead three times already! Davos had no business bringing him back and his resurrection made no sense. He should have died at the Battle of Winterfell where he was trampled over by horses and buried under thousands of corpses. He should have died together with his new gang when they were surrounded by the whitewalkers, that last minute rescue by Danerys was ridiculous. He should have died when he fell under freezing water and had a horde of zombies pulling him down. The fact that he was able to pull free, climb up and avoid the effects of hypothermia is laughable. And that last minute rescue by Benjen was just the icing of the cake in the most absurd of plot armors ever seen. This is the complete opposite of Game of Thrones.

So, here I wanted to go back to the original spirit of Asoiaf. Characters only know what they have seen or been told, if they mess up they have to pay, and if their mistake is too grave and there is no way back, then, they may even die. And given the way the characters behaved in seasons 6 and 7, there is a lot to pay for… Unless the producers pull more of these dues-ex-machina moments, laughable plot twists or silly cheese last minute rescues ...